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?

[Milo5712]

Update on my situation with this. I rang Customer Support on the 6th (OZ time - OZ = Australia for our overseas viewers), chatted with nice support person. She checked my sync details etc. & what functions I had turned on/off. One thing I had not tried was the restart technique (button on charge cable). Ok, did that and she advised me to charge up the Charge 5 & monitor the battery charge, and also gave me a case number in case the battery drained within 2 days again. 

Surprise, surprise - the battery indeed drained within 2 days!!!

So, I rang again today (10th), reported the result of the "monitoring". Quoted the case number and the lady said she would send me an email with a link for a replacement Charge 5. This email arrived and I dutifully filled out the form for the replacement. We will see what happens with the replacement! I'll update the forum after I receive & use the replacement Charge 5 & see how long the battery lasts with the replacement.

Geez, my original was only used for just over 3 months!!!!

[JTMrozowski]

I too recently purchased Fitbit 5 ( 2 weeks ago). Charge only lasts 2-3 days. Extremely frustrating especially when my charge 4 lasts nearly a week.

I am losing faith in Google's takeover of Fitbit. Thinking of sending it back and getting Apple Watch instead 

[tharp]

Hopefully, it will last a while.

Best of Luck!  My first one lasted Jan-May, my second one June... just yesterday began the battery spiral.... going from 100% to 42% in five hours. Eighteen hours later it is at 31%...  I think it is a matter of time.....
*Tammy Harpin*

[tcat007]

Pot luck, must have terrible QC department!  Bought mine in March was good for a month, then started losing less than a day for a week.  Came here and tried the suggested reboot from USB cable button. It's been lasting 9-10 days every cycle since May.

[tharp]

Great!  I will try it again with this latest one. It would not charge without having reset it at the cable... 
*Tammy Harpin*

[bud.dugong]

New purchase, updated firmware, battery lasted <12 hours. After an extra (2nd) restart the battery now behaves normal for 1 mo.

[bbunge]

It is Tuesday morning and the Charge 5 battery is at 85% after a full charge and "charge cable restart" Sunday night. I also did a two hour bike ride Monday that the Fitbit recorded. I do not sleep with the device.

I am suspecting the 1.171.50 firmware may have fixed some things but needed a full power cycle to properly load the firmware. I have seen this in other electronics such as WIFI routers and IP cameras. OK, I'm being optimistic. But I plan to carry on as before with my use and charging. Five to seven days has been my "usual" charging schedule and I do not leave the device on charge longer than what it needs to get to 100%.

[Clemens13]

After the firmware update the battery life is greatly improved. No problem getting 5 days from a charge. I haven’t turned on any additional features, but am pleased with the results so far.

Sent from my iPhone

[Alex_Lane]

Just wondering - did you do the USB cable reset on the device, when it had charged to 100%?  I do it everytime, and it solved literally all of my issues.

[shimsim]

I think the firmware update is only going to help those who experience a random battery drain that is resolved after a reset (of course it can randomly happen again). There is a separate issue that I have had on 2 different units where it is working fine for months without a single issue, then suddenly start to drain rapidly and nothing (not even a restart) can get it working correctly again. I have read a lot of posts on here from people experiencing that and IMHO its being confused with the battery drain issue which is likely a firmware issue. I think in my scenario where I have zero issues until the device suddenly drains rapidly and a restart doesn't help, its not the firmware but rather the battery failing or some other hardware component that fails.

[BurntOrange]

I had a Charge-5 that was replaced under warranty about 2 months ago.

After working well for those 2 months, about a week ago it started draining super fast.

This started during a swim which I was tracking, but now the Charge-5 never lasts more than about 6 hours,

even if I am sleeping.

I got hold of Customer Service today via the webchat, and to my pleasant surprise, they agreed to send me a replacement without

too much silliness.  On the first replacement, I had to make a movie, send it to Fitbit, do the Hokey-Pokey and turn myself around 3 times,

then drain the Fitbit, cover it in chicken blood, etc.

A couple of notes:

Unlike when my old Fitbit was replaced with a complete unit, Fitbit now sends just the sending unit.  Hang onto your band and your charger.

I was frustrated enough with the FItbit to order a Garmin via the Amazon Prime Super Days or whatever they are having at the moment.

Guess I'll have to decide now which one to use.  I loved both my Fitbits and my Garmin Bike computers for years, but the Charge-5

has been quite problematic.

[tharp]

I agree with your assessment. The first one I had worked fine then while working out it drained to 0%, a reset got it to charge and then 1 week later all of the sudden it drained and would not stay charged; 24 hrs later nothing it would not recharge. This one was prior to the latest firmware update.
Fitbit #2 (Latest firmware) Again drained to 0% during workout, took a reset to get it to charge.  That charged lasted 2 days. It has been 24 hrs and it is still at 83%. 
I am wondering if heat is the issue with the battery.  With both devices gave up when I was outside working very hard for more than a couple hours. 
*Tammy Harpin*

[tharp]

No, not after it charged. I did it to get it to take a charge.
*Tammy Harpin*

[Celtic_Babog]

I've had my charge 5 returned from Fitbit repair centre about a month ago due to the last charge 5 fiago not even turning on. They sent it back as fixed.

Now the charge 5 won't hold charge for one day. This thing is a joke. The worst product I ever purchased, a pure nightmare.

[Milo5712]

Okay, I had quite a few replies to my post from others with this problem. What a debacle. I spoke to Support on 6th, went through the "restart procedure" route. I just had to monitor the battery drain from then. No good - just the same; 2 days of battery! Same since call to Support.

Anyway, my replacement was arranged and arrived today! (13th). Charged up, by 06:35 pm, and finally re-connected to phone. Immediately the app said there is a firmware update!!! The app firmware is currently at 57.20001.142.37. This is more updated than my previous Charge 5 which had the contentious firmware (that I'm sure is the one that stuffed my Charge 5 & caused the battery drain issue!) Not a chance (at the moment anyway). 

I'll just monitor the battery drain on this new Charge 5 with this version of firmware.Funny thing is - not a good look - since the new one was 100% at 06:35 pm, it has lost 2% already at 7:43pm! So, not holding out much hope for getting back to 5 days or more of battery life!

[bethn26]

Not "Solved", Fitbit!! But at least these folks have their Charge 5 devices. I ordered mine and it's never come - lost in shipment twice. Support 0 help and won't issue a refund. Wish I had never bought this and gone with another brand.

[tcat007]

Strange. Mine's been working fine for 5 months, 10 days per charge (after USB reboot 5 months ago), then today went from 75% to zero.  Didn't even touch it.  I'll try the USB reboot once charges, see if I get another 5 months.  Something's really flaky!

[shimsim]

@tcat007  are you on the latest firmware?

[bbunge]

Six days and the battery was at 45%. So I charged it back up as I am going on a longer than usual bike ride today. I've noticed that recording activity usually drains the battery faster even though the phone is on me and the Fitbit does not use its GPS.

Would be great if we could control firmware upgrades!

[tcat007]

Yes.  I update anytime I get notification.