FP3 battery not charging, but port takes power and battery discharged

I have a Fairphone 3 (no 3+ parts) that I bought about a year ago, and recently the power system started acting strangely: it refuses to charge, but the battery did discharge, except when plugged in: in that case, the battery did not recharge, but the discharge rate did slow, I think because the phone was running off the external battery’s power.

This morning I bought a universal external charger—specifically this model, though I bought it locally—and plugged it in, but the charger wouldn’t charge the battery. (I double-checked the charger with a camera battery I have, and the charger isn’t the problem.) I originally thought that whatever was going on was a problem with the bottom module—hence the external charger: I figured I could plug in the battery externally and then use it while the bottom module itself shipped. However, this new information puts a spanner in that hypothesis.

If it is the battery, I have a serious problem: I’m in Texas, so getting a Fairphone battery shipped to me is practically impossible even through a package forwarding service, thanks to hazardous shipments regulations. I need a phone for work, so time is unpleasantly short, and I’d rather not have to buy some cheap phone for the interim and defeat the purpose of buying a sustainable device.

What should I do next?

Hi and welcome to the forum

Not sure what you mean by that? The phone can only run from the battery so if something is powering the phone it has to go via the battery.

You can also check the battery status

Dial *#*#88#*#* and then Service tests > Test Single > Battery status check

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At this point I can’t turn on the phone at all.

What I mean by “external battery’s power”: I have a battery charger that I had plugged in for a while. The phone was running fine, even though the battery was listed as being at 0%. Then I unplugged the phone from the battery by accident and the phone shut off immediately, and I haven’t gotten it to turn on since.

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Try a kickstart to reset the software of the battery.

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