Battery and charging time

Hi fellow-Fairphoners,

I hope one or some of you can help me.

My battery lifetime has never been good, but now it’s suddenly a disaster. Furthermore, charging is extremely slow (last night it only charged 30% in about 5 hours). This means that my phone is practically only working, when it’s charging.

Has anyone experience some of the same problems? Could it be related to any new updates or similar software-related issues.

Thank you in advance,

I don’t have this problem, but perhaps there’s something helpful in here:

A little Guide to … Fairphone’s Batteries (FP1 & FP2)
FP2 Battery Problems (drains quickly, CPU gets hot)
Battery drains within half a day (phone always „awake“)

These should cover some hardware and software issues to check.

Do you have the red/yellow/green light permanently while charging? If not, your bottom module is probably broken. Ask support for a new bottom module in this case.

In general there are three possible reasons for this:

  1. Your phone’s power consumption is way higher than it used to be.
  2. Your charger is broken.
  3. Your battery’s capacity has decreased.

If 1. is the case, this can have various reasons both hardware and software related. Finding the root cause can be quite difficult (see threads linked by @AnotherElk). A good indication that increased power consumption is causing your problem is that your phone is hot/warm even if you don’t use it.

Have you tried using a different charger?

If the phone is not warm and your charger is okay, your battery may just be dying. Do you know someone else who owns a FP2? Maybe you can swap the battery for a couple hours and see if the problem “travels” with the battery?

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Hi, thank you for your answer.

To answer your questions:

  1. The phone is not warm, when it’s not used
  2. I’ve tried with multiple chargers and different sources; it’s all the same
  3. I think this is the case. Unfortunately, I don’t know anyone (at least where I am the next couple of weeks) with a FP2. My solution will probably be to buy an extra battery - hopefully this will improve the situation.

Thank you again.

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Hi! No, the light seems to work as it should.

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Yeah, I kinda forgot possibility 4:
Charger is okay, battery is okay, but phone doesn’t charge properly. That would point to a defective bottom module or charge controller (don’t know where that is located).
To rule that out you’d need a different battery.

.5. Problem with the USB cable

I had that issue. Just needed to swap cables (the plug was kind of worn out) …

Another option could be the bottom module has come loose, so taking off the back cover, screen, and unscrewing the bottom module. Then cleaning the contacts and putting it back together could do the trick.

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Hello @karenmarie, I suggest you download a free app called Greenify to monitor your battery usage and find out if there’s any app misbehaving. I was ready to give up on my FP2, Greenify made me love my FP again.

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Hi Karen Marie - I had the same problem, where my charged time had decreased to approx. 4-5 hours / day, and charging took several hours. I bought a new battery, and now the charged time is up again at 13-15 hours / day, just as before.
In general the charged battery time certainly depends on your consume, and there are published various tips on how to decrease this consume.
Btw: Are you from Denmark? In that case, me too, and some of us have joined the German Facebook group Fairphone Freunde. Here you get fast, friendly and professional assistance in nearest any question :-).

Hi, I have very similar problems with my FP2 to those described above. All of the sudden my battery gets discharged after only few hours and even without making any use of the phone. I’m now switching to airplane mode as soon as I am through with all the duties to try to save a bit more longer the battery but still, the time available for use is very limited. I have mentioned the problem to FP team and have received a new battery within few days. For this they are very helpful, but unfortunately the situation has not improved. Apparently the problem is with the hardware but which one? Why this problem occurred all of the sudden? This is very disappointing for a technological object bought only 14 months ago, I thought that FP would have been of better quality. While buying a FP I expected to escape from the high consumption system.
Marion

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