Charge 5 stopped tracking my sleep stages

[pjf53]

My Charge 5 has stopped tracking sleep modes. It tracks my sleep but does not break it down to Deep, REM, Light, awake.  It was working fine until it was not.  I've restarted it multiple times without success.  This is very frustrating

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[MarreFitbit]

Hello there, @pjf53. Thanks for stopping by in the Fitbit Community Forums and trying to troubleshoot the issue with your Charge 5 before reaching out. I understand how you must be feeling. 

Before considering other options, I recommend considering the following in order to get sleep stages:

• If you slept in a position that prevented your device from getting a consistent heart-rate reading or wore it too loosely. For best results, wear your device higher on your wrist (about 2-3 finger widths above your wrist bone). The band should feel secure but not too tight.
• If you used the Begin Sleep Now option in the Fitbit app (instead of simply wearing your device to bed). For more information on automatic sleep tracking, see How do I track my sleep with my Fitbit device?
• If you slept for less than 3 hours.
• If your device’s battery is critically low.

For more information, see What should I know about Fitbit sleep stages?

[pjf53]

I saw this reply in multiple responses to the issue. I have been a fitbit user well over 15 years and wear my Charge 5 the same as always. I see there are multiple people experiencing this issue. Surely you havve a better response.

Peter Fallon

[brownie88]

I am also having the same problem now 🙄

[mieitte]

Same issue. User since charge 2 and now it just stopped to work. Also app does not show yesterdays steps as well 😕

[BezierNougat]

As pjf53 notes, Fitbit seems to repeat the same advice which never seems to work. I have come to the conclusion that the product team either doesn't know what to do, or doesn't care, or is off working on Google products. Which is why they rely on us to do their problem solving for them. I don't blame the poor customer support staff (like MarreFitbit above), since she can only provide what information the seemingly missing product team gives her. Anyway, here is a potential fix:

Until just this week, I was only getting detailed sleep data about 50% of the time. Like others, I tried everything Fitbit suggested: restart using 3 pulses; restart from the pod itself; cleaning the device with the recommended non-soap cleaner (which I had to order specially, not the cheapest thing in the world...); making sure the device was fully charged; wearing it high on my wrist; removing, then re-setting up the device from the app; deleting then re-installing the app on the phone; not using Begin Sleep, shutting down and restarting my phone - you name it I tried it. Note, generally when there was no detailed sleep data, there was also no detailed information in Health Metrics, other than heart rate and oxygen saturation, so I was assuming the device was just not recording. Sometimes these 'fixes' worked, sometimes they didn't, but whatever worked seemed to be random, i.e., somedays one 'fix' would work, other days it wouldn't, and then after trying another 'fix', that would work (even though it hadn't worked before...). And then, while I was waiting for whatever fix I was trying to kick in (or not...), I would lose 2 or 3 days of sleep data.

Then, a couple days ago, I once again woke up to no sleep score, but it did show all the Health Metrics! So I knew the device was recording (which I was never sure of before). I recalled somewhere deep in this forum that someone (NOT someone from Fitbit!) had suggested deleting a sleep log and then 'adding a sleep log, using the same start and wake up times. Shazaam! It worked. And not only did it work for that particular day, I went back and tried it for prior days when there was no detailed sleep data and, shazaam again! It recovered the detailed data from those days as well.

So, to do this: go to your sleep function, and tap on what basic sleep data is there for a particular day (typically this shows Asleep (dark blue), Restless (light blue), Awake (red). Note (under Sleep Schedule) the 'bedtime' and the 'wake up' time. Then, in the upper right click on the three dots - ... - and select 'Delete Sleep Log' (don't worry...).

Then, go back one screen, to the 'Sleep' data (where you will see the various daily entries). In the upper right, click on '+' then 'Add Sleep Log'. Using the data from your deleted sleep score, add the 'Sleep Start' and 'Sleep End' times, then 'Save'. Finally, sync your device with the app. Hopefully, this will bring up not only the detailed sleep data, but also any missing Health Metrics (mine doesn't always bring up breathing, but that is another issue Fitbit seems unable to resolve). As I noted, you may be able to go back and recover the detailed sleep data from other days. Fingers crossed for you! And let us know if this works for you!

[pjf53]

Thanks.  I tried with no success.  The app says "Your tracker couldn't get a consistent heart rate reading " for sleep stages.  The heart rate and resting heart rate functions seem to work fine and show the data.

[BezierNougat]

Sorry to hear that. I am coming more and more to the conclusion that the product team simply doesn't know what is causing this and other problems, which is why they tell the customer service reps to issue the standard responses that we've all seen - I can only posit that they hope one of those 'fixes' will work, and that those who have the problem will go away. Personally, if I were a Fitbit employee, I would be doing everything I could to get on the Pixel team, since it is pretty clear that Fitbit brand is slowly going the way of, say Compaq after it got acquired by HP, leaving fewer and probably less qualified folks at Fitbit. Unfortunately, as we can all see from the frustrations in this forum, many are going to vote with their feet (or wallet) when it comes time to replace their current device....

[pjf53]

Thanks. I am afraid you are right and that it may be time to look at alternatives.

[pjf53]

Marre Fitbit, I owe you an apology.  I tightened my bad a notch last night and the sleep function worked.  It is pretty snug but for now I am ok.

[pjf53]

And now back to no sleep stages...

[BezierNougat]

Frustrating! All I can suggest is keep trying different fixes until you find one that actually fixes the issue. FYI, I now have detailed sleep data every day this month, and for the last two days, I haven't had to do anything (the other days, I had to delete and then add a sleep log) - in other words, the device did what it was supposed to do! 🤞

[RiekoC]

Hello @pjf53 

I realize that this seems to be one of the standard troubleshooting steps for just about all issues. That said, you might consider restarting your Charge 5. It's been my experience that doing restarts, often more than once, can get my device "unstuck" and back to working normally. Hopefully, you will have the same positive experience. 

[pjf53]

Somewhere other than this thread I saw a suggestion to change the clock face.  I rest the Fitbit Charge 5, changed the clock face, and rest the Charge 5 again.  I have now had two nights in a row of the Charge 5 capturing all of my sleep stages.  

[pjf53]

reset, not rest

[RiekoC]

Hi @pjf53 

Got my fingers crossed that the clock face change got your Charge 5 "unstuck" and now it will continue to track your sleep. Please keep us posted.