Fix: Samsung Galaxy S4 Won’t Charge

This guide will teach you what to do when your Samsung Galaxy S4 won’t charge or turn on. As a former Galaxy S4 owner, I too was faced with the ever annoying slow charge or sometimes my S4 just didn’t charge at all.

Now, I will tell you about all the possible ways to deal with a slow charging Galaxy S4, a Galaxy S4 that won’t charge or a Galaxy S4 that won’t turn on and everything else in between.

Before you move on, if it is that you are experiencing fast draining battery life then this article is more suited towards your needs. If your device just won’t charge, then continue reading.

Things you should know about charging the Galaxy S4

Don’t charge your S4 near water or in excessively hot or humid conditions. Also, do not overcharge your S4; charging overnight when your battery only needs two or three hours is a bad idea, and leads to a battery exploding or damaging your S4. Your device has a cut-off switch for your battery, but sometimes this doesn’t work. Always make sure that you charge your phone for no more than the amount of time required.

If you’re replacing your Galaxy S4 charger or cable, be careful: there are many cheap third-party chargers that went bang in the middle of the night or turned smartphones into toast. As with any electrical equipment, make sure that anything you buy complies with all the relevant safety standards. A super cheap eBay offering from an obscure Chinese supplier doesn’t necessarily sound like a good deal regardless of the price.

Possible solutions to fix a Samsung Galaxy S4 that won’t charge:

Use Correct S4 charger

Make sure that you are using the Samsung charger and cable that came with the S4. Other chargers may have different voltage ratings and they won’t always work with the S4. Leave the device plugged in for about 30 minutes before you try to turn it on.

Sometimes your battery can be so depleted that it may take a while to start charging. Believe it or not, you need to leave the device plugged in for a while in order to ensure that it is really not charging. If after the thirty minutes, it still won’t charge up then move on to the next steps.

Also, if your charger doesn’t seem to be delivering the right charge frequency, check that it’s the right one. A charger from another device might not deliver the right amount of power— for example, a charger for a Bluetooth headset won’t put out as much power as one designed specifically for smartphones. In the case of recent high-end phones, you might have a phone that supports fast charging but a charger that doesn’t deliver it.

Use a new wall socket

Change the wall socket and use the cable and charger on a different device to make sure there are no faults with the charging apparatus. Try a different charger and cable with the same rating.

This is one way to ensure that the problem is not actually your Samsung Galaxy S4.

Note: Charging from a wall socket will always charge faster than via PC or laptop, because computer’s’ USB ports don’t deliver very much power. A wall socket can deliver twice as much power than a USB port can, and in the case of fast chargers it can deliver as much as five times the power — which means much, much faster recharging.

Charge your Galaxy S4 via USB/PC

Try plugging the S4 into a USB port on your PC or laptop. Although, it will charge much more slowly using the USB port than from the charger plugged into the wall.

If it does charge from the PC, then there is something wrong with your charger’s adapter or head. You may need to replace this. You can find one on all major online retail stores or in any electronics department.

Check the S4 Charging port

Inspect the Galaxy S4 charging port, the charging port ends up choked with many things after being chucked in a handbag or pocket. A can of compressed air can blow out the offending irritants and get your USB connection back to normal. If you don’t have access to canned air, then you can try blowing (not spitting) into the charging port.

A quick clean can help remove dust and other particles from the Galaxy S4 charging port. Use a toothpick and maneuver through the creaks and cracks carefully to remove any unwanted build up.

Galaxy S4 DIY USB port fix

One of the quickest, easiest, and often most successful solution, is to do a little DIY repair on the hardware of you Galaxy S4. The problem is often that the metallic surfaces inside the USB port and the microUSB charger are not making proper contact, either through a manufacturing defect or because of the continual plugging and unplugging of the charging cable caused the connection to be severed.

You need to do is shut down your device,

Remove the battery (if possible) and use something small, like a toothpick, to ‘lever up’ the little tab inside the USB port on your Galaxy S4.

Do so very carefully and gently, then reinsert your battery (if you had to remove) and plug it in again. Nine times out of 10 this is all that is required.

Update or rollback the OS on your S4

Software updates and new Android versions can play havoc with your battery life, especially when upgrading an old device to current software. Newer devices are often optimized to take advantage of the latest software, packing bigger batteries and pre-optimized hardware, whereas your two-year-old device can struggle when it makes the jump from behind the pack.

If this happens to you, consider rolling the device back to an earlier Android version, though be warned that this carries security risks. (The latest software versions are always recommended to keep your device protected, and while the risk of keeping your smartphone on an older version is often negligible, it’s worth noting.)

Similarly, sometimes device battery life can be significantly improved thanks to an update, as seen with the Moto 360 smartwatch, so if you think you might be way behind on your Android software version, head to the ‘about device’ page in your settings and check for an update.

Switch off your S4

Using battery intensive apps/features while you are charging your device will affect how fast it gains battery life. If you are charging while Skyping somebody at full screen brightness, the device will naturally take longer to charge than if it is locked with Wi-Fi and 4G turned off. Switch the device into airplane mode, or off completely, when you are charging if you want to see the fastest energy boost.

If it still isn’t working, then you may have a dead battery or a broken charging port. Contact your retailer, carrier, or Samsung and find out what your options are. If you’re out of warranty then you can try buying a replacement battery, or even replace the charging port yourself.

(If you don’t know what you are doing, then it is probably best to take the device to a professional and have them perform the repairs for you). The battery isn’t removable by normal means so it is wise to take it to a tech shop.

Thanks for reading this how to fix a Samsung Galaxy S4 that won’t charge tutorial. If you found the information useful then please share it with your friends so that they too can optimize their Samsung Galaxy S4 battery life and charging problems.