Charging X-T3 via USB

boogisha said:

Here are a few more related topics:

• "XT30 USB not working working after firmware update 1.20"[1]
• "XT3 Settings reset after firmware update?"[2]
• "XT-3 USB problem.."[3]

That second one mentions[4] fiddling with "SET UP > CONNECTION SETTINGS > CONNECTION MODE" once again, switching from "USB CARD READER" to one of the "TETHER" options (not sure which one, though), turning the camera off, back on, and switching back to "USB CARD READER" making the issue go away, camera charging again as it did before.

Did you try changing that setting back and forth already (possibly turning the camera off/on in between)?

Also, one of the posts reports[5] USB cables that used to work not working anymore, different cable working fine still afterwards. So even though your existing cable works with other devices without issues, might be worth trying a different one(s) with your X-T3 anyway.

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Hey everyone!

Heads up to anyone possibly having this problem after updating to firmware 4.30.

Recently bought XT3 used with an old firmware, updated it to the latest 4.30 and lost the ability to charge the battery in camera/power the camera with any cable or power source whatsoever.

After stumbling across the very few forum threads this did the thing! Thank you so much Boogisha for pointing this solution out!

Check the cable

So this is a one year old thread - to confirm:

Just had the same issue, after upgrading to firmware 5.01.

The display shows power is connected, but the battery runs empty nevertheless and is not charged.

I hope the green light, when cam is off, is a good enough indicator, which is shwoing now (as I meanwhile charged my batteries externally and can't confirm by the charge-state), but after switching the USB settings to card-reader and back to teathered:Auto the green light is on now.

I had tested with different USB-PD and normal USB cables and even differen USB-PD sources before - and no charging happened.

ThorstenMUC said:

So this is a one year old thread - to confirm:

Just had the same issue, after upgrading to firmware 5.01.

The display shows power is connected, but the battery runs empty nevertheless and is not charged.

Click to expand...

This is normal; the battery will not be charged while the camera is turned on. It will only charge the battery when the camera is off, indicated by the green light. From my experience, when connected to a USB-C powerbank, the battery will run down if the camera is in use. However, even with the battery at empty, the powerbank should still be able to power the camera, with the battery basically acting as an adapter. If the camera shuts off after the battery drains then there is probably a cable or powerbank issue. If the powerbank and cable worked before the fw update, and now not, then possibly there is a fw issue.

ThorstenMUC said:

I hope the green light, when cam is off, is a good enough indicator, which is shwoing now (as I meanwhile charged my batteries externally and can't confirm by the charge-state), but after switching the USB settings to card-reader and back to teathered:Auto the green light is on now.

I had tested with different USB-PD and normal USB cables and even differen USB-PD sources before - and no charging happened.

Click to expand...

If you mean when the camera is off, then yes there is an issue.

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Lettermanian said:

If you mean when the camera is off, then yes there is an issue.

Click to expand...

Yes - as the firmware update would not initialise due to not sufficiently loaded battery I attached the USB-C to the cam and then updated the firmware.

Shortly tested it and checked settings afterwards (not connected any more) so the battery got down to one bar now. As I already had the USB-C cable with a USB-PD charger at hand I did not take the battery out, but just plugged it back in to charge in camera (switched off).

It stayed connected for several hours this way until I wanted to store it away, but when checking the battery-state noticed it had not charged at all. So I tried another cable/charger combination and my powerbank, which I knew worked before - nothing charged the X-T3.

So I finally charged the battery in the external charger and later checked the Internet - finding this thread.

I switched the USB-state as recommended - and now at least the battery-charging indicator was lighting up... but as the battery was full now I could not really confirm it charging yet.

Well, I will have to change my previous post a bit. I was able to do some testing of this issue recently. Gear is X-T3 and Anker PowerCore iii Elite 25600 powerbank (using its usb-c ports) with a PD-rated usb-c cable. Camera connection set to USB Tether Auto in the set-up menu.

Test 1: Firmware Version 5.0: a few weeks ago I set up the camera to shoot intervals for about 3 hours, camera connected via usb-c port to the powerbank, and with a fully charged NPW-126S battery. At the beginning of the session the usb icon displayed and the battery icon showed the full four bars. At the end of the session, there were still four bars displaying in the battery icon. This is in contrast to what I stated previously, that the battery would run down. It did not. When I disconnected the camera from the powerbank, the full battery icon remained.

Under fw 5.0, the camera battery would charge with the camera off and connected to the pb.

Test 2: Today I decided to update the firmware to version 5.01 and test it with the same powerbank. My battery was full though, so I left the power on and recorded some 4k video for a while until the battery ran down a bit. When it showed three bars, I connected the powerbank, and recorded more 4k video. I did this throughout the afternoon, and the battery icon did not reduce its charging status bars. With the camera on and recording, it also did not charge to the full four bars, so it would seem that the powerbank is indeed powering the camera while the camera is on, but it is not charging the battery at the same time. The battery charge is not depleting either. When I turned the camera off, the battery did indeed charge then, and was full a while later.

So as far as I can tell, fw 5.01 is working as expected with a powerbar and PD-rated cable in my X-T3.