Battery life after firmware update

[JPollard]

Has anyone else experienced a reduced battery life since the update?

My watch used to go for 3.5 days between charges but since the update it won't go for a day.

I charged it at 10pm last night and by 11am it had 30% battery life left!

The only things switched on are notifications and heart rate. Exactly the same as before. I have reset and checked everything.

Watch is now useless as with this level of charging I should have got an iwatch!

[racertempo]

The day of the update I did lots 9f face changing and it went from 100% to 13% in 12 hours, including the update.  Since then it has been back to normal, I have not charged in 60 hours and I am at 56%, but no GPS use over this time. 

[JPollard]

I don' use it as a sports watch and all GPS is off on mine as well.

Been like since the update, so about 3 days now.

[CalumK]

I charge every time I shower. Despite running with GPS this manages to keep battery at high 80s to 90%.

[chris-bit]

I am not keeping track of the battery life and it is early to tell but it seems that after the update the Fitbit Ionic is draining a little bit faster.
Beside how much you are interacting with it pushing buttons, playing music, etc. I think it depends a lot on the type of phone you have and how it stays syncs with it.

It could also be a problem with the battery calibration. The percentage that is shown may lie. It may says 100% but the battery is really charged only at 60%.
I noticed on phone and other devices, the software it is usually better to sense the battery real charge if you charge the device up to 100% when it is death or almost death.
Careful, because lithium batteries do not like to be fully discharged but if everything works  well the circuits should prevent it. i.e. It says 0% but the battery is really 10% charged and it just shut down the device to prevent damages.
When the charging circuit is calibrated, it should charge the battery until it is really completely full and know what the real charge is. If it is not calibrated, it can charge to the real 60% but it says it is 100%.

The fix is sometime a few complete full charge and discharge cycles. Try to let the Ionic run out of battery or, if you are afraid, down to 10% and immediately recharge it to 100%. Do it for 2 or 3 times and see if the battery life improves.

[JPollard]

Not pressing buttons that much. Certainly no more than I was. Screen is set to auto and I don't use it for music.  Too much hassle transferring music till fitbit sort it out.

As I have said, I have not changed any settings or changed how I use the watch, all I know is the battery drains much quicker since the update.

[chris-bit]

Did you recharge it often and not when it was completely discharged or not up to 100%? i.e. when it was 30% and only for a little bit until was getting to 80% or so?  

[armonmar]

I am having the same problem. After the update the battery drained in a day (usually was 3-4 days as I do not play much with it) and I charged full this morning at 10AM and by 4PM the battery is down to 80%. It also seems that it counts more steps that it used to. Is there a way to bring the old firmware back?

[racertempo]

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@racertempo wrote:

The day of the update I did lots 9f face changing and it went from 100% to 13% in 12 hours, including the update.  Since then it has been back to normal, I have not charged in 60 hours and I am at 56%, but no GPS use over this time. 

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My post yesterday I was at 56%, right now I am 42%.  I believe it is happening UT glad it is not to me. 

[JPollard]

Just to illustrate the issue:

unplugged this morning at 5:30 @100%

after 6 hours it was down to 72%

right now after about 16 hours it is at 15%

haven’t played with it at all just received notifications as normal.

i have been in contact with Fitbit who have asked me to do a full charge and see what happens so i will run it till it switches then I will charge to full over night and see if that solves it.

[N8teGee]

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@JPollard wrote:

Just to illustrate the issue:

unplugged this morning at 5:30 @100%

after 6 hours it was down to 72%

right now after about 16 hours it is at 15%

haven’t played with it at all just received notifications as normal.

i have been in contact with Fitbit who have asked me to do a full charge and see what happens so i will run it till it switches then I will charge to full over night and see if that solves it.

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Did you install any apps or 3rd party watch faces?

My battery is fine, but I did notice after I installed one watch face the Ionic became very laggy. Once I removed the face it resumed normal responsiveness. The lagginess leads me to think the watch face was using more resources, which could lead to more battery consumption. Could it be a poorly coded watch face or app that is causing your battery drain? 

[JPollard]

Did install hue app and Flipboard but I assumed these were the problem so I deleted them but it didn’t make any difference hence the factory reset but something is still astray. Just have to see what Fitbit say

[IamDefiler]

Same issue here with battery drain. Used to get 3-4 days. Got 1.5 days with zero workouts, runs, etc.

I have noticed the screen on when it wouldn't be normally pre update.

[Bramblepie]

Battery life is now awful on my Ionic since the update, fully charged last night to completely flat in less than 24hrs. Pretty much just used as a watch in that period! Has anybody else with the problem resolved this?

[racertempo]

Some of the new faces require permission to "run in the background".  I wonder if those are dragging the battery down? 

[Ktrinder]

Likewise, hence looking on here. Since the update I get a max of 2 days whereas I used to get 4 or 5. In addition when charging the charge amount seems to drop once it reaches 99%. I charged it overnight, saw it was at 99% in the early hours, in the morning it was showing 38% despite being on charge for abou 7 hours.

Something very strange is happening.

[Colinm39]

Still getting 4-5 day's, no GPS, and I use the Nautical watch face. I have never changed that because I felt the very active clock faces must consume  battery.

[Bramblepie]

I haven’t changed to any of the new faces or indeed any other settings? All I did was update the firmware.

My watch settings,  face etc, are exactly as they were before the update, so don’t think there can be any valid reason why battery life is so much worse now. It’s a shame as I had kind of grown to like it but daily charging isn’t going to happen so the watch will be returned if fitbit don’t sort it out.

Sent from my iPad

Moderator edit: merged reply

[SmyrnaSoccerRef]

Very odd behavior @Bramblepie....  Like you, I updated the firmware, but I have not changed clock faces. I deleted the Coach app, and added the Leaderboard app.  Those are my only changes thus far, and my battery has been unaffected.  I'm still getting excellent battery life.  Charged to 100% 48 hours ago.  Right now it's displaying at 74% battery life left.  Not sure why yours if behaving differently.

I always dread the "nuclear option" (factory reset) because of all of the pain and suffering that goes along with it to get everything set up like you had it, especially if you have downloaded a lot of music.  However, if I were experiencing the sudden and dramatic battery loss like you and a few others are seeing, that may be your only option.  If you do go that route, I suggest immediately updating the watch to 27.31.1.16 immediately after resetting the watch, and before doing any other customizations.  Take a couple of days to evaluate battery life before making any changes.  If battery life is good, then add/change things one at a time and evaluate battery life for a bit after each change.  That is really about the only way to isolate the offending item that drains your battery.

Hope that helps....

[DramaQueenDiva]

I haven't noticed a battery drain issue.  My All Day Sync is off as are my notifications.