Suppose you wish to charge your Fitbit Sense, Versa, or other Fitbit model and you cannot see the charge indicator of the battery. You get a blank screen, and it looks like your Fitbit is not charging at all. How frustrating is the situation? Fitbit fitness trackers or smartwatches are widely known for their fitness activities monitoring, and if your Fitbit Versa or Fitbit Sense is not charging at all, unexpectedly, then before declaring that the battery died, follow our troubleshooting guide on how you can fix this charging problem pretty easily. The charger may have some issues, or the connector/charging pin has some issues, or maybe enough power source is not going through it. Also, the charging port can be dirty too. So, without any further guesswork, let’s dive into the fixes.
Fix the Fitbit Versa or Fitbit Sense not charging issue:
Check if your Fitbit is actually charging
If you have placed your Fitbit on the charger and see that the screen goes black and dark, it may seem that it is not charging. However, in most cases, it is charging indeed. Your Fitbit continuously does not show the charging status on the screen while charging to conserve power, so you notice a black screen.
For watches, to check whether your Fitbit is actually charging, you need to tap it’s screen twice to turn the screen on temporarily. For trackers, such as Charge or Inspire Series, you need to tap the screen once to check whether it is charging or not. Your Fitbit will show the current battery level for a few seconds and then it goes dark.
If you see the message on your Fitbit saying Not charging/ No Power at Source/ Not enough power detected, you need to first check the sides and back of your watch and check for signs of any swollen battery. If you notice any bulging, warped/abnormal or any other signs of a swollen battery, contact Fitbit support without further delay. Do not attempt to use or charge your Fitbit when it looks swollen.
Use a different UL-certified wall charger or a USB port for your Fitbit Sense or Versa, as the power outlet or USB port may be faulty.
Try different power sources
When the backside of your Fitbit looks normal, then verify whether you have placed your Fitbit correctly on it’s charger. It is advisable to take your Fitbit off it’s charger and reset it.
If you have connected any other device to the same power source, you have to unplug that and try charging the Fitbit again. If that also does not work out, you can move your Fitbit charger to another power outlet, a USB port, or a power bank. Try charging again. You must not use a USB multi-port or hub on often, these do not support charging the Fitbit.
To ensure there is no issue with the charger, try using another USB cable with it’s charger to see if it does any help. Try using a USB wall charger that is UL-certified or any other low-energy device for cross-checking the issue. You must keep your device charged for 2 hours to check whether it is charging. It is always worth checking out it’s charging ports and ensuring you do not have any dirt or debris there.
Check if Your Device is wet
At times, it is possible that your device is wet, it’s charging pin/connector is wet or it might have some moisture in it. So, ensure that it is properly dried out. Use an air blower or a dry cloth on the charger and check for the issue.
Clean the charging ports
For most electronic devices, debris and dust accumulated over time prevents charge and you can face the issue of your Fitbit sense not charging. So, you must give your Fitbit a nice clean. Do not forget to clean it’s charging contacts as well.
- Using an interdental brush or a soft toothbrush to clean the charging contacts on the Fitbit device as well as it’s charger, is fine. You must not use anything that can scrape the contacts as it can often cause damage to it’s plating, making it vulnerable to corrosion and rust.
- You can use a small quantity of isopropyl alcohol if needed. Place little on a cloth and clean the contacts. Do not miss any of the battery contacts. You must clean the same contacts on both the charger and the device. Once done, ensure to dry out the connector port or charging pin properly using a dry pin so that there is no liquid element left.
If your charger is missing, you might need a replacement device or charger. Contact Fitbit Support. You may also purchase one third-party charger for your device if you wish.
- Once you have cleaned your Fitbit, put it on your charger to charge for several hours. Make sure that your tracker is securely connected to it’s charging cable. In most cases, loose connections cause the issue of trickling charges on your Fitbit Watch.
It is always suggested to check your charger for missing, bent, or stuck pins. The charging cable for the Sense or Fitbit versa ¾ series particularly seems vulnerable to pins bending into their holes. When you discover the pins of the charger are the problem, purchase another replacement charging cable or contact Fitbit Support.
When your Fitbit is completely discharged or you have not used it for years/months/weeks
This is a common reason among fitness tracker users or users of smartwatches, that they keep the device idle for prolonged periods of time and then the device won’t turn on. This is because the battery has completely run out or is fully discharged. In this scenario, you must charge your device for a minimum of 30 minutes before you check it out.
Connect your charger to the wall outlet instead of a USB port of the computer. If your wall outlet does not have USB ports, you must use an adapter to charge from a wall outlet directly. Leave the device on the charger for a minimum of one hour and preferably more before you attempt to turn it on.
Reset or restart to fix your Fitbit Sense not charging?
- Begin by first shutting it down or restarting your device
- Restarting your watch will reboot the device but does not delete any data
- You can restart your Sense or Versa or all models of Fitbit by navigating to Settings App > About > Shutdown.
You need to wait for around 20 seconds and then turn back on your Fitbit
- For Fitbit Sense, Fitbit Versa 2, Versa Lite, and Versa 3/4, for 10 seconds, hold the side button until you can view the logo of Fitbit on the screen.
- Press and hold the left (back) and bottom buttons for the original Versa until you can see the logo of Fitbit on the screen. This will take around 10 seconds or less.
- Then let go of the buttons.
- Set the watch back in it’s charging station after it has restarted and then complete the setup.
- When you see that the restart is not resolving the issue, the upcoming step is to restart your versa or any other model to the Factory setting and then try again. Factory reset of your device will remove all your personal data, be ready to start afresh.
- Navigate to Settings App > About > Factory Reset
- Press and hold all three buttons of Fitbits for 15 seconds or until the logo shows ‘Sometimes this can take up to a few minutes’
- Then, release the button available on the bottom right
- Release the remaining buttons when it vibrates
Contact Customer Support
Now that you have tried factory resetting/restarting multiple times and still your Fitbit sense is not charging, it is recommended to reach out to Fitbit Support and request a replacement charger.
Since the problem is known widely, Fitbit owners hold a good chance of receiving a free replacement charger. Fitbit, of course, advises it’s users to stick to it’s official Fitbit charger rather than a third-party charger. The original one’s description must display ‘Official Fitbit Product’.
Wrapping Up
That’s it. We hope you have found the guide useful to resolve your charging issue on your Fitbit device. If you still have any problems using your Fitbit device, like if the battery is draining quickly or an issue in charging the battery, for further assistance, contact Fitbit customer support.
Experiencing difficulties with your Device, check out our “How To” page on how to resolve some of these issues.
