Over the past few weeks (months, idk?) my phone (Pixel 8) gives me a message that says “Charging on hold to protect the battery” when the phone is not plugged in. The notification stays forever until I select “override” to dismiss the safety feature. It will not charge (if I later plug it in) until I say “override”. When I say override, it will let me charge, but I will still see the notification again later, so it appears to be a temporary override.
This morning, I saw the notification pop up while I was using the phone. It was in my hands, not plugged in, and did the animation like I had just plugged in the phone to charge. It was at about 45% battery, so it also seems to have nothing to do with battery percent.
Am I just charging wrong, or I don’t understand how smart charging works, or is this incorrect behavior? In normal circumstances, I charge the phone overnight. Since this has begun, I have begun leaving it off the charger overnight and instead charging it earlier in the evening for a bit then removing it before bed. I’ve noticed recently that it only charges to 80%, so it is usually very low when I get home.
For posterity: I’ve had adaptive charging off this week. Last night, I plugged in my phone to charge. It charged overnight. When I woke, it was at 80%, and I had the message. This is normal behavior, because the phone was ON the charger. I removed the cable, but the message did not go away. The charging icon is also still on (lightning icon on the battery), though the battery level is going down as it is not plugged in. This is slightly different behavior from before, but still confusing. Before, phone was not plugged in and charging icon turned on. Now, phone was plugged in, and charging icon stays on when phone is removed from charger.
However, tldr, turning off adaptive charging has not remedied the issue.
I would check that the port is clear of debris. Sometimes pocket lint builds up in there (you can use a toothpick or similar to dig it out in some cases), and it causes the phone not to charge, or to think it’s charging when it’s not.
I did a visual inspection and I don’t see any build up. I generally clean the exterior of the phone regularly, because my skin is sensitive to sweat. So I keep things I touch regularly clean. (Phon, computer mice, keyboard, etc). I could just stick a toothpick in there and gently move around just to see if it knocks anything clear? I don’t want to damage anything by trying to fix it though, lol.
If you do this you may have to shave the toothpicks down to make it not as bulky but I have used a toothpick to remove crud from the USBC port before. I have heard that some repair places will remove fluff from the port for free or for a small fee but I don’t know if that’s true or not.
I haven’t heard of the phantom charging issue before, but the “only charging to 80%” could be because of adaptive charging settings
Yes, I think you’re right. But the two things started happening around the same time, so I thought maybe there is some relation?