Charge 5 battery draining quickly

[Jesss111]

Hi,

So I got my Fitbit in December of 2021 and up until last weekend, it worked perfectly fine. Last Saturday morning when I woke up I noticed my Fitbit was dead, so I just charged it with no biggie cause it was around 6 days since it had last been charged. I left it on the charger for two hours and within a couple hours of taking it off, it was dead again. I just brushed it off by thinking that the charger wasn’t put on correctly, so I charged it again for a few hours, took it off, and within a few hours it was already dead again. 
At that point I knew something was wrong with it, so I started going through the forums here, doing everything such as turning off notifications, gps, all day sync, restarting it, etc, and nothing has worked, and it seems the same for everyone else here too, unless your warranty is still active. Which for me, it isn’t, so I can’t even get a refund or replacement. 
I’m just confused as to how it was working for over a year and a half and all of a sudden the battery starts failing.
If I could get some solutions (except for the ones I mentioned above), then that would be great.


Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[rvmich]

Hi Jesss111

I experienced almost the exact same problem with my Charge 5, which coincidentally I got in December 2021!

I don't know who to contact 😕

[anuragb77]

There was an update to the settings module pushed on 23 may 3023. I suspect that is what causing this sudden battery drain. Fitbit support not sure if they can really help. Is this Google way of saying subtly that move over to new watch 

[Surfista]

Probably just the result of planned obsolescence. Design & build a product, at the lowest cost possible, to last just a day longer than the warranty period in order to maximize profits.

[rvmich]

What is lost in their R&D is real people suffer the consequences of their "wisdom". They are NOT forward thinking, where is the option for solar charging? If their products were all that, there would be NO "premium" add-on.

So frustrated with the lack of support to take the correct action to retain customers! Have a nice day...goodbye. 👋

[Claire_mce]

Has just happened to me too. It was a replacement, in November 22, and now won't keep charge. Customer service won't replace it, as it was already a replacement! It's just 6 months old! Not feeling very reassured sticking with Fitbit! 

[arthurc2000]

Just contacted fitbit and offered me a discount for fitbit product.

Thinking, why I want to buy again if it is not a reliable product and lasted only 1.5 yrs.

So, I have to charge by charge5 everyday..  Let's the charge 5 live on life support and bury it.. Amen.

[Jojoc79]

I had the same thing start happening to me last week just out of the blue. Put on the charger and it was drained in less than a couple of hours. Reset it multiple times, but it never kept the charge.  And guess what? Mine was purchased in December 2021 too! The screen is black and won’t charge at all now, so I contacted customer service this morning and they were sending the issue to the warranty department. But by the sounds of things on here, I’m guessing I won’t get a replacement. 

[Jojoc79]

I chatted with a customer service rep this morning. They responded quickly to my chat request. My problem still isn’t resolved. They said they would send my issue to the warranty department and that they would contact me by email later today. 

[rvmich]

That is their standard response. I hope you get resolution.

I have moved on to another brand.

[arthurc2000]

Which brand ?

What's the life expectancy of fitbit product ?

[Becky-delle]

My Charge 5 is also doing the same thing. It was working great last week. I was even bragging to my mother about how long I could go between charging it. But this past weekend it suddenly changed. I pulled mine off the charge 4 hours ago, where it was at 100%, and now it is at 15%. I haven’t done any exercising with it today or anything. There is no reason for it to be that low already. I think I also got mine Christmas of 2021. 

[Delta79]

My watch has just started to do this today. Was working fine now the battery drains in a couple of hours but also it no longer counts my steps or heart rate. I have tried restarting and resetting/repairing everything. So now it is pretty much useless.

[Jojoc79]

Charge 5, I haven’t looked into the life expectancy. I’ll have to check that out.

[rvmich]

From what I can gather, it's about a year.

[Cedho]

I had the same thing start happening to me this week. I bought mine 2 januari 2022... strenge coincidence 

[Jojoc79]

Yes I figured as much.  Thanks I hope do  I too but I’m thinking it might be a good time to change brands as well.

[Jcs_01]

Odd that the same thing is happening to so many people at the same time - it happened to me yesterday morning.  Everything was fine, I even finished my jog.  I took off my Charge 5 for my shower, and it was dead when I put it back on.  I tried charging it repeatedly during the day with multiple resets, and I finally got the screen to come on but I couldn't do anything on the screen.  I charged it overnight and within an hour of wearing it this morning it was dead.  I charged it and reset it multiple times and finally got it to work,, meaning I could use the screen again, but after wearing it for an hour the battery was dead again.  I tried a device reset, but that didn't change the battery draining issue.  I activated my Charge 5 on November, 20, 2021, so it's also beyond the Fitbit warranty, but I bought third-party insurance for $20 when I got it.

FWIW, I had three Charge 3s die over three years.  My first had screen issues after 11 months, and I received a warranty replacement, but its screen died after 8 months.  I used my daughter's for about 14 months (she switched to an apple watch) before its screen died.  Guess why I bought the insurance for my Charge 5?

[rvmich]

Based on the postings, my guess it is a little over 1 year.