I own a FP2 since 2016. In the last weeks it had several issues that got worse and worse.
It started with the phone switching off when taking, editing or sending data (pics or videos) not everytime but frequently.
Support only suggested to reset to factory settings.
Shortly after, I did an update and the problems seemed to be solved.
But two weeks or so ago the phone started to shut down unexpectedly (now without any connection to using media). When I switched it back on the battery would often be drained to a few %.
Sometimes it helped to take the battery out, wait some minutes and put it back in and it would be back to 40-ish %
Then it started to not charge properly. When attached to the charger it would flicker from “charging” to not-charging. I thought this was due to some cheap cherger I bought but the problem was consistent no matter what charger I used and it got worse.
Today I woke up to a dead (and hot) phone which had been on the charger all night but wouldn’t turn on.
My thoughts are:
–> something wrong with the battery? I changed some parts over the years but it is still the 2016 battery
–> maybe an additional problem with the USB-Socket since the charging process is so instable?
Any thoughts and advice (in German or English) are welcome.
Katharina
Although your general description to me seems to indicate maybe a hardware problem.
Can you connect (timewise) your problems to any changes in the software, be it an upgrade of the OS or some new/update apps?
Especially the phone getting hot, can be related to some app running wild (in the background), even if you have turned it off.
When you were charging your phone over night, was it already turned off, when you plugged it in? My FP2 is a bit wierd on that behalf. If I try to charge it, after it has gone off, it charges up to 5% before it starts heating up instead of charging. If I start the phone after plugging it in, it charges just fine. Maybe leaving it “baking” for hours has grilled your phone? Have you tried to switch it on again after it had cooled down?
To check if the battery is to blame, you might try another one; same goes for the charger.
Are there any #fairphoneangels in your area, that you could contact or is a community-meeting scheduled near the place you live, that you could attend? You find those local threads here: https://forum.fairphone.com/c/participate/local
This way you could maybe get some more advice instead of my wild speculations. And those angels often have some spare parts for testing your battery or charger.
Keeping my fingers crossed.
Bert
I did not add any obscure adds or something in the last weeks. The problem eased a bit after a OS-update but that didn’s last long.
It was switched on when I plugged it in for the night.
Yeah, charging is a delicate matter with some FPs, isn’t it? Mine showed different issues over the years:
“I wont’t turn on, when I’m on the charger! Charge me to at least 4%, then switch me on and quickly plug me in”
“My touchscreen won’t work propperly while on the charger. That very expensive charger might do. But not always”
I was able to revive it now and so far it’s on the charger and charging normally.
Fortunately a friend has a spare battery which I can use to try if this is where the problem sits.
It really sounds like a battery problem, doesn’t it?
Hi KatharinaC,
My Fairphone 2, that I also purchased in 2016, had exactly the same behaviour as yours. And eventually I couldn’t charge it at all.
I discovered that there was a thin layer of dirt (very difficult to see) inside the USB connector. I removed this with a needle and from then and so far, the problem seems to be solved. It looks like this dirt was just preventing the cable to be properly inserted in the connector.
I hope this helps!
