Galaxy S7 edge freezing randomly after installing Android Oreo [troubleshooting guide]

As many of you may have known already, #GalaxyS7 devices are now getting Android Oreo updates and the transition was not really perfect, as is expected. Some Galaxy S7 edge owners have reported problems, like the one we discuss in this post. Today’s troubleshooting guide will try to give you solutions if you find your S7 having slow performance issues or if it’s freezing at random.

Problem #1: Why not all Galaxy S7 receive Android Oreo updates at this time?

My husband and I both have Galaxy AT&T S7s, purchased at the same time. His installs system updates often and mine never seems to (not app updates, but the actual o/s). He is now on Android 8.0, and I’m still on 7.0. I’ve tried manually checking for updates from settings, but it says there aren’t any. What gives? — Sjrottier

Solution: Hi Sjrottier. If both devices are identical, which means that they’re made for the same carrier, then it’s probably just a matter of time before your S7 may receive Android Oreo (Android 8.0). If the two devices, even if they’re both Galaxy S7s, are built for different carriers, your S7 may or may not receive a system update at all. For instance, if your husband’s Galaxy S7 is an AT&T branded one while yours is T-Mobile, the latter will not receive a system update at all. If AT&T provided your two Galaxy S7s, then all you have to do is to wait for the update. Servers that push updates have limits on how many devices can receive updates everyday so there’s nothing much that you can do.

Some devices, even carrier-branded ones, may sometimes receive Samsung updates instead. To check if there’s an available update for your device from Samsung at this time, you can try to use Smart Switch. You can follow this article on how to install Smart Switch on your computer.

Once you’ve installed Smart Switch on your computer, all you need to do is to connect your S7 to that computer via a USB cable and see if there’s an available update for it. Make sure that Smart Switch app is open on your computer before you plug in your S7.

Problem #2: Galaxy S7 edge freezing randomly after installing Android Oreo

Samsung S7 edge recently got Oreo. Generally runs very fast but the last few days has locked up after about a day. Restarting resumes normal function but after about a day or sometimes sooner I have to do it again. It can be difficult to reboot sometimes. Can I roll it back to Nougat? I feel that Oreo may be causing the problem. — Ian Slater

Solution: Hi Ian. There’s no official way to roll your Android back to its previous version. If you really want to do that, you’ll need to flash a stock Android Nougat firmware to the device. Flashing is the Android equivalent of OS installation in Windows. This procedure has its risks and is not recommended for average Android users as it can potentially result to software damage. If you want to take the risks, you can use Google on how to do it.

Android Oreo works well on our own Galaxy S7 and S7 edge so far so we say it’s generally good performance-wise. We don’t think poor performance is the direct result of Oreo. On the contrary, Oreo may have nothing to do with it. Try doing our suggestions below and see if you can make your S7 great again.

Cache partition wipe

This should be the first potential solution that you need to try. Some devices may find their system cache, which is stored in the cache partition, corrupted after an update. This can lead to performance problems later on. To ensure that your phone has good system cache, follow the steps below:

Turn off the phone.
Press and then hold the Home and Volume UP keys, then press and hold the Power key.
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.
Using the Volume Down key, navigate through the options and highlight ‘wipe cache partition.’
Once highlighted, you may press the Power key to select it.
Now highlight the option ‘Yes’ using the Volume Down key and press the Power button to select it.
Wait until your phone is finished wiping the cache partition. Once completed, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and press the Power key.
The phone will now reboot longer than usual.
Let the phone run and check for the problem.

Install app updates

When you install a system update, it does not necessarily mean that your apps are automatically updated as well. By default, your phone is supposed to install app updates automatically but if you changed this behavior before you installed the new Android version, you may find your apps less or not compatible with the operating system on your device.

To check for updates for apps, you can use the Play Store app. Here’s how to do that:

Open Play Store app.
Tap More settings at the upper right.
Tap My apps & games.
Tap UPDATE ALL button if you have multiple updates.

If you have apps from third party sources (not from Play Store), make sure that they’re compatible with the Android version on your S7. If you don’t know how to check, try to contact the developer for more information about your device.

Decongest internal storage

One of the easiest way to minimize performance issues in an Android device is to ensure that the operating system can work with ample space all the time. If your S7’s internal memory is always crowded, some processes may slow down as the system will try to find a way first to make available room. For example, some apps may require large caches in order to work. If an app can create a cache the moment it needs it, it may crash, tell a user to clear some space, or let Android delete other cache. Any of these is inefficient way of doing tasks so you’re better off having available space all the time instead. Ideally, you should have at least 1GB of available space all the time.

Alternatively, you can manually clear up caches to make space from time to time. Here’s how to do it:

Open Settings app.
Tap Device maintenance.
Tap Storage.
Tap CLEAN NOW button.

Another way to ensure that your phone’s internal storage is generally free of stuff is to move non-system essential files like photos, videos, and some apps to the SD card if you have one. By doing so, you’ll have more than enough space to allow Android to operate.

Ensure you have fast internet connection when using apps

If you regularly use apps that require internet connection to work, like email apps, social networking apps, messaging or chatting apps, your device may show significant performance issues when you have slow internet connection. If your wifi or mobile data connection is unreliable, keeps dropping, or plain and simple slow, apps that use the connection may bog down starting a domino effect for other processes and apps. Overtime, this constant slow down in the networking aspect of the system can negatively impact the entirety of your Android experience. This can be enough reason why your S7 seem to lock up or perform very slow.

Try connecting to a fast wifi network and see if that will change how your S7 performs.

Reset app preferences

Apps don’t work in isolation and most use other apps and services in order to perform tasks. If some of these core apps and services are disabled, deleted, or problematic, some apps may not work properly too. To minimize the chance of this situation from happening, you can reset all app preferences. This will enable currently disabled default apps as well as do some other related actions.

To reset app preferences on your S7:

Open Settings app.
Tap Apps.
Tap on More settings at the upper right (three-dot icon).
Select Reset app preferences.
Restart your S7 and check for the problem.

Reset all settings

Another possible solution in this case is a reset of all settings on your device. By doing this, you are effectively returning all software settings to their defaults, thereby eliminating the possibility of a bad misconfiguration being the cause of the problem.

Here are the steps to reset your device’s settings:

From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open the Apps tray.
Tap General Management > Reset > Reset settings.
Tap Reset settings.
If you have set up a PIN, enter it.
Tap Reset settings. Once complete a confirmation window will appear.

Factory reset

Finally, you can do a factory reset if all our suggestions above won’t work. Based on our own experience with Android Oreo in our own Galaxy S7 and S7 edge, it’s basically a stable build. Unless there are other external factors or a hardware malfunction causing your S7 to lock up at random, factory reset should help.

To factory reset your S7:

Turn off the device.
Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
When the green Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
Press the Volume down key several times to highlight ‘wipe cache partition’.
Press Power button to select.
Press the Volume down key until ‘yes’ is highlighted and press the Power button.
When the wipe cache partition is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
Press the Power key to restart the device.