My experience with Charge 6

[bobdob]

About a year ago I was one of those reporting on my fitbit being frequently unresponsive. After a couple months of real annoyance with the problem I got a replacement, which I have had zero issues with in over a year now.

I was curious about others' experience with this. If you were getting black screens and got yours replaced, did the replacement ever have similar problems? If you didn't get yours replaced, did the new firmware last fall help?

I came to the conclusion that this really was a software problem just based on what I was seeing. Mine started after a few months of ownership, when I found it unexpectedly dead, and the battery had run down to nothing. After that point, it could go a week to a month between problems, generally getting more frequent as time went on.

Support had me clear all data, and this seemed to fix it - until the next time it unexpectedly ran down the battery completely.

So it seemed to me that there was an issue where a completely dead unit would cause some kind of data corruption that would later cause a crash, and the only way to fix it was to clear all the data. And even if you were very careful about charging, there was some situation that could occasionally cause your battery to be quickly depleted, and sometimes the battery percentage displayed was even wrong (it would reduce by a noticeable amount just by restarting the fitbit). So it could be difficult to keep the battery from completely running out.

Now, I haven't had any battery depletion mysteries on the new unit, so maybe there was a bad batch of hardware. Or maybe the firmware update fixed that and I was just lucky in the months before it came out. At any rate I'm still trying to be very good about charging well before it's needed. Haven't had to do a reset on the new one yet.

Moderator edit - updated subject for clarity

[ShellarI]

Hi!

It`s a popular problem. Fitbit App had 1.1 score on Google Store (wow, now growth to 2.0 1M installs)

Details of the same my problem here: Fitbit Charge 6 – Sync/Pairing Broken Since June 8... - Fitbit Community

[Nelsoneer]

I've had many fitbits over the years, starting with the fitbit one in 2012. I had a Charge 2 which was great... I had Charge 3's that needed to be replaced twice because of black screen, and now I'm on my second replacement of the Charge 6... battery draining within an hour. I'm also having problems on the app reading previous daily/weekly/monthly calories and steps and other stats as well. My father had a charge 3 and his time starting a walk is off by hours - he'd leave at 7 and it would say he left at 10:23... Weird... We changed him to a Charge 6, updated the iPhone 11 ios, reinstalled the app, checked the time zones on the system and the watch... Same issue - Charge 3 or 6, didn't matter. It's very unfortunate that FitBit seems to be on the major decline. Of course it would be in favour of Google products now, but will they use the same type of app with all the stats that the fitbit has, all in one? My father tried the apple watch and it's all over the place to get basic stats - it's not all in one app, AND the step count was completely different for a daily count for him... The Apple watch was off by THOUSANDS of steps.

Sigh... wish it was like a few years ago with the challenges and everything working properly on the dashboard and the app.

Hope the Charge 6's we all have now keep running smooth for a long time to come. Pleeeeease 🙂

[ManuFitbit]

It's good to see you participating in the community @bobdob @ShellarI @Nelsoneer. 

Thank you all for taking the time to share all this feedback regarding your experience with the devices and the features of Fitbit.

I am sorry for the inconvenience you have faced during this time using your device. Please note that Fitbit products are manufactured following strict quality controls to ensure their durability and effectiveness according to the demands of our customers. However, this does not guarantee that in some cases certain features of the trackers will be affected by causes outside the manufacturer.

I appreciate you taking the time to share this feedback, and rest assured that whenever you contact the support team, the advisors will look for the best way to help you.

[Paulus678]

Had my charge 6 for over a year now. The battery stayed playing up a few weeks ago. It was showing 76% but then just went blank. So so disappointed after having fitbit since the original charge. 

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Tried all the options to get it back on. Cleaned, charged, pressed the button on the charger, left it plugged in for over an hour.  Nothing. Flicked the (uk) socket switch off and on and abracadabra it worked!

[Tabemt21]

I've been an avid Fitbit supporter but this charge 6 has me thinking of switching brands. I've experienced so much frustration with my battery recently and for the price as well as the length of ownership it really is not worth it. I also am very disappointed!!!

[ManuFitbit]

It's good to see you around @Paulus678.

Thank you for taking the time to share this information and I'm sure that it's going to help other users.

Welcome to the forums @Tabemt21.

Thank you for sharing with us this feedback regarding your Charge 6 and please, let me know how can we help you regarding the battery of your tracker. Since you mentioned that you are having frustation with the battery: Is your device not charging or is the battery draining?

[Tabemt21]

Sometime it charges, sometime it doesn't. Sometimes it's saying a high
percentage of battery is remaining and then in very little time it's dead
or at a low battery. Sometimes it's dead and as soon as I hook it to the
charger the percentage will read in the 90 percentage rates.

[Paulus678]

Same here. Mine now randomly switches off when cycling,  GPS issue maybe. Get home plug in and shows 60 odd % battery. Leave it plugged in and goes down to 30 odd battery. Eventually charges up. That's why I'm now trying to keep it charged up. Yesterday was at around 70% but then totally blanked and totally unresponsive hence me looking at samsung galaxy watch until my desperate electrical socket switch off and on worked.