Charge 5 Firmware Update 194.91

[LizzyFitbit]

We’re excited to announce that a firmware update version 194.91 for Charge 5 is now available! If you installed it, let us know what you think!

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.

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.

[Bryanh1]

I also did this update a couple of weeks ago.  I did not have battery life issues during the first 15 months of ownership.  Until 2 days ago, I would typically only charge it for 10 minutes daily during a shower and it would not go below 80%.  Occasionally, I would miss multiple days charging and it would lose an additional 15%.  It died overnight 2 days ago and has not been able to last more than an hour or so since.  Multiple resets, each time it comes back to life the battery level shows a seemingly random percentage between 30 and 80.  Whether I charge it to 100% or not, it still doesn't last one hour before it dies and must be reset.  If it weren't for so many others with the same issue in such a short time following the firmware update, I would think I just had a battery that failed, even though they rarely degrade or fail so rapidly.  Could the new firmware be miscalculating the battery level and forcing shutdown or not allowing it to charge properly?  Can we download previous firmware versions to see if the battery is managed differently?  Or is there just a massive number of defective batteries and the firmware update is an odd coincidence for so many people?

[Jehosha]

No sleep score or any sleep on the device since the update do Fitbit again destroy the devices

No reason to upgrade to charge 6 as if I can't trust fitbit to update the charge 5 so it works correctly. It keeps loosing steps also but that is an ongoing issue

Sorry but the longer I have had Fitbit devices  the harder it is to convince myself to upgrade to a new one

[Eggham]

Charge 5 was totally killed by the update, it would not measure any parameters like HR, Sleep, Steps, and there was very rapid battery drain. Fitbit is unusable 2 months out of warranty. A discount was offered on a new device, but why would I buy the same product again after it has shown to be unrealiable? Spoke to chat about the offer and any alternative, there is none as the offer is auto-generated. So now I have no device and no appropriate offer to buy a new one. Totally unhelpful, I will not be getting another device.

[Daveleeander2]

Don’t do this update. Until Google finally gets their act together, the
update is a destroyer of your watch

[AnnaFZ]

If we were beta testers they would take our feedback into consideration.
We're cash cows.

[Markfm]

Since installing the update on 1/9, I had that one HR glitch (very high, inaccurate, HR logged for a bit during exercise), and one night of messed up sleep score (logged far as fewer hours than reality), both in the initial couple of days, but it's been working fine otherwise.

Battery consumption has been stable, consistent with needing to charge once a week.  No freeze-ups, black screens, etc.  Hopefully it'll continue running the same as currently.

I believe the posters who have run into very bad problems, just trying to let people know that the firmware doesn't affect all of the devices the same.  It could be some arcane issue(s) based on individual settings - in my case I disable most battery-consuming things, including Notifications and SPO2 monitoring, and have it set to go from auto wake-up (wrist turn) to manual at night when I sleep.  The clock face I run with is Zones.  I do use Fitbit Pay functionality frequently, find it more convenient than phone NFC.

[MarkB]

My Fitbit charge 5 now deletes exercise from the previous Tuesday as soon as a new week starts. So when I look back it seems I have done nothing on every previous Tuesday for weeks. My heart rate and steps are still on the app from the exercise, the app just deletes the whole exercise section. I also hate the new app. And it’s amazing seeing all the crap everyone else is going through. Definitely appears to be an organisation that is self indulgent and not giving users what they need or test adequately. The beginning of the end 

[SunsetRunner]

1 out of 1000sSent from Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

[Jackie.D]

This is the worst - my Charge 5 was working fine yesterday until 4:17 pm (last synch), now nothing - blank screen, won’t synch. Wish I had seen this forum before i spent time on a live-chat where they didn’t mention the upgrade and basically just copied text from the user guide that I had already gone through. Any response to this disastrous update, Google?

[iubrian]

I think most of us assume this isn’t a problem that has affected all Charge 5s. However, the problems cannot be explained by a combination of settings when a Charge 5 with those exact settings lasted a week between charges and now lasts less than a day, and there are no combination of settings which should result in a battery life of four hours, as is the case with my fitbit currently. My layman perspective is it is a QC issue with the hardware on the device itself - either the sensors or the main processor (or, I suppose some “hard coding” on the components) are not uniform, resulting in issues with some devices, not all. Which is why Fitbit offers to sell you another. I suspect they do not know how many or which product runs are defective, but figure it is a minority and if they send you the another one you probably wont have the same issue. I feel bad for the moderators for having to deal with the …. storm fitbit has created, but as someone who has used their products in the past and really wants to be able to in the future the company’s indifferent response is beyond frustrating. 

[iubrian]

This is the thing - this isn’t people complaining that a company won’t continue to offer updates to a product 5 years after its release, or expecting battery life to remain identical years after initial purchase. This isn’t a product reaching “end of life” and people complaining. It is, as someone analogized earlier, like taking your car to a dealer for a wheel alignment and they instead blow out your engine, shrugging, and saying “sorry it’s out of warranty.” A firmware update is like that alignment - a maintenance issue. When instead it renders your device unusable, the issue isn’t that it’s no longer under warranty…

[AnnaFZ]

@LizzyFitbit My feedback is that this update has ruined my device and faith in Fitbit as a company with it. The response has been abysmal, customers are feeling disillusioned and rightly furious. No company should have the ability to enforce obsolescence. Fitbit being silent on the subject comes across as very fishy. Perhaps if Fitbit were more forthcoming on this matter and gave us a new firmware update it would go a long way to restore faith in the company and product. 

[FitbitUser249]

My battery now lasts about 3 hours before going dead after this update. When is an updated firmware fix coming???

[Widdershins]

My Charge 5 is on my bookshelf gathering dust. I do keep it charged but I'm not going to connect it to Fitbit for fear of it being damaged. In the meantime I've got another product. If, that's a big "if" right now, FitBit fix all the problems I may find a use for it with a family member. One thing I have noticed is that it doesn't keep accurate time at all. It must have been getting the correct the time from the phone.

[Kawasan2]

Having the same problem here, did you find any solution ? 

[PrincessMelly]

@iubrian 

Well said. Fitbit is playing games with their customers. Trying to make it about the warranty instead of owning up and rectifying their mistake. It's quite disheartening. 

[Daveleeander2]

No. They sent me a new one today. It DID NOT have the new update in it, and it will not be getting the new update. I don’t know how long battery will last, but I can at least see what time it is. 

[UlrikeDG]

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@Markfm wrote:

..the firmware doesn't affect all of the devices the same.  It could be some arcane issue(s) based on individual settings - in my case I disable most battery-consuming things, including Notifications and SPO2 monitoring, and have it set to go from auto wake-up (wrist turn) to manual at night when I sleep.  The clock face I run with is Zones.

---

Two problems with this logic:

1. This is happening after a firmware update, not after people change their settings.
2. If certain settings are interacting with the firmware update, why doesn't Fitbit know which settings they are? Why doesn't changing settings fix it? If certain clock faces are incompatible with the new firmware, why doesn't Fitbit just remove those faces from the Gallery?

Obviously, not everyone is experiencing sudden, catastrophic battery problems, but the only entity with access to enough data to actually pinpoint what factors are connected is Fitbit, and they aren't saying anything to anyone.

[AlanBFit]

That would be admittance thst they caused they caused it. Charge 5 app updated and now firmware does as well. Wont let it. Theyve become **ahem**. 

[MelviraMOTD]

My replacement received in October ‘23 (after updating to the previous update which killed it) was set to the 188.58 version, with no update. 
I’m not even going to update to this new one for fear of crashing this replacement! I was out of warranty when it got replaced, so I doubt they’ll do another if I update and it all goes wrong…even if it’s their fault!