Help! Battery charging slowly

Your battery might need calibration. Wait and see if the battery shows 0% while the phone is still working.
At what percentage you usually charge the battery?

Hi @Antoine

As I have mentioned I have had a similar problem, once it said ‘15 hours to go’, all day it didn’t really charge much. For the last few weeks it has been charging at 1% every three minutes, so not quite as good as your latest report.

Currently I am charging the phone and it states ‘charging slowly’ but is still charging at 1% per 3 minutes. I am not going to unplug and plug it in to see how it goes.

I’m hoping to have enough data soon to send to support to see if they have any views :slight_smile:

UPDATE: I have been charging the phone for three hours and it has gone from 28% to 94% so 66% in thee hours. It still says ‘charging slowly’, so it seems that the notification is irrelevant as it charges at the same rate when just ‘charging’

There are of course other instances that don’t conform, but generally whether ‘charging’ or ‘charging slowly’ it takes a bit less than 3minuites to charge 1% on a new phone/battery (FP3+) (3000mAh)

NOTE: The charge rate does not reduce when above 90% or 96% it’s always the same.

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Hi,
I have the same problem since a short time. I’m using the original charger and cable. The device and the equipment is approximately 8 months old. I think the problem started with the last Update to 0066. Before that, I had no Chargingproblems.
When I start charging it states “charging slowly”. When I pull out the USB connector and I reconnect it, the fast charge is shown (sometimes I have to do it twice). I think it’s a little strange. But I see I’m not alone with the problem.

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I had the issue before the update as well ???

Same here. Its been with my phone since new in June

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Same exact problem here, for a few days now, perhaps a few weeks got intermittent problems with charging my fairphone 3+ using the fairphone official chargerplug+cable. had no issues before but suddenly this has started happening, it’s very annoying…

it must be software related if we all suddenly start experiencing this issue…the fairphone team must get on this asap…

what i can say is that I seem to have better results with different connections, i m no expert in the field at all but perhaps some code was added to identify/regulate charging speed based on (exact) power output of the outlet/mains plug? this code seems to have gone haywire however and often get the parameters completely wrong, basically stopping any effective charging whatsoever…

edit: in the meantime i suggest to anyone who is experiencing issues enter airplane mode and disable custom battery settings for any apps, that most of the time allows me to at least charge my phone to the point where it wont drain completely

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@PatrickH
If you are experiencing disturbing problems it’s worth contacting official support as they are not going to read all the peer to peer chat and so will not be aware that there is much of an issue.

I am about to contact them officially to see if they recognize the problem.

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hi @anon9989719 ok thanks will do, which route will you be contacting them? i will do the same so we can make sure its on their radar.

Hi
I’m going to use

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Hi,
I reported it too.

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I have the same issue since last Android update. When I charge the FP3 at night the alarm does not work; in the morning I wake up late and the flippin’ screen says ‘Charging xx%’
I have reported it to the Fairphone helpdesk.

I do not want to perform reset to factory default yet but I’m afraid that will be the fastest solution. Unfortunately Android will start bugging me for Updates Available. If only FP would have stuck to strictly pushing security updates only and not this useless update that rendered my FP3 practically useless.

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did that but Helpdesk is taking way too long to fix this

HI

I have just sent a request to support for clarification on battery changing for the FP3+ as follows:
"Since purchase and continuing after latest update 0066 I have dubious charging issues. I would like to point out that, although some decades ago, I used to maintain sea to air missiles in the Royal navy so have some electronic training :slight_smile:

The issue can be broken down as follows.

1. As no battery charger is supplied people have to make their own choices, however I note from the forum that there are the same issues with some who have bought your FP charger and cable.
"Hi,
I have the same problem since a short time. I’m using the original charger and cable. The device and the equipment is approximately 8 months old. I think the problem started with the last Update to 0066. Before that, I had no Chargingproblems."

2. I have kept records lately to try and understand the charging routine.

a) Whatever the battery state 6% or 46% the battery states ‘charging slowly’ Often if I unplug and replug in the cable the notification that the battery is ‘charging slowly’ goes away.
b) Irrespective of notification ‘slowly’ or otherwise the battery charges 1% in just under three minutes, so will take 3 to 5 hours dependent upon initial state. These figures are in Airplane mode with wifi, NFC and Bluetooth off
c) There is never a drop in charge rate at 90% or 96%.

So the questions are
1 Can you tell me the rate of charge expected ‘slowly charging’ and otherwise.
2. Can you tell me how the hardware/software decides at what rate to charge.

I reside off grid use solar panels with a base 12v system. I have an inverter that can supply 230v at 5A so I can use mains chargers.

Generally I use a Belkin 4 USB port 12V to 5.1V (two @ 1.2A and two at 2.4A)

The battery is 3000mAh (not 3040 as advertised)

Over 5 hours this equates, without losses, to some 600mA per hour, well below what I can provide.

Using a mains adapter that provides 5.1 @ 3A is no different.

So although I have no problem waiting 4 to 5 hours I wonder if this is what you expect.

From the following link you will see others with the same and/or similar concerns, there \are other topics too.

Help! Battery charging slowly

Well I hope you can enlighten me/us on what we should expect, and please provide me with details on the hardware and software set up.

Thank you and best wishes."

EDIT 1 The initial reply by email says “We aim to reply within 5 working days”

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Brilliant job thank you for taking the time and writing such a detailed message. Highly appreciated. I will point them to the forum and your post specifically as well in addition to my own problems (that are largely the same).

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Update on my long post: Help! Battery charging slowly

Today I accidentally allowed the battery to discharge to 2% and the following occurred.

  1. After a second it wen t from ‘charging slowly’ to charging

  2. The rate of charge doubled. Whereas usually it takes just under 3 minutes to charge 1% this time it took exactly 90 seconds,

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UPDATE on post 29

I received an email from support with general queries, i.e. no useful words.
There was no response to my query about how the charging states are defined or implemented.

Support wanted to know the Build, Charging mechanism and battery test results both static and when plugged in.

Still I have a human response after 8 days which given the demands of the users and the COVID etc stress is not bad at all. :slight_smile:

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Any further updates? Do they recognise this as a software problem that affects many users?

No real answer! The last email said that 4 to 5 hours to charge wasn’t normal and asked me to try a new cable ~ my reply was ~ I bought two new from Fairphone and it’s the same with those cables.

They did not respond at all to my query on how the charging system works. I.e. when is it supposed to change from one to the other and why etc. :frowning:

I noted that when I accidentally let my battery drop to 2% before charging it charged in 2.5Hrs, so I’m going to try letting drop to 2% or thereabouts again to see if I can replicate the 'fast’er charge :slight_smile:

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Thank you for update, sb from Fairphone just reacted to a comment I left on their fb page so I directed them to this thread.

The 2% phenomenon you describe sounds encouraging but of course not desirable to have to let your phone drop to such a low battery % to get any consistent, reliable charging level

I might open another case if we don’t hear back in a few more days time

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hi, I have the same problem ones in a while :unamused: my f3 then charges “very slow”. that means it takes a night to charge 20 %. I cannot really use the phone on a daily basis.
this happened to me 3 times for a period of e few days since I got the f3 in november 2019.
Support didnt help much. they were just asking about my charger which works pretty good the rest of the time (charges fast from 20% to 100% in 2 hours).

maybe I have to do reset to factory settings :rage:

does someone have other ideas? please let me know

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