Charge 5 water lock isn't working properly

[Melinda100]

Have had my charge 5 for about 2 months. Nearly every swim session the water lock somehow is switched off and it pauses or stops logging the laps. Is it better to just jump in the pool and let it auto log the swim? Or is there something I can change to stop it pausing mid way? Thanks 

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[Talahthas]

Welcome back to the Fitbit community, @Melinda100!

Sad to hear that you're having issues tracking your swimming exercises with your Charge 5.
To hopefully get rid of those, please have a closer look at 'Why does my Fitbit swim data seem wrong?' following the link below:

How do I track swims with my Fitbit device? 

[Melinda100]

Thanks, so after reading it seems the charge 5 pauses if you stop to catch your breath at the end of a lap? Can this feature be turned off? It doesn’t seem great at re-starting the tracking once swimming is resumed? E.g. the other day it ended the exercise itself and was showing the “well done” screen but I still had 200m of laps to track after that? 

[Talahthas]

You're welcome, @Melinda100.

That's a tough question. It's all depending on the algorithms Fitbit is using to analyze constant swimming exercises.
What about slowing down your pace to keep it in balance with your resting phase?

[Triletics]

@Talahthas "What about slowing down your pace" - you don't swim, do you?... 🤦

@Melinda100 "charge 5 pauses if you stop to catch your breath at the end of a lap" - no Fitbit ever shown that behaviour. Swim doesn't support auto-pause of any kind. If you track swimming manually (Exercise app -> Swim) then water lock shouldn't disengage on it's own. You need to firmly tap twice to disable water lock. Regardless how long breaks you take it will stay in Swim mode until you unlock the water lock yourself. I own Charge 6 but looking at manual it's not so different on Charge 5. If you use auto-detection, turn on water lock first manually and let watch detect swimming (works quite well on Charge 6). If you see that water lock isn't working correctly in the water and somehow disables itself it may mean there is something wrong with your display and touches (water interacts with screen) which should be "firm" are being detected somehow while you swim (sensitivity of display higher due to some damage? Maybe). On Charge 6 (and I believe Charge 5 is no different in that matter) it takes quite a tapping to disable water lock after swimming. When you try to disable it manually, does it feel too easy? (I need to tap like with a hammer to get any response - it's that hard).

[Melinda100]

Thanks this is what I was thinking too. I have only had to turn the water lock off with the double tap a few times as most swims it has already turned itself off! I might try the auto log next time and manually switch on water lock but if it turns off mid swim maybe I’ll contact Fitbit to report a fault.