Charge 3 black screen

[Mutsch]

Please help.... My Fitbit battery died. I charged the battery, now the only thing that will come up on the screen is a smiley face. I have tried all the restart options with no luck. What can I do?

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[AlvaroFitbit]

@Mutsch Welcome to the Fitbit Community!

Let me help you with your Charge 3 not working and thank you for restarting your tracker. Since the issue persists I have created a ticket so our Support team can further assist you via email.

Let me know how it goes.

[justin2144]

Alvaro my screen won’t turn on as well. Not even the smiley face

[AlvaroFitbit]

@justin2144 I hope you're doing well!

Let me help you with your Charge 3. When you refer to the smiley face do you mean you have tried a restart on your device? I just want to confirm that you have tried the following:

1. Plug the charging cable into the USB port on your computer or any UL-certified USB wall charger.
2. Clip the other end of the charging cable to the port on the back of the tracker. The pins on the charging cable must lock securely with the port.
3. Make sure the button on your tracker is aligned with the button opening on the charging cable. You’ll know the connection is secure when the tracker vibrates and you see a battery icon on your tracker’s display.
4. Press and hold the button on your tracker for 8 seconds. Release the button. When you see a smile icon and the tracker vibrates, the tracker restarted.
5. Disconnect your tracker from the charging cable.

I look forward to your reply.

[ryanmhik]

I am having a similar problem. My charge 3 screen will go black (or very very dim), and the only way to get it to come back is to plug it in to the charger and press the side button. When it goes dead, the green lights on the underside are also off. This is happening several times per day, regardless of battery level. The button on the side of the device will also not work half the time, and when the device is plugged in, the watch will vibrate almost constantly (like I am pressing that side button). 

It seems like this has all happened since I did the software update, and the battery life has dwindled from once weekly charge, to once every day or two in that same time period

[justin2144]

Hey there

I got it, charged it, powered it up, and did the restart but my screen has
been blank the entire time. I know it's on since the green light to track
the heart bpm turns on and does its thing and the Fitbit is connected to my
phone.

It has been updated, synced, and tried the change clock face workaround as
well but the screen still black.

did the 8-second restart, 15-second long type, and screen still dead.
Help me, Alvaro

[AlvaroFitbit]

@ryanmhik Thanks for joining us! 

Thank you for providing all this information. Did you try the restart already stated in my previous post? This is before we can continue with the process.

@justin2144 I noticed that you already have a ticket with our Support team so keep working with them to find a solution.

I look forward to your reply.

[ryanmhik]

@AlvaroFitbit , yes I have reset the device several times. In the last day or two, the battery seems to be draining incredibly fast (charged it overnight, it stated 91%, wore it until 11:30 this morning and it was down to 6%). I reset it and charged it recently, and have been wearing it for 30 minutes and it is down to 75% battery (from 100%). 

when the device is fully charged, I notice some black horizontal lines on the display as well (areas where the white display is not working)

[Christywc]

My charge 3 has a black screen and won't charge anymore. It vibrated for about 60 seconds and then it was dead and hasn't come back to life again. 

[DenB_CO]

I have the same issue.

I have tried multiple resets.
Holding the side button it just vibrates.

At one point it came back with a smiley face then still went to a blank screen.

[Christywc]

me too! Mine does absolutely nothing.

[coastalhues]

Greetings, I too have just encountered exactly what Justin describes, but I did get partial pixels at one point. My tracking lights illuminate properly, the device tracks and syncs correctly, and changing the watch face did not work either. I have tried multiple times to reset it via the cable and do not get even the smiley face. However, it does seem to vibrate as if it was resetting. I have otherwise never had a problem with my device. This seems unusually suspicious considering people are now suddenly posting about this identical issue. What was pushed to the devices recently? 

[Cjrey9964]

Me too.  What is going on.  Tried changing the clock face several times and the 8 second tip.  No joy 😢

[Darbie12]

I have the same problem.. Blank,black screen..

[polemicmario]

Alvaro I’ve been having the same issue with a blank screen and no smiley face. Started last week. Black screen and only the green light. I do see that it is still tracking my activity via the app. I’ve tried all the reset steps here and the 15 sec hold and unplug from USB with no luck. What should I do next? 

[AlvaroFitbit]

@Christywc @DenB_CO @coastalhues @Cjrey9964 @polemicmario It's good that the community is growing!

@Christywc @Darbie12 you don't mention any troubleshoots so please confirm that you have tried the restart explained in my previous post and also make sure that your tracker isn't in the sleep mode by long pressing the button.  @polemicmario since your tracker is still syncing I suggest you try changing the clock face.

@coastalhues thank you for mentioning that you troubleshooted this issue. I have created a ticket so our Support team can further assist you via email.

@ryanmhik @DenB_CO @Cjrey9964 I noticed that you already have tickets with our Support team so keep working with them to find a solution.

Let me know how it goes.

[JustinaCC]

Hi Alvaro,

I’m having these same problems as well - started yesterday.  I’ve tried all the above reset solutions you’ve mentioned after charging up my Fitbit up however I cannot get it to bring up the smiley face let alone any other screen.  Yes I get the vibrations and yes it’s still feeding info to the dashboard but no display on device face at all! 

[Riguegirl]

I reset my charge. Push on left side button. Swiped left while wearing my watch until it came to Settings. Brightness somehow was changed to “dim” I tapped it until it was “normal” 

went back to being bright 

[JustinaCC]

Thanks very much for the suggestion, I’ve tried but it doesn’t work...still a black screen.

Justine Corbett
Sent from my iPhone

[JanieJava]

My charge 3 has the same problem & more.  Two days ago the screen went black; the battery is holding a charge & Fitbit is still synced to my phone, but now some of the recorded data is way off (i.e. I walk for 10 min & it says 500 min, though the distance shown is correct).

I have tried the 8-second & 15-second reset, but the screen stays black & the data is still wrong.

Please, is there anything else I can try?

I love using Fitbit, but this is my 2nd to malfunction in less than 2 years!  I doubt that I’ll purchase another, since the odds are that it won’t last long. ☹️