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?

[Max33]

Wouldn’t recommend buying again, now August and battery still draining 

It is appalling you are still selling this product, it doesn’t work. Battery problems for months even after firmware updates. Do the right thing and recall the charge 5 and give refunds

Had issue after issue avoid Fitbit

[ypevie]

I've now been asked to check my GPS settings which I did. I don't use it and if I did would that explain why a 100% charge lasts only 2 hours? No update banner has appeared on the device since I've had it ( 7 months). Is that normal? 

[AcrobatSolo]

Mine seems to be working now?  Last weekend it wasn't, but now it is, hopefully?   Last weekend it hardly kept a charge for one day even without being worn, but I changed some settings.  Today is Thursday, the battery is at 73%, I haven't charged it since Sunday evening, and I've been wearing it all the while since then, apart from shower time.   I've even done a few hours of workout, but nothing with GPS just yet--only treadmill and floor exercises.   I do have the updated firmware, and I bought the thing last month.   The spo2 is installed and seems functional, as with all the other health metric apps.   Now the performance seems like it was the first week.  We'll see how it goes this weekend with some cycling and jogging, finally with the GPS.

Update:  Oddly, I got a mail this morning (Friday) telling me that the battery is low.   Sure enough, it was at 16%, so finally I have to charge it again.   The odd thing is that it went four nights without a charge while keeping its % above 70, and then on the fifth night somehow it dropped 50%?  I did have a lot of tossing and turning, but that still seems strange.   I wasn't sleepwalking with GPS on or anything...

[roberjw]

Fitbit removes comments that are critical of predatory business practices. It's such a shame but at least this saga is coming to a close for myself. My Garmin Forerunner 255 is here and the Charge 5 is going into the trash. 

Unlike Fitbit I have ethics and morals so I can't knowingly resell this device on Ebay and let it become someone else's headache. What a waste of money, time, and effort. Such a struggle just to get my device to function over the last weeks and watching the company's dumpster fire response expediated my efforts to get a replacement device.

Thanks for the memories... Fitbit.

[Wyld]

Mine does the exact same   i miss my charge 4

[LizMoll]

My Charge 5 has been working perfectly until this week. Now my battery drains within a day. I used to be able to get 5+ days out of the battery. 
What’s going on? I am not happy about this.

[KB9WNS]

Agreed 100%.  I switched to another brand after numerous un-resolved issues with build quality, syncing, accuracy, battery life and non-existent customer support.

[Cathiedb]

• Don’t blame ya

I was able to get mine replaced because it was still under warranty. It took no less than 6 calls to support to. Finally get it replaced. Hope it works 

[ypevie]

I just received an email stating that they will replace the C5 with another and I've printed the shipping label that was also sent in a separate email. I'm delighted they honored the warranty and was impressed with how quickly it was resolved. Cautiously optimistic that the new one performs as it is intended. Stay tuned!

[mlorence]

I have updated my phone and the app on my phone. I have reset my Charge 5, I have removed it and added it back, I have done this twice now. My battery continues to drain. It is also having issues where the screen goes black and is unresponsive sometimes for a whole day. I have not been able to contact Customer Service directly regarding this issue. 

[Cathiedb]

I did the chat through the app. Unfortunately they will tell you to update the app and resync ultimate device and that can’t be done while you are in the phone with them. Weird. I would have to get disconnected and then talk to a different support person. Keep track of the case# they give you. That at least helps them keep track of what has already been tried.

Sent from my iPhone

[SunsetRunner]

That totally sucks I’ve had my charge five for two years and it was fine until this week first it wouldn’t sync to the phone and I somehow got it syncing to my iPad after disabling it in for getting it in setting it up as new five times now like you my battery drains within 12 hours

Mine was like that for almost 2 years now it’s dropping within a day

[WellnessMatters]

Quick update on my warranty replacement.

As I shared last week. I received by warranty replacement last Monday. I had been having the battery drain issue, and then my screen went black, which is what prompted the warranty replacement.

After receiving the Fitbit, I decided not to do the Firmware update the App has been trying to push onto my device. And since charging to 100% last Friday, 8 days later, my C5 is 31%. Meaning, its working like it was designed to do. My assumption is, my warranty replacement came without the Firmware that ruined my previous one installed, and as long as I can avoid doing that firmware update, it will work just fine. My hope is, it's not something Fitbit will push onto my device.

Long story short, Fitbit could either send replacements to everyone, or create a firmware update that reverts back to the last working software version. I know computers can do that, but phones and other wearable devices, not so much.

[STLLene]

Having the same issue, I watched my phone battery drop from 93% to 74% in 7 minutes just sitting on my wrist while I was working at my desk.    I miss my Ionic!  

[shimsim]

@WellnessMatters the firmware is not the issue, I've had 2 replacements, one for battery drain, one for the screen going blank, both of these happened when I was on the previous firmware. My 3rd (current unit) C5 has been updated, it was working fine before the update and continues to work fine. The issue IMHO has been the hardware. Either the battery or some other components are causing these failures. The fast drain might be related to a firmware glitch that leaves the GPS on, but the firmware update is really only going to address that problem, so that customers dont need to restart the device to get back to the typical 7-day battery life. 

Regardless, you should not have to worry about updating the firmware, if the device doesn't work correctly after the update, Fitbit should replace it, simple, same as any other company does when their firmware bricks a device.

[Notrunner]

shimsim:  hardware indeed might be the issue (not firmware) and hardware may be a time bomb.  Presumably, supply chain issues over the last 2 years impacted sourcing of battery and semiconductor components...and FitBit may have sought alternatives from unproven suppliers, and these "substitute" components are now failing.

[shimsim]

@Notrunner agreed! Its really hard to know just how widespread this and other issues that cause the device to fail are, but just based on my own experience, having 2 failed devices within 3 months and reading all these stories here of the same short battery life (not the ones that can be fixed with a restart) makes it obvious that at the very least the battery is failing early but could be some other components too. As Fitbit is not a startup, they would already have vetted and qualified vendors, so either their vendors have been cutting corners (to be fair to Fitbit, this can easily happen) or they have had to source from alternative and unproved suppliers due to the supply chain issues. 

I've been following this thread for some time even though I am not currently affected by the issue and from what I can tell, the firmware update has resolved or at least reduce the number of people needed to do the restart .... anyone who still has to do this (and after the restart gets 7+ days) please reply and correct me. So I think the outstanding issues that customers are still reporting here are to do with the hardware (maybe battery) failing. I do wish Fitbit would come clean and give clear guidance (and more importantly a quick replacement procedure) for those who are still having issues with battery life after the firmware update.

[delawareBirder]

@Notrunner@shimsim  At this point I don't think we can point the finger at the problem definitely being firmware or hardware.  My wife and I both have a Charge 5 with updated firmware.  Hers is working as well as it did before the firmware update, mine has been bricked and is on the way back to Fitbit for a replacement.  The previous version of firmware worked identically on both of our Charge 5s.  In my case, it looks like a firmware issue, but since it works on my wife's Charge 5, there must be a difference in the hardware that allows hers to work and not mine - which makes it look like a hardware issue.  Either way, there's something with this version of firmware that doesn't play well with all versions of hardware.  I would have been happy to send both Charge 5s back so the engineers could study them for differences.

[shimsim]

@delawareBirder  It really depends on what your starting point issue was. A failed firmware update can brick any device (even a good one), it doesn't mean the firmware was bad or even the hardware, it can just happen due to other variables (like battery status, the mobile device being used to update, etc etc). Although there should be some failsafe measures in place for any firmware update procedure, failure can and do happen. I would be reluctant to include firmware update failures into the mix for the battery drain issue.

IMHO, if your C5 is generally working well but occasionally has the rapid battery drain issue, the firmware update should solve this. The most common hypostasis is that the device is getting stuck in some loop or forcing the GPS to stay on, which is why restarting temporarily solves this. If you have a device that won't hold a charge for more than a few days (or hours), even after you have done a restart (and assuming you dont have the screen set to ON +heavy GPS usage), then the firmware isn't going to help and my money is on that being a hardware issue (most likely the battery, but perhaps there is a faulty IC).

I might be totally wrong, but this is why I have continually been asking for transparency from Fitbit so that its easier for customers to diagnose and get help faster. My own experience was not great in terms of having to spend a considerable amount of time on customer support + recording videos to get a replacement on what is obviously a common and easy to diagnose issue. 

[mlorence]

FYI. After contacting Fitbit they quickly authorized a replacement. Thanks.

Sent from my iPhone