Sense is draining the battery quickly

[Gaby76]

Hi there, after the last update my Fitbit draining its battery very quickly. During the day is fine but the every night i lost 40-50% of battery. I have to charge every 2nd day. 

I tried all the basic stuff restart the tracker restart my phone without any success. 

My firmware version is:  44.128.5.38 

Moderator edit: subject for clarity/format 

[lablover55]

do a factory reset..after setup, turn off bluetooth...

[WilsonFitbit]

Hello @Gaby76. Welcome to the community forums! @lablover55 Nice to see you around and thanks for your great input! 

@Gaby76 Thank you for the detailed information and for the troubleshooting steps you've tried. It seems that you have reviewed our recommendations about how to extend the battery life of a Fitbit device: Can I extend my Fitbit device's battery life?

Since you're aware of the information provided in the link, my best recommendation is that you please contact our Support Team for further assistance. Note that you can contact them through chat or over the phone, but phone wait times have been longer than normal, so I recommend initiating a chat. Click here to get connected. 

Please make sure to explain the inconvenience and mention all the steps you've followed, this way they can assist you from there. 

Hope this helps. 

[Gaby76]

I did a factory reset, but no effect.

I spoke with the support. They suggest to me to change the clock face to a factory one, but no effect at all. 

During the day my watch drain max 10% of the battery but the night... 30-40%

[Newtripley]

Hello

Do you have snore detect on? If so toggle it off it can be a real battery hog

Same goes for SPo2 

Hope you can get it sorted 

[Gaby76 · Accepted solution]

When I cancelled my premium membership the problem is gone. Without premium the tracker works fine.

[Clove6060]

Without premium you loose a lot of the features that normally run in the background. It stands to reason without premium your battery consumption rate will improve.  

https://www.fitbit.com/global/us/products/services/premium

[Guy_]

 @Clove6060  has kindly provided the premium link which highlights some of the culprits for using the battery, it lists the Readiness Score but doesn't include the Snore & Noise Detect feature which is another culprit available to Premium users.

[LZeeW]

@Gaby76   I don't believe that Premium, in and of itself, is the problem.  My husband wears a Sense without premium and I wear a Versa 3 with premium.  I don't use the snore detection.   My Versa 3 uses about 15% battery per day with normal use (no GPS use).  His Sense suddenly stated showing excessive battery drain -- it used almost 70% of his battery in 24 hours.  He doesn't use any apps, just uses it to monitor his ECG.

[Guy_]

Hi @LZeeW - what version is the Sense on, presumably the latest, it's when this quick battery drain issue seemed to appear?

My sense is still on 44.128.5.38 with no battery problems at all, get around 6 days on a charge.

[LZeeW]

@Guy_   He has the current version, 44.128.6.12.  But I have the current Versa 3 firmware, which is 36.128.6.12.  The first group of numbers is the device code.  I am having a tough time understanding why two devices, with essentially the same firmware, would have different battery life.

[Guy_]

Agreed @LZeeW .see if there is a difference with watch Settings, vibration & audio, music controls & On wrist calls, also whether status indicators are enabled in Settings.

With your experience and both models you can surely come up with the solution.

Also check differences between phones & settings

[LZeeW]

@Guy_   Neither of us use any settings that are marked that they impact battery life.  No music, no on wrist calls.  We have identical phones with comparable settings.  I am the one who uses more "stuff" on my Versa 3.

Thank you for the vote of confidence.  Sadly, my only immediate solution is to bring this issue to Fitbit's attention.

[Guy_]

@LZeeW -  thanks, very intriguing. Guess it must be something internal related to skin temperature perhaps.

[LZeeW]

@Guy_   To the best of my knowledge, both devices use the same skin temperature sensor.

[Guitarplayer]

@LZeeW 

According to this article Sense use a dedicated sensor but Fitbit never clarify what advantages it has.

I don't think however it is the culprit of the different battery life

[Guy_]

@Guitarplayer  - thanks for identifying the difference. 

If there is a difference in the latest Sense firmware for processing temperature which is read once every minute that could accumulate to extra battery load during a day, though as you say what could have changed.

The only other thing that is used frequently would be the heart sensor and pressure sensor, perhaps they were trying to improve this in the latest release.

Otherwise what else could explain the difference between the two watch type's battery performance, intriguing to say the least.

Differences overview which explains the reason forthe price difference between the 2 watches.