Every once in a while we come across #GalaxyNote4 users reporting that their device constantly showing ad pop-ups and virus threats. In this article, we give you some simple steps on how to deal with this pop-ups problem as well as 6 other totally different issues.

Below are the specific topics that we cover in this material today:

Galaxy Note 4 turns off when battery level reaches 25-40%
AT&T Galaxy Note 4 has no “More settings” under Call section
Galaxy Note 4 screen becomes black with white “x” on the side
Galaxy Note 4 with Marshmallow mobile data connection slows when wi-fi is on
Galaxy Note 4 stops working when battery is at 40%
Galaxy Note 4 internet connection keeps dropping when switching from LTE to Wifi and vice versa
Galaxy Note 4 keeps getting pop-up saying phone is infected with virus

If you are looking for solutions to your own #Android issue, you can contact us by using the link provided at the bottom of this page, or you can install our free app from Google Play Store.

When describing your issue, please be as detailed as possible so we can easily pinpoint a relevant solution. If you can, kindly include the exact error messages you are getting to give us an idea where to start. If you have already tried some troubleshooting steps before emailing us, make sure to mention them so we can skip them in our answers.

Problem #1: Galaxy Note 4 turns off when battery level reaches 25-40%

My phone always turns off when there’s approximately 25-40% battery left, and it always occur when I’m dealing with an image/video (Instagram, camera, YouTube etc.). The phone refuses to even start until I plug the charger in, then it shows that I have at least 20% battery left. The phone won’t start until I’ve charged it up to at least 40% (41% seems more stable as it could easily die again after putting in my PIN-code). The phone is almost a year old and it became more stable when I updated to Android 6.0.1 but it’s been getting worse again. My friend had the same issues even with battery replacement so he bought another phone, so that’s why I haven’t tried that yet. I’ve had it sent in to Samsung but all they did (as usual) was to factory reset and just charge it to 100% and said it was OK. I really like my Note 4 but this is getting out of hand, not being able to use it aggressively more than 3-4 hours a day. 🙁 — Andreas

Solution: Hi Andreas. Before you consider getting a replacement phone, try to calibrate the battery first. This is a simple procedure that most often help in power-related issues, but also tend to be overlooked. To do that, follow the steps below:

Use the phone by playing games or doing tasks to hasten power discharge, until the phone turns itself off.
Turn the phone on again and let it turn itself off.
Charge the phone without turning it back on.
Wait until the battery says it fully charged to 100%
Unplug the charger and turn the phone on.
If the phone says it’s not 100% anymore, turn it off, plug the charger back in and wait until 100% charge is reached.
Unplug the charger the turn the phone on again.
Use the phone until you drain the battery down to 0.
Repeat the cycle once.

Problem #2: AT&T Galaxy Note 4 has no “More settings” under Call section

I recently bought two Samsung Galaxy Note 4 phones and have set them up on Consumer Cellular. They are AT&T branded phones operating on Consumer Cellular. Mine has Android 5.1.1 and my wife’s has 4.4.4. Both have the same problem: Going into “more settings” under “Call” produces the error message “Failed to read data network or SIM card error.” More settings do appear, but call waiting is greyed out and unavailable. I’ve done some Google searching and found other people experiencing the same problem on AT&T branded Note 4 phones with either KitKat or Lollipop. I tried the dial sequence to turn it on, but it doesn’t work. I was wondering if you heard of this problem and have a resolution for it. The phones work properly in other respects, at least as far I’ve tested them. I’m not yet an expert on the Note 4 or Android operating system. This thread describes the problem I’m having: https://forums.androidcentral.com/samsung-galaxy-note-4/530945-note-4-owners-do-you-have-error.html. — Computeranswerman

Solution: Hi Computeranswerman. The advanced settings under Call section does open in T-Mobile and Verizon Note 4s so this problem must be unique to AT&T Note 4 models. We are not 100% if the same is true for AT&T Note 4s running Marshmallow so you can try to update your phones to it to see. If the same limitation happens on Marshmallow, you really have to let AT&T know about it so their developer team can look into it. The settings you’re missing are available also in International version of Note 4 so it must only be limited to AT&T firmware.

Problem #3: Galaxy Note 4 screen becomes black with white “x” on the side

I have a Note 4 and I bought the new 2016 Samsung Gear VR (all blue headset) and the late 2014 Samsung Gear VR consumer Edition (white body, blue face). Let me start, the effect and outcome is the same for both. When I plug my Note 4 into either headset, my screen goes black with a little white X in bottom left corner. I have tried everything I can to fix this by trying all fix posts on every site I could find. Soft and hard resets, uninstalling Oculus with the big Oculus in my file and the other Oculus attached files to Oculus. taking out and putting battery back in, looking to see if there were any new updates, looking at center detector for a while after I closed the phone, calling Samsung and Oculus for help, lock and unlocking screen. all NOTHING. Please help. It’s been such a long 3 weeks without a fix. — Lance

Solution: Hi Lance. This issue can sometimes appear at random, especially if you’ve installed Samsung’s Gear VR app and/or Oculus own app. We’ve already documented a lot of similar issues in our previous posts across multiple Samsung devices so we’re positive that this is not model-specific. The thing is, there seems to be no clear pattern on the exact cause. Thus, there’s also no standard solution for it. A user must do trial-and-error method to arrive at a solution. Below is a list of known effective solutions we’ve come across so far:

Removal of Samsun Gear VR app.
Removal of Oculus app.
Booting in safe mode.
Performing a master reset (factory reset via Recovery mode).
Cleaning the headset port and making sure that the contacts are not dirty.
Wiggling the headset jack until the screen goes back to normal.

As we said, these are the known solutions we’ve gathered across the web. We are actually unable to replicate the issue on our own Galaxy S6 and Note 4 so there’s nothing we can give to you firsthand. We’ll update this post in the future if we can find a true fix.

Problem #4: Galaxy Note 4 with Marshmallow mobile data connection slows when wi-fi is on

Not sure when exactly this happened but it’s been 2 weeks after Marshmallow update 6.0.1 and I’ve been having data issues. I’ve done hard resets and cleared system and app cache but slow data still persists. I’ve also taken it to a T-Mobile store to have them look it and they didn’t do much. I have an unlimited plan with T-Mobile. One thing I found out is that my data slows down after I connect to wifi. I don’t have smart switch on. To test it out, I’ve turned off my wifi on the phone and I see the data is really slow. And to fix it I switch the network mode WCDMA/GSM (auto connect) to GSM only but switch it right back. After it loads my phone starts receiving 4G but once I connect to my wifi it reverts to the same slow data. — Ramiro

Solution: Hi Ramiro. This can be an unknown operating system glitch. To test, do another round of factory reset and replicate the problem again without installing any apps. This will help you narrow down the causes. If the same problem remains after a factory reset (without any apps installed), that leaves you with three possible causes:

the firmware may be poorly coded, thus a conflict such as this occurs,
phone’s baseband version is problematic or may need to be updated (baseband is a firmware used by your phone’s modem and is independent from Android OS),
there’s an unknown hardware error (probably on the networking respects of the phone)

There’s nothing much that you can do about them so the best course of action would be to

either seek a phone replacement, or
try to manually flash a firmware via Odin (you may have to update the baseband separately).

If the phone is still covered by a replacement warranty, we highly suggest that you go for replacement. We won’t push that you do the second option but if you’re willing to take the risks involved, then go for it. Manually flashing a firmware can effectively transform your phone into an expensive paperweight but it may be worth it if you have no other choice. Keep in mind that these 2 solutions are only applicable if the issue remains after doing a factory reset and without apps installed.

If the opposite happens, that is, the issue won’t happen after a factory reset, that’s a different story altogether. That’s a hint that a third party app may be involved. Make sure that you install your apps one at a time, and that you observe if the issue returns after each installation. This will be the only way for you to identify the culprit.

Problem #5: Galaxy Note 4 stops working when battery is at 40%

My Note 4 has been dying at 40+ battery lately and when it does I’ll go to charge it and it will say it has around 30% plugged in, but I still cant use it till it’s up to 100% or it dies randomly.

Also when it will get to 0% I try plugging it in and it will register its plugged in but then the vibration when it registers seems too much and kills it while it’s still on the charger. it will repeatedly die every 5 seconds while on the charger resulting in no charge for long periods of time. There has only been one time before that it has stayed on the charger for 2 days and finally got a full battery again but this time it doesn’t seem to be the case.

Also when I try to turn my phone on after it randomly shuts off it will give me the repeat start up over and over till I take out the battery and try to turn it back on again but it doesn’t always work. — Amanda

Solution: Hi Amanda. The issues you raise here can be caused by software issue or a bad hardware. To determine which of these general causes is the culprit, you must do the following:

Wipe the cache partition. If issues started after you installed an app or system update, the most likely problem lies on the system cache. To fix it, simply refresh the cache partition so the system will be forced to build a fresh cache. Here’s how:

Turn off the Galaxy Note 4 completely.
Press and hold the Volume Up and the Home keys together, then press and hold the Power key.
When the Note 4 vibrates, release both the Home and Power keys but continue holding the Volume Up key.
When the Android System Recovery shows on the screen, release the Volume Up key.
Using the Volume Down key, highlight the option ‘wipe cache partition’ and press the Power key to select it.
When the wiping of the cache partition is finished, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and hit the power key.

Calibrate the battery. Battery calibration is another good step to try in your case. Refer to the steps above.

Restart the phone in safe mode. Booting the phone in safe mode and observing the phone is meant to check the possibility that a third party app may be responsible. While safe mode is on, third party apps and services will be prevented from running. So, if the issue won’t occur in this mode, you just have found out that one of your files is problematic. To boot in safe mode, follow these steps:

Turn off the phone completely.
Press and hold the Power key and the Volume Down key.
When the phone starts to boot, release the Power key but continue holding the Vol Down key until the phone finished restarting.
Safe mode will be display at the lower left corner; you may release the Volume Down key now.

Factory reset. If there’s no change in terms of behavior even while the phone is in safe mode, the next logical step that you can take is factory reset. Not only will it potentially eliminate operating system-level glitch that may be causing the problem, but factory reset will also restore all software settings back to default. This means that the operating system will be brought back to its known, working state while at the same time apps will be deleted. By doing this, you are virtually converting the software environment of your device to a point that we know should work. Thus, it’s the ultimate troubleshooting step that should help you check if the issue is software or hardware in nature. If the same problems occur after a factory reset (and without apps re-installed), that’s the strongest proof you can have that says hardware is to blame. To perform a factory reset, follow these steps:

Create a backup of your important files and contacts.
Turn off the Galaxy Note 4 completely.
Press and hold the Volume Up and the Home keys together, then press and hold the Power key.
When the Note 4 vibrates, release both the Home and Power keys but continue holding the Volume Up key.
When the Android System Recovery shows on the screen, release the Vol Up key.
Using the Volume Down key, highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset’ and press the Power key to select it.
Now highlight ‘Yes — delete all user data’ using the Vol Down key and press the Power key to begin the reset.
When the master reset is complete, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and hit the Power key.
The Note 4 will restart but it will be longer than usual. When it reaches the Home screen, then begin your setup.

Replace the battery. There’s a chance that your Note 4’s battery may have simply reaches its end of life. If all software troubleshooting steps have been exhausted, don’t forget to try another battery.

Get a phone replacement. Finally, if all else fails, contact the relevant party so the phone can be repaired or replaced.

Problem #6: Galaxy Note 4 internet connection keeps dropping when switching from LTE to Wifi and vice versa

Hi. I’ve heard that you help users to determine and fix their tech problem. First i would like to thank you for that.

Secondly, I’ve been using my Samsung Note 4 since 27 October. I’ve noticed a really serious problem (at least for me). The problem is that the wifi and LTE connections sometimes crushed. They can go off without my permission, specifically when i go out of my home (where i have a wifi ) or when leave the wifi area. Usually i make the wifi and LTE on .. so that my phone directly connect to LTE in case there’s no wifi.

Sometimes the crush happens when my phone try to change the connection from wifi to LTE.

Other times, I’m outside my home working in my LTE network and the connection suddenly shut itself off ( it’s exactly like i shut the connection icons off). The network of my provider is quite good. Usually when that happens i check my friends phones to find out that it still working. I really hope that you help me with that. It spoiled my joy of this great phone 🙁

Finally i would like to thank you again for your time .. and i hope you got the problem ..

And pardon my English .. it’s not my main language 😀

Lots of love from Saudi Arabia. — Abdulaziz

Solution: Hi Abdulaziz. Like other Android issues, especially the ones mentioned in this post, your issue may be caused by software or hardware. This means that you must try all general software troubleshooting first (wiping the cache partition, booting in safe mode, factory reset) in order to determine if you need to replace the phone or not.

If you enable Smart Switch, try to turn it off and observe the phone. Sometimes, this feature can malfunction so disabling it for good may help.

Also, make sure that your phone’s software (operating system) is updated to minimize problems that may spring from a bad baseband version. Baseband is a firmware used by your phone’s modem and is separate from the operating system.

Keep in mind that our blog does not provide hardware troubleshooting so we can’t help you in isolating hardware causes. If all software troubleshooting won’t help you at all, the best thing that you can do still is phone replacement.

Problem #7: Galaxy Note 4 keeps getting pop-up saying phone is infected with virus

Hello. I just bought my first Android phone. It is a Galaxy Note 4. Sometimes I will get an alert saying my phone could be infected with a virus. I think this usually happens when I’m on Facebook and click a certain link about a certain story. I do not click on any of the links suggesting how to remove it because I am assuming the links probably have malware. I am thinking of returning this phone because I never had an issue like this with an iPhone. Currently the lookout app is enabled and says everything is OK. But having moved away from PCs to Macs because I hated all of the virus threats. I am tempted to go back to an iPhone for the same reason. I really don’t want to have to deal with any virus threats. What are your thoughts and suggestions? I would appreciate an answer ASAP as I only have a few days left to return this phone lol 🙂

Thank you in advance! — Evans

Solution: Hi Evans. Whether you’re a PC, Mac, iOS, or Android user, the basic principle in dealing with malware infection is the same — prevention. This is the best way to deal with malware. If you are careful in what apps you install, websites you visit, and files you download, you are significantly trimming down the chance of a malware infection. There are only a handful of high profile Android viruses that are currently detected and most of them have already been filtered out of Google Play Store environment so we think that your phone may actually been infected with adware. Adwares are usually installed discreetly by other apps, forcing the phone to show annoying ads and pop-ups. If your phone has been showing you all kinds of ads and pop-ups lately, you can be certain that one of your third party apps is to blame. To fix this issue, do the following:

Factory reset the phone. This is the first step in making your phone clean from viruses and malware again. Refer to the steps above on how to do it.

Install only official and mainstream apps. Once you’ve cleaned the phone, you then want to install safe apps. If you tend to install apps without checking whether or not their developers can be trusted, think again. The general rule in this case is, if you’re unsure, don’t install it. Try to stick to official apps only. For example, if you can’t stay away from online shopping apps, make sure that you only install official ones like that from eBay, Amazon, etc. Make sure to check the reviews of users in the Google Play Store installation page of each app so you’ll know if there are many known problems about it, or if it’s suspicious. Do the same for all games and other types of apps. The less popular the app is, the greater the chance a developer will resort to less legal means to monetize their products.

Never install apps outside of Google Play Store. Some apps can be installed from other sources. While there are many good sources for third party apps out there, it’s also a fact that malicious hackers make their apps available for download from the same sources. Only install an app from a third party source if you are positive that it’s safe. Otherwise, it’s good to treat everything outside Google Play Store as possible sources of digital threats. To ensure that your phone will warn you if it detects that it’s trying to install from outside sources, do the following steps:

Open the Settings app.
Go to Lock screen and security.
Scroll down to Unknown sources.
Make sure that Unknown sources toggle is OFF.

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Galaxy Note 4 keeps getting pop-up saying phone is infected with virus, other issues