What the stop and failure reasons on a charge session mean, which need your attention, and which are simply a charge ending normally.
When a charging session ends or never gets going, Monta records why. You see that reason on the charge session page in Monta Hub, underneath the status banner. This guide explains what those reasons mean, which ones need your attention, and which ones are simply a charge ending normally.
To find it: in the left-side menu select Charging sessions, select any row, and read the reason shown below the status banner.
Start here: most reasons are not faults
This is the single most important thing to know. The most common reasons by a wide margin are normal endings — a driver unplugged, a limit was reached, the session was stopped from the app. If you scan a list of session reasons and treat every entry as a problem, you will badly overestimate how much is going wrong on your network.
Work out which of the four groups a reason falls into before doing anything else:
| Group | What it means | Do you need to act? |
|---|---|---|
| Normal ending | The session finished the way it was supposed to | No |
| Limit reached | A time, energy, price or battery limit ended the session | No — unless the limit is set wrong |
| Station fault | The charge point reported a hardware or communication problem | Yes |
| Could not start | The session never began — payment, permission or station readiness | Yes, usually |
Normal endings
| Reason | What actually happened |
|---|---|
| ChargePointEVDisconnected | The cable was unplugged, or the vehicle moved away from an inductive unit. This is the most common reason of all and is completely normal. |
| StoppedByUser | The driver stopped the session from the Monta app. |
| ChargePointRemote | The session was stopped remotely on request of the user. |
| api | A user stopped the session through Monta's app API — in practice this is almost always a driver pressing stop in the Monta app. Despite the name it is not the Partner API: sessions stopped through the Partner API or Public API do not record this reason. |
| fully charged | The vehicle reported it was full and Monta closed the session. |
| Tap to stop | The driver tapped the same card on the payment terminal a second time to end the session. |
| regular state change | The session completed without any more specific reason being recorded. Not an error. |
| StoppedByNewCharge / StoppedByNewApiCharge | A new session started on the same connector and replaced this one. |
Limits and schedules
These mean your own configuration ended the session. They are only a problem if the limit is set to something you did not intend.
| Reason | What actually happened |
|---|---|
| StoppedByTimeLimit | The session hit its time limit. |
| StoppedByKwhLimit | The session hit its energy (kWh) limit. |
| StoppedBySoCLimit | The vehicle reached the battery percentage set as the limit. The limit can be set on the individual session, or as a default on the charge point or a schedule. See the note below on when an SoC limit can actually take effect. |
| SOC limit [percentage] was reached | The same outcome recorded by a different part of the platform. Treat it as equivalent to StoppedBySoCLimit. |
| kwh limit [amount] was reached | The same outcome as StoppedByKwhLimit, recorded by a different part of the platform. |
| StoppedByLimit | A limit was reached, without recording which one. |
| Price limit [amount] [currency] was reached | The session hit its spend cap. The amount and currency appear in the text. |
| Scheduled stop | A charging schedule ended the session at its boundary. |
| Started in peak hour | The session began inside a blocked peak-hour window, so it was stopped automatically. |
| Started on charge point in maintenance | The session began on a station in maintenance mode and was stopped automatically. |
| Credit card reservation expiring | Monta stopped the session before the card pre-authorisation lapsed, so payment could still be taken. |
When an SoC limit actually works
A state-of-charge limit can only end a session if Monta knows the vehicle's battery percentage. There are two ways it can:
- From the vehicle — via a connected car integration. This is the common case for smart charging, where Monta already reads vehicle telemetry.
- From the charge point — some units report state of charge over the charging protocol. This is typical of DC chargers.
An SoC limit of 100% is also treated as no limit, since there is nothing to stop early.
Station faults — these need attention
| Reason | What actually happened | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| StartTransactionTimeout | The station accepted the start command but never confirmed the session had begun. | Check the station's connectivity and firmware. Repeated occurrences on one model or firmware version point to a hardware issue. |
| RemoteStartRejected | The station refused the start command outright. | Check the connector is free and the station is available and correctly configured. |
| RemoteStartMessageTimeout | The station never answered the start command at all. | Almost always connectivity. Check whether the station is online. |
| ChargePointPowerLoss | Complete loss of power at the station. | Check the supply and the installation. |
| ChargePointReboot | The station reset itself — for instance a watchdog triggered. | Occasional reboots happen. A pattern indicates an unstable unit or firmware. |
| ChargePointHardReset / ChargePointSoftReset | The station received a reset command. | Expected if someone rebooted it deliberately. Investigate if not. |
| ChargePointEmergencyStop | Somebody pressed the emergency stop button. | Check the site — this is a physical intervention. |
| ChargePointDeAuthorized | The session was stopped because authorisation was rejected. | Check the driver's access rights, charge key and payment status. |
| StaleCharge | The session was abandoned and Monta closed it. | Usually follows a station going offline mid-session. |
| ChargePointUnlockCommand | An unlock-connector command was sent to the station. | Expected if you or an agent triggered it. |
Two reasons that need care
ChargePointLocal
This normally means the driver pressed stop on the charge point itself. But the reason field is optional in the charging protocol, and when a station sends no reason at all, Monta records it as ChargePointLocal. That means this one value mixes together two very different things: sessions a driver genuinely stopped at the unit, and sessions where the station simply told us nothing.
Practical consequence: never tell a driver or a customer "you stopped this at the charge point" purely on the basis of ChargePointLocal. If you need certainty for a specific session, escalate — the underlying raw value is stored separately and support can check it.
ChargePointOther
This means the station explicitly reported "any other reason". It is honest but empty: there is no further detail to recover, because the station never sent any. High volumes of ChargePointOther are a firmware quality signal rather than a per-session problem. Use the Failed Charge dashboard to see whether particular brands, models or firmware versions produce more of them, and raise it with that vendor.
When a charge never started
A session that failed before delivering energy records a failure reason instead. These almost always need action, and the useful question is whose action.
| Reason | What actually happened | Who fixes it |
|---|---|---|
| NO_PAYMENT | No valid payment method, or not enough funds. | Driver — top up the wallet or add a payment method |
| PAYMENT_PRE_AUTH_FAILED | The card pre-authorisation failed. | Driver — check the payment card |
| NOT_AUTHORIZED | The user lacks permission to charge or pay here, or their charge key is not authorised on this station. | You — check member permissions and charge key access |
| NOT_AVAILABLE | The station was not in a state where a charge could start. | You — check station status |
| Unknown tag id auto-started | An unregistered charge key started a session on a station set to cancel these. | You — register the key or change the setting |
| Non-free auto-start | An unknown user auto-started where non-free charges are cancelled and no sponsoring team is set. | You — assign a sponsoring team or change the setting |
| Failed to authorize RFID card | The charge key could not be authorised at the payment terminal. | Driver card or your key registration |
| Exceeded Max Remote Start Attempts | Monta retried a roaming start until it gave up. | You — station connectivity and roaming setup |
| Timeout | The start attempt timed out. | You — station responsiveness |
| Failed to start: … | The station or integration refused, with the specific message shown after the colon — for example Connector already charging or Connection with charge point failed. | Usually you — read the message after the colon |
| Was stopped before started | A stop arrived for a session that never began. | Contact Monta support |
| ChargeSessionStateError / CriticalError | The session hit an invalid state or a critical failure. | Contact Monta support |
Why some reasons have two parts
You will sometimes see a reason with a dash in the middle, like ChargePointLocal - EVCommunicationError. Read this as two pieces of information:
- Before the dash — how the session ended.
- After the dash — the fault the station reported at the same time. This is the more useful half for diagnosis.
In that example, the session ended locally and the station reported a communication problem with the vehicle. Common faults after the dash include ConnectorLockFailure (the connector could not lock or unlock), EVCommunicationError (communication failure with the vehicle), GroundFailure (the ground fault interrupter tripped) and WeakSignal (poor wireless signal). See OCPP error codes for the full list.
Spotting patterns rather than single sessions
A single failed session is often just a driver walking away. Patterns are what matter:
- Open the Failed Charge dashboard and filter by team, site, brand, model and firmware.
- Compare failure rates between firmware versions of the same model — that isolates a firmware problem from a hardware one.
- For a specific session, open it in Monta Hub and use AI Charge Diagnosis, which reads the session logs and explains the fault in plain language with suggested fixes.
- If a station is repeatedly at fault, check its alerts. Monta raises these automatically when a station is disconnected for more than 10 minutes, reports an error state, or has three sessions fail within an hour.
When to contact Monta support
- You need to know whether a ChargePointLocal session was genuinely stopped by the driver.
- You see Was stopped before started, ChargeSessionStateError, CriticalError, or a Failed to start: Server error / Connection error.
- A reason appears that is not listed here — the set of Failed to start: messages in particular can grow.
- Sessions are stuck in Starting or Stopping rather than ending with a reason.
Related articles
- How do I see charge session details in Monta Hub?
- OCPP error codes
- How do I troubleshoot a disconnected charge point?
- How do I view and edit dashboards in Monta Hub?