Charge 5 battery and heart rate issues

[BammBamm66]

I've had several fitbits over the years and this Charge 5 for several months.  The red light (HR) on the back started to stay on over the weekend and the battery is now draining very quickly and the HR and ECG functions are not working.  I have restarted it, reset it, synced it.  No luck.

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[RiekoC]

Hello @BammBamm66 

You mentioned seeing a red light on the back. Do you see a green light on the back of your Charge 5? You can check by placing your finger across the back. You should see a green light when you lift your finger. That's the heart rate sensor.

If you're not seeing the green light, the first thing to check is that the Heart Rate setting didn't get turned off somehow:

• Swipe down from the clock face on your Charge 5 until you get to the Settings tile. Tap on the tile.
• Swipe up until you see Heart Rate and confirm that it's turned on

If Heart Rate is turned on and you still don't see the green light, try turning the setting off, then back on. You might also want to try restarting your Charge 5 after turning the Heart Rate off, then back on. I've found that doing a restart often helps get my Fitbit "unstuck".

According to posts I've read, some users reported that doing a factory reset worked to re-enable the HR sensor. This might work to restore your Charge 5. If this is what you meant when you said you did a reset in your post, you can ignore the following steps.

• Since a factory reset will delete your data from your Charge 5, do a manual sync to ensure you don't lose your tracked data
• Swipe down from the clock face on your Charge 5 until you get to the Settings tile. Tap on the tile.
• Swipe up until you see Device Info and tap on the tile
• Swipe up to Clear User Data and tap on the tile
• Tap and hold on the blue tile for 3 seconds. This will clear your tracked data from your Charge 5, basically a factory reset

Hopefully, you should see the green light on the back of the Charge 5 after the reset and the red light no longer shows. If you see the green light, then set up the Charge 5 in the Fitbit app as a new device. Although it's usually not necessary, I recommend deleting the previous Charge 5 from the app first.

• Tap on the device icon in the upper left of the Today page
• Tap on the Charge 5 tile
• Swipe up and tap on Disconnect device
• Now set up your factory reset Charge 5 as a new device

If you didn't see the green light return and the battery continues to drain rapidly after the factory reset, then it's likely your Charge 5 is defective. You should contact Fitbit support (<-- click link) to find out what are your options under warranty