Essential Phone Troubleshooting

You cannot get your device to power on

Plug your Essential Phone into a computer or charging port to charge. If the device does not charge or power on it is likely that the battery or charging port has become broken or disconnected. If replacing the battery with a partially charged one still doesn’t get the device to power on it is most likely a problem with the power button. If the phone does turn on after replacing the battery plug it in to see if it charges. If so, your charging port is working and the problem most likely is an old battery.

The guide for replacing the battery can be found here.

If you cannot power your device on using the power button, try plugging the phone into a wall or computer to charge it. If the phone turns on and is charging there is most likely a problem with the power button or its connection.

Another possibility is that the display for the device has become broken or disconnected. If the Essentials Phone feels and sounds like it is operating normally (slight vibrations or text tones would be a sign of this) it is likely that you will need to replace the display.

The guide for display replacement can be found here.

Your device won't respond

Even the best of us can forget to check the basics. Make sure your device is on before proceeding!

Applications and software can seize up for unknown reasons. If the device is not responding to touch or button input you should attempt to hard reset your phone. This can be done by pressing down and holding the Volume Down and Power buttons together for 15 seconds.

Your device refuses to connect to the internet

Sometimes the most complex of problems has the easiest of solutions. If it's been a while since you last powered off your device try turning it off and letting it rest for a few minutes.

If you updated your Essential Phone software from 7 directly to 9 without going through 8 there is a bug that is known to break the devices connection with wifi. This can be fixed by rolling your software back to 8.1 and then returning to 9.

The guide for software rollback can be found here.

Go into settings, navigate to the Network & Internet section, and click on Mobile Network. Make sure that you have mobile data enabled for whatever application you are attempting to use, as this could be causing the problem.

The device just won't seem to charge

The first thing you should check is make sure that the problem is within your device and not an issue with the charging cable/adapter. Try charging with different cables, charging other devices on the original cable, and plugging into other adapters or computers. If the problem persists more forward with troubleshooting .

If your Essentials Phone is not charging it is possible that your charging port is either obstructed or broken. Try (CAREFULLY) cleaning out the port, if that doesn't work you may have to replace the charging port entirely.

The guide for replacing the charging port can be found here.

One cause of a non charging device is a old or bad battery. Try replacing the battery with a new one as it may fix the issue.

The guide for replacing the battery can be found here.

The phone loses battery life faster than usual.

Sometimes a specific application installed on your phone will use a lot of power and memory, which would lead to excessive battery drain. To find out, you need to first unlock developer settings by going to Settings -> About device -> Tap “Build number” 7-10 times until developer settings are unlocked.

Next, go back to Settings -> System -> Advanced -> Developer options -> Running services. Identify if any app(s) is using a large amount of memory compared to others. If so, you can click on the app on the list and temporarily Stop, or shutdown, the app. If this does not solve the power issue, consider uninstalling the app from your phone.

NOTE: Do not force close an app if the device says it’s not safe or if you do not know what the app/service is.

If you have recently updated your phone from Android 8 Oreo to Android 9 Pie, there is a known problem with new Android versions draining battery on a device. If the previous step does not solve anything, you may have to factory reset your device.

Before proceeding, make sure to backup all information on your phone to a hard drive or computer, as all your data will be erased completely. Once you have done so, go to Settings -> Backup & Reset -> Factory data reset -> Reset phone -> Erase everything.