Fitbit Sense severe battery drain & device not working or unresponsive after recent update

Fitbit Sense is one of the company’s most interesting smart watches. It claims to offer complete control of your health by tracking parameters such as physical activity, heart rate (ECG), stress levels and sleep quality.

However, it seems that a recent software update is causing problems for many users. According to multiple reports, Fitbit Sense devices are not working properly, unresponsive and experiencing severe battery drain.

According to Fitbit, the Sense has a battery life of around 6 days. However, multiple users report that their devices are running out of battery in 24 hours (or even less).

Sense battery empty within 24H after full charging

Since a couple of weeks I have a real issue with the battery of my Sense. I cannot wear the watch a full day without charging. I did not change any settings, and all battery consuming features are off any way. This is really a nuisance.

at least my watch is in the charger all night (so I cannot use it to record during sleep), but frequently I also have to charge it during the day. F.e. it is now on 17%, I only took it out of the charger fully charged at 19.00 CET last night..
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Other users report even more severe issues. In this case, Fitbit Sense devices become unresponsive and stop working or stop charging as if the battery is dead.

Sense shut down and won’t charge

Last night my fitbit sense indicated the battery was 35% charged. This morging my fitbit was off, completely shut down.

I tried charging it. It startend and the battery showed 7%. But my fitbit was getting really really Hot and the display said it was too hot to get charged.
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Multiple reports agree that a recent Fitbit Sense update is causing the functional and battery drain issues. The latest update available for the device at the time of writing is v44.128.6.17.

Update bricked my sense

Any word on a fix after the last update? I just installed the update a few days ago and my sense hasn’t worked right since. It is constantly restarting, and when it makes it to home screen, you cannot swipe to any other screens. It is also draining the battery really fast.
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So, if you haven’t updated your device and everything works fine, it’s best to avoid installing the new firmware for now.

There is no official acknowledgment of the issue from the Fitbit team yet. But we will update this story as events unfold.

Featured image: Fitbit

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