Battery magically gaining charge

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Sauveur

Senior Member
Jul 5, 2012
278
55
Boston
So a strange thing happened to my Maxx tonight. I was using all day long, and after leaving it sitting for a while at 15%, I came back to the phone to see that the battery had increased to 19%. Post here if you know anything about this or have similar experience.

I use a Qi charger at night, by the way.
 

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detonation

Senior Member
Jan 20, 2010
557
176
Wisconsin
I've seen this on some of my devices before, usually when the battery is very low. It's likely due to that fact that the % remaining is an estimate by the OS. As it nears closer to zero, it has a better idea how much is actually left and adjusts accordingly, especially if you've never software-calibrated the battery (charge full, discharge to zero, charge full).

It's also why a lot of times the last 5% of your battery seems to last as long as it took to drain the previous 10-15% - you actually had more battery than the OS estimated.
 
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Teksu

Senior Member
Jun 9, 2010
287
58
From http://gizmodo.com/how-to-take-care-of-your-smartphone-battery-the-right-w-513217256 :

Never go to zero

Obviously, using your battery is going to make it degrade. But it's going to slowly die even if you just leave that iPad in the closet for a bit. There's a trick to minimizing that inevitable aging though: leave it a little bit of juice.

If you're going to be shelving any lithium-ion battery for a long time, try to leave it with at least 40 percent battery power to tide it over. Lithium-ion batteries don't hemmorage power at 30 percent a month like nickel-metal-hydride batteries do; they'll lose maybe five to ten percent of their charge each month.

And when lithium-ion batteries get too low—like, literally zero percent—they get seriously unstable, and dangerous to charge. To prevent explosion-type disasters if you do try to charge one, lithium-ion batteries have built-in self-destruct circuits that will disable (read: destroy) the battery for good, if it reaches rock bottom. And sure, that'll save you from a face full of battery-acid, but it'll also leave you short one battery.
 
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    I've seen this on some of my devices before, usually when the battery is very low. It's likely due to that fact that the % remaining is an estimate by the OS. As it nears closer to zero, it has a better idea how much is actually left and adjusts accordingly, especially if you've never software-calibrated the battery (charge full, discharge to zero, charge full).

    It's also why a lot of times the last 5% of your battery seems to last as long as it took to drain the previous 10-15% - you actually had more battery than the OS estimated.
    1
    From http://gizmodo.com/how-to-take-care-of-your-smartphone-battery-the-right-w-513217256 :

    Never go to zero

    Obviously, using your battery is going to make it degrade. But it's going to slowly die even if you just leave that iPad in the closet for a bit. There's a trick to minimizing that inevitable aging though: leave it a little bit of juice.

    If you're going to be shelving any lithium-ion battery for a long time, try to leave it with at least 40 percent battery power to tide it over. Lithium-ion batteries don't hemmorage power at 30 percent a month like nickel-metal-hydride batteries do; they'll lose maybe five to ten percent of their charge each month.

    And when lithium-ion batteries get too low—like, literally zero percent—they get seriously unstable, and dangerous to charge. To prevent explosion-type disasters if you do try to charge one, lithium-ion batteries have built-in self-destruct circuits that will disable (read: destroy) the battery for good, if it reaches rock bottom. And sure, that'll save you from a face full of battery-acid, but it'll also leave you short one battery.