Oculus Quest 3 Not Charging While Playing? – (Easy Guide)

Nikolay Petrov
- Updated:
January 3, 2024

Oculus Quest 3 not charging while playing and you’re wondering why? Keep reading!

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Typically, Oculus Quest 3 is designed to be charged while playing, but the reason why the battery is not going up could be due to intensive usage.

This guide will unwrap everything you need to know about gaming with Oculus Quest 3 while charging and how to overcome potential problems.

If your Oculus Quest 3 is not charging while playing, begin by inspecting your charging equipment and ensuring a secure connection. Additionally, try connecting the headset to a proven-to-work outlet, update the system and lower the utilization of your Quest 3.

Why Oculus Quest 3 Won't Charge While Playing?

There are numerous reasons why Oculus Quest 3 won’t charge while in game, so it’s best to take a quick look at all possibilities. We’ve prepared a complete list at your disposal to review before the troubleshooting.

Here’s everything that can prevent Oculus Quest 3 from charging while playing:

Too much utilization while playing games.
A problem with your charging equipment.
The outlet’s voltage is weak or fluctuating.
A faulty power outlet connector/plug/strip.
Obstruction in the headset’s charging port.
A degraded battery of your Oculus Quest 3.

Without a further ado, let’s jump into the solution guide!

Oculus Quest 3 Not Charging While Playing - Easy Fix!

Tip: Following the steps in order will help you discover what’s causing the issue!

1. Try Charging Without Game

The first step is simple but fundamental to begin the troubleshooting and unravel the culprit causing the charging problem.

If your Oculus Quest 3 is charging well when you’re not in a game, then your device is working, or at least the battery charges. If your Oculus Quest 3 is not charging, even when you’re not playing games, something else causes the issue and it’s not related to playing games.

Either way, proceed with the next solution!

2. Inspect Charging Equipment

If your Oculus Quest 3 not charging while playing, the first step should be to inspect the charging equipment. The Oculus Quest 3 headset charges via USB-C cable and port on the left-hand side of the VR device.

Additionally, there is a 18W power adapter involved, which plays a vital role in charging your Oculus Quest 3. Hence, inspecting the power equipment involves, the following:

The USB-C port on your Quest 3 headset.
The USB-C power cable of your headset.
The USB-C power adapter of the headset.

Here are a few steps to validate that everything is intact:

Verify that the power cable is not ripped or defective.
Check the USB-C cable’s connector to verify no bents.
Unplug and plug the USB-C connector in the headset.
Disconnect and reconnect the adapter in your outlet.

If your Oculus Quest 3 charging equipment appears to be intact, connect everything, enter in your game and test whether it’s charging.

3. Eject 3rd Party Outlet Plugs

Your Oculus Quest 3 may not charge while you play when the power adapter is not directly connected to the outlet. If you’re using anything that is re-routing the power supply from the outlet, before reaching your VR headset, the delivered voltage will be less, preventing the Oculus Quest 3 from charging while playing.

To solve the charging problem, remove the following devices from your outlet:

Smart Plugs
A/C Dividers
Power Strips

We recommend connecting the 18W power adapter of your Oculus Quest 3 directly into the outlet, without third-party devices. Then, test charging the headset while playing or while idling on the main menu to check whether there is any improvement in the voltage received.

Note: Verify that the power adapter is not damaged!

4. Connect to a Different Outlet

Whenever Oculus Quest 3 not charging while playing, you should start suspecting the electrical outlet the headset is being connected to. Perhaps the outlet’s voltage is currently weak/fluctuating, which prevents your VR headset from sufficiently charging.

Such electrical socket problems appear when the outlet is malfunctioning, after a power outage or simply due to overloading the circuit.

How to Know a Bad Outlet?

We recommend using another device such as a smartphone to test whether the outlet is working by connecting a charger. To take this method one step further, we recommend plugging a lamp into the outlet to find out whether the light will fluctuate, showing your socket’s voltage is weak/fluctuating.

Note: Test connecting your Oculus Quest 3 into an outlet from another room, which is supposedly connected to a different fuse from your primary circuit.

5. Play Less Demanding Games

Another reason why Oculus Quest 3 is not charging while playing could be due to the intensity of the game you’re playing. Whenever the Oculus Quest 3 is engaged with a more demanding game, the headset requires more power to function, hence consumes more battery.

If you’re playing a game that puts your Oculus Quest 3 under a high utilization, the battery percent may not go up, even when connected to power. In the worst-case scenario, the battery would even go down, but slow enough for you to enjoy a full gaming session.

Quick Tip: Test whether your Oculus Quest 3 will start charging while not playing, but idling in the main menu.

6. Update Your Oculus Firmware

Perhaps your Oculus Quest 3 not charging while playing because of a software bug that is causing problems with the battery. A quick fix would be to update your VR headset to check whether a new firmware will deliver a solution for the VR Quest 3 charging issues.

Here’s how to update your Oculus Quest 3 in easy steps:

Equip your Oculus Quest 3 VR headset.
Use the pointer to go into the “Settings.”
From the options, enter the “System” tab.
Finally, select the “Software Update” tile.

The Oculus Quest 3 will immediately start to search and automatically apply the newest available firmware update. We recommend remaining patient throughout the process and allowing your device to upgrade, which will hopefully resolve the charging problem.

Info: If you see “No updates available” your headset is up to date!

7. Clean the Headset Charging Port

The charging port of your Oculus Quest 3 may be full with hair, debris and dust, which may be obstructing the USB-C charging connector. This may prevent the headset from charging at all, or lower the voltage that your device receives, causing the battery to go down when you’re playing games.

To clean the charging port we recommend reaching in with a toothpick (being extremely gentle), and scrubbing the dust accumulation. Try to remove everything from the port that is not supposed to be there and verify that the cable’s USB-C connector reaches in freely and plugs securely.

Alert: Never use water to clean the inside of the connection ports!

8. Replace the Headset Equipment

If your Oculus Quest 3 headset is not charging while playing even after attempting the previous solutions in this guide, it’s time to start replacing. The first and cheapest thing to replace is the USB-C charging cable, followed by the 18W USB-C electrical adapter.

Oculus Quest 3 Power Equipment Replacement
USB-C Power Cable	💲	AINOPE 100W USB C to USB C Cable
	💲💲	UGREEN USB C to USB CABLE 100W
	💲💲💲	Anker USB C to USB C Cable (240W)
USB-C Power Adapter	💲	Keymox Fast Charger USB C 18W
	💲💲	REPIND USB C 18W Wall Charger
	💲💲💲	DJI Intelligent 18W USB C Adapter

We recommend replacing the USB-C charging cable first, since it’s cheaper, and then replacing the power adapter. If you have a replacement component at home, feel free to test whether your Oculus Quest 3 will charge with a different and proven equipment.

9. Replace Oculus Quest 3 Battery

If your Oculus Quest 3 not charging while playing, perhaps the battery is too old and holds less charge than it used to before.

When playing games your Oculus headset is under high utilization, consumes more battery to work, but the battery’s charge is being drained faster. This ultimately results in not charging while playing games and overall faster battery drain, regardless of the games or apps that you use.

The solution is battery replacement. Well, this one you can’t do at home…

Sadly, there are no replacement batteries on the market and only the merchant or Meta, can solve issues with battery degradation.

Tip: We recommend checking your warranty and contacting the local merchant or Meta Customer Service!

Final Thoughts:

Hence, if Oculus Quest 3 not charging while playing games, you need to restart the headset, inspect the charting equipment and update the software. If this does not help, you’ll need to clean the charging port and replace the charging equipment.

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