Image source: Fitbit

Fitbit Versa battery not lasting? Here’s what to do.

Fitbit Versa has an advertised battery life of around 4 days. Sometimes you’ll get a bit more, sometimes a bit less depending on use. But what if the battery on your Versa is seriously underperforming?

Essential readingTop fitness trackers and health gadgets

Read through Fitbit Community forums and you’ll notice a few threads on people experiencing such issues. If you’re struggling to reach the advertised 4 days of use on a single charge, take some comfort in knowing you are not alone.

“I’ve been having alot of issues with my Versa. One of which is battery life of only 27 hours”

“My battery is only going from 6.30am when I go walking until 3pm when I get home? Shouldn’t it be going for a couple of days?”

“So, suddenly in the last two days, my watch has gone from consuming about 20% of its battery per day to barely lasting eight hours!!” – are just a few examples.

Luckily, there are a number of things you can do to help with this problem. If these don’t work you always have the option of returning your Versa and swapping it for a new one (if it is still under guarantee), as there may be a hardware issue.

How to extend battery life on your Fitbit Versa Charge your watch fully

The first thing you should do is, make sure your Versa is fully charged. Fitbit says it can take up to 2 hours to charge your watch from zero to full. Obviously, if the battery in your smartwatch is not topped up entirely, it will not last up to its maximum capacity.

While you’re at this, make sure you’re charging the device properly. The pins on the charging cradle should be aligned with the gold connectors on the smartwatch. You’ll know it’s correct when the battery percentage appears on the screen.

Tweak the settings

Battery life is affected by use and other settings. For example, if you are putting in lots of runs with Connected GPS the power drain is likely to be larger. The same applies to listening to music and using notifications. But you can tweak the settings so that the drain on the watch and phone is smaller.

One of the options in the Fitbit app is All-Day Sync. Make sure this is switched off by going to the Account icon and finding the option. Your smartwatch will not sync as often, but don’t worry you won’t lose any data.

The next way to extend battery life is to switch off the option to wake up the screen when you turn your wrist. This is done by accessing Screen Wake/Manual in the Quick Settings screen on your watch. While you’re there, you might also consider changing the Heart Rate setting to Off. It’s not ideal, but this should extend battery life quite a bit.

Another settings tweak you can try is turning off call, text, calendar, and app notifications. Particularly if you are not really using them – or if you’re getting too many. This can also be done via the Quick Settings screen on your smartwatch.

Other sources of battery drain can be animated watch faces. Choose a simpler one. If you have lots of alarms set, considering deleting a few. And finally, switch off movement reminders to extend battery life by a small percentage.

Obviously, you don’t want to do all 0f the above. After all, its pointless having these smartwatch features if you’re not using them. But see what works for you and select a few that you rarely use or don’t really need.

Like this article? Subscribe to our monthly newsletter and never miss out!

Marko Maslakovic

Marko founded Gadgets & Wearables in 2014, having worked for more than 15 years in the City of London’s financial district. Since then, he has led the company’s charge to become a leading information source on health and fitness gadgets and wearables.

5 thoughts on “Fitbit Versa battery not lasting? Here’s what to do.

  • I have all alarms reminders and call forwarding etc turned off
    Battery life was 4 to 5 days all of a sudden its 3 to 4 days any ideas why?

    Reply
  • What’s the point of having a Versa if you need to turn everything off? Worst purchase I have ever made.

    Reply
  • Got a Versa 2 for a Christmas present not trilled with ,battery doesn’t last

    Reply
  • Got a versatile 2 at Xmas.. lasted 3 days when first used.. 5 months down the line won’t even last 24hours and that’s in low power mode.

    Poor show.

    Reply
  • My versa 3 is not holding a charge more than 1 hour when fully charge and off of everything but the time
    Very desapointed and upset

    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.