Sense battery life

[Falen23]

I can’t get my sense to last even 2 days on a charge even though I have turned off all gps, WiFi, and don’t have the always on display on. The long battery life was one of the biggest selling points for me as I could charge my ionic every 5 or so days and that was great. I don’t want to have a busy day and not be able to charge it and miss out on sleep data because it dies. 

[DMB15642]

I am a long standing Fitbit user. I have validated notifications, display setting (set to disable for always on), WiFi as the user above and same issue. I am charging every 3 days. My Iconic was at 5 days. Battery life on the sense is an issue. Hey Fitbit - any advice before I ship this back?

[JerryIonic]

I'm getting the same issue. I thought the battery was to last up to 6 days according to their advertising. I'm getting about 2 1/2 days before recharging. My Versa 2 lasted a lot longer. Ex: Late yesterday afternoon I charged the watch to 100%. Now at 4:30am the next day, I'm at 68%. This should not be the case. 

[JerryIonic]

I have a feeling there will be those shipping their Sense back for this and other issues. At least it's not like an Apple watch that needs charging practically every day. But still, the battery on the Sense should last longer than what we are experiencing. 

[Barbara001]

I am having the same issue, it hasn't been 24 hours since i fully charged my Sense watch and already battery is at 70%. 

Not impressed.

[Carapinha13]

I’m really only averaging a full day ... after a 2 hr workout I’m on 45 after a full charge ugh  

[AsterNebula]

Me too. Got the Sense for several people in my family and all of us are having the same issue with battery life, no matter what settings we turn off. Something is causing a high battery drain on the Sense and I cannot figure out what. Disabled GPS in all the exercises, switched off the quick view and always on display, set screen brightness to dim... Everything I can find. I can't find any setting to turn off all day sync. My partner is only getting a day of battery life, I'm only getting 2. The 6 day battery life was one of the biggest selling points of the Sense for me, but it doesn't seem like it's possible to even get half that.

[NexusOne]

I’m not having any issues with battery life. I got my sense last Monday, charged to 89% while setting it up then put it on. I charged it yesterday (Sunday, so 6 days) at around 23%. I have a simple stats face with no animations, quick view off. I train 6 days a week for 1.5-2 hours a session so it’s getting plenty of active use each day.

[MattJ71]

I've had the Sense since launch day, so my battery life observations are based on that.

I think the Sense can actually get 6 days of battery life if some features are turned OFF.  For example, I find that the SPO2 watch face uses a lot of power.  Also, notifications, calendar and weather app all run in the background.  The Always On display also uses a LOT of power.

I have everything turned on, except the Always On display...  I have the SPO2 watch face, all messaging notifications, weather, calendar, etc.  I'm trying to get the MOST out of the Sense.  Having said that, I find that the Sense uses about 25% of battery every day.  So, in theory, the Sense could possibly go 4 days.  With Always On, you'll be lucky to get 2 days.

However, if you turn off the Always On, SPO2 watch face and notification, the Sense will easily get 6 days.  So, it depends on what you want.

I think there is potential for Fitbit to optimise the OS to get more battery life.  For example, you should not have to use the SPO2 watchface to get the SPO2 score.  This should run quietly in the background.  The current Sense is a "beta device"... so I expect the battery life to get a little better with time.....  just have patience.

[girlWithaSense]

Mine actually was fully charged last Sunday when it arrived. I had charged it today again (8th day) and was still at 19%. 
- i don't use the SPO2 watch face (i have another one from the heavy stats since i like it more)

- i don't have always On display but it is set to show the watch as i turn my wrist
- theoretically is connected to both wi-fi and bluetooth (practically, this dies as soon as i close the app) - i raised an issue with the support team and they are looking into it. To read weather or anything related, i need to sync it all the time with the app
- GPS is On THEORETICALLY since it's not working/connecting (at all!!!)

So, i guess the problem with the battery would be my last one since...NOTHING WORKS! And yes, for this, i am considering returning this watch as for 8 to 12 days of battery i can buy a cheaper xiaomi mi band. Does the same thing as this one for 10 times cheaper.  

[SunsetRunner]

How do I turn my GPS off? Thank you.

[Vic33]

Hi @MattJ71 @Falen23 @DMB15642 @JerryIonic @Barbara001 @Carapinha13 @AsterNebula @NexusOne @girlWithaSense @SunsetRunner 

I mostly agree with MattJ71, you got to turn off some things like always on etc. GPS also eats power. SpO2 consumes extra power also (it's in the manual). But "sense will easily get 6 days?" I don't think that "easily" is the right word there MattJ71. 🙂

I got mine charged friday, did not to any activity and I'm at 50% battery. I think it will last more than 4 days. It will be interesting to see what kind of testing has done Fitbit to make it last for 6+ days. (Like turning it on and leaving it on the desk for 6 days without no activity?)

But, what is a little bit confusing is that on fitbit.com they are advertising that Fitbit Sense Battery Lasts 6+ days but on the user manual in french that I have in my Fitbit app, it is saying that: If fully charged, the watch has an autonomy superior to 4 days!!! ...

So it's a little bit weird in my opinion. It's 4 days or 6 days?...

[Falen23]

But I have all of that turned off and still can’t get a full 2 days off of a charge. I feel like I constantly have to be running to my charger to get a charge on it or I’ll lose sleep data because it’ll die in the middle of the night. Really hoping this battery issue is fixed. I figured I’d be able to use some features and it last at least 3 days. I’m really only interested in the gps to track my runs

[MindiNel]

I'm having the same issue and thinking I might have to return it. The battery life was the biggest selling point for me and this thing drains in a day. One 45 min workout will decrease my battery by 10% alone. This watch was pricey and I expected a lot more from it. I've done all the same steps as noted above. My Versa lasted at least 4 days before needing a charge.

[IonicEd9]

Yea, I too am pissed. I get just shy of 2 days without any exercises logged. I just deleted a bunch of useless apps and turned off “run in background” and app notifications. It still went from 86% to 68% overnight with 2 alarms (no SpO2 clock face)

[PaulinVA]

I got my watch on Sept 25, use it every day, all the time, and have charged it twice.  It's at 43% now.

I use the GPS to run three times a week, walk with the GPS every day.

I have only used the SPO2 watch face two nights.

[USAF-Larry]

The least amount of time I have had on a charge so far has been 4 days, and most times the battery lasts 5 days for me. This is with the SpO2 clock face on 24 hours a day, and GPS in use. Not sure why some watches are seeing such reduced battery life.

[thesmoothdome]

Same here.  Always on display takes about 30% of the battery per day with everything under the sun running in the background.  With always on turned off, it’s about 20%.  I can see 6 days easy if I turned off all background functions. 

[bobby2478]

Quick view i've noticed causes the screen to constantly light up even when i don't want or need it to, so I set screen wake to manual (instead of automatic) on quick settings and then under settings I set it to wake by button only (it still wakes when tapping the screen but there is a bug where tap to wake doesn't work most of the time even with repeated taps).

Obviously the other variable will be how often you are tinkering with the device, the more the screen is on the more battery it consumes, and this is more likely out of the gate as you are playing around with it and customizing it and learning about new settings etc. Over time you won't be doing this as much.

I agree they would just allow SPo2 to be collected regardless of which watchface you select. They already capture SPo2 data to use for the Estimated Oxygen Variation graph under sleep, so you shouldn't need to select a watchface for Fitbit to capture the SPo2 data for measurement.

[bobby2478]

@Falen23 If you can't get 2 days off a charge something must be going on if you have AOD and other stuff turned off. Are you doing a lot of GPS enabled exercise each day? Screen brightness set to max? Do you have sleep mode enabled each night to prevent screen from waking? Is screen set to auto wake when you lift your arm, or manually if you press the button/tap the screen?

I have AOD off, screen brightness set to normal, sleep mode is scheduled each night, screen wake is manual and requires a button press/screen tap to wake. I do GPS exercise every day or 2 for 1-2 hours each time. I'll wake the screen here and there but am not constantly tinkering with it. I can get 4 days battery life, I'm going to start tracking when i last fully charged it and when it dies to see just how long on average it lasts.