Extremely slow battery charging on Nexus 5 after updating to lollipop

Nov 18, 2014
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I just updated from kitkat and now it's taking 3-4 minutes to charge just 1% of the battery on this phone.

What can be done about this (other than android not releasing a junk update in future).

Thanks
 

N4Newbie

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Nov 15, 2012
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Charging from a PC will always be extremely slow, especially if you are using a USB 2.0 or 1.x port. A USB 3.0 port (it will be blue on the inside) will charge twice as fast as either of the others. On newer PCs, at least one of the ports ON THE BACK, not the front, will usually be a 3.0 port. See USB - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Note that not all older USB cables are 3.0 compliant.

Frankly, you should be charging from the mains. It will be much, much faster than charging from any computer's USB port.
 
Nov 18, 2014
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I've always charged from my laptop when I'm in the house because I have it with me at a table, couch etc. It's plenty fast enough for me. And much, much, much faster than it is currently.

Now of course it's stuck at 60%.

EDIT- now at 61% after 20+ mins

EDIT- 26 mins later and at 64%
 
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N4Newbie

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Also, please try this:

Pull down the quick settings shade and tap the battery icon at the top. On the next page you should see something like, "xx% - yyy minutes until full on zzz"

What does yours say?
 
Nov 18, 2014
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I don't know if it has 3.0 or not but it's sat plugged in for the past few hours and it's LOST 4% charge. It displayed 'charging' too.

Sometimes it will say how long is left until fully charged but right now it simply says 'charging over USB'.

Also, I cannot use the battery saver function. When I flick it to 'on' and release my finger it switches back to 'off'.
 

N4Newbie

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You help me and I will try to help you.

Look at each of the USB ports on your laptop and see if one of them is blue on the inside. If yes, THAT is a USB 3.0 port. The one on the left is USB 2.0, the one on the right is 3.0.

usb-2.0-vs-usb-3.0-blue-port.jpg

If your laptop has a yellow port, that one is powered up even when the laptop itself is off.

Battery saver only works once the battery is down to 10% (if I recall correctly).
 

daihard2008

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Mar 26, 2012
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I don't know if it has 3.0 or not but it's sat plugged in for the past few hours and it's LOST 4% charge. It displayed 'charging' too.

Sometimes it will say how long is left until fully charged but right now it simply says 'charging over USB'.

Also, I cannot use the battery saver function. When I flick it to 'on' and release my finger it switches back to 'off'.

The new on/off switch is tricky. I often flick it and the option doesn't change. You tap on the switch, and it will flick. Confusing, I know.

You can configure the battery saver to kick in at either 5% or 15%.
 

N4Newbie

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All three are 2.0 in that case.

USB 2.0 ports put out a maximum of 500 mA; that's a bit more than a third the power output of the standard Nexus 5 charging brick. At 500 mA, charging will be VERY slow if your phone is turned off and negative if your phone is turned on and actually doing anything.

None of this has changed; it is highly unlikely that you were getting any different results before the Lollipop upgrade.

USB 3.0 ports put out 950 mA (the stock Nexus 5 brick puts out 1.2 Amps or 1200 mA). USB 3.1 ports are capable of even higher outputs, 2 amps and more.
 
Nov 18, 2014
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USB 2.0 ports put out a maximum of 500 mA; that's a bit more than a third the power output of the standard Nexus 5 charging brick. At 500 mA, charging will be VERY slow if your phone is turned off and negative if your phone is turned on and actually doing anything.

None of this has changed; it is highly unlikely that you were getting any different results before the Lollipop upgrade.

USB 3.0 ports put out 950 mA (the stock Nexus 5 brick puts out 1.2 Amps or 1200 mA). USB 3.1 ports are capable of even higher outputs, 2 amps and more.

The fact still remains that it is charging 3x+ slower than pre update. I haven't managed to get it fully charged, despite being plugged in all day (approx 10 hours).

Plugged in 20 mins since I arrived back at home. Lost 3% charge whilst it's been on standby. I ran a battery saving app which closed every app that was running beforehand.
 

daihard2008

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For an experiment, I charged my Nexus 5 from a USB 3.0 port on my MacBook Pro. While it was USB 3.0, my cable is very old and I don't think it can handle more than 500 mAh. In this scenario, my phone went from 52 percent to 57 percent in 10 minutes. At this rate, it will take 2 hours 20 minutes to charge the Nexus 5 from 0 to 90 percent. How does it sound?
 

Jim Koepp

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Nov 19, 2014
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I upgraded to lollipop OTA yesterday. I too cannot charge more than 60%. Cordless charging does not work at all. The phone will not charge while it is powered up I'm plugged in, I need to plug the phone in while it is turned off before it will charge at all. Once charged the battery drains excessively fast. The phone is barely usable right now. It is a nexus 5.

Posted via the Android Central App
 

daihard2008

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I upgraded to lollipop OTA yesterday. I too cannot charge more than 60%. Cordless charging does not work at all. The phone will not charge while it is powered up I'm plugged in, I need to plug the phone in while it is turned off before it will charge at all. Once charged the battery drains excessively fast. The phone is barely usable right now. It is a nexus 5.
When you try wireless charging, does the phone at least chime to indicate the charging started, or does it not even recognize the wireless charger?

I wonder if this charging problem only occurs to those who updated via OTA. I manually flashed Lollipop onto my Nexus 5 and haven't experienced any such problem. Wireless charging works fine for me, too.
 

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