Charge 4 - Yesterday's update is draining my battery

[Katbs54]

After my Charge 4 was updates yesterday it is draining the battery in just hours where previously it would take days to drain.

I have turned off all that I can but it is still draining fast.

I just rebooted but not sure what that will accomplish.

Any insight would be appreciated.

Kathy 

Moderator edit:  updated subject for clarity 

removed personal information

[Crazygamer53]

@Katbs54 I hope that your new Charge 4 is around for a very long time!! When you set it up was there an option to bypass the update or did you need to update in order to complete the set up? Also what version is your Charge 4 on?  I am on my 3rd Charge 4 (1st one- Black screen, 2nd one- broken connectors) and I am very leery of updating after seeing all the threads on the problems that it has caused and Supports response. I wanted to switch occasionally to my Inspire 2 but I’m afraid that when I reconnect my Charge 4, it will force me to update.  Any insight would be appreciated. Thank you

[Katbs54]

I don't know if there is an option to skip the update, the notice shows up at the top of the page every time you open the app.

Good luck

[GodlyOverlord]

I've been trying to get my Charge 4 to stay charged too, its literally only like 5-6 months old!! Been working perfectly up until whatever update got pushed recently now it only last about a day (after going through that list of "how to extend your battery")

I can take it off charge and exactly 1 hour later (of zero use, just put it on and don't touch it), its gone down 15%.....a few weeks ago i'd be only charging it like once a week, now its every day, sometimes twice a day.

Bit silly that it was working great, features i wanted turned on all the time no problems, now to make it last a day i have to disable 3/4 of the watches features (i made use of the auto recognition, the built in GPS, sleep monitoring, etc) and only sparingly check the time.

I really hope they push an update soon before i have to warrant it

[KJC1166]

Unfortunately,  they don't appear to be even acknowledging that this update is causing problems...    just tell everyone whose watch is out of warranty to buy a new one (with a 35% discount)!  Customer service is a joke!

[KJC1166]

No idea... I have had watch for about a year and a half...   I assume update was automatic, I only found out that was probable cause of battery draining by reading on Community..   Customer service has been a joke...    "shut it off", recharge,  opps, still draining, buy a new one....

[KJC1166]

Refuse to buy another one....

[R3R9]

I have the same problem. Exact model. Activation date just 1 month over 1 year.

I Reached out to support and they said they will review and get back to me. 🤷‍:male_sign:

[Kae133]

I am having the same issue. Must have automatically updated my Charge 4 because I've had to charge mine 3x already today and i used to only have yo do it once a.week. I did everything they said and even told both people i did live chat with that a lot of people on the forum have been having the issue and it can't be coincidence that we are all SUDDENLY having this problem and isn't fitbit trying to do something to fix it. Their response: "do you have any of questions or concerns for me?"

Very frustrating. My fitbit is only a little over a year old, if that. I refuse to buy another one because of something they caused. I've always been happy with fitbit but this is changing my mind and is just poor customer support.

[Bill-Baggins]

I noticed that one of the features added was O2 level monitoring was added. The notice said that feature would reduce battery life. It doesn’t seem to have loaded on mine and I can’t seem to find a way to turn it on. I did notice that my lap notification has disappeared which is what brought me to the forum. Hope that helps some of you. Of to find an answer to my problem. 

[GodlyOverlord]

I've had o2 monitoring on mine for quite a while now (atleast 2-3 months out of the 6 months i've owned it) and never had draining issues before.

But now much watch had just black screened on me, i charged it yesterday, put it on about 2pm. Checked it this morning and it was around 15%. I took it off and put it on the table, went to put it on charge about 20-30mins later and black screen. Figured it'd gone flat again, but then i saw the green heartrate LED come on on the bottom, checked my phone and it could sync too it and told me the battery was near flat.

Put it on charge, nothing. Held down the side button to reset, nothing....just dead.....
Left it next to the charger and waiting for it to completely die then i'll try charging it again (if its frozen, i'm hoping going fully flat will let it reboot)

Non the less, its time to hit up support or take it back too the shop for warranty. I think if it gets replaced i'll just sell it fully boxed and buy something else. Zero trust in Fitbit anymore and what seems to be their shockingly bad support on a clear issue

[edit] I just checked my phone to see what the battery is down too and now its reporting 70% charged......from 15% this morning.....and it hasn't been on the charger at all......what the hell?!?!

On the plus side, this is the longest its lasted between recharges for the last month, downside...its completely unusable lmao

[Crazygamer53]

If I had the option to return it, I would return it!!

[Dominic01]

---

@KJC1166 wrote:
Unfortunately,  they don't appear to be even acknowledging that this update is causing problems...    just tell everyone whose watch is out of warranty to buy a new one (with a 35% discount)!  Customer service is a joke!

---

100% agree. This is exactly FBs plan. Or they might ask all of us to create a feature request for "better battery utilization" and keep it permanently pending 😀. Such a premium brand and treating clients like this. I thought Google would do something about this.

[Katbs54]

I agree the firmware is the problem. Unbelievable the damage it has done to a lot of people. 

[CoreyMac]

This is so simple to resolve.  It is not like anyone is shocked anymore at a broken software update that was insufficiently tested.  They happen all the time now that speed of delivery trumps pretty much everything else in software development.  Why the push back from FitBit on the contingency and allowing a downgrade?

I seriously do not get why they just own up to their mistake, either provide a fixed update or allow the downgrade.  Why waste everyone's time with all these pointless "troubleshooting" multi-day events.  These scripted solutions like "Well, let me send you this link for optimizing your battery life and then after a couple of days we can check back and see how things are doing." and such in cases like this, are just wasteful of everyone's time including theirs. The trouble is clearly caused by the most recent firmware update.  Maybe in some combination with a version of the hardware or whatever, but it seems very unlikely that a downgrade and reset would not resolve the issue.  Without trying that option then even tech support won't really know for sure what the fix is. 

[CoreyMac]

This is more and more common with "tech support" across the board with many vendors.  The support staff is given vastly too little training, skills, tools and information available to really be helpful.  They just follow scripts without regard to the actual details of the cases which pushes the burden of time wasting onto the customer yet again. Good employees are prevented from providing good customer service by the policies and procedures of the companies they work for.  Sad indeed...

I also hoped Google would fix FitBit support, but they have not changed anything for the better that I can tell.  I guess that makes sense as my experience with Google is really no better.  There are a few tech companies who understand customer service and tech support, but FitBit is not yet one of them.

They need their management to work the support phones, chat and Email support centers every quarter for a day to see what is the reality.  Developers too.

[CoreyMac]

Some folks are reporting that they are given the 35% discount option but are not allowed to use it for a device, only accessories. 

Last time we had this type of issue the discount did not work if you bought a current model.  You had to buy their old stock if you wanted to take advantage of the offer.

[Katbs54]

Maybe they just want us to buy new ones. I did, thru Amazon and didn't get any discounts so maybe if I had asked Fitbit I could have gotten something off. I just wasn't going to play around with it. 

[CoreyMac]

I understand.  The last time we had a similar issue, it took them so long to respond and make the offer of a discount that we had already replaced the FitBit whose sensors had quit reading (LEDs on the back all died).  Since we could not take the discount on several of the then current models, (like now), it was not a helpful path and since we didn't need another new one in the old models, and they ultimately were of no help. 

There were always nice, but ultimately after all the time and troubleshooting, they were not helpful.

[ragtopmom]

I've been struggling with this issue all day researching and applying suggested fixes from the community forum. Mine will charge but is drained quickly and it no longer tracks steps or heart rate or sleep. I am definitely suspicious of the recent firmware update because all was fine until that. Hope they issue a new update correcting the issue. Not sure I'll be buying another FitBit. This is my second Charge 4 and it's lasted barely a year!

[Dominic01]

Really, I don't understand the concept of giving discount for a FB's Firmware issue. People also falling for this and getting new ones. Does this mean they could purposely screw up the equipment and make us to buy a new one by offering a discount?