Theirs is nothing more frustrating than plugging in your smartphone. And find out that instead of charging the battery discharges slowly.
Here’s why your iPhone or android smartphone discharging while charging. And what you can do to solve the problem.
How Does Charging and Discharging Work?
A battery has a cathode, anode and an electrolyte. Cathodes are denoted by the positive (+) sign, anodes are denoted by the minus (-) sign and the electrolytes are the substance or material between them.
Electrolytes help the ions not electrons in batteries to move from the anode to the cathode and vice versa.
There are several types of batteries out there. But, lithium-ion batteries are the ones used in smartphones.
And your smartphone charger is a switch or cable that completes the circuit. Once the circuit is completed charging happens.
Chemical reactions start to take place when you connect your smartphone to a power source. Electrons then start to move from where they are a lot to where they are less.
In this case, they move from the cathode (+) to the anode (-) when the battery is being charged.
Once the battery is fully charged, it sends a signal to the charger and shuts off the power delivery.
Or it might be that you disconnect your smartphone once it reaches your desired power level. Stopping the charging process.
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Once the charging process has ended. The electrons start to flow from the negative side (anode) to the positive side (cathode). This movement is what supplies power to your smartphone device.
Once all the electrons have gone over to the cathode. Your battery runs out of power and requires a recharge.
Why Is My Phone Charger Draining My Battery?
To know how to solve a problem. You must first understand what the cause is.
Your Battery Might Be Old
Lithium-ion batteries have a limited number of charge and discharge cycles. That means that it has a limited number of times you can charge it before it becomes useless or weak.
Heavy users go through the charge-discharge cycles quickly. Because they charge their smartphones often. It might also be that you have been using your smartphone for a long time.
Batteries that are old or have few charge-discharge cycles left are not able to hold as much charge as they used to. And discharges when it plugged to a power source.
An obvious symptom of a bad battery is jumping to 0 per cent when you have clearly charged it. Or it randomly shutdowns irrespective of the battery level and swelling.
Faulty Charger or Charging Port
Another culprit might be your charger or charging port. Check your charger if they are faults. Don’t forget to check the USB cable. It might be damaged.
If there are no faults then it might be that your charger’s voltage is not enough to supply the battery with power. This makes the battery discharge occur even when plugged in.
Your USB charging port might also be faulty interrupting power supply. A faulty USB charger port might prevent full contact with the USB cable.
Heavy Usage Whiles Charging
Smartphones are like mini-computers and so they consume a lot of power. Using your smartphone heavily whiles charging is definitely going to cause the battery to discharge.
Especially if the charger doesn’t have a high voltage. Your battery loses its power faster than the charger is able to replenish.
What Do You Do When Your Phone is Discharging Whiles Charging?
Your battery being discharged whiles charging is a frustrating experience. Here are a few ways to solve the problem.
Get A New Battery
Random shutdowns, swelling, jumping to 0 per cent and very short battery life are all symptoms of a dying battery.
And a good time to get a new battery. Contact your manufacturer and see if they are able to provide you with a new battery.
Get A New Charger Or USB Cable
Combine this with getting a new battery and you have solved the problem. It might be that your smartphone doesn’t like a particular charger or USB cable. Yes, it happens.
You can either get a charger meant for your phone or a high voltage one.
Get a charger that is powerful enough to pump electricity into your battery. But, not too powerful to cause swelling.
Just Leave It To Charge Normally
If you use your smartphone heavily whiles charging. For once just leave your smartphone to charge.
This will stop excess battery drain and allow your charger to replenish it.
Take It To A Repair Centre
Take your smartphone to the repair centre for it to be checked for faults.
A faulty USB port or an unseen problem might be the culprit. Let them check it for any other problems too.
Final Thoughts
Phone discharging whiles charging is an annoying problem to have. Your battery just keeps on going down whiles plugged in.
Fortunately, the solutions provided in this article might solve the problem. If not, then its time to get a new phone.