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?

[DavideFitbit]

Hi everyone, I appreciate all the updates that you've shared about this so far and for the troubleshooting steps that have been helpful for some of you. I'm sorry to see that you continue to have this problem with the battery life. 

The team is aware of the problem with the GPS chip that is affecting some users and they're working to release a firmware update to fix this problem soon. We appreciate all your feedback and comments about this. The recommended steps that have been helpful for most people are: 

• Try restarting your tracker by connecting it to the charging cable,
• Open the Fitbit app, pull down on the screen to force a manual sync and monitor its behavior in the next days,
• Follow the recommendations listed here to improve battery life in general. 

Keep in mind that you'll need to charge your device more often when using Always-On Display or when tracking SpO2 data. If you use GPS to track your exercise, use the Phone GPS setting to preserve battery life. In addition, make sure to keep the Charge 5 and the Fitbit app up-to-date to ensure you receive the latest updates. 

See you around. 

[KathyJUK]

Thank you for your advice.  This is the same I received when I contacted Fitbit direct myself.  But none of these measure made a blind bit of difference.  What I would like to know is:  will you be offering replacements/refunds as an alternative.  Most of us have bought this Fitbit as we actually want to record our health, and so basically we are currently wearing a useless device now.  With no-one at Fitbit being able to offer a timescale for a fix, it isnt fair that we just hang around for who knows how long without a working Fitbit.  Mine isnt even 6 months old yet, and battery is only lasting 3hrs after each full charge.

[alive105]

Just got my Charge 5 last week and charged it to %100 before using it. The first couple of days it stayed charged with very little battery drain. I wore my device to sleep for a couple of nights and after the 4th or 5th day I decided to give it a full charge since it was down to around 35-40%. I noticed on my IPhone Fitbit app the the battery indicator was showing charged but the level indicator was orange instead of the original green when charged. I have been noticing my battery lasting only about a day now without needing to be charged and decided to do a reset on the device itself. After doing the reset I put it on the charger and checked my IPhone app to see if it was charging and noticed that the battery level indicator is now back to the green color while it’s charging which is the way it was when I first purchased it. I fully charged to 100% early this morning and it’s still setting at 99% which is the way it was when I first received it. I personally think the fix is to reconfigure the software to auto reset when the battery gets below a certain point and before charging. Just my opinion but it did seem to fix mine?

Moderator Edit: Formatting

[shimsim]

Sounds similar to the issue I was getting but then again, reading how many different ways this issue is manifesting and how different 'fixes' work for different customers, its hard to know if there is a single issue that is firmware related or if its multiple issues such as battery + firmware + some other hardware variation (e.g. units made in China vs Malaysia).

In my case, a replacement unit was the fix and I'm not having to resort to any resets or disabling core functionality to get decent battery life nor am I seeing any strange drops, so hopefully, Fitbit can make an official statement on what is going on and what customers should expect to see from a fix (and WHEN!)

[kaylee.jerman]

The battery life is absolutely atrocious. If I wanted 24 hour battery life I would have gone with an apple watch. After speaking on the phone they said that it would be a software update that would update the one I already have, so I'm going to hang on to it, but I'm worried it's not going to help. 

[Wildcatguy]

For what it's worth, Fitbit has been saying a firmware update is on the way to address the battery drain issue.  The only problem is they've been saying that for several months.  Not only is there no firmware update yet, they won't even provide a rough estimate for when it might arrive.  Frankly, I think that's just something they say to make us leave them alone in the hopes we'll either forget or go away.

[june.h]

Yea, I bought an Apple Watch after returning Fitbit lols--
Zijun Huang
cat3huang@gmail.com

[ajdxb]

I've had a Charge 5 for about 3 weeks, first two weeks - great charge lasted about 6-7 days, since then 2 days at a time! Really disappointed, wish I hadn't got rid of the ionic

[sarahliz]

I got a Charge 5 about 2 weeks ago. When I got it I charged it to 100% and the battery last about a week. Since then I charge it and it lasts 24 hours, sometimes less. What’s the deal?

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[amvi]

My Charge 5 has always lasted 6-7 days, even with working out 4-5 times a week. As of yesterday, it won't hold a full charge for more than 3 hours and then is completely drained to 0%. No changes were made as far as always-on functions or anything like that. I did a restart of the watch, and then recharged to 100%. After 30 minutes of laying on the couch, it was down to 75% battery, and after 2.5 hours it had just 6% left, and when I looked after 3 hours, watch had shut off and battery was dead.  

[Wibby]

That sounds dreadful @amvi 

Have you tried restarting it?  Connect it to the charger and then press the button at the USB end 3 times (experiment with spacing between pushes).

 

I hope that helps!

If it doesn’t, please contact Support for help.  You can reach them by tapping on Help at the bottom of the page then Get Support, then Live Chat.

[Shel8]

The promise of a firmware update seems to be Fitbit's go to response anytime they can't explain a problem. I call BS!

[shimsim]

Having been on this topic for a while and being one of the 'lucky' ones to get a replacement, I just thought I would share the latest update in my charge 5 experience. Went to sleep with a full battery, woke up to a message on my phone saying the battery was low. Tried to wake the watch but it was unresponsive, so plugged it in. That also did nothing, made sure the pins made good contact, still nothing. Tried to reboot using the button, but still nothing. Long story short, after a lengthy support chat and troubleshooting session, I will need another replacement.

Now I might just be unlucky but at this point, I just can't help feeling there is some serious quality issue with the charge 5. I do hope Fitbit have worked out what is wrong and it can really be solved with firmware. Not happy 😞

[Bike-man]

Hey Shimsim,

Sorry to hear your Charge 5 has failed.   So far mine has been holding its own. Not sure what it will take for Fitbit to respond and address the issues at hand.  Disappointing, frustrating, and discouraging.   HEY FITBIT ARE YOU LISTENING? 

[shimsim]

@Bike-man thanks, to be fair I do feel petty complaining about things that in the context of the current global climate are silly 'third world problems' but I also think its important for Fitbit to address these issues and unfortunately this only happens when there is public pressure. I genuinely think the Charge 5 is a great product (when it works), especially now that it died and I switched back to my Charge 2. The physical build quality and screen are just huge improvements and well worth the upgrade. I am also not someone that is going to threaten to buy an iwatch, they are simply not comparable devices and I'm not buying into the whole apple walled garden ecosystem. 

It is very difficult to gauge just how widespread these problems are, even my replacement Charge 5 that didn't have a battery issue (until it died) was 'different' from my first one. The screen was constantly turning on with the slightest tap, it was far more sensitive than the original and that didn't help with battery life either. When I posted for help on that, I was told there is no way to adjust sensitivity and then got the usual canned 'try setting it to manual' as if I didn't already know that. With this battery issue, I have my doubts about this being a firmware issue, happy to be proven wrong but I think you put it best .... 

" Disappointing, frustrating, and discouraging.   HEY FITBIT ARE YOU LISTENING? "

[foreversoul]

Do yourself a favor and return the device before your return window ends. Many have gotten replacements through warranty, only to have their replacement exhibit the exact same behavior. They've dragged their feet for months on this supposed firmware update and at this point it remains doubtful if an update will permanently fix the problem. 

I've since returned to my 5 year old Charge 2. Excellent battery life and does most of what I need. Perhaps contentment is the solution for me. If the Charge 5 never gets fixed, I'll be looking at other companies. 

[LiJaHi]

Alive105, what do you mean by doing a reset? I hope you don't mean returning it to the factory settings each time it needs charging?

[Unhappy_mother]

No it does not return it to factory setting. To me, it basically turns your fitbit off and turns it back on. Everytime I do it, here is the message I get, "This will restart your device. No data will be lost."

[Clemens13]

Things are pretty stable at this point. I am at 40%-60% battery drain every 24 hours - far short of the advertised 5-7 days. To be honest, I am only continuing to wear the fitbit because my company's wellness program pays me to do so. I will be retiring later this year and will literally be consigning the Charge 5 to the dustbin of history. If I need to count steps for any reason, I have a 20 year old Omron pedometer that works fabulously.

[Bike-man]

To bad you’re willing to accept the poor battery performance as being stable.   I’m very lucky, my battery is at 45% on day # 6.  Had the device since December.  I really like the Charge 5 but understand it is plagued with a number of issues for many others.  
Best of luck with retirement.  I’ve been there for over 2 years now.  Highly recommended.