Android Pie Breaks Pixel XL's Ability To Fast Charge (theverge.com)

Google's recent launch of Android 9.0 Pie hasn't gone off without some early bugs and issues. According to The Verge, users are reporting that Android Pie prevents their phone from fast charging when plugged into many chargers. Google's own charger doesn't even appear to be working. From the report: Other Pixel XL owners say the bundled charger still functions properly and displays "charging rapidly," but third-party USB-PD (power delivery) chargers no longer juice up the XL as quickly as they did pre-update. Google has oddly marked a bug report on the problem as "won't fix (infeasible)," which is likely alarming to see for those experiencing it, especially since it can very clearly be attributed to the Android 9.0 update. Things were working normally, then Pie came, and then something broke. A second thread has been posted with more users chiming in to confirm they're affected.

Comments

Re:If it's now taking this to get bugs fixed

[AmiMoJo]

I've got a Pixel XL and didn't notice this issue because I charge overnight from a slower charger anyway. In general though I'm very happy with the Pie update. It's fixed the small performance issues I was seeing, just slight lag here and there. Feels like a brand new phone again.

The only down side so far is that the new app switcher screen is swipe left/right instead of up/down, and I find the latter easier.

Re:I don't like this "updaterits".

[beerlord1]

They do. Buy Apple.

Re:Fast charge - fast discharge?

[AmiMoJo]

Sounds like your battery is worn out. When batteries start to near their end of life their behaviour during charge and discharge starts to change.

Apple had trouble with this before, you may recall, with phones going from 50% to 2% instantly. They eventually did a free battery replacement scheme to cover it; maybe yours is covered.

The technical reason is that battery state of charge is estimated by measuring voltage and load. The voltage falls off as the battery discharges. More load also makes the battery voltage sag. So to estimate state of charge you need to know the voltage and load, and then fudge it a bit so for example it never goes up even if your estimate was a bit low.

Fast charging creates more heat. Older batteries get hotter. It's likely that the charging system is ending charge prematurely with a worn out, hot battery. A slow charge mitigates that and actually puts more energy into the battery before the system thinks it is full.