Charge 3 screen is very dim

[Gmamadog]

• I have rebooted the charge 3 and changed clock faces to no avail. The display is still unreadable when outside. Brightness is set to normal. This seemed to happen after the latest firmware update.

[AlvaroFitbit]

@Gmamadog Welcome to the Fitbit Community!

Let me help you with this. I would like you to check if the tracker isn't in the sleep or do not disturb mode by long pressing the button.

Let me know how it goes.

[Gmamadog]

I held down button for 10 seconds and no change in the brightness of the display. Can read okay in a dark room but other than that it is virtually unreadable.

[AlvaroFitbit]

@Gmamadog thank you for restarting your tracker. 

Please check if the tracker isn't in sleep mode by following my previous instructions.

I look forward to your reply.

[claudiojclima]

I have the same dim problem. I did the long press on the button. My tracker is neither in sleep nor do not disturb mode.

[cherie1950]

I was having the same problem and found it was in 'sleep' mode. I reset the sleep mode and now it's good. Thanks.

[claudiojclima]

For the sake of testing, I just selected the "sleep" mode after your message. When you select it a "moon icon" is displayed. In order to unselect the mode I had to go to a completely dark room to be barely able to see the display again. Unfortunately "sleep" mode was not the issue for me. Thanks anyway.

[AlvaroFitbit]

@claudiojclima @cherie1950 It's good that the community is growing! 

@claudiojclima thank you for troubleshooting this issue. Since the issue persists I have created a ticket so our Support team can further assist you via email.

@cherie1950 glad to hear that you were able to resolve the issue and its was simply a settings conflict.

Keep me posted.

[claudiojclima]

Thanks for creating the ticket. When Support team finds the solution I will post it here.

[Tyler367]

Hello 

[Tyler367]

How are you 

[BlueSploosh]

Hi all,

I have the same issue, ever since my charge 3 did the firmware update my screen has been dull and nearly impossible to read outside of darkness. I have been through all of the forums, I have spoken with the twitter support team and I have spoken with the 'support technicians'. I have gone through every avenue fitbit is willing to offer. 

According to fitbit there are 2 methods to 'solve'  the issue. They are:

1: Do a short reboot. Plug you Charge 3 into the charging base (whilst plugged in) and hold down the button for 8 seconds, until you get the smiley face. If this does not work, move to step 2

2: Do a long reboot. Plug you Charge 3 into the charging base (whilst plugged in), and hold down the button for 15 seconds. This should result in a short vibrate followed by a medium vibrate. This turns off the device. You should then see a progress bar on the screen, and 7 short vibrations will happen. Remove the device from the charging base. Then replace back onto the charging base. 

If neither of these work; as they did not for me; the 'fitbit support' conclusion is that there is absolutely no way to fix the device.

There are no updates, no patches, no manual work, absolutely nothing that can be done. It is 100% unfixable (😒) That it is broken and that they do not know why or how. There are no updates or patches planned to address this issue, as they do not believe that this is an common issue (😒)

They will then pass you onto the warranty team. If you are out of warranty (1 year), they will offer you an 35% discount on your next fitbit product, but it must be used directly with them and is only valid for 30 days.

In short: If you have this problem and if turning the device on and off again doesn't solve it, you have to just hope and pray that you are still within your warranty period. Otherwise you are flat out of luck, and have lost a nearly £200 watch.

[cherie1950]

That is exactly what happened with my Charge 3 and because it is out of warranty they give you a 35% off another one. This is the second Fitbit product that went bad and I don't think I will purchase another one.  When it doesn't even last two years it's time for something different. Thanks for sharing. 

Sent from Yahoo Mail on Android

[Matt-Toronto]

FIXED!!!  😀😀😀  I spent hours trying to fix mine, read all the posts, did all the resets, soft, hard, phone app, clear data.  Nothing was working.  So DIM I could barely see indoors on Auto or Normal and practically impossible on the low setting.  Outdoors - could not see at all.

Here's what finally worked...I reset my schedule so that I sleep during the day and work and exercise during the night.  If I leave most of the lights off I can see the tracker indoors.  If I exercise outdoors I can see fairly well as long as I stay away from houses, cars, street lights or a full moon!  So happy to have this working again.  Thanks fitbit community!!! 

[Matt-Toronto]

Here is another great solution - requires a bit of a modification, but if you are good with small electronics, this might work for you.

1) Remove Fitbit Charge3 and make sure it is NOT plugged in.

2) Clean screen surface.

3) Apply double sided duct tape, gorilla tape, or super glue.

4) Stick cell phone onto Fitbit Charge 3 - make sure to center screen onto the device.

5) Apply light pressure to seat or wait 10 min if you are using glue.

6) Reattach watch strap to wrist et voila!  

You now have a larger screen with display brightness adjustment that can be read indoors or outdoors 🤣

Dim Screen Fix