Once the Blaze screen turns off (times out), it wont turn on unless it is placed in the charging bay

[JohnET]

I had my Fitbit Blaze since April 2016 and this problem started back in February 2018.  My watch is out of warranty 

Problem:  Once the screen times out or goes to sleep, the Blaze will not wake at all (pressing the buttons, using quick view (waking the screen by raising your wrist), or tapping the screen does not work).  The green heart rate sensor lights turn off almost immediately after the screen turns off.  The only way to get the watch to turn back on is to place it on the charger.  The moment the blaze is placed on the charger the  the unit boots back up.  It shows the fitbit logo, and a few seconds later it shows the watch's default clock display.  It is not a battery issue because the screen will stay on as long as you keep the display awake (by tapping on it or pressing buttons).

TL;DR Problem:  Screen and heart sensor turns off and will not turn back on until it is placed back in the charging bay.

Attempted Resolutions:  

1. Tried restarting the watch by holding the Left button and the bottom right button for 10 seconds  (http://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/1186).  
2. Tried deleting the watch from my fitbit app and running through setup again
3. Called Technical Support:
   • Asked me to do Step 1 again (no luck again)
   • Asked me to clean the charging contacts on the back of the blaze and the charging pins of the charging bay with isopropyl alcohol
   • Suggested that it is mostly likely a screen issue (don't understand how it is the screen, since it stays on as long as it stays awake)
   • Watch is out of warranty, but tech offered small discount in the purchase of a new fitbit (excluding i believe the surge or the new iconic at the time)
4. Tried changing certain settings (default display clock, turn off notifications)
5. Tried resetting the watch while it was still in the charging bay (which is actually kind of hard to do with the OEM charging bay)
6. Tried pulling out the watch from the charger while it was booting up (showing the fitbit logo).  Doing this prevented the watch from booting all the way to the default clock display.

If anyone has similar issues with their fitbit blaze please respond below and share your experience.  Since the warranty is over and this watch is pretty much going to get recycled, I am going to try opening it up and fiddling around with the electronics.  Maybe I can pinpoint the issue to a particular component, or maybe even try replacing the screen.

[SunsetRunner]

Hey, I've been having the same exact issue since Saturday.  Tried to restart but came up against the same problems you had.  Can't access the settings menu while docked and shuts down as soon as it's removed from the charging dock.  I discussed the issue through the chat support and luckily mine was is still under warranty.  Only problem is I don't really want to be without it for my daughter's wedding which is next week.  My step count should be through the roof, lol!!  Hopefully someone has a fix so I don't have to deal with the warranty steps.  

[JohnET]

Thank you @SunsetRunner for sharing your experience!  Congrats on your daughter getting married. I myself got married 3 weeks ago. It was a blast .

I can actually access the settings while it's in the charging bay.

I accidentally selected your response as the solution...lol. I dont know how to undo that. Hopefully a moderator can fix that.