My Fairphone 3 suddenly has a charging issue - when plugging it in the phone gets a continuously red blinking light. The forum topic How to charge a completely empty battery points me in the direction of a hardware failure.
I am using an official Fairphone charger (the āblockā + the cable). Iāve already sent a request to Fairphone support as Iām still under warranty. But I**'m afraid that theyāll ask me to send it over which will mean a full factory reset** - a loss of all data.
Iāve just been to a wedding where we took some nice pictures, and Iād really like to avoid completely loosing those. And maybe I can help Fairphone diagnose the problem by switching modules without sending it over (donāt know if they do that).
So Iām looking for someone in Brussels or Flanders whoās willing to borrow a full battery so that I can at least back up my photos and messages Temporarily swapping the bottom module to see if that solves my issue would be a nice plus, but I understand not everyone might want that
beside finding another FP3 user to swap modules. Did you try another cable and charger? a red blinking LED normally indicates a completely discharged battery. So how long did you try to charge? Did anything happen before that? And just to note, the FP3 will not show the behavior (vibrating, logo, LED bootloop) described in the guide you linked above.
if nothing helps and there is no one close, in Aachen will be a Meetup on 10. Jun, so in case the data are important for you, maybe its worth it to take the timeā¦
Yes, from the guide I linked I figured itās a completely discharged battery. I have tried another charger, but as I was away I didnāt have access to another cable just yet. Will do that tomorrow morning when at work.
As suggested in the guide I linked - about 15 minutes or so. Didnāt dare to keep it in longer. I tried that multiple times (with breaks in between).
Normally I never do this because I know itās bad for the battery, but this time I forgot I left it in the charger and it stayed overnight. So I donāt know what happened - if I didnāt plug the charger properly, if it got overheated somehow and blocked loading as some safety measureā¦ No idea
Oh, thank you! Thatās good to know. I was already wondering why this wasnāt happening.
Thanks for the links! I would like to avoid buying another piece of electrical equipment if possible, but itās good to know this option exists. And itās an interesting read.
I would def let it plugged in longer, up to hours. What does the lock screen say: slow charge, charge, fast charge?
If this does not help disasambling and cleaning port and contacts could probably help, if not done yet.
A one time overnight charge should not do any harm to the battery or it already reached its end before that night and this was only the last āpieceā to break itā¦
Nothing - it turned off during the night. So I only have the blinking light. Iāll leave it charging longer. When would you expect the blinking light to stop (turn solid red)/the deep discharge be solved?
Hi
Iām not sure itās a ātimedā event so it will happen once the battery has started to charge āproperlyā, It could take hours.
One āgoodā option is that it requires (wants) very little power at this point so you can leave it plugged into a computerās USB A port which will give a max of 900mA or older USB 2 protocol which only delivers 500mA
Although itās counter productive, in terms of wanting to charge the battery sooner rather than later, the slower the first stage the better if the battery is really discharged and itās not another issue.
Also if you can find a volt-meter you can check the voltage. I donāt know at what point the charging indicator switches from flashing but below 3.2 volts would concern me.
It depends on how fast its chargingā¦the Guide was written in FP1/FP2 times where fast charging etc was not implemented ,so I think the guide is a good hint but FP3+FP4 work different and charging is not as easy as it was beforeā¦so be patient and see what happens during the day
Edit: added a note to the wiki to document this as well
Ok, so I tried a different cable at work - same blinking light. And I have tried keeping it plugged in to my laptop USB3 A port for slow charging, also to no avail.
Iāll just have to patiently wait for Fairphone support to follow-up, or for someone able to borrow me a full battery/help diagnose with swapping modules.
Ok, someone was so kind to reach out and let me come by to test some things. I was expecting it was a problem with my battery not charging, but that appeared not to be the case: When putting his (charged) battery in my phone, my phone still didnāt start. And putting my battery in his phone showed that my battery was pretty much fully charged (it wasnāt when I had last used my phone, so it had been charging).
My conclusion: the blinking red light is not indicative of the phone not being able to charge. Iāve passed on the findings to Fairphone support (who I hadnāt heard from in about a week - they must be busy) and asked if they have an idea of what else this light might be indicative off. Probably must be something with the motherboard (assuming that none of the other modules prevent the phone from starting at all).
Since I got my test physical and probably wonāt get back my pictures Iāll resolve this thread. For knowledge sharing Iāll try and remember to post back once this saga is solved.