Since recently, I have started experiencing problems when charging my Fairphone 4 with (self-installed, not Murena) /e/ OS. Previously, I could any charger, and I was primarily using a charger that supported Qualcomm QuickCharge, as Fairphone 4 specifies as its fast charging solution. There was a weird glitch with that charger, in that I sometimes needed to flip the USB-C connector before charging started.
Now, situation has changed, and my primary charger does not charge the phone at all. When I plug in the cable, nothing happens. Some other chargers are also affected, but some are not.
By sampling the four chargers I have at home, I find two working ones and two that do not work. I have confirmed that the non-working chargers themselves work, because they can be used to charge other devices.
Of course it may just be a coincidence, but for the two failing chargers, the charger itself has a USB-C port for the cable, whereas for the working chargers, its USB-A.
Because some chargers work, and some do not, it does not seem like there is any physical fault in my phone. It seems more like a software defect. I am not certain, but it might be that this started when I upgraded (over-the-air) to /e/ OS 1.20-s-20240220382012-stable-FP4.
I am looking for pointers how to proceed fixing this issue. Is somebody familiar with this kind of problem, and could suggest some solutions? Or would it make sense to file a bug report for this?
Since I wrote the original post, I have tried multiple other chargers. Every time, USB-C - USB-C cables have failed, while USB-A - USB-C cables have worked. So I think the accurate description of my problem is that my phone does not recognize USB-A - USB-C cables any more.
I also just received update to /e/ OS 1.21, which I hoped would resolve the problem, but unfortunately that did not happen.
Since I have not received any replies here, I filed a bug about this issue:
https://gitlab.e.foundation/e/backlog/-/issues/7900
I saw this and thought I would contribute what I have working. My FP4 (Murena USA version) charges with both types just fine at the moment. I’m running the latest 1.21 build (Android 12 still I believe).
- Apple 20W USB-C chargers (I have several)
- Anker GaN Prime 100W with both USB-A and USB-C
- Anker Power Port ATOM PD1 USB-C
- Anker 20K PD battery USB-C and USB-A
I know it’s not much, but wanted to throw it out there.
Thank you for your input. That is actually quite useful, because now we know that the issue does not affect every Fairphone 4 with /e/ OS. I guess the next triaging step would be to check if the difference it between Murena vs. self-installed.
I have a similar issue with my FP5, even contacted customer service and replaced the USB-C port without luck.
For me the issue started about 2 weeks ago, which coincides with my update to /e/OS 1.21, prior to that all chargers worked fine. Now any of my 2 chargers and also my PC only charges the phone for about 30 seconds, then a message appears “Liquid or debris detected, disabling USB port”. Removing the cable, the message disappears immediately.
I tried 2 different chargers and 4 different cables, inspected and cleaned the USB-Port on the FP5 and even - as I already said - bought a replacement and installed it. Same thing all the time.
I don’t want to revert to a previous OS version, as this would probably wipe my data because my bootloader is unlocked. I also flashed it myself with v1.17 (or maybe 1.16 not sure anymore) and had trouble locking the bootloader, so I left it unlocked.
My workaround to still charge it, is to power it off and then plug the charger in, letting it charge while it reboots in a loop (details in here).
If anyone has any idea how to fix this it would be great! Currently I am very hesitant to use the phone, because I fear that charging it likek I do will shorten battery life. Also it takes ages, so after a night it only has about 60% or so.
Hi all!
I would also like to contribute to this conversation. I have observed quite similar behaviour as in the original post.
Namely, irregular charging: slow charging instead of rapid chargin, does eventually charge if replugged or flipping the connector, interruption of the charging process.
My phone is a FP3 with self-installed stable /e/OS (now 1.21) and the official FP charger.
Obviously, I suspected hardware failure, such as a defectous parts or dirt, but could not detect anything that might be the apparent source of the problem. Coincidentally, the charging problem started, as far as I can remember, also after the update to /e/OS 1.20. I really wonder if this could be indeed a software problem. For now, the replugging and flipping does the trick, but I would not want to replace anything of the hardware yet, as I do not even know which part is the problem (bottom module, cable, charger).
By the way, I have not observed any issue when connecting to the laptop.
Not much to add but since it was asked: I have a FP4 (installed myself years ago) currently on version 1.20 and it charges without any problems. Also tried connecting it to the PC and this worked as well.
@AntonioDell @Phairnix Since all three of us have different model of phone and different symptoms, I am inclined to believe that we all are suffering from distinct problems. But this is just a guess of course - it could also be the same root cause, but different symptoms in different conditions.
@AnonymerUser thank you for your input. So my problem seems to require some quite distinct conditions, perhaps even experienced only by me. That makes me quite pessimistic regarding ever getting the situation fixed.
In case there is somebody else who has the same symptoms as I do, it would be interesting to compare the situations.