Charge 5 heart rate monitor stopped working

[22Helene]

Woke up today and the watch didn't respond. After a lot of wriggling and trying over and over I got it to charge (it was charged plenty the evening before). 

I still had trouble waking the screen after I got it to charge, but after changing the clockface it worked. The time was off, so I had to refresh the app several times. 

Now the green lights that measure heartrate etc. has stopped working. I've restarted the watch but it didn't help. Auto wake doesn't work either. 

Very dissappointing as I see a ton of people having similar issues after updating. The battery is also way worse after the update. Almost seems as a trick to make people buy a new watch instead. This will definitely be my last fitbit.

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[Julia_G]

Hi, @22Helene , have you checked to confirm that the heart rate is set to on?  Sometimes during an update your default settings can be changed.  To check for this, from the clock screen on your Fitbit swipe down until you come to the settings menu.  Tap to open and then swipe up to find Heart rate.  Make sure the button is toggled to on.  If it is set to on but the green light is not flashing then tap to turn it off, wait a moment, and then tap to turn it back on.  Hopefully this will sort out the issue.

You can similarly make sure that auto wake is turned on and remember that you need to give your wrist a slight lift and then a quick flick to make the auto wake work.  Sometimes it takes a moment to get the technique just right.

i hope this helps.  Welcome to the forums!

[22Helene]

Yes, both toggles are on. I've tried turning it off and on. The battery
life is also horrible now. Went from fully charged to 7 % in a matter of
hours. And it barely registers steps or syncs to the app. The device is
clearly faulty now, similar to many others after the update..

[Julia_G]

Hi, @22Helene , in that case I would recommend getting in touch with Fitbit Customer Support on Contact.fitbit.com .  Please let them know the troubleshooting steps that you have already tried as that will save time and help them understand your issue.  Good luck!

[RiekoC]

Hello @22Helene 

I've seen some users report that the heart rate sensor (green light on the back) was restored after they did a factory reset as recommended by Fitbit support. However, there's no guarantee that this will work in your situation.

If you want to try doing a factory reset, here are the steps:

• If you can, do a manual sync in the Fitbit app to prevent loss of tracked data since the factory reset will delete your data from the Charge 5
• Swipe down from the Charge 5 clock face until you see the Settings tile and tap on it
• Swipe up until you see the Device Info tile and tap on it
• Swipe up until you see Clear User Data and tap on it
• Tap and hold on the blue tile until the Charge 5 starts the reset process