Charge 5 won't hold a charge

[Ras-O]

About a week ago, I noticed that my Charge 5 was not working. I put it on the charger. It turned on. I fully charged it. However, within three hours the Charge 5 was off again. The battery had fully discharged. This happened everyday until I stopped trying to charge the Charge. Any idea what's going on with my Charge 5? Is it done? It has not suffered any trauma like a blow or drop.

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[Talahthas]

Welcome back to the Fitbit community, @Ras-O!

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. 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.

I'll keep my fingers crossed.

[MarreFitbit]

Hi there, @Ras-O. Thanks for stopping by in the Fitbit Community Forums and sharing the details about the issue with your Charge 5. I'll be glad to help you with this. 

Regarding the battery short life, in general, it is recommended to follow the recommendations listed in this article to improve or extend battery life.  There are a few features that would make the battery drain faster than usual, even in one day. Some of these features are: 

• Built-in GPS (Charge 5 can have a battery life of up to 4 days when using this feature regularly, or up to 5 hours if you use it continuously).
• Always-on display (Charge 5 can have a battery life of up to 3 days when using this feature). 
• Tracking SpO2 (Fitbit points out in this article that you may have to charge your Fitbit device more often when collecting SpO2 data).

If this doesn't apply to you, another step that has been helpful for other users having battery draining problems is the three pulse restart procedure using the charging cable. To do so, please follow @Talahthas' recommendations provided in the post above. 

[BosseFit]

Hi//

I have the same issue as Ras-O with the little twist that i had a swim with my charge 5. 

after this it started to discharge and after 3-4 times its not possible to charge at all. when i try to restart it, it flashes the fitbit logo and then nothing more.

The app says something about downloding an upgrade to the fitbit(that is on the latest), but due to that in wont start, this is not possibly. 

Anyone that can understand what to do? 

[Aussiej1]

I am having the same issues with first a pale green screen and now nothing. Contacted Fitbit multiple times and apparently it is a battery issue that all charge fives are starting to have. I did all the resets like they said but now nothing so the only option is to buy a new tracker at my expense. Yes they offered a discount however you cannot get a charge 5 anymore me thinks this might be a marketing ploy to get us to buy the charge 6 which by the way your discount does not apply to. By the way this only started happening after the software update again

[BosseFit]

I got a replacement charge 5… so now all works 😊

Fitbit support just asked some questions… and then they just sended me the replacement unit

[Aussiej1]

You are very lucky in three conversations with Fitbit support they told me there was no valuable replacement device available. And that they did not know when any charge 5 would be in stock again