Battery drain/Notifications - Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+

[AlessFitbit]

Fitbit Update: 09/3/2017

Our team is still actively investigating the root cause of this battery drain with Blaze and the Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+. I'm sorry that many of you are still having issues with a shorter battery life, but rest assured this is being looked at as high-priority for our team. My apologies for the inconvenience, and thank you all for your patience! I will provide an update as soon as there is more information available. In the meantime, please continue manually syncing your Blaze trackers only when needed. This will help preserve the battery-life.

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Fitbit Update: 08/14/2017

Hi everybody!

Thanks for reporting your experiences with a rapid battery drain on Blaze trackers and your Android device - Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+. Our team is aware this is affecting Blaze users and they are investigating the root cause. I will update this thread when there is more information available. 

As a temporary workaround, turn OFF "Always Connected" and the "All-Day sync" features. Make sure to manually sync your devices at least once a day.

Thanks for your patience! 

[oaudoma]

Yesterday day I noticed that one phone call I received did show up properly on my fitbit, but another phone call I received did not.  I don't know what the heck is going on!  I'm glad that I am getting my notifications at least.  I know some people don't even have that ability.  And my battery is still draining fast!

[mbs_SE]

My notification and sync problems are gone now. But still I have battery drain. And Fitbit support want to send me another replacement for my Blaze... I'm trying to point the support to this thread (but I think they are not reading what I write in the case). Perhaps it's cheaper for them to throw me another Blaze rather than start investigate what's the real problem and how to solve it. Well I'm going to let them send me another Blaze again, and "if" the new replacement also suffers from battery drain, I will complaint again, and again to their support.

   

[TheAcornWarrior]

It took a few days for the notifications to work properly, found another thread with an idea on how to fix it, tired it, waited over night and it work.  As soon as you go to your phones bluetooth settings, and you see that its been successfully paired. Your notifications will work as normal.  However the battery drain is still and issue.  Its become a once a day charging period for me.  Usually while sitting at my computer for about an hour or so. Depending on how low the blaze battery is.  This issue needs to be addressed. Hopefully by the time fitbit launch its new coming smartwatch watch in the fall. I'm not expecting them to fix it soon. This issue could of been addressed before S8 was launched or within the week following. 

[TheAcornWarrior]

The fix that worked for me, for the notifications: 

For those who don't yet have this working, do you have the Blaze (Classic) pairing configured (for music/volume control) too?

I use this for controlling music from my wrist and found that since I re-enabled this following the security update installation and device re-pairing that notifications and GPS have been working fine.

The order in which I did things was:

1. Update to latest software (only a security update I believe but this seems to be the catalyst for fixing many S8 owners' issues)
2. Remove any pairings for Blaze and Blaze (Classic) from the phone
3. Add Blaze to phone via Fitbit app - DO NOT use the Bluetooth menu on the phone for this
4. Add Blaze (Classic) to phone via Bluetooth menu
   1. Go to Settings on the Fitbit
   2. Change Bluetooth Classic to Pair
   3. Scan for the device in the phone's Bluetooth menu
   4. Complete pairing by following instructions on Fitbit and phone
5. Switch WiFi off
6. Wait 24 hours/overnight 
7. Switch WiFi on

 Waking up the next morning, and checking my phones bluetooth setting.  Blaze (classic) was still showing and paired.  Also, regular blaze was now pair. (it did this on its own)

Since then my notifications have been working as normal.

[oaudoma]

Ha!  Until they listen to you (us), you may end up with 5 or 6 new Blazes!  What do they say when you tell them about these posts?

[mbs_SE]

@oaudoma, they don't say anything at all. They just asking what country I living in, and when and where i bought my Blaze. It dosen't matter if I'm telling them to look in the forum, and in this thred. 

Perhaps their supports it's only chatbots? 

[Rich_Laue]

Sorrt Ive been ignoring this thread because it is about the Blaze draining the battery of the S8 phone. And i dont have this phone. I wasn't aware that the thread has been hijacked. 

Bluetooth Classic has nothing to do with syncing are notifacations.

For notifacations you wsnt to make sure that they point to the right apps.

In the swipw down menu, you want to see the message "Fitbit notifications are running"

Under the phones application manager - Fitbit - permissions make sure tyat the app has them set on.

Also under the sound settimgs make sure that show on lock screen is enabled. Some OS's need show in pop up enabled.

No restart thr phone, and from the Fitbit notificatiin page, do yhe srnd test message.

Did it work?

[mbs_SE]

@Rich_Laue. It's not the phone's battery thats drainig. It's the Blaze battery thats drains. 

[oaudoma]

Yes I contacted them once a few years back when I had my first Fitbit and they were absolutely useless.  I ended up having to open a new account and lost all my previous information.  I find this community much more knowledgeable.

[Zrocck94]

While the issue could be related to bluetooth 5.0, the issues with my blaze started after the firmware update to the blaze. After that update, my blaze battery baremakes it more that 2-3 days. The 3rd day is typically flashing at me and doesn't last the full day without a top off. Before the update, my fitbit would last a good 5 days on a charge. I contacted Fitbit and they did replace my blaze they stated that it had a battery issue. However the new blaze is doing the same thing. They suggested turning off the all day sync, which I have done. I am on day 2 and its already halfway down. Their developers need to dig into this and find the issue(s) and resolve them. Otherwise, I will be ditching my blaze for something that works.

[AgileFox]

I just contacted them as well and they noted that I lost 45% battery over 15 hours and said it was "abnormal behavior of your battery." 

While I agreed to a replacement, I do not have faith this will fix it.

[TheAcornWarrior]

ANYONE that has received a replacement.... Is it doing the same thing as your Original?  

[mbs_SE]

@TheAcornWarrior. The replacement dosen't solve this problem. Waiting on my second replacement now. 

[calecp01]

There are a ton of bluetooth issues (including this one) with the new S8 being reported on the Samsung Community forum here:
https://us.community.samsung.com/t5/forums/v3_1/forumtopicpage/board-id/GS8QA/page/1/thread-id/299

The initial response from Samsung was that the S8 was not compatible with non-Bluetooth 5.0 devices and we should all buy new cars and stuff, but then they walked that back and claim bluetooth fixes *might* be coming in the Nougat 7.1 release, but no release date yet. I think this is much more likely to be a Samsung issue than a FitBit issue since it is having problems with most Bluetooth devices out there in some form or another.

[TheAcornWarrior]

@mbs_SE lol, so why are getting yet another?

[Zrocck94]

I am sure he'd rather them fix the issue instead of sending another that will have the same problem.

[patrick49]

My S8 has been syncing consistently after some problems when I got it a few days ago, but like others are reporting, the battery drain on my Blaze is really bad. The main reason I've stuck it out with Fitbit after every single product I've gotten from them has had a major failure is the fact that I don't have to charge it every day. If this is the new normal, I'll move on. 

[patrick49]

My Blaze syncs on my S8 now but like others have mentioned (here and on this thread: https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Android-App/Samsung-Galaxy-S8-compatibility/m-p/1987569/highlight/fa...) my battery life is terrible. I went through a 3/4 full battery from 8:00 PM last night to 11:00 AM this morning with just wearing it, no GPS or exercise tracking. Any idea of the cause, or a potential fix? 

[bombn]

I finally got feed up with the lack of answers from Fitbit.... on to my pen research...So I just disconnect my Blaze from the S8 ... and wouldn't you know it after 3 days the battery still has 70% battery left. 😋 So I'll guess the new one they are sending me will be a nice gift for someone OR they changed the hardware. Shocked that this issue is ignored.  Would the response be the same is they have a similar issues will the next iPhone???

[calecp01]

Hm, posted here yesterday and now my post has mysteriously vanished. Anyway, there is a large thread over on the Samsung Community support board about the many Bluetooth problems with the S8 and S8+, including the FitBit battery drain, audio stuttering, and general connection issues. The topic is "Galaxy S8 Bluetooth Connection" (afraid to post links here now). At first Samsung claimed that the S8 was not compatible with non-Bluetooth 5.0 products (so... buy a new car?), they then walked that back, admitted there was an actual issue, and are saying some of the Bluetooth problems might be fixed in a future Nougat 7.1 update. No release date at this time, and no confirmation of which specific Bluetooth issue they are acknowledging is real and potentially fixing (the stuttering, connection problems, battery drain, etc).

I asked FitBit about the issue and received this reply:

Hello, Cale. Currently, Samsung Galaxy S8+ is not in our compatible devices list. Since it's not yet fully compatible, it may cause issues with our devices. Hope this helps!

Needless to say, it did not help. To be fair, this really does seem like a Samsung issue and not a FitBit issue since the S8 also has problems with many many other Bluetooth devices (cars, amazon echo, headsets, audio receivers, etc).