Flashing red light, won't charge. HTC M8. How to fix it?

[norweger]

My phone has been working well for years, but a month ago, I started getting problems. I had to wiggle the charging cable just to get it to charge, and even though it had a battery of 100 %, it would discharge rather rapidly.

Since about a week ago, I haven't been able to get it over 1%. Most often the red indicator lamp is off when I attempt to charge, but if I wiggle the charging cable I could get the red light on, or sometimes just a flashing red light.

It can be like this the whole night, but it won't get beyond 1%

Sometimes the red light flashes while charging, like this

I've tried various chargers, but with the same result.

 

[mikedt]

Could be battery is worn out, and just won't hold a charge anymore, especially if you've been using it for years. How to fix it, replace the battery.

 

[eshieldsvx4]

My phone has been working well for years, but a month ago, I started getting problems. I had to wiggle the charging cable just to get it to charge, and even though it had a battery of 100 %, it would discharge rather rapidly.

Since about a week ago, I haven't been able to get it over 1%. Most often the red indicator lamp is off when I attempt to charge, but if I wiggle the charging cable I could get the red light on, or sometimes just a flashing red light.

It can be like this the whole night, but it won't get beyond 1%

Sometimes the red light flashes while charging, like this

I've tried various chargers, but with the same result.

My m8 battery is just as old but still stellar. You didn't let it hit zero too often? That shortens the battery charge cycle over time.

 

[Hadron]

Hmm, "wiggle the charging cable to get it to charge" sounds like either the charging port or the cable was starting to break. Rapid discharge could be a sign of battery ageing, though there are other possible causes (e.g. a rogue app). Being unable to charge could indicate either that the battery has failed or that the connector/cable is too broken to charge it.

Flashing red light means charging error. Many possible causes for that, commonest is probably temperature (if the phone gets too hot it will disable charging to protect the battery) but under the circumstances my guess is that this time it's something different.

Just to be sure, have you looked at the connector for signs of damaged pins (or dirt covering pins - if there is any, use an air blower or soft brush to remove, a hard object could damage the connector) and have you tried a different cable? It's probably neither, but since these would be the cheapest and simplest solutions it's worth ruling them out before moving on to more serious/expensive answers.