Battery Percentage Status Bar Pixel 6 Pro

No, your Pixel 6 isn’t broken, your charger just sucks

Whenever a new Pixel phone is released, we have to expect that there will be a few problems here or there. It’s just the way that Google’s world works, but the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro release are much more tame than previous phone launches. We’ve seen issues surrounding the lack of communication in charging speeds, a fingerprint scanner that is too slow and inconsistent for some, and the frustrations surrounding the removal of the charging brick in the box.

There seems to be another “issue” making its rounds now, and it again comes back to charging speeds and capabilities. Thanks to 9to5Google, there are quite a few complaints about the Pixel 6 or 6 Pro not being able to charge, despite other devices and accessories working with the same cable and charging brick. Here’s the complaint from one example (that currently has 200 upvotes):

Just got the device and plugged it into my generic cable/charger that I was using until today to charge any other USB type C device I’ve used so far. Nothing happens. No charge, no warning, no nothing. It’s like it’s not connected.
I went further and tried many other chargers/cables I have around my home. NONE of them worked. I finally plugged the Pixel 6 original cable to my wife’s iPhone charger, and it started charging. Complete disappointment.
Went to my car to test the car chargers, and they don’t charge the phone either. It’s the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen in my life. If for some reason Google decided that their phone will only charge with the combination of their original cable/charger, I am going to return it ASAP.

That’s one big yikes right off the bat. Not being able to charge your brand new phone with “generic” chargers is definitely frustrating, especially when it’s possible to charge pretty much everything else that you own. But it seems that this is another example of poor communication from the part of Google, as the company does have a support page for the Pixel 6 that shares all sorts of information about charging the phone.

Sifting through the pile of potentially useless information, you’ll find the following:

Other Android cables and power adapters might not work with Pixel phones.

Voila! Google knows that your Pixel 6 might not charge properly (or at all) with those 15-foot charging cables that you picked up at the gas station on your last road trip. This was done intentionally, as Google is attempting to prevent anything wonky from happening to your phone on account of the charger.

What makes this even more frustrating is Google’s decision to remove the charging brick from the box. If the company wanted to make sure that we are all using the right chargers and cables for the new Pixel 6 and 6 Pro, it could have kept the charger in the box, and this would have avoided the confusion that users have been dealing with since the phones launched.

If you’re wondering what types of chargers you should be using according to Google, you’ll want to look for charging bricks that are USB Power Delivery (USB PD) compliant. Here are a few of our favorites that will work just fine with the Pixel 6 and 6 Pro:

It’s definitely a frustration, but we’re actually glad to see Google taking some measures to ensure that users are protected from questionable chargers. We just wish there was better communication, more transparency, and maybe a proper charging brick included in the box. That alone would have solved many of the issues that we’ve been experiencing and seeing since the phones were released.

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