Display and battery issues with Charge 5

[kathleenjames]

Suddenly many people are dealing with sudden loss of battery and black screen with no possible way to fix it. Could this have anything to do with the update? It seems not so coincidental it's all happening at the same time.

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[zainsfiction]

My Charge 5 got bricked after the update. Tried all the suggested troubleshooting but NONE worked.

My 1 year warranty already expired. My device is nothing more than a piece of trash now.

Like already being rumored; Google will kill Fitbit sooner or later, this is one way of doing it.

I’m done with Fitbit. Horrible, really horrible.

[saera.jackson]

It says 188.58 as the version. It did update this week, so your software, including that which is used for updates, has some major bugs. Many here confirm that the version is not the one in which you stated, yet we all had some sort of "update" that has only changed one thing: It bricked our watches. We have tried the trouble-shooting you mentioned and only came to one conclusion: if your watch is out of warranty, the update broke it.

[Porridge51]

It almost feels as though the upgrade process itself is flawed and possibly leaves the firmware on the tracker corrupt? leaving the ID at previous level rather than new release level, also indicating that the upgrade has not completed successfully.

I tried all of the previously suggested actions as well as a factory reset, all to no avail.

I wonder if they could provide a proven upgrade to a previous version, allowing users with problems to regress to a previously known working level?

I’m surprised by a lack of involvement from fitbit support??

[katabella]

I can't see how this is going to be resolved.  I can't even get the thing to show a display and I removed it from my account as an attempt to get it to work.  It won't pair or sync so I can't see how  any new updates would get pushed to the device.  

Isn't it interesting that the warranty expired and now our devices are dead?  It's a great strategy to make us buy a new one.  It's also a great strategy if they want to lose customers.  Fitbit isn't the only game in town.  

[borzoimom]

Like many others, my firmware version is showing as 188.58.

[NJ-Brad]

The app says 188.58.  Since it cannot connect to the tracker, who knows what it's actually on.

[Acceptable]

Google just wants you to buy a new Pixel watch or Fitbit. It's the same with most (all?) vendors. But Google News alerted me to this issue so I didn't update. Thanks 👍

[kingRidiculous]

I'm on the same firmware (188.58) and for a few days I've been seeing the logo. I thought my Charge 5 was bricked, but it eventually came back (after a few hours.) I haven't been notified about a new FW update.

[Mitch705]

I am waiting to hear back on my warranty but I doubt it will it is still covered.  Has anyone heard back and if so, how long did it take?

[Porridge51]

Just discovered the news item that I think you refer to:

https://gadgetsandwearables.com/2023/07/08/fitbit-charge-5-bricked-device-firmware-update/

[Acceptable]

https://gadgetsandwearables.com/2023/07/08/fitbit-charge-5-bricked-device-firmware-update/

https://www.rprna.com/bugs/new-fitbit-charge-5-update-brings-a-nasty-bug-that-makes-the-device-unusa...

[123987123]

Thanks for sharing! 

[bbunge]

Am wondering if Fitbit/Google got this upgrade mixed up with the Inspire 3 upgrade of the same firmware number? The Inspire 3 part of the forum has way fewer complaints than the Charge 5.

Sure would be nice to have a way to roll back the firmware. I like my Charge 5 because it is not big and clunky like the other smart watches. Have already decided to go to the Inspire 3 if and when my Charge 5 tanks. I got mine on sale a couple of years ago for less than the 35% off Fitbit is offering now to unhappy users. With all the bad press I bet we will see a better offer than 35% off soon.

[CoreyMS]

I have yet to see anyone confirm, for sure, they were on this 194.61 good or bad.  

I'm on 188.58 with out a single issue, and multiple people are complaining about it.

I'm not saying the devices don't have an issue, that is obvious but the talk is all over the place.

[Acceptable]

https://www.sammyfans.com/2023/07/08/fitbit-firmware-broke-charge-5-no-support-buyers-feel-robbed/

[SunsetRunner]

Part way through the online chat (whilst trying to restart it for the umpteenth time and altering clock faces) the "software update available" box popped up. I asked if I should go ahead and was told yes.

It completed the update and was still the same black screen and 188.56 firmware showing.

Apparently we have a replacement on the way. However I'm not expecting much being asit appears there's no stock available 

[NJ-Brad]

Regarding the number of people on 188.58 and having issues...  It seems that the problem occurs while updating the tracker to 194.61 and the version on the app never gets updated, since the update didn't finish.  Too bad their isn't anything like the BIOS recovery found on many computers.

[M_W-L]

Read this you have no idea what you’re talking about! 

[filthyfezz]

I will describe, what happened to me.

So, yesterday (06.07) I went to swimming pool and turned on the swim exercise. When I was leaving it, i tried to finish it, but screen was black. I thought, that I hit them by a wall, but know, they were trying to sync.

At the evening, I contacted the support and described my issue. The operator didn't mention, that it could be a firmware. She proposed me to try to change a clock face, but now the app is trying to do it infinitely, so now my Fitbit is in limbo or some or off. As I bought them last August, mine is covered with warranty, so i will get the new one.

Firmware is still 188.56.

I hope that Fitbit will release a proper instruction, how to reset the band to default state or really replace all bricked bands, because it will be hard to damage control it.

[sporkster]

This is so odd.

First, a really simple(?) question: Is there a way to make sure I don't get the update? I don't see an option to enable/disable auto-updates.

I noticed mine was stuck on the logo last night when I went walking. It stayed that way the whole walk and also at home. I don't think it was in a boot loop, but it's possible I missed it. It kept showing the logo until it exhausted the battery. I googled for info on "stuck on logo" and saw the various reset instructions (did not see anything about a firmware update at the time). Doing the button reset did nothing. What was interesting was that if I turned bluetooth off on my phone, the tracker would boot, and would get to point I could interact with it. But when I would scroll through the Settings (to do a reboot from there for good measure) it would freeze and go back to the logo. If I left it alone with bluetooth still disabled on my phone it would come back but eventually on interaction it would go back to a boot loop. I also found that if the tracker was sitting there booted up, simply turning bluetooth on on my phone would blank the screen and send me back to the logo.

The "fix" eventually was to follow the instructions (specifically the bit about removing the Charge from the app). After multiple "3x button push" reboots, something seems to have happened and I was able to re-add it to the app and it's been working for a few hours now without issue.

I am on the 188.58 version, but I could have swore I caught it doing an upgrade earlier this week (or maybe it was just rebooting itself for no reason?).

I'm really leaning toward something in the update process going wrong and semi-bricking the thing or leaving it in some kind of inconsistent state.

edit: should also note that not only did I remove the device in the app, but I also manually unpaired it in bluetooth settings on my phone (iPhone, fwiw)