enable or disable smart charging

Question

My surface app is not displaying an option to enable or disable smart charging, as you can see on the attached image I can view smart charging instructions but there's no option to enable or disable it

Answer 1

Hi Hussain_02,

Thank you for reaching Microsoft Community.

Smart charging is always active and turns on automatically when it detects your device is plugged in for prolonged periods or used at elevated temperatures. Only some Surface devices can manually pause smart charging, which does not include Surface Laptop 4. To see compatible devices, go to Caring for your Surface battery and look for devices that don't have an asterisk (*).

For Surface Laptop 4 and the other Surface devices that support Battery Smart Charging but have an asterisk (*), a battery with a heart icon won’t appear. To fully charge your Surface, you'll need to follow the Battery Smart Charging steps above in Surface features to optimize your battery longevity.

If you would like to provide your feedback and suggestions on how to improve this feature, please click the Feedback button in the lower right corner of Surface app or visit Send feedback to Microsoft with the Feedback Hub app - Microsoft Support to use the Feedback Hub.

I wish you all the best and stay safe!

Kind regards,

Lavenia

Answer 2

TJ, you said:

When I lookup how to disable it requires the "surface" app which no one uses and is often removed by any company that images their machines. Many organizations even lock down the app store for increased security and don't allow installing apps like this.

But do *you* personally have the problem I've quoted from your post? If the Surface app has been removed and you can't download it from the store, then yeah, I think that you're out of luck.

I didn't even know I had it on my Surface until I searched for it (Start menu, type Surface in the search box). Since it was already installed, I gave it a try and it works just fine. It says it will charge it to 100% now and it got past 85% when I thought I should stop it (because I only tried it to be sure it worked).

Well, that's when I discovered a little "gotcha". I couldn't turn the Smart charging back on! It says it will automatically re-engage after a few days. Then I thought, well, maybe I have to wait until it hits 100% percent and then it will let me turn it back on. Nope, still doesn't let me turn it back on. Grrrrr!! Oh well, give it a few days and let it automatically take care of itself. I hope it does!!!

Answer 3

Thanks for the reply. I was able to work with IT and get the surface app unblocked and reinstalled so I can use that now to "allow my battery to charge to 100%". However, that's still not a solution, workaround at best. 1) why wouldn't you just put this in the windows "settings" app where literally all the other settings including battery related settings are??? I have to open a separate app I'd never normally use just for this one setting, that makes no sense. 2) Every time I want a full battery, I have to launch the surface app select "allow my battery to charge to 100%, then wait an hour for it to charge all the way, despite the fact that it's been on the charger the whole time. I'm sorry but it just makes no sense at all. Somone didn't think this through.

Answer 4

I totally agree with you!!! It seems like a totally stupid way to handle this. It definitely *should* be in the settings!!!

Plus, the fact that I can't turn it back on when I'm done charging to 100% and have to wait until it automatically takes care of itself. In the meantime, I've got it charging to 100% for who knows how long and that's going to be bad for the battery too!

I wonder if the latest Windows Update will address this? I've got a Windows 11 update pending (it'll update on Sunday). We'll see ...

Answer 5

THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!