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?

[Sailrmon]

@ComradeF Well, that blows my theory. I guess I am one of the lucky ones who has a C5 with a good battery (so far). Yes, I concur with @MalRadd. 

@NewSuttonGirl I checked the box my wife's Fitbit came in. Nothing on the outside. The inner box has the place of manufacture. You'd have to break the seal to see that. Besides, I have now seen replies to my post that Malaysia devices have the same problem. So it will be a roll of the dice as to whether you get one that actually holds a charge as advertised. Good luck!

@JKOFFOTH agreed.

[shimsim]

@Sailrmon my experience ....

1st device - made in China, battery issue, replaced

2nd device - made in Malaysia - failed after 3 months, replaced

3rd device - made in China, so far working as it should be

without knowing the actual cause of the problem, I dont think knowing the place of manufacture makes a difference. both facilities could be getting batteries and ICs from the same vendor, so unless its an actual assembly issue, won't make a difference. There did seem to be a skew towards the ones made in China having the issue but that might be down to supply batch and even the quantity being made. Regardless, we should not have to care about this, there should be a fix or full disclosure from Fitbit regarding this issue.

like everyone else here ..... not convinced its firmware, especially considering how long its taking to release a fix

[NewSuttonGirl]

Thanks for checking. 

There really is no system of quality assurance before products are shipped directly to customers or to retailers, is there?

[GDSchulz]

Hi @Sailrmon. Yes your idea is interesting. My contrary evidence,
however, is that my Charge 5 says it was made in China, and I don't have
the same problem as your wife. Let me explain:

It has now been established that there are two completely separate problems
going on:
1. Many people have units that were shipped with bad batteries. Those
people have a warranty issue.
2. Others of us have a separate problem whereby the battery drains in
3-4 days unless you restart the unit immediately after charging to 100%.
If you do restart, the charge lasts up to a week (or more), which is normal
for the product. That has been my experience over many recharges now.
Whatever is going on, it is clearly a firmware or software issue. The
battery's fine. I can't rule out that it's the app on the phone fetching
the data from my wrist that isn't the problem. There was a recent bug-fix
update to the Android app that I installed yesterday. Too early to tell if
it will make a difference. However, evidently Fitbit Customer Support is
telling people the problem is firmware.

Regardless of where the units were manufactured, I doubt seriously that
they were shipped to Fitbit with batteries installed, since it is unknown
how long those units will sit in Fitbit's inventory before going off to a
distributor. So the real question is where was the battery manufactured.

It is very clear that Fitbit shipped a lot of new Charge 5's with bad
batteries. It is obviously a serious enough problem that Fitbit should
have recalled the product. I feel for people who got one of those. I have
my fingers crossed that time does not put my unit in the same camp.

For many of the rest of us, though, the recharge/restart procedure seems to
work. Read on:

Like you, I bought my Charge 5 last fall and the battery worked perfectly
until late March of this year (2022). All of a sudden the problem began.
There was no obvious reason. The last firmware update was way back in
perhaps December. I had made no changes in settings. The circumstances
almost entirely rule out anything but firmware or software. Someone here
suggested that restarting immediately after recharging would fix the
problem. I was skeptical, but sure enough it worked for me.

Since my Fitbit was working perfectly until March — and continues to if I
follow the restart procedure — the problem is almost certainly firmware or
software. I mention the following *speculatively* as the only obvious
change I'm aware of in the March time frame:

About a week after the problem began on my Charge 5, I received a
notification from Fitbit that they had enabled a new feature to monitor for
irregular heart rates (irregular heart rates being a possible symptom of
Afib). This obviously did NOT involve a firmware update since there had
been none. It also didn't directly affect hourly battery drain. In fact,
I saw no immediate effect on my Charge 5. Any changes to the app on my
Android phone I wouldn't know about since those often happen without
notice. Did they flip a switch in the firmware? Who knows? Did they
update the app on my phone to handle data differently? Who knows?

Sorry I can't explain why your own Charge 5 hasn't exhibited the same
problem, unless perhaps your firmware isn't current. Nor can I rule out
that there is some third problem that affects some of us with good
batteries and not others. Or perhaps that affects only users with Android
apps and not Apple apps. It is most perplexing.

As to why the promised firmware update is taking so long, I can only
speculate that the Fitbit developers are having trouble getting the new
firmware version certified through beta. It is overdue, for sure. Many of
us are waiting for it and keeping fingers crossed that it will fix the
problem without introducing others. I'm being patient for that reason.

Sorry for this long post. Hope it helps.

P.S. -- I love my Charge 5. It is a giant improvement over my old Charge
3.

[shimsim]

@GDSchulz I think you are spot on, I would agree, seems there are 2 different issues, faulty/defective batteries and a firmware issue that causes rapid battery drain that can be temporarily fixed with a reset but can occur again and without warning.

The thing I always come back to is how Fitbit is handling this, there is a vale of secrecy, lack of transparency, frustrating support (for customers that need help with this issue), and an inexcusable delay for a fix. Its both ironic and irritating that this topic is marked as 'answered', it would not be 46 pages long if it was handled correctly, with some clear information from Fitbit. The fact is, your single post is already considerably more informative and accurate than any official information from Fitbit. At this point, the problem is almost irrelevant, its how its been handled.

Thanks for sharing 

[tcat007]

My 3rd cycle since charger restart was 12 days.  I'm dropping 1% overnight with sleep tracking.

[ComradeF]

Quick update...

I decided to give Fitbit a call again this morning because this is such a load. The associate I spoke with was absolutely no-nonsense: took one look at how I was denied a replacement and said, nope, let's get you that replacement right now. And he did. My order has been placed and the pebble is on its way.

I have no idea what just happened.

[rrrzzz]

I thought that restarting the device after charging had sorted this out for me. It worked for several weeks and I was getting 7 days or so on a charge. But then I used the Timers app again on the Charge 5, which I hadn't used in a while. An hour or two later the battery was empty. Last time the battery was draining too fast I was also using the Timers app. So it seems using this app may (sometimes?) trigger the battery drain.

[tcat007]

Come to think of it, I used a timer once, I had the battery drain problem once.

[arwalks]

Worked fine for almost 2 weeks. Charge lasted almost 7 days. Now discharging in a day or less. Updated app, GPS uses phone. The charge is still dropping like a rock after these changes. 

[Shermy31]

Do we have any updates on the firmware update? Your last post was a couple of months ago now

[Dbottrill]

mine still drains out periodically for no reason.

[Franniedc]

Agree.  I did a few troubleshooting steps and am holding a charge 3 days now n at 74%

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I agree w your entire statement.  Happy w mine too

[Franniedc]

Did u do a restart

[ChrisB1966]

Fitbit have just confirmed that a replacement is on its way to me, as mine got stuck in the logo boot after running flat 4 days in row. The one thing you don't do as a company is send out something with the same problems as a replacement, but going by other posts I'll have to see. 

[DavideFitbit]

Hi everyone, thank you all for your patience and for all sharing the steps that have been useful for some of you. 

We will share any updates about the upcoming firmware update as soon as they're available, but we don't have any news about this for the moment. The team is working to address the issue with the GPS chip and battery life problem with this new firmware version that will be released soon.  

If you're checking out this thread for the first time, please make sure to exhaust all the troubleshooting options mentioned here earlier. Keep in mind that not all display and battery life issues are related to the GPS chip problem mentioned, so if you have other problems with battery life that are not related to GPS and you already tried all the steps and recommendations suggested, you can also get in touch with the Customer Support team so they can let you know how to proceed. 

In this scenario, my best recommendation is that you get in touch with them by phone for a faster response, but you also have the option to chat with them or send an e-mail. You can click here to see all the contact options. 

[mja400]

Thanks . I also agree that there appears to be two issues.

My wife just got a new Fitbit Charge 5 and had one of the battery issues. I initially tried ALL the suggestions graciously suggested on the forum multiple times, but none of them worked. Her battery goes from 100 percent charged to 0 in about 5 to 6 hours even when its just sitting on a table and nowhere near her phone. Thus, it sounds like hers is a defective battery. I called support last week and talked to both a rep and supervisor but they would not replace the Fitbit or offer a rough time frame as to the supposed firmware fix. All they would do was give me a ticket number. I called again today and again talked to a rep and a different supervisor, but again they just stonewalled me. They would not replace the Fitbit OR give me a rough idea of when this firmware update would show up. I have been a Fitbit customer almost from the beginning and currently using a Fitbit Charge 4 successfully, but after this stonewalling I will likely never buy a Fitbit again.

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You must have gotten lucky. I called twice and also talked to reps and supervisors and they would not replace my wifes.

[JKOFFOTH]

If it’s completely dead I think it’s a matter of getting the right support agent.

John

[ChrisB1966]

@mja400 To be clear my old one had totally bricked, we don't know for sure all battery problems will result in total failure during the warranty period. If your C5 is hardly usable I'd make that clear as a starting point either by chat/email as you have a record of the response.  As mine had the logo flashing problem, when C5 goes totally flat and you charge it should flash for a second and then start charging showing % charge, mine just kept on flashing if left on charge of stop when it went flat (this is another known problem). 

[mja400]

Thanks. I talked to 2 reps and two supervisors and they would do
nothing. When I charge it, it does show a percent and the red box does
flash as it charges. I just charged it up again to 100 percent and 4 and
a half hours later it was down to 4 percent. So it seems that the time
till it is dead is getting less and less as a couple days ago it would
take 5 to 6 hours.