What to do if your Android phone isn’t charging

October 8, 2019

By Kim Komando

We’ve all been there — you go to plug in your Android phone at the end of a long day, with just a small percentage of power left. You expect to hear the familiar chime, but instead you see nothing on the screen and there’s no sound at all. Even worse, your battery percentage isn’t rising. It looks like your phone has stopped charging.

This, of course, isn’t an issue localized to Android devices or even just phones — it’s a problem that can happen with any electronic item. Once you’ve found that you’re dealing with it, however, you’ve reached the first step toward fixing the issue. Trust us when we say it’s not too difficult of a fix.

We’ve outlined a few simple ways to tell if your Android phone isn’t charging and what to do if you discover it isn’t. If it’s something you’re actively dealing with right now, relax. We’re here to help.

How to tell if your phone isn’t charging

You’ll know your Android phone isn’t charging right away; it’s not too difficult to discern. If you’re not that familiar with your phone, here are a few simple ways to tell if it’s charging or not.

• Your phone didn’t make a sound when you plugged it in. This could potentially be due to your sound being off, but if your phone is on full volume and not silenced, you might be looking at an issue.
• There’s no charging icon on your phone. It’s universal — when you plug in your phone you’ll see a charging icon pop up. If you don’t see one, it likely isn’t charging.
• Your phone is off and it doesn’t come back on. If your phone dies and doesn’t come back to life when you plug it in, it’s probably not getting any power. Be sure to wait a few minutes, though. Charging isn’t always instantaneous.

Why isn’t my phone charging?

There are a variety of reasons your phone may not be charging up — many of which could be due to hardware or software malfunctions.

• You might have a faulty charger.
• Your power source, like the USB port on a computer, your wall socket or a power bank, is faulty or otherwise working incorrectly.
• An app could be causing issues and keeping your phone from charging.
• Your phone may be malfunctioning.

How to get your phone charging again

• Make sure there’s no obvious fraying or issue with your cable, charger or power source. The first thing to try is a different power cable. If that’s a no-go, try a new charger with it. Finally, you might want to try a different power source entirely. Your best bet is to try out a different wall socket that you know correctly powers something else.
• Check your phone’s charging port. Take a look at the port on your phone where you plug in the cable. Is there any debris stuck in there? Is the cable fully inserted? Without pushing anything inside the port, be sure to check it out and ensure it is both clean and the cable is inserted properly.
• Restart your phone. You can turn your phone all the way off and on, or just do a quick reset of your device. Sometimes Android OS can be preventing your phone from charging properly. Either way, it’s a quick and simple fix.
• Check your phone case to ensure it’s not blocking the charging port. If you’re using a particularly rugged phone case, it could be keeping your charging cable from actually reaching the charge contacts in your port. If this is the case, take off the protective shell and try to charge your phone again. If no dice, the case isn’t the problem.
• Get a new phone. This should be a last resort, but if you’re unwilling to seek out tech support and none of the other fixes have helped, your phone may be ready for retirement. This can happen from time-to-time. If nothing else works, it could be time to to kiss your phone goodbye.

Hopefully, with these tips you’ll be able to get your phone charged enough to get all your content transferred and backed up. Good luck!

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