Charge 3 way to dim since upgrade

[marge62743]

C'mon Fitbit. How long before you actually listen to your customers? The upgrade killed the brightness setting to the point that it's relatively useless.

"Dim" is off, Auto is a joke and "Normal" is dim. Any fix for this yet, or should I do like others and throw it in the trash and buy something not from Fitbit?

Moderator edit: format

[Sally1962]

Same here get your finger out!! 

[SunsetRunner]

It's to make you upgrade to Charge 4. My Charge 3 is like a year old and barely gets through the day after the newest updates, so it's quite obvious that it's done on purpose. I guess they noticed that people will still keep on using the devices even with such abysmal battery life and decided to make them even worse.

[Angie520]

I have been experiencing the problem and much more now for a few weeks, and I have gotten nowhere with any suggestions. At this point I am using my Charge 2 which I still have and it works, although I have to keep charging it ever other day in order to keep it going. I am so sick of what has happened and the fact that I spent money upgrading not knowing that upgrading to Charge 3 would mean resulting in problems which don't seem to be able to be resolved. I had purchased my Fitbit Charge 3 from my local Macy's Department Store back on December 20, 2018 which as I understand is supposed to last 2 years from reading on the site and I had invested $129.99 for something I surely thought would last longer, and I had not had any problems with it until Sunday October 18, 2020 when this all began.  Now I feel like I wasted my money for something I thought was worth buying and friends had encouraged that it was good, but now it is at this point far from that very thing. I can't get anywhere with it, every suggestion seems pointless and at a dead end. I guess my best bet is to go and get a new battery for my wristwatch from the jewelers and just to forget about any kinda Fitbit or anything else, at least my watch battery won't cost me anything close to the price of the Fitbit Charge 3 that I can't use because whatever is wrong will likely never be resolved. I feel as disappointed as other people do, we all invested in something and now are at a loss none of us really deserve. 

[DavideFitbit]

Hi, welcome to the Fitbit Community forums @marge62743 @Sally1962 @SunsetRunner @Angie520, I'll be glad to help you with this. 

I'm sorry to see that you've been having this problem with the display of the Charge 3 being too dim. 

I understand that you've tried a few suggestions found in the forums, please let me know what are the steps that you already tried. In the meantime, make sure that you've performed the restart procedure as described in this article and that you've disabled the Sleep Mode feature. 

When the sleep mode setting is on:

• Notifications don't cause the tracker to vibrate or the screen to turn on.
• The screen's brightness is set to dim.
• Turning your wrist won't cause the tracker’s screen to turn on.

Sleep mode doesn't automatically turn off unless you set a sleep mode schedule. 

Thank you for all the feedback you've provided, please keep me posted. 

[Sweeter4]

Is there a way to disable sleep mode on the app, even in a dark room I can't read the display.

[chapmaj]

Thank you  cell6.  That is something I have suspected all along especially with the "buying" season around the corner.  I have tried all suggestions posted here and now have to resort to looking for a dark place in the gym to set up mu workout screen which is barely visible.  I am now resorting to swiping by memory and hoping I get it right.  This is unacceptable

[HH56]

Mine is exactly the same - I can no longer read the watch outside. What with the black lines and the dim screen I’m seriously thinking about going to a different make.

Helen

[marge62743]

@DavideFitbit Do you really think that all of us users who have been complaining about this for all of these months have not tried all of this already? The very least Fitbit can do is affirm that the latest firmware screwed everything up for everyone. My Fitbit display was working just fine before the firmware upgrade. 

Yes, I tried a restart several times. No, I've never had sleep mode enabled, but all the same, checked it anyway. It is off. 

Moderator edit: format and word choice

[Skipx4M]

Yes - too dim to see settings - so it is not much use now. Surely this can be fixed.

[chapmaj]

Moderators. Please speak with Fitbit  Product Management and / or engineering and get us a straight answer. If this is a software bug, it can be resolved with a quick patch.  This surely must have leaderships attention by now.  It they are aware and choose to do nothing , it will speak volumes for how much they care about the community.

[DavideFitbit]

Hello @Sweeter4 @chapmaj @Skipx4M @HH56 @marge62743, thank you for your replies, for all the feedback provided and confirming that you already tried all the suggested steps.  

I've gone ahead and sent your information to the Customer Support team for further assistance, so you should be getting a reply soon. Keep an eye on your inbox. 

Let me know if you have further questions. 

[marge62743]

I don't know why Fitbit continues to insult us customers. At this point, I would be satisfied with acknowledgement from Fitbit that they broke the brightness settings. I started this board with ""Dim" is off, Auto is a joke and "Normal" is dim." This should have been a clear indication that I've been to the brightness settings.

Here is the generic email I received:

Thanks for reaching us through our Community channel. We will be more than glad to continue assisting you with your dim display

Regarding your case we would like to recommend you to change the brightness.

To Change the brightness on your Fitbit Charge 3:
Swipe to the left on your Fitbit Charge 3 and open the Settings app
Scroll down an tap on "Brightness"
Tap to change it

In case you come across any other inquiries, don't hesitate to reach us back, as we will be more than happy to continue assisting you.

You're next move, Fitbit.

[DavideFitbit]

Thank you for sharing your feedback @marge62743. 

There's a good percentage of users that are able to resolve by following the basic troubleshooting steps. In this case I recommend that you just let the Customer Support team that you already tried all these troubleshooting steps so they can provide you with further instructions. 

I've sent your information again to Customer Support, but it seems they already sent you a new reply. 

Let me know if you have further questions.