For about half a year now I experience charging interruptions on my FP5 and since support can’t really help me anymore, I am looking for others experiencing the same or having additional ideas what the issue could be/ what could fix it.
About every 5th to 20st charging interval, the charging starts, but does not charge fully and stops at some random percentage. Then, the charging icon is still there, on the lock screen it still notes “charging”, but AccuBattery shows a negative current on the “Charging” screen and the battery actually discharges.
I am using a fairly new charger and cable from Fairphone, good condition. I charge other devices with it, and with those I never experienced the same
the phone sits still while this happens, I do not use or move it
sometimes, the charging stops just a few percent after starting, sometimes only before almost reaching max. Seems random
when the discharging-charging state is reached, the Fairphone internal testing tool displays on “USB/charge”: USB: OK, Charging: OK, Current: NOK, Current: -70mA
I had the phone sent-in to Cordon in February for this issue, they changed the USB-C port and re-installed Android (prior to the send-in, the USB connection to a computer did not work properly, now it does)
it happens both on fast charge and eco charge
I usually have set the 80% cap for charging, not sure if it happened without as well
original Fairphone OS, updating to the latest release when available
Support offers to send it in again to have the USB-C port changed again, but I don’t really see how this would improve things (and I don’t fancy resetting and giving away my phone again for 2 weeks )
Because it is very hard to replicate, it is also hard to test things. Usually I notice it when I had my phone charging and pick it up before leaving somewhere, in a rush, as it is usually the case for me…
But it happens too often to just ignore it. After I had sent it in, it took almost two weeks to appear again, but now I’ve had it quite a few times again already.
Probably more for completeness’s sake: I guess you did check, but did not mention the battery state itself in your post (e.g. signs of bloating?).
Own experience: I remember I had a somewhat similar issue with charging our FP4 here with my old iPod charger. It would charge to a certain (varying) percentage, then stop. While the charger seemed a bit (not extremely) on the hot side when I noticed this, I have not experienced the same stoppages with the FP5 or FP6. And the FP4 would not actually discharge, it would just stop charging, but also indicate so on the display.
One idea: Have you tried charging the FP5 from a computer? (if available)
Just for completeness and in agreement with @urs_lesse: Even if the charger should be OK, try charging some other way and see what happens. This could at least narrow down if the problem is rather the phone or the charger. If you don’t have another power supply, charging from a computer port as suggested might be an option.
The battery looks fine, and I would assume they checked it at Cordons as well
Neither the phone nor the charger get unusually warm when the issue happens
I should probably try a different charging method (charger & cable) to make 100% sure it is not the charger, I will do that. Will take a week or two to verify though…
The used FP charger charges other devices without problems, though
Hi,
I have experienced something just a bit similar, like charging stopping.
I use fast charging and do not limit it to 80% ( I know it is not preferrable).
It happens on some cables and chargers and not in any regular way.
My initial thoughts on reasoning was the lack of proper connection between the cable and the phone, like the case protruding, or the phone moving. But from what you’re saying it seems like a more serious issue if internal checks suggest discharging. I will observe a bit more closely my phone then.
So the charging issues are the same before and after the “repair”? Not sure if the bottom PCB is a possible reason for such cases as well, however the bottom PCB can only be changed by Cordon. Changing the port again by sending it in, seems ridiculous and support should start to think “out of the box” here. What tests did Cordon perform, did they check/exclude other options like battery, bottom PCB etc.?
I don’t very often connect my phone for file transfer to the computer, if I need to transfer something, I use other solutions.
When I prepared my phone for sending-in (backing up everything), I realized that the USB-connection to the computer does not work. So I though it might be related: USB somehow does not work, might explain the charging issue. But I don’t know if it was broken for all the time I had the charging issues, because I never tested it.
Reported it as well, therefore they changed the port I guess.
I guess they only changed the USB port, not the bottom module?
I had the latest software running, so they cannot have performed a software update (and there was no release during the time it was at their repair center). I guess they just reinstalled it
No other comments about any checks/ what they did
We’ve a similar problem. We have two Fairphones in our family, mine is a 5 and wife’s got a 6. I’ve had my 5 for about 2.5 years now, and I’ve always irregularly faced similar problem of charging stopping for no apparent reason, and the phone stating it’s charging. It’s happened with the official Fairphone 30W charger (not the current one but an older model) using official USB-C cable.
I’ve changed the charger since to an Axagon-branded one, since the official charger blew up (literally, the phone was quite a way away from the charger, so there was some pull to the cable when I picked the phone up, there was a loud, electric ”snap” noise, and the charger blew a fuse from the house). The same charging problem happens with the Axagon-charger.
Wife’s 1.5 month old 6 is being charged with a similar but not same Axagon-charger, and a different brand USB-C charging cable. Both phones show similar charging problems. I have a feeling it has to do with a notification popping up. I haven’t done any extensive testing, but charging seems to interrupt much more frequently if f.ex. a message is recieved during charging.
Simply unplugging the charger and repluging resumes the charge, but it’s nontheless very annoying problem. Many times you’re in a hurry and plug the phone in for a while before leaving to get enough juice to last, only to come back and see that the phone hasn’t charged anything.
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