Charge 5 battery draining too fast

[SharleneH]

I have had the new Charge 5 for 2 days. The battery discharges within a day. GPS is off, the phone is not set to always on. In looking over the troubleshooting instructions from Fitbit, it seems that you essentially have to disable all of the features that were selling points of this device in order to get decent battery life. Even my ancient Charge 3 got 6 days on one charge! Has anyone with this battery problem found a solution other than disabling everything?

[Bike-man]

If Fitbit releases a firmware update that will allow constant on for GPS with a 7 day battery life I would be very impressed.   My experience with gps is primarily while cycling and in my case I use a G____n cycle computer.   The battery will lose approximately 10% charge per hour.  For me that is an acceptable rate.  Perhaps Fitbit should be more upfront about the Charge 5 capabilities with respect to GPS and expected battery life.  My Charge 5 will now provide me with 7+ days of battery life without GPS activated.  
Has anyone experienced more than a couple days of battery power while using GPS?   
Thanks,

[Bellefield1878]

My Fitbit generally works fine, but ever now and then it will discharge fully overnight?  My wife’s Fitbit suffers from the same problem.  So to be clear, mostly it works fine, just randomly they will go from (say) 70% charged to zero during the night.

both Fitbits are on fully up to date in terms of software updates.

is there a fix to this problem or do we just have to live with it, or go with another option?

[LesleyMY]

I've tried every suggestion at least twice and my Charge 5 is still draining really fast. I've had it about a month now and after initially being really happy with the display (which I can actually see) it suddenly started this nonsense after about a week. Full charge then down to 10% (or less) by the next day. Once it lasted 3 days (I was so happy, thinking it was fixed) but then suddenly drained. One night it went down to 4% in the middle of the night while I was sleeping and didn't record anything. Frankly, I'm fed up. This is my third Fitbit. I had to make warranty claims twice for my two units of Fitbit 3 as the display disappeared. Both times! Each time lost the balance of my warranty because the country where I'm living allows companies to void the warranty when a claim is made. I had to pay again for a new warranty for the second Charge 3 and again for this Charge 5, plus extra for the price difference, even though the Charge 3 is no longer being manufactured and they don't sell Charge 4. So I'm angry about 3 things.
1. This product doesn't work as expected and despite a fix being 'worked on' as stated in December, it's now 3 months later and there is clearly no fix.
2. I'm tempted to just throw the watch away, despite the original being a gift from my daughter who wants to help me monitor my heart rate etc, because most of the time it is plugged in, charging. Not on my wrist.
3. I am angry that despite thinking a 5 year warranty should be enough!!!!!, the watch lasted less than a month and I will void the warranty if I make a claim for something that is absolutely NOT my fault.

[SunsetRunner]

Where are your Fitbit’s made? I had the same issue and forced Fitbit to replace mine. My original one was from China. My replacement is from Malaysia and I have had no battery issues with it.

[JBNV123]

Mine is from Malaysia and I am having problems with battery life , brand new used about 7 days so far.

Not using GPS, turned off the device GPS after using it one time and restarting the fitbit multiple times since, then turned off the device GPS. I am not using the always on display, and im not even syncing it very often. The charge 5 is lasting 24-36 hrs and discharging to <5% at that point.

I chatted with support yesterday and they told me they are working on a firmware update because of a known battery issue but had no ETA for the update. Has anyone else gotten word of this? 

So frustrating.  

[Bike-man]

JBNV123 that is certainly disappointing and contrary to what others have reported re: Malaysia Charge 5’s.  I too have a Malaysian made Charge 5 and yes, I initially experienced rapid battery discharge after the 1st charge.   But, in my case after doing a restart, the issue disappeared.  So, it is surprising what you report.  Kinda shoots down the theory about this issue being limited to China made Charge 5’s.

Would be good to know at this point what the ETA of the firmware update is.  After all, this issue has been ongoing for months now.  
Sorry about your frustration.  

[LesleyMY]

Strangely, they make Fitbit in Malaysia, but the ones on sale here are made in China! How weird is that?

[Therealraz]

My watch was same, mad drain got day each charge, then changed the setting and turned it on and off and it's went into the 8th day here.

Actually like the watch now. Will report back with this next charge how it goes.

[OllieCrafoord]

---

@Therealraz wrote:

My watch was same, mad drain got day each charge, then changed the setting and turned it on and off and it's went into the 8th day here.

Actually like the watch now. Will report back with this next charge how it goes.

---

What setting did you change?

[Bandit3138]

I'm having the same issue. I noticed that the battery lasted for 4 days unless I exercise where I track my workout with the GPS. After the exercise my battery drops to 24 hours at best. Here is the fix I use to solve my battery problem. I have found that when I finish my exercise I restart my Charge 5 through the settings menu on my Charge 5. 

[JBNV123]

So far I've tried this a couple times and seems to be working. The strange thing is that I already turned the GPS to phone only so and it still seems to drain after using, so restarting even after using phone gps may be necessary.  Seems like this would be an easy fix with a firmware update. 

[Bike-man]

Glad you seemed to resolve your issue.   Perhaps the fact that your phone is from Malaysia allows resolution to the battery issue.   Let’s hope a firmware update will make using the Charge 5 more seamless.  I’m current getting 7-8 days off a charge, not using GPS.   
Best,

[shimsim]

@Bandit3138 Could be that there is more than one battery issue, one caused the GPS not properly turning off after use and the other (which I believe is the one that first set off this thread) being related to the battery draining randomly/inconsistently, lasting only a few days (not the 7-8 that is should be).

Like any others that joined this thread early on, we conducted a lot of testing and specifically did not use the GPS function at all in order to eliminate that huge variable in battery usage.

Anyone that is getting poor battery life (less than 6-8days) or experiencing the non-linear drain (i.e. 5-10% drain for the first few days after full charge, then 50% drain on the last day) both while not having the screen on all the time or using the GPS, should try the suggested restart but if it persists, its like to be this same issue.

The GPS drain (after using it) should be a simple firmware fix although I would have expected that to roll out already but not sure that is going to be the fix for those that are not using the GPS but still experiencing the battery issues.

All speculation on my part and based on my specific experience but disappointing nonetheless that Fitbit has not been more proactive or open in dealing with this. At the very least someone reaching out to say .... hey, we know this is an issue with some units, we think its related to xyz and we are working on a fix. Here are the EXACT symptoms, here is how you can rule out any other issue, and here is an ETA for when we expect to push out the fix.

[june.h]

Now they admitted there are something wrong with the firmware.

However, about a month ago, when all of us suffered in this issue, they didn’t admit the errors. They told me it was my fault because I had those features on.

Honestly, the product is not the biggest problem. The biggest issue is the customer service.

I still remember I used this to track my heart rate, and it turned out my heart rate reached the highest when I talked to the customer service. 🙂

[Wildcatguy]

I will echo the sentiment that communication from Fitbit on this issue has been disappointing, to say the least.  It almost gives the impression they know there's a serious problem that might be expensive to fix.  More openness would make users believe they were being taken seriously and treated fairly.

[Nishant_737]

Hey everyone , Super pissed with the new charge 5 I just bought . The device does not stay charged for long . I have disabled almost the features for normal use and still the band is completely depleted in around 24 hour time . Not the **ahem** i wanted .

[LiJaHi]

june.h when did Fitbit admit something is wrong with the firmware, and did they say anything about fixing it?

[foreversoul]

I bought my Charge 5 two weeks ago and it has had battery issues from the start where it would go from 100% to 20% in 24 hours. I tried everything and nothing worked (latest firmware, gps set to phone, manual screen wake up, deleting spo2 app, etc. etc.) Finally I did a factory reset and that seemed to fix the problem where it was draining 10-15% a day which was acceptable.

There are 2 events that puts my Charge 5 back into a high drain state - doing a work out (auto detected or manual) OR charging my device, and I need to reset the device several times to go back to normal.

I really can't be bothered to constantly baby sit my battery to ensure it's not in a high drain state and I hate waking up with the device almost dead, so I'll be returning it until they sort things out, which I was hoping they would have done by now. If anyone has found a permanent solution, let me know! For now, I'd advise potential buyers to stay away.

[june.h]

Reading the post from the previous, I think fitbit is telling customers they are working on the firmware. I also received an email from their customer service saying they’re working on it but they never say anything about when they will solve the problem. I already return it.

[LizzyFitbit]

Hi everyone.

Thanks for keeping us posted about this situation, and your efforts while working on this matter. I'm sorry for this inconvenience. We always aim to deliver a positive experience with your Charge 5, and we’re working on a firmware update to fix the issue. Your feedback is truly appreciated and rest assured it hasn't gone unnoticed.

While you have tried some steps, try restarting your tracker by connecting it to the charging cable one more time. Then, open the Fitbit app, pull down on the screen to force a manual sync and monitor its behavior in the next days. 

Please note you may have to charge your tracker more often when using Always-On Display or when tracking SpO2 data. If you use GPS to track your exercise, use the Phone GPS setting to preserve battery life. For more tips, I'd recommend this help article.

Be sure to keep your Fitbit device and app up-to-date to ensure you receive the quickest resolution.