Charge 3 screen is fading

[Abitfit72]

The screen on my fitbit charge 3 is partly faded. It is fully charged and just started fading. Can anyone help? 

Moderator edit: updated subject for clarity

[Rainebow51]

You’ve probably seen instructions to reset it but that didn’t work for me even with Fitbit assistance. Since my watch was new, they replaced it. I suggest you contact them. Good luck.

Sent from my iPhone

[slaughtc]

Thank you.  I’ll try. 

[Rainebow51]

I contacted Fitbit and we tried resetting but it did not improve. Since my watch was fairly new, they requested I return it for replacement. I hated being without it but had an old one to use. Good luck.

Sent from my iPhone

[Jasmmn]

Very frustrating! This is my second FitBit Charge 3 as the first one was defective as well. I am out of my warranty so I'm out of luck but for the price we pay for these,  we should be able to use them longer. I will not keep buying Fitbits every two years. I'm with you. Why pay premium for a short life product that every single person I know or read about is having the exact same issue after the last update? It doesn't make any sense. It's like they did this on purpose to make us all upgrade. I've been researching other products.

[public_acct13]

I agree! Please share your research, I am also researching alternatives. I also really HATE the way Fitbit corporate hides behind the very useless customer service -- you cannot reach anyone, and customer service truly doesn't give a darn.

[littlebit427]

exactly!  My band has now broken, so it's not being used at all. what a waste of money.

Unfortunately, I never found a solution.

Moderator edit: merged reply

[Runarama]

Exact same issue.   My Charge 3 screen started fading less than a year after purchase, and now I can barely see it even in the dark.   It's essentially worthless now as I can't reference it.    The watch is less than 2 years old now.    First the watch band broke from ordinary use.   Now the screen has nearly faded to black.    And yes, I rebooted it many times over the last year, primarily because the flaky fitbit tech is always losing its bluetooth connection to its hosts over and over again and always has to be rebooted for that reason alone.     And no, I never immersed it in water, as I always take it off before showering.    Doesn't anyone make a activity tracker that actually can hold up to activity?   Even a $5 casio watch holds up better than this.     Three fatal problems with this watch in less than 2 years:

(1) Fragile wristband

(2) Defective display

(3) Flaky tech

This company is starting to look like a lemon.

[DarthWoo]

I had a feeling that I wasn't alone. My display has been fading over the past two months to the point that it is impossible to see anything other than a very faint band in the bottom 10% of the display. I had noticed a slight darkening of the screen earlier this year, but it had been relatively minor. This is in fact my second Charge 3, itself being the warranty replacement of one that became unable to connect to any phone within two months of purchase in 2018. So from what I'm reading here, it seems that the Charge 3 is highly probable to fail within two years of beginning use. This makes me very hesitant to buy another one unless I find one on clearance or otherwise on very deep discount.

[Carlac76]

If I could insert my picture..... you would see the same happened to mine.

I give up!! I’ve tried everything suggested nothing works

[BDaltorio]

I'm on my third one.  Might have to go to an Apple Watch.   My screen is caput.  I can't figure out how to add an image, or I would show you mine too.

[TeresaBT]

You might also check that in the settings on the device you haven't changed the display setting to dim. This worked for me today without resetting the device.

[littlebit427]

The screen is completely gone at this point. Dim or not. 😑

[DarthWoo]

Just a bit of an update, though it's been the case for several days now: My display is now so dark that it is almost totally illegible even in a pitch black room. All I can make out is a faint dark grey haze at the bottom of the screen. So at this point, the functionality of my Charge 3 is even lower than a Flex 2.

[Iwen]

I have the same problem and reboot didn’t help, I bought 2019 February so might not be within warranty? Can you still help, it’s expansive watch to buy for not even 2 years and I should’ve bought another brand with longer lifeetime and better quality...

[DJaye17]

I have the exact same issue. I noticed it in the upper right corner of the display last week and now mine is all over like the picture above only more faded. Can you help me as well?

[Glenys...]

I too have  a faded screen and as a regular user of my Charge 3 have done the reset twice.... and have not seen this happen before.  It is charging ok too...not sure how to attach photo.

Thanks

Glenys 

[henryng]

I'm having exactly the same faded screen and very dim display with my Charge 3. The faded situation is not on entire screen, rather at certain part of the screen. If you divide the screen onto 5 rows, the most faded/dimmed is at the middle rows i.e. row no.3, then comes to row no.1. Then, both corners on first row is so faded and I couldn't even see the time properly.

During my running, I had to come to a complete stop, find a shaded place (to almost dark room) to scroll the screen slowly - so that the most "bright" row, no. 4 & 5, will shows details that I want to see like elapse time, average pace, etc.

It is very, very, very frustrating to know Charge 3 could only last ~1.5 year, not even complete 2 years before it starts to show "aging". Even sadder to be told, there is no service center to potentially look at my Fitbit if a repair is possible to resolve the screen issue. Not to mention, the vibration stop working for more than 8 months now!

Here are photos I took to share with everyone - Turned out that I can't find an option to attach photos either! Time to shop for next fitness tracker/smartwatch that is NOT Fitbit! As sad as it sound to leave Fitbit, I can't bring myself to buy another few hundred dollars tracker that is not only going to last 1.5 years!

TYPO: As sad as it sound to leave Fitbit, I can't bring myself to buy another few hundred dollars tracker that is not only going to last 1.5 years!

Moderator edit: merged reply

[DJaye17]

I know, even with the discount code they gave me I don’t want to buy another one. My husband’s charge 2 lasted over 3 years and still works! I just upgraded him to the 3 for Christmas.

~Derricka Hansen

[henryng]

Hi... How did you upload the photo? I cannot attach. Thanks!

I can't see anything on my Charge 3 now! So so disappointing! 

Moderator edit: word choice

[DinkyDanni]

Looks like there are lots of us out there - I am really surprised at how widespread this issue is! I reached out to get help but because the watch is (just) 2 years old and out of warranty they are not interested. Fine if I can’t get a replacement but surely there must be a fix? So expensive to replace every other year, I’m looking at Apple and Garmin.