Samsung Galaxy A20 keeps showing the ‘moisture detected’ warning

The Samsung Galaxy A20 doesn’t have the IP68 certification, so it’s not water-resistant. When there’s moisture in the charging post, you may see the ‘Moisture Detected’ warning and the charging process may immediately stop. This is to prevent further liquid damage to both your phone and its charger. As long as the device still powers on and not heating up, this warning could be just a sign that there’s a small amount of liquid in the charger port that you need to address immediately.

In this post, I will guide you in troubleshooting your Galaxy A20 with ‘Moisture Detected’ warning. What you need to do is to be practical enough to get rid of the moist from the port and do all other necessary procedures to make your phone work perfectly again and resume its normal charging process. So, if you’re one of the owners of this phone and are currently being bugged by the same issue, continue reading as this article may be able to help you.

For those who are looking for a solution to a different problem, drop by our troubleshooting page for we have already addressed some of the most common issues with this phone. Browse through the page to find issues that are similar to yours and use the solutions we suggested. If they don’t work for you or if you still need our help, contact us anytime through our Android issues questionnaire.

Troubleshoot Galaxy A20 with ‘moisture detected’ error

Most of the time, the moisture detected warning only pops up when there’s moisture in the charger port so our first priority would be to address that. After that and we’re sure that it’s not just due to some traces of moisture, then we’ll address other possibilities. Here’s what you need to do…

Step 1: Clean the USB / Charge port to fix moisture detected warning

Before doing this, you must turn your phone off completely so that there wouldn’t be any complications if there’s indeed a presence of moisture in the charging port. Once the device is powered down, try doing this:

Get a small piece of tissue paper and then insert it into the port. Leave the tissue for a minute or two make sure it absorbs moist if there’s any. You may have to do it a couple of times just to make sure.
Blow into the port to get rid of dirt and other elements that might be blocking the connectors from making proper contact. If you have a can of compressed air, then give it a blast.
Look into the port to check if the pins are in their proper places and not bent. If there’s a pin that’s bent, then try to straighten it out using a pair of tweezers but be gentle so as not to damage it even more.

After making sure that there’s no moisture in the charge port and that all connectors are fine, try charging your phone again and see if the error still shows. If it still does, then move on to the next procedure.

ALSO READ: Samsung Galaxy A20 frozen on certain screen. Here’s how to fix it.

Step 2: Physically check the cable and charger

It’s a no-brainer that after making sure that there’s no moisture in the charge port, then it’s possible that the phone can detect it from the cable that’s used to bridge the current from the power adapter. Thus, you have to physically check both ends of the cable to make sure there’s no sign or trace of water. Aside from that, you also have to make sure there is no lint, debris or any other foreign materials that might be obstructing the charging process.

You also have to check the power adapter itself. Try to see if there’s moisture and other foreign materials or even crooked connectors. You may use a small piece of tissue and insert it to the port to absorb the moist or use a pair of tweezers to get rid of lint or debris. After making sure there’s no problem with either cable or adapter, try charging your phone and if the problem continues, then try the next step.

Step 3: Check for possible sign of liquid damage

The sensor doesn’t only detect moisture in the charge port but also in other parts of the phone. If you knew that the phone got wet at some point, then there’s always a possibility that the water found its way into your device and that could be the reason why you keep on getting the ‘moisture detected’ error. The best thing to confirm this is to check your Galaxy A20’ Liquid Damage Indicator (LDI):

Remove the SIM card tray.
Look into the SIM slot to find a small sticker.
If the sticker is white, then your phone is safe from liquid damage but if the sticker became red, pink or purple, then it positive that your device has liquid damage. In this case, bring the phone back to the store.

Assuming that the error is still showing up even if the LDI is showing no signs of liquid damage, then move on to the next step.

ALSO READ: Samsung Galaxy A20 keeps showing the ‘Camera failed’ error

Step 4: Try bypassing the ‘moisture detected’ error

At this point, it is possible that the error message is triggered by some kind of firmware issues or glitches. If you badly need to charge your phone so you can continue troubleshooting, then you should try the following procedure. It’s not really a solution but it can sure help you one way or another:

Plug the charger to a functioning wall outlet.
Connect the other end of the cable to the charger and the other to your phone.
The warning will pop up as soon as the phone is connected to the charger and the charging process stopped.
This time, reboot your phone while it’s connected to the charger.
Your phone may continue charging without being greeted by the warning after the reboot.

Step 5: Run your Galaxy A20 in Safe Mode and charge

By default, the service that handles charging isn’t loaded when the phone is in safe mode so naturally, the error won’t show up when you charge the phone while in this mode. Needless to say, you can charge the phone successfully. So if you don’t want to troubleshoot your phone just yet but simply want to replenish the battery, then run your phone in safe mode if you don’t want to do the previous step:

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

Once the device enters this mode, just connect it to the charger and leave it to fully-charge its battery.

ALSO READ: How to fix Samsung Galaxy A20 that’s running slow

Step 6: Master reset Galaxy A20 and see if error won’t show up

You need to do this if the ‘moisture detected’ error didn’t go away after doing the previous procedures. This will rule out the possibility that the problem is with the firmware. If the issue continues even after the reset, then you can expect that it’s a hardware problem and a technician should take care of it for you.

So, backup all your important files and data and then factory reset your phone and see if it charges properly after that:

Turn off the device.
Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
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).
Press the Volume down key several times to highlight “wipe data / factory reset.
Press Power button to select.
Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
When the master reset is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
Press the Power key to restart the device.

You must bring your phone back to the store or shop if the ‘moisture detected’ error still shows up even after the reset.

I hope that we’ve been able to help you fix your Samsung Galaxy A20 with moisture detected warning. We would appreciate it if you helped us spread the word so please share this post if you found it helpful. Thank you so much for reading!

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