Battery problems (wrong charging status / battery might be dying)

I think my battery is dying as well. I have noticed now about 5 times that late at night before automatic switch off at 1 a.m the energy screen is blue or green, i.e. above 50 % charged, and when FP swirches on automatically at 7 it is orange! Below 20 %. This does not happen every night but often. :frowning:
Do I have to order a new battery from fairphone support?

@Ruth_FP1: Make first the bloat test, and if negative try to drain your battery until 0% with automatic switch off of the FP, and then try to charge FP in one run to 90%, while keeping it switched of.
Any help?
Is a kind of recalibration, you can try it twice…
Cheers, Robert

That’s the spin test?

My battery passed! No spinning. :+1:

[quote=“therob, post:179, topic:771, full:true”]
@Ruth_FP1: if negative try to drain your battery until 0% with automatic switch off of the FP, [/quote]
??? don’t understand, how will that drain the battery?

[quote=“Ruth_FP1, post:180, topic:771”]
That’s the spin test?
[/quote] -->exactly!

→ Please read [here][1] in more detail:

Cheers, Robert
[1]: ✏ A little Guide to ... Fairphone's Batteries (FP1 & FP2)

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Hi there,
I have followed the thread and couldn’t find a solution to my problem(s) with FP1 (second batch):
Where do I start: My battery drains very quick on it’s second half, the percentage indicator is crazy and changes very fast, phone gets really hot in the top, all the apps run very slow… I simply can’t use my fairphone anymore.
I’ve removed my SD card, my sim card, cleaned the contacts, spin tested my battery (not bloated), “kicked” the battery… I’m really close to give up and get another phone, but really don’t want to! :frowning:
Anything else I can try?
Thanks everyone!

1 Like

Contact Support.
A “positive spin test” always results in a warranty replacement of the battery, but I don’t think it’s a requirement. You have the same symptoms of a bloated battery, so I’d guess you get it replaced even if it’s not really bloated.
They might ask you to try some other things first, e.g. maybe a hard reset. So it’s a good idea to make a backup e.g. with Titanium Backup while you wait for their reply.

Btw currently it may take longer than usual to get a replacement battery due to the move.

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I just wanted to share the outcome of my charging woes which became battery woes.

Initially my FP1U phone seemed to be obsessed with 70%. Charge it for an hour or overnight, after taking it off charge, the battery read 100%. A few moments later and it would be at about 70%, it would work until the battery was flat if I left it alone - with or without SIM card or SD card. However, the moment I tried to do anything which made it work harder (e.g. Google Maps) the phone would shut down. Plug it in again and although the battery graphic would initially show 0% it would show ~70% charge within moments and be 100% charged soon after. This went on for a couple of weeks. Advice varied from replacing the SIM card (tried that, no effect) and, of course, the dumbassery in forums of putting the battery in a freezer or on a radiator. (Don’t do that)
Li batteries are not meant to suffer memory effect (though support people here and at the co-op seem unaware of this) so it was not my fault for charging it too much or too little. I was quizzed about which charger I use. NOBODY USES A CHARGER. Hot bricks and USB cables provide a power supply; the phone provides its own ‘charging circuit’; it’s not a toothbrush. Yes it was 1A 5V supply or it was a USB ‘charging socket’ supply. I had already been caught out by trying to charge it from a regular USB last year and this doesn’t work well. The current is too low or something and it lied to me about being 100% charged and went flat within an hour. Not doing that again, I bought a powered USB hub with two charging sockets
I tried reporting my recent charge-state issues but never had a reply from support about that and as I was about to ask why the silence, the back of my phone fell off. The battery had now swollen so I am now going though the reporting/replacement service FP have set up. To speed things up, I ordered a spare battery (£20 delivered) and that arrived today and has cured the problems.
I have only ever dropped my phone once months ago and the power supplies I use have the correct rating. Please don’t let anyone blame you for a swollen battery. My guess is that some of them are ‘below specification’.
Bottom line: power problems? Try a new battery. You should buy a spare anyway. You always meant to. :wink:

Hi everybody!

Here we go again!!!

I left my phone to charge during the night, this morning it was where I left it… at 44 %! I had to use it so I unplugged it and then it went directly to 2 % and died on me…

So now it is charging, right now it is at 11 %. Let’s see how this works out…

By the way, I say “here we go again” because my battery already bloated once and I changed it once… (FP1 first edition) not so long ago…

If it wasn’t a fairphone and if I didn’t strongly believe in that phone I would have changed it already… every two or three months I have a new problem with it… but that’s another subject. :frowning: :wink:

Did you maybe consider to clean your USB-Connector, as I just wrote in the posted topic and did myself (at least semi-) successful?

As background information:

  • I had problems while charging: charging process starts and stops if I just wobble/bend/touch the cable slightly (which other users also reported and mostly assuming a broken connector)

  • I did a measurement with a external power meter while charging. Results:

  • While correct charging with the original FP charger it should consumes 5.5 Watts while showing the charging animation

  • BUT: the charging animation also is running, when the charger only consumes 2 or even 0.4 Watts or less, if before I moved the cable to another position (assuming a bad contact due to dust)

  • Conclusion: A charging animation does not necessarily means a proper charging and having plugged in the phone over night does not necessarily mean a full chargerd phone, IF the CONNECTOR is DUSTY (or really loosen/broken)

  • After the cleaning procedure I can provoke a bad charging (<2Watts) only with one cable position. Which means an improvement, but not yet a full solution. Mabe I missed some more dust or demeaged anythin. I will stay at this problem!

  • @evidemment, could mean for you: maybe your connector is dusty, the phone does only get very weak electrical connection, just enough to enable charging animation. Due to wrong charging status or the long lasting but not well establish voltage of the charger your battery indicator goes just temporaly to 44% bevor remembers it was not chargerd properly.

Cheers, Robert

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Just an update: I got a new battery now but I am keeping it as reserve / back-up and will use my old / first battery as long as it lasts. I have the feeling that the last 30 % of charging go much faster than the first and second 30 % (okay, let’s make it 33,3 % each), so I am keeping it 50 % loaded at least. Let’s see how long the old one will still be usable.

But remember that a battery is not getting better from just lying around.
For storing, often 5-10°C and 60-80% charge level is recommend and using it from time to time (between 20-80%)

Maybe a better way is to swap your both batteries each 1-2 months to use it the same way and dont use the first for 1 year and after this notic the 2nd is not usable anymore due too its long rest (without seeing new electrons).
Cheers, Robert

[quote=“therob, post:188, topic:771, full:true”]
But remember that a battery is not getting better from just lying around.
For storing, often 5-10°C and 60-80% charge level is recommend and using it from time to time (between 20-80%)[/quote]
tnx, that’s interesting.
I was told when I got it to leave it and that the wasting would only start once it is used.

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Are you referring to a battery which NEVER was used once? Who told you (FP?)? Than MAYBE here is a difference.

But I was referring to batteries which at least have been used once or twice. And to avoid the degradation of the inner electrodes a moderate usage is recommend (once a month for one charging cylce 80-20-80% should be enough).

It is the same thing which a lot of battery guides telling you for laptop-Li-Ion-batteries…
(At the moment I have no time to look for some links…sorry)

My phone is now fully charged… but I did that at the office…when you say “connector” your mean on the phone?

Yes :slight_smile: , as I said, it’s a new battery. And the tipp came from Fairphone.

  • Where is the difference of “at home” and “at office” in your case? Different charger?
  • I mean the connector at the phone itself (as you can see at the pic in the other thread). But basically it could also happen to the plug of the charger itself.
  • did you already try the “Battery-Software Reset/Recalibration”? But that would only make sense, if you considered the possibility fo the “dusty connector”, which then should be cleaned before!

Cheers, Robert

Yes different charger… by the way yesterday everything went fine… it’s the part I don’t understand with this phone: it does weird stuff and then back to normal…

Also a sign of a dying battery. I’ve had all the symptoms.
Be careful: I’m pretty sure your battery is bloating, even if you don’t see it yet.

Seriously?! Again?!!

What’s wrong with those batteries? Or is it the phone?

And apart from buying another one is there anything I can do to prevent this?

[quote=“evidemment, post:196, topic:771, full:true”]
Seriously?! Again?!![/quote]

Actually, I was told by FP that a battery can die after 1,5 to 2 years (shorter lifespan for smartphone batteries) without ever bloating. Mine shows the same symptoms, so I will use it for a while more, but have a new unused battery ready for the official battery end of number 1.