Charge 5 Dementia?

[CAR49ers]

A week ago, my Charge 5 would stop recording my golf round early in the round.  This has never happened before in over two years!  Three days ago, I restarted it after a round, and the clock was off by six hours and twenty-one minutes! I have reset the watch multiple times using both the Settings/Reset in the watch and using the three taps with the power cord.  The watch will not capture the correct time, and as a result, the watch freezes when trying to sync.  The watch is recording most information, including sleep, but at the wrong time, and not Daily Readiness, any of the Health Metrics, nor Stress Management.

I have ordered a Charge 6; however, I want to know if there is a solution for my Charge 5 before I open the new box. Any assistance or advice would be greatly appreciated.

[RiekoC · Accepted solution]

Hello @CAR49ers 

Although I'm not sure that this will work, you could try removing your Charge 5 from the Fitbit app and adding it back as a new device. I'd also restart the Charge 5 after disconnecting it from the app. 

Please let us know if that helped. 

[CAR49ers]

Holy-moly, Batman, that might have actually worked!  I need a day or two to verify that the Daily Readiness, Active Zone Minutes, Stress Management, and Health Metrics all function correctly, but at least I have the correct time again.  Be back at you in a couple of days.  Thanks

[CapeCodLady]

I can't count the # of times this has happened to me & the battery has died. I wouldn't find out till the next day that the time is totally off by hours. Anytime the watch goes under 15%, it loses its battery quickly. Now I do my weekly charge on Wednesdays, rather than the weekend. I usually get 7 days on a full charge & I keep the syncing mostly off, no GPS, no messages, etc. Return the other watch...😊 FB used to be the #1 tracker for health, but the ratings have been going down. Good luck!

[CAR49ers]

Well, I am roughly 24 hours into the recommendation of restarting the device as a new Charge 5, and everything appears to be working correctly.

After reading that Google had acquired FitBit and was moving away from FitBit to the Google Pixel watch, I was ready to give up after nine years as a FitBit user.  I am hoping that Fitbit will be around for a while, but all good things come to an end, I guess.  When this Charge 5 dies for real, I guess I will move on to something else.  But, in any event, thanks for the help on this one.

Charlie49ers

[CAR49ers]

Thanks, CapeCodLady.  I think this problem is resolved, but my battery doesn't last nearly as long as yours.  However, I will struggle through that issue.  At least, now I can see the correct time again, and the functions I rely upon seem to be working again—life's little problems.

[RiekoC]

Hi @CAR49ers 

Thanks for letting us know that setting up your Charge 5 as a new device fixed your time issue and you're seeing your stats again. I'll have to remember that for other users experiencing a similar issue. 

Have you tried restarting & recharging your Charge 5 for the faster rapid battery drain? When my Charge 5 started having rapid battery loss, I restarted and recharged my device multiple times over several days. As soon as I saw a rapid drop in battery, I restarted my Charge 5 and put it on the charger until it was back to 100%, often doing this multiple times in a day. Eventually, this process got my device "unstuck" and the battery went back to lasting 6-7 days. Although there's no guarantee that this will work for you, it might be worth a try.