I let my grapheneos pixel 5 run out of battery and now can't charge or update

kycunt

I got interested in grapheneos last year and bought a pixel 5 to install it on. It worked great and I enjoyed playing with it for a few months, but life got in the way and I neglected to keep the phone plugged in. Yesterday I remembered the phone and got it out to mess with it, but it would not charge past 1% no matter how long I left it plugged in.

I can still open the phone and see my owners account and the apps I installed, but it only works for a minute before the battery dies. Is there a way to update an out of date phone? Is the fact that it's not updated the reason why it won't charge?

Skyway

Sounds like a hardware issue, bad battery , charging chip or socket .

kycunt

Skyway thanks for the reply Skyway. The phone recharged just fine when I was using it before, so I guess it might have developed a charging issue while it was in the drawer for a few months, but the last time I messed with it (before today) it was charging just fine.

I have left the phone plugged in for hours just on the off chance that it would update and just now when I moved it the lock screen turned on and it has a progress bar going halfway across that says "finalizing system update" so maybe it's going to be able to update afterall.

kycunt

kycunt welp it did install the update, but still stuck at 0-1% battery. Phone seems to work fine for a few seconds and then dies over and over again. Maybe it's just old and gone bad like Skyway said :-(

kycunt

kycunt update:
I was juuuust about ready to give up on this phone, but then I googled the problem and found a video where a guy said to hold in the power button and the up volume button together for 20 seconds and then let go. I did that and the phone restarted but then died a minute later. I was ready to give up on it, so I sat the phone to the side. A few minutes later I looked at the phone and it had charged up to 20%! Guess it's charging now.

de0u

kycunt Thanks for reporting back! Can this issue be marked as solved?

Maciektruskawka

kycunt Can u send this video please?

User2288

These kind of issues are usually hardware. Batteries that run to 0 have small chance to instantly die or not charge back. This happens even in non-phone batteries.

What the battery needs is a few short jolts of voltage to get it going, and sometimes this works. The battery needs a shock.

Anyway. Good that it started working, and dont let your battery run to 0. In fact dont let it get below 10%.

kycunt

Earlier I would have said sure, mark it as solved, but then after it charged to 20 percent it slowly lost its charge all day until I just gave up on it. I am going to agree with all the feedback I got on reddit and here and call this phone battery broken and just throw it away. Next time I will try again with a newer phone. I bought the pixel 5 off ebay over a year ago and it was old when I got it and I abused it by letting the battery run totally dead for months. RIP pixel 5, you were fun while you lasted,.

User2288

kycunt and I abused it by letting the battery run totally dead for months.

Well you didn't mention this before. Had you said this, i'd have explained to you that that's a sure way to kill a healthy battery. Batteries that run dry and are kept that way rarely recover.

The most ideal way to store a battery is to have it at 50% and store in cool environment. This is exactly how you receive brand new phones and laptops. They are always this way because its been tested and proven.

But I'd say dont give up on the phone. The pixel 5 is quite a good phone and frankly i prefer it to pixel 6. See if you can get it repaired at a fair price and from a trustworthy repairer.

Read this thread for the last word on batteries.
https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/2585-the-never-ending-question-on-charging/35

[deleted]

kycunt I would also say, don't give up on the phone just yet. It is mostly surprisingly easy to replace a battery for a "new" one. I have done it several times on multiple phones and I am no expert. And it's a lot cheaper than buying a new phone. Also you'll get a tap on the shoulder from me for not polluting environment with more electronic waste providing you dispose of the old battery correctly.

de0u

User2288 But I'd say dont give up on the phone. The pixel 5 is quite a good phone and frankly i prefer it to pixel 6. See if you can get it repaired at a fair price and from a trustworthy repairer.

Support is ending very soon: https://endoflife.date/pixel

Blastoidea

The Pixel 5 is fast approaching its EOL.