Fitbit locking up? My new theory on the "black death"

[bobdob]

Many of us have had instances where our fitbit just gets stuck on a blank screen and needs to be reset. My own experience was great for the first few months I owned mine, but then lockups started happening more frequently and I eventually contacted support. They had me delete all data from the fitbit and after that everything was great again - for about 3 weeks (I was previously averaging one lockup a week). I posted on here that things might be back to normal. And then... it started happening again.

Since I've been logging my fitbit's behavior for a few months, I noticed something interesting: just before I started getting the lockups most recently, my fitbit ran out of power (more on that in a minute). And thinking back, shortly before I started getting the more frequent issues, my fitbit had also run out of power. Also interesting: most of the lockups (but not all) would happen within 24 hours of charging.

So it seems that if the fitbit runs out of power, there is a chance that it can cause some data corruption in its memory that will eventually cause the hang. Clearing all data fixes that issue and it appears (it would take several months to know for sure) that as long as you keep it charged, everything might be good. This would also explain why a replacement fitbit will fix the issue, because it comes with no corruption, but it could start up again.

Now, about running out of power: This is not a case of me neglecting to charge, although that would cause it too! It has been happening to me unexpectedly - it's been dying when the level says it is above 20%. There are a couple different scenarios - 1, quickly draining the battery, and 2, inaccurate battery percentage display (you might see a significantly lower percentage after you restart the device).

So, one bug leads to another and we end up with an unreliable device - due to software. At least that's what it seems like to me. And it's frustrating that there has not even been a firmware update since at least November (I've been a member on beta.fitbit.com for years and haven't even seen any activity there either).

Fortunately if my theory is true there are workarounds. We should not need workarounds of course but since I otherwise love my fitbit and don't want to give up on it (and also don't really want to RMA it) here's what I'm going to do: First, reboot daily (this is done from the fitbit's onboard settings menu - restart device). This will help keep the battery reporting more accurate. Second, charge early. I'd rather have a planned hour of not wearing my fitbit than be unknowingly wearing it for 6 hours without it counting activity. Third, in the event that the battery ever does run out, do the full data wipe process again. Hopefully this will keep things working better and we'll see a good firmware update!

[RiekoC]

Hello @bobdob 

Thank you for taking the time to share your insights.

Regarding the charging issue you're experiencing, 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 with a Charge 6, it might be worth a try.