My Fairphone get’s very hot in the upper sections (where the SIMs are located), almost to hot to hold it, let alone use it to phone. Also the battery drains in a few hours. Why is this and what can I do to stop it? I tried to manually close running apps and processes in the background but especially messenger Apps like Whats-App start on their own. Any Ideas?
Check out the following:
As for battery problems, there have been various topics relating, so please use the search feature of the forum (little magnifying glass on the upper right border) and read the posts there.
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Hi,
I hat this problem two or three times. Rebooting the Phone fixet it every time.
Everyting I could see at usage Timeline was that the “Android-System” had permanently almost 30% of CPU usage.
regards,
Shiny
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Hello,
My Fairphone developed exactly this issue after upgrading to Kola Nut 1.8 (I have now rolled back to Chenpi 1.5, which appears to have solved the problem). I noticed that when I first charged it after upgrading, the red LED changed to green when the charging indicator hit 98%, rather than 100%, and the phone was hot to the touch on both sides, towards the top end. Within half an hour the charge had dropped to around 80%, and was distinctly warm just sitting in my coat pocket.
I powered it off to let it cool down, and half an hour or so later switched it on again, and it heated up again without any usage (no calls, no internet or mobile data use). The battery charge had dropped to around 30% within 5 or 6 hours.
I realise there have been many issues raised specifically in relation to the Kola Nut OS, and that the roll-out has now been postponed, but haven’t spotted this issue other than in this post. I will be staying with 1.5 for now.
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Please report back, as soon you have installed the revised update (called 1.8.1???), to let us know, if the problem persists.
Greetings,
This is my first post here, sorry if I don’t use the correct topic.
I have the same issue with my battery here since I upgrade to 1.8 Kola Nut, but didn’t notice that much if heat.
Heat is absent in idle mode and moderate on use, couldn’t even say if it is hotter than before the update, but one thing is sure: the battery gets drained WAY more quickly than before : after one day of regular use (short calls, quick web surfing, some gaming in the metro, lots of idle) I get dropped to 30% battery, while I was at ~65% before the update with an identifcal daily usage.
I’ll stay alert about the revised update. Any ETA on it? Because as of today, the Fairphone Updater app tells me that my “current operating system version Fairphone Kola Nut 1.8 is up to date”.
Note: my Fairphone is a second-batch Fairphone (FP1U).
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See @Marco’s thoughts on this:
@Bix If you don’t want to wait, you can still do a downgrade to Fairphone OS 1.6 manually.
I’m facing the “heat problem” too. I downgraded from 1.8 to 1.6, but it didn’t help at all.
The phone gets warm on random intervalls, using lots of battery at the same time. I often tried to check the battery usage when it was warm, and often it showed that mobile phone standby was using up 50% or so of the energy.
My impression is, that “getting warm” often starts, when the phone is moved out of the range of a wi-fi network and therefore has to switvh to mobileedata connection. Somtimes when connection to a good wi-fi signal again it cools down but not always. It happens too random it really be sure.
Restarting the phone does not help (FP1U).
My heat up problem was caused by a broken SD card. It has disappeared now after I replaced the SD memory card. The phone gets a little bit warm when using data via GSM when the signal is poor. But stayes cool with Wi-Fi :-).
Udo
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My fairphone gets hot in the area of the motherboard and looses voltage very fast. Battery seems to be OK - no temperature no swelling or other things. Any Idea
@flechlh I moved your post here as you describe the same problem. Maybe you’ll find a solution here.
If not also check out our Battery Guide.
Hi,
i had the same problem.
In the end, I had to replace the motherboard - well - service had to.
But try resetting it first.
Greets
jo
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seems like I am encountering the same issue: FP1 prone to humidity?
for me it was not even possible to backup my phone as current consumption was already too high…
Hello,
I did some changes for testing what could be the reason for this heating and fast battery drain:
- I removed the 64GB SD-Memory card - no change
- I deactivated the SIM2 - no change
- I deactivated the SIM1 - fairphone works normal.
To verfy if it is the SIM-slot or the card I changed the 2 SIM-cards and did step 2. and 3. again - result: it was not the slot, it was the SIM-Card.
By changing again with cleaning of the contacts - the phone works normally. Maybe it was a “bad” contact in the sim-slot which caused the heating and battery drain.
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Great news 
I’m glad it’s working now.
Hello everyone,
My FP1 (second batch) is getting very warm when charging or when I’m listening music with my earplugs.
Anyone having same problems?
Btw - got my FP Sept. 2014 and have already second battery in use.
Thx for any help!
@Melly_Kolundzic you could try taking out your SIM card(s) and SD card to see if the problem persists. Maybe one of the cards is defected and causes the problems you are describing. There were also reports where switching SIM card(s)-slots helped.
I have the same problem now. Which is interesting, because I installed 1.8 (when it really became official) a while ago. Initially: No problem. Today, my phone activated while locked in my pocked (which it regularly does), and this time it seems to have done some operations which triggered this problem. Or it was a coincidence of two separate things occurring within 10 minutes of each other.
The battery history shows a normal curve for the last 1d 8h, then a sharp drop of (I estimate) 10 % battery charge in less than 1 hour. When I tried to turn off the phone, it re-started by itself, and wouldn’t allow me to turn it off, The background was orange by that time, so battery was below 15 %.
I have taken out the battery, cleaned the SIM as suggested here, and hope for the best.
I know this topic is old, but it is still relevant. Since a few days (this coincides with the latest update (1.8.7)) my phone is getting hot while being idle in my pocket. Around the “top” of the phone (where the camera is) it is as hot as if I had made a 30 minute call. And the battery drains super quickly. I have rebooted several times, removed the battery, cleaned the SIM, etc.
This morning, I removed the phone from the charger, and I could witness the percentage dropping …:
4% lost in less than 5 minutes ?? Oh and the screen brightness is set to minimum.
Anyone having similar issue since the very last update? As said above I have a FP1U.
I guess maybe sometimes an update can mess with the batteries firmware a little?
First check whether your battery is bloated and if it isn’t do the battery reset. Both is described here:
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