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]

@ChrisB1966 exactly!!  having to disable anything isn't necessary at all, when I have a working unit, it would go 7+ days without the need to disable any core functionality or reset it every few days, so whilst I appreciate people are trying to give solutions, this is not the solution we all need or deserve and instead we should be focusing on getting a proper solution from Fitbit.

For anyone else joining this now 33-page long thread and not reading through all the previous comments, here is a summary 

1. Your charge 5 under 'normal' usage and WITHOUT disabling 'core' features should last 7+ Days. It should drain 8-15% per day depending on usage.

2. Screen on all the time will heavily impact battery life, so expect that if you want an always-on display, that is normal, screens use a lot of power.

3. Using the GPS for tracking outdoor activity is going to impact battery life, so using that on a regular basis is going to reduce expected battery life, that is normal, GPS uses a lot of power.

4. Whilst there is no official statement from Fitbit, the issue might be related to the firmware and the GPS hardware that is getting enabled but not disabled, speculation on my part)

5. Rebooting the device (using the button on the charging cable or from the menu) resolves the GPS battery drain issue but in most cases, this issue comes back so its a very temporary solution.

5. There might be another separate issue that is causing batteries to drain inconsistently (as I had observed on my first unit). In this scenario, the battery exhibits a non-linear drain i.e. drops only a few % for the first few days, then rapidly on the last day. In my experience, if your battery only drains 3-5% over the first 24 hours, but with the same usage, 15-20% on later days, you have the same non-linear battery drain issue I experienced. Again, speculation on my part but I expect this is a battery issue which might be impacting units made in China.

6. Whilst there has been no official statement from Fitbit on this, people are being told that a firmware update is in the works. If that is true, it's been in the works for half a year which is why everyone is losing patience and trust in the product/brand.

[Kansasmombeth]

My Charge 5 actually (and quite randomly) behaved for about 2 weeks, albeit with most features disabled. Now today it went from 78% to 31% in around 5 hours during a normal day at work, charged it back up to 98% while in my office on a webex and now home at 8:16 pm it’s back down to 51%. Not sure why I’m still trying when our son-in-law works for Garmin. I’ll be asking him to recommend one of their devices that will meet my needs without the frustrations.  
Best of luck to you all!

[Bwmcliz]

Not just a bad batch. Just got mine to replace my Ionic (heartbroken over that). Charge lasted 6 days out of the box once. Averaging 1.5 days since. No fancy features turned on, only text notifications, and no long runs. Hugely disappointed. Please bring back Ionic or even Alta. This is ridiculous.

[Bike-man]

Shimsim, excellent recap.  Thanks.

[foreversoul]

I've seen recent news that several Fitbit trackers including the Charge 5 will be getting a new feature which enables AFib or irregular heart rate detection. How can they be releasing new features before releasing the long overdue firmware update to fix basic functionality like the battery drain issues? 

[O.Marley]

😩😩hope they’re going to fix this 

@shimsim you’re exactly right. if the device is in good condition you dont have to do a thing. 

[JaniceTurner]

I think they're going to come out with a Charge 6, which allegedly will fix the functionality of current features and add new ones.  And our 5's will NEVER be fixed. 😞

[Jdeuce]

Hi there, read this article and changed my GPS settings on my Charge 5 to Phone (from Dynamic). Initially I thought this did the trick (first night it barely drained) but since then right back where I was.

I charged it yesterday evening to 99% and this morning it was 50% - didn’t even do any activity, just sleeping. There is clearly something still off here.

[Cazzzzy]

Ok - so now on my second Charge 5 and really only sticking with it as it’s like my old Alt Hr but I can actually read the screen in daylight!

And it’s kept its charge for a WHOLE week - but this has come at a price:

- I do not use the GPS for anything. It’s set to phone and I use my phone for runs, and hence no heart rate feedback (but I read that this is inaccurate anyway)

- it is not connected to my phone 

- all Apps are off or have been deleted, E.g. auto exercise tracker, all notifications (except low battery 😂), etc.etc.

So what do I use it for?!

- telling the time!!

- step count (although misleading when I cycle, as I have to use the phone FitBit App which cannot track cycle and hence thinks I’m running 🙈)

- Can use for workouts/gym as no GPS required and hence I get approx. heart stats

- sleep pattern

So - I’ll keep it for a while and hope the battery lasts but any sign that the charge starts to drain - it’s going back - permanently…

[RunningMamma]

Yep, pretty much what I had to do. Turn off heart thing, turn off GPS. End up using steps vs the actual run menu because ½ the time the running app turns off in middle of run. Very frustrating watch and if another company made a sleeker looking watch would switch in a heartbeat!!!

[LesleyMY]

Mine was dying after 24 hours, so I decided to try the charge full and restart suggestion. I've gone three rounds now and it's lasting at least a week on each charge. I charged it again yesterday after 8 days, from 26%, which I find pretty decent, certainly equivalent to my earlier Charge 3. I do hope I don't have to do this every time though. It's not hard to do, just annoying.

[MaryAnnMaloney]

I purchased my Charge 5 on March 26 and had battery issues from day 1. I religiously did everything suggested, but it rarely held a charge for more than 24 hours. That is until this week. I did nothing different and as of yesterday morning, it was at 70% after 48 hours. I was cautiously optimistic as I was considering giving up on it and getting a different tracker. Yesterday afternoon, I went for an approx 5 mile hike with my dogs. After I got back to my car and loaded up the dogs and unpacked everything, I went to check my Charge 5 to see how I did and how the battery held up. Unfortunately, it was completely gone from my wrist. I looked all around the car and parking lot, but it was no where to be seen. We (the pups and I) did a partial backtrack on the trail, but realized there was no way I was going to find it.  I tried the "Find my Fitbit" app, but it said I was either not close enough to it, or the battery was dead and it couldn't find it.   So, I am on to finding a better tracker. Best of luck to everyone else.

[drewski]

---

@drewski wrote:

Unscientifically, I did a couple of things yesterday: 1) turned off GPS for each exercise option on my tracker, and 2) the 3-click reset after charging that @Alex_Lane mentioned.

Anyway, it's been ~18 hours and I'm at 94% battery!! Finally a work-around that seems like it's working!

---

It's been 6 days and I'm at 51% . . . I'm in shock, but do hope for a firmware fix so you don't have to shut off functionality.

[PipPips]

I got my Charge 5 yesterday and let it get to 99% (It never says 100%) and after 15 hours it was down to 40% with all the defaults still set.... This is really disappointing. I charged it back to 99% this morning and it's been 5 hours and it's at 84%. 

Will Fitbit be recalling all of the Charge 5s? Or do we have to keep returning them over and over and over and over?

Moderator edit: format

[DavideFitbit]

Hi everyone, I'm sorry to see that many of you are still having the same problem with the battery draining too fast. As mentioned earlier, the team is working to fix this issue with the GPS chip affecting battery life with an upcoming firmware update, but it's not possible to provide you with a specific date for the release. 

It seems that some of you have seen an improvement with the standard troubleshooting steps, but if you're still having the same problem, please know that out team will be releasing an update soon to address this issue. Keep in mind that some features make the battery drain faster than usual, like Always-On Display or tracking SpO2 data. If you use GPS to track your exercise, use the Phone GPS setting to preserve battery life. Make sure to keep the Charge 5 and the Fitbit updated to the latest version available. 

In addition, please make sure you've tried the these steps if you haven't done so already:

• 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.

Thank you again for the information and for the feedback provided; our team is always working to enhance your experience and your feedback is a big part of that process. If you need further assistance, don't hesitate to get in touch with the Customer Support team as well. Click here to get connected. 

See you around. 

[shimsim]

@DavideFitbit thanks for the update .... one question .... is it reasonable to expect customers to wait over 6 months for a fix?

[mjkehr5]

I bought this charge 5 around march 2022, the battery just sucks! 
I talked to their teenage tech support kid and he was no help at all, just reading a script! 
I already invested $170 on this piece of crap, but I will never buy another fitbit after i finally get sick of dealing with this ones battery issue. this over paid garbage of a device called charge 5 really disappointed me! 

sincerely,

pissed off costumer! 

[DominoUK]

So this has happened to me again twice since my post.

Last night in bed I noticed something was wrong when the screen woke me up by coming on when I moved my arm, showing it hadn't automatically turned on sleep mode. The screen was also very laggy and unresponsive, which made me realise this battery drain was going to happen again. It showed it was at 74%.

The previous time (2 of 3) it happened and I noticed the screen was laggy, I was able to restart the device to avoid the battery drain, but this time after going into settings and clicking restart, nothing happened. I did this a few more times and it would not restart. I couldn't be bothered to fix it right then, so I just enabled sleep mode manually and went back to sleep.

Come morning, I overslept because the alarm didn't go off. The battery wasn't dead though, and I was able to still use the device. Weirdly it still said 74%. Tried syncing to my phone but it never managed to, saying it was taking longer than expected.

Connected it to the charging cable, did the 3 button presses with a second in-between, and it restarted. Everything was working correctly again but the battery was showing 26%! Connected it to the charging cable again and it immediately jumped to over 40%. I also synced it to my phone and what a surprise, it hadn't recorded my sleep!

I'm seriously beginning to think I either have a faulty unit or there's a design flaw here. As it happens so rarely though I don't think I can be bothered to attempt a warranty replacement as that can take weeks. I think this'll be the last Fitbit I buy as I'm fed up with weird and inconsistent issues like this that have plagued every Fitbit I've owned.

[Clemens13]

Inconsistent seems to be the key here. I usually charge the device in the morning before work. Usually, 24 hours later there is less than 10% battery drain. 24 hours after that (with no recharging) the battery is down to less than 20%. I did nothing different to cause the change. I have shut down as many of the device's operations as I can find, but it makes no difference.  
I believe it to be a bit of overreach on the part of FitBit. Trying to do everything with a device too small to contain a battery with the required capacity (cramming 20 pounds of you-know-what in a 5 pound bag). If they could just come out with a model that just counts steps, ala the ZIP, and then offer something a bit more robust that has all the bells and whistles for those that want/need those things, that would work for me. I don't care about heart rate, oxygen level, active minutes, sleep monitoring, etc.
I believe my biggest gripe with FitBit is the claim of 5-7 days battery life when I can't even count on getting 2 days. Based on reading on these posts, that claim needs to be removed from the product specs and from the ads on their website, although I am sure they will not. Until those of us who are dissatisfied become the majority, they will just continue to placate us with the occasional posts about a firmware update, and go on with life.
On the bright side, I just found an old ZIP and got it working again, so I have a fallback.

[Bike-man]

Hi Clemens13,
The battery issue does not apply to all Charge 5 units.  Perhaps this is why there has not been a recall of the Charge 5.  Mine was manufactured in Malaysia.  I’m currently on day 8 of my last charge and I have 30% left.  So unfortunately, for better or worse, this is not global issue.  That’s not to say Fitbit shouldn’t assign a higher priority on resolving the issue effecting so many.  I’m somewhat amused by the website administration posting a pretty green box at the beginning of each page that links you to the “best answer”.   That may be helpful as a temporary fix the ultimate being the promised firmware update.   

I do hope there is an ultimate solution for the Charge 5.  Why it should take soooooooo long only serves to frustrate users.