Charge 4 - Black screen

[CBot1013]

My Charge 4 screen is black. At first it just kept vibrating when I hit the reset button. Now it won’t respond at all. I have tried plugging it into the charger and resetting the clock display as suggested in another post. When I did that I did get a line on the screen while it synced but it was still unresponsive after that. When I sync the charge 4 with the app it seems to be still accurately tracking my steps and my heart rate.

update: I got frustrated after trying everything with no luck. Lucky for me, I got insurance on it through Amazon when I bought it and they have already reimbursed me. A Charge 5 is in my future… but from all your responses something is definitely up. Was there a software update that went wrong for our devices?

Moderator edit:  updated subject for clarity

[Jageyer]

Same here. The discount is useless because we can't use any FitBits now because of the "update"

[Jageyer]

Plus it's useless because our FitBits won't work with any of our older phones.

[Jageyer]

Right. If you have an older phone no FitBit will work with it.

[mmulik]

I have a Google Pixel 6 running Android 12 so it's not just older phones.

[Jageyer]

Really!!? I wondered

[1000000]

I'm having the same problems that you are, with my Charge 4, and I was thinking that I would replace it with a Charge 5.  But, I just checked the Charge 5 posts, and it appears that people are having the same problems with those.  As long as mine continues to count my steps, tracks my sleep etc., I'll just have to depend on my phone for a clock until I see that FitBit has resolved their problems.

[VG1000]

Mine is the same, blank screen, when put on charge vibrates, smiley face then blank again. Doesn’t sync to app. I have tried resetting, turning bluetooth on & off etc. 

My other problem is I am in spain, the only contact us option is via Twitter, which I don’t have! No live chat, no email, nothing - can anyone help??? TIA

(It is 9 months old) 

[Blackbetty]

Hi,

k did that and after they gave me the worst directions on the app and would not accept that the reset didn’t work, they said fine thanks, I tried, you will get an email…..?!?

[VG1000]

If you try emailing to : 

https://contact.fitbit.com - you get an email saying they no longer support email support and they change their address to noreply 

There is now no way to contact them if you live in Spain so I suppose I put it in the bin …..

[LADutchman]

The same thing happened to me and i was able to scroll five times to the left and on the lower portion i selected (settings) then the upper and just taped the screen which brought the display brightness up. I got lucky because i was doing this in the blind.

[JuanFitbit]

Hi everybody! Thank you for your messages and feedback. 

If you are located on the US, you'll be able to contact our team vie Chat or mail . 

If your location is outside from the US, you'll have those and other options to contact our team. 

 If you want to write them over email, for those outside from the use, please use our contact button on the help site. 

To change your location and check your contact options, just scroll down on the contact site and click on the flag show. Choose your location, and verify the options available. 

Here is the Link for our contact site in the US: 

See you around. 

[Lisajsl]

Hi Juan,

You unfortunately won’t see me around because I’m tired of replacing my FITBIT every 18 months when it dies. It appears that this latest issue happened to a lot of people simultaneously, which means they likely died because of a firmware update. You should be replacing them instead of giving us a discount to buy another one.

I’m going to buy a Apple Watch. The older models aren’t that much more expensive and will last for years.

Yours sincerely,

Lisa

[1000000]

I agree with you 100%.
I’m shopping for an Apple Watch also.
I’ve had it with FitBit.

Sent from my iPhone

[Politza]

I gave up on my fitbit4. My beloved wife bought me a fitbit5. More later.

Sent from my iPhone

[CindyLouWho22]

As far as I can tell,  I did not get a firmware update when it happened but the app shows one available today. Since my Charge 4 is now working, I'm not sure it's wise to tempt fate and do the update.  

[star70]

Completely agree with all the posts about the Charge 4 crapping out after 18-24mo, and then customer service giving the run around about how to "fix" the device and then sending a cryptic message offering a discount on a new one... after my device started acting up 2 days ago, I called and went through the same nonsense that apparently so many others have with Fitbit customer service... Not worth my time, energy or the headaches it will cause, and certainly not worth my money. I already ordered an Apple watch which will arrive today. I bought my parents Apple watches in 2018, and they haven't had to replace them yet. Fitbit has gotten all the money they will get from me... I will never buy Fitbit again.

[Jageyer]

I'll be interested to know if the 5 works for you. I'm afraid to buy any of them if they won't work with older operating systems. Looks like they had an update a few days ago but the updated app wasn't available on GooglePlay --- like FitBit said it was.

Gonna try again today. Wish me luck!

[CoreyMac]

Notice that the 35% discount specifically excludes the current models of devices.  It only includes older devices and only those that are not on sale.  Effectively the offer means almost nothing today since the Charge4 is not being sold and the Charge5 is on sale and being discounted and the other new FitBit devices are specifically excluded.

Remember this is something they broke, currently know they are breaking customers devices and are doing nothing to even stop the spread of damage.  I also tried the Twitter FitBit Support feed to see if they would do something and after a couple of days, still no response.

[1000000]

I would be interested to know if the 5 works any better, because I read several posts that they were having the same problems.

Sent from my iPhone

[Crazygamer53]

From reading the forums it looks like the Charge 5 and the Inspire 2 were also affected with their recent  updates…black screen, batteries draining within hours, etc……what an expensive mess they created for their customers.  I am so glad that I didn’t update any of my devices.