How to fix your Samsung Galaxy S8 that drains its battery instead of charging when plugged in [Troubleshooting Guide]

We’ve already encountered issues with the Samsung Galaxy S8 where it won’t charge or refuses to turn on. We seldom get complaints about devices that have issues charging and powering up. These issues, however, are often connected and it could be that the phone can no longer turn on because its battery is all drained up.

I will tackle these issues in this post and we will try to rule out one possibility after another until we arrive at a point wherein we can easily determine what the real problem is. That way, we can try to formulate a solution that might fix it for good. So, if you’re one of the owners of this device and are currently bugged by a similar problem, continue reading as this post may help you.

But before anything else, if you’re currently experiencing different issues with your phone, then I suggest you visit our Samsung Galaxy S8 troubleshooting page for we’ve already started providing support to our readers who own this device. We understand your phone is still brand new and it should work perfectly without a hitch but not even Samsung can guarantee there won’t be any problems. What we do here is provide help to our readers the best we can so if we haven’t published posts about your concern, feel free to contact us by filling up our Android issues questionnaire.

How to troubleshoot Galaxy S8 that won’t charge nor turn on

Problem: So my Samsung S8 was at 10% then I go to charge it and its saying its charging but the battery is actually draining. Now, my phone is completely dead and when I plug my charger in it has the lighting bolt saying its charging but wont turn on and none of the buttons are responsive either.

Solution: As you indicated that the lighting bolt is showing on the screen every time you connected the device to its charger, it means there’s nothing wrong with its hardware and most probably this is just a minor power-related concern. But to be certain what the problem really is, we recommend you to spend time performing the basic troubleshooting procedures on your phone. Don’t you worry, these methods won’t do any harm nor delete your files and data saved in the internal storage, instead, it will help you determine and fix the inconsistencies that are happening on your device.

Step 1: Do the forced reboot procedure

There are times when a number of apps are running in the background and use up a huge chunk of resources and when it happens, the result could be that the phone cannot charge successfully even if you plug it in. More often, this problem can be fixed by the forced reboot procedure. This is the equivalent of the battery-pull procedure we often do to devices that have removable batteries. Through forced restart the device’s memory will be refreshed and more importantly all apps that might caused the issue will be closed. Here’s how you do it:

  1. Press and hold the Power and Volume Down keys simultaneously for 7-10 seconds.
  2. Wait until the device reboots.

After this and your phone is still unable to turn, then move on to the next step.

Step 2: Charge your phone to verify if the charger is defective or the battery itself

Now, we have to charge your phone using a new set of charger to know if the old one you are using is defective and might have caused the issue. While it is connected let the device charge for several minutes so that there’s enough energy stored in the battery that can be used when you have to power on your phone. So, if your phone boots up completely using a different charger, then obviously the your old charger is defective and the battery was all drained it could no longer power the hardware up. If, however, your device refuses to charge, try to read some of the posts we’ve already published that look to fix charging issues…

Fixing the charging issue may lead to the resolution of the other issues. However, if your phone charges but still refuses to turn back on, move on to the next step.

Step 3: Try reboot your phone in Safe mode

We’ve encountered issues wherein third-party apps caused the phone to not charge or turn on. We have to rule out this possibility and the best we could do right now is try to isolate the problem by booting your phone up in safe mode.

By starting your phone in this mode, you’re actually disabling all downloaded applications. If one of them caused the problem and prevented your S8 to boot up normally, then it should be able to enter this environment without any other issues.

Here’s how you boot your S8 in Safe mode:

  1. Turn the device off.
  2. Press and hold the Power key past the model name screen.
  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.

Now, assuming you’ve successfully made your phone to turn on in this environment, the next thing you have to do is find the app that might be causing the problem and try resetting it first and if that won’t work, uninstall it. However, if you don’t have a clue as to which app is the culprit, then try updating apps that need to be updated first…

  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.

And the following are the steps on how to reset and uninstall apps from your Galaxy S8.

How to clear apps 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 cache.
  6. Tap Clear data and then tap OK.

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 the problem persists after all this, then move on to the next step.

Step 4: Attempt to boot your phone in Recovery mode

Assuming your phone couldn’t boot up in safe mode successfully, this is the next thing you should try. There’s no guarantee that you can bring your phone to run in this environment you should at least try because if successful, there are a couple of procedures you can do that might just fix the issue for good. Don’t worry though, starting your S8 up in this environment is safe for your data as well as to your device.

Now, let’s assume you’ve successfully booted it up in this mode, the first thing you should try is wipe the cache partition. This will delete all system caches corrupt and good alike. This is how you do it…

  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 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 the Power key 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.

Let’s further assume that your phone successfully booted up in this mode and you’ve already wiped out the cache partition but your device is still stuck during boot up or won’t charge, then you have no other option but to reset it. This will delete all your personal files, data and apps and I understand if you would hesitant to do it but you don’t have much of a choice right now. So, if you decide to proceed with it, here’s how…

  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 the problem still occurs after the reset, then it’s time to bring your phone to the shop and let the tech handle the problem for you.

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.  

TheDroidGuy Mailbag

🛠️If you have questions, check our Help section for details on how to submit your questions.💡


Posts You Might Like

Leave a Comment