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.

---

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! 

[Scott_Turnbull]

Do we have a time frame on how long this is going to take to get sorted. Switched to an S8 from a HTC one M9 last week and now my battery barely lasts 2 days. 

From what I can see this has been going on a while now. Any news on a fix?

[JayBudd650]

My colleague has the Blaze as well and said after the last update he has had the same 1-2 day battery life and he has an S7. 

[Leitornia]

I'm totally disappointed. I called last week because I was having the same issue; battery not staying charged due to having a Samsung S8. Why were they acting as if this was a new issue? It's been going on for a while and still there's no resolution? Thanks so much for lying Fitbit!

[vford]

After receiving a couple replacement Blaze's with the same battery drainage issue every time, I was wracking my brain to come up with the reason my Blaze would only last about a day before charging again. Wondered if it was the charger I was using, so I have made sure to charge only using USB/Computer connection. This hasn't made a difference.

I realized that after disconnecting my previous Blaze from my phone, it was lasting for days and days! Then the ahah moment. It must have something to do with my new Samsung S8. Then I found this post to confirm! I sure hope a firmware update with fix this issue.

[Jo80]

I'm reading that battery drain isn't specific to Samsung. Seems to. E an issue with latest Fitbit update. My battery lasts maybe 2 days and it used to last 4-5 days. What up with that? Lots of issues right now. Not impressed with how long it's taking to fix things!

[CourtsFB]

I talked to my mom who has the iPhone 6 and she has

[CourtsFB]

My mom has an iPhone 6s and a Fit bit Flex. She's having the same issue. I would really like a response from the Fit bit team on when they plan on having this fixed. 

[kdg8288]

I just got my Blaze yesterday, fully charged it overnight, and by the time I got to work this morning, it was half drained.  I also cannot get notifications.  I'm glad to see I'm not the only one, and that Fitbit is working on the problem.  I bought the Blaze for it's features, but can't use them, which is disappointing.  I am also using a Samsung Galaxy 8+..hope there is a fix soon!

[Mrwill117]

I've been dealing with the battery and notification issues every since I switched to the S8+. Somehow, notifications started working weeks ago but died again a day later. I don't know if this is a Fitbit or a Samsung issue. All I know is that my phone works with all my other Bluetooth devices. Even though I've owned several Fitbit devices over the years, I think it's time for me to go with something different. It shouldn't be this difficult.

[kdg8288]

So keeping the All day Sync, Always Connected and Notifications off definitely extends my battery life..still fully charged today.  However, what is the point of having a smart watch if I can't use all the features???  Really hoping for a resolution soon.  Looks like this has been going on for months, which is really surprising to me.  

[vford]

Spot on @kdg8288. It's funny how support says to turn off all these features we bought the watch for in order to solve their technical battery problem.

[revpaulcain]

My replacement is no better than the original. It actually depletes faster than the first. I've been offered another replacement.  They seem to be treating this like a PR problem rather than a technical one.

[rvermost]

Any more information on the s8 and the blaze...it is killing my battery bad. Thank you

[Haz91h]

I use a Samsung s6 and have had the same problem. I find I'm having to recharge almost daily instead of every 5 days.

[jlmccullough]

I didn't notice any improvement by turning off the all day sync and always
connected. My battery only lasts about 4 hours....

[NessieM]

Hi.

Well synced my replacement Blaze with my iPhone on Monday.

Notifications On, but Allday sync and alarms off. So far so good. Only manually syncing once a day as with the old one I noticed each time it synced the battery drained rapidly.

My major problem was the stone dead battery which would not charge at all and consequently couldn't do anything with the watch to resurrect it.

[chrispickford]

I'm also been experiencing the battery drain issue on my Blaze since upgrading to a Samsung Galaxy S8.

After speaking with a support agent I was advised that the issue is because of an update to the Samsung version of the Android OS, in particular it's the Bluetooth 5.0 update that's causing it. No resolution was given, instead I was told the ball was in Samsung's court and that I'd just have to wait until they resolve the problem their end. Unfortunately no time scale was provided either so this really is just a case of waiting.

Disabling the All-Day Sync and Notifications options in the app settings has indeed extended the Blaze battery life, where I was getting a maximum of 2 days usage before, now I'm getting 4-5. However I feel this is a poor service, as others have mentioned, what's the point in having the features if we can't use them?

[HDBrian]

Same thing here, but now the replacement will not get notification anymore on top of the battery drain.  

[bassthumpa]

That's a load of crap.  Samsung has simply implemented the latest version of Bluetooth, and it works PERFECTLY with every other bluetooth device that I've used.  So what they probably don't want to say is that the Blaze is not going to work with Bluetooth 5.0.  I'm willing to be that the Blaze will have this problem with the Note 8, as well as any other new phone that comes out with Bluetooth 5 until FITBIT get's it right, not the phone manufacturers.

But hey, way to pass the buck Fitbit.  I see a Samsung Gear S3 on my wrist in the very near future.

[ashwooi]

I notice someone has been told the issue is now the responsibility of Samsung....utter bollocks!

I'm not sure where we go from here but below is a message a sent to one of the Fitbit people on this forum......needless to say I've had no response which just highlights the fact that Fitbit really don't give a f**k about this issue.

Hi *******,
You are well aware of the ongoing issues relating to Blaze and S8/S8+ connectivity. You are well aware of the discontent amongst what were loyal Fitbit customers.

I first encountered the problem upon upgrading to S8 in June but I can see the thread was started some months earlier. Your support guys denied twice that the upgrade was the issue and supplied 2 replacements neither of which made any difference to the following:-
1. Battery life down to less that 24 hours
2. Notifications not working as designed
3. GPS tracking not working as designed

In the meantime, the S8/S8+ has been added to the list of Blaze compatible devices, which in my mind constitutes "conspiracy to defraud" as Fitbit continue to knowingly sell a product which is not fit for purpose with certain phones

I fully understand that keeping up to date with new hardware is a challenge but the problem here lies in the fact that it took several months for you to admit there is a known problem and then updates to users have been virtually non existent. For that reason I have already referred the matter to BBC Watchdog, a UK national TV consumer rights programme.

Speaking to your support guys and posting on the forum is proving fruitless hence this message to you.

What I'm asking for therefore is as follows.

1. Confirmation that this issue has executive visibility within the Fitbit organisation.
2. A high level description of the root cause....is it Bluetooth compatibility?
3. A timeline summary of your recovery plan to address this issue
4. All the above points shared with the forum contributors along with proposals for recompense for units both in and out of warranty.

I am not unreasonable so I will not share this further until I hear from you or, preferably, someone at executive level. If I hear nothing by midnight, UK time on Monday 4th September I will post on the forum.

I look forward to hearing from you in early course.

Regards