How to fix your Samsung Galaxy S8 that can’t continue booting up but keeps restarting instead [Troubleshooting Guide]

There are times when the phone encounters a firmware issue and can’t boot up successfully and instead of reaching the home screen, it reboots. This cycle is endless and if you just allow your Samsung Galaxy S8 to do this, it won’t stop until its battery gets drained. This is a sign of a serious firmware issue but then there were cases wherein apps also trigger the same problem so we really can’t be certain what this is all about. We need to troubleshoot so that we can have a clue as to why this is happening.

In this post, I will walk you through in troubleshooting your Galaxy S8 that got stuck in bootloop for some unknown reason. We will try to consider every possibility and rule them out one by one until we can determine what the problem really is and what’s causing it. That way we can try to formulate a solution that might fix it and prevent it from happening again in the future. So, if you have a phone like this and are currently experiencing the same problem, then continue reading this article as it might help you.

On the other hand, if you are looking for a solution to a totally different issue, then feel free to visit our Galaxy S8 troubleshooting page for we have already provided solutions to many of the problems sent by our readers. Odds are that there may already be a solution to your problem that we’ve published on our site so take time to browse through the page and look for the problem that similar with yours. If you need for help, fill up our Android issues questionnaire and click submit to contact us.

How to troubleshoot your Galaxy S8 that’s stuck in bootloop

Problem: Have you encountered a problem wherein the phone cannot continue starting up? It does power on, shows the logo and all but somehow it can’t reach the home screen and reboots. Then it starts turning on again, pass through all the screens, turns off and do the same thing over and over. It doesn’t end and I don’t know why it’s doing this or what caused it. Can you help me fix this problem because now I can’t use my phone anymore. Thanks.

Troubleshooting: Being stuck in bootloop is one of those very annoying things as when your phone powers on, it will give you an impression that it would work but then it turns off just when it’s about to show the home screen. It might be an issue with the firmware but then we have to troubleshoot to know more about the problem and for this, here’s what I suggest you do:

Step 1: Make sure the Power key isn’t stuck

A stuck power key may also result to a bootloop. That’s why it’s necessary that you make sure it’s not the case prior to doing troubleshooting procedures for the firmware. Just press the power key several times and see if it still snaps like before because if not, then it’s more likely got stuck or worse, it might be damaged.

For a stuck power key, pressing it a lot of times often fixes it, although there’s no guarantee. If, however, you have a third-party case to protect your phone, try removing it first and see if the phone still enters the bootloop. Sometimes, cases are the cause of stuck power keys.

Step 2: Wipe cache partition

Assuming the power key is not stuck or damaged, the next thing you should do is delete all system caches especially if your phone got updated prior to this problem. Corrupt caches can also result to this problem and you need to rule out such possibility. You can do so by following these steps:

  1. Turn off the device.
  2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the green Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
  4. Press the Volume down key several times to highlight “wipe cache partition”
  5. Press Power button to select.
  6. Press the Volume down key to highlight “yes” and press the Power key to select.
  7. When the wipe cache partition is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
  8. Press the Power key to restart the device.

If the phone successfully booted up in recovery mode and you successfully wiped off the cache partition but the problem still occurs, then try doing the next step.

Step 3: Try booting your phone up in safe mode

We now want to know if your phone can also boot up in an Android environment wherein only built-in apps are running because it’s also possible that the cause of the bootloop is a third-party app. If successful, then there are things you need to do inorder to fix the problem. First, you have to try to update apps that need to be updated as it might be just a compatibility issue…

  1. From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open the Apps tray.
  2. Tap Play Store.
  3. Tap the Menu key and then tap My Apps. To keep your apps automatically updated, tap the Menu > Settings 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.

If you are suspecting an app or two, then you should try clearing their caches and data or even uninstalling them just to verify if they really are the cause of the problem.

How to clear app cache and data on Galaxy S8

  1. From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open the Apps tray.
  2. Tap Settings > Apps.
  3. Tap the desired application in the default list or tap 3 dots icon > Show system apps to display pre-installed apps.
  4. Tap Storage.
  5. Tap Clear data and then tap OK.
  6. Tap Clear cache.

How to uninstall applications from your Galaxy S8

  1. From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open the Apps tray.
  2. Tap Settings > Apps.
  3. Tap the desired application in the default list or tap 3 dots icon > Show system apps to display pre-installed apps.
  4. Tap the desired application.
  5. Tap Uninstall.
  6. Tap Uninstall again to confirm.

If, however, your phone cannot boot up in safe mode successfully, try the next step.

Step 4: It’s time to reset your phone

That’s right, you have to try to reset your phone provided that it can successfully boot up in Recovery mode. If this problem is due to a firmware issue, then you can bring the phone to start in recovery mode and from there, you can reset it. But please take note that you may lose all your files and data that are stored in your phone’s internal storage and you may not be able to retrieve them. So, it’s your call if you want to continue with it or not…

  1. Turn off the device.
  2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the green Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
  4. Press the Volume down key several times to highlight “wipe data / factory reset.
  5. Press Power button to select.
  6. Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
  7. Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
  8. When the master reset is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
  9. Press the Power key to restart the device.

If you don’t want to reset your phone, then find a tech who will fix this problem for you.

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