Charge 5 battery draining quickly

[Specky]

Two days ago my Fitbit battery lasted five to six days in normal use. Since yesterday it lasts about an hour. What happened and how do I fix it?

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[Gr4ndp4]

Hi, @Specky Welcome, it is worth checking that your device is charged Why isn't my Fitbit device's battery charging? - Fitbit Help Center provides assistance & guidance. Try restarting your Charge 5 as demonstrated in This video @ 1:29 

If your device is less than two years old you may have the benefit of Fitbit's return and warranty policy depending on when, where & from whom you bought it.

Let us know how you get on by posting here again.

Cheers

[Specky]

I've charged it to 100% and restarted it several times. I've had fitbits for years so pretty sure I know how to do that correctly. I haven't tried a factory reset yet. Why do they sometimes do this? It seems a bit odd.

[Gr4ndp4]

Hi, @Specky, if you try a factory restart you should "Sync" the Fitbit app before you instigate as it deletes the data. You'll appreciate this is the equivalent of turn it off/turn it on. Difficulty with charging is frequently a cause of problems like this, that's why I mentioned it. Another change that might help is to change the clock face you are using via the clocks tab in the Fitbit app on your phone, if this has become corrupted it might be the cause of your issue. You can always change it back again. If all these steps leave you in the same position talk to Customer Support.

Cheers

[Specky]

Sadly the device now seems to be bricked. I left it to charge yesterday, and came back to it today with the intention of a factory reset. Nope, it wouldn't respond to anything, including screen taps, power connections or reset button presses. It had clearly been connected to the power though: it was warm to the touch.

I messed around with the reset button for about five minutes and eventually a Fitbit logo appeared. But all it did was buzz, flash up the logo, then go dark. This repeated every couple of seconds for about a minute; then it just went dark and unresponsive again. Now I can't get it to do anything at all.

This seems to be a common problem with these devices. I suppose it's possible the charging cable is at fault but I don't know how I'd establish that without replacing it. Sadly the warranty has expired.

[Specky]

 

 

Weirdly though, apparently it was alive last night and managed to sync, with 100% battery.