Charge 6 blank screen and will not reset

[jb1985uk]

Hi,

I have had the Fitbit charge 6 for nearly 2 weeks and yesterday the screen went blank and had at least 20% battery still. I tried to charge it but nothing is coming up on the screen. when I plug the charger into the Fitbit it vibrates, also if i push the button on the side of the watch it vibrates.

I have followed the steps by switching to different plug and still no luck and I have tried multiple times to reset the device via the charger button (pushing 3 times in 8 seconds) As well as pulling the cable in and out of the plug to hard reset it but still no luck.

Is there a way to do a hard reset of the device via the button? Phone will not find or sync to the device either as it says the battery is low.

Also to add i have tried cleaning the back of the watch charging inlet as well as the charger itself.

[Jjelmer]

Agree. I like Fitbit when they work and as I’ve said my 
Charge 4 is still going. I’ll buy a new model when they come out. 
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[Jaffa1234]

I have the Fitbit 5 and have a blank screen, just before this the screen went really bright for a day. I have tried the three button reset and still a blank screen. By the looks of things this seems to be a major fault, can you suggest any help?

[OffTheCouch]

Unfortunately my Charge 6 went brain dead after about 4 weeks. Technically the screen worked...I could see it reset but them would not respond to touch inputs. Customer support took my case and I got it back in about a week. nevertheless, I don't have a lot of confidence in the quality of this thing. I was literally wearing it on my wrist and this just happened. Weird.....

[FitbitUser1107]

What? They repaired it for you and left you with nothing for a week?

[BeethovenMoose]

YesSent from my Galaxy

[shimsim]

@Jaffa1234 if you are still within warranty, best to contact support and get a replacement, if possible, see if they can upgrade you to the charge 6 because the charge 5 was incredibly prone to failure (at least in my extensive experience with the product). 

If you are out of warranty, the Charge 6 seems to be slightly more reliable (based on my experience with owning just one that failed after 8 months), but it might be worth holding out for the next model in the hopes its a product that doesn't fail within a year or just outside of the warranty period. 

Unfortunately, if you want to stay in the Fitbit ecosystem, at least with the Charge range, you need to have a budget for replacing them yearly. 

@OffTheCouch thats been my experience with these products since day one (except for one Charge 2 that is still going strong). They work great to start with, but then suddenly die. It can happen after months of use or just a few weeks. It doesn't matter how careful you are with them, same as you, I don't do any extreme sport or even swim wearing it, but they always just stop working. Until last week I had thought the Charge 6 was finally going to be a product that I could depend on but I was wrong.

[TAMBO40]

My charge 6 still has given up. I’ve not been able to get through to support or help.

I’m not buying another Fitbit and I won’t be using it again.

Sent from Outlook for iOS<>

[Jjelmer]

Go into your app and communicate with customer service through the chat that’s available there. I’ve used it multiple times as I too had bad experiences with 2 charge 6 but Customer service took care of it ( it took several chats and multiple emails back and forth) 
I still wear my 4 year old charge 4 and it’s serving me well. I will be a customer for their new model 


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[Jjelmer]

I loved my charge 6, was and am a charge 4 user. Unfortunately my charge 6 and its replacement both went dark. Fitbit customer service helped me. I will continue to wear my charge 4 until I can give their next new model a try!!!!


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[Jjelmer]

Go into your app and contact customer service via chat. It can be protracted but has always helped me. Good luck 

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[Jjelmer]

I agree regarding the charge 6, they have an issue. But my charge 4 has only been off my wrist when charging for over 4 years now. I’ll be getting another Fitbit when a new model comes out. 


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[shimsim]

@TAMBO40  Support is far from perfect, I am still waiting for someone to get back to me on how to return mine (its been 4 days already) but if its under warranty (1 year) they will replace it, so either use the app or contact them via the website contact option

@Jjelmer The issue for me is not about getting support, its how often it needs to be done. What makes the whole Fitbit experience so bad for me is reliability. I spend a lot of time travelling and its simply not practical to be able to ship back the faulty one and get them to send a new one to a country outside of their supported sales area (which is most countries since they decided to give up on so many regions). Its simply becoming less and less practical to own a fitbit because they need replacing so often. 

[FitbitUser1107]

That sucks for you. I still haven't had time to get back to them, you have to be in a place where you can charge it while they're "troubleshooting" it for you, and allow probably at least an hour dedicated to them, and I haven't had that opportunity... 

[Jjelmer]

Your description is exactly my experience too, fortunately for me I was at home.


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[Jjelmer]

Agree regarding the issue of reliability. The charge 4 I continue to wear is ok for me but I went through 2 Charge 6 before both myself and Fitbit felt a refund was in our best interest. Fitbit knows charge 6 sucks but don’t recall it hoping that both the warrantees and the owners will run/wear out. 
As for the customer service I found it very good except as said SLOW. The in app chat worked to initialize my inquiry and then emails wrapped it up but they weren’t very prompt. In the end my case was resolved.



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[FitbitUser1107]

Thanks very much. Shame we all have to go through this. 

[Geoexplore]

Same issue just happened for me, blank screen but button vibration. Solved by taking fitbit (charge 6) off charge, uninstalling the fitbit app on my phone and installing it again. Fitbit then started downloading, I assume a firmware update, and it's now working fine.

[Jjelmer]

Congrats!!!!! You are very lucky!!!! I did same multiple times on 2 charge 6, no luck. I liked the charge 6 when it worked. 



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[shimsim]

So it's been over a month, and I'm still waiting for someone in the 'higher tier of support'  to follow up on how I get a refund because i can't get a replacement now. The interesting thing to me is when I asked support for an update, they told me .....

23:16:04 J****** : I'm sorry for the inconvenience that it caused you.
23:16:40 J****** : We are getting a high-volume of refund and replacement claims. Nonetheless, our team is now addressing all the claims in a speed up manner.

I've been saying it since my run of bad luck with the Charge 5, there is no way I'm that unlucky and that everyone I know has the same failure .... something is inherently unreliable about them. 
When they work, they are great. I really have no major complaints, but they dont last, which is such a shame.

[Keefos1]

Hi, I've had my Charge 6 since December 2023. I've had to contact customer support a number of times, regarding various issues. 

They have always been very helpful, but after the latest blank screen fault, I was fed up with constantly having to contact them and going through  a whole load of attempted fixes. This time, I had tried the previous fixes without success, so I suggested that the product is faulty.

Again, the agent was very helpful and arranged that I should send the body and charging lead away for repair or replacement. I have now received a replacement body, but didn't get a charging lead with it. As I cannot charge it, I'm still unable to use it.

I'm now waiting for an email to arrange for a charging lead to be sent to me.

Not impressed!