Battery charge on my One is lasting about three days

[SunsetRunner]

Since the app update that removed the all day sync on/off option, my Fitbit One has been draining the battery faster every recharge cycle. It used to last about a week, it now lasts about half that long. How can this be fixed?

[tomandandy]

I have this problem also. Although my one syncs, the iOS app seems to be always “looking” for it which may be draining the battery faster. This never happened before the very buggy 3.37 update. Any help would be appreciated. 

[SunsetRunner]

I did the chat with the help folks. Since my FitBit One is now burning through the full charge in two days, I contacted help via chat. I got a “the team will contact you via email with the best solution”. When I checked my email, there was a code for 35% off any new device, as mine is out of warranty. Not an optimal solution. However, my One is 7.5 years old. If yours is newer, you might want to try the chat help. You might get better than a 35% off discount code. I will not be using the code they sent me.

[Williger]

ALL Fitbit Ones are presently out of warranty. They've not been manufactured in years, so even buying brand new sealed ones will likely be a bad experience (coming from me, a guy who buys up lots of brand new Ones that have dead batteries). Nobody is going to get warranty support on this particular device as it's no longer under maintenance. The 35% discount is a nice chance to buy yourself a newer model tracker. @SunsetRunner it's just a timing thing, correlation isn't causation in this circumstance; your old battery is dying and won't last as long as previously and will continue to decline over time, unrelated to software updates. @tomandandy yes, frequent syncing can eat up battery cycle, perhaps see if your app has a feature to disable frequent automatic syncing, I'm on Android and haven't ever seen the iOs app, but assume this could be set up. I assume your 3.37 update reference is to the iOs app? There is also a forum for app issues that might better be able to address this. Batteries can be replaced and upgraded in the One but it's not as simple as sliding a door and inserting a replacement, it does require razor blades and a soldering gun. Cheers!

[Julia_G]

For those whose Fitbit Ones are losing battery life, this is expected over time, as @Williger says: all rechargeable batteries have a finite life and number of full recharge cycles.

If yu are looking to upgrade to a newer Fitbit that works in a similar way, I can recommend the Fitbit Inspire 2.  It has the option of being worn either on the wrist (wear you can get a heartrate reading) or on a clip, similar to the One.  But you should note that it is supplied with the wrist band, so for the clip you will need to pay extra - either supplied by Fitbit, or one of the third party options available from other sellers.

[SunsetRunner]

I know that my FitBit One is long past the warranty period, and approaching end of life. The Inspire is listed as a replacement but doesn’t do everything that the One does. I am not comfortable trying to replace the battery in my One, as others have done. While I get that correlation is not causation, it is now several times that a FitBit app update was followed by my battery immediately draining faster. The help folks immediately told me I was past warranty and therefore I needed to replace my device, and proceeded to recommend the smart watch type devices. That left a bad taste in my mouth, to be frank. A long time user and brand ambassador, having recommended FitBit to lots of people, I am now looking for other devices by other vendors. I may end up with another FitBit device but it will be by default.

[Julia_G]

@SunsetRunner , I know it may be difficult to accept, but an update in the app really will not have any effect on your tracker battery life.  They really are not connected.  The app might very well interfere with your phone's battery, but it really is different from your Fitbit.  

As your One gets older - and it is probably pretty old now - it will inevitably have a deteriorating battery life, amd this can change pretty dramatically, especially if it is allowed a deep discharge.

The closest Fitbit to the One is the Inspire 2. It doesn't have floor counting, which some people will miss, but it does instead have an optioon to wear on the wrist for heart rate features - which makes it a significant improvement over the One when it comes to sleep tracking.  So, as the Brits say, 'swings and roundabouts'.

I still do have a working One - man it really is a workhorse - I think mine is 6 years old and has been lost (found in the grocery store lipped onto a basket) and been through the laundry. Having said that, I have to say that I am more likely to go to my Inspire 2.

Not, of course, a solution to yiur issue.  Just my thoughts.  Good luck whatever you decide.

[Williger]

@SunsetRunner the latest update actually improves battery life. As @Julia_G shared, it's kinda the luck of the draw, there are Ones that are still working wonderfully 6-7 years after being manufactured, and others that drop dead right after year 3. This same rule not only applies to the One but every Fitbit and any electronic device with a LiPo battery from headphones to MP3 players. If you Google how long a LiPo battery lasts, it'll tell you 2-3 years. As I enjoy refurbishing old Ones with new batteries, the first thing I do afterward (doing right now, actually) is to update the firmware to the latest version.

[SunsetRunner]

I purchased a Charge 3 and had to remove my One from my account in order for my Charge to sync properly. It has been several days, with my One no longer continually trying to find my iPad or IPhone, and the battery is still working on the charged One without requiring a recharge cycle. That tells me that the inability to turn off all day sync has impacted the battery life per charge cycle. Batteries do wear out over time. It is unusual for the to fall off the cliff.

[Williger]

@SunsetRunner Fantastic, glad you got a new tracker and are back in the game! I'd agree, it'd be very unusual for someone to drop their Fitbit One from a cliff. If they did, I hope I'm at the bottom with a big net and will catch it, LOL! IDK why you can't use your Charge 3 and the One on the same account as I also own a Charge 3 and it plays perfectly with my One (but it won't play along with other app-based trackers like my Versa, so I've retired it). I'm looking at 20 perfectly working Ones with original batteries that still run great and 20 that look identical and the same age but are all dead. I upgraded all the working ones to the latest firmware and when I replace the batteries in the dead ones will do the same. It's the first thing I do because the latest firmware significantly improves battery life. Cheers, Darren

[Kim-J]

I have exactly the same problem. On the app I went into my account then hit the One (tracker) button to check the sync option but couldn’t because as soon as I hit the One button it immediately shut down the app. I’ve found that most of the time when the app is updated it defaults to an always on sync, which gobbles up the battery power like mad.

I also have a Charge 4 but prefer the One because I can wear it at my waist rather than having a tracker on my wrist that doesn’t track steps when my arm is still (like when pushing a grocery cart or using a walker).

Moderator edit: merged reply

[DonnerGo]

I just recently did the update that you are referring to and my battery now lasts 2 days vs 5-7 days. I had this happens a few years ago, but the FitBit Help Team did resolve the issue. Their initial response was here’s 25% off a new model. At that time, FitBit did not offer a clip type tracker. I love the functionality of my One and am disappointed that I did the update.

I have the same issue with the app shutting down if you click on the button to sync.

The app update does affect the battery life of a FitBit One tracker. It happened to me a few years ago and FitBit made an improvement to get my battery life back to 5-7 days (had to do with All Day Sync feature). The same battery life issue  just started the same issue when I recently updated my app. My battery now lasts 2 days whereas before the update it lasted 5-7 days.

Moderator edit: merged reply

[Kim-J]

Mine too. I’ve resorted to turning Bluetooth off and keeping it off except once or twice a day to sync. (I don’t use Bluetooth for anything but Fitbit.) I’ll bet they fix the problem in the next update—although they’ll probably create new problems too.

Years ago, when I had the Zip model, I found out the dangers of all day sync when I was in Alaska. The Zip had a replaceable battery and I was going through several batteries a day. Turned all day sync off and the battery use went back to normal.

Kim

Sent from my iPad

[Kim-J]

Since turning Bluetooth off and only turning it on a couple of times a day to sync, the battery life of my One is back to normal: I’m using about 5% a day. This means that the problem is with the update, not my battery. I don’t know how many of you need to have Bluetooth on all the time, but if you don’t need it for other things I suggest that you leave it off and only turn it on when you want to sync. Not an elegant fix, and definitely not a permanent solution, but it’s working for me. Here’s hoping Fitbit gets a new update (with the fix for this and some other bugs that were introduced) out soon!

[Kim-J]

Interestingly enough my Charge 4 does exactly the same thing. Tap the device icon in My Account and it immediately crashes the app.

For anybody wanting to remove your One from your account and then add it back—you can’t remove any device if the app is crashing as soon as you tap any device icon because you need to do the removal through the device icon.

My Charge 4 is not constantly “looking” like the One is though.

[Baltoscott]

Alas, the battery on my One finally died this week. I'm really pretty amazed at how long it has lasted, and I'll miss it.

[DonnerGo]

Baltoscott...I’ve had my One since 2013. It was working fine until that dreadful recent upgrade. I just had another app update. Here’s hoping FitBit has made improvements to stop the battery drain!

[Kim-J]

Sorry to hear that. I really wish they’d make the One again.

Mine is doing well now that I’m leaving Bluetooth off most of the time and it isn’t “looking” to sync all the time.

Hi Baltoscott.

Lucky you! No sign of an update yet for me.

Moderator edit: merged reply

[Baltoscott]

@Kim-J @DonnerGo  turns out my One took a charge yesterday after all.  We’ll see how long it lasts.  

I haven’t tried turning off Bluetooth for the app.  Because the One is not my primary device anymore I don’t want to do that as I’d lose the connected features for my newer-gen Fitbit’s (usually a CH4).  But it’s good news that it seems to preserve the battery life for some.  

For what it is worth, I’m getting the ‘looking’ message from both my CH2 and One.  Both work on Fitbit’s older-gen firmware.  Manual sync works and it does seem to update occasionally throughout the day even if in the ‘looking’ state. My guess is the new iOS update just was not designed for and is just less compatible with the old-gen firmware which is used only on Fitbit models that have been discontinued for several years. If subsequent updates affect battery life one way or the other on older devices it will probably be by accident. I guess it is a race between when the battery wears out for good, and when the software stops completely working with the devices. 

[Kim-J]

@Baltoscott @DonnerGo 

As of now the “looking” seems to have gone away for the One. So far the Charge 4 hasn’t been “looking.” I’ve got Bluetooth active again and I’ll be keeping an eye on the battery life of both devices. FYI, both devices sync automatically when the app is opened and the manual sync works on both devices. I no longer have an all day sync option.