Shocking update! Fitbit Charge 5 owners hit by battery drain glitch! Angry users react

If you own the Fitbit Charge 5, you might want to hold off updating it to the latest software version as users are complaining of several issues such as battery drain, slow charging, and the device getting bricked after the update.

Fitbit Charge 5 update is causing a plethora of problems for users. Know what’s happening. (Representative Image) (Unsplash)

Fitbit users are encountering issues with their devices after installing the latest v194.61 update that was recently rolled out. The Google-owned fitness company has several products in its portfolio, with Fitbit Charge 5 being its “most advanced fitness & health tracker”. It has a plethora of health and fitness features such as heart rate tracking, ECG monitoring, SpO2 tracking, sleep tracking, and more. However, the latest update has brought several issues, even leaving some users unable to use the Fitbit Charge 5 at all.

Fitbit update causing issues

The v194.61 update was rolled out in late June, and users are now receiving it on their devices. It brought features such as new clock faces, all exercise modes in the Exercise app, support for global characters, and more. But, it has also left several Fitbit Charge 5 users troubled.

Users, in the Fitbit community forum, have complained of severe battery drain on their devices since installing the update, with battery dropping from days of usage on a single charge to just 3-4 hours now.

One user wrote, “My charge 5 went from lasting an entire week on one charge, now it drains from full to dead in about two hours.”

Shockingly, the update is bricking some Charge 5 trackers too, with users encountering a black screen after the update. “Battery started draining quickly last week. Screen won't turn on now since the weekend. Super frustrating,” another user wrote.

Users have tried disconnecting the tracker from the app and pairing it again but it doesn't reconnect as 4 digit pairing code is not visible due to the black screen.

Fitbit's response

While Fitbit has acknowledged the issue, no fix has been rolled out yet. Instead, the company is offering a 30 percent off coupon on the same product. This has left users frustrated. “I don't understand why they even remotely think that giving 30% off a new device is fair compensation when it really points to some update ruining a lot of our devices,” an angry user wrote on the community forum.