So in the prelude (or concurrent?) to this recent failed firm wear update, I started having the rapid battery drain like most everyone here. After reading many posts (and maybe this is mentioned somewhere in another thread but there's too many here and it could/is likely buried in a thread), I think I've eliminated or at least greatly reduced the <2 hour battery drain on the Charge 5. I think what may have made the difference was deleting my user data on the Charge itself (Settings > Device Info > Clear User Data). Prior to this, I did the following:
1. Ensured my device was charged to 100%
2. Made sure that it wasn't trying to reinstall apps. I did notice after the failed firm wear upgrade ALL my default apps kept trying to update, which resulted in a non-responsive, blacked out device. Charging to 100% helped. To see if your Charge is trying to install/reinstall apps, in the phone app: go to your Account (upper left icon on the main screen) and look at the text below your Charge 5. It should say there if it's trying to sync apps. If it is, select your Charge 5, then select "Gallery". If they're updating, you should see the status bars for the update(s) if you scroll down.
3. removed all the uninstallable apps from the device (SPO2, EDA scan, EKG, etc) that could have battery drain
4,. turned off GPS (setting to Phone in the device settings) and not allowing location services to Fitbit in my phone.
5. I then removed my user data in the device.
6. Relinked the device to the app. (ensure that the extras that were turned off were still off)
After setting up the device and ensuring it was syncing appropriately (no leftover apps trying to install), I also had my phone "forget" the Charge 5 in Bluetooth to ensure there was no way it was trying to connect to the device, just to be sure.
After doing the hard reboot of the device (3 press reset on the charging cord), it started holding a charge. After an hour of nominal drain (1-3%), I restarted the SPO2 app. Still, no crazy drain. I then relinked the Bluetooth to my app and still, no crazy drain. So, now after almost 3 hours after this "clean" reboot of my device, I went from 100% to only 95%. Further, I have since no longer been prompt in my app to update to the failed firm wear update (I'm still on 188.58).
In all honestly, I do think it was the clearing of my user data from the device that made the difference but I also did do a log out of my app, delete, relink the device, and hundreds of soft and hard reboots of the device prior to this with all the same battery drain. Only the clearing of my data on the Charge 5 device seemed to make the difference. But who knows if one, more, or all the things I just did over the last 24 hours all needs to be done. Good luck! I hope this helps someone else too (and I hope this isn't just the eye of the hurricane).
If someone has a more refined work flow, please let me/us know!
As a side note, I did notice that during my extreme battery drain, the device was not recording my heart rate, but after the device data clear, it started capturing and syncing to my app again.
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