Versa battery drain since installing SpO2 clockface

[allyk87]

Has anyone else suddenly gone from great battery life (only needed charging every 3-4 days) to 24hrs max?

I installed the new update and it recommended the clock face , which is the only way to get the SpO2 readings.

I changed the clock face back to a normal one to see if it was the update or the clock face and I’m on day 3 with 50% (done 2 10+km walks too), so very clearly the clock face.

I like the feature, but not at the cost of battery life.

If it’s a common issue I think fitbit needs to look into it.

[MarciM]

Hi @allyk87 

Have you tried restarting your Versa a few times in a row? If not, hold down the button for 10+ seconds until you see the Fitbit logo, let it fully restart, then do it again and then again once more. This seems to be clearing up whatever is running that is draining the battery and then you should be able to enjoy the SpO2 clock face without sacrificing your battery life. 

[Ucfjake · Accepted solution]

Both my wife and I have the original Versa with the watch face installed to get the SpO2 rating and both have lost about half our battery life. I also switched back for a few days which restored the watch to regular battery life. I did a full reboot with no change on both watches. I used to get 5-6 days battery life and now get 3.  I would respectfully request Fitbit either fix whatever is killing the battery on the watchface or allow us to view this information in-app. But I can add two Versa 1's as evidence that there is an issue with this face in particular.

[MrMarv]

@MarciM @allyk87 and @allyk87 

The clock face does appear to place a larger drain on the battery, or rather the overnight use does - powering the sensor isn't free.

I routinely burn between 12 and 14 percent of my battery using the "Big Numbers" clock face, a face that uses large text and graphics, a battery burner. Fourteen percent is 7.14 days to zero charge.

As a test, I reinstalled the SpO2 clock face, a simplistic low pixel face, yesterday at 4:45 pm after charging my Versa 2 to 99 percent.

At 5:45 am this morning I replaced the clock face because the battery was already down to 89 percent. Ten percent in 13 hours or 18.5 percent over 24 hours - a burn to zero of 5.42 days. It probably would have been worse had I let it run for the full 24 hours - which would include two Treadmill exercise sessions for an hour each - the exercise app takes up cpu time which means battery.

@MarciM 's recommendation to reboot your device indeed has merit, even more so as time goes on. Memory cleanup is a huge CPU hog and CPU time means battery drain. I recommended to another poster to shut down and restart his 2.5 year old device and he went from having to charge every  day to reporting he was at 70 percent after 24+ hours. Not my normal 86-88 but 2.5 year old batteries don't hold the charge like new ones do.

Good luck to all.

[askmrhp]

I now charge my Versa before bedtime. It drains the battery 40% . In the morning I have 60% left.

[MrMarv]

@Ucfjake -

I intended to include you in my post yesterday - instead I included allyk87 twice.

Shutting down the device and restarting it will normally help clean up the device's memory so the CPU doesn't have to work so hard.

That won't completely deal with the extra battery drain caused by the SpO2 clock face, but it may help.

Good luck.

[kate4411]

Hi!  How do you change the clock face back to normal?

[MrMarv]

@kate4411 -

• In the iOS app (probably the same for Android), tap the Account icon at the top left of the Today screen.
• Tap on the Device tile (Versa 2 for me)
• Tap on the Clock Faces file
• Tap the clock face you want to revert back to at the bottom of the screen under "My Clock Faces"
• Tap the red "Select" button.

For me, it took about five seconds for my clock face to physically change and another five seconds or so for the app to complete the whole process.

Good luck and welcome to the boards.