How to fix your Samsung Galaxy A5 (2017) that’s stuck on the boot screen [Troubleshooting Guide]

There have already been a lot of reports about the Samsung Galaxy A5 being stuck on the boot screen while starting up. It might be a sign that the phone is experiencing firmware-related issues or it could be something else. We don’t know for sure why this problem is happening to your phone that’s why we need to do some troubleshooting procedures to, at least, have some idea what this is all about and what needs to be done to make the phone work again.

Being stuck on the boot screen also means that phone can’t boot up successfully. We have readers who refer to this problem as “not turning on.” Well, the phone does turn on, it just won’t be able to continue booting up to the home screen for some unknown reason and we would like to make that clear enough.

In this post, I will walk you through in troubleshooting your Galaxy A5 that cannot continue with its usual start up procedure as it’s stuck on some screen during the process. We’ll try to look into every possibility and rule them out one by one until we can figure out what the problem with your phone really is. Once we know the problem, we may be able to formulate a solution that can fix it. So, if you own a phone like this and are currently bugged by a similar concern, continue reading below as this post maybe able to help you.

But before we go to our proper troubleshooting, if you happen to find this page because you were looking for solutions to a different problem, then I suggest you visit our Galaxy A5 troubleshooting page as we’ve already addressed the most commonly reported issues with this phone and you may find what you’re looking for in there. Feel free to use the solutions and workarounds we provided. If they don’t work for you or if you need further assistance, fill up our Android issues questionnaire and then hit submit and we’ll do our best to help you.

How to troubleshoot your Galaxy A5 that’s stuck on the boot screen

Problem: For some reason, my Galaxy A5 no longer powers on completely. It does turn on but gets stuck on the black screen and can’t even reach the home screen. I don’t know why it’s happening but I know for sure it got stuck on this screen since two days ago. Yesterday, however, I was able to power it on successfully and used it normally until it rebooted on its own and got stuck again. Now, no matter what I do, it just won’t continue starting up. Can you help?

Troubleshooting: Being stuck on the boot screen can be a sign of a serious firmware issue but could also be due to some apps that keep crashing. In other words, we don’t know for sure why your phone cannot continue booting up to the home screen and that’s the reason we need to troubleshoot your phone to have a shot at fixing what the problem really is. With that being said, here’s what I suggest you do about it:

Step 1: Start your phone up in Recovery mode and wipe cache partition

The purpose of this step is to rule out the possibility that this problem is due to some corrupt system caches. This is the first thing we want you to do because apparently, the phone still powers on, the firmware attempts to boot up but gets stuck on the boot screen. It’s more likely a firmware-related issue than anything else, although we really can’t be sure. Don’t worry though because this procedure is safe for your data as well as for the firmware itself. What it does is simply delete all system caches so that they’ll be replaced with new ones when the phone reboots. Here’s how you 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 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.

It’s normal that the phone will take time booting up after you’ve wiped off the contents of the cache partition as the system will rebuild those files. So, the phone may still show the screen where it’s stuck for a minute or two but just wait for your phone to boot up successfully. If it’s still stuck though, then you have to try the next step.

Step 2: Try to start your phone up in Safe mode

Now, we need to rule out the possibility that this problem is caused by apps. You have to isolate the problem by disabling all third-party apps so that you would know if it’s third-party or pre-installed apps that cause it. To do so, you just have to run your phone up in Safe mode. Don’t worry, none of your files and data will be deleted by doing this. In fact, just by doing this procedure doesn’t fix the problem but will give you an idea which of the apps is causing the issue. Here’s how you boot your Galaxy A7 in safe 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’.

If the phone successfully started in safe mode, then the problem is a lot simpler than it seems; you just have to find the app that’s causing the problem, try updating and resetting it and if that won’t work, you have to uninstall it.

How to find updates for your apps on Galaxy A5

1. From any Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
2. Tap Play Store.
3. Tap the Menu key and then tap My Apps. To keep your apps automatically updated, tap the Menu key, tap Settings, and then tap Auto-update apps to select the check box.
4. Choose one of the following options:
   • Tap Update [xx] to update all applications with updates available.
   • Tap an individual application and then tap Update to update a single application.

How to reset your apps by clearing their caches and data

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 Storage.
6. Tap Clear data and then tap OK.
7. Tap Clear cache.

How to uninstall applications from your Galaxy A5

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.

Step 3: Backup your files and data and then reset your phone

After doing the procedures above and the phone still can’t continue booting up, then you’ll have to reset your phone. As I said earlier, this problem might just be with the firmware and the reset will rule out such possibility, although I’m confident it’s the last thing you need to do to fix it. However, you need to make a backup of your files and data as they will be deleted during the process. Also, I suggest you disable the Factory Reset Protection so you won’t be locked out after the reset.

How to disable Factory Reset Protection on your Galaxy A5

1. From any Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
2. Tap Settings.
3. Tap Cloud and accounts.
4. Tap Accounts.
5. Tap Google.
6. Tap your Google ID email address. If you have multiple accounts setup, you will need to repeat these steps for each account.
7. Tap Menu.
8. Tap Remove account.
9. Tap REMOVE ACCOUNT.

After doing this and you’re sure you’ve already made backups of your important files and data, then follow these steps to reset your phone:

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.

You can also reset your phone from the Settings menu…

1. From any Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
2. Tap Settings.
3. Tap Cloud and accounts.
4. Tap Backup and restore.
5. If desired, tap Back up my data to move the slider to ON or OFF.
6. If desired, tap Restore to move the slider to ON or OFF.
7. Tap the back key twice to return to the Settings menu, then tap General Management.
8. Tap Reset.
9. Tap Factory data reset.
10. Tap Reset device.
11. If you have screen lock turned on, enter your PIN or password.
12. Tap Continue.
13. Tap Delete all.

I hope you can bring your phone to boot up successfully after all this because if not, then you need help from  tech who can do further tests on your phone.

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