Won't Charge or Hold a Charge

[winchell]

I am a long time Fitbit user and I upgraded to a Charge 5 that I bought from Target less than a year ago.

Within the  last couple of weeks, my charge 5 has been acting up. At first it wasn’t charging when I put it on the charger. Then it started charging, then stop charging, then charging again. It will light up and you can watch the displayed battery percentage jump from say 20% to 34% to 45% in a matter of seconds, and then if you take it off the charger it will say it’s at say 6%.

I tried buying a brand new Fitbit charger from Best Buy, but still have the same issues. I have tried cleaning the contacts on the Fitbit with electrical parts cleaner and q-tips, which did seem to help, but even last night after letting it sit on the charger for about 12 hours it said it only charged to 63%. Then after taking it off the charger and wearing it for about an hour it’s already down to 30%.

It also is having trouble syncing with my phone and is often showing the complete wrong time, I imagine as a result of it dying and then not knowing what time it should be because it won’t sync.

[RiekoC]

Many of us have had charging issues, most noticeably after updating our trackers to the current firmware. 

Since your device is still under warranty, I recommend that you contact Fitbit support, preferably via chat. They will walk you through several troubleshooting steps. Once they confirm that your device does not return to normal function and is still under warranty, they will send you an offer to replace your Charge 5 pebble (tracker device) or discount on a different device.