If your GoPro HERO9’s battery doesn’t seem to be lasting as long as it should, the first thing to check is the battery’s health.
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By battery health, I don’t mean the standard battery charge indicator that you see all the time on the screen. That indicator tells you how much charge is left in the battery and gives you an idea of how long you can keep shooting or how long until you need to recharge the battery.
The battery health check does something different. It assesses how well the battery is able to hold a charge.
In recent models, GoPro has included a battery health check feature.
Where to Find the Battery Health Check on the HERO9 Black
With the battery charged, turn the camera on and go to:
Preferences > About > Battery Info

This will show you two fields. The first is battery health. With a new or relatively new battery, it should show “Excellent” along with a green circle with a heart.
The second is a Battery Type. This is designed as a compatibility check. In theory, this should differentiate between an official GoPro-branded battery and third-party batteries. It should show “Compatible” for an official battery and “N/A” for a non-GoPro battery. But when I tried to get a screenshot of the “N/A” to show here, I found that even third-party aftermarket batteries by other brands were showing as Compatible. So I don’t know whether this is a bug in the firmware or something else going on. But it doesn’t currently appear to be serving its intended service. 1
It’s not telling you when you should charge the battery. It’s telling you when you should replace the battery.
Why it Matters: Lithium Battery Capacity Fade
Modern lithium-ion batteries are much better in terms of recharge cycles than old nickel-cadmium or nickel-metal-hydride rechargeable batteries. Those have a memory effect issue that has a strong impact on how you charge and discharge the battery.
Lithium batteries generally don’t suffer from the same kind of memory effect issues and don’t require the same kind of careful discharging/charging routines. 2
But lithium-ion batteries still have a finite lifespan, and the more charge-discharge cycles they go through, the more their ability to hold a charge will fade. You might have noticed on your old phone or laptop that you can no longer charge the battery to more than, say 85%. That’s a symptom of the battery’s capacity fade.
And it’s that issue that the HERO9’s battery health check is aimed at. It’s not telling you when you should charge your battery. It’s telling you when you should replace the battery.
Replacement Batteries
If the health indicator suggests you need a new battery, there are two models to choose from for the HERO9.
The standard battery is model ADBAT-001.
- Conveniently charges 2 GoPro HERO10 Black/HERO9 Black batteries simultaneously
- Optimizes charging so you’ll get a fully charged battery as quickly as possible
There’s also the Enduro battery. Its primary appeal is improved performance in cold conditions, but it works just fine in normal shooting as well.
- Advanced 1720mAh lithium-ion battery boosts camera performance over standard GoPro batteries across a...
- Increases recording time for HERO11 Black, HERO10 Black, and HERO9 Black with up to 40% improvement in...
You can also find aftermarket versions of the standard battery that can be good value (although quality control can be a bit hit or miss).
- 【Fully Compatibility】: Replacement battery designed for GoPro 11&10&9 camera. Fully compatible with...
- 【Upgrade 2 Batteries for Gopro Hero 11&10&9, More Power & Fun】: Three 1800mAh high capacity...
- 📸【Exactly Compatible with Gopro 11/10/9 Battery and Charger】: Artman Hero 10 battery is perfectly...
- 📸【More Batteries, More Photos】: Triple your camera runtime with a complete backup package...
Things Worth Knowing
This is the warning that GoPro includes in the HERO9’s Black’s manual:
Be sure to use the GoPro Rechargeable Battery (HERO9 Black). Using an older GoPro battery or non-GoPro battery could greatly limit your camera’s performance.
When disposing of old lithium-ion batteries, they shouldn’t just go in the trash or standard recycling. They should be taken to a separate household hazardous waste collection point–many local communities have them.
Related Posts
- I’ve seen this behavior both on a HERO10 Black (firmware 01.40) and a HERO9 Black (firmware 01.70). I’ve used third-party Telesin-branded batteries in these cameras and will try other third-party batteries as the opportunity arises.[↩]
- Some types of lithium-ion batteries have been found to suffer from memory effect, but it’s not the prominent problem it is with those older types of battery technologies.[↩]
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The Latest Model: GoPro HERO11 Black
Released in the fall of 2022, the HERO11 is GoPro's current model. Well, actually two models.
First, there's the flagship Black that has all the bells and whistles and sets the standard for action cameras.
- Shoot 5.3K60 & 4K120 video at up to 120Mbps bitrate
- Take 27MP photos
- Waterproof to 33ft / 10m without a separate housing
- Built-in mount point
- HyperSmooth 5.0 In-camera Video Stabilization creates smooth video without a gimbal
- Shoot up to 8x slow motion
A couple of months later, they released Black Mini. It's smaller and shares many of the flagship models capabilities, but it's also stripped-down in important ways. For instance, it doesn't have a touchscreen, its battery isn't removable, and it shoots video only (so no photo mode).
- Shoot 5.3K60 & 4K120 video at up to 120Mbps bitrate
- Compact form factor
- Waterproof to 33ft / 10m without a separate housing
- 2x built-in mount point
- HyperSmooth 5.0 in-camera video stabilization
- Shoot up to 8x slow motion @ 2.7K
- Built-in battery