Pixel 4 charging issues with cable.

Kaldor Draigo · January 27, 2022

So, first and foremost I'm not the person with the problem, I'm a friend of said person so some details could be slightly off but I'll try to explain based on what information was given to me;

My friend has a refurbished Pixel 4 phone that came without a cable or without a charger.
They have been using a power outlet adapter that has 2 USB ports to charge the phone, with a generic USB Type-C cable for a while, and they have been having issues with said cables.
They had to replace one of the cables a few weeks ago because the phone was slow charging and it would sometimes interrupt the charge when moving the phone a little. Replacing the cable actually fixed the problem for a while.

Now, it's doing a similar thing, it's not slow charging but it is interrupting the charge when moving the phone a little.

Would the Pixel 4 require a specific cable and because of that the generic ones would be damage for some reason?.
Or could it be the USB ports from the power outlet adapter?.

When I asked them if they had applied any force to the connectors or wrapped the cables too tightly they said they didn't so, that wouldnt' be an issue either.

And as a final question:
They also have a apple charger that they considered using, with these specs:

Model no: A1385

Input: 100-240V

50-60 Hz 0.15 A

Output: 5V 1A

Would it be safe to use that on a Pixel 4 to charge it over the generic power adapter with USB ports?

RONOTHAN## · January 27, 2022

There's a couple things that I would check.

First, this is really easy to check, but very unlikely. In the early days of Type C cables, there were issues of some cheaper cables being manufactured with the wrong resistor in the end of the cable. Using one of those cables could cause issues very similar to the ones your friend is having. There are some apps in the Play store to be able to test the cable, look up "Type C cable tester" and use that to check the cable. I will say, this hasn't been an issue for a while, like 6-7 years, but if you got an old stock cable, it is technically possible, and it's not like it's super hard to check.

Second, I would try to clean the USB C connector on the phone itself. If it's never been cleaned, it would have ~2 years of pocket lint jammed up in the connector that needs to be removed. There are a lot of guides for how to clean it, and it's not super hard to do. If you cut an inch long sliver of plastic, coming to not quite a point, from the packaging that scissors comes in (I forget the proper name of it), that's about the perfect size tool to clean out the tool to clean it out.

As for whether they can try the other charger, yeah, it won't damage anything, you just won't be able to get fast charging from it. 5v 1A is about the minimum to charge most smart phones. I doubt it would the the power outlet causing this, but it's possible.

Kaldor Draigo · January 27, 2022

14 minutes ago, RONOTHAN## said:

There's a couple things that I would check.

First, this is really easy to check, but very unlikely. In the early days of Type C cables, there were issues of some cheaper cables being manufactured with the wrong resistor in the end of the cable. Using one of those cables could cause issues very similar to the ones your friend is having. There are some apps in the Play store to be able to test the cable, look up "Type C cable tester" and use that to check the cable. I will say, this hasn't been an issue for a while, like 6-7 years, but if you got an old stock cable, it is technically possible, and it's not like it's super hard to check.

Second, I would try to clean the USB C connector on the phone itself. If it's never been cleaned, it would have ~2 years of pocket lint jammed up in the connector that needs to be removed. There are a lot of guides for how to clean it, and it's not super hard to do. If you cut an inch long sliver of plastic, coming to not quite a point, from the packaging that scissors comes in (I forget the proper name of it), that's about the perfect size tool to clean out the tool to clean it out.

As for whether they can try the other charger, yeah, it won't damage anything, you just won't be able to get fast charging from it. 5v 1A is about the minimum to charge most smart phones. I doubt it would the the power outlet causing this, but it's possible.

Thanks a lot for the answer and the detailed suggestions, I will deliver the info to my friend and hope that solves the issue for them.