Hello TheDroidGuy community! Welcome to another episode of our #GalaxyS6 troubleshooting series. Below are some other issues that we receive from our growing readership. We hope that the solutions mentioned in this post can help you in your own S6 issue.

1. Galaxy S6 front camera not working
2. Galaxy S6 keeps on freezing on the lock screen
3. Galaxy S6 screen is unresponsive
4. Galaxy S6 loses received emails | How to tell which email on Galaxy S6 is receiving a message
5. Galaxy S6 stuck in loading screen after attempting to install OTA update
6. Galaxy S6 lost photos while charging

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.

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Problem #1: Galaxy S6 front camera not working

We are on vacation and my “selfie” camera has stopped working on my phone. It is now a pure white screen when I hit the rotate screen button. The regular camera works fine. We were using a selfie stick and all was fine with the first few pics. We stopped several hours later and tried the selfie stick again and the selfie screen went to white. The whole camera system seems different even though I didn’t update anything that I can think of. Maybe it really isn’t different and I’m just seeing features that i had not noticed before. I have not dropped or banged my phone around.

Any ideas or suggestions would be greatly appreciated!! Thank you!! — Amy

Solution: Hi Amy. If the front camera was not damaged in any way before noticing the issue, you should be able to resolve this by doing basic software troubleshooting. The first thing that you can try is to wipe the cache and data of the camera app. You can do so by following these steps:

• Go to Settings.
• Proceed to Applications.
• Select Manage Applications.
• Tap the All tab.
• Look for camera app and tap it.
• From there, you will see the Clear Cache and Clear Data buttons.

Tapping the Clear Data button is the virtual equivalent of reinstalling the app. This will reset all app settings back to default.

If wiping the camera app’s cache and data won’t work, we recommend that you do a factory reset in case the issue lies in the device’s firmware.

• 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 Volume 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.

Should the front camera still fails to work normally after doing a factory reset, you can assume that the hardware has failed. Call Samsung or the relevant party for a repair or replacement.

Problem #2: Galaxy S6 keeps on freezing on the lock screen

It continues to freeze up ALL the time, and it’s not any one particular screen or app. It just does it continuously. It acts like it’s thinking and just stuck and I’m talking for like almost a minute sometimes and the swipe and the Swype when you’re charging your phone. Why in the world do I have to swipe it 3 different times just to get to a lock screen that disappears on me immediately and then I have to do it all over again and again? I absolutely cannot stand that swipe screen while charging there’s like 3 of them on there. Thank you so much I look forward to your response the phone has been nothing but issues cuz I got it back on May 17th 2015. — Tara

Solution: Hi Tara. There may be a software glitch causing this lock screen issue. Kindly delete the phone’s cache partition first to see if that will fix the problem. For minor firmware-related issues brought by apps and firmware updates, wiping the cache partition often does the trick. It’s because this procedure will literally delete all cached files in the cache partition, which will force the system to create new ones during the next boot up.

This procedure is also very helpful in fixing issues like random reboots, boot loop, stuck during boot up and random freezes after updates. Here’s how you wipe the cache partition on your S6:

• 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.

If this procedure won’t resolve the problem, be sure to do a factory reset (steps provided above).

Problem #3: Galaxy S6 screen is unresponsive

So my phones screen has turned black and will not display anything other. I can activate my camera and hear it but still the screen remains black. So i looked up other people who had this issue and tried three things

{power} + {volume down} = i think this turned my phone off but the screen remained black

{volume up} + {power} + {home} = The screen remained black just the same so i couldn’t tell if this worked. Though I did feel the vibration and and let go of the home button which i assume led me to the system restore  functions (still couldn’t tell cause the screen never changed).

Past that i have let the phone die then fully charged it, gone to different Wi-Fi hotpots(apparently worked for a guy) and repeated these over and over again.

so I am hoping that there is something that can be done before i have to replace my entire phone…– Jordan

Solution: Hi Jordan. Black screen issue is usually an indication that the display assembly has stopped working for some reason. Most of the time, the reason for such problem is due to hardware failure. The screen or display assembly is composed of three major parts — the LCD, the digitizer, and the flex cable. A failure of any of these components can result to a black screen. That your phone appears to turn on normally because you can feel it vibrate (and probably make sound) during startup is an affirmation that the problem may only be limited to the screen. Unfortunately, this kind of problem cannot be fixed by doing software troubleshooting. A physical check must be conducted to diagnose what hardware component is failing. If your device is still covered by a warranty, be sure to have it repaired or replaced.

Problem #4: Galaxy S6 loses received emails | How to tell which email on Galaxy S6 is receiving a message

Emails disappear. I think it may be that I am deleting them by accident but I’m not so sure. How do I get deleted emails to go into the recycling bin or archive instead? Some emails I never see that I find on my other devices. Some I see and a then a day later when I want to reply and I cannot find them no matter how much I search.

One from my bank disappeared. I search and there is absolutely no record of it ever being there. Also, have multiple email addresses. When I receive an email is very difficult to tell which address it was sent to. I have named all my addresses but the email only shows “me” or my name and not the label I used.

My email is my most important record of my business transactions. I cannot have them disappear. — Stephen

Solution: Hi Stephen. First of all, we assume that you are using the stock (native) email app and not any third party email app. Our answers and suggestions will all refer to the stock email app. If you are using a third party app, make sure to contact the developer for more assistance.

Secondly, it’s important that you know what type of server your email providers use. We know that you have more than one email and that each of them may be not be of the same type. Basically, an email provider can use IMAP or POP3. Using an IMAP server means that emails will not be taking storage space on the phone as they are read on the server, which means that a copy of your email is kept in a remote server which your devices can access any time. On the other hand, using a POP3 email server means that an email is sent directly to a device and stored there. Once you delete an email from that device, that email will be gone forever because there’s no remote server backing it up like in IMAP setup. If you aren’t sure which email server types you’re using on any of your emails, make sure to contact your email providers for assistance. Additionally, they may also help you find or retrieve deleted emails if they are still in their server somewhere.

Lastly, in order to identify which email is receiving the message, you have to make sure that you create a unique USER NAME during the setup of a particular account. You can refer to our tutorial on how to do this again if needed.

Problem #5: Galaxy S6 stuck in loading screen after attempting to install OTA update

I have a Samsung Galaxy S6, all stock. One night it downloaded an OTA update and powered down during the process so i fear it’s firmware became corrupt. I can access the ODIN menu on the phone (Vol down, home, power) (mind youi i just downloaded ODIN for the first time on my computer and never used it prior), and i have previously used the (vol up home power, to clear my cache, then wipe all data). Current status if you power on it gets stuck at loading screen, but i have seen other screens such as lines of white and red text and an Android figure literally having a red triangle coming out of its chest and it falls over presumably dead. Is this brick status? Found a .rar file which contained Odin, a cwm6-recoveryi317.tar.md5, a OMAPFlash_1229_2ndlastt.rar, and a GT-I9100_Clockworkmod-recovery_4.0.0.2.tar… but the current problem seems to be the pc isnt detecting the phone at the moment. I have an option of using the micro SD card in an micro SD> USB into my computer. Any ideas/solutions? Thank you. — Mike

Solution: Hi Mike. OTA updates usually fail if a device’s firmware has been modified in an unofficial way, if its rooted, if it runs any custom software. It looks like you’ve installed a custom recovery called CWM (ClockWorkMod), which may or may not be the reason for the boot issue. Since you cannot make the boot the phone normally at this time, we recommend that you flash the stock firmware on it. This will ensure that your device runs the official operating system again to resume normal functions. Kindly use Google to look for instructions how to do it.

Problem #6: Galaxy S6 lost photos while charging

Not sure if the S6 has a problem or maybe I am the problem because I don’t know what to do?

My photos overnight while phone was connected to charger disappear a few hundred photos. Searching for them knowing that photos don’t disappear had to be someplace in my phone

Found about half of the photos in the SD CARD and I can’t find a way to move them back to my gallery. The rest of the photos are in what looks like a file container like a zip file only it is solid white and I cannot open it or extract anything. When I long press on it and check content they show several MB of photos. I gave up trying to extract or open them. I’ve tried several application from the Play Store that claim to open any files all I get is no app found that can open this file. And now I’ve noticed that I have several of these white box file containers.

Also I keep getting files that are .nomedia. I delete them every day  but they continue to return. I’m at a loss. Should I even be concerned about this? I really don’t know and haven’t been able to find anyone else that knows. Thank you for any help or advice you may have. I do appreciate it greatly. — Randy

Solution: Hi Randy. If you can’t find some of your photos using the phone itself and open those that you’ve located, we recommend that you connect it to a computer first. Once you’ve connected your handset to your computer via USB, it will be easier to browse the file directory of your phone and SD card. You’ll also have more options to open files that may have different file extensions. Keep in mind that looking for lost files in a directory like the one on your phone can be time consuming and there’s no automatic way to do it. There’s no way for us to tell you where to look for exactly as phone file directories vary a lot. You may end up investing some time doing this yourself.

What we can tell you though is that photos don’t just disappear by themselves. Either you’ve deleted or moved them to a different folder by accident before, or there’s an unheard of software glitch that may have done it. While the latter may be unusual, we’ve heard of it happening before so it’s not impossible. If you suspect that there’s a software problem on your device, make sure that you do a factory reset to clear things up.

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