Fitbit app draining battery on iPhone (iOS12)

[atlwin09]

After inspecting what is causing my battery drain I've identified it is my FitBit app. It has been 58-67% of my battery usage. My Battery details show my FitBit usage for the "Last 24 hours" as "1 min on screen - 11 hours and 29 minutes background" for the FitBit app. I have a FitBit Ulta HR. What can I do to prevent the FitBit app from hogging my battery?

Here are additional details of the circumstances. Yesterday, I was without a data (Cellular nor Wi-Fi) connection intermittently throughout the day being in meetings large buildings. My battery drained quite quickly and in total I recharged my phone fully 3 times yesterday. I was not surprised by the battery drain given there was No Service. However, my phone was fully charged when I unplugged it at 8:23 PM when I landed at the airport and by the time I went to bed at 11:02 PM my phone battery was under 10%. During this time I had good/excellent cellular connection. The only notable battery usage was the FitBit app. Currently FitBit 58%, Outlook 8%, Messages 7% and it goes down from there. 

Moderator Edit: Clarified Subject.

[SunsetRunner]

Hi @atlwin09.  I’ve experienced some of the same problems at times, depending on where I am and what’s going on around me. Good job trouble shooting and narrowing the problem down to your Fitbit device! Tap here for some good tips on preserving Fitbit battery life. You will have to scroll to select your Fitbit device. Also, tap here for tips on improving battery life on an iPhone running IOS 12. Many of these tips you have already tried, but the article offers some other very good tips.

Here are some specific tips that have helped me over the years, even before IOS 12:

• Turn off All Day Sync on your Fitbit device which pretty much keeps your device active all day while it tries to sync. 
• If you are going to be without wifi or cellular data for an extended period of time, turn off your iPhone’s wifi. You can even put it in Airplane mode, turning off cellular. I know this helps tremendously when I am traveling. 
• Turn off your Fitbit’s quick View. 
• Finally - Restart your Fitbit device (instructions are here.)
• Then power your iPhone off completely ... wait several minutes ... then power it on again. Do this AFTER you have made the various changes to your Fitbit and restated it. 

Please try these tips and let us know if it helps. 

[Dariad]

I am experiencing the same problem! At this moment my fitbit is using 67% of my battery! I have never had this problem before, it started maybe 1-2 weeks ago. I am guessing there is some bug with the app. Hope it will be fixed soon, because if not I have to stop using this app and fitbit. 

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @atlwin09 and @Dariad, thanks for joining the Fitbit Community, it's great to have you on board. Thanks for your insight about this situation @SunsetRunner, I hope you're doing well.

I appreciate you have brought this to our attention, please note that we currently don't have reports of the Fitbit app draining the battery on phone faster than usual but I'll make sure to pass along the information you've provided to our team. In the meantime, I would like to ask you to force-quit the Fitbit app on your phone when you're not using it, this will prevent the Fitbit app from running on the background. 

I hope this can be helpful, if there's anything else I can do fro you, please feel free to reply. 

[Chris2B]

Hi, i’ve been experiencing the same high battery drain for the last week or so. IPhone reports Fitbit app is using more than 67% of my battery daily. For the last ten days Fitbit App has used  6 mins on screen and 174 hours background usage, even with the app switched off. If this continues i’ll have no option but to delete the app. Please get this fixed. 

[atlwin09]

Deleting the app and reinstalling fixed it for me. 

[Dariad]

I have tried to delete and reinstall, it didn't work. But I have been force - quitting the app and that helps. 

[Chris2B]

I haven’t tried deleting and reinstalling but i’ve taken the following steps this morning:

1) In iPhone settings, turned off “Background App Refresh” for Fitbit app

2) In Fitbit app, turned off “Quick View”

3) In Fitbit app, turned off “All Day Sync”

I’ll post tonight if that makes a difference - if not i’ll try deleting and reinstalling the app.

[Dariad]

I've tried those as well, but it didn't make any difference. The only thing that helpes me is force- quitting the app after each time I open it. 

[Chris2B]

Hi, I have been force-closing the app after each time I use it but this
hasn't made any difference. Yesterday the app was closed the whole day but
still used over 50% of my battery in "background usage".

[Dariad]

 oh, that sucks 😞 hope it will work with some of the other stuff you have done. I did it all, so maybe it was a combination of it that worked. 

[Chris2B]

So that seems to have done the trick - battery drain back to normal rates after taking the following steps:

1) In iPhone settings, go to Fitbit and switch off "Background App Refresh"

2) in the Fitbit app, turn off Quick View

3) In the Fitbit app, turn off All-Day Sync

Force close the Fitbit App after each use

Having done all of that, the Fitbit App is no longer draining my battery - it's used less than 1% in the last 24 hours versus almost 80% in the previous 24 hours. I hope Fitbit resolve this problem at some point as the App shouldn't drain the battery like this, however at least there's a work-around for now.

[MarcoGFitbit]

Hello @Chris2B, I hope you're doing well, it's nice to see you around the Fitbit Community. 

I appreciate your participation in the Forums and for sharing your experience with us. I would like to thank you for posting the troubleshooting steps you've tried so far. Please note that Quick View only affects the battery on the tracker/watch and not the Fitbit app and that All-day Sync has been tested and confirmed not to drain the battery or the device or mobile phone faster than usual. 

Thanks again for your update, if there's anything else we can do please feel free to reply. 

[mikchaos]

Do you still get notifications when you force quit? Had the same battery issue and noticed force quitting helps but then I didn't get any notifications anymore...

Just installed a fitbit update - hope that revolves the issue.

[Dariad]

Are you thinking about call and text notification? I still get them when I force close. 

[mikchaos]

Since I am using a Versa, I am thinking about call, text and apps. I didn't get any once I force quit the app. Glad to hear it's still working for you though!

[Chris2B]

I’m using a Charge 2 and I still get call and text notifications when I force close the app.

[Chris2B]

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@MarcoGFitbit wrote:

Hello @Chris2B, I hope you're doing well, it's nice to see you around the Fitbit Community. 

I appreciate your participation in the Forums and for sharing your experience with us. I would like to thank you for posting the troubleshooting steps you've tried so far. Please note that Quick View only affects the battery on the tracker/watch and not the Fitbit app and that All-day Sync has been tested and confirmed not to drain the battery or the device or mobile phone faster than usual. 

Thanks again for your update, if there's anything else we can do please feel free to reply. 

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Hi, thanks for the update. So what do you think is causing the battery drain because it’s definitely happening. My battery was draining from 100% to 0% in 8 hours and Battery monitor showed that Fitbit app was consistently using over 70% of the power. Main drain was through “background activity”. With everything switched off battery drain returns to normal.

[SunsetRunner]

Hi @Chris2B. I think you got it when you suggested — in iPhone settings, go to Fitbit and switch off "Background App Refresh". That took care of the problem for me. In fact, after the latest update to 12.1, I received a notice from my iPhone, suggesting I turn off background refresh for Fitbit. The pop up even included instructions, which I followed. Everything seems to be working as expected now. 

[Chris2B]

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@SunsetRunner wrote:

Hi @Chris2B. I think you got it when you suggested — in iPhone settings, go to Fitbit and switch off "Background App Refresh". That took care of the problem for me. In fact, after the latest update to 12.1, I received a notice from my iPhone, suggesting I turn off background refresh for Fitbit. The pop up even included instructions, which I followed. Everything seems to be working as expected now. 

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Excellent - I'm not even sure what "Background app refresh" is supposed to do but it certainly drains the battery. Glad you've managed to get it sorted..!!