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?

[abmob1]

I am SO frustrated by this issue. I’m having the exact same problems everyone else has described— the battery will die within two hours of being fully charged. I have contacted customer service through the chat bot, Twitter, and the phone. They all make me go through the very same re-starting steps that never work. I uninstalled every feature and changed clock faces. I have switched back to my old Fitbit because I really rely on the functionality. Now I wonder how am I going to get notified when they finally release the firmware that makes my charge five work again? It is dead in a drawer because it is useless to me. For those of you who got replacements, how? That never even been offered me. Beyond frustrated. This was a gift and worked beautifully until the last firmware update about a month ago. This question should NOT be marked resolved.

[boringnerd]

My mom's Charge 5 is having the same issue now. Each time I charged it up to 99% and restart it, the battery will immediately drop. The figure is random, but it doesn't make sense for the battery to drop from 99% to 60% or 20% just from a simple restart. Tried leaving it overnight after a full charge, next morning there is less than 3% left. Just contacted support, and they told me there's a new firmware in development. Problem is, I saw this thread before I contacted support, there is apparently no confirmation on when a new firmware will be released. Told them that, and they told me to wait. So now I have a Fitbit that is useless. Luckily my mom kept her old Fitbit Charge 2, which is still working after all these years, so it does not affect her that much.

[OKmamaJ]

I can't find my first comment on here, when I first had an issue with it, so I don't know exactly how long it has been, but it did it again.

The solution of putting it on the charger and hitting the button & then charging it all the way up seemed to work for several months... Then the other day when we went grocery shopping it must've decided to auto track a non-existent exercise or something, because it went from mid-60's to 19% in under 3 hours. In the half hour it took us to *drive* home, it dropped another 3%. I rebooted it just through the built in menu, but couldn't charge it because I was on my way to bed... and allllll night only took another 3%.

Mine is definitely the firmware issue, but sheesh! This has been a known issue for like 9 months now? Are they even really working on it or are they too busy working on a new one so they can try to con us all into spending more money when it comes out?

[podmania]

I returned mine

Lionel Santos

[Sarahyogi]

What do you mean they are going to make it easier to switch trackers? Are we getting new ones? I wish!!! 😂

[Ab1994]

I experience the same problem and i only used the Fitbit one month.. charge it every or every other day..

[Sarahyogi]

It gets worse, mine needs charging 3 times a day and only had it 4 months. I don’t even wear it anymore, no point! I’ve had a moan on their Facebook page too now but same generic reply with no actual answers!! 

[MsN.]

I wish I still had my Fitbit Charge 4!

---------

Almost every post I reply to, I get an email back saying they were unable
to post! Ugh!

[MsN.]

Almost every post I reply to, I get an email back saying they were unable
to post! Ugh!

[tech2003]

After 4 months of usage, my charge 5 battery suddenly encountered issue. It drops from 100% to flat within an hour.

Have did whatever Fitbit told me to do but the battery is just not holding. It is unusable.

However, Fitbit told me they can't replace it for me despite it is still under warranty, their advise is to wait for a firmware update that does not have a release date. It is really very bad customer service to ask customer to hold on to a faulty device

[jnewman22]

I, fortunately, held onto mine.  And have been using it for the last few weeks since I have had this issue.

[Missmelba]

Adding my message of frustration with the battery issue.  I have had my Charge 5 since early May.  Nothing but problems with battery life.  Been through all the so called 'tips' without success.  Sometimes it will actually go for three days but mostly it dies in 24 hours.  Screen wake is off, GPS is set to phone, all phone notifications are off, location services set to only while using the app (no difference if set to off other than the annoying popup messages), Bluetooth 'forget device', screen brightness set to normal, Zone notifications off (although they still come through so this toggle is useless, just like Zone Minutes themselves), SpOx monitoring is off, etc.  Pretty sad that they advertise the long battery life and lots of features but even not using the key features you cannot rely on the device to last more than a day.  I have to carry my charging cable with me all the time. 

To FitBit moderators and the company - you keep writing that you know about the issue and a firmware update is on the way.  Been 'on the way' since this model has been available for purchase.  Please stop the false advertising re battery life.  The real world battery life is worse than an AppleWatch.

[Sarahyogi]

I know, it’s appalling! Everyone’s watches are still under warranty, unusable but they’re not offering an alternative or at least a date as to when we could actually wear them again, I mean an apology would be a start! I’m shocked at how badly this is being dealt with. 

[kimmicocopuff]

And I have to have mine for medical reasons. My heart does crazy, unusual things since COVID and now I have zero information to provide to my doctor's this month. And I just got the most patronizing nonsense from their support staff. 

[MsN.]

I agree with you. It's poor customer service.

[Rich_Laue]

Their have been reports on the web that the next Charge 5 update, will fix this issue. 

[shimsim]

@Rich_Laue are you referring to these?

https://www.engadget.com/fitbit-charge-5-disconnection-fix-210142988.html

https://9to5google.com/2022/06/20/fitbit-charge-5-disconnecting/

I asked for comment (from fitbit admins) a few posts back, got nothing and those articles give no ETA or direction mention of battery drain issue. Are there any other reports? 

[Rich_Laue]

@shimsim it was.11 days ago, not a few posts, yes you asked for a moderator, but never properly tagged anyone.

I've seen several reports on this a bject and that a fix is coming out. 

Please remember that the first step is to determine the cause, not every Charge 5 tracker is affected. Then come up with a proposed fox. Test the fix. Troubleshoot, test some more, etc. 

[Trevor.G]

Sadly, I'm just going to give up on it.

I have everything switched off and I've never had more than a day's life out of it.

It won't even last the night if it has less than 50% battery life left.

It's little more than an expensive step counter, which is a real shame because it's well built and promises so much.

The customer support is being less than helpful.

Any recommendations for an alternative?

Not Fitbit obviously.

[Rich_Laue]

Actually @shimsim your fellow fitbit users are quick to report posts that they believe are in violation. The few moderators never see the majority of posts. 

I was simply pointing out that simply mentioning that you would like a moderator to respond, may not be the best way to get a response from a moderator.