Compared to other Samsung flagship devices, the #GalaxyNote5 seems to have lesser reported issues since last year (based in our own tally only). That doesn’t mean though that we won’t be discussing submitted issues.

Below are the topics we cover for you today:

Cannot click on links on Galaxy Note 5 email app
Galaxy Note 5 makes beeping sound when taking photos or playing videos
Galaxy Note 5 64GB gets converted to 32GB after setting up Power Saving Mode | Galaxy Note 5 S Notes backup
Galaxy Note 5 can no longer transfer files to PC after an update
Galaxy Note 5 Home button not working properly — appears to be pressed even when user does not use it
Galaxy Note 5 not recognizing SIM card after system update | Galaxy Note 5 stuck in Emergency Call mode after an update

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: Cannot click on links on Galaxy Note 5 email app

Hi. I think I just sent you a message via here outlining problems with my Galaxy Note 5 but I’m not sure if it went through to you. Are you able at some stage to let me know if you received it or if I will need to let you know again as nothing came up on my computer to say I had sent it successfully? Thank you.

I can no longer click on links in my email apps on the phone to go through to internet. Outlook just kept shutting down & their support couldn’t help. it had always worked great till recently.

So I uninstalled it but the email i have now will not go through to links either, but at least it is not shutting down the email app. I tried the soft reset but after reading reviews about Advanced Task Killer, I was too scared to download & try it out, as others have said it was an awesome app until the latest update. Now it’s useless & won’t work. Any help you can offer when you have time would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. — Pauline

Solution: Hi Pauline. If you’re using a third party email app, which means that it’s not inbuilt or stock Samsung app, the problem must only be isolated to that app alone. We suggest that you try wiping its cache and data first. Here’s how it’s done:

Open the Settings menu either through your notification shade (drop-down) or through the Settings app in your app drawer.
Navigate down to “Apps”. This may be renamed to something like Applications or Application Manager in OEM skinned versions of Android 6.0.
Once in there, click on an application.
You’ll now see a list of stuff that gives you information about the app, including Storage, Permissions, Memory Use, and more. These are all clickable items. You’ll want to click on Storage.
You should now clearly see the Clear Data and Clear Cache buttons for the application.

Once you’ve deleted the cache and data, set the email up again and observe it again. After that, you also want to delete the cache and data of the default internet browser app. If you don’t know how to check what browser app is set as default, just go under Settings>Applications>Default applications.

If this process won’t help fix the issue at all, consider wiping the phone via factory reset. Factory reset will erase all user data including photos and videos stored in the phone’s primary storage memory so make sure that you back everything up before proceeding. Here are the steps on how to do it:

Turn off your Samsung Galaxy Note 5 completely.
Press and hold the Volume Up and the Home buttons first, and then press and hold the Power key.
Keep the three buttons pressed and when ‘Samsung Galaxy Note5’ shows, release the Power key but continue holding the other two.
Once the Android logo shows, release both the Volume Up and Home buttons.
The notice ‘Installing system update’ will show on the screen for 30 to 60 seconds before the Android system recovery screen is shown with its options.
Use the Volume Down key to highlight the option ‘Yes — delete all user data’ and press the Power key to select it.
When the process is complete, use the Volume Down key to highlight the option ‘Reboot system now’ and hit the Power key to restart the phone.
The reboot may take a little longer to complete but don’t worry and wait for the device to become active.

Problem #2: Galaxy Note 5 makes beeping sound when taking photos or playing videos

There are several problems lately with Galaxy Note 5:

phones like to make random beeping without any clear activities
Camera has difficulties in taking pictures. When camera app is on, the beeping sound gets more intensive as well, as black screen with random interval. And when pictures are made, even though the feedback sound seems like it has taken the pictures, it sometimes just don’t.
When video player app is open, beeping gets more intensive as well and it pauses the video. just to give an example: to watch a one minute video, it would pause approximately 5 times. — Silea

Solution: Hi Silea. First of all, we assume that your phone’s software is the official one, which means that the phone has never been rooted and is running the stock Samsung firmware. If you’ve rooted the phone or if it’s running custom software, consider consulting the developers of the software you’re using. The problem may be a bug caused by customized firmware or rooting software so our suggestion for you may not work at all.

Wipe the cache partition

Now, since the issues you’re describing appear to be related to one another, the cause is more likely one and the same for each one. That said, we suggest that you first try to wipe the cache partition. This will force the phone to build a new system cache and throw away the possibly corrupted one. The system cache can sometimes get corrupted after installing a system update or even apps. That’s’ why it’s also recommended that you regularly refresh the system cache whether or not you’re experiencing issues. Here’s how it’s done:

Turn off your Samsung Galaxy Note 5 completely.
Press and hold the Volume Up and the Home buttons first, and then press and hold the Power key.
Keep the three buttons pressed and when ‘Samsung Galaxy Note5’ shows, release the Power key but continue holding the other two.
Once the Android logo shows, release both the Volume Up and Home buttons.
The notice ‘Installing system update’ will show on the screen for 30 to 60 seconds before the Android system recovery screen is shown with its options.
Use the Volume Down key to highlight the option ‘wipe cache partition’ and press the Power key to select it.
When the process is complete, use the Volume Down key to highlight the option ‘Reboot system now’ and hit the Power key to restart the phone.
The reboot may take a little longer to complete but don’t worry and wait for the device to become active.

Delete app cache and data

While we don’t think the issue is limited to the apps you mentioned here (Phone, camera, video player), wiping their cache and data must still be tried. Doing so will ensure that all the said apps are returned to their default, clean state. Refer to the steps above on how to do it.

Boot the phone to safe mode

Another good troubleshooting step to try is to check if one of the third party apps is to blame. You can turn off the phone and fire it up again to safe mode. Once you’ve booted it to safe mode, you can then observe if the beeping sound continues when you use the camera, watch a video, or use the phone app. If it doesn’t, then that’s an indicator that one of the installed apps is problematic. In order to identify this app, you must do further trial and error identification by uninstalling all third party app one by one. Make sure that you observe the phone after every uninstallation to know if you’ve removed the offending app. If this problem coincidentally occurred after you installed an app, try to remove that app first so you’ll not waste your time with others. Below are the steps on how to boot to safe mode:

Turn off the phone completely.
Press and hold the Power key.
Once ‘Samsung Galaxy Note5’ shows, release the Power key and immediately press and hold the Volume Down button.
The phone will restart but keep the Volume Down button pressed.
Once the phone has finished restarting, ‘Safe mode’ will be display in the lower-left corner of the screen.
You may now release the Volume Down button.

Perform a factory reset

Should the issue remain even when the phone is booted to safe mode, that means that the problem may be found on the operating system level. At this point, you must do a factory reset to fix it. We suggest that you do a factory reset but not via recovery mode. As usual, make to create a back up of your files first, preferably via Samsung Smart Switch app. When you’re ready, do the following steps:

From the Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
Find and tap the Settings icon.
Under the ‘Personal’ section, find and tap Backup and reset.
Tap Factory data reset.
Touch Reset device to proceed with the reset.
Depending on the security lock you used, enter the PIN or password.
Tap Continue.
Touch Delete all to confirm your action.

Problem #3: Galaxy Note 5 64GB gets converted to 32GB after setting up Power Saving Mode | Galaxy Note 5 S Notes backup

Hi. I have a problem with my Samsung Note 5 64GB (Model SM-N9208). The thing is that one day I set the Power Saving (on Media Level), and when later on I set the phone to Normal, some of the S Notes had disappeared and the phone showed only 32GB memory. I reset the phone to factory but still the memory is 32GB instead of the 64GB that would be, and the S Notes are still missing. Can you please help me ? I couldn’t find this problem on your list. Thank you very much!!

Zelmira Note: My Country is Argentina (South America) – Software information only shows “Android Version 6.0.1.” but doesn’t say “Marshmallow” — Zelmira

Solution: Hi Zelmira. The Samsung Galaxy Note 5 model M-N9208 can sport either a 32GB or 64GB memory. If you’re positive that your particular should have a 64GB memory but it has now changed to 32GB for some unknown reason, you should have the phone replaced. There’s no third party technician that can help you with it. There may be a hardware glitch that causes the incorrect reading. Contact Samsung for information on how to have the device replaced.

For your S Notes, recovery of your notes depend whether or not you set the app to automatically sync in the background prior to actually losing it. Within the S Notes app, you’ll have an option to sync your notes to either Google Drive or Evernote. If you didn’t set this up, then those notes may be gone for good.

Problem #4: Galaxy Note 5 can no longer transfer files to PC after an update

After the recent Android update on my Note 5, I am now no longer able to connect the phone to my laptop to transfer my photos etc. I have tried using many different USB cables, including the original Samsung. I have also tried connecting on different laptops. Nothing pops up for me to pull down to select MTP like it used to. I followed suggestion on the internet to enable developer option, etc but it still does not work. I bought a Sandisk Dual Drive in the hope that it would help me transfer my photos. But the phone can’t detect the drive even when I used the Sandisk Memory Zone app. Hope you can help. — Richard

Solution: Hi Richard. If you’re positive that the phone has suddenly lost its ability to move files to another medium after an update, make sure that you wipe the cache partition and perform a factory reset. If wiping the cache partition won’t restore all USB functions of the phone, factory reset should do it.

Problem #5: Galaxy Note 5 Home button not working properly — appears to be pressed even when user does not use it

I’m currently using a Samsung Note 5. I have noticed one issue very recently. It’s like the home button is being pressed automatically without actually being pressed, goes to the home screen from any page. Even if you try to open any app, it later goes to the home screen. Other shortcuts with the home screen, like opening camera and one hand method ( double and triple clicks respectively), also happens at this time. It’s very annoying because as it doesn’t let you do anything. Just fiddles around simply going around the home screen. This doesn’t happen always; just at any random time. And I am pretty sure it ain’t a hardware issue. Is this a glitch? What do I do? Seeking help. Thanks in advance. — Sonyjohn13

Solution: Hi Sonyjohn13. The first thing that you want to do here is to compare how the Home button works when the phone is on normal mode and when it’s on safe mode. Make sure to boot the phone to safe mode for at least 24 hours so you’ll have more than enough time to notice the difference.

If the glitch continues to appear in safe mode, your next move would be to wipe the cache partition. Having a good system cache is your goal in this one.

If nothing changes still, access the phone service mode by doing the following steps:

Open the Phone app.
Dial “*#0*#” (without the quotation marks).
Tap Sub key box.
Observe the phone for a few hours in this state. If the Home hardware button itself is defective, the screen should turn blue even when you won’t touch the said button. Keep in mind that touching the Home button will turn the screen blue, which means that the button registers your touch input. Your aim here is to see if the button is defective. If it is, it should mistakenly recognize that you’re touching it, even when you don’t, lighting the screen in blue.

If nothing happens after a few hours, that means that the problem may be caused by a glitch in the operating system level. In this case, you want to do a factory reset.

Problem #6: Galaxy Note 5 not recognizing SIM card after system update | Galaxy Note 5 stuck in Emergency Call mode after an update

Dear Sir/ Madam. I am Steven Kpange, a Sierra Leonean, West African. I own a Samsung Galaxy Note 5 which I have been using for over a year now. I noticed a slow down in my mobile network and I decided to upgrade the OS as was advised by a technical friend.

I was unable to complete the upgrade and the phone was unable to reboot, thus I was forced to do a hard reset on my phone. Ever since I did the hard reset my phone has not been recognizing my GSM SIM. It’s on Emergency Call Only mode.

Have changed the Network mode from Automatic to CDMA to LTE/ CDMA to GSM/ UMTS and back to Automatic but still to no avail. I could really use your kind assistance to resolve this issue. I will say it recognizes my SIM because when I put it in, it will ask for my SIM PIN.

Additionally, I could recall I change some settings related to Voice and Data for Local or International. However, I have been unable to locate where this setting is and again whenever I restart the phone it will ask for Hand Free Activation which does not succeed but I can always bypass.

Please find a way to help me resolve this issue. — Steven

Solution: Hi Steven. The first thing that you want to know is to see if the SIM card is still working. By working we mean that it will still allow you to send and receive SMS/MMS, make and receive voice calls, and allow you to connect to the internet. To do that, try to insert it to a compatible GSM phone. Once you’ve established the fact that is still works fine, that’s the time that you troubleshoot your phone.

Because the issue appears after installing an update, the solutions that we can suggest only involves wiping the cache partition and factory reset. Any of them should help you fix the problem. If neither wiping the cache nor factory reset works, that means that the update may have changed some network settings on the phone. This problem usually occurs in unlocked or modified phones, which means that the update may have reverted the original software settings to its original state. If this is an unlocked phone from another carrier, find a shop in your area that can help you change the network settings again. This may be needed to make your phone compatible with the network infrastructure of your current carrier. There’s nothing that we can do to help you in this regard.

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Galaxy Note 5 makes beeping sound when taking photos or playing videos, other issues