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?

[Bike-man]

Good to hear.  I’m on day 7 and just got a low battery notice on my Charge 5 with 18 % charge remaining.  It’s a good device helps to keep me motivated.  

[SunsetRunner]

That’s great! Did you have to return the other one, your defective one?

[Bike-man]

The one I have is the original.  Made in Malaysia.  It did suffer from a bout of rapid battery drain initially.  That’s what brought me to this forum.  After following instructions for a reset and full charge it seems to be behaving as designed.  I’m at 16% and 8 hours away from a full seven days on one charge.  I will recharge it when it goes down to 10%.  

[SunsetRunner]

Mine is made in China. Did the reset and it seemed to work initially but then on the 4th day it drained rapidly and has ever since.I did a factory reset last night and then a reset after it charged back up to 100%./Left it on the charger overnight. In 3 hours it's down to 98%. Hopefully this latest thing will work.

[shimsim]

@SunsetRunner I can tell you that mine was exactly the same, doesn't matter what I tried, was not possible to get more than 4 full days, then rapid drain on the 5th day (from 50% down to dead). It also has the same very low drain on the first day, then maybe 10% on the 2nd, this is also a sign that something isn't right. Why should it drain less on the first day? (5x less battery usage? )

I suspect the rapid (or non-linear battery drain, e.g. first day less than 10%, then last day more than 30% with the same usage or overnight) is a better way to diagnose the unit is faulty or has this battery issue.

I say this because yesterday I didn't have time to give it a full charge in the morning (it die again overnight, more than 30% drop) so I didn't get to 100%, it only got to 70%. By the next morning, it already dropped to under 10%, so its fair to say that part of the problem is the way the battery percentage is being falsely reported and not giving it a full charge might save people a lot of time with the diagnosis because you won't have to wait 4-5 days to find out something is wrong. There is no way a properly working device should drain from 70% to 0 in 24 hours (unless there is excessive use of the GPS or screen on all the time) so maybe people can give that a go as an additional test.

I have since been in contact with support and they are sending me a replacement unit. I will detail my experience with customer support and with the replacement unit once I get it.

[Bike-man]

Hi shimsim

Not sure these batteries are totally linear in their use.  Even with mine, I’m at the end of day 7 with 14% left, but during the week, one day it would consume almost 20 % and then the next < 10%.  Doesn’t seem to be any regularity or predictability to the amount of discharge. 
Certainly a rapid drop of 30% or more in one day without using GPS is not acceptable and I too would not be happy when Fitbit promises up to 7 days.  
I’m glad you’re getting a replacement.  Best of luck. 

[shimsim]

thanks, fingers crossed this one works 😛

I guess the point I was making about the non-linear drain is that under similar usage you should not see a difference of 2% vs 30% in 24 hours. A 15x difference can not be put down to 'variables' , something is clearly wrong with either the battery or hows its being measured. As mentioned, I only charged to 70% yesterday and it was dead within 24 hours, so if the battery reporting is wrong, that might also apply to the charging. 

Anyway, was just a suggestion for a potentially quick way to diagnose the problem instead of these 4-5 day cycles. I know I wasted 2 weeks with all the different testing I did 😛

[SunsetRunner]

Good to know I am not alone. Are they requiring you to return your defective one before they send you a new one?

[shimsim]

@SunsetRunner in my case no, they are sending the replacement first, not sure if that applies to everyone or if it depends where you purchased it or which country you are in. I do think they are able to verify you are having the issue because battery data is also being synced to your account (at least I think it does). If you have tried all the recommended fixes and you are seeing this rapid drop off as I was, best to contact customer support, they should be able to help.

[jbates88]

similar issue with my Christmas gift....I turned off some features, especially the GPS and it was still draining pretty rapidly, battery even went to zero...then I recharged and now it seems to last >5 days as advertised...maybe draining to zero forced the reboot which appears to be the best solution!

[SunsetRunner]

That's good! I am in the United States and they wanted me to return the defective one first before they would send a replacement.  Are you in the United States or another country? That may make a difference as you said.

[SunsetRunner]

Thank you for your information! Maybe that's the key, to let it drain to zero. I did a factory reset a few days ago. It was at 100% yesterday, down to 93% this morning at 9 am and at 87% at 11:55. This is the 2nd day.

[tamirice71]

This comment IS unhelpful. Fitbit HAS to be aware of the issues with the Charge 5 battery. This comes off as if there is a simple fix that can be resolved. Performing these steps do NOT resolve the issue. It may provide a temporary solution but it’s just that, temporary. Fitbit needs to step up and address the issue or recall them. This is not a quality product!!! I am on my fourth Fitbit (through the years) so I speak from experience. The Charge 5 sucks!!! Accept responsibility and make it right. 

[SunsetRunner]

You are 100% correct and I totally agree!

[DavideFitbit]

Hey everyone, it's good to see that many users here have been able to resolve with some standard troubleshooting steps or have received a replacement device and have seen an improvement in battery life. 

For anyone new in this thread, it's still recommended to follow the recommendations described here and to complete the 3 pulse restart on the Charge 5 as well, as this has been helpful for other people:  

1. Connect your device to the charging cable. For instructions, see How do I charge my Fitbit device?
2. Press the button located on the flat end of the charger 3 times, pausing for 1 second between presses. Then wait 10 seconds or until the Fitbit logo appears.

In case you continue to have the same problem with the battery draining too fast, make sure to give us a call or chat with us and the Customer Support team will let you know how proceed. Click here to get connected. 

Have a good day. 

[shimsim]

@SunsetRunner i dont think draining to zero help, I actually tried that multiple times hoping it was something to do with calibration and that a full zero to 100 after doing a restart and/or factory reset would be the fix but it wasn't.

I'm not in the US, I think it will depend on everyone's specific location and circumstances but that shouldn't stop you from getting a working unit if you are experiencing the same issue. 

For what it's worth, while I am still waiting for a replacement, I have been charging it to just 60-70% and getting exactly the same result multiple times. The battery will only last for about 24 hours. It will be around 50% by the end of the day, then next morning, down to about 15%. I think this is a much better indication of the issue because it really highlights the problem, more so than 2-5 days of you get with a 100% charge.

@DavideFitbit I think it would be helpful to also update the customer support team because I spent way too long explaining the issue and going through additional pointless steps, even though I detailed all the testing I had already done (which was extremely comprehensive). The first response I was given was to try and clean the charging PIN contacts. I had to explain that the issue was not that I couldn't change it but rather it was fully charging but not behaving correctly after that. For those that have already tried the restart, please ensure there is a more suitable response when they do contact support.

[Auntygail]

That’s great. I got a replacement and it works great. 

Sent from the all new AOL app for iOS

[SunsetRunner]

Good to hear! How long did it take to receive the replacement?

[MarcusDaly]

I got a Charge 5 before Christmas - was a bit surprised by the unpredictable battery charging and I found this forum when researching. Got a bit obsessed by the variability for a few days trying to track the cause. Then one day the battery lost 20%+ overnight (it was a quiet night!) so I bit the bullet and returned it (to Amazon) and got a replacement from my preferred retailer who had dropped price and had much better customer service than Amazon plus 2 year guarantee (John Lewis in UK). Had the replacement since Tuesday and so far it is consistently losing less than 10% per day.  Hopefully I will now have more important things to work about 🙂😎

[Sam512]

Kind defeats the purpose yes?