Galaxy Note 5 showing “not registered on network” error when trying to make a call, other issues

Hello Android community! Welcome to another #GalaxyNote5 episode. This article addresses some Note 5 issues sent our way for the past few days so if you recently sent us a message but don’t see it published here, keep watching for our next Note 5 post.

Note 5

For now, here are the specific topics covered in this article:

  1. Galaxy Note 5 group messaging not working
  2. How to unlock the screen of Galaxy Note 5
  3. Galaxy Note 5 showing “not registered on network” error when trying to make a call
  4. Galaxy Note 5 screen is black and won’t turn on
  5. Galaxy Note 5 multiple issues after Nougat update
  6. Galaxy Note 5 battery acting up after installing Android update
  7. Galaxy Note 5 random ad popups keep showing
  8. Google Text-to-speech not working properly after updating Galaxy Note 5

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 5 group messaging not working

Hello. Since getting this Android phone, I have been unable to send or receive group messages. My friend (who has the same phone, but a different carrier) has the exact same issue. When I send, they show up on the recipient’s phone as an individual text. And when I receive, it shows up as an individual text on my phone too. We have tried changing the settings to automatically choose group message when there is more than one recipient, and we can see the check box show up each time. But when we test it out by sending a message to a group of friends, they all say they receive it as an individual text. We have checked, and our mobile data is turned on.

Also, my cousin and sister have iPhones and they sent me a group message and I DID receive it. I saw that my cousin had sent a text to me and my sister. But when I responded, they each got individual texts. Please help! It’s really annoying not being able to send group messages. Thanks. — Amy

Solution: Hi Amy. First of all, we want to make it clear that third party support teams like us can only do so much when it comes to troubleshooting group messaging problems. This problem can sometimes be caused by account-related factors beyond our reach so it’s best if your carrier is the one investigating it. There may be a need to update your account from your carrier’s end. Such task cannot be done by any other group aside from the customer service or technical group of your carrier.

Secondly, your phone must be connected to mobile data during sending and receiving of a group message. Sometimes, carriers will convert an incoming group message into individual text messages if your phone is not connected to mobile data. Most smartphones convert a text message being sent to multiple recipients into MMS, even if there’s no picture or video attached. The problem occurs when the receiving phone does not have an active mobile data connection as MMS requires mobile data or cellular data to work. You have to make sure that your mobile data is working when sending and receiving a group message.

Thirdly, receiving and sending parties must support the group messaging protocol you’re using. If their device does not support group messaging or their carrier does not permit group messaging in their accounts, your messages to them may be transmitted as individual text messages and not in group form. And like you, their device must have working mobile data during sending and receiving of MMS or group message. If you are positive that your account is permitted to use group messaging and mobile data in your device works well every time, then the problem must lie on the other side. This means that we’re not even talking about a bug here. It’s just how it is. This iPhone and Android devices do not interact well and this is very apparent when it comes to group messaging. You should talk to your carrier about the issue to see if there’s something that they can suggest.

If there’s nothing your carrier can do to fix the problem, you just have to accept the fact and go on with your life. As a workaround though, you can try to convince your friends you interact in a group to use their regular messaging app. You can use other third party apps that works in almost all platforms like Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, Google Hangouts, or Skype.

Problem #2: How to unlock the screen of Galaxy Note 5

I wanted to learn about locking my phone for times I might lose it. Somehow I have locked it! It thinks someone else has found it, says CALL OWNER Locked by Android Device Manager. It won’t unlock every time I try my password. it says wait 29 seconds. My phone is a Samsung Note 5, less than a year old.

Your site helped with the Marshmallow fiasco last week, hoping for more help now. Leaving the States on Monday for vacation and I need my phone working. I am using my laptop to type now. — Sandy

Solution: Hi Sandy. There are four ways to allow you to unlock your phone’s screen so you can use it again:

  1. unlock your Note 5 with Android Device Manager
  2. unlock your Note 5 with Samsung Find My Mobile
  3. unlock your Note 5 with factory reset via Recovery mode
  4. unlock your Note 5 by flashing stock firmware to it

How to unlock your Note 5 with Android Device Manager

The first unlocking is definitely out of the question because it appears to be the one blocking your access in the first place. In case you are doing it wrong however, here are the steps you need to do to use this Google service:

  1. Go to the Android Device Manager page on your laptop.
  2. Sign in to your Google account if prompted. Make sure that you sign in to the same Google account that’s registered on your phone.
  3. Find your Galaxy Note 5 on the screen.
  4. Enable “Lock & Erase” feature.
  5. Follow the given steps on the page to lock your phone.
  6. Set a temporary password.
  7. Enter the temporary password on your Note 5.
  8. Create a new password.

How to unlock your Note 5 with Samsung Find My Mobile

The second option via Samsung Find My Mobile will only work if you signed up to this service during the initial set up of your Note 5. If you did not sign in to your Samsung account in your phone, Samsung Find My Mobile option will not help.

If you registered your Note 5 to Samsung before, these are the steps that you can try to unlock it:

  1. Go to the Samsung Find My Mobile page on your laptop
  2. Sign in to your Samsung account if prompted.
  3. Use the Find My Mobile service to temporary reset the password
  4. Bypass the lock screen using the new temporary password
  5. Set a new password

How to unlock your Note 5 with factory reset via Recovery mode

The third option is only recommended if the first two options won’t work. Keep in mind that doing a factory reset on your phone will trip Samsung’s Factory Reset Protection feature. This feature will prompt you to enter the registered Google account username and password. If you can’t provide them, you will never be able to unlock the phone again unless you will do the last option — flashing stock firmware to it.

How to unlock your Note 5 by flashing stock firmware

Flashing is basically an Android term if you want to install a new firmware to your device. This procedure is not recommended for beginners as it requires above average understanding of modifying core system files and can result to bricking the phone if not done properly. If you have no other choice but this, make sure that you do some research on how to do it on your device. Flashing stock firmware vary by phone model so be sure to use a good guide and correct firmware.

Problem #3: Galaxy Note 5 showing “not registered on network” error when trying to make a call

Good Day. Thank you for the educational website. I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 5. Almost everyday, when trying to make a call, I get a message ‘NOT REGISTERED ON NETWORK’. I then have to switch the phone off and on again to make a call. I then see many messages of missed calls. All the time, the phone shows signal and the data works. I still get my whatsapp messages etc.. I tried doing what your site says to do for Note 4 but did not succeed. — Amod

Solution: Hi Amod. If you already tried wiping the phone clean with factory reset and nothing changed, you should consider contacting your carrier. There may be a network problem causing it so any device troubleshooting that you will do may not fix the problem.

For reference, these are the steps on how to factory reset your Note 5:

  1. Turn off your Samsung Galaxy Note 5 completely.
  2. Press and hold the Volume Up and the Home buttons first, and then press and hold the Power key.
  3. Keep the three buttons pressed and when ‘Samsung Galaxy Note5’ shows, release the Power key but continue holding the other two.
  4. Once the Android logo shows, release both the Volume Up and Home buttons.
  5. 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.
  6. Use the Volume Down key to highlight the option ‘Yes — delete all user data’ and press the Power key to select it.
  7. 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.
  8. The reboot may take a little longer to complete but don’t worry and wait for the device to become active.
  9. 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.

Problem #4: Galaxy Note 5 screen is black and won’t turn on

At first, my phone hanged up and it turned off by itself by the time battery was drained so i charged it. Next was shutting off on its own. Then whenever i open it, it’s just black screen. I notice when it was charging and i open it. It works but then someone told me your phone might be full. So while i was trying to transfer. I remove the charger and put on the usb. It shut down and never open up again. I tried some of your tips like hold the volume down and power for 20 seconds it doenst work. Hold the volume up, home and power still it doesnt work. I hope you can help me recover all data from my phone and help me open it. — Karen

Solution: Hi Karen. We know you’re worried about losing your data but your main concern right now is not on how to recover them but to check whether or not the phone still turns on. There’s no way you’ll be able to recover your files if the phone remains unresponsive and won’t boot up. To check that, you must try to do some hardware button combinations so you can then do follow up troubleshooting. Below are the steps that you should do:

Boot in Recovery mode:

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

Boot in Download Mode:

  1. Charge the phone for at least 30 minutes.
  2. Press and then hold the Home and Volume DOWN keys, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the Samsung Galaxy S7 shows on the screen, release the Power key but continue holding the Home and Volume DOWN keys.
  4. Wait until the Download screen appears.
  5. 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.
  6. Use Google to look for a guide on how to do it.

Boot in safe mode:

  1. Charge the phone for at least 30 minutes.
  2. Press and hold the Power button.
  3. Once the ‘Samsung Galaxy S7’ logo appears, release the Power key and immediately press and hold the Volume Down button.
  4. Continue holding the button until the phone finishes rebooting.
  5. Once you see the text “Safe mode” at the bottom left corner of the screen, release the Volume Down button.
  6. 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 your phone is totally dead and does not show any indications that it’s on such as lit LED light, vibration when restarting, or notification sound for incoming calls or text, there may be a hardware issue behind the trouble. In this case, you have no choice but to send it in for repair or replacement. Keep in mind that repair via Samsung entails wiping the memory of the phone so try not to send the device to them for repair. If possible, tap the aid of a third party service center so you can tell them not to wipe the memory IF they can repair or make it turn back on.

On the other hand, if your phone shows signs that it’s turning on but the screen remains black, the problem may be isolated to the screen assembly only. Replacing the screen may fix the issue and will allow you to access your data back.

Problem #5: Galaxy Note 5 multiple issues after Nougat update

This is more of a complaint then an issue and I’m looking for someone to notify. Ever since my Note 5 updated to Nougat 7, my phone does obnoxious things.

First, if I tap lightly on a text thread to open up a thread, it constantly thinks I’m swiping on the thread to dial that person and it calls them! It is so sensitive that it happens all the time and I cannot stand it!

Also, my texting keyboard seems smaller….I constantly hit keys I never had issues withbefore. I asked another Samsung droid user, two to be exact, and they both said they have the same issues since this update! Where can I get my complaint heard? — Sarah

Solution: Hi Sarah. If you downloaded Android updates by air, the best place to make yourself heard is by going to your carrier’s support website or forums. Although Google is the developer of vanilla Android, your carrier has modified the original version so it can add or remove features for its own use. Thus the final Android code that’s installed on your phone is basically flavored by your carrier’s modifications, which is mostly the cause of a lot of update-related issues. Unfortunately, there’s no easy way to let them know if the issue you’re encountering is caused by poor coding on their part, or by some other factors outside their control. Still, contacting them and letting them know of the problem should be worth your while.

Should you want to let Google know of your specific issues, you can also visit their

Google Product Forums.

Problem #6: Galaxy Note 5 battery acting up after installing Android update

Hi. I have read the problems and solutions with battery with new system update of Note 5 in your website. I am also having issues with my battery after the update. For the first time I used it after the update, the battery drains very fast… but after a few days it seems okay. Now I’m having a little confusion when I’m charging the phone. I usually charge the phone while it is turned off… sometimes I don’t charge it until 100%. The last time I charge it, the phone shows that the battery was charge until 93% only but when I turned it on, the battery is in 100%. Will this affect my battery? Please help me. I’m a little scared that it will damage my phone.        — Lara

Solution: Hi Lara. We are not quite sure if we understand what you are asking exactly but if you think your Note 5’s battery is acting up, a battery calibration may fix it. Here are the steps that you must do:

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

Problem #7: Galaxy Note 5 random ad popups keep showing

I updated my Note 5 to Nougat and now I am having a couple of issues. The first one is the calling issue. I saw your suggestions for that and will be trying those shortly. The second issue I am having is that random ads keep popping up at the top of my phone. If I click on the add it goes to a white screen and the add is still there on top. It covers the top quarter of my phone and the only way to get rid of it is to restart my phone. I have deleted some apps to see if that was the issue but, it hasn’t worked so far. Any suggestions you could give would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. — Julie

Solution: Hi Julie. Normally, ads should only be shown if you’re using an app that supports them. Most apps generate revenue for their developers by displaying ads but if you are getting persistent or random ads popups every time, even if you’re not using an app that supports them, that’s a different story. It can even be a sign of malware infection. Go over your list of apps and uninstall those that you don’t need and see if that will fix the problem. If the issue remains, continue uninstalling apps until the problem is eliminated. Be sure to check whether or not the pop ups remain after you remove an app to prevent uninstalling clean or legitimate apps.

If that won’t do it, try wiping the phone with factory reset.

Problem #8: Google Text-to-speech not working properly after updating Galaxy Note 5

I received a Samsung update pushed to my phone on March 22nd. After that update, I noticed a change when using speech to text, via Google. You know how sometimes a word or a phrase will be underlined, and when you click on what’s underlined, a suggestion box will pop up to change a word or part of the phrase? Well now the suggestion box is almost black and the font is black and it makes it extremely hard for me to even see what words it’s suggesting. Then I usually try to tap all around the screen (other than on the suggestion box) to get the suggesting box to go away, only to end up having to close out speech to text, so that then I can go in and manually type what I want the word to say. So, two things: 1) how can I change the color of the suggestion box so that I can see the words better? 2) is there a way to make the suggestion box not so sensitive so that I don’t have to completely get out of speech to text before I can go back in to the text and edit what I was trying to say? Thank you!! — Jennifer

Solution: Hi Jennifer. There’s no native speech to text app in Galaxy Note 5 so we are assuming you’re actually referring to the built in text-to-speech engine by Google. If you’re having an issue with this Google text-to-speech app, make sure that you wipe the cache partition first. Here’s how:

  1. Turn off your Samsung Galaxy Note 5 completely.
  2. Press and hold the Volume Up and the Home buttons first, and then press and hold the Power key.
  3. Keep the three buttons pressed and when ‘Samsung Galaxy Note5’ shows, release the Power key but continue holding the other two.
  4. Once the Android logo shows, release both the Volume Up and Home buttons.
  5. 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.
  6. Use the Volume Down key to highlight the option ‘wipe cache partition’ and press the Power key to select it.
  7. 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.
  8. The reboot may take a little longer to complete but don’t worry and wait for the device to become active.

Should clearing the cache partition won’t work, you next step would be to clear the S Voice app’s cache and data by doing the following steps:

  1. Open the Settings menu either through your notification shade (drop-down) or through the Settings app in your app drawer.
  2. Navigate down to “Apps”. This may be renamed to something like Applications or Application Manager in OEM skinned versions of Android 6.0.
  3. Once in there, click on an application.
  4. 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.
  5. You should now clearly see the Clear Data and Clear Cache buttons for the application.

Should both procedures won’t fix the issue at all, do a factory reset.


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