Charge 5 - Stuttering Display and Responsiveness Issues

[APM23]

Hi, just highllighting this issue I'm experiencing with the Charge 5.

I use an iPhone 8+ running iOS 15.5 and Fitbit 3.60 with Charge 5 Version 57.20001.149.11

Occasionally and seemingly at random, my Charge 5 will become very slow to respond to inputs and the frame rate of the animations will become noticeably slower.

Usually the Charge 5 animations play very smoothly - I'm guessing 30fps or higher. When my issue occurs, this drops to below 24fps (again a guess :P) and it will become difficult for inputs to be registered properly. For example, it may take two or more finger swipes to advance the screen or two or more finger presses to enter a menu.

I can't get this issue to appear consistently as appears to be an intermittent fault.

Has anyone else had a similar issue? Any possible solutions to this problem?

Let me know! 😛

Regards,

APM

[SunsetRunner]

Hello @APM23 

Very well written post! Have you tried changing your clock face? I’d try changing your clock face back to the original that came with the Charge 5 or another one preferably made by Fitbit to see if I improves your screen display/response issues. It the problem still persist I’d recommend restarting your Charge 5: https://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/1186.htm

I’m hopefully this provides a solution (fingers crossed) please let me know if this helps

[StepCounterK]

SAME PROBLEM + A NEW ONE

1. Stuttering / delayed display responses

2. Yesterday's stats still showing on watch, but under today's date and time.
3. My watch battery just dropped from around 60% to 7% whilst I was logging in to this forum.

I am having the same problem as @APM23 plus two more. I noticed it yesterday (June 14 2022). It seems like there is a delay between my physically tapping the watch screen, and the screen moving on to the next reading. 

This morning I've woken up, and my Watch face is still showing all stats from yesterday. It is showing the time and date correctly, but my cals, steps etc as they were just before I went to bed last night. 

• I have not changed timezones. 
• The app is showing the correct data for today. 
• I have tried re-synching the watch.
• I have restarted the watch and it is still showing yesterday's exercise stats. 
• The watch is still sluggish to respond to taps or swipes

Charge5 details

• Charge 5 was purchased new in March 2022. 
• Purchased at a major electrical retailer. 
• I have only been using it for vigorous. (read: sweat inducing) exercise since May (4 weeks ago). 
• I don't swim in it, nor wear it in the shower.
• Phone is running latest iOS.

This watch is only 4 months old ... absolutely do not want to get a new one. Just want this fixed. Any help appreciated. 

Thanks

[StepCounterK]

Update on this ... 

FIXED -> Stuttering / delayed display responses

FIXED -> Yesterday's stats still showing on watch, but under today's date and time.
TOO EARLY TO TELL ->  My watch battery just dropped from around 60% to 7% whilst I was logging in to this forum.

No idea if these things are related however worth sharing here. Three things I just did. One or all of them may have solved this.
1. I turned off 'Location Always On' for FitBit in my phone. (I only turned this on a few days ago ... this was the only thing I'd changed about my phone recently)

2. I pugged watch into charger as the battery had dropped suddenly to 7% (and kept it there as part of the 3 press button reset) 

3. I tried the 3 press button reset (on the USB charger). This is different to the restart that I tried earlier. 

I will report back if anything changes. But so far, seems OK. 

[APM23]

Hi MegaBite! Thank you for responding 😊

I had indeed changed my watch face as soon as I received my Charge 5. My first thought was that perhaps the change of face had impacted the animations - great minds! 😉 Unfortunately I experienced simlar problems after changing back to the original face. I also tried many different faces with no change in the outcome.

Restarting did help temporarily but the issue seems to reoccur randomly. I tried both methods of restarting the Charge 5. I have the feeling that this may be a battery/processor optimisation thing and will be resolved in a hardware/software update hopefully.

This issue may also be linked to syncing the Charge 5 to the Fitbit app as I noticed the responsiveness decreased after syncing. Hard to say conclusivley. However, I'm sure this bug will disappear after some more updates.

I will say that this hasn't tempered my enjoyment of my Charge 5 - it's still my favourite Charge

Thank you for your suggestions!

Regards,

APM

[SunsetRunner]

Another well written post @APM23 😉

Its hard to determine sometimes what is Fitbit Tracker issues versus Firmware issues versus software issues. Couple that with human errors as well and sometimes it’s just hard to pinpoint the exact cause of something at times. Especially when, like yourself, you make alterations (troubleshooting tips) and experience improvements then for no reason it reverts back to the original issue. It can definitely be a head scratcher for sure. 
I’m happy to read that your overall happy with your Charge 5. I personally have a Versa 2 and I see problems being presented here on the forums pertaining to Versa 2 but for whatever reason my has continued unscathed since getting it back in 2019. 
😉 Hopefully it will indeed improve with further updates. In the meantime continue staying focused on your fitness journey and as always Happy Stepping!

[APM23]

Thank you MegaBite 😊

Yes I totally understand and I have no doubt that these small issues will be resolved.

I had the same experience with the Charge 4 that you had with the Versa 2! I never had any issues at all with the Charge 4 until the brightness of the display started fading. May your bug-free experience continue 😄

I've also noticed this slight display bug with the Hourly Activity screen on the Charge 5:

Charge 5 Hourly Activity Bug

 It makes it quite hard to read which hours are missing but hopefully this will be a simple fix.

Yep I agree fitness is the main thing! Fitbit's just offer a little encourgaement 😄

"Be awesome to each other and Step On"

Regards,

APM

[SunsetRunner]

😉 Good eye @APM23 on picking up on the Hourly Activity Screen! I ran into someone awhile back with the same issue here: https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Charge-5/Charge-5-Have-spot-on-HOURLY-ACTIVITY/m-p/5161788#M16369. I would agree the image lacks quality and certainly has flaws and needs help. But it seems you approach all this in similar ways as I do. I know nothing in this world perfect (would be great if it was but it’s definitely not the case) but as long as the errors/issues are acknowledged and addressed then all I can do is march on and accept that in due time hopefully it gets addressed. I’m hoping your issue gets addressed in a future update quickly if it can’t be addressed manually. 

😃 I hope you have a fantastic evening and yes….”Be awesome to each other and Step on”…😉 Nicely put!