Here’s another collection of #GalaxyS6 issues submitted by our community. If you’re reading this, you may be looking for an answer to your own S6 issue. We hope that the solutions mentioned here will be of help.

1. Galaxy S6 not showing notifications when text messages arrive
2. Galaxy S6 won’t power on after charging
3. Galaxy S6 freezes and gets stuck in AT&T splash screen
4. How to recover photos from Galaxy S6 that won’t turn on
5. Galaxy S6 not turning on
6. Galaxy S6 showing several problems after Marshmallow update

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 not showing notifications when text messages arrive

Ever since the Marshmallow update, i am not receiving any text message notifications. Nothing shows up in the status bar, i don’t get the pop up notification, i don’t hear a sound, the blinking light doesn’t even turn blue like it used to when i had a notification. Even when I’m in a text message thread with someone else i can’t see that someone else is texting me. the only way i know that i have a text is if o go to my text app where it lists all my conversations and then i see i have all these text messages from people.

I’ve checked everything to make sure all my notifications were set correctly to receive notifications and NOTHING has helped. this is really annoying because I literally have no idea when someone is trying to contact me. I don’t have this problem with any other app like phone calls or Whatsapp or Instagram. It’s JUST texting. I’m using the standard texting app that comes with the phone. — Gillian

Solution: Hi Gillian. The first thing that you want to check is the “Show notifications” box under the app’s info page. You can do that by doing these few easy steps:

• 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.
• Tap the messaging app you’re using.
• Tap on Storage.
• Now make sure that Show notifications box is checked.

If this won’t fix the issue, consider doing a factory reset. Here’s how:

• 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.

Problem #2: Galaxy S6 won’t power on after charging

One day all of a sudden phone froze then when it powered off it would not go back on. my oldest did some online research and followed the instructions to restore it (I am completely challenged when it comes to technology). anyway, she got it to power up again. We charged it to make sure the battery was full and then turned it off. We haven’t been able to get it to come back on since.

Tried plugging it in to the charger and it won’t even charge now. I also tried powering it on but holding down the power button, home button, and volume up like was suggested on your site and still nothing.

Someone said that it could be the charger port that’s bad, but the owner of the phone is my youngest child who is 12. She said it was fully charged when it wouldn’t turn back on.

I bought it used last November and the people always had it in the Otter box. In fact they gave it to us when we bought the phone. It worked fine when we bought it and was no problem for 5 months so I don’t think they sold us a bad phone or anything, but it was used.

I took it to Best Buy and the guy said “I guarantee I could find the problem and fix it if we could get it to power up”…not real helpful. We even tried different chargers etc.

I really appreciate any advice on what to do. It’s been off for a month now and my 12 year old is so sad about it…it was her Christmas present. Thank you so much. — Roxanne

Solution: Hi Roxanne. There are two possible reasons why a smartphone won’t power back on. One is a software or operating system glitch preventing the boot sequence from being completed. Usually, a software-related problem will still allow the phone to boot back on except in regular mode. In this case, you can try different hardware button combinations in order to power on the device. If pressing and holding the Power, Volume Up, and Menu/Home buttons won’t work (which is the way to access Recovery Mode), you can also try to restart the phone in Download Mode or Safe mode.

Booting in Download/Odin mode requires pressing and holding Power, Volume Down, and Home keys. In this mode, you can manually install an update or a custom operating system by connecting the phone to a computer. If you can boot your S6 this way, there’s a chance that you will still be able to install stock or custom ROM or firmware in order for the phone to boot back to normal mode.

You can also try to boot your phone in Safe Mode. Safe mode disables third party apps so if one of them is the cause of the problem, the issue won’t occur. To boot your phone in safe mode, follow the steps below:

• 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.

However, if your phone remains unresponsive after doing all these procedures, you can safely assume that hardware malfunction is to blame. This means that you have to have the phone checked by Samsung or competent repair shop if you want a resolution.

Problem #3: Galaxy S6 freezes and gets stuck in AT&T splash screen

So I’m not sure where to even begin but at complete random, my S6 started having these issues. No physical damage, no water damage whatsoever, and no recent or major software updates as of recent. Also, the phone is not rooted. Essentially, I boot it up (at this point already factory reset) normally and it will become stuck on the AT&T screen. If it ever DOES make it to the lockscreen, upon any touch, it will freeze, reboot, get stuck, or repeat.

I tried this in safe mode a few times, seemed to be responsive. But this time in safe mode, I entered my pin and it suddenly went black, made an audible glitch sound and only displayed a white, horizontal line across the top. It has shown two other greenish lines at other times upon boot up at random.

I have tried clearing the cache, multiple factory resets, safe mode…what in the world would be causing these issues with no reason seemingly? AT&T is trying to hit me with a ridiculous 450 bucks for another and I’m tight on money. Thanks so much you guys!! — Salem

Solution: Hi Salem. We have one question: does the phone behave this way even after a factory reset and without apps? If yes, then you have a hardware problem. There’s no way for us to know what the exact hardware failure or malfunction might be but we bet you need a new phone.

If, on the other hand, the phone behaves normally after a factory reset without apps (and after observing it for at least a day), then that’s an indicator one of your apps may be to blame. Try to isolate which of your apps is the culprit and make sure not to re-install it again.

Problem #4: How to recover photos from Galaxy S6 that won’t turn on

Hi. I am having a problem getting my phone to boot up. I am currently travelling and have been using a Thai SIM card in my phone. Equally I have been taking photos on my phone and had ran out of space both on my camera and phone memory to the point that my phone had given me messages saying ‘insufficient storage space’ etc. I did not have any download apps on my phone other than what came with the phone originally (to save space for more photos) and unfortunately had not saved any of my photos because I was not able to view the photos due to lack of memory.

Earlier today my phone ran out of battery, thus I charged up as normal. When I came to turn it back on it powers up as normal, shows the first “Samsung Galaxy S6” message then the second one (the one that says ‘Samsung’ and has colour around it) with the usual booting up noise but then gets stuck on that and will not load further.

I have tried pressing and holding the menu key and pressing and holding the volume down key, to load in safe mode, but none of these things seem to work. I desperately do not want to do a factory reset because I have all my photos on the phone.

Please is there any solution whereby I can get into my phone, even just to back up my photos? I’m quite desperate! Many thanks. — Jennie

Solution: Hi Jennie. The first requirement in doing what you want, which is to backup important data, is to make sure that the phone boots up either in safe mode, or regular mode. If the device is totally unresponsive or won’t turn back on, there’s nothing much that you can do. In order to access the phone’s storage (Nand chip), the device must be powered.  If that’s not possible, then you can say that all your important files are now good as gone. Call Samsung to see if they can repair the phone or replace the battery for you. If that’s not possible, you simply have to accept the fact that your photos will forever be deleted.

Problem #5: Galaxy S6 not turning on

Over the past couple of weeks my phone would randomly turn off and only turns back on again if it was charging. I came to the conclusion that I was just overusing it, or the phone was overheating so I reduced the time I spent on my phone every time I used it. This seemed to work.

However, a few days ago while my phone was charging, I picked it up to quickly reply to a text, but while I was typing the phone turned off. I waited a few minutes before doing anything in case something would happen by itself. I tried turning it on but nothing happened. I gave up trying and just left it to charge to see what happened. about 30 minutes later it vibrated and turned on by itself. I let it charge to 100% before unplugging it.

This has happened twice more since and the third time is not turning on at all after at least 6 hours. during that time I’ve tried different plug sockets and just left it on charge but nothing is happening.

I am annoyed because there is no other way for me to socialise, search and store photos while on the go. Is there anything you can suggest I do before getting it checked properly? Thanks. — Grace

Solution: Hi Grace. As mentioned above, there are only two possible causes for your problem — software glitch, or hardware failure. Your first task is to isolate which of them is the true cause. You can refer to the solutions we provide for other users above.

Problem #6: Galaxy S6 showing several problems after Marshmallow update

After allowing an update to v6.0.1 to install overnight, phone no longer working as it was. Problem with overheating (to hot to hold), texting works once in awhile but never with sending a pic (after APN settings configured), seems alot slower accessing iNet (did google search and got message about 10 min later that search results avail), battery being drained alot faster than before.

Everything was working fine PRIOR to allow Marshmallow to be installed! Today is 5/30/16, update was done last week on Thu night and things just kept getting worse thru weekend. Phone was purchased about a year ago.

There a way to restore the previous version of Android, that was working just fine??? — Ed

Solution: Hi Ed. The first thing that you can try is to refresh the system cache. Follow the steps below:

• 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 deleting the system cache won’t work, don’t hesitate to do a factory reset (steps provided above).

 

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