Huawei P20 Pro Tips and Tricks

Android 8 (Oreo)
Phone: Huawei P20 Pro
Factory OS: Android 8 (Oreo)

Have you updated your Operating System?
Then view tips for the most recent OS version(s): Android 9 (Pie)
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Warning: This will remove ALL data on the phone (but not the MicroSD card).

To perform a hard reset, or factory reset, then there are a number of methods to try:

1) Go to Settings – Personal – Backup and reset – Factory data reset – Reset device. It may ask for a password. Then select Erase everything.

If the phone is totally unresponsive, even after a reboot, then try the following methods.

2) While the phone is turned off, press and hold the Volume Up and Volume Down buttons together. Then, while holding these, press and release the Power button (keep holding the volume buttons). The phone should turn on and a menu will appear. Press the Volume down button to navigate to the Recovery option. Press the Volume Up to select (if that doesn’t work, use the Power button to select). A yellow triangle and an Android logo will appear. Press the Volume Down and Volume Up button together and a recovery menu should appear. Use the Volume buttons to move to the Wipe data/Factory reset option and then press Power to select. Again, use the Volume Down key to choose Yes and press the Power button again to select.

3) While the phone is turned off, press and hold the Volume Down button. Then, while holding, press and release the Power button. A menu should appear. Use the Volume down key to go to Clear Storage. Use the Power button to select the option. Then when asked to confirm, press Volume Up for Yes.

4) While the phone is off, press and hold down Volume Up + Home + Power buttons at the same time. Then release the buttons when you see the Logo. Use the Volume Down button to go down and the Home or Power key to select. Choose the Wipe data/Factory reset option. Then Select Yes to delete all user data. Then choose to reboot the phone.

5) A final method is to enter the code into your phone’s dialler: *2767*3855# This method will not give you an option to reverse the process, so be careful! This method will only work if you can boot into your phone.

Follow this guide if you want to check the data and WiFi usage on your Huawei P20 Pro.

In this day and age, staying connected is essential. However, whether we like it or not, most mobile data plans put a limit on our data usage each month.

Browsing through Social Media may be fine, but downloading and streaming content can easily eat up on your monthly data allocation.

Reaching your data cap means that you cannot stay online for the rest of the month. Worse, you may be allowed to go online but it also means a huge bill by month’s end.

  1. Go to Settings → Connections → Data Usage
  2. From there, you can set a limit or data cap for a certain time period or billing cycle (a week, month, etc).
  3. You may also press the Menu option and tap “Restrict Background Data Usage.” This option will help you manage your data usage, especially for apps that run in the background (such as Instagram and Messenger). However, this also means that the apps may stop working properly.

To check WiFi usage on the Huawei P20 Pro, follow these steps:

  1. Go to Settings → Connections → Data Usage
  2. From there, tap on the Menu button (3 vertical dots on the upper-right corner of the screen).
  3. Tap on “Show WiFi” then “Wi-Fi data usage.”

Alternatively, some Android handsets may need to follow these steps below:

  1. Go to Settings → WiFi & Internet → Data Usage
  2. Tap WiFi Data Usage to view WiFi stats.
  3. From this menu, you can also view data/WiFi usage per app.

The methods above generally work for most Android phone devices. Some handsets may have slight variations, you should just look for something similar Connections, Networks, or Data Usage menus.

Huawei users however have to follow a different process. Below is a short guide to check data and WiFi usage for Huawei phone users:

  1. Go to Optimizer → Data Usage
  2. From there, you can view your data usage for the month.
  3. You also have a Smart Data Saver feature. You may turn that on if you want to.
  4. You can also tap on the apps which are shown to be big data consumers and adjust their usage/consumption accordingly.
  5. You may also set a limit by tapping “More Data Settings” then “Monthly Data Limit.”

Rather than having to locate the hang up icon on the screen after each call, you can quickly end a call by pressing the Power button.

To enable this feature, go to Settings – Personal – Accessibility – Answering/ending calls. Then tick The power button ends calls.

To quickly hide the on-screen keyboard, press the Back button or simply tap on any empty space on screen.

There are a couple of ways to add new home screens to your device.

The simplest is to go to one of your existing Homescreens and simply pinch the screen. This will show all of your Homescreens in thumbnail view. Then just press the Plus symbol to add another. You can also press and hold, then drag a Homescreen to a different position. Or press the little Home icon to make one of them your default Homescreen.

Another option is to download a Launcher App. These are third-party user interfaces that allow you to customize your phone in many ways. Most of them allow multiple homescreens. A very popular launcher which supports multiple homescreens is GoLauncher EX.

Simply go the Play Store and search for GoLauncher EX or another launcher.

To speed up your phone, you can turn off screen animations. Go to Settings – Developer options.

Then scroll down to Window animation scale and select that. From here you can choose to turn Animations Off. This will make screen transitions faster.

Note: Developer Options is not enabled by default. To enable, go to Settings – About Device. Then tap on Build number 7 times.

To silence the phone when ringing there are two methods:

Either press the Volume Down (or Up) button or if the phone is on a surface facing up, simply flip it over so it is facing down.

Checking Available RAM and CPU utilization on your Huawei P20 Pro is very helpful if you are thinking about removing more Apps.

Looking at which Apps drain your RAM, CPU time, and battery will help you decide which of them should be removed from your phone.

To do this, just follow the simple steps below:

  1. Go to your phone settings. You can do this by swiping down the home screen to reveal the notification bar. From there, tap on the gear icon to open Settings.
  2. Look for Device Maintenance → Memory
  3. Alternately, you can also tap on “Data Usage,” then scroll down to see which apps are taking up CPU power.
  4. You may also look for “Smart Manager.” You will see the status of your RAM and Storage in this area. If you tap RAM, you will see a list of apps that are taking up much of your RAM.
  5. For Huawei users, you can look for “Storage” under Settings.

All methods from 2 to 4 can be accessed on the Phone Settings alone. There are certain variations, depending on your phone or unit.

This section should also show what is taking up valuable CPU time. Useful if you think some Apps are draining your battery.

If you want to find your phone’s WiFi MAC address (for improved WiFi security), then go to Settings – System – About device – Status.

Then scroll down until you see WiFi MAC Address. The address should be a series of Hex numbers and letters.

There is a hidden Android Easter egg on the phone that Google has built into your device.

Go to Settings. Then scroll down to About device. Then tap on the Android version option 5 times.

Once you see something on the screen, you can then rub the screen with your finger to produce another surprise. If rubbing doesn’t work then try tapping with your finger. A combination of the above should work.

By the way don’t expect to see an actual Easter Egg. That is just the name given to things hidden inside software or operating systems.