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?

[4eigner]

Yep  they did. 😂Verzonden vanaf mijn Galaxy

[Micodude]

Just to specify - you restarted from within the device's setttings, or the button at the charging cable? I did via the button, but it doesnt se to solve it...

[Dmonti17]

From the settings on the device.  NOT the button on the charger

[Baelix]

Still no firmware update, and the issue is still happening.

[Micodude]

Ok - so i also did the same (batt was on 6%), currently device is charging, However - it seems to be charging quite fast as well, which also might indicate that perhaps the device restarting method you mentioned might not be working for me... I will keep you posted.

[RogerAuwers]

Think about it -- the first post in this thread was September 2021.  I did not check, but I bet they started promising a "firmware update" no later than October -- that's about 10 months.  What do you think that means?  I think it means they have no idea what is really wrong, so they have no idea how to fix it.  They just keep promising some future firmware update sometime "soon".  I think the problem is when they created the Charge 5 they could decide if they were making a tracker or a smart watch.  They tried for something in the middle and actually missed the boat completely.  And, in doing so, they tried to put too much function in a small package (why else would their troubleshooting "go to" be shut all those features down?).  So I bet the C5 is just fundamentally flawed and no firmware update will ever fix it.  And lots of us who got tired of waiting will find alternative products, including competitors' products.

[Rodpud]

Exactly well said and they won’t replace the product and they keep selling it.   They are just waiting for peoples warranties to expire clearly so they can say too bad to sad.   It’s mind blowing. You are right tho this has been going on since September with no action.  Joke is on us but joke will be on them when no one buys a product from them again 

[Hms33]

This is really the last  hurrah for me.  First this c5 disconnects constantly from Bluetooth, then won’t track sleep right. Now this week, after having this version for 6 months it’s losing battery life.  I’ve had C2 and C4.  Never any issues.    If resetting doesn’t correct I am off to Apple Land.  

[iubrian]

This is ticking me off. Sometimes my Charge 5 loses 5% in a half a day. I think it’s fixed. Then the next day I check and it’s lost 80% in half a day. In the past I would charge it (or my Charge 4) in the morning when I take a shower, and it was always plenty to keep it going throughout the week, with maybe a 1 hour charge on the weekend to bring it to 100%. Now it is completely unreliable and has repeatedly failed me as an alarm due to the battery unexpectedly draining throughout the night, something I had used previous Charge(s) for for years without issue. There is no discernible rhyme or reason to the battery drain; low activity, high activity, disabling features, resetting the watch, none of this matters. Sometimes it has great battery life, other days it doesn’t. This is completely unacceptable. Fitbit completely deserves to be put on blast for its failure to acknowledge this as an issue, at least with any sense of urgency. I wonder how long this post will remain before being removed; my last one lasted all of two minutes. It seems Fitbit devotes far more energy to removing posts than fixing the actual problem that causes the posts.

[Degus222]

I literally JUST started having battery issues at the start of July, 2022. I reached out and customer support tried to to give me all the basic tips to fix the issues. My battery went from needing to be charged once a week to not even lasting an hour I cant even get 60 min from a full charge. I just phoned into Fitbit and they said they are aware of this issue and are working on it so wont replace it and also that it might be weeks. It has only been 2 weeks for me thankfully but seems like it has been months for some people

Am I the only one tempted to buy and return one every month so It is in the return period until they fix the original? lol

[Micodude]

Ok - so when reached 6%, plugged the Charge 5 to the charger and restarted the settings from the device, unfortunately didn't help and now seems to be depleting within less than 3 hours after a full charge 😞

[ChrisB1966]

I've had my second C5 for around 5 weeks now, seems okay so far. Had a C5 around 9 months now and I'll give up if it fails again rather than the hassal to get a replacement.

Lessons from my experience:

1) Don't buy directly from Fitbit, other retailers are far more helpful in refunding/replacing.

2) Just because your C5 is working today does not mean it will work tomorrow.

3) There must be manufacturing issues and not just firmware problems.

4) If your C5 is failing continue to use it in the hope it will fail completely.

5) Don't start your Customer Support chat with I have battery issues.

[RogerAuwers]

Not me - too much hassle to buy and return one every month.  I returned mine once - to Fitbit once they sent me the return shipping label - but it is almost 2 months now since I returned it and no replacement has shown up yet.  I got so frustrated I went out and bought my own replacement, and not another Fitbit to return every month.  I just went out and bought a competitor's product so I could get back to tracking "stuff"..  Very happy for now, so we'll see how this one holds up.

[Dmonti17]

Sorry to hear.  Don't know what to tell you.  I'm on the start of day 3. Went to bed at 90%, woke up at 86%

[Rileij]

After restart it is OK!

[Micodude]

But shohld it be at a particular batt level and a particular restart, as device instead of cable charger?... I am confused already, nithing seems to be working for me...

[LloydIM]

I received my new Charge 5 Friday and had the same issue. On Monday I used the link on the app to call Customer Service. I was connected to a very helpful lady who checked out my unit through their system. She walked me through restarting the device. Since then it is working perfectly. I also downloaded a firmware update yesterday. The discharge rate before the update was fine. I haven’t noticed any difference afterwards. Make sure that you don’t have the GOS turned on, except when you need it.

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GOS s/b GPS. I didn’t mention that the wait time for a live person was about 1 minute.

[Micodude]

Tried the restart once more, still no help. How many people here had that solution work for them and any exact specific steps you guys did for that?

[Sarahyogi]

It hasn’t worked for me, tried numerous times. Feel the other person was just lucky! 

[Dmonti17]

I guess.  Starting day 4, went to bed with 80% charge, woke up ar 77%