Hello Android fans! Welcome to another post that addresses some #GalaxyNote4 issues. As usual, these issues were submitted by some Note 4 users over the past few days. We want to cover booting-related issues as well as some other issues so we hope this can be an educational read for you. Don’t forget to visit our main Galaxy Note 4 troubleshooting page if you have the time.

Below are the topics we’re covering for you today:

Galaxy Note 4 refuses to boot normally after an update
Galaxy Note 4 not booting normally
Galaxy Note 4 keeps getting to boot loop if battery level goes down to 50%
Galaxy Note 4 won’t turn back on
Galaxy Note 4 freezing, randomly rebooting when not connected to charger | Galaxy Note 4 battery losing power fast
Galaxy Note 4 system time keeps changing and Bluetooth won’t stay on
Galaxy Note 4 touchscreen becomes unresponsive from time to time

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 refuses to boot normally after an update

I did a system update on Friday 1/13/17 and after this my phone started working slowly. After a few days it started to restart on its own. I did a factory reset once and reinstalled all my apps and it started doing the same thing again. I attempted a second factory rest and now it will not reboot. I have photographs of the screens I can get to. I was thinking about reinstalling via Odin. The only other thing I got new for the phone is a magnetic charger cord adapter. Not sure if that would cause my issues. I was thinking the charging dock may be bad. I really don’t know what the operating system was, and now I can’t get to it. — Ray

Solution: Hi Ray. We don’t know what you mean by “photographs of the screens I can get to” but if the phone no longer boots normally or does not show signs of booting at all, there may be little to nothing that you can do at this time. Below are a few possible ways to boot the phone back again:

Consider leaving the phone connected to the charger for at least 30 minutes before attempting to power it back on again.
Get a new official Note 4 battery.
Check the USB port to see if there’s any visible damage, bent pin(s), or dirt.
Attempt to boot the phone to other modes. Follow the steps below:

Boot in Recovery mode:

Charge the phone for at least 30 minutes.
Press and then hold the Home and Volume UP keys, then press and hold the Power key.
When the Samsung Galaxy S7 shows on the screen, release the Power key but continue holding the Home and Volume Up keys.
When the Android logo shows, you may release both keys and leave the phone be for about 30 to 60 seconds.
Using the Volume Down key, navigate through the options and highlight ‘wipe cache partition.’
You can either wipe the cache partition or do a factory reset when in this mode.

Boot in Download Mode:

Charge the phone for at least 30 minutes.
Press and then hold the Home and Volume DOWN keys, then press and hold the Power key.
When the Samsung Galaxy S7 shows on the screen, release the Power key but continue holding the Home and Volume DOWN keys.
Wait until the Download screen appears.
If you can boot the phone in download mode but not in other modes, that means that your only way out may be to flash a stock or custom firmware.
Use Google to look for a guide on how to do it.

Boot in safe mode:

Charge the phone for at least 30 minutes.
Press and hold the Power button.
Once the ‘Samsung Galaxy S7’ logo appears, release the Power key and immediately press and hold the Volume Down button.
Continue holding the button until the phone finishes rebooting.
Once you see the text “Safe mode” at the bottom left corner of the screen, release the Volume Down button.
The only difference of safe mode from normal mode is that the former prevents third party apps from running. If you can boot the phone in safe mode but not in normal mode, uninstall all apps until the issue (that prevents you from booting normally) is eliminated.

If these things won’t change anything, have the phone repaired or replaced.

Problem #2: Galaxy Note 4 not booting normally

Not sure on the Android version, to be honest. My Note 4 (T-Mobile) started crashing/ rebooting randomly a couple of weeks ago. Nothing in particular seemed to correlate with the crashes. I backed up most of my data, and tried the basics: took the SD card out, soft reset, boot to safe mode, boot to recovery mode and wipe cache partition, etc. Nothing seemed to make much of a difference. I should have turned off encryption on the phone when I first started having problems (duh), but didn’t. Now the phone hangs on booting, every time. It will boot normally as far as entering the encryption password. It shows “Galaxy Note 4” screen, then “Samsung” screen, then “T-Mobile” screen, then “enter your password” screen, then it hangs endlessly on the unlock screen (screen showing open padlock). It’s definitely the correct password (and the phone will still give me a “wrong password” message if I enter an incorrect password– seems to be the actual decryption step where it’s hanging). Doesn’t make a difference whether safe mode or normal boot. It still allows me to boot into recovery mode, just won’t load the OS. Neither Samsung’s SmartSwitch nor Dr. Fone will recognize the phone when USB connected to my PC (current drivers). My question is this: Any options for trying to recover any more data from the phone, or should I just try a factory reset? I’d like to recover my texts if I can (got most other data– I did a lazy backup by just copying the phone memory to PC, and apparently the texts are protected). Thanks. — John

Solution: Hi John. The only way to know if file recovery in this situation is still possible, with help from official or third party apps, depends if USB connection to a PC yields something positive. If no computer can detect the phone normally, there’s no way you can transfer files. That your phone’s files are encrypted doesn’t make it any easier either. Even if a PC can still read the phone normally, we doubt transferred files can be of any use. Android encryption is almost impossible to crack at this time so you may find your files of no use even if you can transfer them to your PC.

You should try factory reset if you want to use your phone normally again.

Problem #3: Galaxy Note 4 keeps getting to boot loop if battery level goes down to 50%

Hello. I’ve been having a couple issues with my Note 4. First is that the battery drains very quickly. I can unplug at full charge and after 10 minutes of light use, it will have gone down 5% or more. So lately I’ve been keeping it plugged in whenever I can but mostly due to the second problem.

The other problem is that my phone would get down to about 50% charge then would unexpectedly go into a boot loop. The only way to stop it would be to take the battery out. I found out later that I could also plug it in during the loop and the boot sequence would finish. This has gotten worse over time where my phone could have anywhere between 50-75% charge and it will go into a boot loop, which is why I keep it plugged in. I’ve found the boot loop happens quicker when I have a lot of apps open. I’ve already tried doing a factory reset but that didn’t solve the problem. Â I’m tempted to do buy another battery and do another reset to see if that works but I’d like your opinion first. Thank you. — Phil

Solution: Hi Phil. That factory reset did not change anything makes us believe that the battery may have simply lost significant capacity to hold a charge. The symptoms you mention are consistent when a Lithium battery no longer holds a charge that much. If your Note 4 has been around, that is, if it’s over a year old at this time, there’s a good chance that you may have lost the battery at this time. Just to be on the safe side before you get a new battery, we suggest that you try to calibrate the battery by doing the following steps:

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.

If battery behavior won’t change after recalibrating it, go ahead and replace it.

Problem #4: Galaxy Note 4 won’t turn back on

My Samsung Galaxy Note 4 just shut off and will not turn back on. I tried a soft reset to no avail as well as trying to boot it into safe mode and recovery mode, all of which did nothing. I know it’s not the battery; I have another Note 4 and I swapped batteries. Both batteries worked fine on my other one, but wouldn’t do anything on the one that wouldn’t boot up. I tried charging it for a few minutes and then powering it up, again to no avail. I know this sounds ridiculous but I even tried removing the SIM card (oddly doing this while trying a soft reset has worked before). Is there something else I can try? — Nora

Solution: Hi Nora. Kindly refer to our suggestion for Ray above. Remember, if the phone refuses to boot to any alternate modes, the issue is most probably beyond your ability to fix: have it repaired or replaced.

Problem #5: Galaxy Note 4 freezing, randomly rebooting when not connected to charger | Galaxy Note 4 battery losing power fast

Hello. At 5pm on Jan. 15. 2017 the phone started slowing / freezing/ lagging/ glitching, auto rebooting and showing overall poor operation. i have soft reset, factory reset, backed up restored removed SD, cleared cache. i get the following issues: I’ve noticed that if the device isn’t plugged in to power source, i start to get these issues. When unplugged the phone lasts for about 30 minutes then starts to slow when using an application or just scrolling through the menus. Then it’ll reboot after it freezes and a new one today Jan,16.2017 after the random reboot the device failed to load and pushed me into Odin failed to load MMC Odin mode high speed start udc. I think it’s a battery issues because so far i haven’t noticed a single hiccup with is plugged in. — Jeremy

Solution: Hi Jeremy. You’re right. It’s very likely that the issue is a malfunctioning battery only. Please check our suggestion for Phil above.

Problem #6: Galaxy Note 4 system time keeps changing and Bluetooth won’t stay on

Hello. I thought I was pretty good at finding solutions on the internet but this one escapes me. The time on my Sprint Note 4 falls behind. I had to manually set the time so that other apps would not fail. So not only is the time acting strangely, but as of 12/25 the Bluetooth will not stay on. I have clicked on the shortcut, I have navigated via settings to turn it on. It changes color as if it will activate and then shuts off. I have removed Bluetooth pairings. I am very frustrated as so many devices do not work as expected because of the Bluetooth failure. Thank you for your help. — Jamie

Solution: Hi Jamie. The first thing that you want to know is if your issues are caused by another app or not. You can do that by restarting the device to safe mode. Safe mode blocks third party apps and services so if your phone behaves normally, that’s a clear indicator of a third party app causing problems. Below are the steps on how to boot to safe mode:

Press and hold the Power button.
Once the ‘Samsung Galaxy S7’ logo appears, release the Power key and immediately press and hold the Volume Down button.
Continue holding the button until the phone finishes rebooting.
Once you see the text “Safe mode” at the bottom left corner of the screen, release the Volume Down button.

Should nothing change even when safe mode is enabled, you can also try wiping the cache partition to ensure that the device has an updated system cache. To do that, follow these steps:

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.

Because the issue has something to do with system time, you also want to do the obvious: adjust date and time to the correct one. Makes sure that you select “Automatic date and time” under Settings>Date and time section.

Finally, don’t hesitate to do a factory reset to fix your issues. Factory reset, as the name suggests, will restore all software setting back to their working factory state. If the issue is caused by an operating system glitch, factory reset should take care of it. For reference, here are the steps on how to do that:

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.

For your Bluetooth issue, its cause can either be software or hardware. If Bluetooth functionality remains problematic after a factory reset, you may be looking at an unknown hardware problem. Bluetooth function is made possible by a special hardware chip and if it’s damaged by water or heat exposure or shock after an accidental drop, an issue with it can manifest in the way it’s doing right now. In this case, you want to have the phone replaced.

Problem #7: Galaxy Note 4 touchscreen becomes unresponsive from time to time

Hey Guys, I have a Samsung Note 4, “SM-N910A.” For the past 3 months I have been having issues with the screen touch sensor or something. Left side of the screen from top to bottom gets unresponsive and if I lock the phone (using a power button turn the screen off) and turn it back on it works. it clicks on keyboard buttons when i am texting and stuff. Sometimes it works fine but sometimes it doesn’t. Phone was never dropped nor it was thrown on the couch or anything. I am very careful with my phones. I don’t know what to do with this. I am getting really frustrated and I don’t want to get another phone because I don’t like iPhones and I do use my stylus and I would like to resolve the issue any help will be greatly appreciated. — Snktrd

Solution: Hi Snktrd. The first thing that you want to do is check if the touchscreen itself is defective. This is done by going into service mode and checking the touchscreen functionality. Here’s what you need to do:

Open the Phone app.
Dial “*#0*#” (without the quotes).
Tap Touch box.
Draw a line in problematic area of the screen. If you can’t draw a line or if the lines are broken, that’s an indicator that the touchscreen is not responding properly. This problem cannot be fixed by a software hack so you must have the phone replaced.

On the other hand, if the lines you draw appear perfect and the touchscreen appears normal, the issue may be caused by something not screen related. There may a third party app causing it so you can either try to boot the phone to safe mode or factory reset to confirm it.

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Galaxy Note 4 not booting normally, touchscreen becomes unresponsive from time to time, other issues