Poor battery life started last weekend

[Scott.G]

I purchased the Ionic on black friday and it has been working good for the most since then. Last weekend I noticed that the  battery life is losing about 40% or a little more per day, prior to that it was 15% per day and I could normally get 5 days compared to 2 days now.

I have not changed anything on my end, FW version 27.31.1.29 and I don't believe that has changed for awhile.  The only thing that I can see that changed is the fitbit app on my android phone and tablet. For some reason the fitbit app updated twice in a short time prior to that and I didn't pay much attention to it until the battery life tanked. After the app updates I noticed that some settings were changed like Always connected was maybe added and turned on, Keep-Alive widget was added and turned on, I have switched those to off and not sure if it made much of a difference. I have rebooted and want to know if I should do a factory reset at this point? I have never done this to my watch.

Thanks 

[MarreFitbit]

Hello everyone! I'm so glad to hear that you guys are back in business after contacting our Customer Support.  Thanks for sharing the good experience you had with our team. 

I know you've already troubleshooted this inconvenience before posting, but please just consider these tips when you want to conserve battery life:

• Make sure you're charging Ionic fully each time, make sure it has reach the 100% of battery before removing it from the charger. It can take up to 2 hours to charge your watch. 
• Turn off All-Day Sync in the Fitbit app because it increases battery drain on both your watch and phone. Note that if you turn off All-Day Sync, certain apps including Weather won't work since data isn't being sent from the Fitbit app to your watch:
   
  1. From the Fitbit app dashboard, tap or click the Account icon > your device image.
  2. Find the option to turn off All-Day Sync.
• Turn off the option to wake the screen when you turn your wrist; instead, tap the screen to turn it on:
  • On your watch, press and hold the back button, then swipe to the shortcuts screen > Screen Wake > Manual.
• If you don't need heart rate data, change the Heart Rate setting to Off. Note that the green LED continues to flash even if Heart Rate is turned off.
• Turn off call, text, calendar, and app notifications if you know you're going to receive many hundreds of notifications. A large volume reduces battery life:
  • On your watch, press and hold the back button, then swipe to the shortcuts screen > Notifications > Off.
• Charge your watch more often if:
  • You play music or use the music controls frequently
  • You use apps that keep the watch's screen on, use GPS, or frequently access the internet
  • You use an interactive or animated clock face
• Don't receive reminders to move every hour. To get fewer reminders, make sure you walk 250 steps each hour, change the number of hours you want your stationary time monitored, or turn off the feature on days you don't need it.
• If you have many silent alarms set, consider deleting some. Each alarm you add up to the maximum of 8 reduces battery life by a small percentage. 
• Shut down Ionic when it's not in use. 

If you still believe your battery is not lasting as long as expected, we’d like you to do a battery test to see how long your battery lasts after a full charge. Please do the following:

1. Disable the features that can impact battery life.
2. Fully charge your tracker.
3. Sync your tracker 5-6 times a day. 
4. Wear your tracker until it is fully depleted.

When your battery is completely drained, meaning that your tracker is no longer responsive and you no longer see the low battery indicator, make sure to write down the day you fully charged your tracker and the day it was fully depleted.  

With this information, you’ll be able to better research how long your tracker's battery is lasting.

Hope this helps, I'll be around if you guys need further assistance! 

[St3v3]

So, essentially, what you’re saying in your official capacity working for Fitbit is that to get a reasonable battery life from an Ionic you need to turn off or not use all the things you bought an Ionic for?

In which case I’d have been better off buying an old Fitbit Charge and a new phone 😁

Sent from my iPhone

[dacarter]

Wow, unbelievable post from FitBit.  How about just saying, "oops, we messed up with the last update and we're working on it"?

[Congnelius]

Right? That would be the smart thing to do on the customer service front. We all know software has bugs, no matter the size and resources of the company. Sticking your head in the sand only serves to alienate and upset customers.

Since the update to OS2 I can't even get a full day of usage out of mine. I've literally turned off anything that could possibly be using power - all notifications, heart rate monitor, all day sync, always connected, you name it. Same issue.

At this point I'm looking at ditching Fitbit altogether for an Android WearOS watch. This was my first experience with the company and, while it was good up until the recent update, the experience has fallen off a cliff of frustration.

[St3v3]

Read my earlier posts and use the link to contact customer service and explain the battery issues. They were fantastic at sorting the problem and now I’m really happy with the battery life of my replacement

[NRM1979]

Most people here are noticing a change in battery life following an update of software. Since the latest Android Fitbit App update I now have a grey permanent notification 'Fitbit Sync Service' that didn't use to be there. I think it is this that is tanking my Ionic and my phone battery. How would a new watch fix that when it worked perfectly since I got mine in October with no degradation in battery performance up until the recent round of FW and App updates? Coincidence?

I've just turned off 'All Day Sync' (can't remember if I had that on before) and will see if that makes a difference. Anyone know how to get rid of the system notification? I slide left and choose settings and it gives me the option to block all notifications, but not just the system notification. I just want it back to how it was, 5 days battery rather than 3 and the ability to GPS track a days activity rather than half a day.

[NRM1979]

OK, reading other posts on here and playing around with the app I noticed 'Keep Alive Widget' at the very bottom of the list on selecting the Ionic in the App. I've turned that off and the Fitbit sync Service system notification has gone. Fingers crossed I get my battery back!

[Congnelius]

The fact that this started exactly after the major update tells me it's a software update problem. It was working great up until that point.

Unfortunately they will not acknowledge the warranty on my device. Apparently I made the mistake of buying mine new on eBay. I was not aware of this policy so they will not replace the device for me. This thing is going in the trash. In the future I'll be more careful about buying on eBay, and I definitely won't be buying a Fitbit again. I was looking forward to subscribing to, and using, the Coach feature since they updated it, but I'm sure I can find a suitable replacement.