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]

@tcat007 interesting, the firmware update was supposed to stop that happening. is it working correctly after the restart?

[tcat007]

I believe so.  Only down 4% after almost a day.  No clue what would randomly ruin it down in one day.  Maybe something to do with sync?  It take 1-2 minutes to sync with my Pixel when I open the app. but always seems to sync with no issues.

[shimsim]

@tcat007 thanks for confirming that, so it means even the firmware fix that took almost a year to deliver doesn't completely eliminate that bug 😞

[GDSchulz]

I saw no effect on battery usage whatsoever from the latest firmware
update, for either better or worse.

The original battery issue I reported was a "milder" problem whereby a
charge would only last about 3 days instead of the 9 days I'm used to.
That problem was completely cured by restarting after charging to 100%. So
I'm passing it off to some sort of sensor calibration issue, for lack of a
better theory. Doesn't bother me to have to restart after recharging once
every 9 days.

The latest firmware update *DID NOT* fix my problem or make it any worse.
Since the most recent firmware update I did try once more to skip the
restart, but the problem returned. So I continue to restart after charging
and everything is fine. My battery after 9 days still shows about 20%
charge or a bit less. My C5, which is now just about a year old, is still
sipping about 8% of a full charge per day. Fingers crossed that that
continues.

[Flafry]

I had a similar situation.  I returned the watch, and set up the replacement.  It started doing the same thing.  I then remembered that I changed the clock face to “Energy”.  I chose another clock face, and the watch is now behaving beautifully.  I suspect the “Energy” clock face has a bug.

[Darren808]

I can also partially confirm that it could be the clock faces. I switched away from Slashed to Continuum and it worked. Though, I also uninstalled some of the watch apps.

Edit: Nevermind, it was short lived.

[WellnessMatters]

If you get a replacement C5, don't do the firmware update!!! My didn't do the firmware update that it keeps on trying to push on me, and my Fitbit has worked perfectly.

[shimsim]

@WellnessMatters I dont think the new firmware will make the device any worse, at least for this battery drain issue. My first device was on the original firmware, it had the battery issue, my 2nd failed before the latest firmware was released, the 3rd failed a few months after it was updated to the latest firmware and my 4th replacement has been working perfectly and it came pre-installed with the latest firmware. Not saying your specific experience isn't a cautionary tale but not sure it can be used as a blanket statement for all customers. Regardless, I think all replacements will now already come with the new firmware, at least that's what my experience was last week.

[LesleyMY]

I got my Charge 5 in February as a replacement for my Charge 3, which had display loss. It worked fine for 2 weeks before it started going flat within a day. After I joined the group and tried the recommended restart after a full charge, the problem was reduced, but I made sure I did it each time, or the charge didn't last. It wasn't foolproof though as it would still suddenly go flat, intermittently. I would always restart on the watch, rather than on the cable. After the firmware update, which I did when it was first released, nothing changed. Then a few days ago, I noticed that the screen would randomly change to another page and I was unable to move it back to the home screen. Now it is completely stuck. I tried changing the clock face from my phone, but the problem remains. I have to tap the face multiple times very firmly, to activate the display and I can neither move up & down or sideways to another screen. The only thing I can do on the screen (if I'm lucky) is change between the steps/heartrate etc. It's also draining faster

than before, at around 20 to 30% per day.

[iubrian]

I have a good news bad news story. The good news - the latest update eliminated my battery drain issue for 4 months. YEAH! The bad news is two days ago my Charge 5 died. Oh, it didn’t die, exactly. The screen went blank, I tried the press the button 3 times, delete the app, erase all data, repair, all of the steps. Sure, I could occasionally get a screen (otherwise i couldn’t go to settings and delete all data), but otherwise my charge 5 is a dead parrot, just a couple of months out of warranty. Garbage. 

[shimsim]

@iubrian This is exactly my concern now and this issue is way bigger than this battery drain problem that has been marked as 'solved' 

I've have 3 replacements, I'm on my 4th device (which just like the previous 2 replacements, worked perfectly until they didnt), and they have all failed after just a few months of use (well the first didn't fail, it had the battery drain issue, which is why I am on this thread). Typically that would happen all of a sudden, without any warning, one day working fine, the next, blank screen, unable to start, no sign of life.

I have been trying to get some response from Fitbit on the overall reliability of this product (or lack off) as I'm going to be out of warranty soon and at the current rate of failure, I will be without a working product or any kind of comeback in a few months time.

I have posted a few comments on this more general thread "Charge 5 experiences/reliability", I wasn't the one that started it but it seems like a good place to start. Would be good if others that have a poor experience with reliability (i.e more than one unit that failed) post their experience there. 

[Marchelo]

The thread is quite. Does it mean that problem was fixed? 

[bbunge]

Hmm... Maybe. Seems that using the GPS function drains the battery faster. Since my last post and online discussions with Fitbit cust service I have been getting a week between charges. I'm not out on the bike as much now that it is cold. As for the GPS drain, I thought that the Fitbit used the phone GPS to track exercise if the phone was in Bluetooth range while working out?

[Alex_Lane]

Mine has been fine, as long as I '3-click-reset' it after each charge.  Lasts for just over a week - cycle and walk (with phone GPS) pretty much every day.

[ChrisB1966]

My guess is that improved manufacturing of the replacement devices and people accepting the limits has ended the discussion. My replacement has lasted longer than I thought it would, however if it had failed I'd have just given up as I'd be ready to move on.

[Marchelo]

bbunge, ChrisB1966, do you perform resets all the time? 

[ChrisB1966]

@Marchelo No, as there is no gain for me in doing so. There is a difference in trying to maximising battery life probably due to software issues or a defective device. I got a replacement because my C5 failed - although it had the general drain issue too that may have been linked. The replacement has never just dropped battery level in the same way - although I use it more as a general monitor now and have a Polar chest strap for workouts.

[jenny05]

I was finally sent a replacement a couple months ago. No issues but now the app keeps pushing an update and I'm afraid to do it. 😂

[kimmicocopuff]

Same. I've been putting it off for months. Because that was a nightmare
especially getting a replacement. So I don't want this one to die.

[shimsim]

Could be a combination of the firmware updates (which I still don't think was the main issue but maybe reduced the incidence of the GPS drain) plus newer units which might have solved whatever the real issue was (my money is on the battery), plus support getting ahead of this issue (instead of pushing customers to complain here) plus many of the people on this tread moving on.

I now have to contend with the fact that I'm on my 4th replacement (yes, 3 failures in under 10 months)  and 2 of the 2 people I recommended this device to had their charge 5 fail at least once each. As much as I like this tracker and its by far the best Charge in terms of features/design, its just super unreliable and in my personal experience its just a matter of time before my current replacement fails. Fingers crossed this lasts until they launch the Charge 6 and I can throw more money into the trash 😁