Having trouble getting the battery to charge

[Paddy Landau]

Astonishing that you had to open the case! The NFC point is on the back of the Nexus 5, a small circle near the bottom, slightly off-centre. That's what needs to be closest to the charging point on the wireless charger.

 

[gale65]

I don't know what the NFC point is but the QI thing was near the middle. It started charging after I raised it up a little. I set it on the charger at 69% about 20 min ago and it's up to 80% already. The real test will be when it's down below 50%. I'll play some games on it later to kill some battery. lol

I got the info here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Nexus5/comments/2boibq/psa_how_to_fix_malfunctioning_wireless_charging/

eta: it only charges if the phone is pretty much centered on the wireless charger thing. The little picture on the charger is oriented with the middle of the phone. If I slide the phone in any direction it stops charging.

 

[gale65]

Here's a photo. The thing I messed with is on the back cover (right side photo). The gold area. I peeled it up and put the electric tape underneath it to raise it up.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/7517/google-nexus-5-review/3

 

[Paddy Landau]

The NFC (near field communication) is what lets your phone access various features, for example to act as a credit card (if Android Pay is active in your area).

The wireless charger pumps energy into your phone through the NFC.

In the Nexus 5, the NFC is under that small circle at the back near the bottom.

Position your phone such that the NFC is as close as possible to the charge point.

 

[gale65]

When I put that area on the middle of the charger it doesn't charge. Only when the center is on the middle.

eta: I don't see a small circle near the bottom.

 

[Paddy Landau]

On mine, the circle is next to the "LG". Has Google released different Nexus 5 hardware designs?

 

[gale65]

I thought you meant on the end. I have that circle. So anyway the wireless charging seems to be working! I set it on there at about 45% and within 2 hours it was fully charged. I'm cautiously optimistic. Maybe it's whatever connects the port to the battery that is failing somehow. I'm guessing the wireless charger doesn't go through that same route to the battery.

 

[Paddy Landau]

I'm pleased that you have it working at last!

You can play with your NFC to see how it works. Install an NFC app (I use NFC Tools). Open the app, and put your credit card behind your phone. When you place the card correctly, the app will read information from it. I have created an NFC tag (with NFC Tasks) to let visitors connect to my WiFi without having to fiddle with the password (funnily enough, the iPhone doesn't have this facility, only Android phones). It's useful when you know about it.

 

[gale65]

I'll be sure to play with that.

So last night it was around 96% so I plugged it in to top it off. 7 hours later it was up to 98%. lol. I can laugh about it now but I sure wasn't laughing 2 days ago. I set it on the charger and it promptly topped off.

So the only issue now that is that I'll have to fight with it to charge when I'm on the go, because my car and portable chargers are all the plug-in type. Or I can get a wireless to keep in the car (for that I would just go with the $3 model).

 

[gale65]

So my phone gets pretty darn hot while wireless charging. Like 110 degrees or more. I don't think I'll trust it to be safe while we're asleep but I can charge it up to bedtime and then right when I get up. I have a feeling I'll be needing to replace it before long anyway.

 

[Paddy Landau]

Google the problem. Others have had the same, and seem to have found solutions. Good luck.