I just received a Librem 5, second-hand, but I believe it wasn’t even opened.
I tried to charge it, the led was flashing red very fast, then green and a vibration, then fast red flashing again, then green and a vibration, and so on.
I followed the instructions to remove the battery, hold volume up, plug on power, put the battery, then the LED is permanently flashing red very fast.
Not sure it is really charging and I should wait like this.
Leaves plenty of room for doubt.
What batch is it? Evergreen? Earlier?
Are you using the legitimate Purism-supplied charger?
Do you have a legitimate Purism-branded battery?
What additional equipment do have available for diagnostics? e.g. multimeter? external charger?
Try taking the battery out completely and just run off mains power via the charger?
Thanks for the reply!
Everything was in the box, very cleanly packed, it had some kind of tape but I guess this isn’t a proof. That said, the person I bought it from seemed very careful. The charger and the battery have the Purism logo.
I think it is evergreen but I am waiting to get the invoice by the post.
Besides what is in the box, I have a USB C device that can measure current and voltage, and probably a multimeter somewhere.
If I use all the kill switches, hold volume up and connect the charger with the battery out, as advised for charging problems, it is flashing red slowly and nothing more happens (afterwards, I did add the battery and release the volume up button, as in the guide).
Is your suggestion to connect with the battery out and just connect the charger without holding volume up initially?
EDIT: The charger has the US plug and some adapters to change the plug to Europe or UK, I’d like to do it since I am in Europe, but I haven’t figured out how to remove the US part, so I am using a plug adapter now.
EDIT2: For the charger, I understood, I can just fit the provided add-on to it, nothing to remove. I tried plugging the adapter to the phone without pressing volume up first, then it flashes twice red, once green with a vibration, twice red, once green with a vibration, and so on.
Yes, basically just to run off mains and take the battery out of the equation but maybe use that multimeter to check the voltage on the battery.
Do you know whether the previous owner used it at all and hence might have wiped it before sale? (in which case you would have to reflash)
Have you tried press-and-hold on the power button for 20 seconds (with a charged battery in and the charger not connected)?
Yes, I think that might be right. As there is no add-on for my country, I have to use a plug adapter and hence I can’t swear that it is right that there is nothing to remove.
Is it still flashing after putting the battery in?
Yes, try that.
He said it wasn’t even opened, so never used.
I don’t have a charged battery.
Twice red, once green with vibration, twice red, once green with vibration, and so on.
I have put the USB-C meter, it says 0.3A is flowing to the device, with or without battery.
With the volume up pressed first, it is flashing red not extremely fast, with the battery added afterwards, it is flashing red very fast. After a while, there is very light heat on the device, no heat on the battery and no heat on the charger.
0.3A may be enough. I meant to use an actual multimeter to check the voltage on the battery.
This is the important part. Seems like something is wrong either with the battery or the charging controller.
Do you have some another USB-C power supply, or a USB-A to C cable? If yes, does it behave the same way (blinking fast after putting the battery in) when using them?
This may explain why it was never used.
I connected an ipad charger (similar characterics). Without pressing any button, I have the LED flashing red twice, green once and a vibration, the password decryption screen appears, then the LED is flashing red very fast again.
If I try with the volume up button without battery, the LED is flashing red, when I put the battery it is flashing red very fast, like with the purism charger.
I have the invoice, the date is June 15 2022, it was ordered in 2018.
I’m afraid something is definitely wrong either with the battery or phone’s charging circuit. Trying another battery would be the best thing to do now I guess.
Is there a faster way than ordering a battery from purism?
I guess I should contact purism for support.
Anyway, thanks for the advice.
If you live in USA, I would warmly recommend to you to order brand new Librem 5 battery (actually just repeating what @dos already wrote above: “the best thing to do now”, the best thing to start with, and quickest) as your description (red LED light “flashing very fast”) points toward conclusion of mine that your current battery isn’t useful at all (and not recoverable nor reparable). Good/great point would be that your Librem 5 boots without inserted battery by using the original Librem 5 power supply which means a lot … at least to me.
As OP said that …
…they need to be aware that Purism can’t ship loose batteries overseas*, so the only option may be to check on eBay for a 3rd party seller. (Unfortunately.)
(*) due to shipping regulations
I checked the battery with a multimeter, there is 2.75V. I don’t know what a normal value should be.
I’m no expert but 
… I would expect more like 3.8V. That’s what it says on the back of the battery (right?) and I just measured my spare battery with a multimeter and that’s what the multimeter said (give or take a few hundredths of a Volt).
Maybe @dos can comment on that.
Review also: Bought broken batteries for Librem 5
This particular battery is definitively over-discharged (also I’m not sure and therefore guess, as never tested, that at 0% inside of Librem 5 cutout voltage would be at 3.20V) but main and actual problem over there might easily be that this battery does not have any measurable internal resistance (very fast red LED light flashing when this battery inserted there) and therefore not recoverable, IMO:
Thanks for the link. So the battery is probably defective.
Purism did not reply to my email (sent last Saturday) yet.
The only option I can think of would be to send the phone back to Purism (so they send it me again with another battery) or find someone in US who can bring a new battery to me.
Or buy from ebay: https://www.ebay.com/sch/i.html?_nkw=librem5+battery&_sacat=0
(Provenance/authenticity unknown.)
Or from other vendors, possibly: https://batteryclerk.com/products/purism-librem-5-replacement-battery