What’s wrong with my Moto C phone’s battery?
Q
I use a Moto C smartphone (pictured right), bought from O2 in 2018. It does what I need, but recently it has needed to be charged more frequently. Then, one evening, it simply stopped working. A local repair shop told me it was defunct. I went to the O2 shop in search of a refurbished replacement, but they directed me to the O2 website.
That evening, the phone sprang back into life, so I put it on the charge. The next day it had lost 25 per cent of its charge. But the following night it lost no charge, and my phone was like new!
Meanwhile, I received both texts and emails from O2 clearly anticipating an imminent sale. Could it be that O2 has been tampering with my phone in order to force me to buy a new one? Edwin Ovenden
A
Companies use many dubious tactics to persuade customers to replace perfectly good devices, but we doubt O2 has been remotely messing with your phone. Any updates to the phone’s software would actually come from Motorola – and it’s been a couple of years since the company stopped issuing them for the Moto C.
Instead, your phone is suffering the effects of a failing battery – expect more unpredictable behaviour like this. Thankfully, replacing the battery on your phone is as simple as popping off the back and fitting a new one (ifixit has an excellent illustrated guide at www.snipca.com/49372). Expect to pay around £10-£15 for a replacement battery (www.snipca.com/49373).