Charge 6 sudden battery drain

[David574737]

I have been using my charge 6 for a month now, it's gr8 but all of a sudden I'm loosing 30+% of the battery a day. I have changed nothing in the settings, it's just started happening out of no where. Contacts are clean, charging rakes a little over an hour but battery won't last 2 days at the moment. What's happened, faulty firmware update?

[Talahthas]

Welcome to the Fitbit community, @David574737!

Sad to hear you're having issues with your Charge 6.
As there might be process running in the background that's draining your device's battery faster than usual, I'd suggest restarting your device to hopefully get things fixed. Before doing so you should make sure you've synced your device to not lose any data tracked so far. 

To restart your device, please closely follow these instructions as timing is crucial for this procedure:

1.) Connect your Charge 6 to the charging cable which has to be connected to a reliable power source.
2.) Press the button located on the flat end of the charging cable 3 times within 8 seconds(!), holding each press for about 1 second(!).
3.) Wait around 10 seconds until the Fitbit logo appears on your device's display.

I'd like to point out that it sometimes requires more than one attempt to restart Charge 6. So, before throwing the towel, please give it another try.

If that really won't work for you, please try if changing your device's clock face will get it back to working order. Here's how to do that:

How do I change the clock face on my Fitbit device?

I'll keep my fingers crossed.

[David574737]

Interesting technique, thanks for the reply. Is the 3 press button option any different from resetting the Fitbit from the settings menu?

I did note that I had a paused timer running in the background, paused on 2 seconds... Iv removed that now and will see if the battery is improved any.

Feels like battery usage graphs and warnings might be good to add to the Fitbit software to tell the user if there are any processing eating the battery life...

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Unfortunately none of this has helped. I went from fully charged at midnight to 20% remaining at 6: 00pm now. I really don't understand what is causing this drain. I haven't installed any new apps or left any timers running. GPS is set to phone only mode, have not been running any exercise apps, It's literally been sat on my wrist monitoring my heart rate for 15 hours and it's almost flat 😞

[RiekoC]

Hello @David574737 

When my Charge 5 started having rapid battery drain, I restarted and recharged my device multiple times over several days. As soon as I noticed the battery% had a big drop, I restarted and put my Fitbit on the charger, often doing this multiple times in a day. This process eventually got my Charge 5 "unstuck" and the battery life went back to lasting 6-7 days. Although there's no guarantee that this will work for a Charge 6, it might be worth a try.

As for your question about restarting from the Settings menu on the device versus using the charging cable, as far as I know, there isn't a difference. Having the option to use the charging cable is extremely helpful when you're having issues with the display and can't access the Settings tile.

[David574737]

Hi Reiko

Thanks for the reply. Unfortunately I have tried this many times over the last week to no avail. I left it charging all night last night to see if it was a charging issue. Right now after about 15 hours of passive use I'm down 40% battery...

Utterly baffled as to what's causing this. I'm going to explore looking at getting the developer tool setup and exploring the device if I can. Clearly something has started running or maybe the battery's degraded I don't know. If I wanted to charge my watch every single night I'd have got an Apple watch.

Very disappointed in Fitbit this week 

[Barbdwire]

I'm having the same problem?

[Megapod]

I’m having the same problem with a charge 6 that is maybe 6 weeks old.

[RiekoC]

Hello @Megapod 

That is definitely not normal behavior for a relatively new Charge 6.

Please contact Support (<-- click link).  They should be able to help determine if your device's battery has an issue.

[Jaebryd]

This is irritating ! Should I return it?

[Megapod]

I tried all the tricks and finally got a return authorization. My new Charge 6 holds its charge now. Also seems to have more functionality than my previous Charge 6. For instance, I can now access ALL activities on my watch instead of a preset list of five or six.

The return was easy, but I had to send my defective Charge 6 to them, and then they sent a replacement. So I did not have a Fitbit for a week or so.

[RiekoC]

Hello @Jaebryd 

If you're having a similar issue and you're within the return/exchange window, you should exchange it.

[Jaebryd]

Yes, I will !! Thanks

[9v9z9f]

I have recently got a Charge 6 it seems to be fine so, I will definitely keep an eye on it to see what happens. I haven't tested any of stuff on it yet either but definitely keep an eye out for any problems.

[Jaebryd]

I tried different outlets w/without USB, also does not coordinate with activity.....not happy with this

[Jaebryd]

Yup, that's the best right now!
Have a great day!

[MLBaker]

I have NO active setting on, my 2yr old Charge 6 simply began draining on its own.

I have turned off all possible settings, and have always preferred to sync manually, yet it now syncs on its own.

Not happy.