Battery short life

[RDG]

Has anyone noticed they have to charge their Alta in less than 5 days? I received my Alta Wednesday and charged it and had to do another full charge yesterday. I'm st 1/2 power already today. Is this normal?

Moderator Edit: Updated title for clarity.

[CARoche]

I've had the same problem for the last week and half.  Customer service said they are sending me a replacement but now I'm worriedy because it states it is a Replacement, Alta Pebble.  What does that mean? 

[MaginB]

Welcome to the Fitbit Community @CARoche! That means that you're getting a new Alta tracker. Once you get it don't forget to set it up as a new device check out the instructions that @Odyssey13 shared in this post. 

See you around! 

[Duckpizza]

Update - I followed Gail64's instructions to the letter, and after the reboot and full charge it lasted 7 days (with all notifications turned off) until it died completely. I charged it again, and it has lasted another 7 days before I have had to charge it (today).  I have kept all the notifications turned off, as I discovered after spending a week without them that they were more of a luxury than a necessity, so I can't comment on how long the charge would last with all the gizmos turned back on. It is a bit of a shame, though, as the Alta is advertised as having a 5 day battery life and really that should be the case with all its notifications turned on. But there you go!

[MaginB]

@Duckpizza Thanks for the update! It's great to hear that you're back on track. 🙂 Have you checked our Discussions board? There you can share your story, find some fitness tips, recipes and more! Give it a look!

Catch you later! 

[phs3]

I've found that battery life does vary. I've also bought several extra chargers, and have one in the car. 20 minutes there gets me noticeable charge, so except when I forget, I rarely have a problem with critically low battery.

I've als found that it's pessimistic about when it needs to charge: you can go quite a while after it says it's low before it dies completely.

HTH.

[LucyAP]

Thanks for joining us @phs3! You can restart your tracker to ensure that is working correctly. To do so, you can follow @Mcore's tips on how to restart your Alta. After this give it a couple of days. 

If after this your Alta continues experiencing the same issue, please contact Support for further help. 

Good luck and keep me posted with the outcome! 😉 

[Steviegk]

  i got my fit bit for christmas and the next day it says the battery is medium. i got on and looked to see if anyone else had this problem, so i rested it and it got a full battery life back and i also turned off the reminder to move and clander noteifications since i only needed call and text anyway and it has lasted longer

[LucyAP]

Hey hey hey, thanks for stopping by @Steviegk! Thanks for sharing the troubleshooting tips that worked for you. This can be helpful to other users that may encounter this issue. 

If your tracker continues loosing the charge after this or after following the troubleshooting steps provided in the previous post, please get in touch with Support for further help.

I hope to see you around more often! 😉 

[Conceptpage]

My Alta becomes unusable since yesterday that a fully charged battery can only last for an hour or so. Since it is out of the warranty, tough luck for me.  After reading all the complains,  my conclusion that the cause is the "low quality" batteries.  Are there other issues like hardware design, firmware?  Since the Fitbit support failed to offer any solution, I guess the answer is NO.  Am I buying another Alta (or other models) which potentially will have the same issue?  I am really not quite sure at this moment.  I do love my Alta, and we have four Fitbit products at home.  With all the competitions nowadays, I think Fitbit needs to get their act together or most of the loyal customers will be gone in no time.

[Carmensrt]

Have you tried the reset yet?  While it is plugged in to the USB charger, press the small round spot on the USB end.  It's a button.  Press it 3 times within 8 seconds.  Don't go super fast.  You have time.  The screen will go dark, then the Fitbit diamond dot logo and  the software version will show up and it will charge.

This sequence appears to clear it so it uses the battery appropriately again.  Not sure how, just know it works.  I now do this every week.  

[LucyAP]

Awesome tip @Carmensrt! 😉 Thanks for stopping by @Conceptpage! This sounds odd. To ensure that your tracker is working correctly, restart your tracker as suggested above by @Carmensrt and you can also try to update your firmware in your computer and/or in your app by following this help article. Also, try this tips of Alta Not Charging and Alta Battery Short Life. 

Keep me posted with the outcome! 😉 

[Bourky771]

I have the same issue, recently my charge went down to two days and now it's not even 24hrs! I think this device is seriously flawed and we have all paid good money for junk! I'm looking at my next device which is by Garmin costs the same as what my Alta cost me and has the addition of being water proof to 50 metres!

[phs3]

I've said this here before: Don't go off about this, contact Fitbit. They can see your device, see how short the charge is, will likely send you a replacement pebble without even requiring you to send yours in. These are tiny devices, pushing the envelope of the technology; problems happen. Having a hissy before you've even given the company a chance is just silly.

And no, I'm not affiliated with Fitbit; I had a Flex from 2013 until the Alta came out. Both devices were replaced twice by Fitbit, with reasonable amounts of effort. When the Force had its problem, Fitbit recalled them all, at great cost. Sure, it's a company, and is trying to make money--but it seems remarkably customer-friendly in an era where that's all too rare.

[Bourky771]

Seeing as I bought my device directly from Amazon (supplied and shipped by them instead of some other seller on the site) I doubt Fitbit will be in a position to offer a replacement.

[phs3]

Huh? That makes no sense. Court decisions have long established that, with the exception of diverted grey-market goods not intended for a particular market, a manufacturer's warranty applies no matter where an item was purchased. I bought my Flex from Amazon, BTW.

[Bourky771]

Well lets see what someone from Fitbit has to say eh?

[K9dancer]

I got my Fitbit though points. It was a Flex. I had a problem with it and they sent me a new one, no questions asked. I didn't even have a receipt. They are a good company to work with.
I now have an Alta and have had it for a year. It holds a charge for at least 6 days, moe often it's 7 or 8 days.

Sent from my iPad

[CARoche]

Make sure when you plug it in to charge it vibrates in your hand. If it
does you are actually getting a charge.
Once I figured that out I haven't had an issue since.

--

[Bourky771]

Ye it does and shows me it's charging, still doesn't hold the charge, no suggestions on here from Fitbit affiliates I see, oh well Garmin it will be in future. 

[phs3]

Contact support. It's easy. Honest. Expecting a response from Fitbit here is missing the point -- this is community stuff; yes, occasionally they respond, but you'd've had your problem solved days ago if you'd just picked up the phone or gotten on chat.

http://help.fitbit.com/?l=en_US&cu=1&fs=ContactUs