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?

[Wildcatguy]

My (Chinese manufactured) Charge 5 was fully discharging in a single day when I first got it.  There are steps I took, which have now led it to hold a charge for 6-7 days. 

Keep in mind, these steps are not optimal, since they involve turning off some functions that were reasons I bought the tracker in the first place.  Nonetheless, they have worked for me.

They are:

1) Shut Off All GPS.  I never use any GPS function, either the on-board GPS chip or connected to my phone.  I have also gone through each exercise I track and have manually shut off the GPS function for that specific exercise.

2) Shut Off All Notifications From The Phone.  On previous Fitbits, I've enjoyed seeing text messages and notifications from my phone on the Fibit device.  All of those are now shut off.

3) Bluetooth Is Off.  I keep the Bluetooth on my phone shut off, unless I am actively using it to listen to music, connect to my vehicle, or perform some other function.  This prevents the Fitbit from automatically syncing itself continuously all through the day and night.  (There used to be an option in the Fitbit app to prevent the constant syncing, but that option was removed.)  Now, I sync my Charge 5 manually just two or three times per day.

4) Restart After Every Charge.  I restart the Charge 5 with every charging cycle, using the button at the end of the charging cable.  Like rebooting a phone or laptop, this helps to clear out any accumulated junk.

Obvously, I'm also not using any other battery-hogging functions, like the Always On Display, for example.  However, I do still use the Sp02 function to track my blood oxygen levels, and haven't noticed that causing any trouble.

These steps may not work for everyone, nor even be appropriate for everyone.  Still, they are working for me for now.  If there really is a firmware "fix" coming, I would be MORE than happy to volunteer as a Beta tester.

In any event, I hope something here might be helpful.  BTW, I don't recall seeing anyone mention it yet, but I do find some irony in a fitness tracker named the "Charge 5" not being able to hold a charge.

[vk12]

I have done all those. I am getting 2.5 days battery, on my previous watch which is a Garmin that used to give me 5 days. The only reason I bought this is, all my mates are using this and we are doing group activities. Very much disappointed with this

[Tommofski]

Fitbit swapped my Charge 5 for a replacement, battery was only lasting 2 hours from fully charged. It must have been a faulty battery. I am betting there are 2 faults at work here - hardware related i.e. battery fault resulting in battery drain in a few hours and software related i.e. firmware issue resulting in battery drain in 2 or 3 days that used to be 5 or 6 days. I may be wrong but if you suspect a battery fault use the warranty period as I did. Also I haven't updated the firmware when I  set the replacement device up, I've had it on for 3 days and its at 76%

[tharp]

Thank you I have and I am waiting. It doesn't absolve Fitbit from from their current business model which seems to be to sale an inferior product then replace for customers that complain. I have been reading Fitbit reviews and it isn't just the Charge 5. I have had 2 Charge 4's and. 5 in less than 2 years.
*Tammy Harpin*

[cmcg99]

Same here

[OKmamaJ]

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@Wildcatguy wrote:I don't recall seeing anyone mention it yet, but I do find some irony in a fitness tracker named the "Charge 5" not being able to hold a charge.

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Charge 5 times per week maybe...

[tcat007]

I'm on day 10, still at 31%.  Acting like expected after I did the restart thing.  Be interesting to see if it holds after next charge without restart.

[Maze1405]

Excellent! I restarted mine on Saturday, turned off GPS - still running at the moment!

Sent from my iPad

[Trevor.G]

Hi, is there any update for this issue?

Is it firmware related or have I just got a duff one?

I've had my charge 5 for about 3 months and to get a day's battery life everything possible is turned off.

It's little more than a step counter at the moment which is a real shame because it could be so good.

Thanks

Trevor 

[shimsim]

@Trevor.G if you have done a restart (press the button on the charging cable 3 times) and still getting poor battery life then you might have a different issue. Probably worth contacting support and letting them confirm it, but assuming you dont have the screen on all the time, you should be getting 7+ days.

As for the firmware ..... dont hold your breath ..... its been more than 6 months, with ZERO information on when this promised fix is going to be released.

[Maze1405]

Morning

I get 3 days of battery life since I turned off the GPS.

Sent from my iPad

[Trevor.G]

Think maybe I just have a faulty one, everything is turned off that can be 😞

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Thanks, do you know I've never noticed the button on the charging cable.

I have reset from the settings menu on the watch, I guess that's the same?

I'll try the cable button method and see how it goes.

[Sunshine908]

My problems began last Aug. 2021. My Charge 4 died before the warranty was up, so they sent me a replacement. I received that one (refurbished) - and then that one died in Feb. 22' - 6 mos. later. I had been signed up for the "Premium Service @ $10 / mo." at the time. In Feb. they offered me a 3rd Charge 4 or else I could get a 50% discount on a new Charge 5. I was going to go for the free one but thought- Oh heck- maybe I should just put out for the newer model, Charge 5-- maybe that one won't have the same problems. Well, I got the new Charge 5 out of the box and it was way worse than the 4-- I "chatted" with at least 3 different reps trying to figure out how to fix it and then I called a couple more times. Each time getting more frustrated. I talked to a guy aprox. 6 weeks ago and I told him I wanted a refund and he convinced me to just wait for the "update to come out" - which would be in about a month. I waited 5 weeks and it was getting worse- held a charge maybe 36 hrs. I called for refund and "Daniel" told me "Sorry- you're not eligible for a refund because it's passed the 45-day refund policy!! I told him what the previous rep told me-- and he just kept repeating himself ...."Sorry you're passed the 45 days- thanks for understanding."  Thanks for understanding??!! Are you KIDDING ME!! I'm PISSED beyond belief. And yes, I've hard booted it more times than I an tell you-- WITH a rep on the phone instructing me the whole way- showing me how to turn off all the "battery draining" functions- and nothing worked. I was lied to, mislead to hold on the for update- it never came and they tricked me into waiting passed the 45 day refund policy.  I'm guessing this company is in financial trouble to have their own representatives lying to people to keep their money.  It's despicable. I'm really bummed because I loved the product when it worked-- but something is failing horriblly and they will not own up to it. Period.

[Dbottrill]

Still no firmware update?

[Trevor.G]

You'd have thought that with the power of Google behind them now, the developers would have been all over it.

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That is really poor service

[ChrisB1966]

You're not the only one by a long way in the failed Charge 4 discount to Charge 5 group. One of the reasons I was persuaded to carry on with the Charge 5 was the 2 year warranty, but apparently battery drain issues don't count!  

[Maze1405]

I agree with you, Trevor

Sent from my iPhone

[tharp]

Ha! I didn't know it had a 2 year warranty! Perhaps that meant month 
*Tammy Harpin*

[Dammers]

My Charge 5 was working fine since I got it (last September) and since the weekend the battery started to deplete really quickly.

This morning just to see how quickly the battery was running down I took it off charge @100% and 5.5 hours later it was completely dead. I was sitting at my desk working (so it was not active) my GPS is on dynamic & I have the screen on manual wakeup.

I have contacted support 3 times but I am getting the same standard reply. Even though I explained that this seems a little more than a Firm Ware fix. 

Surely having to charge a Fitness Tracker 4 times a day is not acceptable?

Moderator edit: format

[DaveJ1855]

I just chatted with an agent who, while a nice person, offered little to no help. I got the standard "thanks for your patience" lines that others have received. I've now turned off basically everything that makes the tracker a tracker and now have an expensive pedometer on my wrist.