Versa Lite battery drains too quickly

[zemiriii]

A couple of weeks ago, the battery of my Versa Lite started draining way quicker than before. It used to last more than 5 days and now I barely get through 2 days. I thought it was the battery itself that was giving up after almost 5 years of use, but it started overnight which makes me think it must have something to do with the most recent major update on the mobile phone app. Concidentally, the battery drainage issue started right after. I did some tests and when I turned off bluetooth, the battery lasted for ages again as before, but with bluetooth on, it dropped to 85% almost immediately after being charged and doesn't last 2 full days. Apart from the fact that with the new update, the whole app is everything but useful now, it also seems to be the culprit of the watch's battery performance. I assume the app is sending way too many sync requests to the watch which drains its battery. When bluetooth is off, it can't sync and the battery life is as good as before. I'd totally keep my bluetooth off if it wouldn't completely defeat the purpose of a smartwatch.

Since I haven't done any changes to either the watch settings nor the app settings, this must be caused by an update and I really want to avoid having to perform a factory reset.

Fitbit, please listen to your customers. Your support pages are full of people pointing out the same issues (updated app interface where amongst other issues it's impossible to interpret the sleep graph and of course the high battery drainage) and nothing seems to change. I don't want to get rid of a watch that is still working but the ridiculously low battery life and the "improved" application make the decision to switch to any other brand other than Fitbit very easy. I'm super disappointed.

[Guy_]

Hi @zemiriii - thanks for your feedback in your other post, it is useful for others, though having to run your watch in standalone mode means you won't get notifications.

After a sync (once a day) you can always consult the web dashboard which may still show some information in a good format.

[zemiriii]

Thanks for your reply. As I said in my post (and you mentioned in your reply too), keeping the watch as standalone makes no sense and completely defeats the purpose of a smartwatch and its ability to show smartphone notifications. Your suggestion to use the web dashboard is good, but no solution for me either, I'd rather want Fitbit to fix the app rather than moving to the web dashboard... Thank you for your suggestion though ☺️

[Guy_]

@zemiriii - running in standalone mode long term is not ideal, to get battery Ife the watch can probably go 3 days without syncing.

To resolve issues relating to syncing try the following.

Logout of the Fitbit App, swipe off the active window and in Android clear the storage cache and force stop it.

Remove the watch Bluetooth entries from the phone and restart the phone and watch by holding the watch button for 10 seconds till it blanks or vibrates and wait for the logo to appear and for it to start.

Login again and run the set up of a replacement watch, selecting yours and replace, this will make new Bluetooth entries again and may dirt out the sync issue.

Bravo on your watch reaching 5 years that's encouraging for others.

See also Why won't my Fitbit device sync?

[zemiriii]

@Guy_  - I tried your recommendation and unfortunately this made it even worse. Now my battery lasts not even for 24h instead of approx. 2 days. Yesterday it turned off at 2:30 in the morning after I had charged it the evening before and today I charged in the morning, unplugging it at around 7 when it was at 99%. After 16 hours I'm at 30 percent now. I tried your fix two days ago and I have to charge my watch every day now. I also tried to uninstall the app on my phone and reinstall it, but that didn't change anything either. Thanks for your help though. Sure, 5 years is a lot for a smartwatch and of course I was expecting that the battery life was going to decrease after some time, but I find it very suspicious that my watch's battery life was okay for so long and decreased drastically from one day to the ofther after that major update... Anyway, thanks again. Maybe this tip works for somebody else.

[Guy_]

@zemiriii - normal battery degradation is just that, over time. It's not impossible that the battery has a more serious fault but given the sudden nature it may be some other issue with the watch, like getting moisture inside which is the most common with sudden very short battery life.

In this case if it gets hot when charging stop immediately.

Versions of the Fitbit App syncing issues can also cause a high drain as you saw which may compound the problem.

Best to check the watch again with a new standalone test.

Turn off Bluetooth, fully charge the watch and restart it. Place the watch face down with the straps out of the way and where it cannot detect movement and the lights stop flashing and see how long it will last for a full day.

You won't even be able to see the time let alone notifications during the test but it will give you a good measure of the watch condition.

There remains the possibility of a factory reset but if the watch/battery is damaged it isn't going to help and is risky, can cause the watch to fail.