Charge 3 screen and charging issues

[lauramariel]

As soon as I plug the Fitbit into the charger the screen flashes and the smiley face appears and disappears and it vibrates on and off. I tried restarting it by holding down the button for 8 seconds while it was in the charger but nothing. One thing I noticed is that the charger only has two prongs. Is it supposed to have three? I can’t remember.

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[JuanJoFitbit]

Hi @lauramariel, it's great to see you in our Fitbit Community. I'm sorry to hear that your Charge 3 won't charge, the screen flashes and it only shows a smiley face. I totally understand how you feel about this and I appreciate the time spent trying to get this issue resolved before contacting our forums.

Please try a long restart. To do so, follow the steps below:

1. Connect the device to the charging cable. 
2. While the device is plugged into the charging cable, press and hold the button down for 15 seconds. 
3. The device turns on and shows a battery icon. Two vibrations occur: first a short vibration, then a medium vibration. 
4. The device turns off.
5. The device turns on and shows a progress bar and short vibrations occur. The progress bar completes. Note: A total of 7 short vibrations occur. 
6. Remove the device from the charging cable. The device shuts down.
7. Important: Plug the device into the charging cable again.
8. Try setting up your tracker from scratch and see if the issues get fixed.

Regarding your question, the charger should 2 two prongs only.

Keep me posted on the outcome.

[lauramariel]

Hi JuanJo,

When I plug it into the charger and hold the button down the smiley face appears immediately and it vibrates erratically. I was able to restart it the other day (with the 8-second reset) and saw the progress bar then, but now it's not showing it. It goes between the smiley face and a screen that says DND/Sleep and sometimes the normal screen showing step count (but flashes on and off). I tried cleaning both the charger and and the fitbit with 91% isopropyl alcohol

[lauramariel]

Hi @JuanJoFitbit 

Update, I came back to the Fitbit and it had an error code 001 on it

This time it seemed like it was able to do the long reset, as the screen came back with a date of Jan 01. I took it out of the charger and then placed it back in and tried to pair it with my phone. It was able to find it, and the Fitbit showed me the 4 digit code, but the phone was having trouble connecting to it after I entered the code. Then the code on the Fitbit kept changing and it was vibrating erratically again. And now it's back to its old behavior of the smiley face and not being able to push the button etc

[lauramariel]

@JuanJoFitbit any other suggestions?