Charge 5 is draining quickly

[a1ngad]

I went on an 8.1 mile/4.5 hour hike on Saturday and my battery has been shot since then. It died overnight that night (understandable due to the length of tracking that activity) but it also died Sunday night after charging it to 50% Sunday afternoon. I charged it yesterday and noticed this morning it was already down to 15% so I fully charged it this afternoon and it’s already down to 68% at 9:22pm, roughly 6 hours later, and I didn’t even log any exercise since the charge. It used to last days without charging even if I logged activity.

Has anyone else experienced this? It’s not even a year old and now I feel like I need a new tracker just because I did one long hike and I plan on doing more of those in the future.. so frustrating.

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[Talahthas]

Welcome to the Fitbit community, @a1ngad!

Sad to hear you're having issues with your Charge 5. As a first approach to hopefully get things fixed, I'd suggest restarting it. Before doing so you should make sure you've synced your device to not lose any data tracked so far. Also you should verify that the charging contacts on your device are clean and the charging pins on it's charging adapter are clean as well and can move flawlessly. In doubt, please have a look here:

How do I clean my Fitbit device?

Next please closely follow these instructions as timing is crucial for this procedure:

1.) Connect your Charge 5 to the charging cable which has to be connected to a reliable power source.
2.) Press the button located on the flat end of the charging cable 3 times within 8 seconds(!), holding each press for about 1 second(!).
3.) Wait around 10 seconds until the Fitbit logo appears on your device's display.

I'd like to point out that it sometimes requires more than one attempt to restart Charge 5. So, before throwing the towel, please give it another try.

If that really won't work for you, please try if changing your device's clock face will get it back to working order. Here's how to do that:

How do I change the clock face on my Fitbit device? 

I'll keep my fingers crossed.

[PatLew7rj]

I made the mistake of swimming with my Charge 5 still on my wrist.  6 lenghs of sedate breast stroke - no diving - and my Fitbit has not held charge since. I followed all instructions regarding charging to no avail.  It was a Christmas gift from my husband, so it is still under a year old. He has contacted the seller, but this is not roving very helpful.  All the information suggests it should be waterproof to something 5 metres depth and I certainly did not do anything like that. This was in September.  We have only just heard back from the seller with a load of ridiculous instructions like send a photo of the condensation on the device.  It never had condensation and it was very well dried after the swim.  I think tis device is probably a dead loss as they no longer make it.

[Talahthas]

Welcome to the Fitbit community, @PatLew7rj!

Charge 5 is very well meant for swim tracking. As you seem to have followed the corresponding directions mentioned here, I'd suggest to directly contact Fitbit support for further assistance:

Fitbit Support Contact