Pixel 6 seems to reject charging over low-quality USB-C cables for some users

[Spindel]

Summary

Google’s new Pixel 6 series comes with a few unexpected issues that can be frustrating for users when they’re not dealt with. Making the rounds this week is an issue that some users are seeing the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro refusing to charge in some cases, but the common thread may be the quality of the cables.

 

Quotes

Quote

A relatively significant number of users on Google’s forums are reporting that their Pixel 6 simply won’t charge on certain chargers and cables, despite other devices working. The original post brings out that a generic USB-C cable and charger simply won’t push any charge to the phone, finding that several other chargers throughout their home. Some others have chimed in to say that they’ve seen the same behavior, with the Pixel 6 and/or Pixel 6 Pro not charging on some setups that other devices are working with.

 

However, the culprit here seems to be the quality of the cable and charger. The original user followed up to say that most of the chargers they had on hand already were not USB PD compliant, hinting that they were likely lower-quality cables and/or charging bricks. Other users seem to be having the same problem, with the Pixel 6 appearing to simply reject charging from low-quality or low-output chargers.

 

My thoughts

Good that the phone comes with a good quality cable and charger… oh wait!

USB-C is a mess, this adds even more to the arsenal against i e EUs pruposal to make USB-C the default charging interface.

 

In this case I would even say the fault is niether Google nor the users having this problem. This all comes down to USB-C only being a connector that can have multiple protocols under it. It is a huge mess.

 

Sources

https://9to5google.com/2021/11/29/pixel-6-reject-charging-cables/

[dizmo]

Unfortunate, but honestly I don't think it's a huge issue. People should just be buying both the appropriate charger for their device, and cables that aren't a couple dollars at the dollar store. I'd rather this than have phones with some kind of damage due to a shitty bargain bin cable.

[Doobeedoo]

Sucks, but better to not have fire hazard because some questionable cheap cable.

[BuckGup]

This is a good thing and prevents people from burning down their homes. But I agree we need a USB C standard that manufactures ACTUALLY follow. I highly doubt this though as almost all foreign electronics don't comply with the standards they say they do. AOC monitors are not FCC approved at all and blast noisy RF compared to their Dell counterpart. Most people aren't checking things like this or EPA standards so it gets swept under the rug

[Sauron]

9 hours ago, Spindel said:

Good that the phone comes with a good quality cable and charger… oh wait!

USB-C is a mess, this adds even more to the arsenal against i e EUs pruposal to make USB-C the default charging interface.

 

In this case I would even say the fault is niether Google nor the users having this problem. This all comes down to USB-C only being a connector that can have multiple protocols under it. It is a huge mess.

What do you think happens if your lightning charger is not up to spec?

[poochyena]

11 hours ago, Spindel said:

Good that the phone comes with a good quality cable and charger… oh wait!

They sell cables that you can buy when you buy your phone though, so I don't see your point? https://store.google.com/us/collection/accessories_wall?hl=en-US&productType=Adapters+%26+Cables

Its just now its optional rather than bundled.

10 hours ago, Spindel said:

USB-C is a mess, this adds even more to the arsenal against i e EUs pruposal to make USB-C the default charging interface.

...what? How? Literally how is this worse than if the phone came with its own, unique, cable port?
You have two choices, get a device that MIGHT work with your old cables, or get a device that 100% won't. Why would you EVER choose a world where you know 100% sure your old cables won't be compatible with your other future devices?

[Spindel]

1 hour ago, Sauron said:

What do you think happens if your lightning charger is not up to spec?

The difference is that you might have a cable with USB-C connector that works on other devices or your old phone but it does not work with, in this case the Pixel 6. 
 

In the example of lightning the cable, if it worked previously, it will work with any new device. Any working wall charger with USB-A will charge anything with a lightning given that for example a 5 W iPhone charger will charge an iPad really slowly. 
 

 

EDIT:// But to be frank I am not here to argue lightning over USB-C, my main gripe is that USB-C is a mess

[Sauron]

55 minutes ago, Spindel said:

The difference is that you might have a cable with USB-C connector that works on other devices or your old phone but it does not work with, in this case the Pixel 6.

This has nothing to do with the USB-C standard, it's just a matter of whether the phone's power management hardware and firmware is designed to tolerate non-standard cables or not. If your non-standard cable works with any phone it's already more functionality than you should theoretically get out of it. I don't see how this would make it a problem for Apple to use USB-C; they can just certify known good chargers and cables as they do now, using anything else is at your own risk (but if it follows the standard it must work).

 

Besides Apple has also changed connectors in time, there's nothing new about having to occasionally upgrade your charger for a newer device. Hopefully there's less of that once USB-C is ubiquitous and we all have some good chargers with it.

1 hour ago, Spindel said:

Any working wall charger with USB-A will charge anything with a lightning given that for example a 5 W iPhone charger will charge an iPad really slowly. 

That is actually not true, if the charger doesn't follow the standard it will not work and the same goes for the cable. It's doubly relevant to this argument now that Apple hasn't been including a charger for a while.

[-rascal-]

3 hours ago, Spindel said:

The difference is that you might have a cable with USB-C connector that works on other devices or your old phone but it does not work with, in this case the Pixel 6. 
 

In the example of lightning the cable, if it worked previously, it will work with any new device. Any working wall charger with USB-A will charge anything with a lightning given that for example a 5 W iPhone charger will charge an iPad really slowly. 
 

 

EDIT:// But to be frank I am not here to argue lightning over USB-C, my main gripe is that USB-C is a mess

 

Even the Lightning cables needs to meet certain specs / complaints, otherwise, it won't work either.

The Apple approved cables have a certification chip within them.

If they do not have a chip, or some cheap cable, you get an authentication error / not does work properly.

[RejZoR]

22 hours ago, dizmo said:

Unfortunate, but honestly I don't think it's a huge issue. People should just be buying both the appropriate charger for their device, and cables that aren't a couple dollars at the dollar store. I'd rather this than have phones with some kind of damage due to a shitty bargain bin cable.

What's the point of having super widely adopted and universal USB-C if phone just randomly decides to NOT charge at all. That's just beyond dumb and no cable is so bad it would have to just refuse to charge. It should just limit the rate if cable is crap which I've seen with few of my devices where charge rate changed depending on cable quality using same device and same charger. Every cable can take 5V 1A. So you can at least charge some. And not none at all. This is typical Google idiocy and no one will convince me it's for safety. If it was, it would be adaptive, not non functional.

[AkatsukiKun]

Before we even get to the Type-C standard, the USB 3.x protocol and its naming scheme, and standard(s) has it's own pile of mess to clean up, if you need a chart to understand the prefixes, versions, etc. especially for someone knowledgeable about modern pro/consumer technology, that's a big failure on the consortium/group as a whole.

Sony didn't make Playstations 4.1/.2/.3/etc. they made the regular, then pro, and off to the next generation. It's like they brought in the person in charge of the Kingdom Hearts naming scheme or director.

 

There's an absolute better way to resolve this, but they chose not to pursue it. They as in the the USB consortium group.

[dizmo]

10 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

What's the point of having super widely adopted and universal USB-C if phone just randomly decides to NOT charge at all. That's just beyond dumb and no cable is so bad it would have to just refuse to charge. It should just limit the rate if cable is crap which I've seen with few of my devices where charge rate changed depending on cable quality using same device and same charger. Every cable can take 5V 1A. So you can at least charge some. And not none at all. This is typical Google idiocy and no one will convince me it's for safety. If it was, it would be adaptive, not non functional.

Depends how it was being used.

If they were using a 1a charger, sure. It probably should have worked regardless of the cable.

If they're trying to push more wattage through a shitty cable? No, I don't think it should work at all.

 

Bottom line, don't buy cheap shit. Couldn't care less if you think any cheap cable should work.

[Blademaster91]

Unfortunate you can't just use any cable, but better to use a decent cable and charger than some cheap junk that can damage the phone or risk of a fire.

And thanks to apple, everyone jumped on the marketing nonsense of not including a charger.

[Spindel]

7 hours ago, -rascal- said:

 

Even the Lightning cables needs to meet certain specs / complaints, otherwise, it won't work either.

The Apple approved cables have a certification chip within them.

If they do not have a chip, or some cheap cable, you get an authentication error / not does work properly.

You guys are just being obtuse. A lightning cable that has worked with your previous devices will work with your new. 
 

A cable with USB-C connector that works with your old device might not work with your new. 
 

Stop making this to lightning vs USB-c because I did not make that argument. This is soley about the mess that is USB-C. 
 

 

[Helpful Tech Witch]

45 minutes ago, AkatsukiKun said:

Before we even get to the Type-C standard, the USB 3.x protocol and its naming scheme, and standard(s) has it's own pile of mess to clean up, if you need a chart to understand the prefixes, versions, etc. especially for someone knowledgeable about modern pro/consumer technology, that's a big failure on the consortium/group as a whole.

Sony didn't make Playstations 4.1/.2/.3/etc. they made the regular, then pro, and off to the next generation. It's like they brought in the person in charge of the Kingdom Hearts naming scheme or director.

 

There's an absolute better way to resolve this, but they chose not to pursue it. They as in the the USB consortium group.

Don’t also didn’t make a ps4 pro 2 and call it the ps4 pro and start calling the ps4 pro the ps4 and act like there never was a ps4 not pro and the. Change their mind and call it the ps4 pronormal, then the ps4 pro the ps4 pro pro and the ps4 pro 2 the ps4 propropro 

 

confused? So am i

[Avocado Diaboli]

1 hour ago, Spindel said:

You guys are just being obtuse. A lightning cable that has worked with your previous devices will work with your new. 
 

A cable with USB-C connector that works with your old device might not work with your new. 
 

Stop making this to lightning vs USB-c because I did not make that argument. This is soley about the mess that is USB-C. 

To be fair, you're also being purposely obtuse. If that old USB-C cable worked on other devices and doesn't on the Pixel 6, you shouldn't have been using it to begin with because it wasn't up to spec. This isn't about what USB-C is or isn't, this is about manufacturers cheaping out and not producing stuff up to spec and customers pinching pennies and buying cheap cables and chargers that pose a fire hazard. If I were Google, I'd also make sure the headlines don't read "Pixel 6 blows up while charging", because even though articles might clarify that it was the cable's fault, that's not what usually makes it into the headline.

 

And complaining that USB-C now has a spec for power delivery that requires certain features is akin to complaining that, even though they have the same connector, an HDMI 2.0 cable won't be able to provide all the features of an HDMI 2.1 cable.

[leadeater]

1 hour ago, Avocado Diaboli said:

To be fair, you're also being purposely obtuse. If that old USB-C cable worked on other devices and doesn't on the Pixel 6, you shouldn't have been using it to begin with because it wasn't up to spec. This isn't about what USB-C is or isn't, this is about manufacturers cheaping out and not producing stuff up to spec and customers pinching pennies and buying cheap cables and chargers that pose a fire hazard. If I were Google, I'd also make sure the headlines don't read "Pixel 6 blows up while charging", because even though articles might clarify that it was the cable's fault, that's not what usually makes it into the headline.

 

And complaining that USB-C now has a spec for power delivery that requires certain features is akin to complaining that, even though they have the same connector, a HDMI 2.0 cable won't be able to provide all the features of a HDMI 2.1 cable.

Also throw in that HDMI literally has similar problem and unless you have a proper cable tester, like LTT has, you'd have no idea if the cable is up to spec or not. USB-C and entailing standards are not the issue, it's cables and manufacturers claiming to be or meet something they do not and this is a super OLDDDD problem.

 

If a cable isn't falsely claiming to be able to do something, pin outs are different, and the phone is able to check this in some way (resistance and impedance check) then it would work in a slow charge mode however if presented with a cable that is falsely telling the device it can do something and it cannot then the correct thing to do is outright reject it.

[leadeater]

1 hour ago, Spindel said:

You guys are just being obtuse. A lightning cable that has worked with your previous devices will work with your new. 

Off-brand Lightning cables literally have the same issue. These cables could work, but may or may not fast charge, with one generation of phone and not another, heck sometimes they have that within the same generation and it can be down to bad luck your $1 knock off cable didn't work but does on your friends phone.

 

https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/how-to-tell-if-your-lightning-cable-is-fake/

https://blog.syncwire.com/how-to-tell-your-iphone-lightning-cable-is-fake-or-not/

 

This is a cable issue, not a USB-C or Lightning issue and is decades old problem. Pay for what you get, if it's too cheap odds are there is a good (not good) reason for it.

[RejZoR]

2 hours ago, dizmo said:

Depends how it was being used.

If they were using a 1a charger, sure. It probably should have worked regardless of the cable.

If they're trying to push more wattage through a shitty cable? No, I don't think it should work at all.

 

Bottom line, don't buy cheap shit. Couldn't care less if you think any cheap cable should work.

Shouldn't matter. All my chargers are at least 2.4A which is a maximum standard for 5V. Device charged slower on this 2.4A charger because of cable. Same for QC3.0 charger which can pump up to 12V.

[leadeater]

5 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

Shouldn't matter. All my chargers are at least 2.4A which is a maximum standard for 5V. Device charged slower on this 2.4A charger because of cable. Same for QC3.0 charger which can pump up to 12V.

I strongly suspect these are all cables presenting as being capable of a faster charging standard, the device/phone doing a check seeing that it does not meet the spec and instead of allowing slow charge is outright rejecting it. Had the cable not been a lair it probably would slow charge just fine. And I support this, if this in the long run kills off junk cables and raises the bar then it's a good thing. Down side, millions of useless USB-C cables.

[RejZoR]

20 minutes ago, leadeater said:

I strongly suspect these are all cables presenting as being capable of a faster charging standard, the device/phone doing a check seeing that it does not meet the spec and instead of allowing slow charge is outright rejecting it. Had the cable not been a lair it probably would slow charge just fine. And I support this, if this in the long run kills off junk cables and raises the bar then it's a good thing. Down side, millions of useless USB-C cables.

Pixel phones are too insignificant to matter. It'll just make people hate them more as you can't be sure if you'll be able to charge at all with random cable at work or whatever, making it even less popular and relevant device.

 

iPhone doing this would kill off junk cables (and make everyone outraged as always) or Samsung because of how popular their phones are across the ranges. Also if charging is actually intelligent enough it can adapt as it was evident from my experience (iPhone and ASUS Transformer netbook) where they didn't refuse to charge but lowered the charge rate. I could still charge though.

[leadeater]

2 minutes ago, RejZoR said:

Pixel phones are too insignificant to matter. It'll just make people hate them more as you can't be sure if you'll be able to charge at all with random cable at work or whatever, making it even less popular and relevant device.

True Pixel phones might be but if more start doing it or they have to because that's what the current generation chipsets just do now aka all phones will eventually then RIP cheap crappy cables.

[Dreckssackblase]

2 hours ago, Spindel said:

 A lightning cable that has worked with your previous devices will work with your new. 

Could you please tell that to the iPad mini we have in the office that refuses to charge with my colleagues iPhone 6 charger and cable.

It would be really nice if I didn't need to pull out a seperate charger for it every time.

[RejZoR]

1 hour ago, leadeater said:

True Pixel phones might be but if more start doing it or they have to because that's what the current generation chipsets just do now aka all phones will eventually then RIP cheap crappy cables.

And hello fuck tons of e-waste. Instead of cable still being usable, it'll be literal e-waste. Despite all Chinese brands bragging about stupid speeds, most people charge phones over night and for those charge periods even 1A is enough. I'm fairly sure most garbage cables can easily charge at 1A. Besides, "garbage" cable is debatable. Everyone whining how Apple cables are weak and that may be the case, but mine is 3 years old and it's still the same. Because I'm not yanking it out of phone with cable and twsiting it 55 times around itself.

[shaz2sxy]

On 12/1/2021 at 6:29 AM, Spindel said:

Summary

Google’s new Pixel 6 series comes with a few unexpected issues that can be frustrating for users when they’re not dealt with. Making the rounds this week is an issue that some users are seeing the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro refusing to charge in some cases, but the common thread may be the quality of the cables.

 

Quotes

 

My thoughts

Good that the phone comes with a good quality cable and charger… oh wait!

USB-C is a mess, this adds even more to the arsenal against i e EUs pruposal to make USB-C the default charging interface.

 

In this case I would even say the fault is niether Google nor the users having this problem. This all comes down to USB-C only being a connector that can have multiple protocols under it. It is a huge mess.

 

Sources

https://9to5google.com/2021/11/29/pixel-6-reject-charging-cables/

"Good that the phone comes with a good quality cable and charger… oh wait!"

 

It comes with a usb c to usb c cable? and also a adaptor.

 

I've actually got this phone and it works on all my USB C cables. no name ones and "branded" ones aswell... oh and extra long ones aswell.