My Fitbit history:
- Started with Surge to get GPS. Worked great for a year until the button for setting things started working only sometimes. Would still track, but too large to use just for tracking.
- Switched to Charge 2. Has worked fine for 2 years. Battery starting to not last as long, so decided to try Charge 5. I have also started kayaking, so the fact that the Charge 5 is supposed to be water-resistant was also appealing.
- Charge 5:
Had problems getting set up. Said it needed an update, but wouldn't finish updating. Tried switching clock face, and wouldn't work.
Finally the update worked. Might have been because I moved away from computers and was using my phone only (android). Once the update completed, then the new clock face loaded.
Worked great for 2 days. End of 2nd day, tried setting up sleep mode (10 pm to 7 am) so that I wouldn't be disturbed by the light coming on during night. The Charge 5 went into sleep mode at 10, but that was too early, so changed the schedule to 11 pm to 7 am. Charge 5 still working at this point.
Woke up, and Charge 5 screen would NOT come on. No response to taps or swipes.
Performed a sync and that seemed to work - 8:27 am. My overnight heart rate recorded, but no sleep stats were available.
Then started fiddling. Performed reset using the changing cable. That does seem to work - it vibrates then shows the Fitbit logo. But it never "wakes up" and shows the clock.
At this point sync doesn't seem to work anymore. The Fitbit logo will show, and a progress bar shows, and sometimes seems to get to the end. But according to my phone app, no update has happened since 8:27 am.
Tried turning bluetooth off on the phone, restarting the phone. Nope.
Removed Charge 5 from the app. Tried pairing. Charge 5 is found, the app asks for the 4 digits. Well, if the Charge 5 is displaying 4 digits, I can't see them.
I can only assume the device is broken. I don't see any promising posts about customer support. I think the best I can hope is they will give me a new one, and why would I expect a new one to work any better than the current one, seeing how many people are having this problem?
So, I am wearing my Charge 2, and will be returning the Charge 5. It was bought at Costco, who accepts returns no questions asked.
Conclusion: The Charge 5 is not ready for prime time.
