Charge 5 stopped working after the update

[LexiconPrime]

Fitbit created a "KILL CODE"

I have been a professional IT engineer for over 20 years specializing in everything from consumer products to enterprise level network infrastructure.

Last week I observed my 1 year and 2 week old (2 weeks out of warranty) FitBit Charge 5 attempting to push an un-prompted software update. Resulting in a complete failure of the device. All recommended troubleshooting steps have failed and never resulted in any more then FitBit logo and crash loop.

Customer service was only able to offer a $50 dollar replacement voucher to the Google Store to purchase presumably the brand new Charge 6, seems very coincidental.

After reviewing a number of 3rd party site forums, my research has yielded  that it is a known issue effecting a large number of users and Fitbit is refusing to admit the software update is the course. In my opinion the issue lies with the update delivery system, if the Bluetooth connection is interrupted during install it will fail rendering the device useless as their is no physical hardware factory reset option.

They have essentially created a kill code that can be construed as a way to create continues revenue forcing the user base to pay for an upgrade to newer devices.

As a side note I noticed how all recent forms related to this topic have been locked, also very suspicions!Fitbit (Now Owned by Google) should really consider the optics of this practice and provided a free upgrade to all effected users.

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[MarreFitbit]

Hi there, @LexiconPrime. Welcome to the Fitbit Community Forums. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. We‘re taking your comments and sentiments in regards to our products and services into consideration.

Thanks for your question about why we offered a discount towards a new Fitbit product instead of a replacement of your existing Fitbit product. Our limited warranty provides repair or replacement of products that have a defect while still in the warranty period. Your device is out of the warranty period, and therefore is not eligible for repair or replacement, but we want to offer you a discount to thank you for your loyalty to Fitbit. For more information about our warranty, see fitbit.com/legal/returns-and-warranty.

Note that our products are indeed designed and made to last (this goes for each product component) however, there is not an infallible way to ensure that no issues will be present in the long run. Because of this, our Warranty Policy  is set into providing as much coverage as we can. 

Even though I truly appreciate you took the time to come here and express your feelings towards your experience with your Charge 5 and also want to find a resolution to your issue, my best advice is to keep the conversation with our Support Team. Note for this kind of inquiries/cases/process, there's not so much we here in the forums can do for you as this is something that our team handles based on our policies. Thanks in advance! 

[Delmo1]

I have the exact same problem, started around July 11. 

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When was the update?

[Andiejpg]

Mine died today.  Is there no way to uninstall the update?  I am not happy that many many people are affected by this but nothing is coming from Google.

[NanD2]

Mine tracked overnight.  Was fully charged this morning, but later today went dark.  Did respond when put on charger.  Still on charger now.  Charge drained in 8-10 hrs.  Will see what happens next.  First Fitbit was Verge2, and it failed.  Given % off on Charge 5.  Had less than 2 yrs.  Like the unit, but shouldn't have to keep paying up for what seem like quality issues.

[bsgaston]

Mine died July 14, 2024. My SIL's several days before. She's upgraded to a Charge 6. I'm TRYING to get mine restarted with no success thus far. Come on Google do the right thing. Fix the update and help us get grt phones operating asap. 

[PocketWeasel]

And my charge 5 died two days ago.  Same situation as you.  Except fitbit customer service weren't at all helpful.

There seems to be a lot of people with charge 5s that just stopped working on here.

Is this normal?  Are charge 5s low quality that at any time a bunch of them stop working?  I'm coming round to your theory that this was triggered by something that fitbit did.

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Hi there @MarreFitbit 

I'm new to the community but there seems to be a lot of people with charge 5s that just stopped working on here

Is this normal?  Are charge 5s such low quality that at any time a bunch of them stop working?  Do you expect a percentage to just fail?

Is this a known quality issue and this number of failures is normal, or are there more charge 5s failing at this point in time than you'd expect?

Hi @andreafitbit  - same question to you please.

[stlrfn1]

Bought a fitbit charge 5 back on July 13, 2022.  On this past Sunday, the screen was unresponsive to touch, and now I am noticing that it won't hold a charge.  I have been reading that others are having similar issues.

[rlkilp]

The same thing just happened to me yesterday. My charge 5 was working fine in the afternoon then all of a sudden when I went to see what time it was, my screen was black. I put it in the charger and the only thing that happens is a red light lights up on the back of the device and it does NOT charge. Purchased in July of 2023. Pretty coincidental. This is also my second Fitbit which replaced one that died soon after warranty period.

[LiJaHi]

Pocketweasel, was this a firmware update to the fitbit device itself? If you read back through older threads, you'll find that firmware updates destroying many users' devices is a common theme. Personally, after reading all the negative experiences, I've never downloaded any of them.

[Leah00]

I’ve had my Charge 5 for 1 year and 3 months. It’s been working fine until a few days ago. I don’t know if it installed an update or now. I just know that it randomly died one night and now I charge it to 100% and it’s dead after about 2 hours. 
I'm so upset about this. I’ve tried several of the “fixes” from this forum and nothing has worked. 

[lkcowasco]

My fitbit quit working after update to version 194.91 

Screen is black and unresponsive.

Sync is still working while on charger.

Tried reset using the button on the charger 3x.  
Screen works fine to display fitbit logo. After doing this process the battery level goes down to 1%.

This is my 6th fitbit upgrading to newer version always because my previous fitbit broke.

I think it’s time to abandon Fitbit and switch to apple.  

[down_and_out]

No one is looking for infallible.  But the large number of users on these and other forums reporting the same problem indicates that this is  common problem.

This issue reminds me of the charge cables where the pin design failed and the "best" that could be done was 'send us your cable and we'll give a new one' and when other issues happened in the 2nd year on other versions the same response - offering you $50 on a new Fitbit product out of the goodness of heart because policy says we don't don't have to give you ...."

The number of issues that arise after software updates in the 2nd year after the warranty expired is suspiciously coincidental.

[down_and_out]

Your suggestion that Google created a Kill Code for the Fitbit Charge seems reasonably credible.   Was going to switch from Fitbit the last time they did this but hung around because Google was taking over so thought things would improve.  Instead it has gotten worse.  Normally a company like Google would want to migrate the users to higher end Google products.  Instead they seem intent on chasing users out.

It seems the main reason for the takeover was to gain client lists and get access to user data.

My wife's phone went belly up this morning while out walking. Screen is locked into an overlay of two of the EDA screens.  Tried having her go through the process but the tracker is locked into the EDA function.   Tracker won't respond to the charger.

I won't bother with phoning in just to hear: The warranty expired but we are such a great company we'll provide a $50 credit towards a Fitbit/Google replacement to keep our hardware sale numbers up"

Add in loss of the web page, inconsistent sleep tracking the last few weeks and really is time to consider Samsung or Apple or anyone else.  If I have to replace every year plus X number of months I am as well off to buy low end ones on Amazon.  My brother paid $65 and is in year 3 of operations.

Update: This morning my wife's tracker has a blank screen.  Apparently syncs battery status with phone app if nothing else but won't respond to charging. My tracker is no longer syncing with the phone app.  8 steps on app compared to 120 on tracker. 

Had been looking at the Google Pixel phones to increase compatibility with Fitbit tracker as our phones are up for replacement this fall.   Instead I am now looking at staying with the Samsung phone line and changing over to Samsung smart watch.  If Google software engineers can't manage a low end tracker I don't have faith in how they will deal with their phones.

[Carol1519]

I am switching.  After Google took over, it has wrecked things.  The last update did damage.  I have tried all suggestions and nothing works.  I am disgusted!

[Kiki112]

I am also dealing with this same issue 

[Slcltn]

Having issues with my Charge 5 the past two days and now realize it was the update. Went from holding a charge for almost a week to now just a few hours. They need to make this right!

[Redstarfox1]

Totally agree - I've been in the industry for the best part of 30 years and I think you are spot on. I have also posted on this here but as yet have had no response from FitBit. My Charge 5 is totally dead - flashing FitBit logo but nothing else - won't reset and no longer paired with my iphone.