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?

[justletmepost]

Okay, to top it all off it doesn't appear to be logging activity and steps consistently!

It recorded 1 active minute for the whole day yesterday when it normally records many - my wife is a cleaner and is very active.

So, we went for a walk around the house and it logged no steps whatsoever.  We then went up/downstairs... nothing 😖

This device is getting returned immediately whilst we are still eligible for a full refund, and we will never be buying Fitbit again!

Sorry, but this is just an incredibly frustrating and poor-quality device.

edit:  just purchased a Garmin vivosmart for the same price.

[KathyJUK]

Same issue for me.  It is just hopeless even putting it one now.  
Kathy

-------------

Mine is made in China

[Dstoneman60]

Several days ago my Charge 5 inexplicably started holding the charge  - after nearly three days it's still at 70%. Reading the reports from everyone else, however, has me leaning towards returning it while I still can and getting a new Charge 4, which I never had an issue with until I accidently damaged it. Is there anyone else out there who had all of these stated issues, then got it charging properly, and it has been good ever since? I'm concerned that the current working state is temporary, and it will return to it's battery issues after it's too late to return it...

[foreversoul]

Definitely temporary unless they released the firmware fix we've all been waiting for. When I had my Charge 5, the battery would suddenly be okay, then suddenly would start draining too fast again. I became weary always having to babysit my device to see if the battery was draining or not. I returned the device before the return window ended. I refuse to buy the C5 again until people here can confirm that the firmware update has been released and has permanently fixed the issue. I've since went back to my 5 year old Charge 2 which surprisingly still has amazing battery life and never gives me battery issues. 

[ajdxb]

sorry to say but I think your joy might be only temporary.  Mine has been working well for a couple of weeks, and then went from around 70% yesterday evening to totally flat when I got to the gym this morning!

[Gpolly1]

There are times when my Charge 5 holds a charge for days, then there are times when it dies in one day. After I reboot it on the USB it seems to hold the charge for a few days, then it's back to dying again in one day. Very inconsistant.

[MaryAnnMaloney]

I had actually purchased mine through Amazon. I made sure I wrote a review warning people about the battery drain issue and also suggested they view the Fitbit Community posts on the issue as well before purchasing.

[Clemens13]

I it possible that those, like myself, who did not purchase their fitbit on Amazon will not leave a review on Amazon. I am also very curious as to the percentage of Charge 5 owners who are having this issue with battery life.

[Sled483]

I sent an email about this last week. Still waiting for the update they claim will fix it. Last week I had to charge it every day. This week it's made it 2 days before needing to be charge. Everything is turned off. It's an obvious problem. Please fix this. I honestly really like this fitbit. I'd hate to have to drop Fitbit because they won't address this issue. 

[GDSchulz]

Update:  I saw something here (though I can't find it again) recommending to charge the Fitbit to 100% then restart immediately.  In my situation, that may have worked.  For the past 2 weeks, I've only been getting about 3 days on a charge.  Yesterday I tried that suggestion, not expecting much. But today, after 24 hours, the Charge 5 says the battery has only dropped to 93%.  Fingers crossed and I've got my eye on it.

[JKOFFOTH]

Did that. Dinh’s fix it.

[GDSchulz]

Thanks for this tip. I tried it last night and 24 hours later looks like
it may have worked. Charged to 100% and restarted immediately. Only down
to 93% now after 24 hours. Will be watching it like a hawk in the coming
days.

[ChrisB1966]

While it's understandable that people are looking for their own fix to the problem and see some improvement, please remember that this is a random problem that Fitbit have known about from at least the 26th September 2021. Any improvements that you may experience now is not guaranteed and I'd hazard a guess that because people are using less functions and deliberately charging everyday that is being taken as normal now. My own Charge 5 may behave normally on 1 or 2 charges a week and then suddenly go flat from 60% in hours, in fact when I first got it it lasted only for 1 day, but I carried on like you and now I'm outside of the full refund window. By the way I'm on a Charge 5 as my Charge 4's screen died. 

[Unhappy_mother]

That is what I posted a few weeks ago, after I read where someone stated to restart, Since I started doing that, I have gotten 9 to 10 days out of my Fitbit with the features I do not want to use turned off. I run my fitbit down to about 20% with no problem before I recharge it. I let it get to 100% which sometimes does not look like it wants to do, take it off charge, and before it goes back on my wrist I restart my Fitbit. It is a pain to have to do this every charge, but it seems to work.

[Clemens13]

Agree. I may get a drop of less than 10% on the battery on the first day, and then down to less than 20% on the second. Just need to recharge every morning. By the way, I am using the Charge 5 for the same reason - the display on my Charge 4 just quit. From what I could tell the unit was still tracking, just no display.

[JKOFFOTH]

I lost my charge 5 probably due to the same problem you had with the band. My wife’s Charge 5 will not hold a charge for more than 2 hours.
Same experience with the support. I believe the “not holding a charge” is not going to be fixed by software. I also think the Charge 5 is a revenue net loss for Fitbit and that is why they are no longer honoring the warranty with replacements.
I said something similar to your last statement and my post was removed.
Incidentally there is a Fitbit Facebook group that has very little posts about the Charge 5 discharge problem.

John

[Am9187]

Is there any update on when this firmware update will be ready? I have all the battery saver settings on and have restarted my Fitbit which gave me about 3 extra days of use, but when it needs to be charged again it’s back to lasting 3 days max. I don’t want to have to restart my Fitbit each time I charge it. It’s ridiculous. 

[JKOFFOTH]

Don’t believe they really are working on it. My wife’s Charge 5 finally died. Now they have aggressive to replaced it under warranty. They gave 2 options. Replace the Charge 5 or 59% off a different watch.
We elected the replacement. Hope it doesn’t have the same problem.
I got her a Avazfit and she loves it. So I will be taking the Charge 5 since mine got lost do to a problem with the band.


John

[Sled483]

I charged mine to 100% last night. I'm at 18% AGAIN. Less that 24 hours later. This is stupid. I have been a fitbit person for years. They are ignoring this issue. Might be time to switch to another brand. 

[DavideFitbit]

Hi everyone, thank you for all the information provided about this issue. 

It seems that many users have already tried the general recommendations to improve the battery life on Charge 5 and some other have seen an improvement. 

In case you're new to this thread, please know that the team is working to fix the issue with the GPS chip affecting battery life with an upcoming firmware update, but we haven't received other news about this for the moment. If you haven't done so already, please review the standard troubleshooting steps.

In addition, please keep in mind that some features make the battery drain faster than usual, like Always-On Display or tracking SpO2 data. Make sure you've also tried the these steps if you haven't done so already:

• Try restarting your tracker by connecting it to the charging cable,
• Open the Fitbit app, pull down on the screen to force a manual sync and monitor its behavior in the next days.
• If you use GPS to track your exercise, use the Phone GPS setting to preserve battery life. Make sure to keep the Charge 5 and the Fitbit updated to the latest version available. 

Please know that all your feedback is appreciated and the team is constantly working to find a solution for this problem. If you need further assistance with this as well, don't hesitate to get in touch with the Customer Support team. You can click here to get connected. 

See you around.