One battery completely drained 2 times this week

[ZuzuPetals]

I’m on my third One since December 2015. I lost the first after 10 months, and the second One that I purchased would not hold more than a 50% charge, so Fitbit customer service replaced it in December 2016.

My current (#3) One had similar battery life to the One #1, lasting 10-14 days. Even at the 2-week mark, I'd often have 50% life remaining, but I’d charge the device anyway, because I rely on my One to wake me 3 mornings a week.

For each of my Ones, I have always had all-day sync turned ON. I have a single silent alarm, and I track my sleep most nights. None of those settings has ever contributed to premature battery draining. However, this past Monday, I woke 5 minutes before my silent alarm was set to go off. I pressed the device button to turn off the sleep tracker, but the display was completely black and the device was unresponsive. It had only been 9 days since the last full charge. I never received a low battery notice.

I fully charged my One later on Monday morning, but I had to do a hard restart in order to see the interface/battery indicator. Despite charging for at least one hour Monday morning, and a full battery icon in my app, my battery completely drained again last night while I was sleeping, and I woke up to a black interface again. I threw away my blaring alarm clock when I bought the One, so this issue is now affecting my sleep!

I’ve read several threads on this forum on the battery issue and followed all the steps I could. I cleaned the charging ports, restarted the device, and am always careful with my One. I have never dropped it. It is clipped to my bra all day and lives in the pocket of my pajama bottoms while I sleep. It is always in its silicone case except when charging.

I suspect this device is another dud. I love my One, but I’m frustrated with its track record, and don’t want to spend $100 a year on a new device.

Is there anything I can do besides make my next purchase from Amazon so I can get an extended warranty?

[SantiR]

@ZuzuPetals Thanks for joining the Fitbit family and for trying those tips! 

Have this happened again after you performed the restart process? Make sure you have done the restart process a couple of times in a row. That should certainly help.

Keep me posted! 

[ZuzuPetals]

Thanks, @SantiR, I did restart it a few times earlier this week, and the battery has not completely drained/crashed since last Monday. 

I usually charge on Sundays, and the battery indicator just showed 100% full until I restarted the device again. Now it's at around 60%. So it appears both the LED and app are not reflecting actual usage.

Another behavior change is that I could swear the One display used to show the value of floors, clock, distance with just the icon. Now the displays "FLOORS" (etc) and I have to press again to access the next screen that shows the value and icon. I could not find a way to disable the extra "label" screen via my iPhone app or on the browser dashboard setting page. Animation is off. I am not sure what that is, but I probably don't want it. 

ETA: I can live with the extra screen if my battery is in good shape (after only 5 months of use).

[Julia_G · Accepted solution]

Hi, @ZuzuPetals, it may be that your One did not have enough time on the charger after the restart -- one hour is usually not enough if the battery is completely dead.  Now that you have restarted it I would suggest giving it a good two hour charge and then keeping an eye on it.  Hopefully it will be back to its excellent battery life.  (You can prolong its life by avoiding deep discharge -- whenever possible avoiding letting it go below 30%.)

As for the words "floors" "steps" etc. those will disappear in a couple of days and your icons will return.  Every time you do a restart the One reverts to "teaching" mode as if it were new.

[ZuzuPetals]

Ah! I had no idea about the teaching mode, thanks, @Julia_G.

I'll be sure to let my One charge for two+ hours this time. I bet I did not let it go long enough on Monday (which made it easy to fail again on Weds.) Aside from what happened earlier this week, I don't think I have ever let the battery get below 30%. My app almost always says "half full" but it could be closer to 30%.