Galaxy S7 won’t boot up normally after installing Android Oreo with Samsung Experience 9

Samsung has finally began releasing #AndroidOreo to #GalaxyS7 and #GalaxyS7Edge devices in some countries, starting with the UK. Unfortunately, as with all major upgrades, some users have noticed problems with their devices, including the one we are addressing in this post today. If your S7 has recently started having issues after installing Android Oreo, this post might help.

Problem #1: Galaxy S7 stops booting normally after installing Android Oreo with Samsung Experience 9

Hi. I have a samsung Galaxy S7. I updated it to Samsung Experience 9 with Android 8 this morning. The phone has been fine with no issues until this. The phone doesn’t seem to boot. It gets stuck with a blue LED light at the top and the SAMSUNG logo flashing on the screen. I left it like this for around an hour before resetting using power button and volume down. Powering the phone back up just results in the same situation. A Flashing SAMSUNG logo with the blue LED light. The phone gets really hot while it is doing this. Not sure what the issue could be, do you have any suggestions on how i can fix it? — C.white1985

Solution: Hi C.white1985. Samsung has officially released Android Oreo (8.0) slowly in some parts of the world so we presume you got the OTA (over-the-air) update from your operator. Based on how you describe the issue, it looks like your device is having trouble booting up. This means that it is unable to load Android operating system. An issue like this can be caused by a lot of many different things. In order to fix the problem, you must do a number of troubleshooting steps. Below are the things that you should try:

Clear the cache partition

Because you’ve already tried rebooting the device before you contacted us, our first suggestion for you is to boot your phone to Recovery Mode and clear its cache partition. This procedure will delete the system cache which may have become corrupted after the update. System cache corruption often occurs when a user make drastic changes to the operating system, like when upgrading it a whole new version. If you haven’t tried the cache partition wipe, here the steps to do it:

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.

If your phone boots up fine after wiping the cache partition, then that’s it. You had a cache problem but it’s gone. If nothing changes though and your device still fails to boot up, proceed to the next suggestion.

Try restarting your S7 to Safe Mode

Some boot problems are caused by incompatible apps. Since you have an entirely new Android version at this time, there’s a chance that one of your apps may had been left out and became incompatible. It’s also possible that you have recently added a new app which resulted to this issue. To check if that’s the case, follow these steps to run your S7 to safe mode:

1. Turn the device off.
2. Press and hold the Power key past the model name screen.
3. When “SAMSUNG” appears on the screen, release the Power key.
4. Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume down key.
5. Continue to hold the Volume down key until the device finishes restarting.
6. Safe mode will display in the bottom left corner of the screen.
7. Release the Volume down key when you see Safe Mode.
8. Let your S7 run in this mode for several hours and check for the problem.

Safe mode blocks third party apps and services. If your device boots up fine on Safe Mode but the problem returns on normal mode, you know that one of your apps is behind the trouble. To know which app is causing a problem, follow these steps:

1. Boot to safe mode.
2. Check for the problem.
3. Once you’ve confirmed that a third party app is to blame, you can start uninstalling apps individually. We suggest that you begin with the most recent ones you added.
4. After you uninstall an app, restart the phone to normal mode and check for the problem.
5. If your S7 still refuses to power back on, repeat steps 1-4.

Perform a master reset

If the first two suggestions won’t work at all, make sure that you do a master reset. This can still be done under Recovery Mode. here’s how to do it:

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.

Try to do software repair using Smart Switch

If your S7 is still bricked after attempting a master reset, or if you can’t do a master reset at all, try using Samsung Smart Switch to fix it. You’ll need a computer to do this procedure. Installing Smart Switch to your computer also automatically installs the Samsung drivers needed to detect your phone so you don’t need to look for them. If Samsung drivers won’t be installed though, you can use Google to download them.

Flash stock firmware

A more drastic solution that you can try in this case is to manually change the Android version on your phone. This is called flashing. There’s a significant risk involved when flashing that’s why Google and hardware makers like Samsung don’t recommend it. If you make a mistake in flashing, you’ll potentially brick your device temporarily or permanently. We only recommend this solution for advanced Android users. If you haven’t heard what flashing is before, or if you are not confident about doing some drastic procedures on your device, don’t try it. If you want to give this solution a shot though, here’s how it’s done.  

First, you want to prepare the things you need:

• a computer with internet access
• USB cable (use the one that came with your S7)
• installed Samsung drivers
• installed Odin program on your PC or laptop (you can download it from this link)
• stock ROM (you can download it here)

When flashing in this situation, it’s important that you use the correct firmware build for your phone model. Not doing so will lead to more severe issues. For example, if you have a T-Mobile branded S7, you should use the firmware build for it and not, say, the one designed for an AT&T.

Once you’ve prepped all the requirements, find a good guide on XDA-Developers forum that will walk you through the proper steps. Flashing guides can vary slightly depending on what phone model you have and and the exact procedure you’re trying to do. Make sure to look for a guide on how to flash stock firmware on your S7. Be sure to take note of your phone model to avoid following a bad guide.

Problem #2: Galaxy S7 edge screen stays black and showing “System UI has stopped”

Hi. I have a S7 Edge, and here is the issue with the phone.  the screen remains black, with a message stating “System UI has stopped.” I am able to press the “x” “Close app”, it will disappear for a few seconds then come back. if I leave the the phone alone , it will have the clock running. Oddly enough, the phone still receives notifications. else the phone in its current mode is a dead stick. I have rebooted (vol down + power) no effect. I have performed cache wipe (Vol up+Home key + Power), then rebooted,  no effect. Note: 4 days ago I did a factory restore and reinstalled information from last 90 days instead of last 2 days. I don’t know what else to do. Please help. — Ben

Solution: Hi Ben. The circumstances of your case may be different from C.white1985 above but the solutions should be similar. Since your S7 is apparently not dead, the problem is most likely caused by bad software or app. Try to restart it to safe mode first and see what happens. If there’s a third party issue, this should help. Otherwise, consider addressing possible software issues by using Smart Switch or by flashing a stock ROM to it.

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