Google’s swap test
pixel“Try to charge another device with your power adapter and cable.” One move and the charger is either cleared or convicted — without buying anything to find out.
Software tower · floor
How to fix phone not charging, and the 80 per cent case
How to fix phone not charging has two answers, and the first thing to establish is which one you need. Apple separates them on its own page, and the more common complaint is in the section that contains no repairs.
A phone that sits at eighty per cent all night is the commonest version of this complaint and
it is not on the troubleshooting list at all. Apple keeps it in a separate section
because it is not the same question: nothing is broken, three different mechanisms can cause
it, and two of them will resolve on their own.“If your device stopped charging at 80 percent” — three published reasons, none
of them a fault:
So before anything else: if the number is moving but stops at eighty, nothing above needs doing. Optimized Battery Charging will finish the job when it expects you to want the phone; heat resolves when the phone cools; a Charge Limit is a setting you or somebody set. Apple offers a way past the third — the charge limit can be changed — and treats the first two as working correctly, because they are.
The rest of this page is for the other case, where the number does not move at all.
Eight steps, and two of them are waiting.If it genuinely will not charge — Apple’s order
iPhone 8 and later: volume up, volume down, then hold the side button until
the Apple logo. iPhone 7: side and volume down together. iPhone 6s and earlier: side and
Home together.
Apple says half an hour, twice — once before the force restart and once after. Google
says 10 minutes, then “wait one minute”, and adds the tell: “if you see a battery
icon, your phone is powered off and is charging.” A deeply flat battery does not respond
immediately, and a phone that shows nothing after ninety seconds on a charger has not told you
anything yet. Most of this procedure is waiting, and skipping the waiting is what makes it
look like it failed.
Google’s version of the same procedure is shorter and contributes two things Apple’s does not: a pair of tests that cost nothing and settle the charger question outright.
“Plug the charger into a wall outlet. Plug in something else, like a lamp.” The same
logic one step further back, and just as cheap.Google’s outlet test
pixel
Those two are worth doing early rather than late. A cable, an adapter and an outlet are three suspects, and each can be cleared in under a minute by putting something else on the end of it. The alternative — buying a new cable to find out whether the old one was the problem — is the more expensive experiment and the more common one.
Two things to take off, and one message to read. Google’s first physical instruction is to remove the phone case — “to ensure that it doesn’t interfere with your charging plug or wireless charger” — and it adds a second, easily missed: check that no accessory, “like cases or battery packs, cover the sensors on your phone or press its buttons”. And if a “Check charging accessory” notification appears, Google says the cable or adapter “may be damaged or not supported by your phone. This can cause your phone to charge very slowly or not at all” — which makes it a diagnosis rather than a warning.
One more thing from Google’s page that belongs with the waiting: the adapter matters. For “the best battery experience and charging speeds” it names a 30 W USB-C power adapter or another programmable power supply rated 30 W or more, or a USB power delivery adapter rated 15 W or more — and notes that actual speeds vary by model. A phone charging from an old low-wattage plug is charging, just slowly enough to look like it is not.
What this page will not do is tell you the battery needs replacing. Neither vendor’s procedure reaches that conclusion; both end at service, which is where somebody can measure it.
It also will not tell you to clean a charging port with a pin, a paperclip, or anything else. Apple says to remove debris and does not say with what, and the improvised versions of that instruction cause more dead phones than dust does.
And it will not treat slow charging and no charging as the same problem. They have different causes, different sections in the documentation, and different answers.
Where to start
Three ways in. If it stops at eighty per cent, take the first and stop there.
- “It stops at eighty per cent.”
- Not a fault — the 80 per cent case
- “Nothing happens at all.”
- Two waits and a force restart — when it really will not
- “Is it the cable or the phone?”
- Two tests that cost nothing — the swap tests
The 80 per cent case
Three documented mechanisms, none a fault, two of which resolve by themselves. Apple keeps them out of the troubleshooting list on purpose.
A screen that ignores youFour steps from Apple, and one of them ends by telling you to change your charger.Open this floor →
The orange dot on iPhoneA report rather than a fault — and the green one tells you less than it looks.Open this floor →
Is the Mac actually chargingAmber means two opposite things, USB-C has no light at all, and the menu has four answers.Open this floor →
Freeing up space on iPhoneWhere the space actually went, and the setting that keeps it from filling again.Open this floor →
Turning off SOS on iPhoneAnother state that looks like a fault and is a mode.Open this floor →
When it really will not
Eight steps from Apple, two of them waiting, and a force restart whose buttons differ by model.
Force restarting an iPhoneThe button sequence by model, and what it does not erase.Open this floor →
Turning a phone offThe button changed meaning, and the old instruction now opens something else.Open this floor →
A phone speaker with no soundTwo published tests whose outcome is a verdict — and one setting that silences a working speaker.Open this floor →
The swap tests
Another device on the same charger, a lamp in the same socket. Three suspects cleared in under a minute, without buying anything.
A keyboard that will not typeWindows has a setting whose documented job is to ignore what you type.Open this floor →
One AirPod with no soundApple calls it two problems with two procedures — and one ends at a slider on the phone.Open this floor →
Checking a drive’s healthThe command every guide names has been deprecated — and Microsoft names the replacement.Open this floor →
What this tower will not do
It will not tell you the battery needs replacing. Neither vendor’s procedure reaches that conclusion; both end at service, where somebody can measure it.
It will not tell you what to clean a charging port with. Apple says to remove debris and names no tool, and the improvised versions of that instruction end more phones than dust does.
And it will not treat slow charging and no charging as one problem. They sit in different sections of the documentation because they have different causes. What holds instead is simple: the separate section on a device that stopped charging at 80 percent together with Optimized Battery Charging, the temperature limit and the Charge Limit on iPhone 15 models and later, the ordered troubleshooting steps including the power sources, the restart, the cable and adapter damage check, the outlet checks, the removal of debris from the charging port, the two half-hour charging periods and the model-specific force restart sequences, and on the Google side the recommended adapter wattages, the instruction to remove the phone case, the swap tests with another device and with a lamp, the check that accessories do not cover sensors or press buttons, the “Check charging accessory” notification and what it indicates, and the ten-minute charge with the battery icon tell are quoted from the vendor documentation listed below.
Where this page got its facts
- Apple, If your iPhone or iPod touch won’t charge — Apple Support (the ordered steps of plugging into a computer, power accessory or wall power outlet, restarting the device, checking the charging cable and USB adapter for signs of damage such as breakage or bent prongs with the instruction not to use damaged accessories, using a wall power outlet and checking for firm connections or trying a different outlet, removing any debris from the charging port and firmly plugging in the cable, letting the device charge for half an hour, force restarting with the model-specific sequences for iPhone 8 or later and iPhone SE second generation and later, for iPhone 7 and iPod touch seventh generation, and for iPhone 6s or earlier, iPhone SE first generation and iPod touch sixth generation or earlier, then letting the device charge for another half hour before seeking service; and the separate section on a device that stopped charging at 80 percent, covering Optimized Battery Charging in iOS 13 and later and its purpose of slowing battery aging by reducing the time spent fully charged, its use of on-device machine learning and its activation only when a long connection is predicted, the software limit on charging above 80 percent when the battery gets too warm with charging resuming when the temperature drops, and the charge limit available on iPhone 15 models and later) — support.apple.com, read 22 August 2026.
- Google, Fix a Pixel phone that won’t charge or turn on — Pixel Phone Help (the recommendation of a Google 30 W USB-C power adapter or other programmable power supply adapter rated 30 W or more, or other USB power delivery adapters rated 15 W or more, with the note that actual charging speeds vary by model; the instruction to press and hold the Power button for 5–7 seconds; the instruction to remove the phone case so that it does not interfere with the charging plug or wireless charger; the checks of trying to charge another device with the same power adapter and cable, confirming the cable is securely connected at both ends, checking that nothing such as dust or lint is in the port, and trying another cable or power adapter; the tip that a “Check charging accessory” notification indicates a cable or USB power adapter that may be damaged or unsupported and that this can cause the phone to charge very slowly or not at all; the outlet check of plugging the charger into a wall outlet and plugging in something else such as a lamp; the check that no accessories such as cases or battery packs cover the sensors or press the buttons; and the instruction to charge for 10 minutes, wait one minute, and take a battery icon as an indication that the phone is powered off and charging) — support.google.com, read 22 August 2026.
Written by Alberto Gulotta
Founder and editor of AI Tools Primer, writing from Palermo, Italy. Thirty-five years of taking computers apart, starting with a Commodore 64 — the long version is on the about page.
Something wrong on this page? Write to aitoolsprimer@gmail.com and it gets fixed.
Written on 22 August 2026.
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