Welcome to today’s #GalaxyS6 troubleshooting page! As usual, this post provides solutions to some common questions a lot of S6 users face so we hope you’ll find it useful. In this article, we address 2 questions sent to us over the past few days about the S6 not turning on normally, as well as the reason why some apps may not work off an SD card.
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.
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.
Below are specific topics we’re bringing for you today:
Problem 1: Galaxy S6 won’t turn on after accidental drop
My phone has had no issues except, come to think of it, my fast charger wasn’t always working. 2 days ago i was sat on the floor (brand new thick fluffy carpet) and i dropped my phone from around 10/15cm from the floor. At this point it was on 22% but it went completely off. i put it on charge which then said it was on 0% and showing as though it was charging although battery life was not increasing. I took it off charge and the phone went off again.
The next day i took it into Samsung and they told me it’s damaged beyond repair and is also water damaged. I asked how they know this as it hasn’t been near any water nor had any problems until i dropped it. The man said he plugged it into a usb and it detected water. I left the shop very unhappy.
Then today i took it to a normal phone shop who said it sounds like a battery issue. Later i plugged it back in the charger and it started charging. i left it on charge as i didn’t want it to stop charging again. Then when it was at 55%, it slipped off the chair and went off again. I plugged it back in and it shot straight up to 84% (within 1 min of being off). It came back on anyway although randomly went off at the tiniest nudge or just randomly.
Now this evening it wont come on at all with or without a charger. When plugged in, it says it’s on full percent but just showing the battery box with a lightening bolt in it.
I’ve tried doing all the reboots; nothing works. it either starts to come on then goes straight off after the Samsung Galaxy S6 screen or just flashes the lightning bolt at me :(. — Hayley Hover
Solution: Hi Hayley. We know you want to think of your case as something that you can manage but if your phone was working normally before the accidental drop, it must have sustained physical damage which resulted to the battery or power management IC to behave erratically. Whether there’s an existing
- battery problem,
- power IC issue, or
- a broken circuit
is not for us to find out. Any of them can exhibit the same or similar symptoms your S6 is now exhibiting. A technician must physically check the hardware in order to know what the problem might be. It can be any of the three in the list, a combination, or all of them at once. If there’s no obvious hardware sign of the problem, a technician must perform more in-depth hardware checks to know where the issue lies.
Unless you are trained to troubleshoot an S6 hardware and perform hardware diagnostics, you are better off having a professional do the repair for you. Remember, repair does not only mean parts replacement (which a lot of videos and guides in the web provide) but also diagnostics. Replacing an incorrect part won’t obviously fix the problem so a good technician must perform troubleshooting and diagnostics first to identify the cause of the symptoms. You don’t want, for example, to buy and replace the battery if the problem is a bad power IC.
We don’t know how much a third party shop asks for their repair fee but if it’s not that low compared to that of Samsung’s, we suggest that you use the services of the latter. Samsung technicians are trained to fix Samsung devices only and they can replace bad components using original Samsung parts. Try to avoid going to independent service centers unless you have no other choice.
Problem 2: Galaxy S6 Edge Plus won’t restart and stuck in Samsung logo screen
Hello guys. So i turned on my Samsung Galaxy S6 edge plus (which i didn’t have any problems with for the last 2 years) and it started lagging at the lock screen and just turned off. So i tried to turn it on and it stayed off until i put the phone in the charger. then it turned on again and i was filling in my PIN (for some reason i couldn’t use my fingerprint) when the phone completely shut down. and now the phone is rebooting (the samsung logo breathing and the blue LED on) for already half an hour long (though i don’t know what version i was using). I also reset my phone a week ago. — Adelm8702
Solution: Hi Adelm8702. A problem like this can happen for numerous reasons including the following:
- bad content/app
- poorly coded Android update
- rooting/flashing
- unknown hardware issue
Before you try to address the possible causes above, we suggest that you try to remember what you might have done differently before that might have caused your phone to fail to boot. For instance, if you recently installed an app and it’s the only thing that changed in the device, it’s possible that said app is to blame. In some cases, more adventurous Android users encounter the problem after modifying the software via flashing, or by trying to get root access. Since modifications to the operating system can potentially lead to software problems, inexperienced Android users often find their device bricked if they don’t do instructions properly. In a word, we want you to know what changes may have occurred so you can do a more targeted troubleshooting to fix the issue.
If the problem simply occurred all of a sudden, below are the troubleshooting steps that you can do.
Observe the phone in safe mode
Bad apps can lead to all sorts of problems so the first step that you must do is to restart your S6 to safe mode. While in this mode, all third party apps and services will be blocked leaving only pre-installed apps to run. So, if your phone will work normally in this mode but not in normal mode, you know an app must be causing the problem. In order to boot your phone to safe mode, follow these steps:
- Press and hold the Volume Down and Power keys for 20 to 30 seconds.
- Once you see the Samsung logo, release the Power key immediately but continue pressing the Volume Down key.
- Your phone should continue booting up and you will be prompted to unlock your phone as usual.
- You will know if the phone successfully booted in safe mode if the text “Safe mode” is displayed at the lower-left corner of the screen.
Remember, safe mode is not a solution but a means. If you think a third party app is troublesome and you don’t know what it is, you must use the method of elimination to identify it. Uninstall an app, then observe the phone. Repeat until the issue is gone.
Do a factory reset
If you recently installed an Android update, or if the issue coincidentally occurred after installing a system update, it’s possible that the issue may have something to do with the operating system. To fix the problem, consider doing a factory reset by following the steps below:
- Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge.
- Press and hold the Volume Up, Home and Power keys together.
- When the device powers on and displays ‘Power on logo’, release all keys and the Android icon will appear on the screen.
- Wait until the Android Recovery Screen appears after about 30 seconds.
- Using the Volume Down key, highlight the option, wipe data/factory reset and press the Power key to select it.
- Press the Vol Down button again until the option Yes — delete all user data is highlighted and then press the Power key to select it.
- After the reset is complete, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and hit the Power key to restart the phone.
Reflash the bootloader
If you did try to root or flash the phone prior to experiencing the problem, there’s a chance that you may have hit corrupted the bootloader or firmware. We suggest that you see to it that the bootloader is in order before attempting to reflash the firmware. To do that, follow the steps below. Keep in mind that some Samsung Galaxy models may have a slightly different way to reflash the bootloader so be sure to consult other guides to avoid problems. Our steps below are meant to give you an idea on how to do it.
- Look for the correct firmware for your phone model and download it. Make sure that you select the right one. It should be the same exact firmware that ran previously on your device. We assume that you list down the firmware version somewhere. If you did not take note of it before, there’s a chance that you may pick the wrong one. As you may know now, using an incorrect firmware can cause complications so good luck with that.
- Let’s now say that you have identified the correct firmware. You then want to download it to your computer. The firmware file should have a bunch of files in it like AP_, BL_, CSC_, etc.
- Look for the file that starts with a label BL; this should be the corresponding bootloader file for this firmware. Once you’ve identified the bootloader file, copy it to your computer’s desktop or to any other folder that you can easily access.
- Proceed with the rest of the flashing procedure using the Odin program.
- In Odin, click on the BL tab and make sure to use the bootloader file you’ve identified earlier.
- Now, make sure that the “Device Added” status and its “ID:COM box” has turned blue before hitting the START button. This will initiate the flashing of your phone’s bootloader.
- Restart the phone once the procedure is finished.
Once you’ve reflashed the bootloader, you can then flash a known working firmware for your device, or simply stick with Samsung’s stock ROM.
Send the phone in for repair
If all of the steps above fail, something is seriously wrong with the hardware. You should contact Samsung or visit a third party service center for a fix.
Problem 3: Galaxy S6 edge can’t move some apps to SD card
Hello. I currently have the Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge. I’ve had it for the past 2 1/2 years and recently, noticed that it kept crashing on me. I’ve been pretty good about transferring apps and files to my SD card, clearing caches, and utilizing the Cleanse Master, but nothing was working. I’ve had to reset my Factory Settings twice and still my phone is crashing.
When I’m re-downloading all my apps, why is it that it would go directly as an “internal storage” and would not let me transfer it to my SD “External Storage” card? I just downloaded a root external 2 internal sd app to see if that would help. Please advise on how I can transfer even the simplest apps (Starbucks, Fitbit, etc) to my SD card and not let it remain in my “Internal Storage.” Thank you in advance for your time. — Forg3tm3not770
Solution: Hi Forg3tm3not770. There are two reasons why some apps are installed in internal and not in external storage/SD card:
- operating system requirement
- app developer design
By default, all apps are installed to the phone’s internal storage. Google has since then made this optional by designing Android to allow apps to operate off the SD card. This frees up internal storage device space significantly. However, security reasons prevent some apps from being allowed to work outside of the main storage device so not all can be moved to SD card. For example, email apps are usually installed only in internal storage. Apps that store important personal and financial information are also kept in the primary storage device instead of the SD card for the same security reason. This is decided upon by the developer and there’s no way anyone can do about it. In older Android versions, rooting the device may allow some apps to be installed to the SD card but at this time, we are not aware of any effective rooting software to allow you to do that in the S6 running Android Nougat or Oreo. if you are using Marshmallow in your device, try to do some research to see if there are now rooting software that allows what you want.