The Fitbit brand of wearables is well-known for its long battery life. This is one of the contributing factors to their level of popularity. What should you do, though, if the wearable device that you have on your wrist is not keeping its charge? Recent reports have shown concerns with Fitbit Charge 5 and Sense devices experiencing excessive battery depletion.
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To begin, check to see that your Fitbit is receiving an adequate charge
To begin, you need to check to see if the device you’re charging is being done correctly. Have a look at our post that will walk you through what to do if the charging light on your Fitbit activity tracker or smartwatch is not coming on. It suggests a few potential options for you to attempt, such as restarting your tracker, cleaning the device and charging cable, ensuring that the USB port or outlet is not broken, and ensuring that the tracker is properly connected to the charging cable.
Always use the charging cord that came included with your device for the best possible results.
According to Fitbit, it is also not a smart idea to charge your smartphone when the temperature is extremely hot or cold. It’s possible that it’ll slow down the charging process.
Lastly, check to see that you have installed the most recent software issue. Charge 4 is a fantastic example of this. At the beginning of the year 2020, there were numerous reports of problems with the Fitbit Charge 4’s battery drain. It was determined that an error in the software caused the problem. After consumers downloaded and installed the latest firmware update, everything returned to how it had been.
Try one of the following options if you have already attempted all of the troubleshooting as mentioned earlier steps but are still encountering issues:
Having trouble with an extreme amount of power consumption on the Fitbit
The amount of time that your Fitbit wearable can function properly is based on how often you use it and the various settings you have selected. The following table illustrates what to anticipate with typical use.
If you’re not even close to these kinds of numbers, there are a few things you can do to improve your situation. As indicated earlier, you should restart your device before doing any of these steps because doing so can frequently resolve any problems you may be experiencing.
Fitbit One
If you’re still using your old Fitbit One, you probably already know that it should have a battery life of roughly two weeks between charges. When it comes to monitoring one’s fitness, this straightforward device offers nothing more than the bare necessities. However, it does not consume a significant amount of electricity. The only recommendation that can be found on the Fitbit website for increasing the life of the battery is to turn off or lower the number of alarms.
Fitbit Zip
If you still have a Fitbit Zip, you should be proud of yourself. This device has long since become obsolete.
There is not much you can do in this regard, with the possible exception of checking your statistics less frequently. The Zip is powered by a CR2025 3V coin battery, which should last for around half a year. You will need to get a new one when the battery has lost all its charges.
Fitbit Flex 2
A Flex 2 can be worn continuously for up to 5 days without the user needing to connect it to a power source. Modifying the settings for notifications, alarms, and reminders is one approach to getting longer battery life out of your device. You may also make sure that the swim detection feature is turned off while you are not using the pool by checking to see if it beeps.
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Fitbit devices from the Ace series and Alta, as well as older Inspire models
According to the manufacturer’s specifications, the battery life of the Ace series, Alta, and older Inspire devices is approximately five days. If you’re having trouble reaching this number, you might want to try one of the following:
Turn off the setting that allows the screen to wake up when you move your wrist. This may be accomplished on an Ace, Alta, and the majority of earlier devices by using the Fitbit smartphone app to disable the Quick View option. This is something that can be done directly from the wearable gadget itself in more modern models. For instance, on the Ace 2 and the Inspire, you must press and hold the side button, select the Screen Wake setting, and turn off the feature.
You should disable the setting that allows your smartphone to send you alerts. It is possible for the battery to run down if you receive a significant number of notifications.
Adjusting the settings can reduce the number of reminders to move about. You also have the option to turn off alerts, which also have an adverse effect on the battery life of your device.
Fitbit Alta HR, Inspire HR and 2, Blaze
Alta HR and Blaze have a battery life of up to 5 days between charges, but the Inspire HR has a battery life of up to 7 days, and the Inspire 2 has a battery life of up to 10 days. Because each of them has a sensor for measuring heart rate, in addition to the solutions described above, you can deactivate the Heart Rate setting if you do not require monitoring of your heart rate during the day and night.
It is important enough to bring up. It is well known that the Inspire and Inspire HR gadgets, particularly, suffer from battery life problems. Please look at the other essay we have written, where we suggest a few more potential options. It appears that particular device clock faces are to blame for the issue.
The Fitbit Charge line of products
The list presented above can be considered an expansion of the recommendations made for the Charge series. However, there are a few more things that need to be done. You first need to check to see if the option for an always-on screen is turned on. If you do this, the remaining battery life will be significantly reduced as a result. Check that the display is set to wake up on a manual trigger.
Another factor to keep in mind regarding devices that can detect blood oxygen is that employing a SpO2 clock face can deplete the device’s battery life. When gathering such information, it will be necessary for you to charge your device more frequently. Therefore, you should select one of the basic clock faces.
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GPS problems
The Fitbit Charge 4 and Charge 5 both have a GPS receiver built right in. Using this function draws quite an amount of power from the battery. When you turn on the built-in GPS, the amount of time the battery will last drops from seven days to only five hours. Keep in mind that if you do not remember to turn off the GPS after you have finished exercising, it will use up any remaining battery life in the device. So make you quit exercising.
You may always switch to Connected or Dynamic GPS if you want to track your activity using GPS, even if your battery life is getting short and you still want to track it. This consumes a lot less electricity than that. It does not make a direct connection with a satellite; rather, it connects to your smartphone over Bluetooth and utilizes the satellite connection that is already there on your phone.
Alternatively, you can turn off GPS entirely. Beginning a workout with the app on your smartphone is one approach to achieving this goal. If you proceed in this manner, the GPS won’t work. This kind of workout tracking is much easier on the battery than on others. However, you will not have access to a map of your runs or detailed performance statistics if you choose this option.
A further answer to the problem of Charge 5
Following is a method that, according to a lengthy thread on the Fitbit Community forum, has brought some users a great deal of satisfaction. Allow the tracker’s battery to run down to almost nothing so that it is virtually useless. Then you should try it out with a hundred percent markup and see what happens.
Fitbit Ionic, Fitbit Versa series
The lifespan of an Ionic battery is approximately five days, whereas a Versa battery is approximately four days for older devices and six days for newer ones. Because these are smartwatches, a wide variety of watch faces and applications are available for installation on the device. There are a few of these that can discharge the battery.
It would be convenient if the Fitbit smartphone app included information on the user’s battery health. Something similar to what is available in Android phones, where you can view a history of the amount of battery life remaining and which apps are using the most power. But because there is no such functionality, there will be occasions when you need to engage in some sleuthing.
The aforementioned strategies are the tried-and-true methods that can be utilized to lengthen the Ionic and Versa range’s battery life. You should deactivate the option to wake the screen, adjust the heart rate setting, turn off notifications, receive fewer reminders to move about, and cut down on the number of alarms you use. There is nothing further to say beyond that.
It is important to keep in mind that you will need to charge your device more frequently if you play music or use the music frequently, if you use apps that keep the watch’s screen on and access the internet frequently, or if you use an interactive or animated clock face. All of these activities can significantly drain the battery life of your device. Using the built-in GPS on the Ionic and Versa 3 is one of the most taxing activities on the battery, just like it is on the Charge 4 smartphone.
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Fitbit Sense
If everything goes according to plan, a full charge should power your Fitbit Sense for approximately six days. Unfortunately, the Fitbit forum threads contain a lengthy discussion in which owners of Sense devices express their dissatisfaction with the device’s battery life. A significant number of users report that the device only lasts for three to four days at the most. Some people are having a hard time surviving much longer than two days!
The difficulty is that this gadget has a lot of different features to choose from. The very best that Fitbit has to offer in terms of its products. Additionally, this may have an adverse effect on the battery. The administrators of the Fitbit forum have sent a response with the following recommendations:
You can charge Sense by connecting it to a USB port on your computer and leaving it there for a few hours (try different ports). An additional choice is to look for a USB adaptor that has been approved for usage by UL.
The new SpO2 watch face has the potential to drain the battery quickly. It is not truly necessary because changes in blood oxygen levels can be detected even without the clock face present. Animated watch faces are another type you should avoid if you want your watch to have a longer battery life, as described earlier.
The Always-On-Display function consumes a significant amount of electricity. If you wish to charge your device less frequently, you shouldn’t use it.
Integrated GPS is still another source of the problem. Sense is yet another device that comes equipped with a built-in GPS, similar to Charge 4 and Versa 3. On Sense, you will not be able to disable the GPS functionality using the mobile app. This is accomplished by swiping left on the display of the watch and then tapping on the various workouts. Then slide down to disable the GPS on your device.
In addition to these, we would recommend turning off the microphone and removing the Assistant feature, especially in the event that you never or only infrequently make use of it.
You can attempt all of the options stated above and other solutions mentioned in this post (lowering notifications, alarms, music playback, etc.) because they will all help improve your device’s battery life. This in no way precludes you from making use of these capabilities in any way. However, it is up to you to choose which of these are truly significant to you at this time. When it comes to electronic devices in general, having greater capability results in shorter battery life.
In light of the foregoing, we cannot help but feel that it is somewhat misleading for Fitbit to promote that the Sense has a battery life of 6+ days when it is very evident that this is not the case. It would appear that a significant portion of the functionality must be disabled in order for the gadget to produce results of this nature.
