The #GalaxyS5 is one of the oldest Samsung flagships still used by millions around the world at this time so we expect that a lot of people may encounter problems with it day in and day out. This post is therefore just another collection of S5 issues reported to us over the course of the week. We hope that this will not only help users mentioned here but also others who may have similar experiences. For those looking for other solutions to their own S5 issues, try to visit our main Galaxy S5 troubleshooting page.

For now, these are the issues mentioned in this material today:

Galaxy S5 screen rotation not working for apps
Galaxy S5 shuts down when it is not connected to a charger
Galaxy S5 made ringing noise before eventually dying | Galaxy S5 won’t turn back on
Galaxy S5 fails to power back on
Galaxy S5 front and rear cameras makes too grainy, noisy photos and videos
Verizon Galaxy S5 cannot send SMS to some numbers in Guatemala

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 S5 screen rotation not working for apps

Hi. I have Galaxy S5 running Android 6.0.1. During the first week of Aug 2016, my screen rotation started not working for any apps. I have recently discovered that if I reboot in Safe Mode, screen rotation works fine. When I go back to normal mode, it will work until my screen sleeps and then it won’t work anymore. Gyro tests using the *#0*#0 menu show fail when the screen rotation is not working and pass when it is working. So it does not seem that I have a hardware problem. Was there an OS update that came out during that week? I was also at a scout camp all week and thought the heat and humidity may have done something to my phone, but it seems to be a software issue. Thanks for any help you can provide. — Cory

Solution: Hi Cory. We agree with you that the issue appears to be software in nature. We are yet to hear a similar issue from other users though so we can’t say for sure if this is unique to your device, probably brought about by another app, or not. There’s also no way to know for sure if this is caused by a bad software update. If you noticed the problem right after installing Android Marshmallow, it’s most probably an operating system bug. We suggest that you wipe the cache partition and do a factory reset to see if that will make any difference. For reference, below are the steps on how to do these procedures:

How to wipe the cache partition of an S5

Turn off the device.
Press and hold the following three buttons at the same time: Volume Up key, Home key, and Power key.
When the phone vibrates, release the Power key but continue to press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key.
When the Android System Recovery screen appears, release the Volume Up and Home keys.
Press the Volume Down key to highlight ‘wipe cache partition.’
Press the Power key to select.
When the wipe cache partition is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
Press the Power key to restart the device.

How to factory reset an S5

Turn off the device.
Press and hold the following three buttons at the same time: Volume Up key, Home key, and Power key.
When the phone vibrates, release the Power key but continue to press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key.
When the Android System Recovery screen appears, release the Volume Up and Home keys.
Press the Volume down key several times key to highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset.’
Press Power button to select.
Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
When the master reset is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
Press the Power key to restart the device.

Problem #2: Galaxy S5 shuts down when it is not connected to a charger

Hello, I found the page you have online to troubleshoot problems. My Samsung Galaxy S5 began to power down when fully charged and isn’t able to restart. It just vibrates and tries to power up but is immediately powered down again. I am able to restart it if it is plugged in to my Samsung charger but when I unplug it, It doesn’t last long.

I cleared the cache, replaced the SD card and did a clean restart. I downloaded an antivirus and that did nothing. Should I get another battery? It says it is charged so I don’t know why it would be that. The tech at AT&T suggested that but didn’t seem to know much about it. If it a common Samsung issue, is there a recall on the phone? is there a software that can tell which app on the phone could cause a problem? Sometimes it happens if I open my camera app. Thanks for reading this and any suggestions are appreciated. — Renee

Solution: Hi Renee. How old is your Galaxy S5? If you’ve been using it for over a year now, the cause of the problem is probably the battery. Lithium-ion batteries like the one on your S5 typically starts showing performance issues after 200-300 charging cycles. A charging cycle is when you exhaust battery power to 0%, charge it back to100%, then discharge (use) it again until it’s empty (0%). If you charge your phone at least once a day on average for over a year now, it’s very likely that the battery may have simply lost significant capacity to hold a charge.

Should I get another battery? Most probably yes. As mentioned above, the battery may have simply run out of juice and can no longer keep enough charge at this time. To make sure that it’s not the operating system reading battery levels wrong, you can also try to recalibrate the battery by doing the following:

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.

Is there a recall on the phone? No. There’s no recall for a years-old phone like the Galaxy S5.

Is there a software that can tell which app on the phone could cause a problem? No. If you think the problem is being caused by an app, you must either restart the phone in safe mode, or wipe the phone clean via factory reset and observe how the phone works after every installation of a single app.

To boot in safe mode, follow these steps:

Turn the device off.
Press and hold the Power key.
When ‘Samsung Galaxy S5’ appears on the screen, release the Power key.
Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume down key.
Continue to hold the Volume down key until the device finishes restarting.
Safe mode will display in the bottom left corner of the screen.
Release the Volume down key when you see Safe Mode.

Problem #3: Galaxy S5 made ringing noise before eventually dying | Galaxy S5 won’t turn back on

Hi! I was in a car ride when my S5 made a weird screeching/ringing noise before shutting off. I tried to turn it on but it is not responding to anything. Moreover, plugging in to charge does not light up the LED at the top. The phone just seems absolutely dead. I never dropped or soaked the phone, it was not hot or under pressure at the time – it just gave up on life. The only thing I can confirm is that I did not install the new Android version due to lack of space. This has been going on for months with the phone notifying me to update. Could the lack of space have something to do with it? Thanks in advance. — Denys

Solution: Hi Denys. Lack of storage space can’t cause any smartphone to die or not power on. There must be something else that caused the problem. To see if it’s a software glitch, try booting the device to alternate modes. Here’s how:

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.

All these three alternate boot modes are independent of normal mode and do not need the operating system to work. If your phone remains unresponsive after trying all of them, that means that hardware must be to blame. Try using a new battery to see if that will make any difference. Otherwise, you must send the phone in for repair or replacement.

Problem #4: Galaxy S5 fails to power back on

Hey I have a problem with my phone (Samsung Galaxy S5) . I have had this phone for around 9 months now and have had problems with it in the past where I have had to send it away to be fixed.

My phone has been working perfectly fine, and I have been carrying it in my school bag. Today when I got my phone out of my bag and tried to turn it on it wouldn’t turn on. I didn’t turn the power off or anything and I am concerned to why it isn’t turning on?

I was wondering if you had any tips to try to fix my phone I don’t want to send it away again and I don’t want to buy a new phone again.

I have tried pressing the power button, I have tried holding down the power button and home button at the same time, I have tried taking the battery out and then putting it back in again and none of the things I have tried have worked. if you have any ways of fixing my phone it would be much appreciated. Thank you. Sincerely. — Madison

Solution: Hi Madison. Android troubleshooting is simple, if all software solutions have been tried, there must be a problem on the hardware department. Kindly refer to our suggestion for Denys above on what to do.

Problem #5: Galaxy S5 front and rear cameras makes too grainy, noisy photos and videos

Hi. I used to have S4 which had an amazing camera both front and rear, especially rear once which gave result like DSLR for pictures and videos. Too very sharp, accurate colors and no matter how much I zoom picture quality was awesome. I sold it. Now I bought S5. now the problem is that the S5 is way better in all aspects, like smooth and fast but it has terrible camera rear, plus front. Don’t even want to talk about front camera, too muccchhhh noisy, grainy. I just wonder if I have gotten a bad piece. Is there something wrong with my S5 camera?

i was expecting bettrr result than the S4 but it is not even anywhere near my S4 camera result, both in low light or with flash. Pictures taken by S5 have so much noise and blury. My S4 model was i9500 and s5 is G900F.

The only reason I sold my S4 was it was hanging and overheating. now I don’t want to sell the S5 because its working very good. But I definitely want some cure for my S5 camera. Should I buy a new camera both front and new and replace them on my S5? waiting eagerly for your reply. — Shahzaib

Solution: Hi Shahzaib. The only instance Samsung admitted something’s wrong with their Galaxy S5 camera was when the “Camera Failure” error kept showing up, way back in 2014. Samsung admitted to Re/code that a number of Galaxy S5 were affected by a faulty camera hardware but it was addressed quickly at that time via unit replacement. The next batches of Galaxy S5 were apparently clear of that hardware bug and the S5 was generally smooth sailing afterwards.

If the quality of the photos and videos from your S5 are really substandard, that is probably due to incorrect camera configuration, bad software, or malfunctioning camera hardware.

To check if you’ve misconfigured your camera settings, simply wipe the camera app’s cache and data. Here’s how:

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 the camera app.
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.

Tapping the Clear Data button is the virtual equivalent of removing and re-installing the app. It also resets all camera app settings back to their default state. If the photos and videos remain grainy and noisy, your next step is to do a factory reset.

Factory reset may or may not help in this case but it does have one important function — it resets all software and pre-installed app settings to their known, factory state. If your S5 camera was initially working better when you first unboxed it, chances are a bug may have developed overtime that affects how your camera app works. By doing a factory reset, you are, in effect eliminating the bug and making sure that the app’s configuration are set up properly. If the problem persists even right after you do a factory reset though, that should tell you that the camera hardware itself may not be working properly. We advise against replacing the camera yourself but if you have no other choice, go ahead and do it. We must warn you though that parts replacement may complicate matters and may damage other parts permanently. If you haven’t done a camera replacement on an S5 before, see to it that you do it carefully.

Problem #6: Verizon Galaxy S5 cannot send SMS to some numbers in Guatemala

Hi there. I’m hoping you might be able to help me out with some problems I’m having.

I bought a Unlocked Verizon Samsung S5 off eBay – SMG900V. I live in Guatemala, and got the phone to work with my local SIM card no problem. (I had to manually input APN settings). However, I am unable to send text messages (SMS) to some local Guatemalan numbers. Some numbers I can send text messages to. It doesn’t matter if I include the country code in the number or not (+502, incidentally). I can receive text messages from everyone.

Also, when I call some numbers for my cell service provider (eg: *256 for voice messages, or *66 to check my credit) the calls will not go through. It seems as though by dialing * my phone seems to think I’m calling a Verizon system number.

Under APN settings, the Verizon settings are there, but the option to delete is not possible as the APN is greyed out. Any advice?

Many thanks! — David

Solution: Hi David. Verizon uses CDMA technology, thus their phones are a lot more problematic when used in other networks, even those that also uses CDMA. By buying it, you must be ready to accept the fact that some features or services may act up. That’s a fact of life in today’s smartphone age. We can’t tell you if the reason why you seemed unable to send SMS to select contacts is due to your phone running a Verizon firmware or not. There’s no way for us to know.

We do know that mobile data settings of Verizon phones stick, that is, the APN settings from them is coded permanently on the phone itself. This is an opposite experience with most GSM phones as the APN settings in these types of phones can be easily deleted and modified. Network settings for Verizon phones, on the other hand, are hard coded so most of the time if you use them outside Verizon, there will always be network- or mobile-data-related problems. Try checking with your Guatemalan carrier if they can help you reconfigure the phone to make it compatible with their services.

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Galaxy S5 screen rotation not working for apps, front and rear cameras makes too grainy, noisy photos and videos