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How to restart a frozen Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus (easy steps)

ByHarold Hisona

A frozen Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus maybe a sign of a minor issue or a complicated hardware problem. You have to do something to be able to know what the deal with your phone really is. If you’re an owner of this phone and have recently encountered a similar issue, then you have to troubleshoot it as you always have a shot at fixing it.

In this post, I will walk you through in troubleshooting your Galaxy S8 Plus that’s frozen or no longer responds. The problem might seem like a very complicated issue with the firmware or hardware but in reality and based on our experience, it is not. Well, there were a few cases we’ve encountered wherein the problem was caused by a physical damage but as long as you know your phone didn’t suffer from any force that could lead to a physical damage, then we maintain our assumption that this is just a minor issue.

Before we proceed with our troubleshooting, if you are looking for a solution to a different issue, then visit our troubleshooting page for we have already addressed some of the most common problems with this phone. Browse through the page to find the solution that works best for you. If you still need our help after that, then contact us through our Android issues questionnaire.

How to unfreeze a frozen Galaxy S8 Plus

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When your phone freezes all of the sudden without apparent reason or cause, the first thing you have to assume is that the firmware crashed. That’s the most common reason why Android phones even the premium ones like your S8 Plus may stop responding any time of the day. Fortunately, there’s an easy way to make it respond again–a restart.

First solution: Forced reboot

That’s right! A restart can fix this issue but it’s not just a normal reboot because your phone won’t respond no matter how long your press and hold the Power key. What you need to do is Forced Reboot which is the equivalent of the battery pull procedure. This is the most effective method to fix firmware crashes or any minor system issues. Here’s how you do it:

  • Press and hold the volume down and power keys together for 10 seconds or more.

If successful, your phone may reboot normally. However, if your phone still won’t respond, do it a couple more times or you may try this.

  1. Press and hold the volume down button and don’t release it.
  2. Then, press and hold the power key while holding down the volume button.
  3. Keep both keys held down for 10 seconds or more.

The second procedure is basically the same as with the first only that we’re making sure that you’re pressing the Power key after the Volume Down because doing otherwise won’t give you similar results.

However, if your Galaxy S8 Plus is still not responding to this, then move on to the next solution.

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Second solution: Charge and force restart

After doing the first solution and your phone is still not responding, it’s possible that the battery has been drained. A battery drain is not really an issue but the thing is that if the hardware and firmware haven’t been properly shut down because you were using the phone when the battery ran out, it may result to a system crash and then you add the fact that the battery is empty. Naturally when your phone crashes, it won’t respond to normal reboot procedure so you really have to do the first solution but then if the battery is drained, the device still won’t respond. To address this, here’s what you should do:

  1. Plug the charger to a working wall outlet. It’s imperative you use the wired charger.
  2. Using the original power / data cable, connect your phone to its charger.
  3. Regardless whether the phone shows it’s charging or not, leave it connected to its charger for 10 minutes or more.
  4. Press and hold the volume down button and don’t release it.
  5. Then, press and hold the power key while holding down the volume button.
  6. Keep both keys held down for 10 seconds or more.

If the problem was due to a system crash, then any of the two solutions would work and you could make your phone respond again. However, if the problem continues after this, then you should try running the phone in Recovery Mode and if successful, you may try wiping the cache partition first and do the Master Reset. But you should know that if the phone boots up in recovery mode, you can already consider the problem fixed since the phone already started up. But here’s how you boot your S8 Plus in Recovery Mode and do the master reset:

  1. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
  2. 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).
  3. Press the Volume down key several times to highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset’.
  4. Press Power button to select.
  5. Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
  6. Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
  7. When the master reset is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
  8. Press the Power key to restart the device.

I hope that we’ve been able to help you one way or another. If you have other concerns you want to share with us, feel free to contact us or leave a comment below.

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