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?

[SunsetRunner]

I created a brand new account. Watch has been behaving for the last hour when  it was draining from 100% down to zero in one hour on the old account.

[Marymmo]

Mary 

Now that is really interesting!  I find my battery is lasting longer if I turn the gps on only when I walk. However that is a nuisance! And since having it set on dynamic was supposed to mean it was only used when Walk was on, I don’t know why it makes a difference. Can’t imagine why a new account would fix anything. I hope it continues to work for you. . 

[pelouffe]

That's pretty interesting. I was told in my last ongoing email  with customer service that the issue was likely caused from excessive wear and tear! Haha practically a new device but whatever... If your issue has resolved with a new account, how do they explain that one? Can't be a faulty battery or wear and tear. I'm going to try that and see what happens. I'll update.

[SunsetRunner]

I agree. Completely weird. Maybe there's a bit  code that likes zero ? 😉 

[RajGv]

Does not work. Probably there is a manufacturing defect.

[SunsetRunner]

I've replaced it with a competitor's product. I have no way of returning
the Fitbit. Oh well.

Cheers Hank

[Marymmo]

I have sort of “fixed” the problem. I don’t use the features I bought it for like the GPS. Yes. Time to move to a brand that actually does what it is advertised as being able to do!

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• I’m in the same situation. I upgraded the band to one I really like (another expense). But not being able to use it for the very features I bought it for is ridiculous.  Want the battery to last?  Don’t use it for what it was advertised to be able to do. . 

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The battery lasts if I don’t use it for things like GPS.  But that was one of the main reasons I bought the darned thing for!

[Bunchadogs]

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@SunsetRunner wrote:

I created a brand new account. Watch has been behaving for the last hour when  it was draining from 100% down to zero in one hour on the old account.

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That's really interesting!  I had been meaning to try this - I tried something similar, giving my Fitbit to my son and registering on his account...which did NOT help the battery life.  He does have a moderately "old" account and he has a lot of activities / runs logged.

Now I'm really curious about creating a new account and trying again!

[Sin9ular1ty]

Having mostly the same issue as most in here. My battery lasts maybe 4-6 hours. It was lasting 1 week + just a week ago, then I noticed the screen was locked up on the fit bit logo. I as away from the charger at the time. By the time I got home it was complete turned off. For about a day, I couldn't get it to hold a charge at all.  Unplugging it from the charger would instantly turn it off.  Re-plugging it in would reset the charge back to 0.  Eventually, it started to hold a charge, but now it only last 4-6 hours from a 100% charge. I've cycled it from full charge to to 0 maybe 30 times and I'm not seeing it get any better.  I've updated the firmware, turned off all features, uninstalled all apps, created a new account. No change.  Looking like I will have to attempt installing a new battery.

[pelouffe]

I contemplated a new battery and attempting to replace it myself. I looked and found they were roughly in the neighborhood of 35 to 40 US on ebay or much cheaper on an ali express-type spot if you want to wait months for it to arrive. While I was looking around for a less expensive battery that would arrive faster, I found a brand new pebble charge 5 that was only about 15.00 US more than the battery, including shipping, so I bought that. I had the strap and charge cable, so it was a less expensive option and I wouldn't have to replace battery myself. I bought a Charge 5 for the features it offered and none of the cheapie trackers had the same features.

I've had this one for about a month. The app keeps prompting me to update the firmware - NOT GOING TO HAPPEN! I firmly believe that this is the cause for everyone's grief on here. I mean, how can it work perfectly and then literally overnight after the firmware update, everyone's charge 5 craps out. Anyway, I will never be updating the firmware. Lesson learned, no thanks to fitbit. 

[shimsim]

@Sin9ular1ty from my experience (3 units that failed) this is exactly one of the failures I experienced. At this point, nothing other than a replacement is going to work. It's not an issue of you doing anything wrong of something you need to install or reset, it's either the battery of the controller or both (we have never got a definitive explanation as to why these units are failing)

@pelouffe i did attempt a battery swap on a dead unit of mine, its not worth the effort and it won't necessarily solve the root cause of the issue which might not be the battery itself. There is also no way to know if the replacement battery is any better. So really the only long-term solution is better a 'good' unit from Fitbit.

I read many people avoiding a firmware update, but I would say, without updating, you are running the risk of having a worse user experience as most likely there are bugs that will cause issues. The firmware upgrade process is the risky part and I can understand people avoiding it for that reason, but it should be done (just make sure you have a full charge, good wifi and some free time) and Fitbit does need to get its act together with that process because its seems to take way to long and not be as reliable as it should be.

[Sarahyogi]

I can’t believe this is still ongoing! I had an update on mine about 6 months ago that broke my watch, wouldn’t hold charge for more than an hour, all the same stuff that is still happening. There was such a fuss at the time and Fitbit finally took notice and tracked my battery life then I got sent a new one that works. I’ve just updated it after being afraid to, it still works. Tbh I’m shocked this is still happening, this watch started having issues nearly a year ago. Contact Fitbit, as it’s ridiculous and ignore all the ‘turn off your GPS’ etc as it doesn’t help and why should you? Mine lasts 5 days with everything on. 

[shimsim]

If I had to speculate (which I do because Fitbit has never been transparent about the issue) I would say that there was a manufacturing or part issue that was impacting early production units and it could be that those units are still in circulation (still being sold by some retailers that have a slower turnaround) which is why people are still having this issue. It would be crazy to think this issue has not been solved in manufacturing but again, zero transparency from Fitbit, so who knows. I suspect we are now in the final stage of 'just wait for the volume of complaints to drop and pretend it didn't happen' playbook.

[Longestplague]

My charge 5 has been absolutely fine since December but this week it's completely drained within a day 4 days running. I've tried changing the clock face, switching off auto screen awake, changing any settings that I think would affect it's battery life but it still keeps draining within a day.

The only thing I can possibly think that's affected it is how long I've been charging it for as it's rare it gets 2 hours charging time. Usually I charge it when it gets to about 20%, but it's rare it gets up to 100% due to when I'm off out to work etc. But that's been absolutely fine for the last few months just have to charge it a bit more frequently ie about every 5 days. 

Something has occurred this week that's made the battery drain within a day every day. 

[Longestplague]

Sounds very similar to mine, it's been absolutely fine from December to mid April, now charge it in the morning and it's drained by about midnight. 

[Alex_Lane]

Out of interest, are you resetting after each charge, by doing the 3 clicks
on the USB cable?

Same question - doing the 3 button reset on the USB cable when on 100%?

[Longestplague]

That's something I do still need to try. I've not exhausted everything yet as it's only been doing it this week, and I've not read that many replies on here, but I was meaning my device has been completely fine for 5 months then suddenly its not lasting a day... Weird how the last update for it was the 5th April, I wonder if it was something in that update. 

[Alex_Lane]

Ok mate. Had mine since launch, and I do it every time - works 100% fine.

[Longestplague]

Cheers. Hopefully that will solve it. Thanks for the helpful replies. I'm not sure why I've not tried it yet tbh. 

[shimsim]

@Longestplague in my experience (and as of today I had 4 of these charge 5 units fail on me) that's the sign its on the way out. Whatever the issue is, battery or PCB or anything else (we may never know because no transparency) it has nothing to do with how you are using it, the clock face, the apps enabled, the hand you are wearing it on, the colour of the sky, its just an issue with the device and it will continue to degrade until it stops working. You have no idea how many times I have restarted and hoped for my 1st, 2nd, 3rd and now 4th unit to start working again as it should, but its not going to help. Get onto support and hope that you are in warranty and don't have to jump through too many hoops to get a replacement. 

Wish I had something more positive but that is the reality of the Charge 5 ...... its great but its prone to failure.