Meta is reaching out to Quest 3 Elite Strap with Battery buyers telling them to redeem their replacement due to the charging issue the company acknowledged in November.
Since Quest 3's launch in October some buyers of the $130 official Elite Strap with Battery accessory had reported it not being recognized by the headset or not charging correctly. In November Meta briefly paused sales of the Quest 3 Elite Strap with Battery. The company said this was due to a firmware fault with the strap itself, and since the firmware isn't user-updatable it had to replace its inventory with units with new firmware.
At the time of the sales pause, Meta advised owners of the Elite Strap with Battery to reach out to support to have it replaced with a working unit. But this week Meta is also emailing anyone who bought a faulty unit to tell them to redeem their replacement.
Interestingly, the email says "even if your Elite strap with battery is functioning without any issues, we would still like to offer you a new and updated Elite strap with battery".
While the issue with the official accessory should now be fixed, we should note that there are multiple cheaper third-party alternative battery head straps for Quest 3. You can find a list in our comprehensive Quest 3 accessories guide.
Henry Stockdale
