FP3 will not charge!

Hello everyone. Thank you for your comments. I took the phone to a shop and found a cable that worked. I just meant it was annoying that things didn’t go smoothly, not good publicity. But of course it’s not fairphone’s fault. I just have to get internet working. Hopefully, if I follow the instructions someone has given elsewhere on this forum, it will work… Enjoy your fairphone 3 everyone!

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So after months I finally got my phone, but now I’m having a similar problem with charging, tried a few different cables and none of them charge it, or extremely slowly. I left the slow charging cable in and turned the phone off, thinking it would charge it quicker that way (that used to work with my old phone), but when turned off it doesn’t charge at all (when turned on it charges slowly). Is this normal? Surely phones should charge when turned off?!?

The official Fairphone charging cable works normal for me, both with the official EU adapter as well as in a USB-A socket (e.g. in an Allocacoc Powercube, and MBP 13" 2015).

I can try some different chargers at home.

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Ah yes, I’m still waiting to get the official one, so hopefully once that one arrives, it’ll work for me too.

My new FP3 doesn’t like the USB charging cables of Samsung and Huawei.
In the beginning they simply did not work until I inserted my third cable gently and slowly. But not entirely, just to the point where it wants to snap in… I held it there an suddenly it began to charge. As if the opening of the connector is a little too wide.

I will order the original cable from Fairphone…

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I’m in the process of testing the cooperation of different chargers/cables/magnetic adapters charging the Fairphone 3.

I’m not done entirely, but what I can say already is that cheap generic cables probably will not do the job.
This here really seems to apply not only for chargers, but also for cables …

I will see to get my hands on USB-IF certified cables next to confirm this.
Edit: Results are here …

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4 different, random quickchargers, using an EU powerplug.

  • Fairphone 3 official with official cable [EU powerplug to USB-A to USB-C]
  • GPD Pocket 2 [EU powerplug to USB-C to USB-C]
  • A random one from a colleague [EU powerplug to USB-A to USB-C]
  • A Oneplus from a colleague [EU powerplug to USB-A to USB-C]

All 4 worked perfectly fine. It is a bit difficult to test out because the battery is full so quickly, and then does not drain (#firstworldproblems).

I’ll be trying more!

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I suspect with the original cables from Fairphone and, respectively, GPD?

With the cable attached to it, whatever that was (orig?). The GPD cable is USB-C to USB-C so would not work on a USB-A adapter.

According to my tests the cable mainly decides the outcome of the charging, so to know which cable would be kind of important :wink: .

(I have no other charger/use for the GPD USB-C → USB-C cable, too.)

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Since all my Samsung and Huawei / Honor cables (4 pcs.) heavily refuse to team up with my FP3 (make contact only now and then, charge slowly or don’t charge at all and let only shine the charging LED, establish unreliable data connection to my linux pc) I decided to order an USB-IF certified cable at a well-known online platform. It arrived today.
All of my FP3-USB-related problems are gone now.

I must admit, that I still don’t understand it. My “old” cables continue to work perfectly with my “unfair” :wink: devices.

But I’m lucky now :grinning:

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I’ve also tested the following:

  • USB hub with Fairphone USB-C cable (USB hub to USB-A to USB-C)
  • USB hub with TOPK magnetic USB-C cable (USB hub to USB-A to USB-C)
  • Fairphone charger with TOPK magnetic USB-C cable (EU powerplug to USB-A to USB-C)

In all three circumstances the Fairphone 3 says “charging slowly”.

I gotta say the magnetic charger fits quite well with the bumper case. It barely sticks out, 1 perhaps 2 mm. I’d guess that is true for other magnetic cables as well!

To be fair, I feel less need for magnetic charger with USB-C as there is only 1 way the cable can fit. You could make a case for preferring such in case of tripping (like Magsafe).

Btw, the magnetic charger does NOT work well with the GPD Pocket 2. Often, it just quits charging, and the slow charging under load does not do much if anything. I’m now checking if that may happen with FP3 as well. With the GPD Pocket 2 I feel more desire to keep it connected whenever I can because the battery goes flat so quickly because Atom is inefficient; the reverse is true for Fairphone 3. Which simply leads to less stress and worrying about juice.

I ordered the USB Charger (EU) and the USB-C Cable from Fairphone with my FP3 and both work(ed) like a charm right from the start. There’s so many crappy cables out there … It’s always a good idea not to go with the cheapest one. For non-OEM stuff, I personally have good experiences with Anker accessories.

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In general I would agree to that.
Careful with looking for cables of a specific brand, though … an Anker USB-A → USB-C cable was among the cables that couldn’t really charge the Fairphone 3 for me.

If you want to get a cable for charging the Fairphone 3, really make sure you get a USB-IF certified cable in the first place, additionally to that you can perhaps look for a brand.

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I am looking into starting a list of cables/chargers we know are IF certified and work properly so customers can have reference.
We’ve had such lists for example with FP2 compatible headphones and it has proven beneficial for both forum users and our customer support to refer to.
Waiting on an initial list from the product team here.

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I just ordered TOPK AM61 18W / QC3 magnetic USB-C. Will report once I figured out of it is going to work (I hope it will). Btw, it is much cheaper on AliExpress than Amazon or their website.

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Hi, any update on this please?

When you get it I would appreciate information also on how it fits with the bumper case.

Received them Thursday 5th. Been trying them out the past days.

They fit perfectly well in the bumper case, and stick out just one mm or so (it looks far better than FP2 + magnetic cable). Minor thing perfect, but they’re reasonable in the middle as well. It is a bit tough to get it out because of lack of space (would not want to do it without nails), so if you swap a lot between magnetic and non-magnetic this might be a downside. I consider it an advantage.

However, when I plug it in the charger (official FP3 charger, TOPK cable) the FP3 does not say “charging fast”; it just says “charging”.

They’re far better than the round magnetic cables, and the LED can be put on the bottom or the top side. If it is on the bottom side, I don’t notice it before I go to bed. The LED is just useful to find the cable at night.

As an illustration, the FP3 is now at 65% and it says it takes 30 min till it is fully charged. Whether that is accurate or not, I don’t know.

[EDIT]It got to 93% in about 30 min[/EDIT]

I bought the new Samsung 45 watt charger, supporting Power Delivery 3 and Quick Charge 4 Plus.
These are the charging speed results from 0% to 100%, while the Fairphone 3 was shut off:
010 Min -> 10 %
020 Min -> 22 %
030 Min -> 32 %
040 Min -> 43 %
050 Min -> 57 %
060 Min -> 67 %
070 Min -> 80 %
080 Min -> 88 %
083 Min -> 90 %
085 Min -> 91 %
090 Min -> 92 %
095 Min -> 94 %
100 Min -> 95 %
105 Min -> 96 %
110 Min -> 96 %
115 Min -> 97 %
120 Min -> 98 %
130 Min -> 98 %
134 Min -> 99 %
140 Min -> 99 %
150 Min -> 100%

The so called Samsung “Super Quick Charger” does support the same 5 Volt with 3 Ampere 15 Watt charging like the official Fairphone 3 charger. There shouldn’t be a difference in real life charging speed.
If you look at the data, you’ll see, that at the end it takes a full hour to charge from 92 % to 100 %. -> That’s Fairphones “Eco Charging Mode” which can’t be deactivated.
The Snapdragon 652 supports Qualcomms Quick Charge 3.0, but the Fairphone’s software doesn’t.
For comparision: My girlfriends Galaxy Note Edge (3000 mAh) in 2014 took exactly 83 minutes for a full load, with the old Samsung 15 Watt quick charger.
Even my Galaxy S5 (2800 mAh) with the 11 Watt charger reached 100 % after 1 hour and 50 minutes.