Alta HR doesn't hold charge in 2023

[SLK123]

Is anyone else having issues with their Alta HR recently?

In the last few months, my Fitbit Alta HR has not been behaving consistently. It dies within a few hours so I can no longer track my sleep, it shuts off even at 75% battery, and sometimes it doesn't charge all the way to 100% (only to 80%). I was using an iphone x with ios 14.

I replaced the battery with a BRAND new battery, only to find that the same problems are happening! And I updated the fitbit app and my ios to ios16 and am still noticing a short battery life.

I worry there is a software / firmware issue that Fitbit may not prioritize fixing since it is phasing out Alta HRs and only allowing ios15 onwards. Does anyone have suggestions on how to fix this? I've loved my Alta HR and the sleep tracking has been critical for my health so need to find a replacement sleep tracker asap.

Moderator edit: clarified subject 

[Odyssey13]

Hi @SLK123  the Alta HR was retired quite a few years ago. It was replaced by the Inspire series, which is now on Inspire 3. As for the battery, Fitbit doesn't recommend replacing it and they don't sell batteries. You might want to check with the place where you purchased that battery. Sometimes these devices just get old. I have the Luxe, which is like my old Alta HR. It has a bright screen and is slimmer.

[Goyim]

SLK123, I have an Alta HR and I have the same problem too.  The battery doesn't hold a charge as well and will die from lack of power at random intervals.  It just happened to me last night when it died when I was asleep and I woke up to a dead Alta.  

I'm not impressed with how short the Alta HR lasted (I bought this in 2020) but it looks like you might have to buy another Fitbit or another sleep monitoring device.

Can I ask you how you replaced the battery?  Did you do it yourself or did you have a repair person do it for you?

[LZeeW]

@Goyim   If you are extremely handy with electronics and own the equipment, there are videos on YouTube that show how to replace an Alta HR battery.  You might be able to find an electronics repair shop than can do it.  The Alta HR is one of Fitbit's most loved trackers, but it might not be worth it in the long run.  Some other long time Alta HR users are reporting screen burn in and other device issues.

There is one thing I want to point out.  Fitbit released the Alta HR in 2017 and discontinued it in 2019.  There's a chance that your Alta HR was manufactured in 2017, so it had an old-ish  battery when you bought it.  Rechargeable batteries degrade even when sealed in their original package.  This can explain your battery issues.

[Goyim]

Thanks for the info LZeeW.  I will either look into replacing the battery or getting a new Fitbit device.

I still don't like the fact that the Alta HR didn't last this long.  The battery issue, notwithstanding, I had to replace the band several times because they got brittle and broke.

[Surf_Doggie]

Ive been trolling around the forums. Issue with battery only good for 5 or 6 hours seems to be affecting multiple product lines. Go to the "charge 5" forum and others show issue started popping up sometime in April.