Charge 5 Loses Charge

[SunsetRunner]

I've had this for a few weeks now and everything has been working fine.  Yesterday, however, it started losing its charge.  I take it off the charger after it has reached 100% only to find it's at 3% a couple of hours later.  What would cause this?  Is there something I can try?  Inquiring minds want to know.

P.S.  The pun in the title was accidental.  😚

[Wibby]

Hello @SunsetRunner 

That sounds like a severe drain.  GPS and Always On screens can drain a battery.  Are they both switched off? If you used GPS recently, it may not have fully switched off.  There seems to be a fault there and there was a message about it on the battery advice page:

Extend battery life 

It's also a good idea to restart it, if you haven't already.  There's 2 sort to try.  From the Charge 5 Clock Face screen scroll down to Settings, tap, then scroll up to Restart Device.  If that doesn't seem to have any effect you can do a harder reset by connecting it to the charger and then pressing the button at the USB end 3 times. Some people do it with a one second gap in between and others do it faster.  You may have to try a couple of times.

Here's a picture of the button as it can be hard to find if the USB plugs in with it upside down (as mine does).

I hope that helps a bit.

[SunsetRunner]

Thanks.  GPS was on so I turned it off.  I'll see how that works.

Moderator Edit: Word choice

[SunsetRunner]

I've gone back several times to ensure the GPS was set to phone--and it was.  I've also reset it through the menu and by using the button.  The problem still exists.

[Wibby]

That’s a shame @SunsetRunner.

In that case it’s probably time to contact Support for help.   The best way (I’ve heard) is through Chat.

Scroll to the bottom of the page here, select Help, then Get Support, then Live Chat.   

I hope they can help to fix it for you.

[SunsetRunner]

Been there a couple  of times and they said they would pass it up to
higher level support (which I thought was you.)

Moderator Edit: Word choice

[Wibby]

Oh no @SunsetRunner 

I'm just a Fitbit user like you - I just like helping people if I can.  This Community is nearly all customers.  There are Community Council members who have a special logo and a special status, and Moderators who are actually employed by Fitbit (I think), but the majority of us are just normal customers.

I imagine the higher level support would contact you via email so you should check your spam folder too in case mail turns up there by mistake.

Good luck!

[lisa54]

I've only had my Charge 5 a week - Friday am charged it to full for the first time since getting it. Saturday at noon, it's reading 46%. GPS is set to dynamic (haven't used it yet as far as I know), do not have it set to always on display. Have not even tracked any workouts since full charge. In the 29 hrs since full charge, has only been in default kind of mode/usage. 

Been with Fitbit since 2013, my 3rd device, never had battery issue before.

[SunsetRunner]

This is my first problem with charging.  I have had issues with sync
before but that's it.

Moderator Edit: Word choice

[SunsetRunner]

This is the first time I've had issues with charging also.  I have had sync issues with my Charge 3 and 4 devices but was able to fix them as they arose.

[lisa54]

After my first problem with it discharging rapidly, I took my charger with me to work and let it get down to 25% - with the battery indicator showing red before I plugged it into the charger. After about an hour and a half, when I checked it showed the regular face, not a fully charged message. I wiggled it a bit until it reactivated charging and showed 99%. It took another 45 minutes to get from 99% to 100%, but I waited it out.

That charge has lasted 7 days and is still at a 31% charge. The whole week, it seems to have been discharging at a steady rate, regardless of whether I did a workout, did the stress or heart scans, etc. 

The first charge that didn't last long, I started charging it with about 50% battery remaining - not sure if that might be a clue. Since it was the first time using the charger, I definitely did see a 100% readout on the device. I believe one of the other posters wondered whether the problem could be caused by the firmware designed to prevent overcharging. In my one instance, that might have been it. I'll probably charge tomorrow, and see how it goes.