Can the software of a (non rooted) phone affect its charging when turned off? I bought a brand new Motorola phone. It was at around 70% of battery charge when I got it, but I've never been able to charge it.

I plug the charger to the wall, the USB-C (factory provided) to the phone, and it just does nothing.

Customer service chat wouldn't consider hardware issues before making me follow several default troubleshooting steps that clearly didn't apply to my case ("try force-rebooting", as if the phone was unresponsive – it isn't –, or "try factory reset: please charge the phone before doing it" – are you kidding!?)

I would do the factory reset (I still have about 28% charge left, which should be enough), even if I find it pointless, but can the software be an issue at all? The phone won't charge even if it's powered off!
Theoretically possible

I am not a developer but interested in charging and this is what I know software or OS does:


Monitor battery level and display it on screen and internally trigger warning actions
Detect that a power source is connected
Depending on the type of power source and battery level initiate normal charging or fast charging
Again regulate charging power depending on battery level, reducing it as battery gets closer to full charge
Interact with battery files that are coded in Kernel


There could be a lot more that I am not aware of,  but that said , if any of these functionalities are broken, it would affect or disrupt charging, immaterial whether the phone is on or off ( see second bullet - it won't charge whether it is off or on, if it can't detect power connected)

So yes, it's possible but is it probable ? I don't know , with the details shared

May as well factory reset and hope it fixes your problem and being new you can always return it if the problem isn't fixed