This article is now deprecated and replaced with a permanent one you can find here.
Now that we're in the world of USB charging, I'm getting more and more complaints about "my battery isn't charging in my Z System camera." Things didn't become simpler with USB charging, they became more complex. Today you have to run a checklist to make sure things are working as they should:
- Am I using a USB-C PD 15w or higher charger?
- Am I using too much power from a multi-port charger? (e.g. another device is taking so much power that the port you're plugged into is now <15W)
- Am I using a USB-C PD charge compliant cable?
- Am I using the correct USB port? (e.g. bottom one on Z8)
- Is the battery I'm using in-camera charge capable? (e.g. EN-EL15B or EN-EL15C)
- Is SETUP > USB power delivery enabled?
- Is NETWORK > USB set to MTP/PTP?
- Is the camera turned Off? (In standby also works, but sometimes increases the timing for the next one)
- Did I wait long enough for PD negotiations to resolve? (often an issue with batteries that were fully depleted)
Holy Miles Morales, that's a lot of dependencies, and I'm not sure I've caught them all. But more often than not, one of the above is tripping someone up on the Zf, Z8, or Z9 these days.
Update: several people have emailed me saying their non-Nikon camera "just worked." Well, maybe. A number of the earlier USB power uses are going to run up against the "common charger" problem in Europe. While the camera may currently charge off of 5W USB-A, that's not going to work when you see that European offices, homes, airports, cars, and more are all using USB Power Delivery only. Also, some of the settings in the Nikons are there for a reason: there are conditions where you don't want charging to happen when a USB-C connection is present. While it's true that they're uncommon, I appreciate the ability to deal with them when they do arise.
