Fitbit One Battery Life reduced since September 2019 change?

[michae1a1ee]

Do we have any verification that something has changed this month (September 2019) that is negatively impacting the battery life of our Fitbit One trackers?  I've also been having the sync issues other people have commented on, but but have been manually restarting my One using the charging cable connected to a PC USB port and holding the button down for 10-12 seconds.  I've been able to get the syncing working again for a day or two at a time.  That's still not good, but what is perhaps more alarming is the sudden severe drop in battery life.  Are you seeing this as well?  Has Fitbit acknowledged this?  I am only syncing the One with a single Android phone with an updated Fitbit app, version 3.6.1.

[SunsetRunner]

Mine does that also, and some days it say's I've done 57 stairs which is so not right! Then other times it cheats me out of stairs. Now I can't even sync with my phone at the end of the day, it doesn't find my device.

[penny26]

Agree with those who believe that continuous synching of Fitbit One via the Android phone app is causing the Fitbit battery to discharge quickly.

Some background info:  My Fitbit One was a Christmas gift in 2012 and (according to my profile) has been in service since March 1, 2013, so it is quite old!  I am retired and mostly at home, so I do not use my phone to sync my Fitbit any longer.  My phone Bluetooth is off, unless I am using it for something else, so it cannot be synching with Fitbit.  I checked and the Android version on my phone is 3.8, as automatic updates are turned on.  I charge and sync my Fitbit One on my Windows 10 desktop pc, but do not leave the Fitbit app running on the pc continuously.

Up until last week, my battery was lasting for about two weeks and it typically took about an hour to reach a full charge.  When I charged it on October 26, I was surprised to see that the battery showed a full charge in about 15 minutes.  I unplugged it, and the charge only lasted a week, so today I am charging it again.  This time I left if plugged in for at least an hour, so I hope to get back to a full two weeks of use this time.

Others have mentioned that their Fitbit OS is 6.64.  Mine appears to be 64.  Not sure what the difference is?

[P2burner]

Thanks so much to this community..I have uninstalled and reinstalled the app, and have turned off the auto-sync feature and just sync about once a week. The battery life on my One has improved dramatically and, although it still isnt back to a two-week charge, I can live with once a week...great improvement over needing a charge every day .  People helping people is a terrific way to solve issues,  as Fitbit seems to offer nothing.Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone

[fet17febbit]

My battery life started going down earlier this year when Fitbit zip was 2 years old , a firend had the same problem nothing they suggest works , I have now ditched it for a different make

[theumpire]

Version 3.9.1 has just become available for my Samsung phone.  I have installed it and will see if this has introduced any more problems or actually solved the ones some of you appear to still be having.  Watch this space!

[ejjsinsights]

Thank you...how did you install it?Sent from Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

[michae1a1ee]

Version 3.9.1 is on the Google Play Store right now.

[ejjsinsights]

Thank you!Sent from Samsung Galaxy smartphone.

[Txpete]

It seems to me that they are deliberately trying to force customers off the One platform.   Unfortunately there is no equivalent alternative that includes a clip and altimeter.   Kinda bums me out,  and has me exploring the competition. 

[OneMike]

I have been fighting with support for over a month.  They continue to insist it's the device.  Here's my scenario: I have a fitbit one that is two years old, I charge it every Thursday and it always has about 50% battery life left.  After an update in September, it's lasting an average of 4-5 days, no change in usage or routine from me.  I had another fitbit one new in the box I had received as a gift about the same time two years ago.  I thought maybe the battery was failing in my original one, so I took the new one out of the box, charged it and synced it.  Identical battery performance on a brand new device.  They keep trying to tell me it's my device, even though the issue is not isolated to one device, it happens on both.  Seems pretty clear, they did something and won't own up to it.  I have a Galaxy note 8 and only the 5 and 9 are fully certified.  They also tried to pawn it off on that.  Funny how it's been working fine for the last two years.

[chimbo23]

My response from fitbit querying rollback of software version to improve battery life, it ain't happening!

https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Feature-Suggestions/Fitbit-One-Software-Rollback-from-6-64/idc-p/387...

[michae1a1ee]

For what it's worth, I didn't experience any battery benefit from rolling the Android software back to an older version.  It's possible that the One's firmware itself may be at least partially to blame here.  Just something to keep in mind.  Given the troubleshooting I've personally done I think the Android app itself is not the sole culprit here, but rather the way Fitbit devices are syncing with newer Android releases and their excessive use of Bluetooth/syncing.  Users on here who have gone without Android/Bluetooth syncing have had longer battery life with their One devices.

[Txpete]

I agree, I think we are being pushed to their newer products. I have a great conventional watch (that cost a lot) and no interest in a smartwatch or a wristband tracker. I just want a tracker I can drop in my pocket and forget about. I hike in the mountains weekly and like to track both mileage and elevation as I work up to more challenging climbs. The past month I have to charge my One more than my wife has to charge her fancier device. Bums me out...



Sent from my Verizon, Samsung Galaxy smartphone

[Tonyroomba]

Mmmmm, fitbit recently announced the sellout to google? Also a way of getting us all to upgrade to another device. Happens all the time with moblie phones! I'm  having the sa,e issue.

[neal2zod]

So i got a new phone that has Android 9 and Bluetooth 5.0 on it (old phone that was giving me the battery drain issue had Android 8.1 and Bluetooth 4.2). I installed the Fitbit App version 3.8 on the new phone and....I'm still having the battery drain issue. Fitbit was fully charged Monday morning and dead as a doornail this afternoon, I barely got 48 hours out of it. Both "All-Day Sync" and "Always Connected" were set to OFF, as always. 

So i guess I'm going back to manually killing/stopping the app and turning it back on just to manually sync once a week or whatever. 

[JoeyMiz]

I have been having no issues. I sync every few days and my old Fit Bit I is still working! I got mine September 7, 2013.

Sent from my iPhone

[chimbo23]

So you sync every few days, how often do you charge your Fitbit one? That's kinda the point. Despite charging every couple of days, I still find a 'newer' Fitbit requires charging to ensure that it makes it through the night.

[Shutch76]

Same here. Battery lasted almost a week before now I possibly get 2 full days from a single charge. 

[JoeyMiz]

Good Morning,
I charge my Fitbit One every 3-4 days. I find this way, it doesn’t turn off on me.
I had bought my husband a One ☝️ a few years ago. His still has a good charge. His needs it every couple of weeks!
It doesn’t seem like the September Upgrade debacle affected his One!

Sent from my iPhone

[Sparkytwo]

Thank you, it almost seems the luck of the draw!