The Moto X has a platform problem with low battery...

[ShoelerDroid]

So - I've had three Moto Xes - my DE, a replacement DE and now my daughter's unlocked moto-maker.

All three have had the same annoying low battery bug. When battery life drops below 15%, it can suddenly show 1% battery remaining - and stay at 1% indicated for a LONG time.

I opened a case on it with Motorola, they sent me a loaner DE and I sent my original DE in for repair. They sent my original DE back to me a week or so later, after having replaced everything to do with the charger and battery. It still exhibits the same behavior - and as I said, my daughter's brand new motomaker X and also the loaner DE ALL exhibit this behavior.

I'm guessing that the excellent battery life means that most don't see this - or they do as Brian Klug suggests, and they just strategically charge it whenever they're by an outlet/charger.

I tend to use the crap out of my X so I'll hit the 15% mark a few days a week - I stream Play music on high quality and have two days a week where I have 16 hour days.

Anyway - the point being, statistics say it's highly improbable that my three references all suffer from some low-percentage issue out there. Instead, it suggests that there's a huge platform issue. My guess is that there's a problem detecting low voltage on the battery, either via a firmware bug or worse a hardware bug.

Here's hoping it's software. How many others have seen this? It's pretty incredibly annoying when you're at the end of a long day, it's at 20% when you get to a bar and then pull it from your pocket and it reads 1% and you don't have any idea how long it will actually last.

 

[nick125]

I've ran into a similar issue with my Verizon Moto X, where, despite being plugged in to a charger for several hours, the device will read 1% battery left.

 

[anon(79053)]

That's odd. About twice a week, my phone will drop below 10% and my phone has never exhibited this behavior.

 

[Ry]

I have yet to see this issue. I get to below 10% about twice a week.

 

[msnider23]

I've seen this several times with my VZW moto x. 15 percent down to one in the blink of an eye

Sent from my XT1060 using Tapatalk

 

[PiggyMiddle]

We are on unlimited data and stream about 3GB daily Miracasting to the TVs so it often squeals the battery low warning. I regularly see it below 10% at least three times a week, and all still behaves normally. Have never seen 1% as I am guessing it shuts off before that.

 

[UJ95x]

Not an issue on my dad's Verizon Moto X.

Sent from my Galaxy S4 running SlimKat 4.4.2

 

[Andrei25]

Try this(worked on my LG G2 with a similar problem) :live your phone to discharge completely then charge it, but do NOT turn it on until it's fully charged.
If this doesn't work try a factory reset

Trimis de pe G2

 

[ShoelerDroid]

Try this(worked on my LG G2 with a similar problem) :live your phone to discharge completely then charge it, but do NOT turn it on until it's fully charged.
If this doesn't work try a factory reset

Trimis de pe G2

Way ahead of you bro. The fact that it happened on THREE different handsets should say it's not a single malfunction. Factory reset, two different DEs, same thing happens - but not every time. Probably 50%. But anyway, I cleared caches multiple times (happened before 4.4 even hit), factory reset, got a loaner phone from Moto while they "fixed" my old one, etc, etc. Nothing worked. Complete discharge --> complete charge helped but it still happens.

 

[anon(4931742)]

Over the past 10 days, I was testing the battery life of my Moto X. So, I frequently let the battery down to 1% and I was facing the same issue. Just 5-10 mins of screen on-time was enough to bring the phone from 15% to 1%. And, it will stay in 1% for a loong time. I remember one day I was able to stream video for 10 minutes on 1% battery before battery was dead. In another instance, I got around 3 hours idle time staying on 1% which is unusual. Usually, my phone's idle time is 1.5% per hour.

I thought, it should be calibration issue. So, for a whole week, I was doing complete charge and discharge cycle (Charge until 100%, Unplug only after 30-60 minutes after reaching 100 and Use the phone till 0% before charging again). So, after 5-6 complete charge-discharge cycle, I found some improvement.

Today, when I kept the screen On at 10%, it took 21 minutes before the battery dead. And, good thing is, it consistently took 2 minutes of screen time for every 1%. So, I guess, few more complete charge-discharge cycles should make it better.

 

[ShoelerDroid]

The only problem is - I've had this phone since shortly after the DE launched. And it got worse - not better. And the first discharge after receiving the "repaired" one? Same thing:

 

[phositadc]

The only problem is - I've had this phone since shortly after the DE launched. And it got worse - not better. And the first discharge after receiving the "repaired" one? Same thing:

View attachment 105848

I've had this exact problem on 3 different Xs. Sometimes it will sit on 1% for what appears to be 10% or more of its battery life.

 

[davidnc]

I guess I have been lucky .Since I dont have that "battery bug".

 

[sc4fpse]

I literally just had an incident like this, and it isn't the first time I've seen it. Mine drops from 15% to 8% immediately. I've had it do this once before, both on 4.4 and 4.4.2 now.

 

[Evilnut]

Doesn't happen to mine. I am at 11% now. Regularly drain my battery during a day as I work on job sites & never have WiFi. Mine is a Verizon model ordered through moto maker 3 weeks ago.

Posted via Android Central App on my Ebony backed Moto X

 

[KWKSLVR]

That's so weird. It doesn't happen with mine.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[delrey1900]

Does it affect the performance of the phone when this happens? Does the phone get hot? How often do you charge your phone? Daily (meaning every time you go to bed no matter the battery level)? Are you using a 3rd party charger (though I've never seen a Motorola not like a 3rd party charger in my history)? I'll have to find it but when I bought my X last month, I remember reading somewhere to charge it often, even if you're over 50%. I will confirm that tonight as I am currently at work.

 

[ShoelerDroid]

Does it affect the performance of the phone when this happens? Does the phone get hot? How often do you charge your phone? Daily (meaning every time you go to bed no matter the battery level)? Are you using a 3rd party charger (though I've never seen a Motorola not like a 3rd party charger in my history)? I'll have to find it but when I bought my X last month, I remember reading somewhere to charge it often, even if you're over 50%. I will confirm that tonight as I am currently at work.

Nope - doesn't have any effect on performance at all, except that the battery saver kicks on much earlier than I want it to and at low battery limits I have no idea how long the phone will last. I've actually removed the app that showed me battery percent in my menu bar because it bothered me so and there seems nothing I can do to fix it.

It's really annoying though.

 

[globster2000]

I get this bug as well, but this bug started showing since one of the updates because when I got my moto x in September there were no issue

Posted via Android Central App

 

[natehoy]

Remaining battery capacity is measured by the voltage of the battery, which is not that precise a measurement. Batteries vary a little in their voltages due to manufacturing variances, making the science even more imprecise.

Sometimes (but not all the time) a few sequential full charges and discharges will allow the phone to "learn" the attributes of the specific battery. Simply charge the phone to 100%, then run it until it turns itself off, then put it on the charger and wait about a half hour before turning it back on to make sure the battery has enough charge to start up the phone safely (or just let it charge back up to 100% while off). Charge it back to 100%, and repeat a couple more times.

For long-term battery maintenance of modern phone and laptop batteries, the best thing you can do for a battery is to try and keep it between 20% and 80% charged most of the time. But that 20% to 80% measurement is a bit more accurate after a few full charge/discharge cycles.