[Help] My battery charge sensing is backwards???

[abt12]

After the Jan 6th Android 11 update for my Pixel 3 XL (installed last night - stock ROM, not jailbroken), my battery suddenly dropped to zero and refused to charge. Unplugging it would make it shut off immediately. See battery history here , I plugged it in before the update, ran the update, then when I came back it was at 0. This was plugged in the whole time.

It would sit at 0% while saying "charging rapidly". If I unplugged it, it would die.

Let it charge all night, and it ended up at 5% somehow. Not good. Pulling it off the charger, however, the batter percentage started to INCREASE! It got up to about 25% before I tried plugging it back in... At which point it steadily decreased again.

So, clearly my batter calibration is completely corrupted. Factory reset did no good, and looks like you can't wipe the system cache an more which was my first thought.

Unsurprisingly Google support was no help and wouldn't even take responsibility for repair cost despite it being clearly linked to their software upgrade.

Any ideas? Or am I borked?

 

[blackhawk]

What is the battery voltage? This will tell you it's actual charge state.

Try discharging until it auto shutdowns then fully charge it; recalibrate the dumb Android. Maybe someone knows a better way to recalibrate this?

Hard resets rarely solve this kind of problem; you need to find the root cause and correct it otherwise even if the hard reset works it will most likely only pop up again down the road.
A hard reboot be the most I would try. Even needing to do that indicates a apk or potential hardware issue. A good running Android never needs this.

 

[abt12]

Accubattery claims 4.227V at 69% charge, but lord knows how accurate that is. (Edit: I'm now up to 72% charge and it's claiming the same... So, yeah. Oh, and that +3% is without charging.)

Root cause is almost certainly some variable overwritten or system file corrupted during the Android system update, since it happened immediately after the update.

 

[Deleted member 9635294]

Accubattery claims 4.227V at 69% charge, but lord knows how accurate that is. (Edit: I'm now up to 72% charge and it's claiming the same... So, yeah. Oh, and that +3% is without charging.)

Root cause is almost certainly some variable overwritten or system file corrupted during the Android system update, since it happened immediately after the update.

So flashing a custom rom should work?

 

[blackhawk]

Umm

Accubattery claims 4.227V at 69% charge, but lord knows how accurate that is. (Edit: I'm now up to 72% charge and it's claiming the same... So, yeah. Oh, and that +3% is without charging.)

Root cause is almost certainly some variable overwritten or system file corrupted during the Android system update, since it happened immediately after the update.

I think 4.2 volts is near a 100% charge.
4.127 is about 75% on my 10+
Can't recall as I rarely go that high.

 

[abt12]

So flashing a custom rom should work?

Think that's my next step. Just tried running it all the way down to see if that would recalibrate it, no such luck. Died at 79%, now I'm charged "up" to 56%
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[blackhawk]

Think that's my next step. Just tried running it all the way down to see if that would recalibrate it, no such luck. Died at 79%, now I'm charged "up" to 56%
¯\_(ツ)_/¯

At what voltage did it die?

 

[Deleted member 1890170]

Root cause is almost certainly some variable overwritten or system file corrupted during the Android system update, since it happened immediately after the update.

Yes, this issue got several times reported in different forums.

 

[blackhawk]

Yes, this issue got several times reported in different forums.

Was it a reporting error only or did it jinx the charging parameters too?

 

[Deleted member 1890170]

Was it a reporting error only or did it jinx the charging parameters too?

The 1st

 

[abt12]

Yes, this issue got several times reported in different forums.

Any idea if reflashing the factory ROM fixed it in those cases? Don't want to waste the time if not.

 

[blackhawk]

Any idea if reflashing the factory ROM fixed it in those cases? Don't want to waste the time if not.

If the firmware doesn't have the same error... either that or go into the existing one and correct the mistake.
This is one of the reasons I'm not rooted. Too many loose ends... and very time consuming.
Maybe someone here has can help you in detail, good luck.

If jwoegerbauer is correct this only effects the battery % reported, not charging parameters or actual battery capacity. So it shouldn't harm the battery.
The charge level can be calculated by battery voltage which appears to accurate. I saw a chart for this but can't find it now.

 

[abt12]

If the firmware doesn't have the same error... either that or go into the existing one and correct the mistake.
This is one of the reasons I'm not rooted. Too many loose ends... and very time consuming.
Maybe someone here has can help you in detail, good luck.

Sad thing is I'm not even rooted. This is a completely stock phone. Since it's out of warranty google DGAF.

 

[blackhawk]

Sad thing is I'm not even rooted. This is a completely stock phone. Since it's out of warranty google DGAF.

My bad, sorry. You stated that.

It seems the update got corrupted or was badly coded.
I'm always afraid this will happen with auto updates as you have no control over the process or download.
You need to get it reflashed to the last working version for that phone. Or live with it as is.