Charge 5 battery draining and no altimeter

[mcgaposchkin]

I want tor register my serious disappointment with my (new) Charge 5. My (adored) Charge 4 had come to the end of its valiant life and I naturally replaced it with the newer version. My principal frustration is that it depletes its 100% charge in 36 hours.  This has caused serious problem. I have turned 'off' all the relevant things recommended to me in this article

https://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/2004.htm

which has extended it a little bit but not much.  Besides the point of the fact that it needs to be charged every day (and I cannot in fact charge it every day, and wear it to bed for sleep stats), what is the point of having new bells and whistles if they need to be turned off for use.  Secondly, I am disappointed at the disappearance of the Altimeter, which was a feature much more important and useful than either the ECG or EDA scan.  I'm extremely frustrated and want to register my complaint to someone who will see this. Please can I trade this in for a Charge 4?

cecilia

Moderator edit: subject updated for clarity

[mcgaposchkin]

I thought I had fixed the batter issue but it hasn't. I've turned everything "Off".  It continues to drain in less than two days. Honestly, this Fitbit is a disgrace. The company should offer a recall and replacement. I very much want my Fitbit Charge 4 back. I have really liked Fitbit and am willing to stay with the company on the assumption that this current issue was a one off and a mistake, but I'm pretty appalled that this product was permitted to go on the market and really think we all should be able to trade these in for a Charge 4 (can you just start making those again?) which was a much better product. This really is a big mistake on Fitbit's part.

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Let me just add that this line, from the Fitbit "specs" on the website:

Battery life of up to 7 days. Use of the always-on display and SpO2 features will require more frequent charging. We recommend charging your tracker every few days to ensure you are always tracking.

Is patently untrue.   There is no way no matter how I put my settings together that I get anything near 7 days. The most I've gotten is about 50 hours. This is false advertising.  Between this and the loss of the altimeter, i really can't get over how disappointed I am, and I'm sorry fitbit hasn't reached out.

[DavideFitbit]

@mcgaposchkin Thank you for your reply and for confirming that you're still having this problem with the battery life. 

In addition to the steps mentioned earlier, keep in mind 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.

If you already tried all the steps shared in the forums, I recommend that you continue the communication with the Customer Support team for further assistance with this, as not all battery short life problems are related to this specific issue with GPS, but some users do have this problem. 

I appreciate all the feedback and comments that you've shared so far. The team continues to work to improve the quality and the Fitbit experience. 

See you around. 

[Tvanlengen1]

I hope the Fitbit people are reading these. I really do. I got my Charge 5 for Christmas. That was only 2 weeks ago. I'm a runner and I use it regularly but I keep an eye on the battery life. I have not had massive drain issues nor have I had any problems with it except for the night before last. I woke up in the middle of the night to check the time and I was shocked to see that I couldn't turn on my watch. I thought the only way to turn it off was to plug it in. I realize that you can turn it off at the watch so I thought that that's what I did. I think it's absolutely bizarre that it was over 80% of a Charge and when I woke up the next morning it was dead. I've worn it all day and ran with it within a 24-hour period and it didn't drain more than 15%. This wash does not last 7 days. If that's what they're advertising that's false advertising and that's a big issue. Frankly I think that everyone that has a Charge 5 should get a year of premium service and a rebate because this is ridiculous. Thank you for sharing but I hope they're reading this and they know what's going on because if I would have known this I would have exchanged it.

Moderator edit: format

[DavideFitbit]

@Tvanlengen1 Thanks for sharing all of these details about your experience with your Charge 5. 

Let me know if you've continued to experience this same issue or if this happened only once. In the meantime, please make sure to try restarting your device using the charging cable and test your device for a few days. 

Thanks again for sharing all your feedback about the product. The team continues to work to improve the Fitbit experience and your feedback is an important part of that process.