What to do if Galaxy S9 won’t charge using car wireless charger

Today’s troubleshooting episode answers another issue about a Galaxy S9 that won’t charge when using an in-vehicle wireless charger. If you have this special problem on your own S9 as well, check out the things that you can try below.

Problem: Galaxy S9 won’t charge using car wireless charger

I can not get my S9 to wirelessly charge in my 2016 Chevy Malibu. My car has the wireless charging station that is located in front of the armrest. I have checked the battery settings and removed the case from the phone. I have also reached out to the dealer but they are of no assistance. Thank you.

Solution: Knowing where the problem lies is important in fixing this problem. For this case, the issue may caused by an app or software bug, a faulty charger, or a hardware malfunction. Below are the troubleshooting steps that you need to do to solve this problem.

Check fast wireless charging is enabled

Your Galaxy S9 may actually be charging wirelessly but it’s so slow that it hardly make the battery level go up. Make sure that fast wireless charging is enabled before charging it again. This is what you need to do:

Remove the phone from your wireless charger.
Open Settings app.
Tap Device maintenance.
Tap Battery.
Tap Advanced settings.
Enable fast wireless charging option.

Forced restart

If fast wireless charging has been on all along even before you noticed the issue, the next good thing to do is to force restart the phone. This simulates the effect of disconnecting the battery, refreshing the system and clearing possible temporary bugs that prevents wireless charging from working.

Press and hold the Power + Volume Down buttons for approximately 10 seconds or until the device power cycles. Allow several seconds for the Maintenance Boot Mode screen to appear.
From the Maintenance Boot Mode screen, select Normal Boot. You can use the volume buttons to cycle through the available options and the lower left button (below the volume buttons) to select. Wait for up to 90 seconds for the reset to complete.

Remove protective case

Some protective cases may feature a magnet in them that can interfere with wireless charging. To check if you have a problem with your case, simply remove it. Then, wireless charge the phone again and see what happens.

If you’re not using any protective case on your phone, just skip this suggestion.

Move the phone to the middle of the pad when charging

Sometimes, placing the phone in the side of the pad may not be the optimum position. Try to place the phone in the middle and see if there’s a difference.

Ensure wireless charger is working or plugged in

We don’t know what type of wireless charger you have in your car but one basic thing that you must ensure is to check if it’s working. Is it properly plugged in? If you are using a built-in wireless charger and you can’t check the wire, bring your car to the dealership and let them check the wireless charger capability.

Install updates

On your phone, always keep it a point to install updates whenever they become available. Also, make sure that all apps are updated all the time to lessen the chances of bugs that cause problems.

Observe in safe mode

To check if a downloaded app is interfering with Android and causing wireless charging to not work properly, try to restart your S9 to safe mode. In this mode, all third party apps will be suspended. If your S9 charges wirelessly on safe mode only, you have an app problem.

To boot your S9 Plus to safe mode:

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.
Charge your phone and check for the problem.

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

Boot to safe mode.
Check for the problem.
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.
After you uninstall an app, restart the phone to normal mode and check for the problem.
If your S9 is still problematic, repeat steps 1-4.

Use original Samsung wireless charger

Your Galaxy S9 may not charge using other wireless chargers. If wireless charging did not work on your car’s wireless charger ever since, it’s properly not compatible with your S9. Keep in mind that not all wireless chargers work with Galaxy devices. Talk to your car manufacturer or dealer to check for compatibility information.

Reset app preferences

Resetting app preferences is oftentimes overlooked in many Android troubleshooting articles but when it comes to an issue like yours, it might help a lot. It’s possible that one or some of your default apps may not be set correctly, causing this glitch to occur. Because there’s no way to know if this guess is true, what you need to do is to simply ensure that all default apps are turned on. Here’s how to do that:

Open Settings app.
Tap Apps.
Tap on More settings at the upper right (three-dot icon).
Select Reset app preferences.
Restart your S9and check for the problem.

Factory reset

Lastly, try to wipe your phone and return all software settings back to their defaults with a factory reset. This is an inevitable solution that you should do if all our suggestions above won’t help. To factory reset your S9:

Create a backup of your 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.