My experience with Charge 5

[Redstarfox1]

I bought my Charge 5 in December 2021. It's been fine until a few months ago when it started to exhibit a lot of the problems described by others on this Community.

- Wont hold charge for more than a day

- Freezes on white cross / red background

- Continually vibrates / buzzes until reset

- Loses pairing with iphone

and now its simply flashing the FitBit logo.

My go-to solution is the standard connect to charging cable and press the button three times. This usually resolves it although nothing address the fact that it loses its full charge in 24hrs. However, the reset procedure has not addressed the flashing FitBit logo problem. I have also tried syncing through the app but the app cannot see the device and the status is "looking". I have remove the device from the app and the bluetooth pairing but this hasn't helped and now (obviously) neither the FitBit app or my phone can see the device.

I

've been a FitBit user for a long time and owned several devices including the Charge HR and have never had any issues. My reason for changing devices was always to get new functionality. However, I'm pretty disgusted with what has happened with the Charge 5. As far as I can see, the root cause of these issues is the last code update and to be honest, code can always be fixed, if the manufacturer has the desire to do so.

It seems to me that its no coincidence that the lack of any resolution to this problem coincides with the release of the Charge 6 and I firmly believe that this is simply a cynical attempt by FitBit to force Charge 5 users to move to the Charge 6. This is really disappointing.

If anyone, especially from FitBit support can offer a long term solution to this issue I would be very grateful otherwise I will wait for the battery to completely discharge and see if I can do another reset.

I've owned this for less than 3 years and I don't believe, regardless of the warranty period, that it should become unusable within that time. 

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[CCsoul]

I have 2 Charge 5's.  The irony is that they are both doing the same thing.  

In the old app, I would get a notification of an update.  I would come here to see if there were any issues.  I repeatedly rejected the updates.  Sometime after the new version of the app, the update installed without asking and the problems started.  When I switched to the 2nd Charge 5, it got the update without asking too.

Another strange thing, when I got the 2nd one, I looked up how to shut it off and you couldn't.  Fitbit said you had to let the battery die.  Now when I select restart in settings, they will shutdown.  When I select Clear user data, they will shutdown.

Also, on the Charge it will say the battery is at 40%, but when I plug it in, the charging face says it's 60%.  It will stay at 60% for an hour or two then jump to 100%.

If I didn't have 2 I would think it was just my Charge dying, but for both to show the same irregularities is concerning.  Maybe they just messed up the firmware, but if so they should own up to it.

[Redstarfox1]

V interested to see that FitBit are able to make the effort to change the subject of my post but are unable to find time to respond to its content.

Disappointing.