Charge 5 Drains to 0 in less than an hour.

[iAmDB]

My Fitbit charge 5 had been working fine for the longest time. No issues whatsoever. Earlier this week out of nowhere it will drain from 100% fully charged to nothing in less than an hour.  I have no idea what could have caused such a change.  Has anyone experienced anything like that?

I'm seeing lots of post of a Fitbit not last in all day, but this isn't the same. This is completely drained from 100 to zero in less than 60 minutes.  

[DavideFitbit]

Hi, welcome to the Fitbit Community forums, @iAmDB. 

Thank you for sharing that you've been having this inconvenience with your Charge 5. 

As you mentioned earlier, there are a few general recommendations to extend battery life, but one hour seems a drastic. Just make sure that you're not using one of the features that can drain the battery in a few hours, like GPS tracking. 

In addition, please let me know if you already tried the three pulse restart method, as this has been useful for other people having a similar issue: 

1. Connect your device to the charging cable. For instructions, see How do I charge my Fitbit device?
2. Press the button located on the flat end of the charger 3 times within 8 seconds, holding each press for about 1 second.
3. Wait 10 seconds or until the Fitbit logo appears.
4. If the device doesn’t restart, wait 15 seconds to try again.

I'll be around. 

[iAmDB]

First off, thanks for replying so quick. So I tried what you said to no avail. Also took an extra step and cleared all user data afterwards. No effect whatsoever. Just for the sake of testing it scientifically I started a stopwatch after taking her off the charger and doing those things mentioned above and the battery was completely drained at 45 minutes.

It really stinks because up until now I have had no complaints. And actually I really loved my Fitbit charge 5.  I had other " battery draining features" on ever since I got my watch and never once had a problem. I suspect that something had happened to it that caused the battery till malfunction and now it's basically unusable. I again really sad because it's been under a year since I've gotten it, an up until now...nothing but praise 

[Talahthas]

@iAmDB If your Charge 5's battery is draining that fast, it's most likely either the battery has become faulty or some process is constantly running in the background. And that might have to do with you Smartphone's Bluetooth connection to your device.

Have you tried restarting your phone? Have you checked wether or not the Fitbit app is able to find your Charge 5?

[iAmDB]

Hi there,  Thanks again for your response,

I've tried everything.  The FitBit and my Pixel 7 are connected for sure.  Besides that, i've reinstalled the app, factory reset the watch, restarted the phone, forgot then repaired the bluetooth connections...etc.  Still, from off the charger @ 100% to 0% in roughly 45 to 50 mins.  

What sucks is that its been less than a year and my weightloss progress has been much to the credit of my FitBit.  I eat once a day, so i can basically guestimate my calorie intake, but having a realtime readout of my calories burned has been invaluable.  I wish I had a quick fix.  dropping another $$$ to replace it before the holidays isn't fun.

[Lutik]

Hi I have had the exact same issue since yesterday. No technical problems before whatsoever (bought it exactly 6 months ago after having charge 3 for years).

Last night my charge 5 started sending me a notification every 20 seconds to add a card to wallet (I have never used this option so it was quite strange) and then the screen switched off. Nothing was helping until this morning when it finally turned on with the charging cable, but the battery was flat. I charged it but it drains in less than 1 hour, just as yours. Saying that, with GPS switched off it always used to keep for about a week until yesterday. 
I tried restarting and resetting everything in my device and my phone, I re-installed the app three times. Nothing worked. I even contacted the customer support chat but they were as useless as expected. 
I kind of feel that it has something to do with the winter time switch in Canada last Saturday/Sunday night. Charge 5 has got lost with tracking and syncing, I hoped it would settle with time but after a few hours it broke completely. 
I don’t know what else to do, hopefully someone can come up with a sensible piece of advice. I can see in another thread that similar things happened to people who have installed a new update recently but I have not installed anything. Apparently it can mess up your battery. 

[Talahthas · Accepted solution]

@iAmDB As I've written above, it's most likely either a background process that drains the battery of your Charge 5 that fast, or the battery may be faulty. As you've tried resetting everything but the issue still is obvious, I assume that the battery is indeed defective.

According to your info, your Charge 5 should be covered by warranty. I suggest contacting Fitbit Support as soon as possible to check repair and warranty options:

Fitbit Support Contact 

[DavideFitbit]

@iAmDB @Lutik Thank you for sharing this update and for confirming that you already tried all the steps suggested earlier. 

I've been informed that you already contacted the Customer Support team for further assistance with this and it seems they were able to provide you with some instructions. In this case, they will let you know how to proceed. 

Thanks again for taking the time to share all your feedback and comments. 

[bthep]

Same exact thing happened with mine. You might check yours for water. Apparently they're not nearly as water resistant as claimed. Mine died after about one month of having it. I noticed humidity in the clear glass on the bottom. Good luck getting a functional replacement if that's what it comes down to. Hopefully it's just a glitch!

[DavideFitbit]

@bthep Thanks for sharing your experience with the device as well. 

It seems that you were also able to get in touch with the Customer Support team and they've shared some instructions with you. 

See you around. 

[iAmDB]

@Talahthas Wanted to let everyone know that I had ended up contacting customer support over this issue.  They agreed that the battery was defective and was under warranty (it was a gift last holiday season).  They sent me another Charge 5, which is working perfectly and with no issues.  A happy ending.

[Talahthas]

@iAmDB Thanks for your feedback. Have fun with your new device!

[DavideFitbit]

@iAmDB That's good news, thanks for taking the time to share this update!

See you around in the Community. 😁