Black screen and green lights won't turn off

[Stratton1004]

Fitbit was fully charged the night before. The battery drains within a day. Today the screen went black. App said it was dead but the HR lights were solid green and wouldn’t turn off. 

Moderator edit: subject for clarity

[AmyLea]

You should not have known anything about the green lights until bluetooth was connected and it was connected to the app. You shouldn’t have unclipped the charger (the only way to see the green light) until the whole process was complete. Some folks on eBay are selling for $35. Good luck. 


Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPad

[AdrienneP]

I did all that, I had to start over. Bluetooth isn’t showing as connected though, but tracker is showing up on the app. 

[AdrienneP]

PS
I turned off the HR on my app but lights are still green.
It’s fried.

Sent from my iPhone

[LiliyaFitbit]

Hello everybody, thank you for participating in the forums. I am sorry for the delayed reply.

Thanks to all for the efforts to resolve the issue, sharing the solutions and helpful tips to help other users. If after following the suggestions provided in this thread and the steps to restart the tracker the issue persists, I recommend contacting our Customer Support team. They will do their best to help you and provide the options according to the Fitbit Warranty. 

I appreciate everyone's feedback, I understand that this can be very frustrating, our team is always working on improving our devices and user experiences, and your comments are always welcome.

I'll be around if you need further assistance.

[Cloud9mn]

Well, I tried to go through AmyLea's steps...

-deleted the Fitbit app on my phone and "forgot" the Alta device in my Bluetooth settings on my phone

-charged up the device to the max

-reinstalled Fitbit app and started setup process

But Bluetooth is not finding my device.  I tried turning Bluetooth off and on, on my phone.  And also tried restarting the Alta by pressing the button on the charger plug three times.  No go.  I cannot complete the setup process because my phone can't "see" my device.

[Cloud9mn]

Update - since I couldn't connect, I did try removing the device from the charger and then my phone did find it and I was able to set up.  However, the HR lights are not flashing and it's not detecting my heart rate.  Suspect that part of the device is fried.  We'll see if it holds a charge.

[AmyLea]

Your Bluetooth on your phone is not set up to “see” your band if it’s not already there.

You have to open the Fitbit app and go to “activate a new device” the App will kick on the Bluetooth and find your band! 
Ok I see You got it connected… for the HR..Go into the app, tap your face circle, tap your Alta, scroll donw to heart rate. Turn on auto and Sync. then turn it off and sync. turn it on and Sync. Sometimes toggling that button helps. Make sure all day sync is always off.  

Sounds like you're having a bit of luck! 

[Cloud9mn]

That’s what I was doing, trying to set it up from within the Fitbit app. It
just kept saying “Searching” without bringing up the device. I tried
turning Bluetooth off and on in my phone settings but that didn’t help. It
wasn’t until I unclipped the device from the charger that the app was able
to find it.

I just tried toggling the HR settings, but that didn’t do anything. Still
no green flashing lights and no heart rate.

The battery looks to be draining pretty quickly too, considering it’s just
been out of the charger for a few hours.

[cnfrierson723]

Okay so if there is 3 pages of responses to this problem why isn't Fitbit doing something about this issue? This is my second Fitbit (charger hr & alta hr) in 3 years and the same issue occurs. First I had a Charger HR and it went dead then my husband bought me the Alta hr which literally I've had for 1.5 years and the screen went black with the green light not flashing. I think that it is very odd for consumers to have to deal with the same problem and mostly every person on this thread has had the device for the same period of time. I think that its a problem that the company knows about but just unwilling to repair. People are still going to continue to buy them even though there is clearly an issue. Offering a percentage off or a certain amount of money off is ludicrous. I'm definitely never buying one again after purchasing a second one and getting the same results. Can't put up a generic response and expect people to not be offended by the nonsense.  Then the thread is marked as solved it is not! Very saddened by the lack of response from the company especially when people are complaining about the product that is by no means cheap!!

[Mike115]

I gave up,  I was on my 3rd Fitbit Alta and they all had the same issue and out of warranty.  

[LiliyaFitbit]

Hello @Cloud9mn @AmyLea @cnfrierson723 @Mike115, it's nice to see you again in our Community Forums. I am sorry for the delayed response.

@Cloud9mn thank you for your troubleshooting efforts. Since the issue persists, I've sent your case to our Support team so they can investigate further and provide a solution. You will receive an email from them soon.

@AmyLea thank you for your suggestions! I appreciate your efforts to help other users. 

@cnfrierson723 @Mike115 I really appreciate your feedback and time you took to let us know your frustration since this helps us to keep improving. 

If you have any questions, feel free to let me know.

[dic_57]

“I really appreciate your feedback and time you took to let us know your frustration since this helps us to keep improving.

If you have any questions, feel free to let me know.”
Hi, I have a question.

When will Fitbit acknowledge your firmware/hardware issue with the Alta HR and either fix the problem or do the right thing and replace all the Alta HRs that have recently failed?

I look forward to your answer. Thanks in advance.

[AdrienneP]

I've played with all the suggestions and have given up. All the features work though, but I have to plug it in every night and it only lasts until about 7:00.
The bright green lights are what kills it.
I'll buy a new one soon, use the 25% off offer.

[AdrienneP]

So complicated! I have to find that message where you suggested I send it to you. My email has been down for nearly a week, I am now using webmail but it's limited as to what I can do.
Most of BC and Alberta was down, anyone that uses "Telus"., which is also my landline, cellphones and internet!

[AdrienneP]

Nicely said!!!!!

[SunsetRunner]

I'd also like to hear from fitbit on why they seem to be ignoring this issue and pushing off what appears to be hundreds of users experiencing the same issues with suddenly dead devices at the 18-24 month mark. I am observing fitbit users reporting fitbit providing inadequate support (or none at all, just a generic "too bad, thanks for your money, go away" message.) This is unacceptable. I'm having the same issue(s) as described by other users on this post. My trouble began this Sat, 8/17/19. The alta hr was working fine on Friday night and captured all data during a spin class at the gym. I had active heart rate and the battery seemed fine. I noticed later Friday evening that the fitbit was dead (which was odd since it had a full battery, fresh off the charger, that same morning). I charged it overnight and my alta hr came on sporadically Saturday and the battery drained quickly during the day. Before it died, I noticed the green lights were on constantly; I noticed green lights were on when I woke up over night on Friday, which was odd. The tracker didn't record any of my steps on Saturday; I wore it for 10 hours and I have 2 small children, so I assure you I was walking! Sunday, it wouldn't hold a charge, seemed to record some steps, but wasn't staying on; black screen most of the day. I followed all of the fitbit support and community directions for resetting and restarting my device. I did this several times. The fitbit will now stay on in the charger but turns off when I take it off, despite a full battery indicator in the screen and it the app. It will sync to the app only while in the charger. I have attempted to turn off the HR monitor, sync; turn it back on, sync; turn HR back to auto, where it always was; sync. This thing has completely lost its mind; the green lights of doom stay on and the battery drains quickly (within 6 hours), and the black screen of death returns within moments of taking it off the charger until I manually resync it. The same problems continued on Monday and Tuesday this week despite following the same recommended actions. I've determined that this thing works (limping along) as long as I charge it twice per day AND manually resync it each morning as the app doesn't recognize it unless I try to sync it about 6-7 times after a full charge. I bought this alta hr on 12/31/17, new, at a big box store. I've always take excellent care of it, as it is also currently my ONLY WATCH which makes it even more valuable to me. I can use my Galaxy 9 to more reliably track my steps if that's all I needed.

[Evilkittyz3]

I feel your pain, I was constantly asking people and Alexa "what time is it?" as my Alta was my primary watch too. I spent a little more money and picked up the Samsung Galaxy Watch Active a few days ago and so far it works pretty seamlessly with my S10 phone. My step count seems low (or was the Alta's inflated?) but then I haven't had the chance to really put it to a good test. Samsung is already putting out an Active 2 soon if you wait a bit, not sure what its price point will be. Wish I could get Fitbit to admit their mistake and refund me some money toward my new watch but that'll never happen. I also filed a complaint with the FTC, it only takes a few minutes online. Good luck with whatever route you take to resolve this!

Get Outlook for Android

[SunsetRunner]

Thanks for the tip on the active 2; that's probably my best route. I've been holding off investing in a better wearable and already knew it wouldn't be a Fitbit, but this recent trouble is really motivating me to move onward and upward. The lack of customer service and accountability from fitbit is the nail in the coffin.

[AdrienneP]

I feel your pain. I put mine on the charger at night and don't take it off until after my morning shower which can be anywhere between 9 & 11. (Retired!) So I can monitor my steps and see what time it is up until about 7:00, that's about it. 

[Cloud9mn]

I heard back directly from Fitbit Support.  They asked me to confirm that I was seeing "--" in the heart rate display and then wanted me to do a test of battery life.  Here is my response to them:

"Thank you for getting back to me.  I'll just quickly summarize the sequence of events.

1.  On August 8, my Alta device stopped working.  The watch face display was dead and the green HR lights on the back were glowing solid green instead of blinking as they normally do.   After reading advice in the Fitbit Community thread, I set it aside to let the battery completely drain.  I will also note that right around that same time, I updated the IOS on my phone.  Not sure whether there is any connection, but who knows...perhaps there was some kind of mismatch between the new IOS version and your app, that caused a problem?  That might explain why the problem surfaced at varying times among the user base - since everyone does not update their phone at the same time.

2.  On August 17, I fully charged it.  After taking it off the charger and going through the steps to re-connect it to the app, I noticed that there was no heartrate display (confirming that I saw "--" under Heart rate).  I also noticed the green lights on the back were not displaying at all.  I put it on mid-day.  Sometime in the middle of the night I got the warning email of low battery and it was dead when I woke up, so battery life was less than 24 hours.  I once again set aside the device.

3.  After receiving your attached message, I charged it again.  This time when I took it off the charger, heart rate display was working.  Mysterious!  I put it on mid-day on August 21st.  Last night at 4 am I got the battery low email.  It still had a bit of a charge when I put it in the charger just now.  So battery life was approximately four days.  Maybe slightly less than normal, but acceptable.

The only other thing I'll mention is that I'm not getting detailed sleep data any more (deep sleep and REM sleep).  That started to be a consistent issue around July 24 and the last time I got full sleep data was August 4.  I'm not doing anything different in terms of how I'm wearing my bracelet at night.

So, for the time being, my Alta seems to have mysteriously revived.  Very strange!  I guess I'll be postponing getting a Garmin or Apple watch for a bit longer.