Charge 4 will not hold a charge

[Pattyrocks]

I'm on and extended vacation in Ecuador. Last week I swam in the Pacific and my Fitbit stopped working. After reading some advice, I cleaned the device in fresh water, put it on the charger and it worked! I was thrilled. The clock was wrong and I didn't have the phone with the app to sync so I put it away for the rest of the week.  When I got home, I charged, synced and carried on...within an hour the battery was dead.  I have reset the device, cleaned the contacts, updated the software but nothing seems to help. Each time it charges to 100% but is dead within an hour.  I'm so sad..

[Julia_G]

Hi, @Pattyrocks , you say that you cleaned it in fresh water , which was definitely a good plan, but did you also thoroughly dry it out?  It needed to be put in a bag of uncooked rice for a good 72 hours to soak out all the damp.

Having said that, and even if you did dry it thoroughly, the Charge 4 is a few years old now and already possibly coming to the end of its life.  As I am sure that you are aware, all rechargeable batteries have a limited life span (and that can be significantly shortened depending on how it is used).

If you have tried the rice treatment, and tried a couple of restarts, I fear that your Fitbit may have had its day.  Most or all Charge 4s I expect will now be out of warranty, so you will not have a claim.  However, it is still worth getting in touch with Fitbit Customer Support on Contact.Fitbit.com .  I know that they are often able to provide a significant discount to loyal customers who are ready to upgrade.  The Charge 5 has had lots of good reviews and (fingers crossed) I have had no issues with mine.

[hereiamu1]

I am having the same problem. After the last update the battery only lasts an hour or two. 

[CoreyMac]

The most recent firmware is effectively bricking many Charge 4 devices.  Killing batteries in a few hours, blanking displays, permanent Dim mode for some.  They are not acknowledging the issues and are doing the lowering of your expectations approach and taking zero responsibility for the firmware breaking so many Charge 4 devices.  Just look around in the community and you will see the many complaints and issues this month for the Charge 4 and new firmware.

Having said that, it is still certainly possible that the cause of your issue is different, but the majority of the issues out there today for the Charge 4 during the month of August seem to be this firmware release bricking things.

Push out a buggy firmware update and use it move older products with a  "discount" for the uninformed but loyal customers.  I really cannot believe this is their approach...

I really can't believe they would issue such a buggy firmware and then not fix it or even acknowledge the issue.  Maybe the device is actually damaged by the firmware bug?  I would not think so. 

The battery issue, seems like some piece of code is not sleeping or is in some sort of a loop and just draining the battery.  Doesn't really seem too complicated from what facts have been presented by customers in the community. 

The other issues that might be also be caused by the firmware I would think have some sort of solution using a USB-DFU mode recovery with the charge cable and the FitBit Windows app or through the mobile app that would allow a reflash of the firmware on an unhappy device.  Something to fix the buggy firmware 20001.100.76...