Quick battery death? Turn off All-Day Sync in app!

[Moocow1980]

EDIT 2-13-16: If you read the entire thread, it has become very clear it is not the software version but All-Day Sync in the mobile apps doing the damage. I'll leave the below post up for posterity, but, I'm changing the thread title. I'm not going to have the wrong issue be blamed, and I'll take initial wrongness to know the real issue got pegged. I hope that this helps others out. FitBit needs to fix this issue and I think enough case study by myself alone (two watches, and a third to be planned) will give FitBit what it needs. I'm sure others have added on elsewhere, and it'll only support the issue. So please, if you have a quick-dying watch, locate the All-Day Sync feature by clicking on your watch in the app and going to where you'd set up things like what wrist it's worn on, notifications, etc., and turn off All-Day Sync there. You'll instantly see the difference after you charge your device to full and start anew.

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Look, I'm going to come straight out and say it: I think the current software version is killing battery life, that version being 16.34.5.14. I asked it as a question in the subject line, but to me, it is the answer. I just want some input from others who are longer-term owners of the watch and have seen different versions to confirm or deny what I say. Those who are new to the watch and this is the software they've only ever known have no basis to compare to, but suffer all the same.

Here is my personal story.

I bought the Surge in January 2015. I replaced it later in the year as it began cracking around the screws and was close to falling apart. I got a backup unit that was a refurb, after a call to customer support. Look back in these threads; I was religious in checking battery life and went into the five day ranges easily. All I do normally is heart rate. Bluetooth, notifications, everything else, all that is turned off. I like the steps, the heart rate and the sleep monitoring. I sporadically use the timer for breaks at work so I am not late, if my cell phone is in use. (Always a good countdown timer for a backup.)

The refurb suddenly started losing battery power and dying at three days, or just shy of it, and I didn't think much of it. My thought was maybe the refurb was bad. So I called customer service earlier this month (January 2016) and got a new refurb. This puts me on a third watch overall.

That third one quickly began dying at three days, if that, not even three weeks of owning it. Just like the previous one, it was dying quickly. I was upset. I called and after talking to a supervisor had a brand new sealed-in-the-box unit overnighted to me. Got it Tuesday the 26th, updated and charged it up for a first use and all that, and unplugged it that night around 10ish and was ready to go.

Today is Friday the 29th. It died between 4:30 and 5:30 p.m. (Eastern times, if it matters.) Not even three days. A brand spanking new watch out of the box dead like the previous one, a refurb. The refurb got the whole hard reset and charge treatment and every other idea posted on here over time. The refurb never could go past three days. And now a pristine new Surge as if I just bought it at Best Buy has the same issue and is on its first "death charge" for lack of better term plugged into my PC as I write this.

You can't tell me every single battery is bad, right? It HAS to be the software. What else could it be? Something is draining it, and if I am constantly charging it every two nights knowing it will die on the third day, how can I measure sleep? If I charge it elsewhere and I walk around, how I can measure steps? If I charge it period, how do I measure heart rate?

The common denominator in all of this is the software version. Fitbit crew, you guys need to look into this. Yes, I made a thread with a slew of other battery life posts out there, but they exist for a reason. Something is killing it, and logical deduction is telling me something in this software release is bad and a new software release -- or rollback -- is needed to give us our battery life back. How can a watch go from 5-7 days all the way down to three, if that, with barely any features used? And the website's shop still says up to seven days. We're not even getting up to three days right now, and you advertise it as seven days?

I'm convinced it's the software. Please fix it or rollback to one that didn't drain it so bad, regardless of what this current version does. I'll take the hiccups of the previous software; I just want a watch that won't die without even seeing three full days.

I'm about to give up on FitBit. I paid $250 for a product that either physically broke down so soon or software-wise is a disaster. I came to FitBit because the Jawbone UP line was an epic disaster and people recommended FitBit. But the product I want not working? I have issues.

So what you say, Fitbit? Will you fix this ASAP? What else could this possibly be? Seriously. Software is the logical answer. You have a memory leak or battery drainer or something in this software. Reconfigure and give us battery life, before I reconfigure who I choose for a tracker and go to another company. Because I will not go through all this again. I'm tired of the warranty exchanges. I'll just go to another company that offers a reliable product.

Moderator edit: title

[Moocow1980]

On the same token, you are not a moderator, and if there was an issue they would have addressed it themselves a long time ago by redirecting, closing, merging, or whatever they saw fit. (A moderator even posted in this thread and it still stands, so that is of note.)

Please, instead of worrying who searches what and coming across as belittling to me and other posters in this thread for not doing what you want us to do, whether you intended it that way or not, let those in proper power do their job. If it truly irks you that much, report rather than reply.

[AndrewFitbit · Accepted solution]

Hey all, let's keep this discussion positive.

@Moocow1980 Glad to hear your battery life has improved! Turning off All-Day Sync is a great troubleshoot, I'll definitely look into getting that added to our help article for maximizing battery life so other people are aware. Thanks for pointing that out!

@port513 @bmbaeb It can help save battery life by turning it off; however, there are other tips we have in the article I linked above. 

[Moocow1980]

@AndrewFitbit I accidentally hit the accepted solution button on your post, but that said, maybe it was meant to be, for the fact you are willing to look into this issue and at the very least include it in an official battery life FAQ is positive enough and I'm convinced that that is the issue.

I will hit or just miss seven days with my watch today. I'm 4h away as I type this. I have a feeling that when I slap the refurb on when I do the eventual swap (at this point I'm letting the brand new out of box watch just die out for a final week-long tally) that it will last past three days, and if it does that, I have my answer proven as the watches were dying before three days.

[Moocow1980]

@AndrewFitbit I have IMPORTANT information to share with you.

First, for all that are interested, the brand new out of the box watch died at 7 days 4 hours. So definitely the All-Day Sync option being turned off was key. I'm sure the laptop app quick sync or whatever its called being turned off may have helped but All-Day Sync is the big one.

Next I had my previous refurb ready to go. I added it to my Android app as a new watch, replacing/erasing the new one with the refurb. No issues, easy to do, the new one is off the app and the refurb is now in use. I will give a report on it later once I see how battery life is, especially at the three day mark. I began the refurb at 2:30 ET today, the 10th, so if I go to the 13th with much battery power, then I have my answer.

Now, caps for emphasis... ALL-DAY SYNC AUTOMATICALLY TURNED ITSELF ON WHEN I SWITCHED WHICH SURGE WATCH WAS ASSOCIATED WITH MY ACCOUNT. Even though it was off for the new watch, it turned itself on for the refurb watch. This is a key talking point.

This feature ABSOLUTELY needs tweaked in an Android app update release. One, it should always be off by default, and two, there needs to be a new pop-up window in the app explaining what it does and warn of the severe battery drain if someone wants to use it, and make them actually approve for double-sure they want it turned on.

I will report back with the findings of my refurb watch. But, I think All-Day Sync is the issue and three days alone from now may tell me for sure.

I will be in touch.

[Mtymedic]

It too have had the same issue. I have every thing off and I get 2-3 days till the low battery symbol occurs. This is my 3 surge 5 surge since Jan 2015.. I will say that 2 of the surges failed for non battery related issues. I am great full that Fitbit has replaced them each time. But I agree something somewhere must be draining the battery. I run 7 miles 5 days a week on a treadmill so the gps is off.

This week it was dead whenigotup on Monday morning. I charged it till it was full. I wore it about 20 hours on Monday, Tuesday I went for about a 4 mile run. As of to today as of this writing I have 2700 steps. It is 500 pm on Wednesday and the battery is empty. So please fit bit find and fix the issue. Why should I pay $250 for a tracker that have to turn off functions, to use? This is getting really annoying I had come to you for your reputation and recommendations from friends and previous experience with you. But this is getting old. I should also mention that this latest Surge is less than 2 months old and was also sealed and wrapped as a new watch.

[Moocow1980]

@Mtymedic have you read my last post? Look for that All-Day Sync when you click on your device and go into its settings. If it's on, turn it off. If it IS off then we have a whole new issue on your front.

[Moocow1980]

@AndrewFitbit It is almost 2:30 p.m., three days after I started using the refurb. All-Day sync obviously off as has been the talking point. I am at medium battery power. So half the battery, if you will, is gone, if you want to go full, medium, low, and blank battery icon saying you better recharge. That means by deductive logic, I have six days in the watch. I may get more, but the point is, I should hit the 5-7 range easily.

This is the same watch that I called to complain about and got the new out of the box watch. This watch had been dying in not even three days which prompted that call. Now that I know it is working, I'll let it run to at least five days and give it to someone. I may pull out the other refurb I thought was "going bad" and test it for a week, and maybe give it to someone, too.

So I have two case studies after battery life spans of less than three days with a certain feature turned off, and I have definitely started coming more and more to this conclusion: All-Day Sync needs to go or be off by default. What does All-Day sync do anyway that is so important that someone wants to charge it every night? I'm not even bothering to research what it does, and yes I am lazy, but why bother if it kills functionality? I know turning it off fixes my issues and I'm back to happiness with the product.

I'm renaming this thread. It's not the software version. It's All-Day Sync and I am not going to sully the software update we recently endured when it's the Android app (or iOS app if the iOS has it, too.)

[AndrewFitbit]

Hey @Moocow1980, thanks for following up on this.

I noticed you're using a Motorola device. There's specifically a known issue with All-Day Sync and Motorola devices running the Fitbit app for Android, which can be found on our help site. In general, disabling All-Day Sync to conserve battery life is a good tip; however, I think it affected your tracker more heavily than it would for others due to the known issue with the device/platform you're using.

Quick bit of info on syncing and All-Day Sync for reference:
"Your tracker syncs with the Fitbit app every time you open the app, or periodically throughout the day if you have all-day sync turned on. Some customers find that all-day sync causes the battery on their mobile device to drain too quickly. If this happens, you can disable all-day sync."

If you feel that changes could be made to the All-Day Sync setting, I'd suggest submitting a Feature Request for it and provide all the details/observations that you have on the subject. Thanks! 

[port513]

After 7 day I had medium battery, All-day sync off and gesture off.
Only sync once a day with fitbit.

[Moocow1980]

@AndrewFitbit,

Is there a rhyme or reason for the Motorola/Nexus issue? I am genuinely interested. My phone is the original Droid Turbo on Lollipop for whatever that is worth, but since it is said by you to be a phone line-wide issue, it just strikes me as odd. Given Lenovo has taken over the phones from Google, it's not an ownership thing.

My current refurb watch is at four days. I'm at medium battery life though the watch itself is in the low-filled battery so it'll probably within the next 24 hours go to low battery life but not to charge the watch notification. By that time I'm at five days and point is proven. I'll pull out the other watch I have (I've been through two refurbs; this will be going back to the original watch replacement that replaced a breaking, snapping band at its screws) and I'll wear it for a few days. If it goes to three to four days and is at the same battery level, that'll be everything I need to know. I do research when I need to fix a problem but I hope it helps others, too, so that it can be taken care of properly, and help guys and gals like you moderators and tech support team members improve and disseminate information as needed. (Case in point: You telling me of the link to the known Motorola issue.)

I will keep in touch as I go through this. Probably a week from now I'm back to my brand new blue watch. And in the meantime, I'm going to go suggest that feature be added.

[Gilly25]

I am having significant battery life issues and have been for ages. I turned every thing off, sync, back light.. etc some time ago but it has still not really improved. I still have HR on auto though. I feel if i turn that off then whats the point of the watch...

I am having to charge almost daily and sometimes my battery will 1/2 drain overnight. Occasionally however, I will get 4-5 days on a charge which seems really strange (this is rare though).

Other issue I am having is I basically need to restart my watch every time i want to sync it. If I go a day or more without syncing it will just sit there looking for the watch and never find it. Once I restart it will sync without any issues. I dont know if this is related to battery life but I assume it is some bluetooth issue? resetting BT on my phone does not fix the issue.

[Moocow1980]

My second issued refurb I have been using has died at over 6.5 days in my sleep. So the battery really lasted into that 5-7 window. Now I'm on the original refurb that replaced my broken band watch. Let's see how that goes. I'll keep you posted @AndrewFitbit, and again when I set this watch up, the crux of my issues was automatically turned on again and I have reported that to the suggestion team previously.

After this watch, I will go back to the brand new watch I have. These two refurbs, especially the one I know works? I'm going to give to people and try to introduce them to FitBit rather than waste the watches. Might get new customers long-term.

[AndrewFitbit]

@Moocow1980 That's awesome! Yes, keep me posted. I suspect you'll get the same results, but I'm interested to see what you find.

I've already went over to your feature suggestion and voted for it. I think a simple change like that would potentially benefit new users who maybe aren't aware of the All-Day Sync feature. 

[bmbaeb]

@Moocow1980 @AndrewFitbit I'm having good luck with switching off All-Day Sync, using a Samsung Galaxy S5. Went from less than 2 days to over 5 including about 45 minutes of gps tracking. This is with a Surge that I was sent from support. Straight out of the package was less than 2 days until I flipped All-Day Sync in my app.

[Thaylin]

So here is my issue, if it is all day sync that is the problem this was not a problem before recent updates. I had my watch since early in the year with 5+ days of battery life, and it was automatically syncing before. That means there is still a software problem.

[Moocow1980]

@AndrewFitbit

Been a while since I posted. My second watch got into the 5-7 day range but before it even got to the blank battery on the screen, I swapped it out. I had proven what I needed to prove and I wanted to wear my new one, which has lasted a solid six-plus days. (I messed around with it a lot more this time, doing some things.) So All-Day Sync is definitely the culprit. Three watches, four tests after turning it off, all the same result of long battery life. Whereas before, it was shortened dramatically battery life, not knowing "ADS" was on.

My personal research is case closed on my end. ADS is a killer and needs to be off by default.

[SunsetRunner]

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@AndrewFitbit wrote:

@Moocow1980 That's awesome! Yes, keep me posted. I suspect you'll get the same results, but I'm interested to see what you find.

I've already went over to your feature suggestion and voted for it. I think a simple change like that would potentially benefit new users who maybe aren't aware of the All-Day Sync feature. 

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ADS, when enabled, appears to enable the El Capitan dongle to be recognized by Mac OS X even though the icon for the dongle on Mac OS X still displays the exclamation mark (no dongle).  I was not running the Fitbit app for my Galaxy S5, and had Bluetooth disabled.  I happened to notice that my dashboard was being updated every so often, yet the dongle wasn't recognized.  

I called tech support and they confirmed that the driver is actually able to communicate with the dongle, and background syncing is actually occuring.  The unfortunate downside of this is that the battery in the Charge HR only last 2-3 days.  

[Body5]

I'm so glad I'm not the only one! I used to get a little over five days on a full charge and now I'm getting less than three days on a full charge. I am not using it any differently than I did when I got it back in May 2015. The quick drain started about two or three months ago I'm not exactly sure when.

[port513]

I have 9 days when all-day sync is off and gesture off.
Only sync once a day and don't use GPS.
Using GPS and syncing more than once a day drains the battery faster.

Using all-day sync drains my battery in 1.5 days

[damorere]

I'm glad turning off all day sync worked for you. It got me from two days to three before the empty battery shows. I never use gps, I turned off all auto-recognition of exercises, gesture is off, HR is auto, etc. I do use notifications, but I don't get many texts or phone calls (a couple of each a day o naverage). I USED to have all day sync on and would still get about 5 days, then with an update a couple of months ago things went south. This appears to be related to the app, as I received a replacement due to the documented poor battery life and surprise, surprise, with it not connecting to the app it lasts for over a week when it lasted 2-3 days (latter with all day sync off) when connected. FitBit needs to address this issue.