Is it this issue?: https://forum.pine64.org/showthread.php?tid=17740
The linked issue can affect charging because it makes the OS think the phone has a lot less charge than it really does, so it can show it's forever charging (but never getting near 100%) even though the battery is really full. It will also shut the phone down when the battery isn't really empty, because it thinks it's empty.
Your issue with it showing that it's charging when it's unplugged sounds like something different though.
Quote:To see if you need this fix, go into your Power settings and see how many batteries it displays. You'll probably see up to 4 of them. Unless you have the PinePhone keyboard connected, it's likely only one of them will show greater than 0% charge. This one is the actual charge level of your PinePhone's battery. The others seem to be little more than red herrings that confuse UPower!
If the displayed level of charge on the top tray is much lower than the one visible on the Power settings (If 4 batteries are shown, it may be exactly a quarter of it), and your distro isn't more than about 6 months old, then you most likely need the fix. If the two charge levels match up then you're all good.
The linked issue can affect charging because it makes the OS think the phone has a lot less charge than it really does, so it can show it's forever charging (but never getting near 100%) even though the battery is really full. It will also shut the phone down when the battery isn't really empty, because it thinks it's empty.
Your issue with it showing that it's charging when it's unplugged sounds like something different though.