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?

[GDSchulz]

Rich, my Charge 5 is 7 months old.  I was getting 7+ days on a charge but all of a sudden last week it dropped to barely 3 days.  Didn't change anything.  GPS is off; SpO2 is on, but mine has been on as a Covid warning since the day I bought it so can't blame that.  Is it an indication the battery is going bad?

I'm an old guy and use my Charge 5 mostly for sleep monitoring and the health metrics, and several 1-hr walks per week.  I use my phone's GPS, not Fitbit.  I did get the notification about AFIB service availability a few days after the battery problem started,  But from what you say that shouldn't be a factor. 

[SatishMohan]

I bought mine on January 17th, 2022. I am being forced to charge mine at least 3 times a day. The worst part is that I'm unable to track my sleep. I have it on full charge before bed and the battery is dead by the time I wake up. I am only worried about their warranty. What if they don't resolve during my warranty period and they don't replace / refund? It is an investment at the end of the day

[cmcg99]

Hi Rich, how do you turn off the SpO2 on your Charge 5?  I don't see a way to do it.

[SunsetRunner]

Good Morning!

Is there any new status on this firmware update?  I received a Charge 5 (2) weeks ago as a gift.  Had to return it because the band quit vibrating.  New one has the battery issue mentioned by many users.  Firmware version on the band is 1.149.11. My band is at home right now on the charger because when I went to bed it was at 45% and woke to it being at 13%.   It began dropping rapidly last evening before I went to bed.  At 7pm it was at 65%. I do not use it for sleep, my band is not on constant awake, I removed the Sp02 app and my GPS is set to my phone.  Something isn't working right for sure.  Any updates would be appreciated.  

Thanks!

[cmcg99]

Folks, I just figured out how to do this, or at least uninstall the SpO2 app.  Go into your Fitbit app, click on your icon in the upper left hand corner, then click on Charge 5, then Gallery, then scroll down until you find the SpO2 app.  There should be an Uninstall button there.  I just tried this...hopefully it helps with the battery drain, as some have suggested.

[Clemens13]

Thanks! Just uninstalled-now we wait and see.

Sent from my iPhone

[SunsetRunner]

I did this last week and it did not help ☹️

[justletmepost]

After you made the changes (uninstalled apps and Disabled GPS (on the phone and on the online dashboard), did you do the charging cable restart - connect charge 5 to charging cable and press button on cable 3 times, with 1 second gap between each press.

Instructions here...

https://help.fitbit.com/manuals/charge_5/Content/manuals/html/Update,%20Restart,%20and%20Erase.htm

[SunsetRunner]

I did.  When I get home I plan to do it again before taking it off the charger in hopes that it fixes it.  The weird part about it is that when I removed the app and restarted on the cable on Friday the band stayed with a good charge until last night when it just started depleting very rapidly.  Not sure what changed but I didn’t change anything.

[Saryah]

I did it yesterday (uninstalled SpO2), but so far no help. Does anyone know How to turn the sleep tracking off? I’ll try that as well, and if it won’t help I’m done with this. What do I do with this watch if i’m not able to use any its feature…

[robert_bloor]

I had this happen to me even though you have GPS off try a rest with the lead and pressing 3 times, then flick btw GPS on and off a few times

[alive105]

I have had my Charge 5 for a little over a month. When I first got it I too was extremely disappointed when I saw the battery only lasting for a couple of days.
The only thing I do is a restart once a week just before putting it on the charger and have not uninstalled any of the factory installed apps. I consistently am getting 7-8 days before needing to charge it. I wear it to sleep every night and have had no further issues.
To reset the watch just scroll down to settings (on the watch itself not your phone app), then while in setttngs scroll up to “restart” and tap on it. The watch will shutdown and restart but not erase any of your personal info. I then put it on the charger and charge to 100%, that’s it and I have had zero problems since!
Hope this has helped you, let me know if it works for you, make sure and follow the sequence exactly as I have written here!

Mark

Sent from my iPhone

[JKOFFOTH]

Hi Mark,

We tried all the many things that support said to try. This particular watch has a problem. It will not even hold a charge for more that a hour or two.

Moderator edit: personal info removed

[AKLDave]

There is still definitely a problem, in the last few weeks I have been out dancing one evening and on another day completed a lot of active yard work (mowing, weeding, etc.) and in both cases the battery drained on that day. I did not turn on any additional functions, exercise tracking or the like but clearly the activity cause the battery to drain. This is just not acceptable and has been happening since I got it in late December last year. Normal use when I charge it each day when I have my shower it is normally at around 91% so normal use uses less than 10% a day, which is fine, but any serious activity and it drains that day. This needs to be fixed!

[PJWagar]

Update: I fully charged my Charge 5 on May 7 after reading many of the posts and then restarted it. I have not had to charge it again and I am at 54% charge this morning (5/11/22). So far, so good!

[Clemens13]

Hopefully you are one of the lucky ones. I charged mine to 98-99% yesterday morning and it was 17% this morning.

Sent from my iPhone

[Bike-man]

Hi PJWagar,

Great news about your Charge 5.  
Just curious about country of manufacture.   More often than not, the battery issues plaguing others seem to be more common with Charge 5’s made in China.  Mine is doing well, it was made in Malaysia.   
It would be interesting to poll everyone having an issue to see if there is ant correlation with manufacture origin.  
Best, 

[Saryah]

Mine made in Malaysia… and not working 

[JKOFFOTH]

Great News??
How do I tell where it was made?
How is that going to help resolve our problem?

Sent from my iPad

[Saryah]

See Device info (on-device). No help, mine was made in Malaysia, not in China. Actually I don’t even understand the whole issue - is the problem really with software… I’m so frustrated. How long do we need to wait the solution…