How to fix Galaxy S9 update issue: receiving constant sound notifications after an update

Welcome to today’s troubleshooting article! This post will answer some common #GalaxyS9 issues. These are some of the problems that keep popping out in the past few days so we’ve decided to publish them.

Problem #1: How to fix Galaxy S9 won’t charge issue: won’t charge or turn on

Hi DG. So my issue thus far is that my wife has had an S9 for the past 3 months and it has been looked after, i.e., protective coverings etc , but all of a sudden after being on charge over night, my wife went to work on the night shift, and her phone would not charge. Upon her coming home she swapped charge cables and charger units, and this still has not charged the phone. So the phone as i speak is now on charge, and would have been for a number of hours now. I have read some of the trouble points on here, and upon me going home this evening, will apply these and try, ie , hard reboot, checking connections etc. I would like to ask that if none of the points you have covered previous work, would this be a hardware issue????

If a hard reboot is the option, with phone not charging /dead, will the phone have any type of aux power to hard reboot. and if not, how would i reboot, without any power. Appreciate that these are a few questions, but your prompt reply and advice would be wonderful, as i need to get her phone operational within the next 7 days, before our east asia travels. Just to note, i have ordered an wireless QI charger, in the hope that this may work Kindest regards.

Solution: The answer to your first question is most probably yes. There’s basically nothing much that you can do if the phone refuses to power on. One of the aims why we recommend rebooting the device to other modes is to check if:

there’s a bug that prevents Android from booting normally, and
If the problem lies on the screen assembly

For the second question, the answer is no. The only way to reboot an unresponsive device is by doing a set of hardware button combinations. You can’t hook the device to a second device and jump start the system, if that’s what you mean. If the phone has totally lost power due to, say, a bad battery or other malfunction, the only thing that you can do is to send it in. Samsung will have to check the hardware and see if it can be repaired.

Since you’ve already tried using another set of charging accessories, the only remaining troubleshooting steps that you can try are the following below.

Force reboot

This should be the first troubleshooting step in this case. The phone may have become unresponsive for some reason. Force reboot simulates the effect of physically disconnecting the battery from the system. It clears the RAM and refreshes the system in general. If an unknown bug is the one preventing the phone from booting up normally, this may help.

To force reboot your S9:

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.

Inspect the charging port

In some cases, checking the charging port may fix the problem if there’s debris or object that blocks the charging cable. Try to use a magnifying tool to check. If there’s visible damage like a bent pin inside, that may be the reason why the phone no longer charges (but wireless charging should still work though). If the port is dirty or if there’s pocket lint or foreign object inside, dislodge it using a can of compressed air. Avoid sticking anything inside to prevent damaging the system.

Check for screen issue

If the phone still shows LED light when charging, making sound notifications, or vibrates, those are indications that the system is not totally dead, but the screen may be. It may also be caused by an operating system bug. Try booting the device to Recovery Mode or Download Mode to see if an Android bug is to blame. Recovery Mode and Download Mode are separate software environment and should run independent of Android, meaning they should work even if Android is problematic.

If you are able to boot the device to either of these modes (and the screen works), then that means a software bug is to blame. You may be able to fix the problem by doing a master reset or flashing stock firmware.

How to boot a Galaxy S9 to Recovery Mode

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 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).

How to boot a Galaxy S9 to Downlod Mode

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 Down key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
You’ll know if you’re on Download Mode when you see a screen that says “Downloading….”

Try charging using a computer

In some rare cases, charging an unresponsive device using a computer helped restore the system. If you haven’t tried it yet, make sure that you hook the device to your computer using a known working USB cable and see what happens.

Charge the device wirelessly

This troubleshooting step is recommended if you suspect that the problem lies on the charging port. Your phone’s wireless capability should not be affected by a defect in the charging port. Be sure to leave the phone charged wirelessly for at least an hour before you attempt to power it back on.

Hardware issue

If any of the things we suggest above won’t work, or if the phone refuses to charge wirelessly at all (be sure you’re using the official Samsung wireless charger for the S9 as third party chargers may not be compatible), you can assume that the issue is not fixable on your level. At this point, you should consult Samsung so they can either repair or replace the phone.

Problem #2: Galaxy S9 won’t install system update

Anytime I want to update my Samsung S9, I always receive this message ” the operating system on your device has been modified in an unauthorized way. Try downloading software update using smart switch on your computer.” Likewise when I check using the root checker, the system is saying is not rooted proper. I didn’t root the phone because I use another which says phone not rooted. Now am confused.

Also, I feel sometime the upper back side get hotter and once I notice that I go clear the caches and the heat slows.

Also what I notice is that it has slow charging . So what should I do.

Solution: The error on the phone may be a false alarm, or an indication that the security of the device had been compromised. If you tried to root the device before, or installed custom ROM in the past, any of these procedures may have tripped Knox causing the error you’re getting right now. Try wiping the device with factory reset first and see if there’s any change. Here’s how to do that:

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 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 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.

If you’ve already factory reset the phone before you contacted us, or if nothing works after doing it, try flashing stock firmware to the device.

Problem #3: How to fix Galaxy S9 update issues: receiving constant sound notifications after an update

Hello! I have a Samsung Galaxy S9. It recently updated and I was receiving constant sound notifications without any idea where they were coming from. I was able to stop that by going through all my apps and turning off notifications and then through the Accessibility option in my Settings. Pain in the neck. I only want to receive a sound notification for my Messages, Phone and Visual Voicemail apps. Now I’m finding that while I receive a sound notification for a new text message, it no longer shows the number of unread texts in the upper right corner of the message icon on my home screen. I have to tap on the Messages icon to see if there’s anything there. Which I was doing constantly before when it was making a sound for everything. Can you help? Thank you!

Solution: Try clearing your phone’s cache partition first to refresh the system cache. Updates can sometimes corrupt this type of cache and cause all sorts of troubles. To ensure that the system cache is in order, you want to clear the cache partition with these steps:

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 Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
When the 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 to highlight “wipe cache partition.”
Press the Power key to select.
Press the Volume down key to highlight “yes” and press the Power key to select.
When the wipe cache partition is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
Press the Power key to restart the device.

Reset app preferences

Resetting app preferences is oftentimes overlooked in many Android troubleshooting articles but when it comes to an issue like yours, it might help a lot. It’s possible that one or some of your default apps may not be set correctly, causing this glitch to occur. Because there’s no way to know if this guess is true, what you need to do is to simply ensure that all default apps are turned on. Here’s how to do that:

Open Settings app.
Tap Apps.
Tap on More settings at the upper right (three-dot icon).
Select Reset app preferences.
Restart your S9 and check for the problem.

Delete BadgeProvider app data

Should nothing work after clearing the cache partition, this last one most likely will. BadgeProvider app is one of core Android apps that manages notifications. The update may have corrupted its data and may no longer be working properly. To fix it, you want to return the app to its default state. Here’s how to do that:

Open Settings app.
Tap Apps.
Tap on More settings at the upper right (three-dot icon).
Select Show system apps.
Find and tap your app.
Tap Storage.
Tap Clear Data button.
Restart your S9 and check for the problem.