How to fix “Moisture detected” error on Huawei P20 Pro

Are you getting the dreaded “Moisture detected” error on your Huawei P20 Pro? Usually, your Huawei P20 Pro won’t charge when this error is present. Being unable to charge, your device will eventually lose power and unable to turn on. Learn how to deal with it by following our suggestions below.

Problem: How to fix “Moisture detected” error on Huawei P20 Pro

liquid landed on my phone and when I charged it, it said moisture detected by usb port I tried to dry it with the hair dryer but now it doesn’t come on.

Solution: Fixing “Moisture detected” error is not straightforward. In most cases, the error is an indicator that there’s water or liquid in the charging port. Here are the troubleshooting steps that you must do to fix it.

Dry the phone

Because “Moisture detected” error occured right after your Huawei P20 Pro got wet, the most likely reason why it’s no longer turning on at this time is this: battery has drained after device refuses to charge.

It’s very likely that you haven’t dried the phone properly and there’s remaining liquid or moisture in the charging port. “Moisture detected” error is a warning and reminder that the charging port is still wet, and as such, unable to charge. Phone makers design their water resistant devices to prevent charging when there’s water or liquid in the charging port. If charging proceeds when the port is wet, it can damage the system. Needless to say, drying the phone properly is important. The battery must have been drained so naturally, your Huawei P20 Pro won’t turn on at all.

Drying a wet phone first requires that you wipe it with clean, soft cloth. Once you’ve totally dried the exterior, you should allow the water or liquid to drip down from the charging port for several hours. Water naturally evaporates in room temperature after a few hours. If you are in a cool location, place the device near a source of indirect heat like the back of a TV or desktop computer. This should help hasten the evaporation process. Alternatively, you can cover it with rice in a sealed container and leave it for at least 48 hours. This should allow rice to absorb water or moisture from the device. You can also use silica gel desiccant in place of rice to effectively absorb water or moisture. Again, leave the device in a sealed container for 48 hours to allow chemistry do its thing.

If your Huawei P20 Pro was exposed to another type of liquid other than water, it may leave residue inside the port, even if you dry it properly. If Moisture detected error remains after drying the phone, you must send it to an authorized Huawei Service Center to be dried properly.

Forced reboot the device

If your Huawei P20 Pro was exposed to water only and you’ve already tried to do our suggestions below, the next troubleshooting step is to force restart it. This will help if there’s a temporary bug that causes the Moisture detected error.

Your Huawei P20 Pro does not have a removable battery pack so to force it to restart, just hold down the power button until the screen goes black. If there’s a temporary bug that prevents it from starting up, this might help. Otherwise, proceed to the next suggestion below.

Use another set of charging accessories

Like the main device itself, charging accessories, particularly the charging cable, can go bad suddenly. The USB cable that comes with your device is consists of tiny wires that can easily break. The more wires are disconnected inside, the lower the energy that gets transferred from the adapter to the phone during charging. This can lead to the loss of fast charging capability and eventually, the cable becomes unusable. To see if you have a charging accessory issue, try using another known working cable and adapter from the manufacturer itself. If you have a family member with an original Huawei cable and adapter, try to borrow them and see if the phone fast charge again. Alternatively, you can visit your local Huawei shop and borrow the cable and adapter to charge. If necessary, try to buy a new original set of charging accessories.

Charge thru a computer

Some Huawei P20 Pro were able to fix charging issues by charging their device thru a computer for a few hours. If you haven’t tried this yet, make sure to leave the device connected to your computer for a few hours to see if there’s a difference.

Reset app preferences

Some apps and services require other default or system apps in order to do their tasks. The same is true for charging. There may be some system changes that were disabled in order for charging to work. To ensure that all default apps are on, follow the steps below.

  1. Open Settings app.
  2. Tap Apps and notifications.
  3. Tap Apps.
  4. Tap More (three-dot icon).
  5. Tap Reset app preferences.
  6. Tap Reset.

Charge on safe mode

Sometimes, a third party app may interfere with Android, resulting to bugs. To see if a downloaded app is causing a problem, try to boot the device to safe mode.

  1. Turn off the phone.
  2. Turn on the phone.
  3. Once the Huawei logo screen is displayed, press the Volume Down button repeatedly until you see Safe Mode at the bottom of the screen. If you are unsuccessful, repeat Steps 1-3 until you get it right.

Remember, safe mode blocks third party or downloaded apps. If “Moisture detected” error goes away in safe mode, you can bet one of the apps is to blame. To identify which of your downloaded apps is causing the problem:

  1. Exit safe mode by restarting your device.
  2. Check for the problem.
  3. If the problem returns, boot to safe mode again.
  4. Uninstall an app. Start with the most recently downloaded one.
  5. After each removal, restart your device and see whether removing it solved the problem.
  6. Repeat steps 1-4 until you’ve identified the culprit.
  7. After you remove the app that’s causing the problem, you can reinstall the other apps that you removed.

Install system updates

Sometimes, charging problems are brought about by coding changes. Unfortunately, firmware issues are usually fixed only by updates themselves. If the problem remains at this point, make sure that your device runs the latest Android version. This, of course, depends whether or not you are able to power the phone back on. If your Huawei P20 Pro remains dead or won’t charge, try to master reset it.

Factory reset

The last drastic solution that you can try in this case is to wipe the phone and return its software settings to defaults. Again, this only applies if the phone still charges or if it turns back on. Otherwise, you just have to skip it and send the phone in to Huawei for repair.

  1. Turn off the phone.
  2. Then turn the phone while holding down the following key combination: Power Button, Volume Up Button
  3. Hold down the buttons until the Huawei logo disappears from the display and the screen turns black.
  4. You can now release the buttons.
  5. This will now display the boot menu after a moment.
  6. Go to the entry “Wipe Cache Factory Reset ” with the volume keys then select it using the power key
  7. Reboot the phone once the process has completed

Get professional help

If you are unable to power the phone back on or if nothing happens after a factory reset, there may be a hardware issue that causes “Moisture detected” error. Be sure to contact Huawei for help.


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