Slashdot Mirror


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.

35 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. If it's now taking this to get bugs fixed by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Noted how quickly that bug got reopened after this hit /.

    Instead of closed by some half-assed lackey, then what hope do we have of getting other bugs fixed (skia segfaults with bitmap (free'ing) handling whilst drawing in another thread, argb8888 segfaults (with register corruption), etc)

    I mean, seriously, take a look at some of the bugs on there. Some devs are f*cking SCREAMING to get some bugs fixed and the dev team (which need to be bigger) are most of the time, oh hum, obsolete now I guess (then it continues in the next several fucking versions of the OS so the devs give up bothering to report)

    Sort it out.

    1. Re:If it's now taking this to get bugs fixed by AmiMoJo · · Score: 2, Insightful

      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.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    2. Re:If it's now taking this to get bugs fixed by msauve · · Score: 4, Informative

      "Noted how quickly that bug got reopened after this hit /."

      Yeah, it's like Google has a time machine and can go back from the 6:00AM time it was posted here in order to re-open the ticket at 01:59AM.

      This was reported on XDA weeks ago, Android Police a couple of days ago, and on Reddit shortly after.

      Yeah, /. had lots to do with it.

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
    3. Re:If it's now taking this to get bugs fixed by omnichad · · Score: 1

      I have to agree with the last bit. Left-right swiping is bad for one-handed operation.

    4. Re:If it's now taking this to get bugs fixed by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

      ... and then the bug wouldn't get passed down to subsequent versions requiring it be fixed several times.

      It shouldn't need saying, but apparently it does.

      --
      Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  2. Status changed to 'Assigned (Reopened)' by palemantle · · Score: 4, Informative

    I don't think it's quite panic time yet. While it's true that this was marked 'Won't fix' at one point, the issue has now officially been reopened.

    1. Re:Status changed to 'Assigned (Reopened)' by MachineShedFred · · Score: 1

      Yeah, but it's more of a Reddit stampede now.

      --
      Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
    2. Re:Status changed to 'Assigned (Reopened)' by msauve · · Score: 3, Informative

      "Interestingly this was done *after* something has been posted on Slashdot."

      Sure, for all definitions of "after" which mean "before."

      --
      "National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
  3. I don't like this "updaterits". by Qbertino · · Score: 1

    It's going on my nerves.

    I have a tablet running Android 5. Runs perfect. Why does the Airbnb app have to fail running correctly? What does the app have that it requires the Avantgarde of software to run on?

    This is bullshit. I wish vendors would focus more on stability and long-term support than this nonsense. Same goes for operating systems.

    My 2 cents.

    --
    We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
    1. Re:I don't like this "updaterits". by Errol+backfiring · · Score: 1

      In other words, there are no updates. Just replacements.

      --
      Nae king! Nae laird! Nae yurrupiean pressedent! We willna be fooled again!
    2. Re:I don't like this "updaterits". by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      No no, your pro consumerism attitude is even more wrong.

      The right attitude is to buy devices that can be unlocked to use alternative firmware. My LG Pad 8.3 (from 2013) has Android 7.1.2 nowadays and is running fine, thank you.

      The industry already made it clear that after the first 2 years the problem is on your hands. So just make sure you can actually take it on your hands.

    3. Re:I don't like this "updaterits". by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      "updaterits"?

      Did you mean "updater-itis", perhaps?

      Maybe you don't know that "itis" means "inflammation of"

      So, you're tired of updaters being inflamed? Interesting

      I don't even know what that means.

    4. Re:I don't like this "updaterits". by Oswald+McWeany · · Score: 1

      I have an old tablet with some old version of Android on it- probably 5. I daren't connect it to Wifi. I don't trust the security of the operating system. I still occasionally play some old games on it I installed long ago when bored but never anything that requires internet.

      --
      "That's the way to do it" - Punch
    5. Re: I don't like this "updaterits". by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Yeah, a Walkman that will bleed your SSN and emails to everyone on the Internet.

    6. Re:I don't like this "updaterits". by MachineShedFred · · Score: 1

      Android tablet ... running perfect...

      Is this a post from an alternate universe where Google doesn't half-ass the tablet version of Android? Has slashdot proven quantum entanglement with parallel realities?

      --
      Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
    7. Re:I don't like this "updaterits". by rjstanford · · Score: 1

      What does the app have that it requires the Avantgarde of software to run on?

      If it required 9 I'd agree with you. 5, on the other hand, seems a little ... dated.

      --
      You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
  4. Poor guy by Chrisq · · Score: 1

    Probably buggy knockoff junk

    You knocked your junk off with a buggy? Poor guy

  5. AHhhhh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Privacy: Apps get internet access by default, granting an app access to any data on the phone lets it slurp all the data over to the company. FFS the calculator app on my phone phones home.... as if that's any of their business! Unacceptable, unfixed.

    Confused 'Back' button, a do-all back button that steps backwards, cancels, switches app, exits app, does everything confused as fook. Broken design unfixed.

    No way to tell the OS you're done with an app. Does the app need to continue in the background, yet get killed by the OS? Does it run in the background but *should* be killed by the OS? No amount of AI can fixup this shit, whatever UI man is blocking this, sack him.

    Running multiple apps should not require the app be resizable, yet it does.

    The app is portrait or landscape, the screen is portrait or landscape, when the phone ran one app at a time one the screen, this was one-to-one relationship. That's not true anymore and it needs to be addressed. Unfixed.

    Fook is the memory a joke. At what point will I ever be able to run a 5GB app on a phone with 6GB??? At what point will I be able to switch away from an app, and not switch back only to find it needs to reload again.

    Is the purpose of a smartphone to run apps the user wants run, or to save battery and second guess what the user wants to run? If you actually knew what the user wanted, you wouldn't be second guessing it to save battery.

    Now its swipe up for the list of used app. Use to be click, now its swipe, a more complex action.... I hope this is a prelude to a better design, because you've just deprecated the MRU, hiding its functionality behind the home button. Great if you're actually going to fix up the mess of "apps run by their screen shot that may or may not be running' (= the MRU) and "apps run by their icon that may or may not also be running' ( = the app tray). On the other hand, I suspect you're just copying Apple blindly and badly.

    ahhh,

  6. AI by sad_ · · Score: 1

    that is the AI taking over optimizing your battery.
    obviously it's better for your battery not to be charged.
    the AI knows best, just comply.

    --
    On a long enough timeline, the survival rate for everyone drops to zero.
    1. Re:AI by 110010001000 · · Score: 1

      That is what I was thinking too. AI is right around the corner: it will come right after we fix stuff like charging phones, root exploits, etc. Any day now.

  7. Re: Probably buggy knockoff junk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    That almost sounds like what Apple would say.

  8. Nobody gives a shit about slashdot by sjbe · · Score: 1

    Noted how quickly that bug got reopened after this hit /.

    You actually think anyone involved with this gives a shit about a slashdot posting? Slashdot hasn't had any meaningful influence in well over a decade and it's usually several days behind the curve on anything newsworthy. A few thousand people are regulars here and most of the well known people who used to hang out left quite some time ago. I have a hard time recalling the last time I read a posting here that I hadn't read elsewhere at least 24+ hours previous. The only reason most of us are still here is that we are weirdos who like to argue with each other and sometimes there is some interesting discussion about topics we care about.

    1. Re:Nobody gives a shit about slashdot by dgatwood · · Score: 1

      Slashdot posted the bug this morning. If I'm reading it right, the bug was reopened at 10:59 last night. So unless there's time travel involved or something.... :-D

      --

      Check out my sci-fi/humor trilogy at PatriotsBooks.

    2. Re:Nobody gives a shit about slashdot by morcego · · Score: 1

      So unless there's time travel involved or something.... :-D

      I wouldn't put it past them. Sneaky bastards. :D lol

      --
      morcego
  9. Fast charge - fast discharge? by Lorens · · Score: 2

    I have noticed that when I use a certain (shady) cable to charge my iPhone, it charges much faster, but then it doesn't hold the charge. When I use the normal cable, getting to 100% takes much longer, but the device lasts twice as long. Is that known/expected behavior?

    1. Re:Fast charge - fast discharge? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    2. Re:Fast charge - fast discharge? by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      Lithium batteries shouldn't be fast or slow charged, just CC/CV.

      Slow charged == Slower than you can safely charge the battery, because of limitations of the charging system
      Fast charged == As fast as you can safely charge the battery, or at least approaching same

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re:Fast charge - fast discharge? by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

      This assumes (and I don't know) that fast charge can be done with a gradient of speeds, rather than all-or-nothing, which might be the case as it uses special cords and jacks with dedicated additional power wires.

      I guess if the problem is heating of older batteries, they could monitor the heating and fall back to slow charge, then ramp back up. But then you're introducing many more heating/cooling cycles leading to metal fatigue. Probably not the best thing for older batteries.

      So once problem detected, permanent fallback to slow charge, and here we are.

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    4. Re:Fast charge - fast discharge? by Solandri · · Score: 1

      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.

      The "reduced" battery capacity with an old battery isn't actually really reduced (at least not as dramatically as your % charge indicates). When you charge an old battery (normally, dunno about fast charge), it's still taking nearly the same amount of charge. (Capacity does drop slightly with age.)

      What happens with an older battery is that it's ability to delivery current (max current) decreases. Also, as the battery gets discharged, the max current it can deliver drops as well. With an older battery, these two combined could drop max currrent so much that it's barely enough to sustain the phone's operations anymore. That exacerbates the voltage sag, which is why you see the remaining charge suddenly drop from 40% to 2%. This is why it's usually coupled with the remaining charge increasing when you stop doing anything processor intensive (exacerbated voltage sag resulted in too-low estimated remaining charge, now that voltage sag is released the estimate is now going back up closer to the correct amount). Or why the phone suddenly shuts off when it hits 30% (the battery couldn't deliver enough current to keep the phone powered on).

      Slow charging to "fill up" the battery won't really help, as the problem is the ability to extract current from the older battery, not put it in. It's why Apple tried capping the max processor speed on their devices with older batteries - to prevent current draw from going high enough to cause this instant shutoff. That said, heat is bad because it will hasten the rate at which the battery wears out.

    5. Re:Fast charge - fast discharge? by Impy+the+Impiuos+Imp · · Score: 1

      This wouldn't be a problem if you could change the $15 battery yourself once a year.

      Don't you feel ripped off, doing slow charging, because of this? That's sad.

      --
      (-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
    6. Re:Fast charge - fast discharge? by swillden · · Score: 1

      This assumes (and I don't know) that fast charge can be done with a gradient of speeds, rather than all-or-nothing, which might be the case as it uses special cords and jacks with dedicated additional power wires.

      It can and is done with a gradient of speeds, without "special cords or jacks with dedicated additional power wires".

      The USB power delivery spec allows device and charger (or device and device... you can charge one device from another) to negotiate both voltage and amperage within a fairly broad range, up to as high as 20V @ 5A for 100W. For the higher power delivery rates you do need all three of source, cable and sink to be capable of whatever it is that you're trying to do, so in that sense I suppose you need "special cords or jacks", but they're not actually special, just conformant to the newer specification. You'll notice that many USB-C cables are somewhat thicker than older USB cables, this is so they can handle the higher amperages.

      Within the range of what is supported by source, cable and sink, there's also room for dynamic adjustment. This is mostly done by the sink, device being charged. The phone must take responsibility for protecting the battery, slowing the charge rate if the battery is getting hot, or for any other reason that the battery or device might be damaged by continuing to charge quickly.

      --
      Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
  10. Seriously? by MasseKid · · Score: 1

    Well that's annoying as shit. Guess I'll hold off on updating my phone to 9.0 until this gets fixed.

  11. Fast charge should be disabled by default by fred6666 · · Score: 1

    And should only be enabled when you actually need your phone to charge quickly. This will prevent premature wear on the battery.

  12. What's the point of project Treble... by Rob+Y. · · Score: 2

    ...if not to prevent bugs like this. Isn't all the stuff that makes your hardware work supposed to be contained in the /vendor partition and not updated with new OS versions. Surely the ability to fast charge would be part of that, no? Or does Google put out a whole new /vendor setup when they upgrade you anyway. If so, what's the point?

    --
    Posted from my Android phone. Oh, I can change this? There, that's better...
  13. Battery life tanked? by Tinfoil · · Score: 1

    My fast charge on my Gen1 non-XL is fine, and my battery use while the phone is off is much improved... but while using it, I can almost feel it draining.