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?

[Milo5712]

As a side issue, I forgot to raise this. Since I received my replacement (I can't remember if it happened with the original), when I try and sync it in the morning (so I can keep a record of the battery drain) it won't/has trouble syncing. It can take 2-3 times. One morning recently it took me 5 times to complete the sync process. I don't know whether the Charge 5 gets tired overnight or not 🙂 but this isn't a problem when I sync it in the later evening. Weird! Has anyone else experienced this phenomenon?

[cjcj12]

I have followed all of these steps and my Charge 5 is not lasting for more than 1.5 days on a 100% charge... this is insanely poor... has anything been done recently to resolve this issue??? My fitbit is updated to the latest software...

[shimsim]

@cjcj12 if you have followed the official recommended steps and you are still only getting 1.5 days, your device might be defective, best to contact Fitbit support.

[Abigail03]

Yes. Mine has kept 6/7 days of charge consistently, right up to the point at which it didn't. 5 months after I bought it.

[tcat007]

I've had mine 10 months. Have had the "4-6 hour" battery drain twice. Each time I rebooted with the USB button. I consistently get 8-10 days all other charges. I update anytime there's an update. I'm on days 8 right now with 34%.  The latest update seems to have improved things.

[MEHoffman]

I have yet to hear a problem from friends and family that have ditched FitBit and gone with a apple watch!  Best bet!

[LuizManetti]

I've also noticed my Charge 5 takes a lot longer to sync, and it seems it is collecting a lot more data. It's interesting, because I did not change any settings so why is it collecting more data? 

[DocRoot]

Off topic...

@LuizManetti wrote:

I've also noticed my Charge 5 takes a lot longer to sync, and it seems it is collecting a lot more data. It's interesting, because I did not change any settings so why is it collecting more data? 

---

And the reason you think it is "collecting a lot more data" is just that it's taking a lot longer to sync?

[LuizManetti]

Not just that, since my device is draining the battery and taking longer to sync. 
If the device collects more data it will use the sensors more frequently, it will consume more battery and it will take longer to sync.

That’s the behavior I’m seeing with my device.

[Tvanlengen1]

That makes sense, though. It is a computer. Do we need to factory reset periodically? anybody?

[shimsim]

@Tvanlengen1 You should not need to factory reset the device unless there is something very wrong with it, at most an occasional restart if there is a glitch. Certainly if you are having the battery drain issues, you can give it a go, but its not something you should need to do on a regular basis to keep it working correctly. 

[MEHoffman]

Exactly, but it is the last step to try to resolve the problem.  Didn't work for my wife's unit.  BTW This is an issue that more than few are dealing with.

[LuizManetti]

In the case of Charge 5, it seems a "factory reset" will only erase the personal data that's on the device, and that's not what's causing the issues. The firmware and the software that's currently loaded to the device will not change, so you will probably have no benefits from doing a factory reset.

I did a factory reset at my impacted unit, and it did not change anything. That's weird, but even without connecting it to any account, the battery drains in a matter of hours.

[Marymmo]

I bought my Charge 5 specifically because I wanted to track my walking. The battery life is a joke!  The very feature and reason I bought it for is useless. And when I try to use the tracker on the app on my phone,(as my watch is AGAIN on the charger), it doesn’t track. Looks like I need to switch to Apple. 

[GDSchulz]

@Marymmo If your C5 is new, you may have a warranty issue. I also use my
C5 for daily walks of less than an hour. Also wear the C5 24/7 to track my
activity & sleep. Yesterday I had to charge my C5 for the first time in 10
days, though 8-9 days is more usual. My C5 is 1-1/2 years old and still
using only about 8%-9% of a full charge per day. GPS set to Phone and
works fine. You don't give much detail, but what you describe is not
normal. You may be one of the unlucky ones whose C5 came with a bad
battery. For the people complaining here, that seems to be the most common
case. Also make sure you are running the most recent firmware. I still
restart the C5 after charging to 100%. That may no longer be necessary
after recent firmware updates fixed a fast drain problem some people had,
but it only takes a minute.

[pelouffe]

Leaving it on the nightstand won't make any difference...

[Marymmo]

Good to know but mine is either on my wrist or on the charger. 

[weishein]

My C5 finally died on me a couple of days ago. MInd you this is a replacement unit Fitbit sent to me, about 10 months ago. The original C5, the early bird, first batch, had problems, after complaining so many times, posting all over the socmed platform, Fitbit finally sent a replacement unit. Even then, I stopped using the GPS for my workouts because it keeps dropping. So, the last 6 months or so, it's literally just a watch and a heart rate monitor. 

Until last week, it stop retaining battery juice, even immediately after charging for a few hours. Complained to Fitbit. Confirmed it is dead, offered me a 35% for my next purchase. 

After 9 years with Fitbit, I think it is safe to say I'm giving up on them. Their products are no longer as good as before. I'm going with another brand, for sure.

So this is goodbye Fitbit. Thanks for the motivation. Loved you when you were independent, NOT part of the giant Google.

[shimsim]

Could not agree more

[ChrisB1966]

My replacement is holding on, but then I don't make too much use of it now. I did not renew the subscription when that came due, and from what I've read everything good is moving over to Google Pixel. I like things that work with IOS, so that's not a path for me anyway.