Galaxy S7 edge won’t soft reset, stuck while updating, becomes totally unresponsive

Getting stuck while updating is a common occurrence in many Android devices, including in topnotch Samsung Galaxy line. This troubleshooting article addresses this particular issue on the #GalaxyS7. We hope you’ll find this short guide helpful.

Today’s problem: Galaxy S7 edge won’t soft reset, stuck while updating, becomes totally unresponsive

Hello. I am having trouble with my Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. It’s about 15 months old. A couple of hours ago, I had a message pop up on my phone saying that updates are available. I started the update process. It downloaded the update content and then started installing it. It made it to 31% and then froze. I soft reset the device (simulated battery pull) by pressing the power key and volume down. It restarts and starts installing again. This has been on a continuous loop now for 2 hours.  I have tried to restart in safe mode and recovery mode and it won’t work. I can’t even just turn it off. It just stays on the 31% screen. Therefore, I can’t see how much battery life is left. It doesn’t have a micro SD card. It’s not like I can take the back of the phone off and take the battery out because its not removable. Do you know how I can turn the phone off? If you have a way to fix this that would be great. I find Samsung in Australia pretty useless. They don’t even know how to fix their own phones. I am hoping you guys can help.  Kind regards. — Cheryl

Solution: Hi Cheryl. Your Galaxy S7 has become stuck or unresponsive so yes, the main thing to do about it right now is to cut the power to the motherboard. For devices with removable batteries, disconnecting the battery pack should do the job. In phones with non-removable battery packs like the S7, you have to perform a soft reset or pressing a combination of hardware buttons. In your particular model, this is done by pressing and holding the Power and Volume Down buttons until the Maintenance Boot Mode screen appears (approx. 10 seconds). Once you’ve pulled maintenance boot mode up, you can select Power down option to turn the device off. To cycle through the available options, you can use the volume buttons. Use the Home button to select an option.

Wait until battery is empty

If what you’re saying above is true, that your S7 won’t respond to soft reset command, or  nothing happens when you boot it to Safe Mode or Recovery Mode, then the only option for you is to wait until the battery has been depleted. If your S7 was charged and has plenty of battery left before it stopped responding, it can take several days to fully drain the battery.

Recharge for an hour

Once the phone has finally turned off, make sure to charge it for at least an hour before attempting to power it back on. This will ensure that it has plenty of power before you perform follow up troubleshooting.

Clear the cache partition

If the phone will still be problematic after charging and won’t turn back on normally, the next thing you can do is to try to access Recovery Mode and wipe the cache partition. Here’s how:

1. Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S7.
2. Press and then hold the Home and Volume UP keys, then press and hold the Power key.
3. When the Samsung Galaxy S7 shows on the screen, release the Power key but continue holding the Home and Volume Up keys.
4. When the Android logo shows, you may release both keys and leave the phone be for about 30 to 60 seconds.
5. Using the Volume Down key, navigate through the options and highlight ‘wipe cache partition.’
6. Once highlighted, you may press the Power key to select it.
7. Now highlight the option ‘Yes’ using the Volume Down key and press the Power button to select it.
8. Wait until your phone is finished doing the Master Reset. Once completed, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and press the Power key.
9. The phone will now reboot longer than usual.

Master reset

The next logical solution option that you can do if nothing happens after clearing the cache is factory reset. Hopefully you’ll be able to do it successfully this time.

1. Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S7.
2. Press and then hold the Home and Volume UP keys, then press and hold the Power key.
3. When the Samsung Galaxy S7 shows on the screen, release the Power key but continue holding the Home and Volume Up keys.
4. When the Android logo shows, you may release both keys and leave the phone be for about 30 to 60 seconds.
5. Using the Volume Down key, navigate through the options and highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset.’
6. Once highlighted, you may press the Power key to select it.
7. Now highlight the option ‘Yes — delete all user data’ using the Volume Down key and press the Power button to select it.
8. Wait until your phone is finished doing the Master Reset. Once completed, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and press the Power key.
9. The phone will now reboot longer than usual.

Reflash the bootloader and/or firmware

A more drastic and risky solution that you can try, should all the above suggestions won’t work, is to reflash the bootloader. This is usually a solution for Samsung devices that encounters issues after tampering with the software. Bootloader, also known as Recovery software, is responsible for preparing necessary hardware so Android operating system can be loaded. Sometimes, the bootloader can get corrupted so returning it to its default state may help. Reflashing the bootloader is basically similar to the steps when you flash the firmware. Below are the general steps on how to do it. The exact steps may be slightly different for your particular phone model though so be sure to consult other guides. Remember, flashing is inherently risky and can potentially brick your phone for good. Do it at your own risk.

1. 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.
2. 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.
3. 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.
4. Proceed with the rest of the flashing procedure using the Odin program.
5. In Odin, click on the BL tab and make sure to use the bootloader file you’ve identified earlier.
6. 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.
7. Restart the phone once the procedure is finished.