Charge 4 suddenly won’t hold a charge

[Hodobbs]

I’ve had my Charge 4 for about a year. No problems at all with the battery and then all of a sudden yesterday it drained from 80% to dead in a matter of hours. I recharged it around 9pm and it was dead by 4am.
I recharged it again this morning, and restarted 3 times. Disconnected and reconnected the Fitbit to my app. Bluetooth off and back on. Everything I could find online in other threads about the same issue. There was very slight improvement as it went from 100% to 60% today.

But this is ridiculous. It was holding a charge just fine and I could leave it a good 3-4 days before needing to charge it and now suddenly overnight it barely lasts a day. I’ve seen from googling that lots of other people have had this problem, but has anyone actually been able to solve it?

And yes, I’ve read all the stuff about preserving battery life, but I’ve tried  all of that. And really, if we’re being told to turn off all sorts of features to preserve battery life, what is the point of having the features in the first place? 

[HikeBikeQuilt]

Same thing started happening to my fitbit recently, too.  purchased 12/20.  replaced with new battery 8/21. stopping holding charge again. 

[sweibel299]

Yes, same here! What's going on?

[Puddeetar]

Mine started this about two weeks ago.  Taking it on and off, I broke a strap and had to order another one. It was on the charger the whole time. I put it on yesterday and it's down to 40% tonight.  No changes to anything.

[pazcat]

Yep, me too. And it’s not the first time. Chatted to Support last night and got the same old links to the same old Help articles, all of which I’d already tried, of course. It will work for weeks, couple of months even….and then boom. No charge from 100% in less that 24hours. Seriously thinking of going back to Garmin. Not good enough.

[JuanFitbit]

Hi everyone. Nice to see you here. I appreciate your reports and feedback.

If you haven't done so, please have a look at this:  Can I extend my Fitbit device's battery life? 

or  give us a call or chat with us. Our team will be lad to have a closer look at each and everyone of your cases. 

Click here to get connected. 

See you around. 

[AliceGyer]

My 17-month old Charge 4 suddenly started holding a charge for only about 6 hours as of 4 days ago, despite my disabling the GPS. As of yesterday, it won’t charge at all. It buzzes when I connect it to the charger and press the start button, but it won’t turn on or charge. My Fitbit app says it can’t find the Charge 4. 
I’ve tried EVERYTHING in the link below, and I know the charging cable works. It has been on the charger more than 12 hours —and still nothing. Please help!

I’ve tried everything here:

https://help.fitbit.com/articles/en_US/Help_article/1190.htm?Highlight=Charge%20

[AliceGyer]

Update: Now it no longer buzzes when on the charger. It’s totally dead. 

[Brh61]

I have had mine a little over a year. It goes completely dead, I put it in the charger and 2 hours later it is dead again. It never did accurately record miles- even in GPS. But, I haven’t been able to us GPS or a lot of the other features because it drained too much battery. Very disappointing. 

[PPPT]

Same problem! Fitbit charge 4 won’t hold charge! This is atrocious! I need this as u am diabetic and this is the second Fitbit to go down the tube. 

[HikeBikeQuilt]

Go to the Fitbit website, go to Contact Us and do an an online chat. They will see when you’ve charged your Fitbit and how qyicjly it has drained. Make sure to have your purchase receipt handy and ask for a new one. Good luck.

[HikeBikeQuilt]

Go to the Fitbit website, go to Contact Us and do an an online chat. They will see when you’ve charged your Fitbit and how quickly it has drained. Make sure to have your purchase receipt handy and ask for a new one. Good luck.

I have also found the tracking to be off on occasion. I did a loop hike a few weeks ago and the tracking showed a single straight line!

[pazcat]

I did just that, device still being under guarantee. Amazed to say I received a ‘new’ one within a few days….,only to find when I checked the invoice, it wasn’t new but reconditioned. To be very honest, I am sick to death if its unreliability - yes, it held its charge but intermittently wouldn’t record sleep details! It’s been so unreliable and I’ve returned to Garmin. So angry. 😡

Sent from my iPhone

[AliceGyer]

I’ve tried to contact Fitbit dozens of times in the last 36 hours. The chat link never works. The phone number is always busy. (I’ve dialed it 39 times.) I have gotten responses to a twitter message, but they haven’t been helpful. The first had a link to the same old solutions I’ve already tried, and subsequent messages just keep asking me questions (my email address, where I bought the Fitbit, etc) without offering any answers. 

[AliceGyer]

Just got an answer from support via twitter. Apparently they don’t think it’s fixable, and it’s no longer under warranty. They encouraged me to buy a new Fitbit. So I paid $149 to use a product for less than a year and a half. 😞

[pazcat]

Really not good enough. Have had nothing but problems. The only way left is to withdraw support from their products. I don’t have time or energy to fight them any more. Shocking.

Sent from my iPhone

[Hodobbs]

An update: 

I went through the “customer support” online chat and was essentially told that it can’t be fixed, too bad, here’s a discount code to buy a new one. Even with a discount code I’m not going to spend that kind of money on something that’s going to die in a year, it’s a waste of money. 

So I’ve switched to an Apple Watch. It’s been a month and I love it and will definitely not go back to Fitbit after their appalling customer support. 

[Brh61]

That’s terrible. I won’t buy another Fitbit.

Sent from my iPhone

[Volkan71]

    Nothing new at Fitbit. Connection troubles, strap troubles and now battery. I am very surprised most tech forums list fitbit trackers as best fitness trackers. And also it is very unusual that a battery can keep up 7 days for 2 years, but one day it drains in hours. I knew how batteries work. Whether it is lipo,  NiCad etc. they don't decide to give up in one day. If this is a new strategy (not new, they tried when strap was broken) to sell new trackers to their old costumers by "discount" , or is it incompetent technicians who coded defective firmware to our trackers!

    (I tried all measures to prevent battery drain which are explained in forum. Battery drains in 4 hours, it is not a tracker anymore, it is sandglass.)

    (I bought a Garmin Vivosmart 4 to my wife in 2020, and I bought fitbit in 2021 to myself. She never complained and never faced with problems which we are accustomed at fitbit.)

[Suzaru22]

Same issue here. 1 year old “Chage”4, that will no longer hold a charge over 4 hours.  The same thing happened to my Charge3, replaced battery, did all of the battery saving techniques that basically rob you of most of the functionality and the problem persists.  This is my second and LAST go around with this piece of trash wrist-tech and appalling customer non-service that is Fitbit.  I’m doing like I should have done a year ago when I decided to give them another chance- switch to Apple Watch.  I bought it through Amazon- I will be sure to leave a detailed review.