Android - charging icon shows but written text says 'Not charging'

hughtrimble · 3 Sep 2018 at 13:27

Afternoon all,

A bit of an odd one here. I've seen lots of guides online about similar issues of batteries not charging, but not ones where the charging icon is present (along with saying TurboPower connected) but not one where:

The charging icon shows (battery with lightning strike through it) AND it says 'Not charging'

I've tried a variety of chargers, and all say the same thing with the icon showing as charging, but the text stating not charging. Clearly something is connecting somewhere, but something elsewhere is not.

Any tips? I've cleaned out the charging port and cleared the device cache.

Big Elf · 3 Sep 2018 at 13:47

Does it charge when the phone is switched off?

hughtrimble · 3 Sep 2018 at 14:26

Big Elf said:
Does it charge when the phone is switched off?

It suggests it is, but the charging fluctuates wildly, with declining percentage, then sometimes increasing percentage. Often goes from 0% to 15% then drops rapidly to 4% where it stays. Then upon disconnecting and reconnecting the charger, it starts at 33% then declines rapidly. It's all over the shop!

So it's hard to tell if it's actually charging, or if the monitoring software is estimating increases when it detects it's connected, but then it doesn't actually charge.

hughtrimble · 3 Sep 2018 at 15:07

Looks like the battery temperature sensor was going haywire - listed as -23.5C! This sensor seems to be part of the QI wireless charging coil for some reason, and that wasn't connected properly. Having disconnected and reconnected that coil, the temp is back to 'normal' and charging is in progress according to the icon and Ampere app. But the Android built in monitor is still not reflecting the charging, only that there is 44% left of the battery...yet it still says that battery saver is not available during charging. So it's aware it's charging but won't show that it is other than with the charging icon.

Very odd

chaparral · 3 Sep 2018 at 15:32

hughtrimble said:
But the Android built in monitor is still not reflecting the charging,

hughtrimble · 3 Sep 2018 at 15:43

chaparral said:

That both reflects what I'd like to do to this thing, and also what may happen if this battery gets shanked.

chaparral · 3 Sep 2018 at 18:03

hughtrimble said:
That both reflects what I'd like to do to this thing, and also what may happen if this battery gets shanked.

I use problems like this as a good excuse to upgrade...

hughtrimble · 3 Sep 2018 at 18:08

chaparral said:
I use problems like this as a good excuse to upgrade...

I would, if I could find something similar...but there's nothing out there with a large battery (this one's 3760 mAh) and built in ruggedness ('unbreakable' screen) that isn't some dodgy 'tough' phone made by various consonant/vowel manufacturers with poor history of actually making a reliable device, like Doogee.

Motorola made a successor to this Moto X Force with the Z2 Force, but then ruined it by shrinking the battery. So now it's just a phone with a tough screen that dies half way through the day!