Charge 5 battery dies in 1 hour

[FitbyteOmnomnom]

My Charge 5 full battery lasts for 1 hour. It's 2 weeks old 

Moderator edit: format

[DavideFitbit]

Hi, welcome to the Fitbit Community forums, @FitbyteOmnomnom.  

Thank you for sharing all these details about the inconvenience that you've been experiencing with your Charge 5.  

I've been informed that you already contacted the Customer Support team for further assistance with this. In this case, they will let you know how to proceed. 

Have a good day. 

[GenomeSequence]

The great news after numerous customer support team interactions: wait for the Firmware update! A watch lasting 1 hour without doing anything but being on my arm is not a watch anymore!

[amvi]

Definitely return to store since it's so new,

they've been saying to wait for firmware update since March. Nobody wants to wait that long for a firmware update.

[DavideFitbit]

Hi, thank you for sharing that you're having the same inconvenience with your Charge 5, @GenomeSequence. 

As you mentioned earlier, the team is aware of a battery drain issue affecting some Charge 5 devices in which the built-in GPS chip may remain active after ending a GPS-enabled exercise and they've working on an update to fix the issue. In the meantime, it is recommended to try a three pulse restart. Please note the following:

• If you use GPS to track your exercise, use the Phone GPS setting on your tracker to preserve battery life. For more information, see How do I use GPS on my Fitbit device?
• We’ll work to resolve it and hope to have a fix soon. Be sure to keep your Fitbit device and app up-to-date to ensure you receive the quickest resolution.

Thanks again for sharing all this information and your feedback. Our team is always working to enhance your experience and your feedback is a big part of that process. 

[Viking4523]

I love the looks of my new Charge 5 but dang, there are issues.  Battery drain is a huge issue for mine. 

I was dismayed to read this forum as not only is there not a fix but I'm not confident there is hope for one.  Is it possible to fix a battery drain issue with an update?  I really don't want to return it for a new one if that one won't be any better.  If I have to get a different device I don't know if I will want to continue with Fitbit devices.  What is the probability of a firmware update in the near future & is this is an issue that can realistically be expected to be fixed with an update? 

Thanks for your help. 

[GenomeSequence]

I'm pretty sure a software/firmware update will do the trick. I however think the 1 hour battery issue is a faulty battery rather than software/firmware. But nobody seems to listen, they only hear battery issue and think that you can still use the Fitbit for a day at least. Mine worked fine for 4 months so I'm out of the 45 day period to get a refund, I just want a replacement as I think that will sort the 1 hour battery problem, and in 4 months they will "hopefully' have a fix for the 1 day drain issues. Still struggling to sort out some workable resolution.

[Enzosoph]

I just got my Charge 5 yesterday and the battery didn’t even last 20 hours, only 18. I don’t use GPS so how do I avoid this? If you say the GPS drain is the issue and I don’t use it then this shouldn’t be happening surely? Or is it on even if you don’t actively set it to be on when exercising? 

[DavideFitbit]

Hi, thank you for all the information, and welcome to the new users in the Community forums, @Viking4523 @GenomeSequence @Enzosoph. 

I appreciate the information that you've provided about this issue with the Charge 5. I'm sorry to see that you're still having this inconvenience. As you mentioned earlier, there is an ongoing issue with the GPS chip causing a rapid battery drain on Charge 5.  Please know that out team will be releasing an update soon to address this issue, but we haven't received other news for the moment. 

In the meantime, please make sure you've tried the these steps if you haven't done so already: 

• Try restarting your tracker by connecting it to the charging cable,
• Open the Fitbit app, pull down on the screen to force a manual sync and monitor its behavior in the next days.
• Follow the standard troubleshooting steps to improve battery life in general. 

However, not all battery draining problems are caused by the GPS feature, so if you don't use this feature and you already tried all the troubleshooting steps mentioned earlier, please don't hesitate to get in touch with the Customer Support team as well. Click here to get connected. 

Thank you again for the information and for the feedback provided.