Nothing Phone (3a) — Fast Charging Stuck at 5W Despite Official 33W Adapter & Cable
Hi everyone, I’ve been facing a frustrating charging issue and can’t seem to find a fix. Here’s a detailed breakdown:
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The Problem
My Nothing Phone (3a) is no longer fast charging properly. Despite using the official 33W adapter and cable, the phone barely charges at anything meaningful — verified across three different apps, and the results are consistent:
Charging mostly stays under 5W
Occasionally spikes to ~25W for a few seconds (which is odd — it should sustain at least 30W)
Then immediately drops back to 10W, and eventually settles under 5W
A simple restart didn’t help.
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When Did This Start?
I first noticed the issue after using the same cable to charge my Realme Buds T310, and then plugging it back into my phone. My suspicion is that the phone’s charging negotiation protocol got confused — it may no longer be correctly identifying the cable/adapter combination as the official 33W setup.
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Prior Experience (Same Issue, Different Trigger)
Interestingly, I’ve encountered this exact behaviour once before — back when I accidentally used a Realme charger on my Nothing Phone (3a). That time, I managed to fix it with what I can only describe as a “reverse the polarity” method: charging with the Realme charger once, then switching back to the official charger. It worked then.
I tried the same approach this time around — no luck.
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What I’ve Tried
Restarted the phone
Verified wattage on multiple apps
Attempted the “third-party charger → official charger” workaround (worked previously, not now)
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Has anyone else run into this? Could this be a software/firmware bug with charging protocol negotiation? Any fixes would be really appreciated!
