How to fix a Samsung Galaxy Note 5 that keeps rebooting or randomly shuts down plus other power problems

In this post, I will tackle a problem involving a Samsung Galaxy Note 5 (#Samsung #GalaxyNote5) that keeps rebooting and randomly shuts down. These issues are actually very common and might happen to you regardless of the phone you’re using. There are easy ways to fix them but there are also riskier ones.  

For the benefit of our readers, we will only include safe procedures and leave everything to Samsung, your service provider or third-party technicians who can physically inspect your phone.

Other questions and problems I included here include charging issues, setup errors, liquid damage and unresponsiveness. If you found this page because you were searching for a solution a different problem, then I suggest you visit our Note 5 Troubleshooting page and find issues related to yours. Try the existing solutions first and if they won’t work for you, then contact us by completing this form.

Samsung Galaxy Note 5 randomly reboots & shuts down

Random Reboot Problem: I got the new Galaxy Note 5 about a month ago and I was happy with its performance and features. As of late, however, the performance dropped from being excellent to poor and there are now instances that the phone will reboot on its own. It happens about 4 to 6 times daily and it started three days ago. I really need your help guys because I’m no techie. Why is my phone doing this?

Random Shutdown Problem: One day, my Note 5 just starting to shut down or turn off by itself and I don’t have a clue why it’s happening. I use my phone for personal and business purposes and I don’t even play with it. It has minimal apps installed; no games just some productivity apps I use for work. As much as I want to fix the problem myself, I need your help. I really don’t have any idea what’s happening with it. It’s new, it should work.

Troubleshooting: For problems like these, the most important information we need to be able to continue with our troubleshooting is the cause or what triggers the random reboots and shutdowns. You need to find a pattern if possible. You need to be more observant because it could be an issue with the hardware and if not fixed as soon as possible, it may cause other conflicts that may also result to further damage. If you are experiencing any of this problem, try these:

If the phone started to randomly shutdown or reboot after an update, wipe the cache partition as it is often the corrupted caches that cause the problem.

1. Turn off your Samsung Galaxy Note 5 completely.
2. Press and hold the Volume Up and the Home buttons first, and then press and hold the Power key.
3. Keep the three buttons pressed and when ‘Samsung Galaxy Note5′ shows, release the Power key but continue holding the other two.
4. Once the Android logo shows, release both the Volume Up and Home buttons.
5. The notice ‘Installing system update’ will show on the screen for 30 to 60 seconds before the Android system recovery screen is shown with its options.
6. Use the Volume Down key to highlight the option ‘wipe cache partition’ and press the Power key to select it.
7. When the process is complete, use the Volume Down key to highlight the option ‘Reboot system now’ and hit the Power key to restart the phone.
8. The reboot may take a little longer to complete but don’t worry and wait for the device to become active.

Should the problem occurred immediately after updating some apps including Google apps, then you need to uninstall the updates for Google Play Store and Play Services.

1. From the Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
2. Find and tap Settings.
3. Under the ‘APPLICATIONS’ section, find and touch Application manager.
4. Swipe to the left or to the right to display the appropriate screen but to display all apps, choose the ‘ALL’ screen.
5. Find and tap Google Play Store (Google Play Services).
6. Touch Clear cache to delete its cached files.
7. Touch Clear data and then OK to delete downloaded data, login information, settings, etc.

If the phone freezes at some point, won’t respond and appears to be off, then try the force reboot as it is a system crash.

1. Simply PRESS and HOLD the Volume Down and Power keys together for 20 to 30 seconds or until the phone reboots.

If all else fails, backup your data if possible and proceed with the master reset.

1. Turn off your Samsung Galaxy Note 5 completely.
2. Press and hold the Volume Up and the Home buttons first, and then press and hold the Power key.
3. Keep the three buttons pressed and when ‘Samsung Galaxy Note5’ shows, release the Power key but continue holding the other two.
4. Once the Android logo shows, release both the Volume Up and Home buttons.
5. The notice ‘Installing system update’ will show on the screen for 30 to 60 seconds before the Android system recovery screen is shown with its options.
6. Use the Volume Down key to highlight the option ‘Yes — delete all user data’ and press the Power key to select it.
7. When the process is complete, use the Volume Down key to highlight the option ‘Reboot system now’ and hit the Power key to restart the phone.
8. The reboot may take a little longer to complete but don’t worry and wait for the device to become active.

In case the reset failed, seek help from a technician or your service provider.

Related Problem: Hi I am using my Samsung Galaxy Note 5 from past week and recently from past two days my mobile has started rebooting on itself and sometimes shuts down automatically. It’s very annoying thing please help. I have tried wiping cache and doing hard reset also but still its happening. I have no apps installed on my mobile. Rest all works perfect for me.

Galaxy Note 5 battery drains instead of charging when connected to laptop

Question: When I try to charge my android thru my laptop it actual drains the battery even though it shows icon saying it is charging. I have since plugged it into a regular plug and it is working. I thought I saw something about this but cannot find it now.

Answer: The power adapters of Samsung Galaxy devices also come with a power output of 2 Amperes, although they still will charge, albeit slowly, even if the charger can only give 1.2A of current. That being said, the reason why your phone drains its battery instead of charging when it’s plugged in to a laptop is because, laptops’ USB port only provides 0.5A current (0.9 for USB 3.0).

Your phone may still charge when connected to a laptop if it’s turned off. But my point is, Note 5’s hardware plus it’s apps and services eat up more power than any laptop USB ports can provide. Therefore, it’s always recommended to use the original power adapter or third-parties that have the same rating.

Can’t get past the setup page on Galaxy Note 5

Question: I have been locked out of my phone and cannot gain access again. Verizon did a factory reset and now I’m left with the same message “The device was reset. To continue, sign in with a Google account that was previously synced with this device.”

I have done this many times and it brings me back to this error message. I have been to two Verizon stores and Samsung and they couldn’t help me. Please help!

Answer: It’s a security measure that only a few Android users have ever encountered. If you reset or changed the password in your Google account and did a factory reset with the phone associated with it, Google thinks your device was stolen and you cannot set it up with the same account for 72 hours.

The best course of action is to wait for that time to elapse and then set up your phone again. Or, you may call Google and see what they can do about it. It’s a Google thing (it will happen to all Android devices) so you can surely ask for their assistance if this happens to you. It’s just a matter of proving you’re the person you say you are.

Galaxy Note 5 won’t turn on

Problem: Talking and phone went off. Put on charge, vibrated for a bit and blacked out, put on charge for half an hour and would not turn on. What do I do?

Troubleshooting: Force reboot it. Press and hold the Volume Down button and the Power key together for 20 seconds. The procedure will perform the simulated battery disconnect (equivalent to battery pull in previous Galaxy devices). A system crash will prevent the phone from responding to your touch commands, button presses, charging, turning on or off, etc. and based on your description, I believe it’s just a crash. So, a force reboot is necessary, however, if it failed, then try to go through our troubleshooting guide on how to fix a Galaxy Note 5 that won’t turn on.

Galaxy Note 5 won’t charge after being exposed to liquid

Problem: I had to go to a spa and I did bring my phone, a Note 5. I believe the phone has gotten slightly wet on the outside but when I got home it was already showing 3% battery left. I fully-charged it before I went to spa, so it was really strange. Here’s the kicker; when I plugged it in to charge, it didn’t respond. Rebooted it properly and then plugged it in, still won’t charge. Turned it off, plugged it in, still won’t charge. I am using the original charger, by the way. What’s the problem with my phone?

Troubleshooting: The problem about liquid damage is that you’ll never know the extent of the damage. However, based on experience, if a phone is exposed to liquid, the first component that will be affected is the power IC, which also handles charging. But chips like this don’t get damaged easily. So, for now, I would assume that the cause of the fast battery drain and charging issue is some kind of a short circuit. Turn the phone off, do not attempt to charge it again and have it checked immediately.

Galaxy Note 5 won’t respond when coming out of standby

Problem: Device does not respond when coming out of standby. Wallet case cover closed and ready opened after cause screen to display but not respond to touch and then the phone powers down and restarts. First, occurrence phone was when camping outside temp dropped to around 2-5 degrees Celsius. Phone was sitting on table next to me. This happened 3 times on this one trip. The next 2 times have been at home. Phone plugged in and was sitting in side table near open window. Temp range about the same out side but indoors was 20 degrees Celsius. Same thing. Open cover, no response. Restart and it’s good to go. Why? Can it really be that temperature sensitive?

Troubleshooting: It could be a problem with Touchwiz, S View or the firmware itself. Try to isolate the problem first by booting it in safe mode.

1. Turn off the phone completely.
2. Press and hold the Power key.
3. Once ‘Samsung Galaxy Note5’ shows, release the Power key and immediately press and hold the Volume Down button.
4. The phone will restart but keep the Vol Down button pressed.
5. Once the phone has finished restarting, ‘Safe mode’ will be display in the lower-left corner of the screen.
6. You may now release the Volume Down button.

Try to see if the problem persists in safe mode. If so, backup your data and perform master reset right away. Otherwise, just find the third-party app(s) that’s causing the conflict and uninstall it. If it’s impossible to find it, then a reset will do.

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