New versa 3 needs a 3rd charge in a week

[Nertz]

• Bought 2 Versa 3 just received this past monday.  My wife's is fine but mine has needed a third charge in less than a week.   What happened to the 6 day battery life advertised?  I don't use always on, and haven't loaded any new apps.  Please help as I have always been concerned with fitbit quality.  Thank you.

[Guy_]

Hi @Nertz - there are various features you may have on by default. Snore detection or SpO2 tacker app, those combined can use as much as 4 days of the 6. Using GPS during exercises can drain the battery in less than a day. See more in How to resolve the Major issues causing short battery life. 

[murjd17]

The most recent update did something detrimental. I was getting five to six days of battery life per charge. That includes two to three runs with GPS tracking in that time frame. After the most recent update my Versa 3 is draining 15% of battery per hour on average. I went to bed last night with 92% charge and woke up at 40%. I didn't change any settings on my Fitbit from before the update and after. The update is the only change. I contacted Fitbit support about this yesterday and after some laughable troubleshooting steps (things I had already done before calling them) they offered me a 35% discount on a new Fitbit since my Versa 3 is now outside of the warranty period. I've had Fitbit devices going back to 2013 or 2014. This is the last Fitbit I'll ever purchase if this is how they treat their customers since the Google buyout.

[Guy_]

@murjd17- You may have new features enabled after the update,. Snore detection uses a lot, see the previous posts.

On the off chance have you synced the watch and then done a full Shutdown from the watch Settings menu. Wait at least 10 seconds before placing on the charger to restart it and charge it -  see if that makes any difference.

If not there is already the Factory reset option left, but this can be risky and requires a complete new set up process.

[murjd17]

I don't have premium so I don't have snore detection. Even a factory reset did not resolve the issue.

[Guy_]

@murjd17  - during a factory reset it probably reinstalled the same latest firmware which might have the same problem.

Your only option is to try a factory reset without installing the latest firmware.

This might be possible if you don't remove your watch from the Fitbit App and when you setup use replace rather than new, it may skip the firmware update, just a guess, but you will have the original software and some options won't be there.

At least it will enable you to see if it is a firmware issue or a watch issue.

The other thing you can try is to turn off Bluetooth on the phone for a few days and see if it makes a difference. You won't be able to get notifications. But you could turn it on to sync and off again after. The watch should keep 5 days data between syncs 

[Nertz]

Snore detection and SpO2 are turned off.   Recharged this morning and already in less than 3 hours battery has drained 5%.  At this rate, it will need recharge between 48 and 60 hours.  Far from the advertised 6 days.  Yet my wife's versa 3 hasn't yet required a charge since we first got them Monday.

And another noteworthy observation, out of the box both units behaved differently.  When we got them both at the same time, My wife's unit was fully discharged and required a few hours of charging, while mine was partially charged at 40% and was at 100% within minutes. Very concerned on the sate of this battery for a brand new Fitbit..

[Guy_]

@Nertz  - you will need to see over a longer time. When charged to 100% the first few % go quite quickly.

Note : If it is problematic you have the option of a refund normally within 30 days for most places, 45 for Fitbit.

This gives you the option to buy a new one.

You may have different phones, different app levels and different firmware depending on how things went. It would be good to check them for differences. If your wife didn't do the last update don't do it.

[Nertz]

Both fitbits went thru an update setting them up.  Both are setup the same with the exception of different accounts.  I went back to the original watch face.  Both phones are recent Samsung galaxy S Kim series.

I'll see how they behave for another week before I decide to take it back.