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Quest 3: Problems with sweat

59 replies
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Your headset is also advertised for workouts, but unfortunately that's not possible because sweat always occurs during workouts and apparently the devices aren't sufficiently protected against it, despite completely drying them off with microfiber cloths after use and your silicone cover etc.

It’s my 4th Quest 3 which dies after using it with ElevenTableTennis:-(

I’m in a community with many players and a lot of them have the same problems and must replace their headsets regularly because of this issue… Most die with „tracking failure“ and nothing works. The display moves with head-movement and controller are vibrating every second but aren’t tracked as well… no head and no finger or controller tracking… There are also threads on Reddit… why don’t you seal the chips inside like it is done with smartphones???

As I said in chats before. You should invite me as your product-tester. When your devices lasts for me in the long run, then it's good😉

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Anonymous

Schism.esp Unmutual meta are aware of it, but more dying headsets out of warranty is more sales.

https://mixed-news.com/en/vr-fitness-kills-your-vr-headset-meta-quest-3-has-a-sweat-problem/

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Schismesp

Participant

Well, I am sure someone at Meta heard about it, but whether the management or people responsible for the design were informed of the issue or it was lost somewhere on the support level is still unclear. Either way, I agree it is naive to expect an official comment on the topic. The fact this issue was brought up on mixed-news.com doesn't say much. It's only about 20K visits a month. If someone like Wired had written about it. probably it would have caused a totally different effect.

About the latter part, by that logic, every manufacturer should create faulty products to improve sales 😃

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Schismesp

Participant

BTW, it turns out iFixIt did the 3S teardown (https://www.ifixit.com/News/101990/metas-quest-3s-is-just-a-revamped-quest-2-and-its-the-better-for-it) and they actually mention the moisture problem in terms of the proximity sensor failure. Although, it seems to me that the reason behind the proximity sensor removal is cost reduction rather than isolation improvement. Moreover, it seems to me it isn't the only part that can fail due to moisture.

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joeyjack

New Participant

Same problem for me!

I had the quest 2 for 4 years and used it daily.

I’ve had my quest 3 for 7 months and am waiting on 4th replacement. The only app I use is a boxing game called thrill of the fight 2. Every headset has died the same way - left lens goes black.

The only reason I purchased the headset was for this app 😫 I baby the headset / wipe myself down before I get too sweaty, keep it as dry as humanly possible but to no avail.

MetaStoreHelp

Community Manager

Hi there,

Thanks for posting into our forum. We see you're having to get a replacement for your Quest 3 due to sweat interfering and messing up the display, this is certainly not ideal! We know many of our users invest in our devices for a good workout, and with that always comes a flood of sweat!

Just as a suggestion, it may be good to invest in a silicone facial interface from our Meta Store considering you're only using it for highly intense apps that require a lot of movement and could save yourself the headache of having to go through this again as this interface is purely designed for users such as yourself!

Hopefully this will be useful information for you and hope you can get back in the ring as soon as possible.

If you're the author of a thread, remember to mark a reply as the Accepted Solution to help others find answers!

Z

Z4YNIE20

Participant

The problem is not the sweat on the outside so the silicone interface wont make a difference, its the sweat seeping into the seams of the rubber cover that is hiding the electronic components and then messing them electrical components up. Which there is no accessory to stop that from happening, the only way to fix this is to sweat less which is a hard fix.

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Paris3165

Participant

same happened to me while playing thrill of the fight 2 but i figured its probably humidity inside the headset and it messes up the tracking try shutting it off and leaving it alone for a couple of days and it should boot up at least that worked for me

also since this is a headset issues id suggest preping the headset with paper towels in areas that sweat can build up in and taking regular breaks to clean off build up sweat on the lenses, sensor and etc

its unfortunate he have to do this but it is what it is

A

Anonymous

Paris3165 if you keep sweating into your headset the sweat vapour is ultimately going to fry your electronics.

Have a look at this thread and the extraction fan interface mentioned.

Solved: 4 headset replacements in 4 months

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Paris3165

Participant

i do have one of those fans constantly pulling out air but it eventually stills bugs out losses tracking and shuts down its not a lie that the meta quest has terrible air circulation even one of my controllers broke because they didn't really put any waterproofing in the joystick so sweat entered in there and now its permanently stuck to pressing forwards

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HyPeRCoN92

New Participant

Unfortunately 7 weeks in and I'm having to hand my 2nd Quest 3 back into the retailer for a replacement/refund...

I've been totally fine playing games like Contractors, Asgards Wrath 2, and Fruit Ninja.

However both times I had a hard session (30-60minutes of Boxing, Thrill of the Fight) - With regular removing the head set, using a towel, on my 2nd headset as the first one died with a black lens after an hour of boxing.

I was even using facial interface fully extended away and removing for drying whilst looking up (To avoid moisture ingress), but then I came back to it and the Tracking was completely useless after a short break, a factory reset resulted in a dead unit that can't be set back up again...

I am an excessive sweater so I did take all precautions and I'm just really disappointed that this product offers such immersive games like the boxing, sword fighting etc and also advertises itself as a fitness related product, but I'm afraid to play them again now just in case the steam from my face or a small amount of sweat gets in.

I may try out a 3rd headset and give it one final go with a completely open face interface (great, more money spent on accessories) but in theory at least there is no risk of steam build up within the sealed part of the interface, but this really is disappointing for something I paid £469.99 + additional accessories to make this product work sufficiently and I couldn't even get 3 months out of before having to go to have 2 replacements...

A

Anonymous

HyPeRCoN92 there are some tips in the other thread which should help to reduce how much sweat vapour gets to the electronics.

https://communityforums.atmeta.com/t5/VR-Experiences/4-headset-replacements-in-4-months/td-p/1244716/page/3

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CasualSpar

New Participant

this just happened to me. was hoping if i could find a way to fix my oculus lmao

MetaStoreHelp

Community Manager

Hi there CasualSpar !

Thank you for bringing this to our attention! We would like to chat about it in our DMs and ask you more questions related to the issue you are facing. Could you please send us a DM? To do so, please select our name to get to our profile page, or click here.

Next, click "Send a Message" to privately message us! Please remember, you must be signed into the community first to send us a private message.

Speak soon!

If you're the author of a thread, remember to mark a reply as the Accepted Solution to help others find answers!

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SpaceBass11

New Participant

TL;DR Had black screen tracking error. Controllers not detected. I factory reset my headset, then stripped the headset and controllers down to bare bones. No head strap, no face plate, no controller covers, no controller battery covers. Booted headset to initial setup screen. Put brand new batteries in both controllers. Rebooted headset. Initialized headset and everything worked.

Posting here as I also ran into this infamous black screen with no tracking error, but I was able to fix my headset, which I'll get to. During troubleshooting I had hand tracking enabled so I was able to click use without tracking options, but controllers were not detected. For my case I learned both my controller batteries were dead. I had only replaced one controller battery but could not get it detected. Hand tracking worked fine and pass-thru would only work if I put headset in travel mode. You could see in settings menu headset tracking was toggled off and could not be toggled on. However, if in travel mode you could try and turn it on but it would take you back to the black tracking error screen. I used developer mode adb while hooked to PC to pull logs. Tried couple of adb commands like toggle boundary and clear cache, then factory reset the headset. Upon setup it would not detect my controllers, even the one controller with good battery.

At this point I took the custom head strap off the headset and the face plate off, so it was just the headset itself. I took the rubber covers off the controllers and left the battery covers off. After that, I put a new battery in my second controller (still no detection in headset) and rebooted the headset. Upon reboot both controllers were detected and I was able to initialize the headset. Was it because I took everything off the headset/controllers, or because both needed new batteries at same time, or a combination... I don't know. Haven't seen that error before with dead controllers though.

I'm interested in the sweat and/or condensation theory. I haven't seen a single photo or video to show moisture on the headset itself.

Condensation occurs when humid air contacts a surface that is colder than the air's dew point:

- Warm air (like vapor from your skin) carries moisture.

- When it touches a cooler surface, the air cools down.

- Cooler air can’t hold as much moisture → moisture condenses into water droplets on that surface.

Inside the Quest 3 = Warm/Hot

- Internal components generate heat (from the SoC, sensors, displays).

- Limited airflow and close skin contact raise internal temperature even more.

- As a result, the interior surfaces are typically warmer than your face.

So if the surface (like the Meta Quest 3) is hotter than your face:

- No condensation will occur.

- The water vapor stays in the air.

- It may evaporate even faster due to heat.

What COULD Cause Moisture Issues

- Using the headset in extremely humid environments (e.g. 100% humidity in Florida summer)

- Rapid temperature changes (like moving from cold air conditioning into a hot space instantly)

The "Capillary Sweat Damage" Claim:

"The reason for the failures seems to be that sweat seeps between the two parts of the facial interface due to capillary action. It collects there, eventually penetrating through the mounting holes into the headset and can damage the electronics."

This theory, while technically plausible, lacks direct evidence such as photos or videos. If sweat is the issue here due to CAPILLARY then for this to be true:

- Sweat would need to visibly accumulate between the layers of the facial interface.

- You would expect the area behind the interface to be noticeably wet upon removal.

- A substantial amount of liquid would be required for capillary action to draw sweat through the interface seams and into mounting holes — then somehow reach and damage internal circuitry.

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Xzm3

New Participant

im on my 4th headset now in 4 months at first i thought my headset was overheating and thats why my screen was flickering and going blank on my left side but on my 3rd headset i had the issue where i got the tracking issue so i hard reset my device and both the screens went blank, i opened the rubber seal which covers the faceplate and the plastic under it which is around the lens was drenched in sweat even though i opened my headset 2-3 hours after the issue happened. So the sweat getting inside is a real thing, i didn't get a pic or video because I didn't think i would need to as i was getting a replacement. Now i have got the meta open facial interface and have had no issues so far, hopefully it lasts longer now but it does kill the immersion because of the holes on the sides but the airflow is good so the sweat and moisture cant get trapped inside the headset.

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hyvulgoon

New Participant

Your post gives me hope!

So I got the tracking issue black screen. As per Meta's advice, I reset to factory settings. Honestly, I didn't have much of a choice as I couldn't do anything or troubleshoot with the black screen.

Anyway, factory reset did not work. I still have a black screen and can't do anything.

How were you able to troubleshoot?

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Biba66

New Participant

Hi! I have the same problem with my Oculus 3S. After an hour of playing FIT XR (a game from Meta), the device froze and fell slightly, I was about to lose my balance and fall, then the screen went black. The problem is that this is the second device with this problem in a month and I also paid for the game subscription, but now I can't benefit from it anymore.

It's not okay to pay for a device that has this type of handicap, even though the Oculus 3S was specifically designed for sports games and Meta already knew about this problem.

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