Fitbit Charge 5 units have been randomly dying for months; Google says it’s not because of updates

Ben Schoon | Jan 31 2024 - 11:53 am PT

The Fitbit Charge 5 is an excellent fitness tracker, but as it’s aged, issues have plagued users who own the device. Now, Google is providing an update, saying that software updates aren’t the cause.

As we reported back in July 2023, Fitbit Charge 5 units started dying following a software update earlier that month. Affected users started seeing drastic impacts on battery life, with devices dying after just a few hours. Worse yet, some users saw their devices become completely inoperable after the batteries died, with charging not bringing the device back to life.

At the time, Google said:

We’re aware that a small number of Charge 5 users are experiencing problems with their devices. We’re currently investigating and will update users when we’ve identified the issue. In the meantime, users should contact Fitbit Customer Service at help.fitbit.com to help troubleshoot the issue.

Some of those affected also reached out to support only to get an offer of a discount on newer hardware, rather than a replacement.

While reports lessened after that initial wave, the issue never really went away. And now, several months later, it’s still happening. It just takes a quick glance through Fitbit’s forums to see Charge 5 owners with awful battery life or with devices that have been left bricked. An update released in December seems to have been tied to this latest wave of reports.

Top comment by berto1014

Liked by 31 people

Just start the class action lawsuit now, since they take years to adjudicate anyways. Google's "investigation" will never finish, like it never did for the Nest wired doorbells rebooting after ringing the bell because the non replaceable internal battery in them would go bad after a year or two. If it's definitely not software it's a manufacturing defect that they will never acknowledge because that would cost them money to have to replace or refund them all. So they'll offer you a discount instead on the newer model that fixes the known defect from the older model just to try to get you to go away. So just start the class action now.

View all comments

Speaking to the BBC, Google says that the issue isn’t from software updates, but offered no word on what the actual issue is, or how affected users can fix the problem aside from contacting support.

A spokesperson said, mirroring the statement from last year:

We’re still investigating this issue, but can confirm it is not due to the recent firmware update. Users should continue to update their devices to the latest firmware and contact Fitbit Customer service at help.fitbit.com if they encounter any issues.

But, even with this latest statement, users are still struggling to get anywhere with support. One user just today said that Fitbit’s only solution was to just buy a new device, this time without even an offer of a discount.