How To Fix Huawei P9 Wont Turn On Or Boot Up [Troubleshooting Guides]

• Learn how to troubleshoot your Huawei P9 (#HuaweiP9) that won’t turn on and not charging when plugged in.
• Learn how to troubleshoot your phone that can’t boot up successfully for some reason.

There were reports from Huawei #P9 owners detailing that some units won’t turn on while others just won’t boot up. So, we decided to start supporting this device as we too have received messages from our readers who are seeking assistance due to these problems.

Before going any further, let me try to differentiate the not turning on and not booting up problems. The former simply means that the phone won’t power up no matter what you do. The screen remains black and won’t even flicker if you hit the Power key and it might be due to a serious firmware issue or a hardware problem. There are things you can to verify if the device really won’t turn on and that’s what I’m going to tackle here.

On the other hand, the not booting up issue means that the phone still turns on or powers up but gets stuck somewhere and can’t successfully reach the Home screen as it usually does. While this problem is often cause by a firmware issue, there were reported hardware-related factors that could also contribute to the occurrence of this problem. Read on to learn more about these issues and how to deal with them.

Troubleshooting Huawei P9 that won’t turn on

The very purpose of this troubleshooting is for you to find out if your phone can still power up its components because if so, then the problem might all be in its firmware. And in that case, you may be able to fix it on your own using the standard troubleshooting procedures without visiting a shop.

Step 1: Verify the phone isn’t frozen

System crash is often the cause why there are so many Android phones that become frozen or unresponsive at some point. When this occurs, the device just won’t respond to anything you do; it won’t turn on if you press the power key and won’t even charge if plugged in.

The worse thing is it couldn’t get out of that state unless the user performs the Forced Reboot procedure. All you have to do is press and hold the Volume Down key and then press and hold Power key. Keep them pressed for ten seconds and your phone will reboot provided it’s the only issue here.

Step 2: Verify there is enough battery to power up the hardware

The next thing you have to do after you did the forced reboot procedure and the phone remained unresponsive is to plug its charger in and leave it for 10 minutes.

We often receive a lot of complaints about devices that won’t turn on and many of those cases were caused by drained batteries. It’s a simple logic; if the battery is all drained up, your phone won’t power up.

There is another reason why you really have to charge the phone and that’s to know if it would respond when it senses electricity is flowing through its components. As I said earlier, the phone won’t charge when the system crashes but doing the forced reboot procedure while the phone is plugged in may just save you from a lot of trouble.

What if the phone doesn’t charge?

You still have to leave it plugged in for ten minutes. If the battery is totally drained, it may take a few minutes before the device displays the usual charging indicators. After then minutes and the phone is still not displaying those indicators, do the forced reboot procedure again if pressing the Power key won’t bring it to life.

What if the phone charges but still won’t turn on?

Still, give it time to charge and try to turn it on using the usual method and then do the forced reboot procedure if the former didn’t work.

Step 3: Attempt to boot Huawei P9 in safe mode

There were cases wherein the phone’s system crashed due to some apps that caused conflicts. If the phone charges but won’t respond if turned on, you should immediately try to boot in safe mode.

All third-party apps will be temporarily disabled so if one of them is causing the problem, the phone should be able to boot up successfully. At least, at this point, there is hope that the phone’s hardware and all its components are working.

1. Press and hold the Power key.
2. Once the Huawei P9 screen appears, release the Power key and immediately press and hold the Volume Down button.

Step 4: Try to boot your phone in Recovery Mode

In this the phone won’t respond when the Power key is pressed and plugged in, you need to try to boot it in recovery mode. This will tell you if the phone is still capable of powering up its hardware.

Unlike booting normally or going into safe mode, booting in recovery mode won’t load front-end. Instead, you’ll be taken into Android System Recovery screen where there are only a few things you can do and two of them are wiping the cache partition and doing the master reset.

If you can bring your phone up into this mode, there’s still a chance you can fix it on your own.

1. Press and hold the Volume Up and the Power keys for 10 seconds.
2. Once the Huawei logo appears, release both keys.

Step 5: Visit a shop and let the tech check it for you

At this point, you’ve already done everything that a user has to be done in a bid to fix the problem but you didn’t succeed. So, it’s time you employ the help of a technician to do further tests and troubleshooting procedures that are beyond your capabilities.

We really can’t pinpoint what the problem with your phone is but it doesn’t really matter now since it’s the job of the tech to discover and fix it.

Troubleshooting Huawei P9 that won’t boot up

As I mentioned earlier, turning on and booting up are two different things. When the phone isn’t booting up, it means it can still power up but can’t continue loading every service necessary to run the firmware and the apps. If you have this issue, at least, you can rest assured that the problem isn’t the hardware so there’s always a chance you can fix it on your own if only you are willing to troubleshoot it.

Step 1: Try to boot your phone in safe mode

This procedure is a very effective one if the problem occurred after you installed some apps regardless of the method. Third-party apps may cause conflicts in the system especially if they’re not compatible with it. When this occurs, the phone may keep rebooting, crashing or get stuck during boot up. So, it’s very logical to boot your phone in safe mode.

1. Make sure you phone is powered off. It may have attempted to boot up and got stuck somewhere.
2. Press and hold the Power key.
3. Once the Huawei P9 screen appears, release the Power key and immediately press and hold the Volume Down button.
4. Keep holding the Volume Down key until the phone boots up successfully. You’d know if it was successful if you can see the text “Safe Mode” at the lower-left corner of the screen.

Step 2: Boot your device in recovery mode and wipe the cache partition

Wiping the cache partition is a very effective troubleshooting procedure you can use to address booting up problems that may have occurred after an update or started without apparent reason. System caches get corrupted all the time and when they do, the phone may not boot up properly. Since you don’t know which cache got corrupted, you have to delete the cache all at once.

By doing this procedure, you are actually doing your phone a favor especially if it has updated its firmware recently. You won’t lose any of your data if you did this that’s why you can do it whenever you like.

1. Make sure you phone is turned off.
2. Press and hold the Volume Up and the Power keys for 10 seconds.
3. Once the Huawei logo appears, release both keys.
4. Use the Volume Down button to highlight ‘wipe cache partition’ option and press the Power key to choose it.
5. Once the cache partition is wiped, highlight ‘reboot system now’ and press the Power key to accept it.

Step 3: Perform the master reset on your Huawei P9

If wiping the cache partition didn’t yield any result, it’s time you did the master reset. This is the final troubleshooting step you need to do before you send the phone in for repair.

This procedure will bring the phone back to its factory default settings. It your files and data will be deleted during the process so make sure you make a backup.

1. Make sure you phone is turned off.
2. Press and hold the Volume Up and the Power keys for 10 seconds.
3. Once the Huawei logo appears, release both keys.
4. Use the Volume Down button to highlight ‘wipe data/factory reset’ option and press the Power key to choose it.
5. Once the cache partition is wiped, highlight ‘reboot system now’ and press the Power key to accept it.

I hope that these procedures can somehow help you.

Step 4: Have the device checked by a technician

The firmware may need to be reinstalled and if you do it yourself, the warranty will be void and you don’t want that. So, bring the phone back to the store where you bought it or let an authorized Huawei technician check it for you.