Wireless charging is a notoriously delicate technology, with different standards and implementations for faster speeds that are not compatible with each other. However, there seems to be a growing number of people having issues with Qi fast charging on Samsung phones, even with docking stations that worked perfectly a few months ago.

Over the past couple of months, there have been an increasing number of reports of wireless charging issues on the Galaxy S20 and Note20 series. Some complaints on the Samsung support forums go back even further, but most of the issues back then seem to be related to charger faults or user error. Reports increased exponentially in late September and early October, allegedly due to a system update – likely the September or October security patch.

"Same problem here with the Galaxy S20 Plus. Wireless charging worked fine until the update was released and installed 2 days ago. Now alternate between

"I have a similar issue which started after upgrading, and only on 1 charger (Aukey). It starts off as fast charging, then after about 10-20 seconds, stops completely for less than a second, and then starts charging fast again. If the screen is on, the charging sound will sound approximately every 15 seconds. It is only the Aukey charger. Strange."

The story is similar in all reports: Qi pads that previously charged the phone at fast speeds (indicated by “Fast Wireless Charging” on the lock screen) now only charge at the standard speed of 5. W. The same chargers still work with older phones, according to various reports. Most of the complaints come from owners of Galaxy S20 phones, including the Plus and Ultra models, but there are also reports of the Note20 / Note20 Ultra.

Samsung has not responded to complaints so far except with generic troubleshooting steps. There is a comment from a few days ago that another software update fixed the issue on the Note20 Ultra. Samsung started rolling out the November security patch at the end of October, so if this update contains a fix, it should be available to everyone soon.