Charge 3 is tracking my heart rate very high and draining the battery

[A-M_E]

My Charge3 stopped 2 days ago. This was sudden: I wanted to see the time and pressed the side button, but there was no response (no vibration, black display). 

I tried rebooting using the charger but, at first, it didn't work. After a few attempts removing and replacing in the charger, I succeeded but, since the rebooting drained the battery (36% to 2%), I let it charge.

After charging, it seemed to work, so I put it back on and continued my work around the house (no exercise, just cooking, doing dishes, etc). A few hours later I realized that I had more than 2 hours' worth of active minutes. I later noticed that my heart rate was in the cardio zone even though I wasn't doing and hadn't been doing anything much, just sitting around. I compared it with the heartrate measured by my blood pressure meter and there was a big difference.

For the past 2 days, the heartrate is very high, whenever I check, and I keep getting enormous amounts of active minutes, even in my sleep. 

One last thing: the heartrate light on the back of the tracker never stops, even if I take the tracker off for a few hours. I really don't know how to troubleshoot this anymore. I have lost count of how many times I tried to reboot /reset.

Any suggestions? 

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

Update: The issue has become random. Some days, after restarting the device, it seems to be OK, others not. The battery only lasts 1 day now. I have to recharge every morning. I have restarted using the suggestion below but the high heart-rate/calorie count still appears randomly. 

[MarreFitbit]

Hello @A-M_E, welcome to the Community Forums. We apologize for the late response, due to recent events affecting our operations, we're taking longer to respond.

I'm sorry to hear that your heart rate started showing very high after the restart you performed, thanks for all the details provided. I'm here to help you. 🙂

As a first approach, I'd like you to perform the following steps below for this situation:

• Switch the Heart Rate settings from On to Off and manually sync your Charge 3. To switch the heart rate settings on your Charge 3, from the main screen of your Charge 3, swipe left until you see "Settings", next swipe up until you see "Heart Rate" and switch it to Off.
• Once it's done, manually sync your Charge 3. To do so, open the Fitbit app, tap on the Account icon, tap on your Charge 3's image and tap on "Sync Now" 
• Next, switch it from Off to On and manually sync your Charge 3 once again. 
• Once it's done, restart your Charge 3 once again. To do so, press and hold the left button for 8 seconds while it is plugged into the charging cable as if it were charging. 
• Next, confirm that your tracker is snug on your wrist (the lights shouldn't be visible) We also recommend when you're not exercising, wear the tracker just above the wrist bone.

Give this a go and let me know if the heart rates is still showing high and the green lights keeps non-stop flashing, I'll be around. 

[SqueekEllie]

I have had the same problem with the heart rate and did the same check with my blood pressure monitor which gives pulse and with my NordicTrack.  I have followed the above instructions and hope they work.  I also am having other problems.  Sleep is not tracking properly, showing less that I am getting.  And I switch between a Charge 2 and Charge 3—this week when syncing the steps on my iPhone the steps from the 2 were deleted from the total.  Also, the mileage for my steps has been changing.  It has been the same for years.  What up?

[A-M_E]

Thanks for trying to help. Before posting here, I tried to restart, synch, turn on/off the heart rate but nothing seemed to help.

A few days after writing the post the problem seemed to go away (I left the tracker in a drawer for almost a day without doing anything else).

However, there are some problems with it because now the active minutes are back and, as a bonus, sometimes it acts like the side button is pressed (even when it is not on my wrist).

So I am almost ready to give up on Charge 3 and go back to my trusted Flex2. It doesn't have heart rate tracking and all the other featured I hoped to get from the Charge 3 but at least it works and seems to give me the same calorie count for the same effort.

[SqueekEllie]

Well, after plugging mine into my computer and restarting it several times I couldn’t get it to charge at all. I let it sit for a couple of days and it appeared to have charged but the screen was missing lines of pixels. Then it wouldn’t charge and I thought it was totally dead. I started wearing my Charge 2 again. Today the 3 is charged 100% but lines still missing. It is still under warranty so I will contact the company. This is my fourth FitBit, two HRs, a Charge 2 and a Charge 3. I love the tracking their watches do but their life span isn’t very good. :o(

[A-M_E]

I know what you mean. I bought the Charge 3 because I was very happy with the Flex 2 and wanted an "upgrade". This morning I woke up to a "dead" device. I plugged it in and saw that the battery was 4% again. Something is definitely wrong here. It is still under warranty, like yours, so I am trying to get support to help me but nothing so far. 😞

This is the second replacement device since I bought it in August, BTW. The first time, it was counting extra floors even when I slept so they replaced it, the second time "dead lines" appeared on the display, and now the third does this weird battery/sensor malfunction thing.

[A-M_E]

Update: I now have to charge the device every morning. I assume that it's all linked: a defect that causes incorrect readings and drains the battery.

Still waiting for an official reply tthat helps... 

[SunsetRunner]

I've been encountering the same problem since 3 days ago. My Charge 3 is always reading 2x my heart rate, and the battery drains much faster than before. I didn't do anything special that should have caused this problem, it just suddenly happened.

I tried all the suggested diagnostics steps: rebooting (soft and hard), turning on/off HR tracking, factory reset, unpair/pair, cleaning the sensors, etc. Nothing helped.

[SqueekEllie]

I contacted Fitbit support through a chat (https://help.fitbit.com/?l=en_US&cu=1&fs=ContactUs).  They replaced my Charge 3.  Good luck to all having difficulty.

[A-M_E]

SqueekEllie, good to know you solved the issue. I also received a replacement. This has another problem, from the start and would not allow me to change the clock face. It took forever until it updated and also until I was able to activate the Wallet. Support is telling me that the problem is with my Android version and my Fitbit app version but the app is up to date and it worked without issues with the previous devices. Since this is my 3rd replacement already for Charge3, and all had different hardware issues, all I can say is that I made a bad deal buying it. It is a lemon...