May update broke fast charging (wired/wireless) - Samsung Galaxy S21 Questions

I created posts on the samsung forums but they either close them or mark false replies as answers.
May update broke fast/super charging, either wireless or wired, for many of us with S21/+/ultra and maybe other models. There are lots of reports in reddit.
This is NOT related to nor resolved by:
- Cable
- Charger (wired or wireless)
- Fast/super charging notification changing to "charging" after 2 seconds in the pop-up
- Any of the options in the advanced battery settings (all fast/super charging settings are on)
- Dirty charging port (this is also affecting wireless)
- Phone overheating
- Wiping cache / factory resetting
Moreover:
- Using a regular charger vs a super fast one reports the same ETA to 100%
- Disabling fast and superfast charging in battery options reports the same ETA to 100%
- Charging speed when wired is 1300 mA with any method (regular, fast, super fast)
- Charging speed when wireless is 600 mA with any method
Anyone else experiencing this?
Some reddit posts:
https://www.reddit.com/r/GalaxyS21/comments/148iy7g
https://www.reddit.com/r/GalaxyS21/comments/144q4bh
https://www.reddit.com/r/GalaxyS21/comments/13wtdk3
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Charger / USB cable variability and problems

The forums are all filled with comments from (more or less experienced) people complaining that recharging their S3 might be at times strange with a certain ROM or another - and while maybe 10% of the time that might be indeed the case, in 90% of the cases it boils down to problems with CHARGERS and USB CABLES.
Right now it seems that the amount of power used for recharging is controlled primarily by S3 itself using at least 3 levels - of which at least two can be fine-tuned in software (and some kernels expose those features).
There is an "AC charger level" (set around 1000 mA), an "USB level" (set around 500 mA since USB1/2 standard does specify that) and a 3rd "low level / safety level" which seems to be around 50-100 mA.
The S3 seems to be choosing the level based on BOTH the charger and the USB cable used - and I have seen the same charger showing a different level with different USB cables, and the same USB cable showing a different level with different chargers. I have even seen one AC charger that with a very specific cable (not the one bundled with it) was showing "charging/USB" inside the S3, while all other cables on the same charger were showing "charging A/C".
So when your S3 charges very-very slowly your very first check should be with another USB cable, and second check should be from a different charger or USB port - instead of posting same questions again and again around here
IMHO the absolute safest charging combination right now is with the original Samsung USB cable from the USB port (ideally in a good notebook - good notebooks have very effective USB protection, and some - like the Thinkpad models - have an USB port that can power something even when the notebook is stopped, and with one extra BIOS setting even when the notebook is stopped and not connected to A/C)! This is not the fastest charging combination - and with an extended battery it might take like 9 hours for a full-full charge (4 hours with normal battery) - but is most likely the safest (simple) one! Also by charging with a smaller current the heat generated is (much) smaller and the "aging" of the battery is drastically reduced.
If you are in a huge-huge hurry you might want to use the original Samsung A/C charger plus the original Samsung USB cable, but don't "overdo it" by trying forced/exotic solutions/chargers - we even have an entire thread around here at XDA with "sudden death" cases - most of them observed in the morning after the i9300 was left overnight in some A/C charger
EDIT:
Also if you see a very-very slow charge (or even a discharge) while you are "charging" but you have the screen ON and the CPUs running at full speed you should know that is possibly normal - since screen ON + CPU at 100% is draining more than 500 mA (= probably most of, or more than you are getting from the cable); try to lock the phone or even power it off, and then after 20 minutes see if the battery is better and by how much.
EDIT2:
As a far later step if everything else fails you should also check if the pins inside the USB connector in the S3 are not bent in any way, but that is slightly more advanced and might not be perfectly fixed without replacing the connector.
Also if your phone has other serious hardware problems (cracked screen or so) you should mention that first.
EDIT3:
My stuff above was "educated guess" - now we also have 'hard technical data":
http://www.maximintegrated.com/app-notes/index.mvp/id/4803#5
Nice topic thanks for comprehensive content. I have been experiencing slow charges since i get my S3. I read about a guy, whos charging cable is officially changed by Sammy with a 5-pinned one, and fortunalately found a same type of cable. Since i started using that cable full charges take approximately 2 hours while using the original one results in 4 hours or so.. I also informed my local samsung service about the issue but they refused my explanations saying that there is no such an official report about the faulty original cables.
I was frustrated about dischages while playing games when the phone is plugged in. IMO this is one of the biggest fail for a phone to be discharged while plugged in.. But now it is completely fixed.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using xda premium
ggnoplay said:
Nice topic thanks for comprehensive content. I have been experiencing slow charges since i get my S3. I read about a guy, whos charging cable is officially changed by Sammy with a 5-pinned one, and fortunalately found a same type of cable. Since i started using that cable full charges take approximately 2 hours while using the original one results in 4 hours or so.. I also informed my local samsung service about the issue but they refused my explanations saying that there is no such an official report about the faulty original cables.
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The math is just right - 2000 mAh battery = 500 mA * 4 hours = 1000 mA * 2 hours.
My original usb + charger takes 5 to 8 hours and it has 5 pins !!!!
also I tried another 5 pins usb with the same original charger and it takes around 2:30 to 3:30 hours
So I need to buy a 5 pin usb one but how to guarantee it will work ????
xclub_101 said:
IMHO the absolute safest charging combination right now is with the original Samsung USB cable from the USB port (ideally in a good notebook - good notebooks have very effective USB protection, and some - like the Thinkpad models - have an USB port that can power something even when the notebook is stopped, and with one extra BIOS setting even when the notebook is stopped and not connected to A/C)! This is not the fastest charging combination - and with an extended battery it might take like 9 hours for a full-full charge (4 hours with normal battery) - but is most likely the safest (simple) one! Also by charging with a smaller current the heat generated is (much) smaller and the "aging" of the battery is drastically reduced.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree with this... in one night i used to recharge my S3 with a Blackberry Charger. Guess what? The digitizer went up like crazy, started to write crazy stuff (just 'zeroes' 00000). i immediately dissconected the charged and the digitizer when back to normal.
zeromant said:
I agree with this... in one night i used to recharge my S3 with a Blackberry Charger. Guess what? The digitizer went up like crazy, started to write crazy stuff (just 'zeroes' 00000). i immediately dissconected the charged and the digitizer when back to normal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I have also seen something similar once with a very bad low-cost Chinese charger.
I also wanted to add some "hard" info to this thread - my stuff above was "educated guess" but in the meantime the full info become available and I added a link below with it (coming recently from the Perseus kernel thread) - as it can be seen from there there are basically 3 modes (but with the first one by default starting in 100mA, so this one should be either 100 if something goes wrong or go to 500mA).
http://www.maximintegrated.com/app-notes/index.mvp/id/4803#5
This is a very informative post. Recently I have been experiencing weird battery behavior on my s3 as well and wanted to investigate further.
I have 2 original Samsung batteries and using an original Samsung OEM charger to charge my S3 and Grand i9082. (both uses same 2100mah battery)
Now both the batteries and the charger charges and holds the current fast and long in case of grand i9082. (gives me more than 24 hrs on average usage and almost a day with wifi, cellular data on for dual sim, along with moderate messaging and youtube) no Issues at all on both these batteries and charger.
On my s3 it's a different story.
In 2-3 hours the same batteries die if I watch a movie on s3, it goes from 100 to 10.
(on airplane mode. lowest brightness, maximum wakelocks restricted, google services frozen, Maximum CPU frequency down to 400mhz settings enabled)
if I use it just for calls and moderate messaging, it last 12 hrs.
on airplane and standby mode together, it goes on for 24 days.
weird thing is If the device goes below 30% battery and I plug in the AC charger, and use the phone, the battery would still be discharging instead of charging.
on safe mode, the battery will neither go up nor go down, no matter how long I keep using it while connected on charger, it would stay at the same 10%.
while if I plug in for charging while it's above 30%, and keep using it, it would be charging normally.
sometimes the s3 would treat the AC charger as a Normal USB cable, while if I remove and put it back again, it would show me charging/AC.
Now going through this post
"There is an "AC charger level" (set around 1000 mA), an "USB level" (set around 500 mA since USB1/2 standard does specify that) and a 3rd "low level / safety level" which seems to be around 50-100 mA."
Great find. actually. what I conclude from this post and in my case, the s3 while it goes below 30% it fails to charge/ or chooses not to charge on "AC charger level" and would always choose the "2nd USB level" or the "third low level", resulting in drain while using the device at the same time, while if left idle it would slowly charge on the 2nd and 3rd level until 30% then moving on to the actual AC charger level at 1000.
this issue I guess can be sorted out with some kernel side changes.
perhaps setting a lower Maximum boot CPU frequency (1000mhz?) and a lower default GPU frequency.(this can also sort out few heating issues) and lower default brightness level as well (or maybe not, it's just a hunch and I am no master myself.)
Anyways thanks for the useful input.

Problem with cables? Battery drain

Hi everyone,
My Problem is, that all of my chargeing cables fail after a short time.
The basics:
I have a Samsung Galaxy S III (gt-i9300). I installed Cyanogenmod on it and keep the version uptodate. Along with my mobile I have the original Samsung Charger and an extra battery "Anker 13.000mAh". And I play ingress, so I do need the extra battery every day.
What happened to all of my cables:
- first use: Perfect cable. mobile shows "AC charging" on both chargers (extra battery and Samsung charger). while playing ingress the S3 charges up. When I start playing with 50% battry, I have a full battery after gaming.
- after a short time (normally after about one weeks) the mobile still shows "AC charging" on both chargers, but the charging while gaming stops. It just keeps the mobile at a steady level.
- After another week the mobile shows "USB charging" on both chargers. The battery can't load the mobile while playing ingress anymore.
None of the cables has any visible damages. I don't fold the cables. All can transfer data at maximum speed with my PC.
What can I do?
How can I test the cables?
How can I revert it back to max charging speed?
Thx
watchme
watchme1981 said:
Hi everyone,
My Problem is, that all of my chargeing cables fail after a short time.
The basics:
I have a Samsung Galaxy S III (gt-i9300). I installed Cyanogenmod on it and keep the version uptodate. Along with my mobile I have the original Samsung Charger and an extra battery "Anker 13.000mAh". And I play ingress, so I do need the extra battery every day.
What happened to all of my cables:
- first use: Perfect cable. mobile shows "AC charging" on both chargers (extra battery and Samsung charger). while playing ingress the S3 charges up. When I start playing with 50% battry, I have a full battery after gaming.
- after a short time (normally after about one weeks) the mobile still shows "AC charging" on both chargers, but the charging while gaming stops. It just keeps the mobile at a steady level.
- After another week the mobile shows "USB charging" on both chargers. The battery can't load the mobile while playing ingress anymore.
None of the cables has any visible damages. I don't fold the cables. All can transfer data at maximum speed with my PC.
What can I do?
How can I test the cables?
How can I revert it back to max charging speed?
Thx
watchme
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
did you tweak with the battery voltage settings? some kernels come with tweaks by default. all cables don't fail! the phone might be faulty in terms of s/w. remember, don't heavily use your phone while charging! just leave it alone to charge! last but not least, try changing kernels.
:good:
watchme1981 said:
Hi everyone,
My Problem is, that all of my chargeing cables fail after a short time.
The basics:
I have a Samsung Galaxy S III (gt-i9300). I installed Cyanogenmod on it and keep the version uptodate. Along with my mobile I have the original Samsung Charger and an extra battery "Anker 13.000mAh". And I play ingress, so I do need the extra battery every day.
What happened to all of my cables:
- first use: Perfect cable. mobile shows "AC charging" on both chargers (extra battery and Samsung charger). while playing ingress the S3 charges up. When I start playing with 50% battry, I have a full battery after gaming.
- after a short time (normally after about one weeks) the mobile still shows "AC charging" on both chargers, but the charging while gaming stops. It just keeps the mobile at a steady level.
- After another week the mobile shows "USB charging" on both chargers. The battery can't load the mobile while playing ingress anymore.
None of the cables has any visible damages. I don't fold the cables. All can transfer data at maximum speed with my PC.
What can I do?
How can I test the cables?
How can I revert it back to max charging speed?
Thx
watchme
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If u are using a custom kernel then try changing the battery tweaks to default as some kernels come with bumped up settings that can charge your phone way faster than before and similar tweaks so i suggest if u change those settings thats is decrease the charge speed and and so on.
or you can revert back to the stock kernel to compare the results
Smash the thanks button if it helped !!
I didnt change the kernel settings at all. I took it "as is" from cyanogenmod.
If your cables fail then they have a manufacturing defect .
Do they break go on fire melt stop working on any phone or is it just you .

Charging current with screen on

Hi, I'm coming from an SM-930F and now have a SM-965F. I'm experiencing a strange charging behavior. I became aware of this when noticing that the S9 plus when connected to my Aukey QC 3.0 charger in my car via the OEM cable (screen on and GPS active) can only hold, but not increase the battery level. This was completely different with my S7 (same charger) which achieved an increase in battery level of 30% per hour, all other things equal. I now did some tests with a plug power meter and found that the charging current goes down immediately when the screen is switched on by roughly 75%. The charging power decreases from 6-7 W to 1.5 W. Please note that this is the gross current/power flowing from the wall socket to the device. With the energy consumption of the display, the net current flowing into the battery is negligible which explains the observation above. Interestingly, the effect is also present with the Qi charger, but to a much lesser extent (only 20% reduction of charging current with screen on). The S7 does not behave this way.
Has anybody observed similar effects or could check with his/her own device? Is this an intended behavior? Does this mean that - effectively - the S9 plus cannot be used while charging?
Best regards
Christoph
I have a USB multimeter and have checked several phones of mine.
This behavior is inherent to Qualcomm Quick Charge. I came to the S9+ from a Droid Turbo 2, both exhibited the same behavior.
Also i've never seen voltage spike above 9V, even though it's supposed to go up to (in theory) 12v (QC2.0)
Samsung support told me that this was not normal. I sent the device to them now. We'll see whether this will make a difference.
machristoph said:
Samsung support told me that this was not normal. I sent the device to them now. We'll see whether this will make a difference.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1.5W is waayy too low for modern smartphone, I'm averaging about 5W with the regular "cable charging" status.
I'm having issues trying to trigger the fast charging mode on my S9+ with the variety of QC2/3 capable chargers that I have laying around. Just bought a voltmeter to do more testing to see what's going on with these chargers.
I don't even get consistent result using Samsung's charger and cable, so I'm wondering if my port is jacked.
Samsung phones don't fast charge when the screen is on, but it shouldn't drop as much as you're seeing. It should work pretty much as the S7 did.
Hi folks,
I still have an issue with the charging behavior of my S9+ and, as time has gone by and I have collected some more information, I am seeking your advice again.
My problem is that cable chargin while screen is on is more or less impossible.
This is not about fast charging not working. I am aware that fast charging is not fully operational while screen is on.
But 9 out of 10 times my phone does not charge at all while screen is on when connected by cable.
However:
- Charging on QI charger with screen on is working.
- Cable charging with screen off (even with always on display switched on) is working normally (not superfast, but roughly 30% per hour which is ok for me)
- Even with screen on, status bar notification says that fast charging is active and gives "normal" estimated charging times. But the battery level won't increase over time (or only with very low rates).
I already tried various chargers and cables without any effect.
I resetted the phone for several times. I verified that the behavior described above also occurs with a plain phone without any Google or Samsung account or any other apps than stock installed.
Brightness of screen does not really matter (with lowest level you might get very slow (1% per hour) increase in battery life, with highest level it is closer to -1%/h).
I even sent it to the support where they told me they could verify and fix the problem --> without any effect.
I changed the phone. Unfortunately, the new one first seemed to work flawlessly, but showed the same behavior after some cycles.
Interestingly, sometimes (1 out of 10) cable charging with screen on is working at least somehow. Some days ago, I could increase batterery level by roughly 10% within one hour. But I could not repeat that.
I attach screenshots of GSam Battery Monitor which show that charging rate goes down as soon as display is switched on.
Do you have any ideas? How is your phones charging behavior while screen is on?
Best regards,
Christoph
I'm just speculating on this but I always was under the assumption it turns down the charging rate due to heat, having the screen on, GPS going, etc heats the phone. The newer models seem to be more sensitive to it and throttle back faster.
My dock sits on up on the windshield and it doesn't take much when it's sunny out for the phone to stop charging all together, it overheats when running GPS, screen on and the sun is hitting it. I need to find a new mount to move it lower down on the dash...
Thanks for your reply. I also suspected that temperature could play a role here. But I have not been able to verify that yet. Attached you'll find also battery temperature for the charging cycle shown in my previous post. I also let sit my phone in the fridge for a couple of hours before charging without any significant effect.
On the other hand, I find charging rate to be lower on hot, sunny days. Today, with cloudy sky, I could increase battery level by 4% during my 30 minutes commuting time. Thus, if there is a relationship with battery temperature, it's not a simple linear one...
I had to move my phone mount recently because of some changes I made to my car, previously it sat in front of the AC vent and I didn't have issues, now it's not and that sucker overheats and stops charging in no time when it's sunny out. If you can position it where a vent is blowing cold air on it, it should help.
Unfortunately it's already sitting there...
Hi,
I have a charger with a qualcomm QC 3.0 port and other regular 9V 2A ports, so I have the same problem when my phone is connected to QC port, but for some reason it's charging normally when connected to the regular ports.
My phone is the european exynos version.
Interesting, mine is the exynos version, too. I'll try to test a regular port, too.
And also good to know, that I'm not the only one with similar problems...

S20+ 5G In car wireless charging.

Sorry to be a nuisance, but I have a Baseus wireless charger installed in my car and all was fine and it did fast charging until it downloaded the UI 3.1 update.
Now the phone comes up with a ! in a battery saying that fast charging is not supported with this charger, so am a bit confused what's happened or changed, I like the fast charging aspect of it as it can put a good dollop of power into the phone on the way to work and I can also put Bluetooth on to link it to my car.
If it can no longer do this then I will need to change the charger.
So if this is the case, could somebody please recommend a fast wireless in car charger that will work with my S20+ 5G.
Thank you.
Interesting. I can't imagine wireless fast charging can be very fast, I was surprised to see the term.
Even Samsung talks about it albeit with no specs.
Samsung is historically notorious for bending the truth one way or another... you need to really scrutinize them carefully.
I wonder how "fast" it is compared to conventional fast charging with the 25w brick?
Apparently you're not alone and to make matters even worse the issue means no wireless charging at all to many of the effected users.
Samsung phones are having problems with fast wireless charging
The issues may have started with a recent security update
www.androidpolice.com
Best work around probably is to use cable fast charging and go for frequent midrange (40-65%) quick charges that only take 10-15 minutes but give enough mAhs to last 2-3 hours of screen on time. Li batteries love to be used like this and it can greatly prolong their service life.
Temperature matters; the battery needs sufficient temperature to support the electrochemical reaction properly.
Never start a charge cycle if battery is at freezing.
Avoid doing so if the battery is below 60°F
Below 72°F Li plating damage during charging becomes an issue and if it happens will permanently damage the battery's capacity.
Best start temp range is 80-90°F.
Fast charging* will not engage if the battery temperature is too low or high (approximately 100°F or higher).
Will disengage if temp goes too high as well when charging; first fast charging then all charging once it gets to about 101°F or higher*.
Best charging temp range is 80-99°F
*these charge throttling/auto shutdown values will most likely apply to wireless charging as well.
Thanks for the quick reply.
It's just that I find it most odd that this has only started to occur after the latest update, prior to that no issues whatsoever.
All I know is that when I put my phone into the holder, the jaws close and it normally says Fast charging: xx% and a estimated time to full charge.
A typical fast charge takes about 15-18 minutes which takes it from ~90ish% to 100%, I like to have the phone up to full charge before I get to work as I never know when I might get another chance to charge my phone off the mains.
Another oddity is that I have a Spigen wireless desktop charger and that does a fast charge without any issues.
TheDriver67 said:
Thanks for the quick reply.
It's just that I find it most odd that this has only started to occur after the latest update, prior to that no issues whatsoever.
All I know is that when I put my phone into the holder, the jaws close and it normally says Fast charging: xx% and a estimated time to full charge.
A typical fast charge takes about 15-18 minutes which takes it from ~90ish% to 100%, I like to have the phone up to full charge before I get to work as I never know when I might get another chance to charge my phone off the mains.
Another oddity is that I have a Spigen wireless desktop charger and that does a fast charge without any issues.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Updates... destroyer of worlds.
Hopefully they will correct it and push it out soon.
Try clearing the system cache.
Double check settings.
You can try a hard reboot (not reset).
The associated apks for it are probably in Android services but clearing its data would cause a lot of work resetting settings and may not help at all.
If you did a major firmware update ie OS upgrade a factory reset is a good plan, otherwise it's likely a waste of time.
I'm now even more confused, this evening I put the phone in the holster/charger and it instantly initiated fast charging and topped the phone up in 15 mins.
I've tried turning on WiFi hotspot, no change, WiFi on/off and it still charged at fast speed.
Turned Bluetooth on no change. So I don't know why it's doing what it's doing. Weird.

Question Any one uses Advanced Charging Controller (ACC) + how native limiter works?

Anyone had success with running ACC https://github.com/VR-25/acc with Zenfone 9 ? For me it does not stop charging (tried test with 3 methods). Or maybe someone uses any other stop charging method/app?
I know I can limit chaging to 80% with Asus ROM, but what I do not know, what happens next - once charging thershold is reached, does then phone get's power directly from charger not from battery? Because if it get's from battery, means phone is charging battery, every time it will drop 1%, which is bad.
According to someone in Asus forum, it indeed uses trickle charging:
Re: How battery care charging limitworks? What happens after charging will reach X%?
phone just stop pulling power from the wall, before its drop to 79% its start to charge again, u can monitor this behavior by using usb tester, its also known as trickle charging.
zentalk.asus.com
which means still battery life decreases. Which means it still needs some root solution, to stop charging at all :/

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