Surge Low Battery

[McRastis]

Hi all, just sharing my story with you.  I have been a user of fitbit products for almost a year now.

In December there was an over the air firmware update and new features launched that changed how long the battery life lasted on my Surge. It went from 5-7 days down to 2 days.

I contacted support with my query, went through troubleshooting steps and they confirmed it was an issue.

I recieved a new fitbit! YAY!

but....

Same issue with the brand new one.  I contacted support again raised the issue of firmware and features, went through troubleshooting, disabled everything as recommended and still had poor battery life of 2 days.

I recieved a new fitbit YAY?

Same issue again....

Anyone seeing a pattern here? lots of people complaining of poor battery life since December and I still am getting denials from customer support that there was/is an issue.  The last update to the app improved the battery life on my fitbit, but it still isnt back to what it was.

I have been told to do the following with my fit bit.

"-Choose runs or exercises that do not use GPS."

Now the main attraction of the fitbit for me was that I could run without my phone and track it via GPS - I understand it will drain the battery and dont mind charging more often if I use it.

"-Keeping the Heart Rate setting on On will reduce battery life. Change the setting to Auto or, for maximum battery life when you don't -need a heart rate reading, change the setting to Off."

I had thought heart rate monitoring was part of what a fitness tracker was?? Its one of the reasons I wear it. Also its always been set to auto.

-Shut down your Surge when you aren't using it. Press any button to turn your Surge back on.

This was the one that had my jaw on the floor!  REALLY!!!! dont use it and the battery life will be longer???

So you buy a fitness tracker, stepcounter, watch to be told not to use it!

Then I was also told to disable all day sync....

"When you meet your daily step goal, you will be notified not only on your mobile app, but on your Surge as well without having to sync."

This is wrong - the way the app is writen if I disable all day sync the fitbit wont talk to the phone.  The phone wont update with daily goals... it wont tell you when battery life is low...

Slow syncing is also a problem in low signal strength areas, why does my fitbit have to connect to fitbit.com to do that?  Cant it cache locally and update when signal strenght is better or on wifi?  It would make the user experiance better and allow goals to be checked easier.

So all in all - it was a great product that has now soured for me.  Being told to turn it off to save battery life is the final straw.

Over it... out.

Moderator edit: Subject for clarity. 

[lukedga]

My Surge battery generally lasts 72-96 hours between charging, and I'm extremely active. I never power it down. I turn off the backlight during the day because it's superfluous. I don't track with GPS because I've set my running stride length and let my steps dictate the distance. There's probably a benefit to GPS tracking that I'm overlooking, but I've never seen the need.

Considering it takes about 20 minutes to charge fully, I can't fathom ever being too put out by battery drain.

[McRastis]

Yeah thanks for the advice – but yes everyone uses their device differently.

Did you know that your stride length will change running uphill vs down? Also dependant on speed? So if your training for a 10km or half marathon and working on improving your times and working out where you were slow and why, being able to track it via GPS is a lot more accurate.

Also 72 hours for a device that was supposed to last 5-7 days? If you don’t mind good for you, but I do mind. I didn’t buy it to have it plugged in everyday, battery life was one of the features I chose this product on.

Cheers

[lukedga]

See those are aspects of GPS tracking of which I was unaware. I don't dive into the micro metrics of my runs since I'm not a professional athlete, but I understand your frustration if that was something you thought you going to be able to do. My improved times generally parallel with improved physical condition. I try not to make such a chore of it. But like you said, good for me. Everybody is different. I'm a technophobic dope and thus my taking to the Surge probably isn't a fair representation.

[Megatron11]

I have the same issue. About 2 weeks ago, my watch couldn't connect to my phone. I finally got it to connect and now my battery life is 2 days. I'm super frustrated. It was 5 to 7 days. The change occurred early Jan 2016. Sounds like same timing as your issue.

[SunsetRunner]

i'm always 6 days+.

even end of january.

[MikeF]

Yes, I still get 6 or 7 days too (with the latest firmware) so something else may be going on here.

[Outcasted2003]

Well ... I have a brand new Surge replacement from Fitbit and am only getting 3-4 days on a full charge! I wish I could get 5-7 days on a single charge! I use the usb on my pc to charge it too as per suggestion from Fitbit themself. If I'm told to turn it off then I want my $255.00 back!

notifications off
alarms off
all-day sync off
bluetooth classic off
backlight auto
heart rate auto
quick view gesture off
No GPS
firmware version 16.34.5.14

[McRastis]

As per this thread https://community.fitbit.com/t5/Surge/Battery-Life-Suddenly-48-Hours/td-p/1062214

It seems its an android app issue... doesnt seem to affect apple devices.  I am betting on a hunch that the "always connected" feature that they enabled in the update is on by default and cannot be turned off... even if it shows off in the app.

[OrangeDeb]

My Surge is so cool when it's working. Its battery has never lasted more than 2 days even with notifications and all day sync off.

Unfortunately, my watch goes to sleep mode more often than I do and when I finally get it to wake up, the time is wrong and I can't get it to sync without reset, close app, reset blue tooth, start app, hard reset watch,... other days I must close app, restart, reset, open, reset... who really knows how to wake this thing up? It's not one button, I can tell you that.

This can't be how this device and app are supposed to work. I have Android Galaxy s4 and watch purchased in Dec from a Best Buy.

Right now it 5:50 am on Feb 4th, but my watch says 22:50pm (evidently when it fell asleep last night ). The time won't be correct until I sync it. I've been trying all types of combinations to get it to sync. I'll get it eventually, but seriously, this sucks having to spend 10 to 20 minutes a couple times a day getting my watch back to a watch and fitness tracker. I must monitor it constantly...

Firbit support, please tell me how this device is supposed to work. Maybe, I just got a lemon?