Charge 5 won't respond to anything

[falloutphil]

Hi,

My charge 5 got a low battery warning, and I noticed it had switched off during swimming.  Normally when this happens I just charge it when I get home, but this time this didn't bring it back to life, even after charging for several hours.

I tried the the 3-button press soft-reset and this briefly showed the logo on the screen, but then it disappears and nothing else is responsive.  Repeating this gets the same result every time.  So I know the pins of the charger are connecting to the fitbit OK because I get some response, but it doesn't resolve my problem.

What can I try now - I figure I need to hard reset the device without being able to access any of the on-screen menus - how do I do that, or any other advice?

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[MarreFitbit]

Hi there, @falloutphil. Thanks for stopping by in the Fitbit Community Forums and trying to troubleshoot the issue with your Charge 5 before reaching out. 

Please note the issue you're having comes from performing a factory reset without first unpairing your Fitbit device from your Fitbit account and phone's Bluetooth settings. With that being said, I suggest following the steps below in the order listed:

• Unpair your Charge 5 from your phone's Bluetooth and also make sure it's no longer connect to your Fitbit app. 
• Force quit the Fitbit app.
• Turn off the Bluetooth.
• Shut off your phone and turn it on after 1-2 minutes.
• Turn on the Bluetooth.
• Set up your Charge 5 again.
• If there is no connection, restart your Charge 5.
  
  

If you can't get started with your Charge 5, usually a missing requirement is the cause. Carefully review the requirements provided in the help article Why can't I set up my Fitbit device? 

If you continue having difficulties to update your Fitbit device, see Why can't I update my Fitbit device?

[DavideFitbit · Accepted solution]

Hi, welcome back to the Fitbit community forums, @falloutphil. 

Thank you for all the details and for confirming that you already tried the three pulse restart procedure. 

Unfortunately it would be necessary to see the display in order to complete the factory reset. In addition to this procedure, please try changing to a different clock face and let me know if the issue persists. If the device is not charging, please follow the steps in this article as well. 

[RiekoC]

Hi @falloutphil 

Please disregard the instructions from MarreFitbit. Those are troubleshooting steps to try when one's Fitbit is not synching with the app. 

Since you've already tried restarting your device multiple times, I suggest you contact Fitbit support if you haven't already done so. They will probably walk you through the same troubleshooting steps you've already done. Once they confirm that none of the troubleshooting steps returns your device to normal operation and if your Charge 5 is still under warranty, they should send you an offer to replace the tracker/pebble or a discount on a different device. If your Charge 5 is out of warranty, they usually offer a discount on a replacement. Note: the discount is on the full price, even if the device is on sale in the Fitbit store. 

[falloutphil]

Yes and thanks all for replies.

To be clear the FitBit seems bricked - it doesn't boot - I get a blank unresponsive screen - on doing 3 pushes of the button on the charges I breifly get the logo before it turns itself off again.  This tells me at a guess - the hardware is probably OK, but it has dead storage.

It's not a sync issue because the fitbit doesn't get as far to through it's boot-up phase to begin sync'ing.  It dies long before that.

Changing clock faces or accessing the GUI is impossible for the same reason - there is nothing to tap on and scroll, because the fitbit dies before displaying anything on its screen, bar a brief logo.

If I was going to randomly guess it feels like whatever storage device it uses to do it's internal boot has become corrupted - when this happens on some devices completely erasing the internal storage by way of factory resetting the device might solve the problem, but it looks like FitBit have made the decision to make factory reset only possible when the FitBit itself remains functional (which somewhat defeats the purpose of the majority of factory resets!!!).

If anyone does know a way to force a factory reset physically on a non-responsive device (the equivalent of sticking a paperclip into your router!) let me know, otherwise I'll have to return it under warranty - assuming it's not less than 1 year?

[Poiuytrew.q]

I’m in the same boat as you. I can’t do the support chat because it doesn’t work. Fitbit does that provide help through email either. 

My watch was working fine. It wasn’t glitchy - it just never charged. (And I’ve cleaned the back and the connections. ) 

[falloutphil]

OK - some good news for me - I used there chat app, and they asked me to go through the reboot once again.

This time as well as getting an initial Blue Logo, I then got a White Logo and then it rebooted.

I asked the operator what the sequence for reboot was but they were a bit evaisive - they didn't seem to know the answer - but it seems to me like just getting a Blue Logo on a Charge 5 on 3 presses on your charger is NOT proof of reboot.  It should then go to a White Logo and after a minute or so it will complete reboot.

They were unable to explain why yesterday I was able to do 3 presses, get a blue logo, but not have it actually reboot.  They said in their system they could not see any successful reboots happening, but eventually saw one trigger today.

So it was a bit of a pain - but my FitBit works again.  Some of my config/settings has been lost on the fitbit so I do wonder if they've done something their end and then claimed the final reboot magically worked - I guess I'll never know!