Samsung Galaxy S4 - Not Charging - Grey Battery

[Jerusha Mcburnie]

This worked! Thank you so much!

 

[Nicole Haggblom]

SOLVED
Had same issue not charging / gray battery symbol when off (still charged when off but not when on).
Had accidentally dropped very lower edge of phone into some water when problem started....
dried phone in rice for 18 hrs = nothing
tried to dry out with hair dryer for 5 minutes.... = nothing

Switched ON daydream (Settings-display-daydream) and set to BOTH (no clue if that helped or not) - blew out charging port with canned air for 10 seconds.... = SUCCESS!
Verified!

Hope this helps!

 

[Nicole Haggblom]

Thank you!! Used canned air and Now my phone charges! Woot!

 

[buttuh11]

Yes.. The solution is as I listed above. REPLACE THE USB PORT / RIBBON. That's it. I replaced mine (Over a month ago now!) and it has been working great ever since. It charges normally, the LED works, and everything is back to normal.

The problem is this $15 usb port / ribbon. 9 screws, lots of online how-to's.

Good luck!

 

[buttuh11]

I replaced my port. Worked 2 days. Now my scree is messed up.
Any ideas?

 

[Richard Barta]

I had similar issues with my S4 so i purchased a new battery and Charging Dock off Ebay for 10 bucks and after putting the battery that would not charge in the Charging dock for about an hour it started taking a charge again..

 

[Gabe McDonald]

I love you

 

[ashwatkins86]

I have a galaxy s4 active i got last yr, and cant get a new phone right now. 2 days ago i was in car using car charger and phone died, i tried to put charger in to charge it and it wouldnt go in. I had to shove it in and now i get this grey battery sign and phone wont charge or turn on. It looks like it got bent inside, I just moved to Georgia and dont know anywhere i can bring my phone to fix it, if its even fixable. i'm going crazy without phone. can u tell me how u got ur phone to unbend inside so i an charge it

 

[frenchtoast444]

I've had my phone for less than two weeks and this happened, I was outside in the rain earlier with my phone in my pocket so it is possible that the USB port got wet but I didn't think so. Which method worked for people? None have for me

 

[Riley Harrison]

My Galaxy S4 would shut off on its own randomly. When I take out the battery and put it back in. the phone vibrates and starts restarting, but when it gets to the first part of the restart where it just reads "Samsung galaxy s4" in white , it would turn off again. I tried everything and what got it back on was just charging it for an hour or 2. When i initially charged it the red charging light would not come on, but after an hour it did followed by my phone working again.

 

[Pieter Bonte1]

Thanks!
Blowing the usb port with a hair dryer for 15 seconds solved it! =D
It was the same problem as described:
First the battery ran out and I was unable to charge it.
When plugged in, the phone vibrated every 10 seconds and a grey battery icon was visible on the display.
I almost ordered a new usb pcb but thanks to Itsm3GeL I tried the hair blower first

 

[averytaylor13]

I have a DIFFERENT approach folks can try:

My phone discharged completely and went dead, would not charge the battery, just sat there rebooting and showing a gray battery. I theorized the battery was too weak to accept a charge, at least that's what the phone was probably thinking. Even car batteries can get in such a state that a "smart" car battery charger won't charge it. Some of you might be familiar with this type of situation, where a battery is drained "too low to charge".

What happens is the "smart" charger sends a brief pulse of electricity to the battery and then samples the voltage of the battery to see if it is in a good enough condition to accept a charge. If your battery is too low on power, you're up the creek right? WRONG! You can often get a weak battery going again by "tricking" it into charging up just a little bit; enough to get the automatic charger to accept it again. Here's what I did on my Samsung Galaxy S4 Active that was only a month old:

I inserted the charger for a few seconds, removed it for a few seconds, and did this over and over again, perhaps 10 or 15 times. Eventually the green bar showed up and I gently placed the phone down and walked away from it for awhile. Then I held the power button and it booted up fully and was once again running and charging!

The moral of my story is sometimes the battery isn't bad, the phone isn't bad; it's just that the battery got too "dead" and these so-called "smart" phones can be awfully stupid sometimes!

Have you ever gotten your (modern) car stuck in an inch of snow, at the end of your driveway? Because that damn "traction control" refused to allow even the slightest bit of tire slippage? If so, you probably know all about that traction control button in your car and how you can turn it off so the darn car will actually MOVE for you !!!! Got to love technology!!!

-AtariJeff001

I did this unintentionally while trying to fix the problem. I looked over while reading through this thread and it was charging. Ha! Thanks!

 

[Sulepi Ocelot]

SOLVED
Had same issue not charging / gray battery symbol when off (still charged when off but not when on).
Had accidentally dropped very lower edge of phone into some water when problem started....
dried phone in rice for 18 hrs = nothing
tried to dry out with hair dryer for 5 minutes.... = nothing

Switched ON daydream (Settings-display-daydream) and set to BOTH (no clue if that helped or not) - blew out charging port with canned air for 10 seconds.... = SUCCESS!
Verified!

Hope this helps!

Sorry for the necro post, folks. This saved my hide. Cleaning out the port is such a basic thing to do, but I didn't even think of it. Thanks!

 

[Dr_Ed]

Just thought I'd chime in here, since I found this thread very useful, twice now!

Battery stopped charging when the level dropped below about 15%. Solution was to turn off the phone, remove battery, blow out micro-USB port, and put battery back in. Charge for about an hour, with phone off. It buzzes with a grey battery icon every 5-10 seconds, pretty annoying. Make sure you put it to charge somewhere where people won't get bothered by the sound.

Remove charge cable, turn on phone, check that battery level is above about 40%. Then proceed to charge normally.

Make sure to remove the charge cable before turning on the phone, otherwise it just gets to the Samsung S4 logo, then it buzzes with the grey battery again and shuts back down.

If you try to charge when you turn on the phone, but the battery is about 35% or less, it will not charge. So be patient, go play outside or something.

This worked twice for us. Hope it helps anyone else who sees this happen to them too.

 

[Sandres Odisho]

I think the problem is from your charger.

 

[Bultaco]

I know it's an old post, Kevin..........and yes, we get that you replaced your charging port and ribbon..........but, to what do you attribute the "intermittent" aspect of this problem?

As most of us have stated, the problem seems to come and go. Even within hours or even minutes, the charge cycle will resume functioning......in many cases even without removing/replacing the charge cord........but simply cycling the power button on the phone.

This doesn't sound like a "mechanical" or even an "electrical" problem.

In MY experience, pulling the battery out for a few minutes, then reinstalling, THEN hitting power again will often get things working. Again, that doesn't sound like a hardware problem.

Also, I notice on the RavPower website (a huge, aftermarket supplier of replacement Galaxy batteries) that they even point out that a fully discharged battery will often take "a few minutes" to begin charging. https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...FB00KNJJPSG%2FB00KNJJPSG-6.jpg&token=ZRCulCHo

Maybe most of us just have a case of IMPATIENCE???
Just sayin. (By the way, I have an S3.......but, "same same" as the Asians would say.)

 

[Kuswan Toro]

I had the same issue with my s5 after it goes submerge, lol. I just clean the contact of the battery with eraser and it went back to normal...thanks god

 

[Paoloake]

>> I inserted the charger for a few seconds, removed it for a few seconds, and did this over and over again, perhaps 10 or 15 times. Eventually the green bar showed up and I gently placed the phone down and walked away from it for awhile. Then I held the power button and it booted up fully and was once again running and charging!

This works! It's the only suggestion that worked in my case (Note 4, grey battery, vibrating every 5 seconds) after browsing more than 50 pages and getting 40 of them with "change USB" suggestion.

 

[tsugino1599021]

I also tried the removing the charge a few seconds, then inserting it back in.. about 10-15 times (this is after i tried to vaccuum suggestion, as well as remove battery and reinsert, and the daydream). And wal lah! my grey battery turned green and started charging! i still don't quite fuly understand why that would fix this charging issue, but i really don't care! just wanted to say this suggestion worked to fix this (grey battery when charging, disappear, then vibrate.. then repeat..)

 

[Insomniac The Resistance]

I Just did the smack method and that worked just perfect . I was looking for awhile for an answer t this . check out https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gd3TibIKNug