Hello and welcome to today’s Galaxy J7 (#GalaxyJ7) troubleshooting article. Many J7 users have reported all kinds of trouble for their device so this post is a continuation of our commitment to help our fellow Android fans. We list 4 common problems for this device in this material so hopefully you’ll find it helpful.
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. 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 J7 flickering screen issue due to water damage
I got my phone wet in a rain today. It’s not dripping wet but I think the water did get into some parts. At first I tried to restart the phone but soon realized it didn’t work so dropped it into uncooked rice for around 40 minutes. When I took it out, there was blue lights showing once in a while. Then I tried holding the home button, start button and volume up key. The blue screen did go up but the screen was flickering. Then I pressed the up button, nothing happened; so I tried the down volume but no luck either. Now the screen has turned off again but the light is still flickering at the corner. Thank you!
Solution: Let’s be clear here. Galaxy J7 devices are not water-resistant phones so even a tiny amount of water can potentially cause serious problem for its hardware. If your phone was working normally before you got it wet, you can assume it has hardware trouble at this time.
As a band-aid solution, drying the device is a good first thing to try. To do that, you must dismantle the phone, remove the battery, and let the phone sit in a bag of rice or a container with silica gel sachets for at least 3 days. Hopefully, rice or the silica gel will absorb all liquid in the dismantled parts afterwards. Obviously, the idea is mainly to remove all traces of water from the phone. Simply leaving the phone in its current form in a bag of rice may not remove the water, especially those found inside hard to reach areas. It’s also important to disconnect the battery right away to prevent shorting the motherboard or other components.
If your phone’s screen remains problematic after drying, that means water must have shorted the screen assembly, which resulted to permanent damage. Drying with bag of rice is mostly overrated so if you want to know whether or not the phone can still be saved, let a professional check it. Bring it to an independent service center so a qualified technician can check the motherboard and hardware in general.
Problem #2: How to fix Galaxy J7 Pro black screen issue
Hi. I have a J7 pro that’s 5 months old and just had a software update today, Sept. 21, 2018. After the update, my phone rebooted but my screen no longer responds. The home button finger sensor works and so does the two function keys on its side. I took off the screen protector and did the soft reset a couple of times. I can’t access my phone.
Solution: Your Galaxy J7 Pro may have simply stopped responding in the middle of an update causing the screen to appear black. To see if that’s the case, try to force reboot it with these steps:
- Press and hold the Power + Volume Down buttons for approximately 10 seconds or until the device power cycles. Allow several seconds for the Maintenance Boot Mode screen to appear.
- From the Maintenance Boot Mode screen, select Normal Boot. You can use the volume buttons to cycle through the available options and the lower left button (below the volume buttons) to select. Wait for up to 90 seconds for the reset to complete.
Factory reset
Should the phone remain unresponsive or the screen black after attempting a forced reboot, the next good thing that you must do is to check whether or not the phone can boot to Recovery Mode. If it can, then factory reset might very well resolve the issue.
To factory reset:
- Turn off the device. This is important. If you can’t turn it off, you’ll never be able to boot to Recovery Mode. If you are not able to shut the device off regularly via the Power button, wait until the phone’s battery is drained. Then, charge the phone for 30 minutes before booting to Recovery Mode.
- Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home 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 data / factory reset’.
- Press Power button to select.
- Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
- Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
- When the master reset is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
- Press the Power key to restart the device.
Contact Samsung
If the cause of the problem lies on the firmware or hardware, factory reset will not help at all. So, if the problem remains after wiping the phone thru factory reset, you want to get Samsung’s help in the matter. The least that will can happen is repair which may or may not be free. You have to bring the device to them first so it can be examined by their on-site technician. Sometimes, troubles likes these can also be fixed by flashing stock firmware via Odin so if they’ll try that and everything works, you’ll most probably end up not sending the device for repair.
Problem #3: How to fix boot loop issue on a Galaxy J7
My daughter bought a used Galaxy J7 from a friend. It was wiped and open for her to use. All was going fine until it started bootlooping. We purchased a new battery in case that was the problem but it apparently wasn’t. I did a factory reset but that also didn’t work. I have tried to connect it to our laptop in order to try to flash it and have been unsuccessful with getting the computer to recognize it. We tried multiple cords and each port but no luck. The cords work fine with our other phones. We’ve only had our laptop for a few months. Hp Pavilion. I downloaded the necessary USB drivers, Odin, and Firmware from Sam Mobile for the phone. I’m not tech savvy but have been doing a ton of research to try to fix this on my own. Is there anything else I can do to get the computer to recognize this phone?
I haven’t found anything that helps me for a phone that is stuck on a bootloop along with that the computer won’t recognize. I might be missing it or maybe someone has said something in the communities I’ve tried to read but sometimes they talk way over my head and use abbreviations that I don’t know. It all gets a bit overwhelming and a tad frustrating. I don’t want to wreck her phone further either and can’t afford to have someone else fix it. I also cleaned out the charging port (it charges fine) and made sure the buttons weren’t sticking. Any help you can give me would definitely be very appreciated!! I don’t know what other information you need if any. I do not know what version it is.
Solution: There can be a number of reasons why an Android device is unable to boot up normally or gets stuck in endless boot loop. These are the common reasons that we often encounter for this kind of issue:
- software glitch
- corrupted internal storage
- bad battery
- broken or shorted charging port
- malfunction of Power Management Integrated Circuit (PMIC)
- shorted motherboard
As an end user, there’s only so much that you can do. Depending on the background of the device, you may or may not be able to fix boot loop. If this phone was working normally before this issue started, you can try booting it to Recovery Mode so you can wipe it with factory reset.
Flashing stock firmware, which is usually an effective way to fix boot loop issue due to software tampering, is obviously out of the question since your computer won’t recognize the device at all. This puts you in a tight situation as there’s nothing else that you can try in this situation. The most likely cause of the problem is not a software glitch but a hardware issue. We suggest that you save enough money so you can let a professional take a look at its hardware and whether or not it can still be fixed.
Problem #4: Galaxy J7 speaker won’t work during calls
Solution: Do a quick factory reset to check if it’s a software issue. Once you’ve wiped the phone, replicate the issue when there are no third party apps installed. If the issue remains, you can assume there’s a deeper issue that prevents the speaker from working properly during calls.
If the problem goes away after a reset, then it’s possible that it may had been due to a software bug or one of your apps. If the problem returns after installing your apps, one of them must be the cause. Try to use another voice calling app first to see if the current one you’re using is buggy. You can also try to boot to safe mode to see if a third party app is to blame. Here’s how:
- Turn the device off.
- Press and hold the Power key past the model name screen.
- When “SAMSUNG” appears on the screen, release the Power key.
- Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume down key.
- Continue to hold the Volume down key until the device finishes restarting.
- Safe mode will display in the bottom left corner of the screen.
- Release the Volume down key when you see Safe Mode.
If the speaker works fine on calls when you’re on safe mode, you can bet an app is behind it. To identify which of your apps is causing the trouble, you should boot the phone back to safe mode and follow these steps:
- Boot to safe mode.
- Check for the problem.
- 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.
- After you uninstall an app, restart the phone to normal mode and check for the problem.
- If your J7 is still problematic, repeat steps 1-4.