New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…
Original story (published on July 14, 2021) follows:
The Fitbit Versa 3 is a more wallet-friendly alternative to the Fitbit Sense and comes with temperature and SpO2 tracking plus all the fitness features one can expect.
With a bright always-on AMOLED display, onboard GPS, advanced sleep-tracking, mic and speaker for text dictation, and up to six days of battery life, the watch is almost like a little friend wrapped around your wrist.
But that great battery life has taken a hit lately. As per users, the Versa 3 firmware version 36.128.5.38 is causing some serious battery drain issues.
I’ve had my verse 3 for several months now. After the most recent update the battery will no longer hold a charge for longer then a day. Also touch screen is no longer working.
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My versa 3 bought in Sep 2020. After updated the firmware, i found that the “coach” app cannot uninstall. Also, the battery ran out very fast. Although I formatted versa 3 several times, still no improvement.
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The impact has been so bad that the battery now only lasts a couple of days tops, down from the usual of 5-6 days.
One interesting thing was observed here though. As it stands, there have also been several complaints from users saying that the Versa 3 keeps trying to install the Fitbit Coach app.
This is quite odd considering that the app will shut down on July 30, 2021, with 50+ workouts moving to the Fitbit app instead.
My Versa 3 has been trying to download the fitbit coach app for a few days, but it doesn’t work. I have already reset the Versa 3 to the factory settings, restarted, uninstalled the Fitbit app and restarted.
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Due to this, frustrated users have been forced to try workarounds like power cycling their watch with some even going as far as performing several factory resets.
Could these forced installations be the cause of the battery drain? Seems likely.
However, it is worth mentioning here that the Fitbit Coach installation issue on the Versa 3 surfaced even before the latest update that is supposedly causing battery drain was released.
In such a case, your best bet would be to get your Versa 3 checked from a service center.
That said, be sure to check out our dedicate Fitbit issues tracker to get the latest updates.
Update 1 (July 26)
A community mod has now stated that the issues with the watch have been resolved.
I’m glad to announce that this issue has been resolved. As mentioned previously, make sure that your Fitbit device and app are up-to-date to ensure everything works as expected.
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