Could quickly unplugging and replugging the charger multiple times break the battery?

[A50A51]

Hi,

About eight days ago, I charged my Samsung Galaxy A50 to 98%, but when I unplugged it, the meter went up to 99. This isn't that uncommon. However, After using my phone for a few minutes, I changed my mind about charging it and replugged the charger of my A50. Once the battery was fully charged, I took the phone off again. Starting from the following day, I noticed that for the most of the time, the battery drained about twice as fast as it used to. I have rebooted and even turned my phone off since then for a couple of times, and now the battery occasionally drains at 200% of the original rate, but sometimes it seems to work as before.

My question is: did I actually break my Galaxy A50, and is there anything I can do to fix it? By the way, I bought it about one year ago.

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! I doubt that was the cause. Does the battery drain persist in Safe Mode? https://www.hardreset.info/devices/samsung/samsung-galaxy-a50/safe-mode/

Please register on this forum, which will allow you to engage in discussion more easily, as well as post images. https://forums.androidcentral.com/ask-question/409154-join-android-central-community.html

 

[A50A51]

Safe Mode did not help.

By the way, the battery has always drained faster than usual at around 60-70 and 27-32 percent, and since last week, also about 87-100 (before that, this last one was previously a range where draining used to be slower).

 

[B. Diddy]

How old is the phone? Do you habitually let it drain to zero or near-zero? It's possible the battery is already starting to wear out. You could try running AccuBattery's battery health feature to get an estimate. If it's <85%, that's a failing battery.

 

[Mooncatt]

Plugging and unplugging generally doesn't affect much, other than putting more wear on the connectors. There is something called "bump charging" where you fully charge the battery, then immediately unplug and plug in the battery multiple times to push just a bit more juice into them before the charging circuitry can realize it's full and stop the charging. This can damage the battery, but I'm not sure if phones are susceptible to it.

What are your general charging and use habits? How full do you normally charge? How far do you drain it? Are you a heavy user that charges multiple times a day?

 

[A50A51]

How old is the phone? Do you habitually let it drain to zero or near-zero?

It is one year old. I've never let it drain to near-zero. The lowest I've ever gone is around 11 or 12%, and that was only once or twice. I have usually started charging the phone when the battery level gets to 25-45%.

What are your general charging and use habits? How full do you normally charge? How far do you drain it? Are you a heavy user that charges multiple times a day?

I mostly use the web browser, the cameras, and the GPS, and I watch videos sometimes. I don't play games. I usually charge to 80-100% and drain to 25-45%, sometimes lower but never to near zero. The need to charge varies: sometimes I may have to do that once a day, but sometimes I can (could?) go two days without charging the phone. It depends on how much I use it. For what it's worth, I've completely turned the phone off less than five times in the whole year. I recently read somewhere that you should do that more often.

 

[B. Diddy]

Just to clarify -- when you said Safe Mode didn't help, you mean that the battery still drained quickly while in Safe Mode, correct? I want to make sure you didn't go into Safe Mode, then exit Safe Mode, thinking that just the act of going into Safe Mode might clear something out.

It's possible the battery might just be faulty as well. I still think it's worth checking the battery health using AccuBattery.

 

[Rukbat]

And use it over the course of several days, not just once until it finishes its first run.

 

[A50A51]

Just to clarify -- when you said Safe Mode didn't help, you mean that the battery still drained quickly while in Safe Mode, correct?

Yes. That's what I meant.


I installed AccuBattery and it's been running for 11 hours now. During the first 10.5 hours, the battery level went down from 79% to 59% (this includes the 70-60 range where the battery drains extra quickly). I used the phone with the screen on for maybe 15-20 minutes - or according to AccuBattery, 42 minutes (Maybe I'm not good at estimating time...). The things I did included taking a few photos, watching videos, browsing the web, installing and using AccuBattery, and making a phone call that lasted for about 30 minutes. Between all of these activities, there were breaks when I didn't use the phone. Once the battery level was at 59%, I charged the phone to 97%. After unplugging it, AccuBattery reported battery health as 90%.


EDIT: I forgot one thing in my earlier posts: I've never left my phone to charge overnight.

 

[VidJunky]

It sounds like you are an excellent steward of your device. Never allowing it to go too low, rarely allowing it fully charge and never leaving it on the charger over night. Rukbat would be proud. LOL. A one year old device with a consistent charging pattern like this shouldn't really be having battery issues, even it left on charge for extended periods and fully charged occasionally. I'm wondering, if as you yourself pointed out, if you're just loosing track of time and using the device more than your realize. Safe Mode is a good test to try and figure out if background apps are draining your battery but the A50 should be new enough to have all of the Samsung app controls built in to prevent/minimize this.

I think the best advice is from Rukbat. Use the device a few days with AccuBattery installed and look at those days for an average. The thing with device speed, data usage and battery life is the more you watch them the worse they look. If an idea is in the front of your mind it's human nature to see coincidence often even if none exists. If you're waking your device 3 times an hour checking battery percentage you will see the percentage go down faster because you're waking the device more often than you normally would to look at something you often don't. I think if you want to get the best results and the most accurate data, try to ignore your device's battery percentage. Use the device like you're unconcerned about the battery for a few days and like cakes and soufflés in the oven, don't peek. It won't be easy but you might be surprised. If it turns out that you do notice something you will at least know that it's natural and not induced.

 

[A50A51]

Thanks to everyone who replied and gave me advice so far!

The battery seems to have been working normally since last Friday. I still believe, though, that there was definitely something going on with the phone from November 24th to 29th or 30th. Whatever it was, the problem appears to be resolved at least for now. I've been using AccuBattery since last Thursday (Dec 3), and here are some statistics:

• Charge 1: Saturday morning: 38%-88%
• Charge 2: Saturday night (12 hours later with 4 hours of screen time between charges): 34%-85%
• Charge 3: Sunday night (almost 24 hours later with 1.2 hours of screen time between charges): 31%-86%
• Charge 4: Just now: 46%-97%
• After charge 1, battery health jumped from 90% to 91% and has stayed there. (Estimated capacity is 3556mAh and specified is 3900mAh.)
• I used the phone a lot a few hours before charge 3 and between charges 3 and 4.
• Deep sleep percentage is typically between 85% and 95%.
• When the screen is off, battery drain is usually 0.5%-1.5% per hour.
• When the screen is on, battery drain is usually 7%-10.5% per hour.

Are these values good?

 

[B. Diddy]

The battery health is still decent -- when it goes below 85%, that's usually when you'll notice a significant dropoff in battery life.

The battery drain you describe also sounds pretty normal. With screen off, that would be standby, so an average of 1%/hr means it has about 100 hours of standby, or more than 4 days. (If the phone is in standby long enough, it will probably go into a deeper sleep state, which means even slower battery drain, so actual standby is probably even longer.)

With screen on, that gives you the estimated screen-on time. If we estimate a 10%/hr drain conservatively, then that means 10 hours of screen on time, which is amazing. In real-world use, screen-on time will probably be a little less, because when you're actively using apps, those apps or processes will contribute to battery drain as well, but the SOT will probably still be around 6-7 hours (still excellent).

 

[A50A51]

Thank you. In that case, the battery seems to be in better condition than I thought and the phone probably still has some time left.