Charge 5 Won’t hold Charge

[Gray721]

My charge 5 stopped holding a charge yesterday. I charged it to 100% 3 times yesterday and now each time it went dead in about an hour. Charged it again to 100% and then it was dead by morning. I see in the forum this is a common issue but haven’t seen any fix. I’ve had this Fitbit since Nov 22 and it worked great up until yesterday. 

[Macho]

mine did the exact same thing.   What firmware are you on? mine is at 57.200001.188.58 (in my app it shows)  there is no update according to my app.

I Just got off the phone with them they asked me to factory reset the device after doing the clock face change thing which I've done already too many times.  The watch went blank, went into logo flashing mode where the rep quickly said yup broken the warranty team will contact me by E-mail. 

I know the E-mail will say (as this is now my 4th and last fitbit ) opps too bad for you it's past one year buy another and maybe we'll toss you 25% off.  the full MSRP price (which is usually higher than the stores) 

[Gray721]

Mine is the same version as yours.
Sent from my iPhone

[Gray721]

Yeah, I’ve been using Fitbit for 9 years but I think I’m done now. Time to go to something more sturdy. Having to replace every 1.5 years is too often. 

[decaturmamaof2]

... IF they reply to you that is. I was on customer support chat with them last Sunday. The rep promised me a follow-up email with a copy of the chat transcript and a discount for a new device. NEITHER ever came. Not shocked at all.

[TatD]

I’m convinced Fitbit did an update that crashed devices with so many Charge 5 users having the issue.  
Same thing happened to my Charge 5 last week.  Out of the blue it stopped holding the charge.  I charge it to 100% and by the time I disconnect it from the charger it says 92% and each minute it drops 4%.  So disappointing since I’ve tried all of the resets to no avail and I’m out of warranty as of last year.  
Like you this will be my last Fitbit and I’ve been a loyal customer since 2017.  I can’t keep replacing this thing every couple years. At least give me a 3-4 year run issue free.  Is that too much to ask?

[MerryMorgana]

I've had mine since August 22 and it worked great until yesterday. The cynical me thinks that something happened in the latest update to force an upgrade to the Charge 6. That won't be happening in my case, I've also noticed the same with Apple products, these large companies have no morals or shame it seems!

[TimN90]

Good to see I'm not alone on this as I am also having this issue. The recent update completely ruined my Fitbit Charge 5 which now has the excessive battery drain like everyone else and only lasts 3 hours after a full charge. This is extremely frustrating as this has happened during one of the previous updates as well but was corrected later on with a later update. Absolutely disappointed and couldn't agree more with how much a coincidence this was with the release of the Charge 6. This will be my last Fitbit device is it doesn't get resolved.

[DGillett]

Mine will hold a charge for about 3-4 days. It started doing this about 3-4 weeks ago. I turned off a couple of the options, but it hasn't really helped. I even have started turning off my Bluetooth on my phone and only turning it on 2x per day to let my device sync with my phone. Figured it was chapping too much with the app. Today, it was at 51% and within 3-4 hours it went to 10%. I've had the Charge 5 since March of 2023. I'm pretty frustrated right now.

Ironically, this started happening  not too long after I switched it over to my Google account.

[RiekoC]

Hello @DGillett 

When my Charge 5 started having rapid battery drain, I restarted and recharged my device multiple times over several days. As soon as I noticed the battery% had a big drop, I restarted and put my Fitbit on the charger, often doing this multiple times in a day. This process eventually got my Charge 5 "unstuck" and the battery life went back to lasting 6-7 days. Although there's no guarantee that this will work, it might be worth a try.

[DGillett]

I'll have to try that. Thanks for the info!

[Ntm12]

Same has happened with me...my fitbit screen gone black from last two days. And from last few days many parameters were not updating and now wit screen black out it's worse

I guess time to say bye to fitbit.

[pedchris]

Yeah, I've had my charge 5 for 2 years, no issues at all. Now it won't hold a charge and the consensus seems to be that this is intentional and a way to force a new purchase. You'd have to be living under a rock not to know that millions of people are being abused/killed to mine the components of our electronics and it is absolutely DISGUSTING that we would continue to be encouraged to upgrade still usable products simply for CEO/stockholder profits.

[driech]

Had the same issue.  No reply to my email requesting assistance.  Bought a Blackhawk R1 from Amazon  at £20. Does much the same as a Fitbit apart from all the heart stuff which is of no relevance even according to Fitbit. Customer service is a joke with Moreton 200 people reporting the same software issue. It should not be up to the customer to resolve their problems. 

[NoodleGoblin]

How do you get their email?  I've contacted the chat twice today?  They've now told me to uninstall apps and stop movement reminders.  I've had this fitbit 7 months and it dropped 30%charge in 2 hours.  I should be able to use all the features and have normal battery life! 

[bas_rodriguez]

I'm sorry to say that since Google became part of Fitbit, support at Fitbit has ceased to exist and we, regardless of how many years we have been with them, no longer care about us. The only thing they know how to say is that we spend hours and hours resetting, updating, resetting again, charging one way, charging another. In short, let's try a thousand things to see if we're lucky and it works.

I would like to know if there is anyone in the last month for whom Fitbit has fixed the problem.

[driech]

I'm not sure now. I'm away to try and find it just so that I can tell them
I am away!
I think that it was via their help page but they don't make it easy and
they don't reply!
Best of luck
Brian (dreich)

[Bela38]

Hi Everyone, until 3 days ago my charge 5 worked fine and now completely dead! Tried all the suggestions to fix. Definitely changing to something else as fed up of Fitbits lasting 18 -23 months. 

[SteviedNC]

I came here to question the same thing. I received a low alert @ 3:15pm...was 19%...15 minutes later was dead. This was a warranty replacement they sent me in November. 

Like others, I think I'm done with FitBit. (I still love my Garmin) 

[Kpollock002]

Ok - so it’s not just me.  And when it loses power so quickly, it loses all the data - I used to be able to get the data back after charging, but today, I started charging when it was at 5% - i know thats late, but going back to 0 steps for the day.  I’ll have to rethink how my other fitness apps get their data.  So much for my morning runs….