Nexus 4 And Charging

[frederikwp]

I don't think that a wireless charger would fix this issue since the battery also misbehaves when discharging. Yesterday mine dropped from 20% to 4% in an instant, then remained at 4% for about 1 hour despite active use.

Just to rule out that this is a software problem: is anyone here experiencing these problems on a non-rooted phone? Also, has anyone tried a factory reset? I don't see why a factory reset should fix this, but you never know.

 

[Adam Douglas]

I've been noticing the same thing...I turn my phone off at night, plug in stock wall charger, see the battery charging animation, then it sits overnight "charging". In the morning, I turn it on and it's at 35%, same as what it was when I turned it off more or less!!

This just happened to me this morning, but I just had an additional thought about it. Last night I left it atop my microwave oven to charge and though the oven obviously is not in use overnight, it does have a metal chassis. I wonder if there's some leakage from the inductive charging coils going on? It's kind of a stretch, I know, but stranger things have happened.

 

[trademrk]

I am seeing similar on a non-rooted phone. Restored the software and no improvement.

The only time I seem to be able to charge is connected to a Windows computer that does not have a valid driver installed or from the USB port in my car stereo.

Either I see it cycling between connected/not connected (causing the screen to cycle on when it goes to connected) or it will show on the lock screen that it is charging, the icon will show charging, but from Settings | Battery it shows not charging.

Issue 42701 - android - Nexus 4 - 4.2.1 - Charging / USB Connection Cycles Quickly - Android - An Open Handset Alliance Project - Google Project Hosting

 

[T_Rex]

I have had pretty much the same problem. I found that the stock charger quit working properly after about a month. Plugged into stock charger, it cycles between charge and no charge constantly with the screen being lit up most of the time (hence dead battery). I switched to my old HTC charger yesterday and it is working fine now. I think maybe a bunch of the LG chargers are defective.

 

[siegbert]

I've had my Nexus 4 now for 3 days and when I use the stock charger, it works (however, it takes a long time in comparison to Iphone).
When I use a charger from samsung, the battery says charging but the percentage is going down... So, my first conclusion would be that not every charger is suited for the Nexus 4, even when it has the right connection

 

[sting7k]

So, I got my N4 in the second shipment of it and have been in love with it ever since. However, there is one problem I face repeatedly that pisses me off to no end: it won't charge sometimes.

I have three chargers that I've tested it with: one, stock; two, my Nexus 7's; and three, one really long one I got from Amazon (We'll call them A, B, and C). C is plugged into a wall 24/7 and was the first charger I used to charge it. One morning, I awoke to go to work to find out that instead of being at 100%, it was dwindling at around 30%. Lucky me, I have Batter Indicator Pro which logs the battery percentage of the phone at all times and for some reason throughout the night it just... stop? The charge was indicated as "Unknown (AC)" and just began swithing between that and Unplugged all night until I woke up. I also remember that that one doesn't fit as snug at the rest, so I figured that was the problem and switched to the stock the next night, plugged into my Mac.

Well, then it happens again, and for some reason through the night it just stops charging and begins to die, even though when you turn it on it still indicates that it's plugged in and charging. BIP still shows me the same thing. I started using my N7 charger, since my N7 hasn't been having any issues charging, but the same results.

I figured maybe BIP was the problem ,so I uninstalled it last night and charged it again. Woke up to find I was at 50% this morning. -___-

The weird thing is, this problem ONLY happens when the screen isn't on (read: when it sleeps and goes to Daydream, or I press the power button, BUT it does charge when the phone is completely OFF). I do a lot of programming and select "Stay Awake When Charging" and the phone battery never dies then, it just keeps charging the entire time without fail.

Is anyone else experiencing this problem? I would hate to have to send the phone back.

I've not had any issues with the included charger and my desktop PC. But an older iPod charger and my laptop USB ports do not charge it. I think because they don't provide enough power.

But I'm confused, are you talking about chargers or cables?

 

[Mark Brough]

Exact same problem. N4 is two weeks old. Not rooted. Have been noticing a few odd things re. charging. (And noticed that adding extension to USB lead causes charge rate to halve. This shouldn't happen.)

Then: "On charge" overnight. This morning upon switching on it indicates 35%. Upon unplugging and re-plugging, indicated charge level immediately jumps to 85%. But then charges up very very slowly.
Stock charger+ stock lead. Good mains voltage at wall socket. No mains power cut overnight. Phone completely off. Only leftfield apps installed: AirDroid, Drippler, AndroSensor, Barcode Scanner, GBookmark, Met Office Weather Application, Swiss Army Knife, SyPressure (Barometer), System Panel Lite Task Manager, WiFi Analyser. No indication that any of these apps misbehaving re. power. I have calibrated once by allowing phone to completely discharge, and then completely recharge.

 

[turb0wned]

I'm starting to have charging issues with my Nexus 4 also now. I don't care what anyone on here tells me (people always get mad at me saying this) LG makes piece of phones.

 

[Mark Brough]

The problems I reported above disappeared. I can think of two possible reasons for this:
1. The charging circuit is probably of the type which needs to calibrate itself, and this has now happened.
2. I have been using a charger for a Galaxy Ace. Although this is rated for lower power, I suspect it is better quality than the stock charger. Certainly, it has a captive lead, rather than the"plug in" lead on the stock charger.

I suggest that over the next two weeks you look for an opportunity to fully discharge and then fully charge, uninterrupted, a couple of times, in case the charging circuit needs to calibrate.

A month later,I was wrong about #2 above. I reverted to using the stock charger and have not seen any anomalies.

 

[Citizen Coyote]

I suddenly had something similar happen last night, although I didn't catch it until today. I pulled my phone off the charger as normal this morning. Everything seemed fine, battery looked normal and it wasn't hot at all. A few minutes ago I went to check something and noticed the battery was below half. As I hadn't used it anywhere near what would be needed to drain half the battery in half a day, I checked the battery stats to see what rogue app was killing my battery. Instead I found this:





Obviously something went haywire last night while charging. This was using the stock LG charger, with which I've never had problems since getting the phone back in early December (second ordering round). I'm going to see what happens when I plug it in later today and update. Maybe it just needs a power cycle/reboot, or maybe my charger is fubar.

 

[frederikwp]

I think it's the phone not the charger. I eventually called Google and they immediately offered to replace it. Fortunately, I haven't seen anything like this on the new phone.

 

[schemula]

I just had something similar.

Had it plugged in, expected to find it at 100% and it was at 30% and not charging. Tried another cable, another wall module and a laptop USB. Nothing.

Reboot fixed it, for now.

I just got this phone and don't want to live in fear of it not charging. If mine just did this, is it indicative? Should I get it swapped out? I've had the phone for maybe 2 weeks. Electronics tend to go wonky in the early going if they are going to go wonky.

How/who do I contact if I want to swap it out?

 

[Citizen Coyote]

Mine charged as normal last night. No evidence of the weirdness displayed in my screen shot, so maybe the cable was just not plugged in right.

You should be able to contact Google about a replacement through the Play store, or check your receipt for contact info.

 

[thetechnomonkey]

Hi guys

I'm getting some erratic battery behavior also. One where the battery just stops charging and evens out at a certain level (different each time) you can see from the screenshots it still says its charging but the battery doesn't go up.

I've had the phone since launch and the battery has charged normal most of the time (I'm using the supplied wall charger) but this has happened about 6 or 7 times now.

It also seems to charge really slow some days (6 hours +) Also, one of the days it never fully charged my phone died on me so tried to charge it while turned off and it has not charged at all even though the on screen indicator is saying its charging. I have tried a couple of times to charge it while turned off and it hasn't worked so not sure what going on