FitBit One battery dying extremely fast

[skinsjoe]

Last week my FitBit one was working wonderfully.  Battery lasted a whole week like normal.  Last two days it has drained in one day and I have had to charge each day and now it's having trouble syncing.  Not sure if that is related.  The battery has never died that quickly and this is my second FitBit One.  Why is this happening?

[lbiel]

my fitbit one is under a year old and it has to be charged frequently and now it is not synching

[phv]

I aslo experienced a severe degradation in two phases:

- since the IOS FitBit app update (from 2+ weeks to 4-5 days)

- since the firmware v6.64 upgrade (from 5 days to ....1 day)

I contacted support yesterday and here is the answer I received:

"as you previously mentioned, this is a reported and recognized issue a few of our trackers are experiencing; with the latest iOS version, the connection between the Fitbit app and the tracker has resulted in a shorted battery life for trackers like the Zip, the Flex and the Fitbit One.

Our engineers are aware of the problem and are working to resolve it as quickly as possible. We really appreciate your patience and look forward to getting you back on track. While we work on a fix, we recommend you, if possible, to try and sync your tracker with a non iOS device. "

While I recognise the IOS issue, I have the feeling that there is another one with the FitBit firmware. Given my engineer background, I am going to test this by uninstalling the IOS apps temporarily (or at least preventing their execution, even in background) and limit my synchonization to the dongles I have on a Mac OS and a PC (on two different sites). Let's see.

[lbiel]

Thanks this was good to know I'm not the only one having this problem.

Sent from my iPhone

[phv]

Your are welcome.

There is another long thread discussion the original issue, dating from the IOS app upgrade of last August. See https://community.fitbit.com/t5/One/One-battery-draining-quickly-after-2-41-1-iOS-update/m-p/2261274...

But as discussed it was aggravated very recently (most probably due to firmware 6.64)

[Adamaflac]

I called fitbit and they sent me a new watch.....I would request a replacement.  Most people don't know what ios even are let alone spending the time figuring it out. 

These units cost too much to be told to fix there issues urself.  Be assertive and polite and I'm sure they will treat you the way they treated me and give you a replacement.

Good luck

[SleepyJAK]

I also don't think it's the iOS since I don't have the FitBit software installed on my iPhone.  I do have it installed on an Android device.  I didn't think they "pushed" firmware updates, I thought we had to initiate the upgrade (which I haven't).  but within the last week my battery has is not staying charged more than a couple of days and within  the past 48 hours it's been powering off automatically.  When I plug in to charge and power on, it says the batter is almost full.  They should back out the firmware upgrade and push the previous version.

[neilTrembley]

I'm tending to agree with you, although my first fitbit lasted two+ years, until I lost it. My present tracker is 18 months old and starting about a month ago, it has been erratic at holding a charge. To me, it is so worth it to have a fitbit, I may just need to bite the bullet. 

[phv]

I am actually quite happy with the last updates of IOS and FitBit app
because the synchronisation is again more reliable.

In regards of the battery of the FitBit One, it is my third device and I
can confirm that the battery degradation can be quite "abrupt". I was
myself convinced the firmware upgrade of the One has caused the degradation
of my second device. Hence I never upgrade the firmware of buy third one.
But it could be a coincidence.

Although the battery "energy storage" is reduced in a predictable way,
gradually, the maximal "power" that can be delivered at a point of time
(Volt.Ampers) is suddenly going below the minimal threshold requires for
the device to run.

This is the reason for which Apple is at some point of time reducing the
CPU speed of iPhones, to prevent unreliable behaviour. Very clever and imho
totally acceptable as it is now documented in IOS parameters, and totally
fixed by replacing the battery.

But there is obviously not such a sophisticated behaviour for the FirBit
One.

[neilTrembley]

I finally waded through the 200 messages on the Battery draining post. I'm a slow learner and was unaware of this community until my One stopped syncing. The battery issue has been intermittent - until yesterday. Hence my wading through the massages tonight. Social media is so fascinating.
I'm not sure if the techs solved the problem with a "fix" but I noticed no new messages since last March, until I posted and got some replies. Anyway I'm hoping for the best. My original One helped me lose about 30 lbs and Fitbit has certainly been a key to keep the weight off.  

While I'm sad that they are discontinuing One and therefore, probably not going to spend a lot of tech time on fixes, I've come to realize that as Bob Dylan wrote, "Only change is permanent." (That's a paraphrase). 

[phv]

I personally recommend not to upgrade the firmware v6.64 indeed, due to a similar experience (down from 4/5 days to "less than a minute"). It could be a pure coincidence but I doubt as my forrmer fitbit One battery stopped functioning properly after having done the upgrade. Actually, the initial charge (done before the upgrade) was still OK (a week or so) but I never managed to charge it "back" afterward. Several others had report similar issues.

Given the fact that the One device is not manufactured anymore, there is very little hope that a firmware fix would still be released. I preferred to accept the security risk (of having somebody accessing my One device) as there is imho a very low probability that this would be exploited by "nearby hackers".

[SantiR]

@phv @neilTrembley I hope you're doing well! Thanks for sharing your experience on this thread regarding Fitbit One.

I'm glad that it is currently working properly for you. I'm sure it will remain like that for more time. I'm also sure that your posts will be helpful for other users too.

Also, take a look at the Discussions Board as you will find a lot of interesting things there. Feel free to post on any thread you want. If you are looking for Fitbit friends to compete with on challenges, check this thread to add some! 

See you around!