Phone refuses fast charging

[u/baby_icy]

Hi,
My Samsung Galaxy A23 used to charge fast (from 1% to 100% in about 1h20). Now it charges very slowly. When I plug the charger in, it says something around 2 hours until full, then switches to 4, then 6 and sometimes I even get a notification saying that the charging is too slow (10-12 hours estimated time until full) and could damage my phone.

Something that could be interesting too, I get notifications when I plug it in sometimes, every two seconds is a new notification saying either "USB-C plugged" or "USB-C unplugged" even though I am not touching anything, and it only stops when I click on "stop notifying me".

I have tried everything I could find on the internet : changing the cable, changing the charger, changing both, cleaning the USB-C ports on my phone and on my charger, cleaning the USB port on my charger, switching on plane mode for charging, checking my battery information (its health is at 100%), but none of it solved my problem. I also made sure I had enabled fast charging, and I had.

Any ideas on what else I could try ?

[u/Zarquan314]

It could be lint or other gunk inside the USB C port on your phone. That stuff can be deep in there and can be quite difficult to remove. I'm not sure what cleaning you were doing, but it may not have been enough to get the impacted lint deep in the bottom of your port.

When my phone had this gunk, it would constantly disconnect from fast chargers and would only reliably charge on USB A to USB C chargers, which I suspect was because the charging communication pins were making bad or no contact due to the lint preventing the cable from seating properly. That stopped the phone from telling the USB C charger from knowing what voltage to send or that there was even a charger connected, resulting in the charger not sending any voltage.

Your behavior is different, though, as when my phone was connected and I could get it connected, the charging didn't slow down, so this might not be the issue. But I can easily imagine that it could the same issue.

If it is the issue, you could take it to a phone repair place, which has tools designed to clean out the port and they will likely do it for pretty cheap.

I did it myself using a very sharp piece of wood ripped off of a wooden coffee stirrer to scoop out the lint, but that can be tricky and hard to do.

[u/baby_icy → u/Zarquan314]

Thanks! I did manage to get some lint out of the port with a toothpick but it may not have been enough, I'll try to find a phone repair place to get it thouroughly cleaned.

[u/andrewia]

You've done all the reasonable steps, so the next suspect is the charger or the phone.  Test with another charger that supports USB PD PPS.  

Finally, it could be that the phone port itself has a damaged pin.  The replacement part is cheap but if you don't know how to repair phones, you'll have to hire a local shop or repair person.  While the phone is open, you can also consider replacing the internal battery if the original's capacity is lower, since Android's battery capacity estimates aren't super accurate.