How to fix Galaxy S10 won’t boot up after an update | stuck at boot logo screen

The Galaxy S10 is one of the best smartphones today. Both its hardware and software have so far proved stable. Some S10 users though have reported that their device won’t boot up after an update, which is not exactly surprising given the fact that Android is a sophisticated software. If you are one of the unfortunate users who encountered this problem, don’t panic. In majority of cases, this issue is fixable on a user’s end so you’ll most likely end up solving this problem on your own.

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Just a quick reminder though: Never interrupt the system when it’s updating. Some of you may become impatient while waiting for the installation of updates to finish. However long it takes, just let the device update. Interrupting an update process is one of the surest way to brick a device. In order to prevent accidental shut down during an update, make sure that your phone has enough power, or connected to a charger. Do not update when the battery is low!

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How to fix Galaxy S10 won’t boot up after an update | stuck at boot logo screen

If your Galaxy S10 won’t boot up after an update, there may be an Operating System glitch that causes it. At other times, the cause may be a bad app. If you have no idea how to troubleshoot this problem, follow the suggestions below.

Won’t boot up after an update fix #1: Let the battery drain

If your Galaxy S10 fails to boot up following a software update, the first thing that you want to do is to allow it to lose power. If possible, turn off the phone by doing it the regular way, that is, by pressing and holding the Power button, then selecting the option to power it down. If the Power menu won’t show, or if there’s no response on your device, then you must do the second trick: wait for the battery drain. Unlike older devices, your Galaxy S10 has a non-removable battery pack. The only way to restart it is by pressing the Power button, or by doing the forced reboot procedure. So, if the two ways are not doable, what you can do is to simply wait it out. Hopefully, the system reverts to its normal function after it restarts. This can take time if the battery has high charge left at this time. Depending on how fast your phone loses battery power, this can mean waiting for a few hours to several days. There’s no way to hasten the phone’s battery drain rate so all you have to do is wait. Turning off the device is a requirement to perform the rest of the suggestions below.

After turning off the phone don’t attempt to power it back on for a minute.

Won’t boot up after an update fix #2: Charge the device

If your S10 still won’t boot up after an update, the next move is to make sure that it’s charged. Allow the device to charge for at least 30 minutes then check if it boots up normally. Lithium-based batteries may not be able to turn on the system if there’s not enough charge. Make sure not to interrupt the device while it’s charging by not turning it back on. For troubleshooting purposes, make sure that the charging accessories you’re using are working. If you are using a non-Samsung cable or adapter, try switching to official ones that came with the device. Once charging has reached 30 minutes, power on the phone and see if it goes beyond the Samsung boot logo.

Won’t boot up after an update fix #3: Perform soft reset

One of the basic things that you can do in this situation is to force reboot the device. This way of restarting your phone imitates the effects of unplugging the physical battery. This is of course not possible as your S10 has non-removable battery pack. What you want to do instead is to do its substitute method called soft reset. If you haven’t tried this yet, here’s what you must do:

To do that, simply press and hold the Power and Volume Down buttons for about 10 seconds. Once the phone has restarted, release the buttons. This is usually effective in clearing bugs that developed when a system is left running for some time. We suggest that you restart your S10 using this method at least once a week to lessen the chances of bugs.

For some Galaxy S10, there may be a slightly different way to arrive at the same method. Here’s how:

  1. Press and hold the Power + Volume Down buttons for approximately 10 seconds or until the device power cycles. Allow several seconds for the Maintenance Boot Mode screen to appear.
  2. From the Maintenance Boot Mode screen, select Normal Boot. You can use the volume buttons to cycle through the available options and the lower left button (below the volume buttons) to select. Wait for up to 90 seconds for the reset to complete.

Won’t boot up after an update fix #4: Restart to Safe Mode

If your phone was working normally before you installed a software update, it’s possible that there may be a bad or poorly coded app that blocks it from booting up normally. To check if this is what’s happening, you can try to restart your S10 to Safe Mode. If it boots successfully to safe mode, that means one of the apps must be the cause of the trouble. Below are the steps to restart to safe mode:

  1. Press and hold the Power button until the Power off window appears then release.
  2. Touch and hold Power off until the Safe mode prompt appears then release.
  3. To confirm, tap Safe mode.
  4. The process may take up to 30 seconds to complete.
  5. Upon reboot, “Safe mode” appears in the lower-left of the home screen.

If your S10 reaches safe mode, which means it boots up normally beyond the logo screen, you can assume that a bad third party app is to blame. All apps you installed after setting up the device the first time are considered third party, even if they are from Google or Samsung. To know which of your apps is problematic, you can use the process of elimination. This can take time and effort but it’s the only way to identify it. Here’s what you need to do exactly:

  1. Boot to safe mode.
  2. Check for the problem.
  3. Once you’ve confirmed that a third party app is to blame, you can start uninstalling apps individually. We suggest that you begin with the most recent ones you added.
  4. After you uninstall an app, restart the phone to normal mode and check for the problem.
  5. If your S10 is still problematic, repeat steps 1-4.

Won’t boot up after an update fix #5: Boot to Recovery Mode

Safe mode procedure is only useful if a third party app is the one causing the problem. If the reason lies in the software, restarting to safe mode may not have any effects at all. In this case, you should consider rebooting the device to Recovery Mode instead. In this mode, there are two things that you can do. If you are able to successfully boot to this mode, the first thing that you must do is to clear the cache partition. If that won’t help, then you should proceed to factory reset.

In order to boot to Recovery Mode, you must do the following:

  1. Turn off the device. This is important. If you can’t turn it off, you’ll never be able to boot to Recovery Mode. If you are not able to shut the device off regularly via the Power button, wait until the phone’s battery is drained. Then, charge the phone for 30 minutes before booting to Recovery Mode.
  2. Press and hold the Volume Up button and the Bixby button at the same time.
  3. While still holding the Volume Up and Bixby keys, press and hold the Power button.
  4. The Recovery screen menu will now appear. When you see this, release the buttons.

If your phone boots to Recovery Mode successfully, make sure to try wipe cache partition first. If that won’t work, then you can factory reset the phone by selecting Wipe data/factory reset.

Won’t boot up after an update fix #6: Send it in for repair

If your S10 still has the problem at this point, or if it won’t even load up Recovery Mode at all, the cause must be buried deep within the system. As an end user, there’s only so much that you can do when this happens. The best course of action for you is to contact Samsung so they can check the device and fix it. Visit your local Samsung store or Service Center if possible.

 


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