Why is my Fitbit Battery draining so fast? [11 Tips to Fix It]

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Fitbits’ are wearable devices that track your physical activity and sleep. It is designed to motivate you to be more active and it is doing a great job at that. But even the best fitness trackers can’t do their job if the battery doesn’t last.

The issue with the Fitbit battery is that it can drain fast when using numerous features. This article will take you through simple tricks that can dramatically improve a potential battery drain problem.

How many days of battery can you expect from your Fitbit’s devices?

Poor battery life is not considered acceptable for any lifestyle mobile device during the last couple of years, from the Apple iPhone, Android phone, or even fitness tracker or smartwatch.

Fair to say that Li-Ion batteries are getting more powerful and better. They even power electric cars, don’t they? The Fitbit battery performance has always been regarded as quite good. The main issue is that the continuous increase in performances and application requires more battery power. We are thus witnessing a constant fight between battery usage and the quantity of data being processed.

The first action to improve battery life is thus to think about the features you wish to use daily and be conscious that more applications will lead to potential battery drain issues. 

The table below summarizes how many days of battery you can expect from the most popular Fitbit models.

Fitbit Sense
Fitbit Versa 3
Best Battery Life
Fitbit Charge 5
Fitbit Luxe
Fitbit Sense Advanced Smartwatch with Tools for Heart Health, Stress Management & Skin Temperature Trends, White/Gold, One Size (S & L Bands Included)
Fitbit Versa 3 Health & Fitness Smartwatch with GPS, 24/7 Heart Rate, Alexa Built-in, 6+ Days Battery, Midnight Blue/Gold, One Size (S & L Bands Included)
Fitbit Charge 5 Advanced Fitness & Health Tracker with Built-in GPS, Stress Management Tools, Sleep Tracking, 24/7 Heart Rate and More, Black/Graphite, One Size (S &L Bands Included)
Fitbit Luxe Fitness and Wellness Tracker with Stress Management, Sleep Tracking and 24/7 Heart Rate, One Size S L Bands Included, Lunar White/Soft Gold Stainless Steel, 1 Count
Battery Life
6+ Days
6+ Days
Up to 7 days
Up to 5 days
Fitbit Sense
Fitbit Sense Advanced Smartwatch with Tools for Heart Health, Stress Management & Skin Temperature Trends, White/Gold, One Size (S & L Bands Included)
Battery Life
6+ Days
Fitbit Versa 3
Fitbit Versa 3 Health & Fitness Smartwatch with GPS, 24/7 Heart Rate, Alexa Built-in, 6+ Days Battery, Midnight Blue/Gold, One Size (S & L Bands Included)
Battery Life
6+ Days
Best Battery Life
Fitbit Charge 5
Fitbit Charge 5 Advanced Fitness & Health Tracker with Built-in GPS, Stress Management Tools, Sleep Tracking, 24/7 Heart Rate and More, Black/Graphite, One Size (S &L Bands Included)
Battery Life
Up to 7 days
Fitbit Luxe
Fitbit Luxe Fitness and Wellness Tracker with Stress Management, Sleep Tracking and 24/7 Heart Rate, One Size S L Bands Included, Lunar White/Soft Gold Stainless Steel, 1 Count
Battery Life
Up to 5 days

Last update on 2023-01-14 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API

11 Tips to Extend the Life of Your Fitbit Battery

1. Turn off the built-in GPS of your Fitbit watch

The Fitbit watch is an excellent device for tracking your fitness and health. It can also be used to track your location. However, the built-in GPS of the Fitbit watch consumes a lot of battery life. If you want to preserve the battery life of your Fitbit watch, you should turn off the built-in GPS.

Keep in mind that the long-lasting battery of the Fitbit Charge 5, up to 6 days, will last less than 12 hours when turning on the built-in GPS. Luckily, some Fitbit models allow using what is called “Dynamic”, meaning that the tracker will connect to your phone GPS while preserving battery life.

2. Turn off notifications on the Fitbit watch to save battery

If you have a Fitbit watch, you may be wondering how to turn off notifications on your watch. Whether it’s an incoming email, text message, or calendar notification, the Fitbit will vibrate when you receive one. However, with constant vibrations from notifications and other apps like the news app or social media apps, your Fitbit may end up draining before the day is over.

The process is simple:

  1. On the App, Tap on your device
  2. In the device control center, tap on Notifications
  3. Select the Apps. you accept to receive notifications from. We recommend that you select just a few to avoid your smartwatch or fitness tracker to vibrate continuously which will be i/ annoying, ii/ will drain the battery fast.

When sleeping with your Fitbit, do not forget to activate the “sleep mode.” This way, the notifications will be not be displayed. It will not only save the battery but will also improve your sleep quality. Nobody wants to be awakened in the middle of the night with friends sending WhatsApp messages of their ongoing party.

3. Keep your Fitbit device at least 20% charged at all times. This will help it last longer.

A Lithium-ion battery has a finite number of charge cycles before it will no longer hold a charge. Memory effect is when a cell’s capacity decreases because of incomplete charging and discharging. This can happen if you don’t fully discharge your Fitbit before charging it again or if you don’t fully charge it before using it again.

Memory effect should not occur with Lithium-ion batteries because they are designed to be charged and discharged as needed without any adverse effects on their capacity. However, it is somehow good practice to let your battery drains before recharging it fully. It will preserve the battery life and improve the battery holding time.

To keep the battery healthy, a rule of thumb is not to charge your device until you see the “Low Battery” appearing either on your watch face or the associated app. 

4. Decrease the Screen Time-Out settings

If you have a Fitbit, one of the most helpful adjustments you can make to conserve battery life is to lower your screen time-out setting. The default option is 10 seconds and will power down your device after each use. But if you decrease this setting, you’ll use much less energy in a day.

The setting is directly accessible on the watch or fitness tracker in the settings.

5. Decrease the Screen Brightness

Reducing the screen brightness on your Fitbit smartwatch or fitness tracker is an excellent way to save battery.

Fitbit has a feature that allows you to decrease the screen’s brightness. This will help you save battery life and make your device last longer.

6. Turn off Continuous Heart Rate Monitoring

The Fitbit continuously monitors your heart rate by using its various sensors that will shine light through the superficial layers of the skin. Unfortunately, this is an energy-intensive process that can drain your battery life. Fortunately, there are ways to reduce the amount of time the Fitbit continuously monitors your heart rate.

7. Reduce the number of Alarms to save battery life on your Fitbit

If you have a Fitbit, you may be wondering how to minimize the number of alarms to conserve your battery life. The answer is easy: Deactivate or delete the alarms you don’t need. You can also change the duration of your alarms from 15 minutes to 30 minutes or 60 minutes.

8. Turn Off the All Day Sync Feature to save battery life on your Fitbit

One of the most common misconceptions about Fitbit is that they need to be synced with a smartphone every day. This is not always the case. To save battery life, Fitbit suggests turning off the all-day sync feature.

9. Turn Off the Always-on Display Feature to save battery life on your Fitbit

The always-on display feature is a great way to see the time and other information without pressing any buttons. However, it can also be a drain on your battery life.

To save battery life, you can turn off the always-on display feature by going into the settings menu and turning off the “always show” option.

10. Turn Off the Snoring Detection Feature

Fitbit’s snore detection tool takes a significant amount of battery life from your device since it continuously monitors the noise levels around you for snoring while utilizing the built-in microphone on your Fitbit gadget. Note that this feature is not available on all devices.

Fitbit even recommends ensuring that the charge level is at least 40% when using this feature. This is a clear statement that while being practical, detecting snoring will take a toll on the battery level, potentially letting you with a device that will require a new charge to work during the day.

11. Turn Off Blood Oxygen Saturation (SpO2) Analysis

Fitbit devices can analyze the amount of oxygen saturation in the blood. It does so at night while sleep tracking. This data is exciting but is also battery intensive. 

Turning off this feature is an easy way to extend battery life, but it comes at the cost of important information. Therefore, it is always important to define what features are the most relevant to your individual needs.

Do you want to use your smartwatch as a fitness device? Thus deactivating the health-related features is a simple way to save battery.

Conclusion: How To Save Your Dying Fitbit Battery And Extend Its Lifespan

Fitbit is one of the most popular fitness trackers on the market. It tracks your steps, calories, and sleep quality. But, it also tracks your heart rate exercise routine, and it can even be a watch! Which is the least we can expect, isn’t it?

We showed 11 tips to preserve your battery but there are many others such as limiting the time spent listening to music.

 Fitbit is a great way to stay healthy, but with all the features that this device offers, it does come with a downside. The battery life on this device is not very long. Resetting your smartwatch or fitness tracker from time to time can also help clean up the clutter that may accumulate over time and improve battery performance.

Remember having a charging cable in your bag or a charging station on your desk are the best ways to never worry about the frustrating dark screen.