How do I know whether my battery is the problem?
First of all you need to identify why your battery performance has decreased: is it the Android system's calibration or the battery itself? We'll move onto calibration in the sections below, but you should check if your battery itself is damaged first.
If your phone has a removable battery cover, turn of your phone, remove the cover and inspect the battery. Look for bulges or leaks. In the image below, the battery of our Galaxy S6 battery swelled up and pushed the non-removable back off the phone. If your phone also has a non-removable battery, keep an eye out for similar occurences. If your phone doesn't sit flat on the table anymore, that could also be a sign of a swollen battery.
If you're satisfied that the battery itself is not the problem, you can move on to the steps below. If you think your battery might be the problem (even after trying to recalibrate it), we'd advise you to take it to a repair shop for an expert's opinion. If it turns out you need to replace the battery, go with an original or reliable third-party battery. Scrimping on a cheap knock-off battery only leads to more headaches in the long run.
Keep in mind that there are plenty of other things that can cause a battery to malfunction. If your phone doesn't charge, there might be a problem with the port, so check our guide on what to do when a phone won't charge.
If you've just updated the firmware on your phone, battery drain is a common complaint, so you might want to clear the cache partition on your device.
What is calibrating a battery?
The Android operating system has a feature called Battery Stats, which keeps track of battery capacity, when it is full or empty. The problem is that it sometimes becomes corrupted and starts displaying data that isn’t real, which, for example, causes the phone to turn off before it reaches 0 percent. Calibrating your Android battery simply means getting the Android OS to correct this information so it is reflective of your actual battery levels once again.
It's important to understand that you can't actually calibrate the battery: it is, after all, just a cell that stores power and discharges. However, lithium-ion batteries do include a printed circuit board (PCB), which serves as a protection switch to stop them exploding or deep discharging.
Smartphone battery myths
Lithium-ion batteries don't have a memory so there's not much you need to do to keep them running as they should. The problem lies with how the Android system reads and displays the current capacity of the battery, not the battery itself.
The same goes for the myth that deleting the batterystats.bin file will magically recalibrate your battery. That file (on most devices anyway) simply stores data about what is using the battery when it is not being charged. It is also reset every time a battery is charged to over 80 percent and then disconnected.
The batterystats.bin file contains the info you see made prettier in the Battery section of your phone: it's the Android system keeping track of your battery's usage, per charge cycle. When we talk about battery calibration, it's the percentage meter that gets out of whack, and that is what we need to fix.
How to calibrate an Android device battery without root access
The old 'fully charge and discharge' approach stands as one of the simplest ways to 'recalibrate' your Android battery. We've warned you in the past about low voltage problems in lithium batteries and the negative impacts of fully draining a battery on its lifespan and the same holds true here. But if your phone battery is causing you real problems, it's worth taking the risk.
Method 1
1. Discharge your phone fully until it turns itself off.
2. Turn it on again and let it turn itself off.
3. Plug your phone into a charger and, without turning it on, let it charge until the on-screen or LED indicator says 100 percent.
4. Unplug your charger.
5. Turn your phone on. It's likely that the battery indicator won't say 100 percent, so plug the charger back in (leave your phone on) and continue charging until it says 100 percent on-screen as well.
6. Unplug your phone and restart it. If it doesn't say 100 percent plug the charger back in until it says 100 percent on screen.
7. Repeat this cycle until it says 100 percent (or as close as you think it's going to get) when you start it up without being plugged in.
8. Now, let your battery discharge all the way down to 0 percent and let your phone turn off again.
9. Fully charge the battery one more time without interruption and you should have reset the Android system's battery percentage.
Remember that it is not recommended to perform this process all the time. Even when your battery is so dead your phone won't even turn on, your battery still has enough reserve charge to avoid system damage. But you don't want to poke the tiger with a stick. Perform this process once every three months at the most. If it is required more often than that you have bigger problems at hand.
Put plainly: fully discharging a battery is bad for it. Trying to overload a battery is also bad for it. The good news is that charging batteries automatically shut off when their safe limit is reached and there's always a little in reserve even if your phone won't start. But again: do this only when really necessary, because it does have a negative impact on battery life.
How to calibrate Android device battery with root access
Even though I'm not convinced that clearing the batterystats.bin file has any meaningful effect on how the Android system reports remaining battery charge, there are those who swear by this method.
So in the interests of fairness, we've included the process for you here (it is true that different manufacturers use thebatterystats.bin file for different things). It's basically the same process as above but with the added step of a root-enabled app.
Method 2
1. Discharge your phone fully until it turns itself off.
2. Turn it on and let it turn off again.
3. Plug your phone into a charger and, without turning it on, let it charge until the on-screen or LED indicator says 100 percent.
4. Unplug your charger.
5. Turn your phone on. It's likely that the battery indicator won't say 100 percent, so plug the charger back in (leave your phone on) and continue charging until it says 100 percent on the screen as well.
6. Unplug your phone and restart it. If it doesn't say 100 percent, plug the charger back in until it says 100 percent on screen.
7. You want to repeat this cycle until it says 100 percent (or as close as you think it's going to get) when you start it up without being plugged in.
8. Now, install the Battery Calibration app and, before you launch it, make sure your battery is at 100 percent again, then restart.
Battery Calibration
9. Immediately launch the app and recalibrate your battery.
10. Once you've calibrated your battery, discharge it all the way down to 0 percent and let your phone turn off again.
11. Fully charge the battery one more time without interruption while it's switched off, and the Android system's battery percentage will be reset.
That's it. Have you tried any of these methods? Do you know an alternate way to fix battery problems? Let us know in the comments.
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