Fitbit Versa 2 battery draining in hours. How I spent my day documenting this problem.

[klm4iast8]

I am one of the people who have had an issue with their Fitbit Versa 2 battery draining over the span of a couple of hours.  As most of the other people have reported, their Fitbit was working fine on Thursday.  By Friday, many of us noticed that there were problems.  Yesterday, I had to charge my Versa 2 four different times, and it still didn’t have enough juice to make it through the night.  I woke up on Sunday, May 2, 2021at 1:45 A.M. to a completely dead Fitbit.  I put it on the charger and set my alarm for 2 hours.  At that time, my fitbit registered that it was fully charged (100%).  Here is a breakdown of just how much my battery drained over a period of 6 hours.  By my calculations, the battery lost 84% of its charge in six hours. 

Date       Time         % Charge Remaining
5/2/2021 3:45 A.M. 100%
5/2/2021 3:57 A.M. 97%
5/2/2021 7:50 A.M. 37%
5/2/2021 8:10 A.M. 34%
5/2/2021 8:15 A.M. 33%
5/2/2021 8:31 A.M. 30%
5/2/2021 8:51 A.M. 28%
5/2/2021 8:56 A.M. 27%
5/2/2021 9:05 A.M. 25%
5/2/2021 9:18 A.M. 21%
5/2/2021 9:21 A.M. 20%
5/2/2021 9:27 A.M. 19%
5/2/2021 9:43 A.M. 17%
5/2/2021 9:45 A.M. 16%
5/2/2021 9:45 A.M. put on charger

This isn’t right!  I haven’t changed any of my settings or clock faces in months.  I also haven’t played any of the music loaded on my watch for about a year.  Everything on my end has been the same for quite some time.  I have only had this Versa 2 for about 18 months.  It baffles me that a $200.00 watch is so disposable.  Honestly, I can’t afford to buy a Fitbit every year.  It seems strange that so many people are having an identical problem, but Fitbit is being strangely silent about the issue.  I will continue to track of my battery drainage issues, and post them to this forum.  

[Guy_]

That is definitely not normal.

Have you tried switching to a Fitbit clock face and doing a shutdown and start of the watch.

Note: Clock faces can get updated automatically when charging and a bug may have crept in.

If that is the case you should let the developer know, it could be affecting others.

[Khonari]

Literally having the exact same problem- it’s driving me crazy! I was so confused that all the sudden my watch battery was dying even tho it was 100% charged! 

[Clayzone]

I've since moved on with the fore knowledge that tech and Big brother are
doing a great job of stressing people out. It's time to get a grip and know
the work around methods to all of this. Better things are gonna happen
hanging in there 🤔:hourglass_not_done:🥂

[SunsetRunner]

I am having the same issue! I don’t have a solution , but right now I have been able to at least keep my steps tracking by turning off Bluetooth on my phone. It completely knocks out notifications and essentially the whole smart watch bit, but will hopefully hold it over until there’s a fix or I can buy a new one. I turn the Bluetooth back on to sync.

[klm4iast8]

Did your issues start on Friday too?  Mine was fine on Thursday, but Friday was a different story.  I am going to keep documenting the status of the battery on this forum until either my Fitbit dies or the Mods tell us something helpful about what is going on, because their answer to everything is to restart your Fitbit ( and in this case it's not the solution). I am on my second charge today and in a little over an hour, my battery has decreased by 20%.  I don't know why I keep buying these watches, but I have had 4 different models, and 3 of them have died between 12 months - 1 week, and about 18-19 months.  They are kind of expensive to be such a disposable item.  I have a 4 year old Charge 2, and it is the only Fitbit that hasn't caused me problems.  Good thing I kept it as a spare.  It's funny, I have a really old kindle reader with a keyboard that I bought in 2006, and it is still going strong.  I only use it in the summer time when I read outside.  It's old, but it gets the job done.  

[klm4iast8]

Thank you. I’ll try that. I have done the restart many times, but I haven’t changed the clock face. I wonder if everyone that has been having problems are using the same clock face?

Sent from my iPad

[klm4iast8]

Ok, here is a breakdown of battery life after the second charge today.  My Fitbit Versa 2 was charged for the second time today at 9:45 A.M.  At 11:19 A.M., the battery showed it was charged to 99%.

5/2/2021	9:45	A.M.	put on charger
5/2/2021	11:19	A.M.	99%
5/2/2021	11:38	A.M.	94%
5/2/2021	11:46	A.M.	91%
5/2/2021	12:00	P.M.	88%
5/2/2021	12:18	P.M.	83%
5/2/2021	12:54	P.M.	73%
5/2/2021	2:21	P.M.	69%
5/2/2021	2:26	P.M.	67%
5/2/2021	3:17	P.M.	52%
5/2/2021	3:49	P.M.	44%
5/2/2021	4:48	P.M.	27%
5/2/2021	5:30	P.M.	14%

Another person on the forum suggested that I change the clock face that I was using, and restart my Fitbit.  I performed this action at 2:26 P.M.  I changed from the SpO2 face to the Waveform.  Again, this charge lasted a little over 6 hours (11:19 A.M. to 5:30 P.M), and per my calculations the battery drained by 86% rounding up.   My calculation [(14-99)/99] = .858586, which converts to 86%.  What is the deal?  I have charged this Versa 2 twice today for approximately 3 ½ hours, and each time the battery drained by more than 80% in about 6 hours.  I don’t understand how a Fitbit that was perfectly fine on Thursday can be such crap in 3 days.  At the rate that I am going, this Versa 2 will require charging 7-8 hours per day.  If that is the case, I will only get 16 hours of wear time a day.  I certainly won’t have enough battery life to get sleep and pulse ox readings overnight, which is one of the benefits of the Versa 2.  There have been many people with the same issue, but as of this time, our concerns are not being addressed.  It takes a little bit of time to keep track of these statistics, but I guess that I will keep on doing so until those of us having problems get some kind of response.   Thank you.

[stubee]

Edit: Removed Post as my issue seems unrelated and is now resolved after hard boot of watch. (Android Phone)

[Guy_]

@klm4iast8  It seems your watch is faulty - Probably best to contact Fitbit Support directly. They may be able to help you.

[stubee]

_Guy : Hopefully you are incorrect since there are several folks reporting the same issue just recently occuring.  Also fitbit seems to have acknowledged the issue:   https://twitter.com/FitbitSupport/status/1389651066145230851

[klm4iast8]

Thank you but there are a lot of people having the same problem as I am. Everyone's issues all started at the same time which leads me to believe it's more of a Fitbit problem and not a me problem. The thread that I am referring to is by gingernutcookie - versa battery draining quickly. Several people on that thread have commented that they have contacted Fitbit and it is a battery issue and the only solution was to buy a new Fitbit with a 35% discount (of course). I bought my Versa 2 in September 2019, so to me it is unacceptable to be having these issues. There are also some Sense owners that are having the same problems, and none of those watches are even a year-old year old. Plus, as I have commented before, the Moderators are being curiously silent about this issue. Thanks.

Kim

[Guy_]

@klm4iast8 @stubee  it would seem that the sudden arrival of the problem would indicate a serious flaw introduced by an update.

The question is how did an update affect the devices in such a bad way.

[klm4iast8]

No, I just put music files on my Versa 2, and listen through my aftershokz wireless headphones. I haven’t done this for about a year, rather I have chosen to listen straight through my phone. My Versa 2 battery would drain pretty fast when I used it in this way. Plus it is a cumbersome to switch out and add music. It’s quicker to just use my phone because it has a huge sd card, and the battery holds up better. Hope this helps.

Kim

Sent from my iPad

[klm4iast8]

Beats me, but Fitbit isn’t acknowledging the problem (other than that one tweet). There are several threads about this issue. The one by gingernutcookie - versa battery draining quickly will give you a pretty good idea of what is happening and how Fitbit is not resolving this problem, other than to offer a 35% discount on a new Fitbit. Thanks, have a good day.

Kim

Sent from my iPad

[Guy_]

@klm4iast8  Unfortunately there is a distinct lack of communication from Fitbit which only makes the matter and image worse.

See the feature suggestion which got an immediate "Not currently planned" status and was locked for comment.

Add a Notice board of known issues under development and issues resolved

Incidentally, as it may be a Fitbit App issue, have you tried turning off any Bluetooth devices and see how that impacts the battery draining of the watch?

[Khonari]

I have noticed that if Bluetooth is turned off that battery drain is much slower. As soon as Bluetooth is turned back on it kills that battery on a matter of hours!


Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone

[klm4iast8]

Hi Guy,

Some of the suggestions were to disable Bluetooth and sync manually. Another suggestion was to change the clock face. I tried both. After I disabled Bluetooth and only turned it on to sync, my battery life improved dramatically. I also changed from the spO2 face to the wave (I think that is what it is called). I don't know what impact that had.

I also tried all of the Fitbit stand-bys to fix an errant device (i.e. restarting my device multiple times, and checking for updates). I even went so far as to go into the Apple App store to see if there was an update to the version that I have. If it was just me, I would think that I had a dud, but there are many, many people with the same issue. Even some Sense people are reporting the same problems and that is a new watch. Twice, I have had Fitbits croak shortly after a year so I don't have a lot of confidence in Fitbit right now. The Moderators have been MIA about the situation and when some of the people experiencing issues have spoken to someone at Fitbit, all they get is "that it is a battery issue, with an offer for a 35% discount on a new watch".

I think a lot of people will probably be fed-up enough that the next time they want to get a new smart watch, it won't be a Fitbit.

Kim

[SunsetRunner]

“We understand that this is not the resolution you've expected. Although customer satisfaction remains our number one goal, the demands of running global business require that we now enforce our warranty consistently. We appreciate your understanding.”

Sounds like the have 0 plans to fix this. Definitely time to move on to a different company.

[Guy_]

Hi Kim

Thanks for the confirmation about Bluetooth - it has to be that. Not sure if it affects Android users too.

As regards the SpO2 clock face, it probably has no impact during the day, its only working at night during sleep.

By chance are you also using an iPad?