October updates fried Sense hardware

[sarcazm]

I have a Pixel 7 on A16.  The first October 2025 update caused my Sense to stop charging and melted the plastic around one of the pins.  It wouldn't stay connected to my phone either, no matter how often I uninstalled the app, cleared cache, removed Bluetooth, factory reset device, restarted phone. etc.    

The 2nd update at the end of the month, along with a new charging cable of course, caused my battery to require recharging every 12hrs which took 2hrs at a time, and the sensors, despite being kept clean always, broke.  I ran diagnostics and HR, GPS, and Body Presence are all no longer showing as existing.  On top of this now even my screen is difficult to read and the time isn't even always accurate - sometimes off by a minute or two, so not only does it not even function as a smartwatch but it doesn't function as a dumb watch either.

If course this is right when any support for the Fitbit Sense was scheduled to end, so planned obsolescence immediately springs to mind along with app updates that Google knows most Fitbit watches can't physically handle hardware -wise and the last firmware update in July 2025 which caused a lot of its own issues... but nothing to go along with whatever seems to have bricked my device with the back to back October updates.

Support is obviously not helpful - Watching the IT Crowd would get me to the same place (nowhere) but at least cause less stress.  Does Google actually think Fitbit customers who are truly unsatisfied with their devices being edged out of the ecosystem think we are going to enthusiastically move over to Pixel Watches and not expect the same thing to happen every time they want customers to upgrade?

[Goosse1962 · Accepted solution]

It sounds like the battery is overheating when charging. That is one of the characteristics of the battery type. I had similar issues with my Sense and then Sense 2. I replaced the devices before they did what yours did. How long it takes for the battery to 'get old' depends on your usage and how smart the battery charging tech is. My Sense, Sense 2, and a couple of phones started having battery related issues around 18 months. I started looking carefully at what features I used and turned of anything I didn't use that might use the battery. I also found that some of the new battery types age faster if fully charged each time. depending on the battery type, I found recommendations to charge to only 90% or 95%. (Not all battery types, especially if a smart charging feature is used.) I do some quick battery research with each new device to help me extend the life expectancy and delay the need to replace.

My latest phone is at 3 years and is starting to loose capacity. My Google Watch 3 is at 14 months and is starting to charge slower. Battery drain might be a little bit faster. However, that could be from some new features I found were installed during an update. I expect to get at least a few more months from it.

This doesn't fix your issue, just a likely explanation.

I hope this helps and have a Terrific day!

[sarcazm]

The battery issues started after they put through the updates for the other device they got in trouble with for overheating - which caused my Sense to go from needing a charge every few days to every 24hrs-36hrs and charging up to 99% and getting stuck there, and then in October with the updates that came through every 12hrs-18hrs before reaching 99% - if I wanted to hit 100% it would need to charge for another 4hrs, but for some reason that extra 1% was what would give me 50% more battery life in the ranges I mentioned after the update was put through for those overheating devices earlier this year.

I realize that obviously had an effect on certain things, but the October updates also put the nail in the coffin with updates that weren't optional but forced through for devices that couldn't support it involving AI - like the beta UI for the Fitbit App redesign, better integration for the Pixel 4 and Gemini, etc. which of course didn't set off any alarm bells with the phone as it was the only "device" that counted toward the updates, as the Sense had been a Fitbit built device and didn't show up on the device list so wouldn't even have shown up as being incompatible.  On top of that, it only showed the Android OS specs needed, as well as Wear OS being capable of running, not which version.  And no firmware updates - like I said - though I know the hardware couldn't handle that kind of software, so even if a firmware update had been possible to make it work, the update shouldn't have been forced through based on phone info alone, especially because if these were updates to Fitbit's app, rather than go through the Play store or anything else automatically, they should have gone through via the app itself to cross-reference devices and figure out which ones should update and which ones need to instead get a message that they need to disable auto-updates or else their devices will no longer function prior to the updates actually going OTA.  

Good to know about your watch info as I want out of this ecosystem pretty badly at this point as I don't like being slowly locked into one altogether, and want to avoid AI as much as possible to as it claims to be personalized but it is 'personalized' based on a combination of reference man and reference woman data as well as LLM data scraping that has absolutely nothing to do with me as a chronically ill and disabled individual who already has enough problems with the limitations Fitbit sets for things like heart rate ranges, overriding manual step counts as it won't account for crutching, and so on.  I tried buying a much cheaper watch from a different brand but it was defective out of the box, so went with the Pixel 3 watch hoping it and my Pixel 7 phone would likely last about the same amount of time before I needed to replace with new items that hopefully didn't need to all be integrated and have AI with a battery that lasts less than 2 days.

[Rich_Laue]

You are saying that Device B was updated, which caused the unrelated Device A to overheat and melt it's cause? 

I propose that there is no relationship, I'm also not sure which devices got updated. 

[tiswasis]

My sense didn't melt with update but certainly became useless for the purpose it was bought...pacing for chronic illness !

Not a happy bunny...

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