Problem: Poor battery life
We were very disappointed with the battery life of the Nexus 5X and we’re not the only ones. It has a 2,700mAh battery, so it should be capable of making it through the day on a single change, but it often doesn’t. Thankfully, there are things you can do to extend the battery life of your Nexus 5X.
Workarounds:
- Go to Settings > Battery > Menu > Battery saver and toggle it on. It will extend the battery when it’s low by switching off vibrations, location services, and limiting background data.
- Location services can also be a drain on power. You could turn them off completely via Settings > Location, or go to Settings > Location > Mode and choose Battery saving.
- You might consider turning off or limiting background syncing for different accounts. Take a look under Settings > Accounts and you can decide what should sync and how often.
Potential solutions:
- It always a good idea to begin with a simple restart. Press and hold the Power button and then tap Power off or Restart.
- You should make sure that your operating system and apps are up to date. Make sure Wi-Fi is on and go to Settings > About device > System updates to see if there’s anything available. You can make sure your apps are up to date by opening the Play Store, tapping the three horizontal lines in the top-left corner, and choosing My apps & games before tapping Update all.
- There’s a good chance that specific apps are causing your battery woes. Go to Settings > Battery and take a look at what’s guzzling all your power. You can tap on an app to get more details and adjust power usage options. If you find specific apps are exceptionally power-greedy and there’s no obvious way to tweak the settings, then it can be worth uninstalling and then reinstalling them to see if that improves performance. If that doesn’t help, you might have to find an alternative app. You can also confirm whether third-party apps are the problem by booting into safe mode. Press and hold Power and then tap and hold on Power off and tap OK to start in safe mode. If the battery drain is gone, an app is definitely the culprit.
- It’s worth trying a complete wipe of your cache partition. Turn the Nexus 5X off by pressing the Power button and choosing Power off. Press and hold Volume down, then press and hold the Power button until the phone turns on. Use Volume down to highlight the Recovery mode option and the Power button to select it. When you see the Android mascot on his back, hold down Power and, while holding it, press Volume up. You can then use Volume down to highlight the wipe cache partition option and the Power button to select it. Afterward, use Volume down to highlight Yes and Power to select it. Finally, use Power to select Reboot system now.
- Your final option is to factory reset your Nexus 5X. Make sure that you back up everything precious first. Go to Settings > Backup & reset > Factory data reset > Reset phone > Erase everything and then reboot.
Glitch: Lag and stutter
Though it’s not packed with cutting edge hardware, the Nexus 5X should not be lagging and stuttering. However, a lot of users are reporting that it is. There seem to be common problems with freezing around the camera, but some owners are also facing delay issues when navigating the interface, as well as stuttering with games and apps such as Snapchat.
Related: Nexus Spec Showdown: Nexus 6P vs. Nexus 5X
Potential fixes:
- A restart can sometimes, at least temporarily, solve issues like this. Press and hold the Power button and then tap Power off or Restart.
- It won’t do any harm to wipe your cache partition, but it could help. Turn the Nexus 5X off by pressing the Power button and choosing Power off. Press and hold Volume down, then press and hold the Power button until the phone turns on. Use Volume down to highlight the Recovery mode option and the Power button to select it. When you see the Android mascot on his back, hold down Power and, while holding it, press Volume up. You can then use Volume down to highlight the wipe cache partition option and the Power button to select it. Use Volume down to highlight Yes and Power to select it. Finally, use Power to select Reboot system now.
- A rogue app could be causing your issue. Press and hold the Power button, tap and hold on Power off, and tap OK to start in safe mode. If the lag is gone, then you have a problem with a third-party app you’ve installed. You can uninstall them one-by-one and test them until you find the culprit, or you can factory reset your phone and reinstall selectively.
- If you have a case on your Nexus 5X, remove it, and check if the phone feels hot to the touch when it’s lagging. There is a chance you have a hardware fault. Contact Google, your carrier, or your retailer and ask for a replacement handset. A few people report that the problem was gone for them when they switched to a new Nexus 5X.
Issue: Touchscreen unresponsive while charging
A lot of people have been complaining about extreme touchscreen lag when the Nexus 5X is plugged in and charging. The display responds very slowly to touch, making the phone virtually unusable while charging. This seems to only happen when it’s trying to use the Rapid Charging feature and with 240v power supplies, like those available in the United Kingdom.
Workarounds:
- Usually with charging problems, we suggest using the original charger and cable that came with your phone, but that might be a bad idea here. According to a Reddit investigation, the LG charger that comes with the Nexus 5X has a plastic grounding pin and it can’t deal with rapid charging. There’s no confirmation of this, so we can’t say for sure.
- You can use a different charger and accept slower charging speeds. A lot of people report the problem is gone, or reduced, when they use another charger.
- It is probably worth trying different power outlets and avoiding extensions to see if you notice any difference.
Problem: Yellow screen
Some Nexus 5X owners have found that there’s a yellow tinge to their display, which gets more noticeable when you turn the brightness down. We’ve seen this issue before with other devices.
Potential solutions:
- It’s possible that this has something to do with the glue or the coating used in the phone’s construction and the yellow might fade over time. Try cranking the brightness up and see how it is after a couple of days.
- Some people have sent it back and report that their replacement handset doesn’t suffer from the same problem, though others have reported the same issue with their replacement. If you want to give it a try, then contact Google, your carrier, or your retailer.
Glitch: Photos upside down
A few Nexus 5X owners have noticed that their photos are upside down in certain apps. It turns out that this is because those apps are using the old Android camera API, according to a Tech lead for Android’s camera framework, who posted an interesting explanation in this Reddit thread.
Workaround:
- Switch to a different app.
Potential fix:
- Contact the developer of the app you’re having a problem with and ask them to update it. Apparently, Google and LG are already reaching out to developers, so most afflicted apps should be updated soon.
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