Why is my battery draining quickly?

[KDX]

Up until a few days ago my only real gripes were the slow sync issues and lack of notifications. As far as the Ionic went, I was liking it. Two days ago it started to go from using 20% battery per day (20 minutes GPS per day during a walk) to using 100% in a matter of hours. This has been with all day sync off and always connected off. I tried the left button and lower right button reboot and even did a factory reset. After the reset and update it gave me a message that the update failed, but I do have version 27.25.16.7 installed according to the app. I have literally sent 15 or more crash reports from the app today during this whole process.I'm currently down 10% battery in approx 30 minutes and my heart rate sensor has quit working even though it is turned on. This Ionic has only lasted 29 days with absolutely no abuse inflicted upon it.

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[Tim31415]

I fully share your frustation and fear that an answer to your question will never appear.

Let me give a short summary of the problems I encountered yesterday (yes that is in one day!):

- The usual syncing problems: only sync after several attempts

- GPS data of a run appears not to be synced (only heart rate). After resetting phone and Ionic same runs appears twice, but both of them could not be viewed. After a couple of hours the problem was solved.

- After an autostarted run activity I could only pause the activity, but not end it (finish flag did not work). I had to reset my Ionic to get back into a normal mode.

I am still hoping that the problems can be resolved by a firmware update, but since nothing is announced I fear the worst.

[KDX]

I think many of us who are experiencing issues are going to realize that it's a hardware problem and not necessarily the software.

[KDX]

I just got off the phone with customer support. It took a while, but I finally got a case # and he created a label for me to return my Ionic. Then we hit a snag as I live in Canada and there is no return authorization for Canada. Imagine that. He said was sending my case to a specialist and they would be getting in touch with me. I will update this post as I get new info.

[InkyMyCat]

Knock on wood I've not had any major problems with my Fitbit Ionic. Updating the firmware for the first time around was a nightmare and took several hours for it to work. I've had no problems since the firmware update. I do baby my watch.   I tend to get 5 days out of my watch battery as I currently do not use the GPS or listen to music on it. 

I bought an aftermarket band, screen protector and protective plastic cover to protect the whole watch from scratches.

I do believe Fitbit pushed out the watch to soon and people that bought it early like me were the Guinea Pigs. 

I do like my Fitbit Ionic's look and feel better than the blaze. I hope for the sake of Fitbit that they come out with a firmware update a few weeks before Christmas other wise you will have a lot of upset customers on Christmas day. I also hope the Fitbit App store opens soon. 

[KDX]

I stopped by the local Best Buy and they said in Canada they do the exchanges for warranty. I exchanged my Ionic for a new one, went home, plugged it in and let it charge for a while and then did the set up. It would only charge to 99%, the software update was difficult and finally said it failed. It is 27.25.16.7 according to the watch and app. I have used 57% battery in 15.5 hours with 20 minutes of GPS used last night. I have it set the same as my last Ionic which was using approx 20% battery per day with the same amount of GPS use. I may have to start looking at a Garmin product. These are hardware issues with poor quality control.

[chris-bit]

They has to hit the holiday season... my feeling is that they were not ready. 
Software or hardware problem... it does not change a lot for me at the moment. 
Their bluetooth has always been buggy.
It does not take 10 min to update the first time... and it does not sync. 
I still wonder how many people have problems in the real world.

[Berdwa]

I don't understand why my fitbit products, first the Flex, then Charge HR, then Ionic all take several attempts and forever to sync when my Pebble Steel and Pebble Time synced quickly and on the first try. I too am having buyer's remorse and may take this back for a Garmin.

[KDX]

I ended up returning the Ionic and will give the S3 another try. I previously used one for a couple of days, it wasn't too bad, but decided to try the Ionic. On a side note, I was checking the data usage on my phone and didn't realize how much data the Ionic was using when Bluetooth was the only way it would sync. I couldn't imagine what it would be with all day sync turned on. Another strike against it. If I decide against the S3 I will get a Garmin.

[LwrHrtRt]

I may have a usable workaround. I've been doing this the past 2 days and it seems a reliable way to get it to sync on demand.  I haven't tried this with FitBit unpaired to my Moto G5 Plus or on any other device but my G5 Plus.

1. On Ionic, go to setting, BlueTooth and "+ Device" (Add New Device) which will have it start searching.

2. Start Manual sync from FitBit app.  Sometimes it fails on 1st try but usually succeeds by 2nd try. 

I suspect it makes it puts the BlueTooth into a more active mode.  

I hope FitBit comes up with a more permanent fix.

[DramaQueenDiva]

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@KDX wrote:

Up until a few days ago my only real gripes were the slow sync issues and lack of notifications. As far as the Ionic went, I was liking it. Two days ago it started to go from using 20% battery per day (20 minutes GPS per day during a walk) to using 100% in a matter of hours. This has been with all day sync off and always connected off. I tried the left button and lower right button reboot and even did a factory reset. After the reset and update it gave me a message that the update failed, but I do have version 27.25.16.7 installed according to the app. I have literally sent 15 or more crash reports from the app today during this whole process.I'm currently down 10% battery in approx 30 minutes and my heart rate sensor has quit working even though it is turned on. This Ionic has only lasted 29 days with absolutely no abuse inflicted upon it.

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

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Normally I would suggest taking your Ionic off All Day Sync, but it seems that you have already done that. It might be worth contacting Support to see if your battery is defective. It's unusual that your battery drains that quickly with All Day Sync turned off.

[Wollie_woll]

My fitbit Ionic has just drained to 0% after 4 hours, after charging it to 57%.    I would guess it took 2 hours to  get to 0%, but I never noticed it was flat till 5 hours after charging. Happened yesterday similarly, I never got my sleep patterns recorded at all because it went flat before I woke up. It seemed to be a lot  more 'on screen bright' - literally switched on - most of the time in the last 2 days - very different to when I bought it  a few months ago, when it would 3-4 days before approaching 'almost flat' status.