Touch Kobo will not hold the charge

[polli]

I am charging kobo every night.
But when I sit down to read the following morning it says the battery is flat
Any ideas?

[davidfor]

The obvious thought is that the charger isn't working, so I'll assume you have tried another charger.

What is the charge level when you disconnect the device? And how long after this do you see the charge is zero? And how long does it actually last?

How old is the Touch? Li-Ion batteries have a life and start degrading the moment they are created. As the Touch was released about 4.5 years ago, the older devices will have have reduced battery life. Some could be down to nothing depending on usage, environment and other things.

[polli]

Originally Posted by davidfor

The obvious thought is that the charger isn't working, so I'll assume you have tried another charger.

What is the charge level when you disconnect the device? And how long after this do you see the charge is zero? And how long does it actually last?

How old is the Touch? Li-Ion batteries have a life and start degrading the moment they are created. As the Touch was released about 4.5 years ago, the older devices will have have reduced battery life. Some could be down to nothing depending on usage, environment and other things.

Hi The Touch is 2 years old.
When I plug it in at night it says fully charged.
In the morning it says please charge low battery.

[HarryT]

Sounds as if your battery has died.

[oren64]

Empty your battery, and charge for 4 hours with another wall charger and USB cable.
If it didn't work your battery has died, if you like your Touch and still like to read in it, you can replace the battery, look in Ebay or AliExpres, price 5-20$.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by polli

Hi The Touch is 2 years old.
When I plug it in at night it says fully charged.
In the morning it says please charge low battery.

I think I misunderstood your first post. By:

Originally Posted by polli

I am charging kobo every night.

I thought you meant you were charging overnight

But it sounds more like you have charged it during the evening and unplugged before going to bed and the next morning it has lost charge.

So, there are two possibilities. Either the battery has died and no longer holds a charge. If that is the case, the only choice is to replace the battery. Or use it as an excuse to upgrade to a newer device.

The other possibility is that something is draining the battery. As this is happening overnight, do you put it to sleep or do you rely on the auto-sleep? Do you have WiFi turned on? Does the automatic sync happen during the night? If so, are there any network problems?

What happens during the day? I assume you recharge it in the morning and use it later. Does the battery drain quickly?

[PeterT]

External SD card?

[polli]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I think I misunderstood your first post. By:



I thought you meant you were charging overnight

But it sounds more like you have charged it during the evening and unplugged before going to bed and the next morning it has lost charge.

So, there are two possibilities. Either the battery has died and no longer holds a charge. If that is the case, the only choice is to replace the battery. Or use it as an excuse to upgrade to a newer device.

The other possibility is that something is draining the battery. As this is happening overnight, do you put it to sleep or do you rely on the auto-sleep? Do you have WiFi turned on? Does the automatic sync happen during the night? If so, are there any network problems?

What happens during the day? I assume you recharge it in the morning and use it later. Does the battery drain quickly?

I rely on the auto sleep.

Wifi not turned on.
Yes the battery drains quickly. Only just started to happen. Very disappointed as read a lot.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by polli

I rely on the auto sleep.

Wifi not turned on.
Yes the battery drains quickly. Only just started to happen. Very disappointed as read a lot.

I assume the last statement is in reference to my question about what happens during the day. So, it is draining the battery as quickly when you use the device as when left overnight?

You have missed an important piece of information: What firmware version is the Glo running? Are you using any patches, alternative readers or any other addons such as KSM?

I have a few things I try when I get strange behaviour.

- After charging, unplug the device and use it.
- After charging, restart the device.
- Instead of waiting for the device to go to sleep, use the button to sleep it.
- When finished reading, close the book before putting it down.
- When finished reading, close the book and restart the device before putting it down.

Some might seem pointless, but the idea is to change parameters to work out what is going on. For example, the last one is because there seems to be some books that cause battery drain after they have been opened. By restarting the device, no book is opened, so any drain is coming from somewhere else.

And I should have said...

At some point, someone is going to suggest doing a factory reset. While this is a pain to do, it does fix unusual problems like this. If you want to do this now, I suggest taking a copy of everything on the user accessible partition of the device. Then, do a factory reset and then set-up. Then do some testing to see whether that has fixed things. If it hasn't, you can delete the files on the device and restore the copied files so that you are back to where you were before. If it does fix the battery life, you can decide whether to restore the files, or start putting your books back manually. The main difference will be the loss of the reading status and statistics.

Of course, if it is the battery has died, then there is nothing you can do to fix it. Your only choice is to buy a new battery. Or use it as an excuse to get a new ereader. I recommend the Kobo Glo HD.

[polli]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I assume the last statement is in reference to my question about what happens during the day. So, it is draining the battery as quickly when you use the device as when left overnight?

You have missed an important piece of information: What firmware version is the Glo running? Are you using any patches, alternative readers or any other addons such as KSM?

I have a few things I try when I get strange behaviour.

- After charging, unplug the device and use it.
- After charging, restart the device.
- Instead of waiting for the device to go to sleep, use the button to sleep it.
- When finished reading, close the book before putting it down.
- When finished reading, close the book and restart the device before putting it down.

Some might seem pointless, but the idea is to change parameters to work out what is going on. For example, the last one is because there seems to be some books that cause battery drain after they have been opened. By restarting the device, no book is opened, so any drain is coming from somewhere else.

And I should have said...

At some point, someone is going to suggest doing a factory reset. While this is a pain to do, it does fix unusual problems like this. If you want to do this now, I suggest taking a copy of everything on the user accessible partition of the device. Then, do a factory reset and then set-up. Then do some testing to see whether that has fixed things. If it hasn't, you can delete the files on the device and restore the copied files so that you are back to where you were before. If it does fix the battery life, you can decide whether to restore the files, or start putting your books back manually. The main difference will be the loss of the reading status and statistics.

Of course, if it is the battery has died, then there is nothing you can do to fix it. Your only choice is to buy a new battery. Or use it as an excuse to get a new ereader. I recommend the Kobo Glo HD.

Thank you David I am working my way through your answers. Have printed them out
Hoping it will stay charged as I love it.

If it fails I am wondering about buying another smaller Android tablet to read my books on. ( I have a large one already but don't want to carry it out and about.)
Is there much eyestrain reading for long on them?
That way I could read my Kindle ones also

[filmo]

Only you can decide if reading on tablet for long time cause eye strain. I would rather read on Kobo with e-ink screen because light weight and portability. I also spend lots of time reading computer screens and tablets. Reading books on my Kobo doesn't bother my eyes like too bright computer screen.

[polli]

Originally Posted by PeterT

External SD card?

Hi don't understand what you mean sorry

[polli]

Hi David tried all your answers and so far they seem to have worked
So thank you
Are chargers not all the same then? Using my phone charger now.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by polli

Hi David tried all your answers and so far they seem to have worked

Good to hear.

So thank you
Are chargers not all the same then? Using my phone charger now.

Yes and no. They all should produce 5V and at least 500mA. But, some don't. The Kobo ereaders should be low draw, so that should be OK. I don't think using a higher power adapter will change anything.