Charge 5 Firmware Update 194.61

[LizzyFitbit]

7/13 Update: We’re continuing to roll out this firmware for the Charge 5 Firmware Update 194.61, and expect more customers are able to update their devices. This is a progressive rollout and all customers can expect to have it within a few weeks. We release updates in phases so that we can monitor performance closely and make adjustments if needed. If you don't see the option to update, don't worry - you'll have it soon!

---

We’re excited to announce that a firmware update version 194.61 for Charge 5 will be available soon! Some of you might already have this update available. If you installed it, let us know what you think!

We release updates to customers in phases. If you don’t see it, check the Fitbit app in a few days, and you’ll see a message when you can install the update. We appreciate your patience while we get this update to all of our customers.

*Firmware releases are not distributed based on region or location and can reach anyone no matter where you reside. We do not recommend performing a factory reset to force the update to your device as your data will be lost and you may not get the update. Please be patient and wait until you see the update banner inside of the Fitbit app to begin the firmware download.

WHAT’S NEW AND FIXED

• All exercise modes are now available in the Exercise app, and your most recently used modes appear at the top. For more information, see How do I track my workouts with my Fitbit device?
• Find new clock faces in the Fitbit Gallery in the Fitbit app. For more information, see How do I change the clock face on my Fitbit device?
• View your daily readiness score on your tracker (Premium feature only). For more information, see What’s my daily readiness score in the Fitbit app?
• Support for global characters and right-to-left text notifications:
  Arabic
  Hebrew
  Thai
  Hindi
  Vietnamese
• This release includes bug fixes and improvements.

Full release notes can be found here. For more details, please see this Community Blog post.

HOW DO I UPDATE?
See How do I update my Fitbit device? for step by step instructions for updating your Charge 5. If you run into difficulty updating, review these Why can't I update my Fitbit device?

We’re interested in hearing your feedback on this update! Let us know what you like! If you encounter unexpected behavior during or after your update, please post the details below.

[MJLP]

My replacement says 20001.182.26 though asking me to update, I’m not updating just in case…

[JSK56]

They are out of stock and back ordered. Surprise surprise. 

----------

My replacement is the same. I haven't allowed it to update in the month that I have it. Works fine, just missing some of the exercise programs like elliptical. 

[molino]

This mail from Fitbit.com arrived on Aug 23th. As Fitbit says that the end of this max 70$ off campaign is Aug 28th in this mail,
so we can easily expect that they must announce some new devices after this campaign. It may be on Aug 29th.
Now, they may be closing charge5's stock.
Thanks.

[Mad_Merckx]

 Add another bricked unit to the list. Purchased in February of this year and has worked well with no battery issues. Awoke this morning to the critical battery level notification and discharged to 1%. Many attempts to  recharge but all methods failed, now it is fully dead with black screen.

Tech support had me go through the already known/discussed recovery steps with no success. Warranty offer for a new replacement or 50% of an alternate Fitbit item. I elected for the replacement rather than shelling out more money to Fitbit.

[CT7567]

@LizzyFitbit - WHEN can we expect to get firmware update 194.61, and will it realistically fix the battery drain issue we are all experiencing?

My Charge 5 started experiencing the issue this week. I have not changed any settings or updated the firmware. It is currently running version 188.58. I was hoping to upgrade the firmware to 194.61 to see if it would alleviate the issue, rather than having to buy a new device.

I have made multiple calls to customer service, and cannot get anyone who can provide any sort of answer beyond telling me to restart the device.

To echo what many others in this thread have stated, if the only solution is to purchase a new device, I will buy an Apple Watch instead of another Fitbit.

[YadiMax]

Well the update is crap.  Since the rollout began, my Charge 5 just quits in the middle of an activity and the battery drains completely in less than an hour after removing from the charger.  In addition, I cannot scroll through my  screens in the Charge 5 at all now. THAT nice “update” began when I updated the new firmware yesterday.  The battery problems began two weeks ago.  I thought I was not charging it long enough…or needed to let it drain completely before charging again.  It is a useless piece of crap now.  Can’t use it at all which I turn is now making my workouts and running stats difficult to track.  I’ve been a longtime Fitbit customer but I’m thinking of changing to another brand now.

----------

not on mine….it’s very frustrating…downs last an hour.

[isis_orion]

it’s really funny how a mod comments on all the other posts that people put up, but not on this one.

I sent my 2 week old one back yesterday, the person I live messaged to didn’t ask my why I was returning it. But I’d previously tried emailing and they replied finally they said ‘feel free to tell us why your returning it’ so I said..

‘I am returning my charge 5 and straps, and the functionality and accessibility isn’t what I expected as per previous models, some of the features I required have been discontinued.

And the inability of it be customised is frustrating and distracting when using for fitness.  

Also having been checking the forums as seeing so many of these brick after updating and being left useless, it’s disheartening and doesn’t bode well. 

I hope that you can help out the customers on the charge 5 firmware thread, there are more comments on that than the whole forum, yet not a single moderator comment or response.

I had another email back this morning thanking me for keeping in touch, and completely ignored what I’d said!! 

Honestly it’s laughable I had the very first charge, which I loved until the moulded strap kept breaking after 2 replacements I changed to a kickstarter made pebble, which I have to say functionally was excellent, then Fitbit took over the brand for the technology and updates to it stopped.

I haven’t worn one since, but I’ve still used the app for years & have the aria scales.

I loved the slim design and simplicity of these ones, but honestly I’m off to buy a polar inspire instead.

[Juliap23]

I got another fitbit support email stating that they UNDERSTAND that firmware broke my fitbit but I’m out of warranty and they are not going to be replacing it. The audacity. 

“I understand that you may not be interested in purchasing a new Fitbit device at this time. However, I hope that you will consider doing so in the future. We've made significant improvements to our QA processes since the issue with your device, and we're confident that you'll be happy with our products.”

um, that’s a no for me, fitbit

[DaVinciUA]

That is not, what I would have expected from Fitbit

[Juliap23]

Same! Had them since 2013. I guess not any longer. 

[kerrieBBOZ]

@Scottfairfield  it is blackly comedic to maintain the assertion that this is affecting a “small number” of devices when there are over 66,000 views on this thread, almost 34,000 views on the thread which is unambiguously entitled “Charge 5 battery gone”, and a whopping 143,000+ views on the thread entitled “Charge 5 black screen” and as only a fraction of people even go to online forums when a gizmo fails, the actual number of affected customers must be truely huge.

[DaVinciUA]

I no not know of a SINGLE user who has successfully flashed their Charge 5 with the new firmware.

And I have been watching this community for a few weeks now, waiting for an official statement.

[Katzer3270]

My 18 month old fitbit Charge 5 had the black screen of death and after a day of doing everything suggested by fitbit, it unexpectedly came to life for an additional month.  A few days ago, my Fitbit battery decided it did not want to hold a charge.   It is now dead.     My  fitbit has the 188.58 version.     I am giving Fitbit one more chance in spite of the mounds of negative feedback I have been reading.   One last chance and I hope they have FIXED the Issue.   The quality control sucks.   My new fitbit 5 arrives next week.   Time will tell.   

[Bbbottura]

Iam following this closely to see what happens to me. The idea I had was  that I blocked the auto update for my Fitbit app on the phone so it wouldn't update the firmware on my charge 5, so far so good, everything working well.

I am not sure if this actually helped or if it is just luck but fact is that my charge 5 is still running in the old firmware version and battery during as should be.

Hope that helps someone out there 😉

[Juliap23]

I doubt most people come here WHILE their fitbit is running fine 🙂 

[fargonia]

I've had Fitbits since the original Flex and have never had this kind of issue.  And I've never had a device of any kind that has 1) experienced this degree of failure on a vendor-pushed update and 2) been left unsupported once the vendor discovered the failure.  Even Microsoft has put out security updates for EOL operating systems.

Fitbit support told me I'd get an email on my warranty options last night.  All I got was a mass-mail "discount" for a new Charge 5--which is out of stock and unavailable. 

Add to this nightmare--I pay for the annual Premium service, and just got hit with the charge for that on the day that my device died.  So I'm faced with a choice of throwing good money after bad or cutting my losses on this entire product line. 

I honestly am in disbelief at how poor this customer service experience has been, and I say this as someone who has used the product and gotten replacement products from Fitbit in the past.  What an unmitigated disaster.  Shameful

[LisaMack]

My Charge 5 has not updated but I had all the same problems. Right now it is completely dead and almost a year old.

[Walkingin2017]

Updated by Charge 5 this morning  (8/24/2023) will not work 5 minutes after removing it from charger..... what the Hell Fitbit?

[kerrieBBOZ]

@Bbbottura same here. I came to the forums after the onboard gps suddenly ceased to work straight after a phone app update and after seeing the mess here I turned auto update off on my phone and now manually update all my other phone apps EXCEPT the Fitbit app. I also gave up on both on-board and dynamic gps and now only using the device setting that exclusively uses the phone gps for activity racking which still works and so far I have not found any additional functionality has been lost. My battery still lasts several days.

So I think the preparatory phone app updates ahead of the firmware rollout are a part of the problem and that they initially break the device connectivity to the app and then either an onboard app like ECG or the firmware update, when it eventually gets pushed to you, goes into a failed loop due to loss of connectivity to the phone app that it can’t recover from and fatally drains the battery. (In my case it was connectivity of the gps during an activity)

But eventually apple will update the phone iOS and my Fitbit phone app, which is currently frozen on a version from about a month ago, will no longer be supported and I will be forced to update the Fitbit app, and since Fitbit is showing zero sign of investing in fixing this for the Charge 5, at that time  my device will die.

So the main problem I see with freezing my app updates, is that by the time I’m forced to update it, I will have even more personal tracking data that will be lost when I change platforms, than I already do now, since it is not possible to export ALL my health and activity tracking to another app. (Some data will, but not all will transfer in a way that I can readily view it)

So I’m thinking this is not going to be a good long term strategy unless I want to lose access to all that tracked data including sentimental maps of walks I’ve done while travelling, and during the weird COVID lockdown times and during my long hard regaining of fitness journey, which I want to be able to look back on.

So it is probably better to abandon ship and start again on another platform sooner than later to minimise my eventual inevitable data losses, since I’m certainly never going to send good money after bad and buy another Fitbit to replace a device that will be ruined by their own software rollouts!

[HeidiUSA]

I have a Charge 5 since 1 year and it just died after it tried to update the firmware

Now what?