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?

[shimsim]

@RealGandy that sounds different from the original issue that I was experiencing and following on this thread. I had a battery life of around 4 days with minimal use (no GPS etc) but the key characteristic was the non-linear battery drain. It would hardly drop the first few days, maybe only 5-10% per day, then rapidly drop on the last day, sometimes more than 50%. I believe this is a battery issue, not a firmware one although Fitbit never confirmed what the issue is, they had simply been issuing replacement units. My replacement worked fine, the only notable difference is where the unit was made (Malaysia vs China)

If you are seeing the battery drain within 24 hours and not heavily using it, this seems like a different issue, and may well be a firmware bug causing excessive battery usage by the watch getting stuck in a certain mode (for example, not turning off the GPS).

[stdinh15]

I had the same issue. I think it's a battery calibration issue. This article might be useful for some background info: https://medium.com/@GadgetHax/how-to-properly-calibrate-the-battery-on-any-android-phone-962ee597f29...

I was able to resolve the issue by letting the battery drain until the watch dies then charge up to 100% plus an extra hour after that. Then finally, use the device until it dies completely again. At this point you should be able to get closer to the 7 day advertised battery life after charging it back up

Disclaimer: This isn't the greatest thing for the battery's longevity. Also, I've noticed my battery start to drift again after a couple of months resulting in sudden battery drops.If you can, I would suggest returning your device for anew one.

On a side note:

Fitbit support  has honestly been terrible experience thus far. Was promised a follow up within 48 hours after having  chatted with a representative, but that ended up being a lie. Forum question get labeled as "answered" despite that not being the case. Also for some reason, they are laser focused on blaming the GPS, DESPITE NUMUROUS accounts claiming the GPS being turned off on their Charge 5

PLEASE STEP UP FITBIT. 

[june.h]

I just reached the support team, that guy told me it is normal that I had my charge 5 charged to 100 yesterday and today only 40 left. I feel disappointed of their customer service.

[SunsetRunner]

It isn’t normal for the battery to discharge that rapidly. I was sent a replacement, made in Malaysia, and my battery lasts for at least 9 days. My previous one was made in China and lasted maybe 4 days and then drain rapidly in a few hours time.?

[june.h]

Exactly, this is not a normal thing, and my device is brand new. I just got it last week. I guess I will call their customer service instead of the chat. They don’t care their customer .

[Bike-man]

Mention that the Fitbit community consensus is that a full charge should last 7 days. And, many have had theirs replaced by Fitbit with your type of problem. The only time mine discharged quickly was when I tried out the gps. Currently my full charge lasts 7+ days. Mine was made in Malaysia.

[june.h]

Thank you! I am going to to mention it when I call them. Hopefully they will agree on the replacement 

[VtWood]

the replacement .. is no longer working!!

[Bike-man]

Uh oh, Houston we have a problem.   Is yours Chinese or Malaysian?  

[Auntygail]

Oh wow, I hope I don’t have an issue with my replacement  


Sent from the all new AOL app for iOS

[Sam512]

Oh good question!!! How fo I find out? Sent via the Samsung Galaxy Note20 Ultra 5G, an AT&T 5G smartphone

[Wibby]

Hello @Sam512 

It should say on the box where it was made. Mine’s made in China, but, touching wood, the battery life seems alright:

[june.h]

After half hour of negotiation with customer service. It turns out they are arguing I used the screen always on feature. I swear I didn’t, from the first day to now, I alway need to lift my hand or double tap the screen to wake the device screen. Now they told me to recharge the device and if the device’s battery draining fast again, they will arrange me a replacement. Well, at least this person was trying to help not like the chat service, he just left some debug information with our listening to the detail of the issue. 

[GJT]

Seems to be a tactic they done the same with me, buying time. It left a real bad taste in my mouth as I hadn’t enabled this feature.

Bad ethics



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[june.h]

Yea, I did what they say. I charged it to 100 last night. The battery drained to 70%this morning when I woke up. I contacted them again. I told them this time I used sleep mode to make sure the screen will not wake even I moved when I sleep. 

what funny is that, this girl told me she can’t see what features were in use and what features weren’t in use. While the other guy that i talked to has all the information, such as at what time I turned screen always on on, and what time I turned it off. 

Which means one of them is lying. And she also told me I have to wait the device’ battery drain to 0 so that I can talk to them to negotiate the replacement.

Fitbit customer service is the most useless and worst customer service that I’ve ever experienced. 

I will see how this 70% can last 6 days. If the next negotiation still upset me then BYE FITBIT.

[GJT]

I had same issue and have had two replacements, this one lasts 7 days but all features are off. If at the gym I ask it to record the treadmill it can use 10% of the battery.

Fitbit obviously know they have a problem but don’t have a solution.

I held in until I got to chat with someone half sensible who escalated it to head quarters, that was only after I lost my temper and in pure frustration threatened to plaster it all over social media of which I had done the first time…. Then I got a response!!!!!

Customer services was like ground hog day and then when they started to suggest I had enabled always on and GPS that was enough.

To be honest not holding out much hope this one will continue working, bought an Apple Watch 7 yesterday.


Hope you get sorted

[mhernan240]

Do we all know if fitbit sold the company to Google and maybe that's why they got rid of FITBIT COMPANY just in time. YES or NO

[june.h]

Not sure, but this definitely damage my trust to google. I can’t believe they bought such a garbage.

[spongerd82]

This is EXACTLY how the tech support reacted to me. I was getting very frustrated. They keep blaming the AOD or GPS, both of which I do not use. They say 'their systems shows it's on', which is BS. I am shocked at their response to this issues. 

[Bike-man]

Reading through the posts sounds like Fitbit has become resistant to fixing customer issues related to this well known battery malfunction. Sad that customer support is pointing the finger back at the users instead of owning up to what is a well known and documented battery defect.

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