Garmin Virb 360 Replacement Battery 3.8V 1250mAh 010-12521-40

Garmin Virb 360 — 3.8V Li-ion Replacement Battery (010-12521-40)

This is a 3.8V, 1250mAh Li-ion replacement battery for the Garmin Virb 360 action camera. It fits the Virb 360's battery bay and mates with the same connector and BMS interface as the original cell. Rated at 4.75Wh, it covers the same voltage spec as the OEM unit.

• Virb 360 platform fit: The Virb 360 uses a single-cell Li-ion pack at 3.8V nominal. The BMS in the camera body reads cell voltage and temperature data over the battery contacts. This replacement shares the same contact layout and communicates correctly with the Virb 360's charge management circuit.
• Bench tested on actual hardware: We cycled this cell through the Virb 360 body, monitoring BMS acceptance, charge termination, and discharge behaviour under sustained 4K 360-degree recording load. The BMS accepted the cell without rejection flags, and charge termination triggered cleanly at full capacity.
• First charge on Virb 360 body: Run the first full charge cycle through the Virb 360 body itself — not an external charger alone. The camera's BMS maps the new cell's discharge curve during this cycle, which allows the battery-remaining indicator to read accurately across subsequent sessions.

Why the Virb 360 battery indicator locks at one bar and won't update

The Virb 360 estimates remaining capacity by mapping cell voltage against a stored discharge curve. A new replacement cell with a slightly different discharge profile can cause the indicator to stall at a fixed low reading, even when the cell has substantial charge remaining. This happens because the camera has not yet built a reference curve for the new cell. One full charge-to-discharge cycle inside the camera body gives the BMS enough data to recalibrate. After that cycle, the indicator tracks normally across the discharge range.

Virb 360 showing "no battery" on a fully charged replacement cell

This is a BMS authentication check — the camera briefly rejects the new cell on first install because it has no handshake history with it. The fix is a power cycle followed by a full charge via the Virb 360's own USB charging port. In most cases, seating the battery, connecting the charge cable, and allowing the camera to complete one full charge cycle clears the rejection state. If the camera still shows no battery after charging, remove the cell, wait 10 seconds, reinsert, and charge again — the BMS re-initialises at the start of each charge session, and the cell must be at or above 3.5V for the handshake to complete.