How To Fix Common Samsung Galaxy S2 Problems and Errors [Part 12]

Welcome to the 12th edition of our Samsung Galaxy S2 Problems and Solutions series. At least, ten problems were addressed in this post and majority of them are so common that if you’re an owner of the phone, you may encounter them sooner or later.

We still have thousands of email messages that need to be answered so expect to be reading posts like this daily as it is our way of responding to those emails. We want our troubleshooting guides and solutions to be accessible to the public anytime so other users who may have any of these problems can get support even without emailing us. If, however, your problems aren’t included in any of our posts, feel free to email us at https://thedroidguy.com/how-to and we’ll do our best to address them. But we urge all of you to provide as much details as possible to make things easier for us, too. Thanks.

Can’t run apps, no message notification, SD card questions

Q: Hello. I have been having a problem running apps on this phone, I don’t receive text message alerts and it will not let me mount the existing SD card. Do I have a SD card problem I mean do they break? What kind should I buy if so and how big of one.

A: If you’re having problems with third-party apps, then check their compatibility and verify to know if they’ve been installed properly. You may need to uninstall the ones you previously installed and download a fresh copy from the Play Store and install them. As to your text message alerts, well, check your notifications to verify if you’ve enabled notifications every time you receive messages.

As to your question about an SD card, yes, they do break; they’re just plastics, you know. Buy the ones that came from reputable manufacturers. In other words, buy a branded SD card. Now, about the other question, I am not sure if you’re referring to the size of the card or the space. But if you’re referring to the physical size, buy the microSD card; an SD card is so big that it won’t fit the microSD card slot on your phone. If you, however, were referring to the storage space, I suggest you get 16GB or 32GB.

Dropped Galaxy S2 has cracked screen
Q: Hey man I dropped my Samsung Galaxy S2, the screen has cracks and the screen won’t light up, only the touch keys light up, what should I do?

A: Both display panel and digitizer were broken due to the drop. I’m afraid you don’t have other options but to buy a new unit of display panel for the Galaxy S2 as well as the digitizer. However, doing so is not a guarantee the problem will be fixed because apparently I don’t know how far the damage was. But bringing it in for checkup would surely provide answers to your questions.

Galaxy S2 says SIM card not inserted

Q: Hey! So I saw the article you put up about Samsung Galaxy SII and their problems. Well I have a question and I was wondering if you could answer it for me. For some reason my phone says there is no SIM card in it when there is. I am positive the SIM card is mounted.

A: Odds are the SIM card is damaged or it cannot make a good contact with the receptors. Here’s what you need to do:

1. First, remove the SIM card and insert it back making sure it is mounted correctly.
2. If the error message is still there, try to reboot the phone with the SIM card mounted.
3. Upon start up and the phone still can’t detect the SIM card, remove it one more time and clean its interface with dry, soft cloth and then insert it back.
4. Now, if the problem is still there, get a small piece of paper and insert it on the top of the SIM card so when the battery and back cover are fitted, there’s little pressure that pushes the SIM card to the receptors making good contact.
5. In case the problem won’t go away after doing all these things, call your provider and have them replace your SIM card. You may need to wait 3 to 5 days for the new SIM card to arrive but the wait is worth it if the problem was the SIM card. You may also want to bring the phone in for close check up.

Galaxy S2 shuts down after 30 mins of inactivity

Q: Hi my Galaxy S2 shuts off after about 30-45 minutes of inactivity. To reboot I have to hold down the power button about 2-3 minutes.

A: It’s actually a rare problem but by the sound of it, I think it’s either a battery problem or an issue with the phone itself. I’ve already heard a lot of users complaining about the Galaxy S2 rebooting without apparent reason and I know a few users whose units were replaced no questions asked after they complained about this issue.

Of course, I want you to make sure it’s not just a setting that causes this. Try disabling the power saving mode of the phone and observe. You may also need to boot to Safe Mode so that you’ll know if this issue is caused by a third-party app or not. Once you’ve done that, troubleshoot the battery.

There is a chance that the phone’s battery has already deteriorated and the power it gives off fluctuates from time to time causing disruption that may lead to the mysterious shut down. If you have access to a new battery, that would be better so you could isolate what the problem is. If it weren’t the battery, then there must be something wrong with the device.

You know, once you bring the phone in, the first thing the technician would do is to perform factory reset. I, therefore, advice you to perform factory reset before you bring it in so if the problem was with the setting or firmware, it could be fixed thus saving yourself from a lot of trouble. But if all else fails, employ the services of a technician.

Photos are sometimes blurry

Q: Hi, sometimes the pictures made by my Galaxy S2 phone are blurry (not focused). All my camera settings are ok. I saw some questions regarding the same problem on the internet. Do you have any suggestion how to solve this? — Jan

A: Since you used the word “sometimes” here, I would assume most of the time the pictures look okay. So, I think it’s how you took those photos that made them blurry. I’m not trying to discredit you but the phone can obviously take photos with good quality but “sometimes,” just sometimes, some photos become blurry. There’s no problem to solve here, okay. If there was, then it must be in the camera sensor itself and there’s no way you can fix that on your own. Most of the times, damaged camera sensor will be replaced as a component. Try to observe how to take those blurry shots.

Galaxy S2 won’t boot up

Q: Hi, recently the phone stopped turning on. It comes up with the provider’s start up menu but it freezes on a blank scree with SAMSUNG name on it. The phone is about 2.4 years old. Are there any fixes? Regards, Andrea.

A: If the phone just decided not to completely boot up, then it must be a firmware issue or glitch. There are different ways to address this problem but I would suggest you do the soft reset first:

1. While the phone is on, remove the back cover and then the battery.
2. Press and hold the power key for about 30 seconds.
3. Place the battery back and turn the phone on.

If the phone still refuses to boot up after this, then follow the next procedure.

1. Turn off the device.
2. Press and hold both Volume Up and Volume Down keys at the same time.
3. Press the Power key only until the phone vibrates once, then release only the Power key.
4. Continue to hold the Volume up and Volume Down keys until the Android System Recovery screen appears.
5. Press the Volume Down key to highlight wipe data / factory reset.
6. Press the Power key to select.
7. Press the Volume Down key to highlight Yes – Delete all user data.
8. Press the Power key to select.
9. Press the Power key to reboot.

That should do it.

Galaxy S2 freezes after the update

Q: I just recently upgraded my Galaxy S2 to JB. Since then, it freezes, Google Search doesn’t work, Google maps won’t work, and it is forever giving me an error that Google has stopped working. Any suggestions?

A: It may just be a glitch that could have resulted from the corruption of data during the update process. I am not sure how bad the freezing is but try to backup all your data first. If you can’t do so because the phone is almost all the time unresponsive, try booting to safe mode and see if you can manipulate the phone there normally. If still not, then there’s no other option but to wipe the cache partition and if that doesn’t fix the problem, proceed to factory reset. Here’s how you wipe the cache partition.

1. Turn off the device.
2. Press and hold both Volume Up and Volume Down keys at the same time.
3. Press the Power key only until the phone vibrates once, then release only the Power key.
4. Continue to hold the Volume up and Volume Down keys until the Android System Recovery screen appears.
5. Press the Volume Down key to highlight wipe cache partition.
6. Press the Power key to select.
7. Make sure Reboot System Now is highlighted and press the Power key to reboot.

And here’s how you do factory reset via the recovery mode…

1. Turn off the device.
2. Press and hold both Volume Up and Volume Down keys at the same time.
3. Press the Power key only until the phone vibrates once, then release only the Power key.
4. Continue to hold the Volume up and Volume Down keys until the Android System Recovery screen appears.
5. Press the Volume Down key to highlight wipe data / factory reset.
6. Press the Power key to select.
7. Press the Volume Down key to highlight Yes – Delete all user data.
8. Press the Power key to select.
9. Press the Power key to reboot.

Galaxy S2 won’t power up

Q: Hi , my wife has a galaxy s2 that up until today really hasn’t had any problems. It did get stuck a month ago in an android update loop that would sit and hang for hours with message of don’t turn off. Finally after couple of days the phone returned to normal.

This morning she woke up to her phone being dead. She plugged the charger in and the battery symbol came up on the screen for a second with X going through it and went black. There was no indication anywhere that the phone is charging (no blinking light, etc). It will not turn on (tried volume, home, power trick as well). Tried several different chargers and nothing…tried connecting to computer and nothing. Tried removing battery and connecting charger to phone with battery out and still nothing. Phones battery has been fairly steady up until this morning. The USB feels tight going into phone (don’t sense any play) ..there are important pictures of kids on the internal memory that would be absolutely horrible to lose.(no SD card was in phone unfortunately). Any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated. Thank you in advance!

A: I think the problem is with the USB charging port but let’s try to rule out the possibility that it’s just a glitch. Try this first…

1. While the phone is on, remove the back cover and then the battery.
2. Press and hold the power key for about 30 seconds.
3. Place the battery back and turn the phone on.

If that didn’t work, try a new battery. There’s no guarantee a new battery could fix the problem so if you could borrow from someone who has an S2, that would do it. Now, if it wasn’t the battery that has a problem, bring the phone to a technician and have it fixed. I believe it’s more of a hardware problem than software.

Galaxy S2 displaying ‘No Network Registered’ error

Q: Love the site hope you can help me. Samsung Galaxy S2 working okay with O2 SIM card but now displaying message no network registered. Now have new sim card from o2 but still not working although other SIM cards do work in the phone. Any ideas? Phone no longer under guarantee and I am technophobic any assistance gratefully received. — Kenny

A: Problems like this is often caused by a damaged SIM card or an activation issue. Since you said you just received a new SIM card from your provider, then it should be the latter. Call O2 and ask their representative to activate your service. A SIM card number should be tied to a phone IMEI or the subscriber couldn’t get a service. But I assume that in your case, the phone is from O2 and you have used that on the same network before because if not, you need to have it registered in the system to get a service.

Galaxy S2 video app stopped working

Q: Sir, last morning I was update my galaxy s2 to 4.2.2 version and all the things perfect but when i open the mobile video player its shows “unfortunately video stopped working” other apps and videos are working perfectly. Please tell me the issue?

A: It could be just a glitch that caused this problem. More often during updates, some data will become corrupt as the version of the firmware changes and some dependencies won’t work anymore. You need to clear those data or else issues like this keeps happening.

1. From the Setting menu, touch Apps or Application Manager.
2. Verify the All tab is selected.
3. Find and touch the Video application.
4. Touch Clear Cache and Clear Data.

If this procedure, however, won’t work you should try wiping the cache partition. After all, doing so would help other apps and services clearing unusable data.

1. Turn off the device.
2. Press and hold both Volume Up and Volume Down keys at the same time.
3. Press the Power key only until the phone vibrates once, then release only the Power key.
4. Continue to hold the Volume up and Volume Down keys until the Android System Recovery screen appears.
5. Press the Volume Down key to highlight wipe cache partition.
6. Press the Power key to select.
7. Make sure Reboot System Now is highlighted and press the Power key to reboot.

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