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

[CoreyMac]

I don't get how casually they treat effectively bricking our devices with a buggy update and then not solving the problem.  Holy cow! 

Who of us would keep their jobs doing that to their customers?

I have seen nothing about this that is hard to solve.  They are just choosing not to.  *sigh*

[CoreyMac]

I can't believe FitBit is doing this to customers.

This is like the old Apple AntennaGate where Apple kept trying to say the customer was holding the phone wrong instead of admitting they screwed up the antenna design (which eventually came out later).

All the available evidence points to the FitBit firmware update breaking the customers equipment. 

End of story... 

Just fix it...

[CoreyMac]

Tech support was no help again here.

They clearly have a bug in the firmware update which they do everything they possibly can to ignore or avoid discussing.  Do you see a single mention of the firmware bug in any posts except from customers?  Nope, not a single one I can find. 

To make matters worse, they do not allow you to downgrade to put things back to a functional state. What the heck?

Why make such a simple problem with their firmware cost their customers over a hundred dollars each to solve when a downgrade and reset would most certainly resolve the issue? Just let us downgrade until they get the issue fixed and then we can re-apply it once they work the bugs out. How hard is that? They can even reissue the old version "faking" the version number so it looks to be numerically higher and that would allow us to downgrade successfully likely with NO changes to their upgrade process.

The evidence all points to their firmware causing this which we are prevented from undoing, therefore effectively bricking our hardware since our Charge 4 now dies at 7 hours instead of 6 days with the exact same settings as before the upgrade.

I do not understand when what seems like simple logical solutions are derailed by policies and procedures which ultimately hurt both the customer and the product.

[Crazygamer53]

Hi @Dominic01, They are not acknowledging that their firmware update caused the Fitbits current problems and I don’t think they ever will. They are following the normal company procedure for faulty devices. After having you try their usual fixes, if they don’t correct the problem, they send it over to a warranty person to check if you are within your warranty time, if you are they will offer 50% off the original price of another device (all devices may not be included in this offer), or a replacement Charge 4 pebble, since they have no new pebbles in their inventory the replacement is a refurbished pebble. If you are outside of your warranty they offer you 35% off the original price of another device.  They also give you a short window of time to use your offer. Many jump at these offers as an easy solution, they think they are getting a great deal and are happy with it. 

I don’t think that Fitbit “purposefully arranged” for this to happen to make us purchase new ones but I do think that they tested the update beforehand and only a small percentage were affected with issues and then decided that the overall benefit of the update to the larger percentage outweighed those extra coupons that they would offer to appease unhappy customers.  It also looks like the Charge 5 update may have caused similar problems….and more unhappy customers…a normal day for Fitbit.

[ragtopmom]

I continue to work a "ticket" via their support Twitter account. The last advice was to reset my device (which I did and added it back, etc.) with no change in behavior. I just posed the question about the ability to revert to the previous firmware. I'm sure there won't be an answer for but we will see. This is so frustrating. What a waste of time! Hoping for a solution and if I get one, I'll certainly come back here and post it!

[TameraM]

This has happened to me, as well. Now it won't charge at all and I can't even reset.

[ragtopmom]

Well, I'm pretty much at the end of my rope with support. Guess this device is pretty much done for. I'll continue to monitor this community chat just in case something positive is posted. Meanwhile, here's the last response from my support ticket:

"This is not what we want to happen. There is no option to revert to the previous firmware. Just to cover all bases. These are some of the features that cause the short battery life: GPS, always-on display, a large number of notifications each day, or many timers. You can disable one or more of these features."

I'm throwing in the towel here. Gotta' find another tracker solution. Been with FitBit for many years but this "resolution" just fixed my relationship with them. Uggh!

[CoreyMac]

It is unfortunate that they continue to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.  They overall have a workable product and business model.  It is these frequent customer facing missteps that keeps holding them back.

This is such a simple issue to resolve and yet they are choosing not to do so.

[KAKKY]

I also have fitbit charge 4 .... after Aug 2022 firmware update.... i confirm myself no more fitbit forever..

[CoreyMac]

They should also have direct contact with the moderators here so that they can stay ahead of problems and trends like this.

Assuming they are interested in that.

[ragtopmom]

Three days after I get a "ticket number", I'm still waiting for an email. I wonder if we took to Twitter, that might get their attention?

[KJC1166]

The "response" is going to be....   restart it then recharge it....  when issue doesn't go away they will tell you to get a new one.

[ragtopmom]

I've been through all the troubleshooting "links" they have tossed out. Communicating with their support team via FitBitSupport direct messaging. That began on Tuesday when I got my "number". Supposed to be getting an email and haven't. Here is my interaction the last couple of days. "High volume"? Yup!

[KJC1166]

Good luck, but don't expect much more than a discount on buying a new one...   Horrible business model!!!

[_loki]

I would so love to see some Charge 4 users who have successfully updated to the latest firmware 1.100.76, and who can say everything goes well.

I'm still on 1.100.43, and tapping away that upgrade banner every time (any way to get rid of that?).

The reports get scarier as the days go by.

[EDIT:] Found some OK messages on Reddit

https://www.reddit.com/r/fitbit/comments/x3ervl/charge_4_fw_update_110076/

[Radojevic]

Those reddit posts are very recent.

Give them time to experience the battery drain issue.

[Crazygamer53]

Hi @_loki , There is no way to get rid of the banner until you update. I don’t clear it away each time I open the app, I just let it be. If you update you could be one of the ones who make out okay or you could be be affected by one of the three issues plaguing the update, you just don’t know. There doesn’t seem to be any rhythm or reason as to why only some were targeted.  I think that Fitbit did a test run first, saw that only a small percentage were affected and went ahead with the update hoping that the majority of the users benefited and the rest would either leave or take advantage of their % off offer and buy a new one. Users of the Charge 5, Inspire 2, Versa 3 and Luxe were also affected in one way or another with their recent updates, again, some made out okay some didn’t. Also, I’m not sure that updates roll out to all users at the same time, so there could be potentially more users effected. I’m not sure if the update did what it was supposed to do.  They never said what the security issue was. It is not an easy decision to make, if you decide to update, I hope that your’s isn’t affected. Good luck!🙂

[philguk]

So far my FitBit is holding charge about as well as it did - as is my wife’s. Certainly not draining in less than a day

However, the GPS function is still too flaky to trust

[R3R9]

Hello folks,

After uninstalling SpO2 app, restarting Fitbit app via watch settings and then reinstalling SpO2 via seems to have fixed the problem...

Did that today in the morning(8:57am EST) when battery was 90% now in the evening(4:47pm EST) it's at 87%.

Will check if this holds over night and will update here... 

[SchrodingersDog]

I tried you suggestion. It didn’t help me. 

I posted elsewhere in this forum but I’ll say again: Fitbit bricked my charge 4 and won’t even acknowledge the error. I have to assume it’s intentional. 

I’m done with Fitbit. I’m not using the 35% off that they gave me just to have them brick it again.