I paused Smart Charging and now I cannot get it to stop pausing

Thank you for posting your inquiry here in Microsoft Community, freedda1.

I understand that you'd like to use the Smart Charging at anytime. I appreciate the time and effort you've gone through to make the smart charging work all the time.

This means that there's no charging/temperature risk on the battery of your device yet (which accelerates battery deterioration or lead to expansion). The Smart Charging feature is purposely created to lessen the chances of battery issues.

Please check this article for reference: Smart charging on Surface.

In this case, we would really appreciate if you can drop a feedback through Feedback Hub app about how you want the Smart Charging to work.

John, you are not understanding my issue: I 'paused' smart charging because I wanted to get my tablet's battery up to 100% during a power outage.

I no longer need that (battery over 80%) and the tablet / app will supposedly 'automatically' turn smart charging back on, but Microsoft's app IS NOT WORKING, so my tablet is now stuck on charging to 100%, and there's no way to fix this - or at least myself and four MS support people haven't gotten it to work, even though they all claim to know how to fix it.

The issue is not lack of knowledge on my part; the problem is Microsoft has created a **** up app that doesn't allow people to make any decisions about smart charging!

The easiest 'fix' would be to change the Surface app so it allows us to 'start' or reapply smart charging, along with pausing it. As we say here in the non-binary, non-Microsoft world, it's not rocket science.

Another 'fix' would be for Microsoft to give me a free battery replacement when mine dies prematurely because they never fixed their broken app.

Maybe you have some sway and can get someone to fix this - sooner than later, but as we also say out here in the non-Microsoft universe, I ain't holding my breath!

Based on this question, I checked my Surface Pro 8 (Win 11, all updates).

"Smart Charging" is paused. Last night, the Surface charged from 27% to 100% when I left the charger on overnight.

I have no need to charge the Surface to 100%. I do not wish to endanger battery health and shorten its lifetime by doing so. MS Support docs say that while you can manually pause Smart Charging, it turns on only when the Surface senses certain usage patterns.

When Smart Charging turns on, MS Support docs say I should see a heart over the battery icon on the task bar. I do not recall ever seeing this heart icon, suggesting that Smart Charging has been paused for some time.

Is there an answer to this question? Is there any way to turn on Smart Charging and help keep the battery healthy.

So far there's been no answer to my issue. Tomorrow I will call MS support for the fourth or fifth time, but I'm not betting I'll get a fix, since it seems like none of the support people really know the app at all, and are just going through their usual list of fixes when something is amiss.

In my case I had to actually pause the smart charging, which I wanted to do only briefly when I lost power. If yours is 'paused' but you never paused it, then that's a slightly different - but related - issue.

The issue - as far as I can determine - is that the app is flawed. But I don't trust that anyone at MS really wants to hear that, or that they are going to do anything about it in a timely manner.

I will however, post something if I do get a fix for this.

I've been asking some internal contacts these same questions and even opened a support case about the documentation asking for more and better information. There is no way to manually pause Smart Charging. You might take a look at Battery Limit mode and see if this suits your needs Battery Limit setting (Surface) - Surface | Microsoft Docs

As for the heart icon, it took 9 days of being constantly plugged in for it to appear on a Surface Laptop Studio here.

Based on this question, I checked my Surface Pro 8 (Win 11, all updates).

"Smart Charging" is paused. Last night, the Surface charged from 27% to 100% when I left the charger on overnight.

I have no need to charge the Surface to 100%. I do not wish to endanger battery health and shorten its lifetime by doing so. MS Support docs say that while you can manually pause Smart Charging, it turns on only when the Surface senses certain usage patterns.

When Smart Charging turns on, MS Support docs say I should see a heart over the battery icon on the task bar. I do not recall ever seeing this heart icon, suggesting that Smart Charging has been paused for some time.

Is there an answer to this question? Is there any way to turn on Smart Charging and help keep the battery healthy.

Thanks for this info - both about battery limit mode, and that it took nine days for the smart charging to be re-inabled on your computer. Too bad Microsoft support people don't know about these!

Based on what you're saying it seems that one of the 'conditions' necessary for the Surface app to 'automatically' un-pause itself is for the device to be plugged in for nine days. That seems like an awfully long time to have to wait for the app to do what it should have done much sooner.

What is also strange is that the battery limit option requires a special reboot to get to that feature. Why can't Microsoft just make that option a part of the app (along with a 'manual' option), or better yet, make them both part of the OS, as are the dozens of other options available to us!

It took 9 days here. I don't know what the criteria are. It seems to vary.

 I'm an unpaid volunteer and do not work for Microsoft. If you want background on what a Microsoft MVP is, see https://mvp.microsoft.com/en-us/Overview and for Volunteer Moderators see https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/page/faq#faqWhosWho1

Thanks for this info - both about battery limit mode, and that it took nine days for the smart charging to be re-inabled on your computer. Too bad Microsoft support people don't know about these!

Based on what you're saying it seems that one of the 'conditions' necessary for the Surface app to 'automatically' un-pause itself is for the device to be plugged in for nine days. That seems like an awfully long time to have to wait for the app to do what it should have done much sooner.

What is also strange is that the battery limit option requires a special reboot to get to that feature. Why can't Microsoft just make that option a part of the app (along with a 'manual' option), or better yet, make them both part of the OS, as are the dozens of other options available to us!

Thanks again Barb. Yes, I get that you are a volunteer moderator and I appreciate what you have shared here.

Hi Barb:

Once again, many thanks for your volunteer efforts. Your work is much appreciated.

I'm not sure that battery limit mode is right for me. I regularly run my surface on battery for many hours at a time.

It does seem that the Smart Charging battery protection area is a bit fuzzy. While I'd appreciate an automated way to prevent charging the Surface into a less-then-desirable zone, I don't plan to leave it plugged in for days at a time waiting for Smart Charging to un-pause itself.

Thanks again.

I agree. I think Microsoft's reasoning for automating this process is itself a bit 'fuzzy'.

I was thinking, what if we applied this 'logic' to other areas of our life: we walk in our home and turn on the light, but then can't turn it off -- since the lights only turn off 'automatically' once some unknown conditions are met?

Or ... you turn on your stove to cook, but then can't turn the stove off when you are done.

The overall flawed logic here is that 'automated' decisions (which are actually made by programmers at MS) are better than ones we can make ourselves:

Barb and others here have brought up many different options, and one of these would probably work for any one of us, e.g. to set charging to 50%; to charge to 100%; or to decide to turn on (and off) 80% charging .... but one or more of these can only be accessed through a special 'reboot' or they are 'automated' or we have to wait 9 days for it to take effect, or the app is simply flawed .... and here I thought Microsoft and Win. 11 was supposed to make things easier?