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Galaxy S7 can’t encrypt SD card, other issues

Today we give you 5 more #GalaxyS7 issues. One such issues is S7 can’t encrypt SD card. We hope that the suggestions and solutions in this post will help those looking for answers.

S7

Below are the exact topics in this material:

  1. Galaxy S7 can’t encrypt SD card | Galaxy S7 takes a long time to read SD card
  2. Galaxy S7 screen flickering issue
  3. Galaxy S7 stuck at Sprint logo screen
  4. Galaxy S7 Edge not receiving some text messages
  5. Galaxy S7 SMS being broken into parts

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 S7 can’t encrypt SD card | Galaxy S7 takes a long time to read SD card

First of all – YOU DO AN AMAZING JOB HELPING USERS WITH YOUR SITE!!  It’s quite often a life saver, and you don’t allow it to be all jumbled up like android forums – exceptionally well-designed site… so KUDOS 2 U!!

Ok, here we go…

  1. I get scary robot icons and warnings which seem to get progressively worse when I try to go into recovery mode. Note – even with those warnings, it still eventually lets me into recovery mode (at least for now!). 

Specifically, when I first tried to go into recovery mode, the green droid robot was tipping half-way over to the right side (and now I can’t recall exactly – but there was some kind of dotted line going down from his hand or something) …I apologize that I can’t remember because NOW ALL I GET IS A YELLOW TRIANGLE WITH AN EXCLAMATION POINT IN ITS CENTER as I try to go into recovery mode & it’s trying to install system updates. It tries to install updates for 30-45 seconds, then the yellow/exclamation point warning appears, and then it takes me into the recovery mode.  ALSO, after I wipe the cache partition (or whatever I may be doing in there) as I start to reboot the phone from recovery mode, I see some writing flash on the bottom of the screen for a split second and IT’S RED IN COLOR (but it goes away much too fast for me to read it). 

I also get “failed to install security updates” in the notification bar when I’m in the phone as normally being used trying to go thru the “settings” options to try and update.

  1. Is it normal for SD card apps to “load” very slowly after a power-on or reboot?

Specifically, I have a ScanDisk 200GB SD card and it has approximately 50 GB of various apps, pix, videos, documents, blah blah… So when I restart/reboot/start up my phone in normal mode, all the icons that are on the sd card are grayed-out for several minutes.  Makes me very concerned that there is something wrong with the card, the slot (dirty?), or the system.

  1. I am unable to encrypt my SD card – which may be caused by something in the above question?? Regardless, I want to make sure that any issues in the #2 question above are ok or resolved before I try to encrypt my card (if/when possible huh?!!). So after the above is address (for my comfort or my fyi) then how do I encrypt my SD card? Obviously going thru the security menu options isn’t working…

I realized this is rather long, but I wanted to be as specific as possible (hope I was 🙂

THANK YOU IN ADVANCE for looking into these and helping me & likely others out with these Q’s!! — ScottE

Solution: Hi Scotte. First of all, we assume that you did not root the device or install any custom ROM on it. Custom ROM is a user installed operating system that’s not provided by a carrier via over-the-air update. This means that the recovery menu on your phone is still the official Samsung software.

In order to access the stock recovery menu on a Galaxy S7, a user must follow the following:

  • Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge.
  • Press and then hold the Home and Volume UP keys, then press and hold the Power key. NOTE: It doesn’t matter how long you press and hold the Home and Volume Up keys, it won’t affect the phone but by the time you press and hold the Power key, that’s when the phone starts to respond.
  • When the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge 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. NOTE: The “Installing system update” message may show on the screen for several seconds before displaying the Android system recovery menu. This is just the first phase of the entire process.

If you did these steps initially and was presented with multiple options like :wipe the cache partition” or “Yes — delete all user data,” then you’re okay. If you’re wondering whether the rest of the sequence is normal after the steps above, we say they should be. Samsung’s recovery menu is uniform in all Galaxy S7 devices so we can’t see any problem with the description you provided above.

For your second concern, any device should usually take some time to initially scan a full or almost full 200 GB card after a reboot. However, it should not take over several minutes. The initial scan is necessary for the operating system to identify all necessary files to operate apps but if it takes longer than three minutes to do so, something must not be working properly. Make sure to back important files to another device like a PC and reformat the SD card. This will help eliminate sectors errors that may have developed over time. Remember to always keep a backup of your important data to another device or to a cloud service as even the most expensive SD cards can stop working anytime. Don’t keep eggs in one big basket all the time.

These are the steps to encrypt an SD card in a Galaxy S7:

  • Go to Settings Application.
  • Scroll Down and Tap on the ‘Lock Screen and Security’ Option.
  • Scroll Down and Tap on the ‘Encrypt SD Card’ Option.
  • Then Tap on the ‘Encrypt SD Card’ Button at the Bottom.

If you can’t do these steps for some reason, reformat the SD card first using another device like a computer (don’t forget to create a backup first). Once the SD card has been reformatted, re-insert it to your S7 and attempt to encrypt it again under Settings. If that won’t work, factory reset your device.

Problem #2: Galaxy S7 screen flickering issue

Just about 30 min ago, 4:30 am 7/18/2016, my screen started flickering. it got a thin green line at the top right of the screen. I have to lock and unlock the screen multiple times to see what my screen is displaying. It flickers white and green.

I tried one of the reboots (safe mode one) didn’t work. So I moved on to the second option, and well, screen bugged out. I saw at the top left it said rebooting or something in the top left. And then the entire green went green and it sat there like that till I hit the power key multiple times and started it up normally (kind of).

So I can’t do the 2nd option to reboot. phone is really expensive. and I use it very much for work as I am a pizza delivery driver. I use Google to look up addresses. I don’t wanna use my phone now and get distracted but the lights and get in a car accident or whatever. I really need help.

Phone wasn’t dropped or anything. Screen Is intact though it does appear to be scarred like a digital smear vertically left side of screen.

Any suggestions are very helpful.

I paid a lot for it and take good care of it so anything to help resolve the issue helps. I didn’t buy warranty either because I didn’t think this would happen. Never had this happen before. First experience with a Galaxy phone too. Been great up until now. lasted me 2 months… thank you for reading. any help  is appreciated. — Homero

Solution: Hi Homero. A screen problem like yours can be caused by either a software glitch or hardware malfunction. To identify which of the two is the real issue, we usually recommend that you boot the device to another mode like recovery mode or download mode. Any of these modes runs a code independent from the operating system or apps. This means that if an operating system glitch or app is to blame, the screen should work normally if the phone restarts in recovery mode or download mode. To fix a software issue, we first recommend that you try a factory reset so you can observe how the screen works afterwards. To factory reset your device, simply follow these steps:

  • Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S7.
  • 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 data / factory reset.’
  • Once highlighted, you may press the Power key to select it.
  • Now highlight the option ‘Yes — delete all user data’ using the Volume Down key and press the Power button to select it.
  • Wait until your phone is finished doing the Master Reset. Once completed, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and press the Power key.
  • The phone will now reboot longer than usual.

If the screen looks exactly the same when you boot in recovery or download mode, you can safely assume that you have a hardware error. You must have the phone checked and repaired by Samsung or its authorized repair center.

Problem #3: Galaxy S7 stuck at Sprint logo screen

I tried to install the new system update to the phone by letting it install overnight on the charger. The next morning, the phone was stuck at the start-up Sprint logo right before it goes to the main screen. It vibrated once, then with a delayed pause, it would vibrate two times. I then proceeded to reboot the system by holding the right buttons and wiped the cache clean and tried to reboot. Nothing happened.

I then had to make the tough decision to do a master reboot, and reset the factory settings. When I did that, instead of getting to the yellow sprint provider logo before the page, it sent me to just the Samsung lettering and vibrated the same as at the beginning. I’ve tried downloading custom OS to the phone, but the downloads go nowhere and appear to be frozen. Battery and initial startup are normal and no signs of battery problems. — Christian

Solution: Hi Christian. Well, there’s really nothing much to do here as you’ve already tried the things a user can do. If a master reset or factory reset sequence can’t be completed, that means that your phone is totally bricked. Contact your carrier and let them know that this problem happened so they can tell their software developer team. Of course, you also want to ask for a resolution by demanding for a replacement unit.

Problem #4: Galaxy S7 Edge not receiving some text messages

Hello! I recently switched from an iPhone to the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge about a month ago. I have had issues with people receiving my texts and receiving texts from others. I have called AT&T and they told me that my number was no longer associated with the iPhone in their system so that wasn’t the issue. I had all of my friends delete my contact and put it back in and I disabled my number on iTunes. I’m still having issues after all of that. I always receive texts from certain people and they always get mine but others don’t. Sometimes i get their texts and sometimes i don’t. I’ve been on the phone with my service provider three times now and they’re saying that everything on my end is fine. They also said the texts I was sending to these people was going through just fine. I also texted myself and got the messages every time. I’m at a complete loss and this is so frustrating. I appreciate any feedback you can give me! Thank you! — Brittany

Solution: Hi Brittany. Although SMS has become an ordinary method of communication to most people nowadays, the system is not as reliable as it seems. The transmission of SMS still depends in no small part to the reliability of carriers’ message centers themselves. SMS support is still a best effort delivery, which means that carriers don’t guarantee messages will be delivered all the time. Thus, this is an issue that may or may not be fixed by your carrier alone. There’s a chance that the carrier of your friend is having some network issues preventing messages from being sent properly.

For more assistance, we suggest that you work closely with your carrier’s technical support team (not the customer service/billing/sales department) to try to find a solution. There’s just nothing that we can do to help you in this case.

If you want a more drastic solution though, you may want to consider using a non-recycled number or a totally new number.

Problem #5: Galaxy S7 SMS being broken into parts

I made the switch from apple to iphone a month ago and so far I’ve been impressed with everything except texting. It is awful. When i send or receive long texts, it is split up into multiple texts that I have to decode, I’m not even able to receive pictures anymore. I have to use snapchat. I can send them, but not receive. And now, I’m not receiving any texts from my girlfriend although she is getting mine. This is really frustrating because this isn’t the first time this has happened. I haven’t even had this phone that long and already it can’t even do something all phones are capable of, text.  — Josh

Solution: Hi Josh. If your number is recycled, that is, you simply use the old number from your iPhone to your new Galaxy S7, the main reason why you’re not receiving text messages is most probably because SMS from your friends are being sent as iMessage. Make sure that you deactivate or deregister iMessage to resolve the issue.

If you still have your iPhone with you, follow these steps:

  • Put the SIM card you transferred from your iPhone back into your iPhone.
  • Make sure that you’re connected to a cellular data network (such as 3G or LTE).
  • Tap Settings > Messages and turn off iMessage.
  • Tap Settings > FaceTime and turn off FaceTime.

You can also visit Apple’s deregister iMessage website to do so.

For your SMS being split in parts, the best thing that you can you can do is to  contact your carrier so you’ll know if their network allows long messages or not. Many carriers usually follows the old 160-character messaging system. Once an SMS reaches over 160 characters, carriers will usually split them up automatically. This is not universal though so we highly suggest that you work with them for the resolution.

 


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