Charge 5 stopped tracking my heart rate

[James010623]

On 26/06/2024 I noticed my 13 month old Charge 5 was stuck in a continuous restart cycle.
After several attempts, the three presses on the charging cable brought it back to life, though there were many instances where it only resulted in the red circle with an X being shown, also at one point the LEDs on the back were lit unusually brightly.
Clearing the Bluetooth connection on my phone and relinking then brought back communication with the App on my phone.
The only thing not functional now is the heart rate monitoring, the LEDs have remained off.
I’ve tried turning HRM off and then back on again, clearing user data, changing the watch face, multiple restarts but without any success. Current drain is far greater than normal too.
Having exhausted all the likely solutions I could find on this forum I web-mailed Fitbit support (Case ID 6-5202000036868), but if anyone has a suggestion while that is in progress I'll happily try it. 

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[MarreFitbit]

Hi there, @James010623. It's nice to see you around the Fitbit Community Forums. Thanks for bringing this to my attention and for the troubleshooting steps you've tried. I'm sorry to hear that your Charge 5 is still not tracking your heart rate data. I understand where your concern is coming from, I will do my best to help you with this!

As our last resort, I'd recommend performing a factory reset on your Charge 5. Important: Take into consideration that a factory reset deletes any stored data, which includes all data that hasn't synced to your Fitbit account and your applications, alarms, etc. 

With the above being said, please sync your Charge 5 and then, proceed with the steps below in the order listed: 

1. Swipe down from the clock screen to find the Settings app.
2. On your Fitbit device, open the Settings app > Device Info > Clear User Data

You can follow the steps to set up the device after that How do I set up my Fit-bit device?

If the steps above don't work, please stay tuned to your inbox until someone from our team gets back to you support case. Thanks in advance! 

[James010623]

Hi Maria,
Thank you for your reply.
However, as mentioned already, clearing user data made no difference.
Kind regards, James

[RiekoC]

Hello @James010623 

I've seen users report that they did a factory reset/clearing user data as part of their troubleshooting steps prior to contacting Support. After Support had them do another factory reset, they reported that the heart rate sensor on their devices was back. 

From what I've been seeing, it can take more than 1 attempt to get the device "unstuck" and working correctly.

That said, this didn't work for everyone. But it still might be a something to consider trying.

[James010623]

Thanks Rieko,
I have tried again, after which it wouldn't pair with my phone.
Restarted it - no improvement.
Charged it up again and did the three button press, now it's stuck in a reset cycle again. Sightly different this time, in that it gets as far as flashing up the correct time for half a second before blanking then showing the Fitbit logo for a second. The screen does actually respond to swiping when the clock face is present, but it's not there for long enough to instruct it to do anything.
Multiple attempts to get it out of this state again have achieved nothing. It's taken over 600 mAh of charge during the past 6 hours and has gone from 100% charge to 23% in 25 minutes and is noticeably warm.
Obviously running the battery flat isn't going to be good for it, but I'm reluctant to leave it on charge while I sleep.
Kind regards, James

[RiekoC]

Hello @James010623 

Sorry to see that trying a factory reset didn't work.

Although it's concerning that the battery is getting warm during charging, that might not be unusual due to the excessive battery drain. Still, I agree that I wouldn't leave it on the charger while you're sleeping.

I don't have any other suggestions since you've already tried all the recommended ones, including factory resets.

BTW, from what I've read and experienced, Support is not the best at responding to emails. You will need to be your own advocate and follow up with them until you get a reply. You may have better response when you call or chat.

[James010623]

I wasn’t able to try again until Sunday when, after recharging and several factory resets it stopped the continuous resetting and also I noticed the green LED was flickering.
Stuck it on my wrist and it could see a pulse!
An hour later the battery was flat again.
So the excessive current draw issue remains and I didn’t get a chance to see if it would sync with the app.
Even when the device was working normally it has not been very reliable, failure to sync with the app was something that happened once or twice a month, requiring a reset. Many times when it claims to have synced, one or two parameters wouldn’t have transferred.
A few times after midnight I noticed it was still showing the previous day’s results… resetting fixed that, but after syncing to the app it had forgotten all the results from mid-afternoon onwards.
All in, it feels like it’s running a beta version of firmware.
I tried giving Support a call, got though to an Asian call centre with so much background noise that I could barely hear the lady who responded and she couldn’t hear me at all.

[SpikeT]

So I have the same issue about heart rate not working. I have tried everything reported in all threads. Reset the fitbit charge 5 and reinitialized and my heart rate function still is not working. As an older adult, with a history of heart issues in my family, this is a very important feature. I really hope someone with Fitbit responds back or gives me a way to replace it. My fitbit was bought last May so it's just over a year old.

[James010623]

The heart rate monitor is by far the most useful feature for me too, my phone already tells me the time and how far I’ve walked. 🙂
I suppose it’s easy to get a pessimistic view of the reliability of these things, Fitbit has probably sold millions of them and people don’t generally write to support forums to say theirs always works perfectly. However, when the company’s response to a faulty item is inadequate, it makes me very unlikely to ever buy from them again.

[James010623]

Might as well keep updating this.
I made another attempt to phone the support team. At least there was no background noise this time, it seemed like a clear line, after telling the staffer my name and responding to the “How can I help you, James?” she seemed unable to hear me and the line went dead.
On the 4th there was an email from them asking if the heart rate tracking was still working.
I explained that it might be, but since I only get one hour’s use out of it before it needing to be recharged, it still wasn’t of any practical use.
Today (6th July), they wrote again suggesting I try a factory reset and turning the heart rate monitoring on in the app.
I suppose I’ll give that yet another try tomorrow for completeness’ sake, but they’ve already closed the case. So, assuming the HR monitoring is working (albeit with the red LEDs apparently dead) the main issue is now battery life which means opening a new fault report for this lump of e-waste.

[James010623]

Well, it’s game over now.
I did raise a new case since the main issue is excessive battery drain rather than the initial problem, but Support are now ghosting me.
It’s a shame, I quite liked some of the features of the tracker and app, but it has been unreliable even before this failure and the support from Support has been underwhelming, so if I bother to get another device it certainly won’t be one by Fitbit.