So I am charging my phone around every other night (via mag charger)… but in the past week, several times in the morning it was way below the 85% I had the max set for. This is my bedside charger and operates more like a trickle charge (I think it gets 5V from the port on my table lamp).
Do such chargers do this over time? I think that one is about 2-3 years old. It was not any kind of premium charger, but has worked just fine for my old 12s and my 17 Pro. Yesterday I put it on the charger in the living room and it brought it right up t 85%.
I never thought that one of these chargers can “go bad,” although it’s behavior is intermittant. It does do a little bit of charging.
Anything can fail over time. The fact that the charger in your bedroom isn’t charging, and the one in the living room is, tells me that yes, that charger may be failing.
Double-check (maybe replace) the cable between your MagSafe stand and the USB brick that provides its power. It might be a failing cable. Also, try swapping the USB brick itself - it might be the part that’s failing.
When you put the phone down for the night, double-check (via the phone’s screen) that it is actually charging. If you don’t see any charging indication, then you don’t really need to leave it overnight to see that there’s a problem.
Thanks David. It doesn’t have a brick, just plugs into a USB-A port on my lamp (it has 2 ports, the other one charges my iPad and it can go from 5% to 100% in 5-6-7 hours like clockwork). I think the cable may be built in. Anyway, I didn’t explain enough, yes it does charge (I always make sure the charging symbol is lit when I put it on the puck) just not fully. Last night the phone was on something like 10%, put it in th charger, it was 17% 7 hours later. I removed and re-attached it and then it started charging.
So it’s failing in a fairly specific way. I’ll keep an eye on it over the next bunch of days…
OK. So your lamp is the charging brick. Maybe it can’t put out enough current for two devices? Does it work better if nothing is charging on the other port at the same time? Note that wireless charging does require more current than wired USB charging.
Maybe consider trying it plugged into a standalone USB charger, as a test.
Makes sense, but I have been using this setup for 2-3 years already, never had any issues. I kind almost wish for some total failure to make me toss it!
Last night was instructive. I put it on that puck when the phone showed ~40% left. Took ~8 hours to get to 85%. It’s fading away! Something tells me it’s time for a new magsafe charger.
Has anything changed recently with the physical alignment between the charger and the phone? Eg do you have a new phone case, or is the phone positioned slightly differently on the charger from before? Or something metallic (very) near the charger that wasn’t there before?
Nope, my night table is laid out exactly like it’s been for years, I got a new phone and case last November. Clearly, the charger has become intermittent, was only looking to see if that can be the case.
If I’m reading correctly, you have an inductive charger plugged in to a USB socket on a lamp. I think it’s possible that the issue could be caused by the lamp, not the charger. (I don’t have a feel for which is more likely, though.) Might be worth an experiment to try and prove which it is before buying a new charger.
You could test by plugging the phone directly in to the lamp, eliminating the inductive step, if you have a suitable cable.
Another option would be to eliminate the lamp instead… power the inductive charger from an alternative USB power supply, and see how that goes. (I think someone may have already suggested that?)