How to fix your Samsung Galaxy A3 that entered bootloop and can’t start [Troubleshooting Guide]

The most typical occurrences of this problem is that your phone turns off on its own and when you try to turn it back on, it shows all the usual logos and screens and just before it reaches the home screen, it turns off and then on again and go through all those things over again. If you leave it alone, it would keep on doing them over and over until the battery drains out. Many Samsung Galaxy A3 owners have contacted us about this problem that’s why we find it necessary to address it.

It may seem like a very serious problem but it’s not. You can actually disrupt the loop and make your phone start normally again by doing some basic troubleshooting procedures, which we will point out in this post. But before that, we will try to determine what the problem really is so we can formulate a solution that might fix the problem for good. So, if you are one of the owners of this phone and are currently bugged by the same issue, continue reading this post as we may be able to help you.

Now, before we jump to our troubleshooting guide, if even you found this post because you were trying to find a solution to different issue, then I suggest you visit our Galaxy A3 troubleshooting page for we have already addressed some of the most commonly reported issues with this device. Try to find a problem that’s similar with yours and use the solutions or workarounds we suggested. If they don’t work for you and if you need further assistance, then fill up our Android issues questionnaire and we will include your concern in our next posts.

Troubleshooting Galaxy A3 that can’t get out of the bootloop

As I said earlier, this problem is not really that complex especially if it started on it own regardless if there was an update or not. However, if you tried to root your phone or installed a custom ROM and then this issue started, then it’s clear that the problem stemmed from such modification and the only thing that could fix it is when you install the stock firmware. But that’s a different story.

In this troubleshooting guide, we will assume that the firmware is not modified in one way or the other and with all of that being said, here’s what I suggest you do if you have this kind of problem with your phone:

Step 1: Try to force restart your phone to refresh its memory

The Forced Reboot procedure is just like pulling the battery out of your phone to force it to power off. Such procedure will “power shock” the phone and refresh its memory. It’s a very effective method to fix almost all of minor firmware and hardware related problems. At this point since we don’t know for sure what the problem is all about, it’s best to assume it’s just some kind of a glitch.

Press and hold the Volume Down and Power keys together for 10 seconds. If the problem is caused by a glitch, then your device should restart normally and you may continue using it. If it’s still stuck in bootloop, then move on to the next step.

Step 2: Try to run your Galaxy A3 in Safe mode

There’s a chance that your phone got stuck during boot up due to some apps you installed. So when your phone couldn’t start normally after doing the forced reboot, then you should try running it in Safe mode wherein all third-party apps are temporarily disabled. If one of those apps is causing the problem, then your phone should be able to start up in this mode:

  1. Turn the device off.
  2. Press and hold the Power key past the screen with the device name.
  3. When ‘SAMSUNG’ appears on the screen, release the Power key.
  4. Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume down key.
  5. Continue to hold the Volume down key until the device finishes restarting.
  6. Safe mode will display in the bottom left corner of the screen.
  7. Release the Volume down key when you see ‘Safe Mode’.

Assuming your phone successfully booted up in this mode, then the next thing you should is find the app that’s causing the problem and then uninstall it.  

  1. From any Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
  2. Tap Settings.
  3. Tap Applications.
  4. Tap the desired application in the default list or tap Menu icon > Show system apps to display pre-installed apps.
  5. Tap Uninstall.
  6. Tap Uninstall again to confirm.

However, if the phone can also not continue to boot up in safe mode, then you have to do the next step.

Step 3: Try starting the phone up in Recovery Mode

After steps 1 and 2 and your phone is still not able to boot up successfully, then the problem might be with the firmware. The next thing you have to do is get the phone to boot up into the Android system recovery menu wherein you can do a couple of things that might fix the problem for good, namely: wipe cache partition and master reset.

So, assuming you can successfully boot in this mode, try wiping the cache partition first as it’s safe for  your files and data. Here’s how you start your phone up in Recovery mode and wipe cache partition:

  1. Turn off the device.
  2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the device logo screen displays, release only the Power key.
  4. 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).
  5. Press the Volume down key several times key to highlight ‘wipe cache partition’.
  6. Press the Power key to select.
  7. Press the Volume down key to highlight ‘yes’ and press the Power key to select.
  8. When the wipe cache partition is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
  9. Press the Power key to restart the device.

If your phone is still stuck in bootloop after wiping the cache partition, then you have to do the Master Reset. However, take note that all your files and data will be deleted and you may not be able to recover them after the reset but at this point, you have no other choice but to do it:

  1. Turn off the device.
  2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the device logo screen displays, release only the Power key
  4. 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).
  5. Press the Volume down key several times key to highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset.’
  6. Press Power button to select.
  7. Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
  8. Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
  9. When the master reset is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
  10. Press the Power key to restart the device.

If the problem persists after the reset, then you should bring the phone to the shop as the firmware may need to be manually reinstalled.

Galaxy A3 posts you may also like to read:

Connect with us

We are always open to your problems, questions and suggestions, so feel free to contact us by filling up this form. This is a free service we offer and we won’t charge you a penny for it. But please note that we receive hundreds of emails every day and it’s impossible for us to respond to every single one of them. But rest assured we read every message we receive. For those whom we’ve helped, please spread the word by sharing our posts to your friends or by simply liking our Facebook and Google+ page or follow us on Twitter.


Posts You Might Like

Leave a Comment