How to fix Galaxy S9 moisture detected error, opens apps by itself or keeps freezing

We’ve seen an increasing number of #GalaxyS9 users reporting moisture detected error on their devices for the past few weeks so this post is dedicated to them. We hope you’ll find our suggestions helpful.

Problem #1: How to fix Galaxy S9 moisture detected error

Hi Guys. My Hubby has a Samsung S9 and at night it sits on the microwave to charge. The other night the error message came up – ‘Water detected in the charging port’. We thought this was very strange because the phone has not been near any water… but it’s been really hot and humid, so thought that might be the issue… so put the phone and charger cable in rice for 24 – still receiving error message. Used a hair dryer for 10 minutes on the phone and charger cable – still receiving the error message. Any suggestions of what to do next – at a loss?

Solution: “Moisture detected” error is supposed to be Samsung’s way of alerting a user not to charge the device because the charging port may be wet but we’ve seen some cases in the past that this is not true. There were those who, like you, reported their water resistant Galaxy device like the S7, S8, S8 Plus, Note8, S9 and S9 Plus showing moisture detected error even when the phone was nowhere near water at all. That’s when we realized that this error can also be tripped by other factors and not just by water or liquid.

Dry the device properly

Keep in mind that the phone does not have self-drying capability so even if there’s a tiny amount of liquid or moisture in the charging port, the phone may sense it and trigger the moisture detected alarm. When dealing with this situation, we suggest that you do the obvious first — dry the phone. Because moisture sensor is only located in the charging port area, that’s where you have to focus first. Wipe the entire phone with clean, soft cloth, then help it dry the charging port properly. Tap the charging port area with a dry cloth. If you happened to expose the phone in salt water, make sure that you wash it first with fresh water to avoid salt from accumulating in some areas like the microphone, earpiece, or external speaker. When drying your S9 after wiping it with clean, soft cloth, pat the earpiece in front, microphone and external speaker at the bottom. You want to remove as much water as possible. You can also shake the phone vigorously to dislodge any water in the charging port.

Inspect the charging port

And speaking of the charging port, it’s the one area in your S9 that’s exposed to water. This port if specially designed to resist water from accumulating but it won’t hurt if you can double check. To see relatively easily inside, try to use a magnifying tool to see if there’s liquid that remains. You should also be able to see if there’s any foreign object like a grain of wet sand still inside that might be tripping the sensor. This happens from time to time after bringing a device to a beach. If there’s any debris or lint in the port, try to blow it out using a hair blower or a gentle sucking action of a portable vacuum cleaner.

Do not stick anything to the charging port to remove any debris or lint as that might damage the metallic contacts.

Factory reset

Many users were able to successfully false moisture detected errors in the past by doing a factory reset. Although there’s no official word from Samsung about it, some units appear to have this error constantly pop out after a system update. We’re thinking there may be some inefficient codes in some of these updates that causes the liquid sensor to trip. If you haven’t factory reset your device yet, be sure to do it by following these steps:

1. Back up data on the internal memory using Smart Switch. If you have signed into a Samsung account on the device, you have activated Anti-theft and will need your Samsung credentials to finish the master reset.
2. Turn off the device.
3. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
4. When the green Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
5. Press the Volume down key several times to highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset’.
6. Press Power button to select.
7. Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
8. Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
9. When the master reset is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
10. Press the Power key to restart the device.

Get professional help

For cases that aren’t fixed by factory reset or by drying the phone, the most probable reason is hardware malfunction. In many such cases, a defective charging port is the cause, usually brought about by careless plugging and unplugging of a charging cable. If your phone continues to show moisture detected error even after you factory reset it, you should send the phone in so Samsung can examine it and repair it.

Problem #2: What to do if newly factory reset Galaxy S9 continues to show moisture detected error

Hi, I’m getting the ‘moisture detected’ warning, although I didn’t get my phone wet. Perhaps it was humid. I’ve tried everything, including factory reset, but it’s still there. When I restart the phone and plug in the charger after the lights go out completely, I can leave in the charger and the warning doesn’t come up. But as soon as I unplug the charger, the moisture warning comes back. If I restart the phone with the charger plugged in, it won’t restart. It just vibrates slightly, and tries to boot again and fails. Please help! This is so frustrating.

Solution: As mentioned above, if you nothing changed even after you’ve wiped the phone back to its defaults (factory reset), there may be an issue with its hardware, particularly the charging port. Bring the phone to you local Samsung Service Center and let them check the charging port. There’s no magic software trick for a broken charging port so repair is your only resolution in this regard.

Problem #3: Galaxy S9 opens apps by itself, keeps freezing

To start with my Samsung Galaxy S9 is not working properly. IT automatically opens apps which I do not click. It freezes itself although when I close it and open it then it unfreeze. Added to this when I touch to move the app it moves back to its original position automatically. I have Factory reset it 4 times. After some hours of the factory reset the problem returns Please look into it and provide a solution. I have also wipe/cleared cache from the screen which appears after pressing the Power key plus the volume up key and the bixby key. SOLVE THIS ISSUE AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE.

Solution: We don’t think bad software is the reason why your S9 performs poorly and opens apps erratically. Android troubleshooting at a user level is simple and straightforward. If you’ve already exhausted all software troubleshooting (you did), then the problem is most probably beyond your ability to fix. By doing a factory reset, you’re basically returning all software information to their defaults. This means your phone should start working normally right after a factory reset because factory state software is stable and known to work.

If the phone initially works normally after a factory reset but such issues you mentioned returns later on, there may be an issue with one of your apps. If this is the case, you can try to isolate the cause by restarting the device to safe mode, then identifying the culprit.

Safe mode

First, you want to know how to boot your S9 to safe mode:

1. Turn the device off.
2. Press and hold the Power key past the model name screen.
3. When “SAMSUNG” appears on the screen, release the Power key.
4. Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume down key.
5. Continue to hold the Volume down key until the device finishes restarting.
6. Safe mode will display in the bottom left corner of the screen.
7. Release the Volume down key when you see Safe Mode.

To identify which of your apps is causing the trouble, you should boot the phone back to safe mode and follow these steps:

1. Boot to safe mode.
2. Check for the problem.
3. Once you’ve confirmed that a third party app is to blame, you can start uninstalling apps individually. We suggest that you begin with the most recent ones you added.
4. After you uninstall an app, restart the phone to normal mode and check for the problem.
5. If your S9 is still problematic, repeat steps 1-4.

Remember, the safe mode troubleshooting step only covers the possibility of a bad app situation. If your performs poorly or if the issues remain whether or not the phone is on safe mode, then you can assume bad hardware is to blame.

Let Samsung repair your S9

Was your phone dropped before? Was it exposed to water, heat, or temperature extremes? If one of these things happened, then stop wasting your time looking for a software solution because you can’t fix hardware problem by changing the software. For example, if your phone’s screen is cracked or shattered, its digitizer may be broken causing the device to open apps by itself. Freezing issues due to an app or software is usually fixed by a factory reset, or by removing the app that causes it. If your phone continues to freeze on safe mode, then that means there’s no third party app issue at all. If freezing remains after a factory reset, when there are no apps added to the system yet, it’s a clear indicator that you have bad hardware. Let Samsung fix the device if you want to resolve the issue permanently.

 

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