What to do if Galaxy S8 is losing battery faster and keeps showing moisture detected error

This troubleshooting post will try to answer two of the common problems for the #GalaxyS8 — moisture detected error and battery drain issue. While we don’t touch on what specific steps that you can do when faced with moisture detected error, we’ll show you the troubleshooting steps for your problem if your S8 won’t appears to lose battery power fast.

Problem #1: Galaxy S8 losing battery faster and keeps showing moisture detected error

I have a Galaxy S8 through Xfinity Mobile. It has been nothing but awesome since Aug 2017. Until last week, I seen a notification which said something about “moisture detected in USB port, dry out before connecting charger.” I tried ducking the charger port, blowing in it, and just let the phone sit for 6 hrs. Everything seemed to be okay for 2 days. But then I noticed my battery dies much faster now. Yesterday, I had it on charge with the original cable, it was slow charging the whole time, after 2 hrs I only had 32% from 15%. It never did that before. Also, I have to charge it regularly throughout the day, whereas before I could go through my entire 9-hr work shift without a charge and still have 30-40% left, that’s with texting, making phone calls, checking emails, and playing a poker game throughout the day.

I let it sit in rice tonight for 2 hrs. It doesn’t seem to have helped. Next I was thinking about getting a new charger, the original Fast charge like it came with. The moisture message hasn’t shown up again, but the battery life is tremendously different. — Jessica Johnson

Solution: Hi Jessica. There’s no single factor that we can cite as the reason for your issue. In many cases where a phone’s battery seem to drain quicker than normal, a user must do a number of troubleshooting steps to determine the cause. In each and every case of battery drain, the factors are different so if you want to know what’s causing your own problem, you need narrow things down. Yes, you may have noticed that the issue first appeared after the phone started showing the moisture detected error but it doesn’t really narrow the real reason down. There’s a high chance that yours may be hardware in nature such as a broken battery or charging port. Below are the things that you should try to pinpoint the main cause:

Clear the cache partition

Android uses a set of caches in order to do tasks efficiently. One of these caches is the system cache, tucked away in the cache partition. The system cache is a set of temporary files, links of sites you’ve visited, advertisement files, among others and they’re used by Android to load apps quickly. In other words, the cache partition is an integral part of how Android works on your S8 in general. Sometimes, this cache gets corrupted, causing the opposite of what it’s supposed to accomplish. This makes apps load slower, affecting Android’s general performance. With this slower performance comes greater need for your phone’s computer (CPU) to compensate by working harder, which in turn, can cause unnecessary strain on the battery. To rectify the problem, the system cache has to be replaced with a new one. To ensure that your phone has a good working cache, follow the steps below to clear the cache partition.

Turn off the device.
Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
When the 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 to highlight “wipe cache partition.”
Press the Power key to select.
Press the Volume down key to highlight “yes” and press the Power key to select.
When the wipe cache partition is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
Press the Power key to restart the device.

Perform battery and OS calibration

One of the least known reasons why a smartphone battery may, all of a sudden, stop working properly is the possibility of Android not getting accurate battery reading. This situation occurs for a number of reasons but one of the most common one is simple — the system has been running for a long time. Many smartphone users usually don’t think there’s a need to restart their devices regularly so oftentimes, phones work day in and day out for weeks or even months straight. This can sometimes be problematic for the system as complex as Android because bugs tend to develop after some time. One of such bugs can develop in the power management aspect of a system. Sometimes, Android may no longer be able to track battery levels accurately causing random shutdowns or restarts. It can also result to other power issues such as the one you’re experiencing. To see if your Android needs recalibration, follow the steps below:

1. Drain the battery completely. This means using your device until it powers down by its own and the battery level reads 0%.
2. Charge the phone until it reaches 100%. Be sure to use original charging equipment for your device and let it charge up completely. Do not unplug your device for at least two more hours and also don’t use it while charging.
3. After the elapsed time, unplug your device.
4. Restart your Galaxy S8.
5. Use your phone until it completely runs out of power again.
6. Repeat steps 1-5.

Install app and Android updates

Should Android and battery calibration won’t work at all, the next good thing that you can do is to ensure that all apps are up-to-date. Also, you want to make sure that Android runs the latest available version.

To check for app updates:

Open Google Play Store app.
Tap More settings at the upper right.
Tap My apps & games.
Allow Play Store to check for app updates.
Tap UPDATE ALL button.

To check for possible Android update:

Open Settings app.
Tap Software update.
Tap Download updates manually. Selecting this option will force the phone to check if there’s any available software update at this time.

Factory reset

If your phone still drains battery faster than ever everyday, you should consider wiping it by restoring its software environment back to their defaults. To do that, you need to do a factory reset. Here’s how:

Make a backup of your personal data.
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.

Once you’ve factory reset the device, try to see how the battery works when the software is at its default state. That means no third party apps and files in the system. So, you want to avoid adding your apps right away. Try to observe how your phone works when there are no apps other than the ones that come with the operating system for at least 48 hours. At this state, you expect the battery to last way longer. If the problem persists though, that’s a clear sign that you may have a battery or a hardware problem. In that case, you want to contact Samsung so your phone is repaired or replaced.

If battery drain issue returns after a factory reset and after adding apps

Chances are, your phone may work flawlessly after a factory reset but not after installing apps again. That’s because one or some of your apps may actually be to blame. If your S8 behaves this way after doing a factory reset, you can bet one or some of your apps is problematic. Try to use your phone for a full week like you normally would, then check battery usage under Settings > Battery > Battery usage and see what app is on top of the list. This is the best method to address the app that’s causing battery drain. If possible, uninstall the said app/s to fix the issue.

Problem #2: Galaxy S8 won’t charge, won’t turn on, data recovery when device is unresponsive

My Samsung Galaxy S8 has lost power, initial attempts to turn on displayed the screen prompting charging Charging resulted in no results. Tried a car charger, a USB port, a portable Anker battery source, and a wall charge. Tried several wires. All of these options worked with another Android device. I tried doing resets, nothing. I tried wireless charger with a charger for another android device. Nothing. 1. Is there anything i can do to get my phone to work? 2. Will i be able to recover photos from it if it cannot be revived? — Carl [email protected]

Solution: Hi Carl. In this situation, the main task that must be done is to power up the phone first. If you can’t do that even after trying different known working chargers and cables and wireless charger, there’s nothing much that you can do. And no, you can’t also get contents from your device if it’s unresponsive. In order to access data from your phone’s internal storage device, the operating system must be up and running. The touchscreen also needed in order to permit a second device like a computer to talk to the system and transfer files. If your S8 is dead and won’t turn on, your data are good as gone.

If your data are very important and worth over a few hundred dollars, try to get professional support from companies that specializes in data recovery. If you’re lucky and the issue is battery-related, which means that there’s a problem with the battery preventing Android from booting up normally, they should be able to replace the battery without wiping the device’s storage device. Data recovery is a tricky business and does not guarantee that it works 100%. It’s also an expensive process so be sure to get services from reputable companies only.