Scared of putting new battery in my Nexus 6p

February 15, 2018 11:51 AM

I'm having that battery issue with my Huawei Nexus 6p where it shuts down at around 30% and it seems to go down to that very quickly. I've done all the easy fixes that involve draining the battery etc. with no luck.

Now I'm sitting here with the new battery+cute tool kit that I got from Newegg, so I'm assuming it's authentic as stated, but I'm scared to bring it to somebody to have it put in (I wouldn't dare put it in myself).

Question is: what should I be backing up before I take the plunge? And how? Through my PC with a USB cable? I am not skilled enough to get everything on a Verizon cloud, I'm almost full on my free Dropbox account and my Google Drive. How do you save an app? Or just make a list and after it gets its new battery (if it survives), go back to the Google store and reload the apps?

And can you recommend a place in New York City that will perform the surgery??

And should I wait until I return from my March 5-15th Mexican vacation before I attempt this??

Thanks.

posted by DMelanogaster to Computers & Internet (6 answers total)

First, as far as backing up, this depends a bit on what version of Android you're running. But here's my general policy:
- Make sure all photos/videos/etc. are both backed up into the Cloud (Google or Dropbox or both) and then I also do a copy to my computer with a USB cable. I copy over any folder that looks like it includes photos.
- Under settings, then accounts, then Google, double check that everything is syncing.
- Under settings, under backup, make sure that you have backup turned on.
- Take screenshots of all of your apps and paste them into a document for your later reference. You will be able to reinstall them with ease and in more recent versions of Android I've found that they SOMETIMES save the login details. But for the most part they don't. I end up spending about an hour logging into my various apps after setting up a new phone. (I set up a new phone about once every 3 months).

- Are your contacts stored with your Google account or on your SIM or elsewhere? I think that using Google makes things easier.

- If you don't already use a password manager, now may be the time to do so.

THEN
- Before you actually swap out the battery, do a factory reset of the phone. That often resolves battery problems for me. Use the phone for a day or two.

- If the battery is still bad, I'd look on Yelp to see about reviews of repair places. I have someone that I love in Seattle!

I promise you that setting up your phone again from scratch is actually a good thing. Inevitably there is junk on there and this will help you clean out the junk.
posted by k8t at 12:07 PM on February 15, 2018

Oh, as far as the vacation - don't worry about that! I've found that after setting up a phone from scratch it usually takes me about 4 days to get everything back to how I like it.

And the battery swap will probably be done in a day, maybe less.
posted by k8t at 12:08 PM on February 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

This is actually an issue that affects many Nexus 6Ps - just check out reddit's 6P subreddit. (But it seems from your question that you might already know that it's a widespread problem)

I have the exact same problem with my 6P. In my particular case, it occurs more often when it's cold out, around 40F or below. I've also tried various fixes - no dice. And here's the kicker: Huawei blames Google for the bug, whereas Google blames Huawei.

One of the most popular posts on the previously mentioned subreddit goes like this: "Why is my 6P shutting down whenever it gets below a certain battery percentage?"

As for the most upvoted reply? "You must be new here."
posted by CottonCandyCapers at 12:49 PM on February 15, 2018

And can you recommend a place in New York City that will perform the surgery??

I just went to my local uBreakiFix and had the entire replacement completed while we were watching a movie in the nearby theater. They had their own batteries and everything, and did a great job.
posted by ringu0 at 1:26 PM on February 15, 2018

Also came here to recommend uBreakiFix. In fact, I went to the one on 8th street yesterday. Very professional and pleasant. I asked if they could remove the 3 screws that I still couldn't get out of my Nexus 5X (in order to change the battery myself). They did that immediately, then they also pried out the old battery, offered to discard it properly, and gave me an anti-static bag to tote the motherboard home. They refused to take my cash (even though I was insistent), and they said if I had any trouble putting the phone back together, to bring it back, and they'd fix it.
posted by unknowncommand at 8:08 PM on February 15, 2018 [1 favorite]

I replaced my own Nexus 6P battery with a kit about 6 months ago. It was pretty easy, and it's still going strong. So, don't be too stressed out about the process -- your phone will most likely come out just fine.
posted by sevenyearlurk at 7:02 AM on February 16, 2018