Sense broken charging cable

[ravinot]

Hi Community, has anyone experienced an issue with the charging cable pins recessing into their holes? I was given a Sense as a gift a couple of months ago and noticed the other day that it had stopped charging. When I inspected the cable, I can see that one of the pins has crawled back into the hole.

Is there any way to perform a DIY fix? I have seen cables on the market that you can purchase, but I don't want to go down that route yet as the watch is pretty new. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Moderator Edit: Clarified subject

[Guy_]

@SunsetRunner- Just click on the picture.

[phoenixmed]

It seems to be a design issue. The original Fitbit sense changing cable that came with the watch had one of its pins recess after a couple weeks. I then bought a couple charging cables online through Amazon and they both were not working in a few weeks due to recessed charging pins. I called Fitbit and they sent me another charging cable for free. I have had this for a couple months so hope it keeps working. We will see.   

Since this happened to both the Fitbit and the aftermarket charger pins in the same location on each charger, it may well be a design issue or maybe a single manufacturer that really gave Fitbit a bad product. I think both Fitbit/Google and customers are being cheated.  Fitbit/Google needs to check the design of the charger pin contacts and then maybe get a new manufacturer. 

[jrf1]

I have been through 4 cables, two Fitbit branded, two aftermarket.  They all had the same problem, the lower left pin stops making contact.  I contacted support and they told me my sense was out of warranty and they could not send me a new cable.  I didn't ask for a new cable, I have already bought half a dozen cables, I wanted to ask if they have figured out why this is happening and have a fix.  Since I have to assume all the pins have the same mechanical springs, I would assume there is some sort of problem with one of the contact locations on the Sense, maybe to do with the magnet since both the Sense and the charging cable have magnets inside.  The Sense works fine, but if your cable fails you can't charge it so it isn't very useful unless you buy another cable.  My take is the design has an issue and they don't want to address it.  This is my first Fitbit device, but I have had 4 smart watches and 1 fitness tracker.  Strangely, you can get a $20 smartwatch that has a better charging connection, so they really should be a bit embarrassed by this.  My chat session with Fitbit support pretty much said all I needed to know, we are in a hurry to get rid of you, we don't care about your problem, you are out of warranty, etc.  Anything to get rid of a customer who has purchased their top end product and is paying for a Premium account.  Pretty sure the fooled me once into buying their product, but I probably won't give them another chance.  

[mattsfrey]

Same issue, I've been through 6 cables now. I've been using fitbits for years but the issues with this have been so enraging I am dropping the brand for good and going to try another wearable. Fitbit has become a substandard company at this point and is producing literal garbage products and refusing to do anything about them. Really painful having sunk another 300 into the sense after my ionic died and hoping they'd have at least gotten the heart rate monitor to work at higher levels (there was some improvement there but it still tends to not accurately gauge 150+ HR). This charging issue is just insanity though, literally cannot use the product.

[Elissanp]

I've had many fitbits over the years but the last few have been progressively crappy.  Various issues.  I think this one will be my last Fitbit as well.  I don't want to go to an apple watch because I use android, but I'm willing to change if I have to.

[Micsb]

My cable broke with exactly the samme fault, had it around 14 months. Glad I found this thread as i would not have noticed the pin being stuck and thought it was the watch.

I ordered a 3pp cable, not going to pay any premium for Fitbit cable which apparently breaks frequently according to this thread. New cable works great, has a longer wire and with a day to day delivery. It is definitely a poor design, I remember thinking the same when I initially received the watch, thinking the cable with the tiny pins will eventually break.before the watch.

Those who charge daily will probably see the cable break sooner than those who charge every 3-4 days.

[tecbnm]

I find it very interesting that the pictures of seen of the single stuck pin, its always the same pin thats stuck, I've been a fitbit user since the fitbit one. When that chargers came out with the pin design I've always had an issues with a stuck pin Sense, Alta, Blaze, Surge, One, have all had charger issues the ones with pins happen almost with first 30days, what haven't this design been switched over to USB C or complete wireless charging 

[Wdoc]

My cable failed in this manner after 4 months. I charge around 5 day intervals with occasional boosts, so around 30-35 charge cycles.  
Holding charger puck with cable going upwards and looking directly at the pins, it’s the pin at lower right. 

Investigation shows that the pin isn’t ‘stuck’ but simply isn’t being pushed out by its spring. Holding charger with pins down and tapping hand on table will cause pin to extend. If depressed, it remains depressed until manually extended again, as described above. 
To charge my Sense, I was able to extend the pin manually and carefully place on the Sense without pressing the pin in too far. 
I called Fitbit and they’re sending a new charge cable. 
When the new cable arrives, I’ll do an autopsy of the malfunctioning cable  to determine the exact failure mode. 

[JillyRuxpin]

They agreed to send you a new cable? They wanted me to send back my ENTIRE
watch and cable?

[StanleyS]

@JillyRuxpin Same here. Fitbit support wanted me to take my watch (and all it came with) back to the place of purchase. While I'm sure Costco would take it back, it seemed completely ridiculous and a complete waste of resources to have Costco process a return when all Fitbit needed to do was simply send me out a replacement charging cable (although it sounds like the replacements may be just as problematic as what originally came with the product). I ended up ordering a couple of replacement chargers from Amazon and vowed never to buy another Fitbit. Anyone that asks me how I like my Fitbit Sense hears my story of how Fitbit handled my case.  

[Wdoc]

I can’t think of a logical reason for them to do anything but send a new charge lead/cable if in warranty (truthfully, with the prevalence of this defect, replacement leads for the pin issue should be provided past 1 year warranty)

In my instance, the Fitbit CSR sent me an email with a case#, asking me to hand write the number on paper and place the cable on the paper then take a picture which captured both the cable and number. (I suppose this is an attempt to help prevent fraud in the FB warranty process)

I kept the CSR on phone until she verified my claim, sent a confirmation email stating the same and I received the confirmation. 
(if they’re busy, it’s easy to fall through the cracks unless you complete everything in one session)
Within 1 hour I received ship confirmation of my warranty charging lead. 

I’ve seen a Versa3 that was burned by a melted 3rd party charge lead, so I’m a bit skeptical of the temp control in cheap leads.  That’d add actual injury to the mere insult of the ‘sticking pin’ problem and I’d rather avoid that!!

I’m anxious to get the new charge lead so I can dissect the failed unit to see if I can determine why this same pin spring mechanism appears to be failing as so reliably. 

[Vikkijane]

I have had 2 fail due to this, well fed up, clearly very poor design

[tecbnm]

I have a stack of broken fitbit cables, all the same pin all same issue. I
have one fail about once a month, I've started ordering packs of 4 from
Amazon, hate dealing with usless fitbit support who was supposed to send me
2 and sent me 1 last time I ordered from them. Fitbit has had a pin issues
since fitbit one, and ever fitbit since... someday I wish they would just
install a waterproof usb C port on the side

[SunsetRunner]

it is bizarre that they don't answer anything and don't do anything, just send another cable, which is not an option for me because I live in Israel! 

[Elissanp]

You would think that if they actually READ these posts in the community they would figure out by now that they are going to lose a lot of business if they don't fix this issue and build a better product.  People are sick of it.

[LizzyFitbit · Accepted solution]

Hi everyone, and thanks for your participation in the Community Forums.

Thank you for sharing your experience and troubleshooting. To keep threads on topic or tailed to a specific topic, I'm going to close this thread from further comments. If your Sense is not charging, please follow the charging tips in this Fitbit help article Why isn't my Fitbit device's battery charging? 

In case your charging cable is the one defective or damaged, I'd recommend contacting our Support team so they can evaluate your options and see what can be done to bring you on track. They're available via chat and phone, just click here to get connected with them.