The #GalaxyNote5 is an undisputed champion when in its class today. It’s a proven system making it one of Samsung’s top seller flagship phones. Despite sporting a powerful hardware however, the Note 5 also suffers from power and boot issues. Below are some of the examples taken from mails of our readers.

How to turn off a frozen Galaxy Note 5
Galaxy Note 5 not charging with EFS folder error
File recovery on a Galaxy Note 5 that crashed
Galaxy Note 5 boot loop issue
Galaxy Note 5 touchscreen not working

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Problem #1: How to turn off a frozen Galaxy Note 5

I am sorry I cannot really tell you the operating system as we cannot access the phone. This is kind of an emergency… My wife is travelling and has severe thyroid problems and is pregnant so we need her phone working. We recently upgraded her to this 5 so I am very upset with all the troubles we are having but now this is serious. Her screen has been completely unresponsive since last night. We have tried restarting with the vol down and power but when it reboots it is still unresponsive. I want to be able to get to the menu to clear the cache partition and see if that works using vol up+home+power however that is only done when it is powered off. We can’t power it off because the screen is unresponsive and of course it want you to touch the option after pressing power. How can we power it off without using the screen. I was hoping vo down+power would boot it to maintenance mode so we can scroll with the vol button to the power off selection but it is simply restating and not going in to that mode. Please help!

Thank you so very much! — Joe

Solution: Hi Joe. We hope that this post reaches you on time as we don’t usually provide on-time solutions. Now, the only way to turn off an unresponsive Galaxy Note 5, since you are unable to obviously remove the tried and tested method of removing the battery, is to press and hold the Power and Volume Down buttons at the same time for at least 7 seconds. This will force the phone to reboot itself back to normal mode. If the phone froze completely before pressing the button combination, you will feel it vibrate as it restarts.

In the event that the phone restarts but goes straight to maintenance mode, simply use the Volume buttons to navigate to Power Down option to do a full shutdown. Be careful not to select factory reset as this will wipe everything out from your phone’s internal storage device.

Problem #2: Galaxy Note 5 not charging with EFS folder error

At first my phone wasn’t charging properly. While charging it will display on the screen ‘Dock connected’. My phone battery was low at the time. After it died it refused to boot up completely, it kept restarting on an infinite boot loop. Only when my phone is connected to charger that it boots up

completely. once i disconnect the charger the phone goes off immediately. It couldn’t come on anymore this time it got stuck on Samsung logo when connected to charger.

I performed software Update and Initialisation on Kies. It still got stuck on Samsung logo. When i go on system recovery it displays E. failed to

mount. /efs () — Ogomigo

Solution: Hi Ogomigo. The EFS folder is a repository of device specific files and information like the IMEI and other identifiers. This folder may get corrupted during incorrect rooting or firmware modification. Unfortunately, once the folder is gone, the device is also good as dead. It’s recommended that anyone who tries to modify their Android software must create a backup of this folder first. If the charging problem occurred after modifying your software in any way, make sure that you re-flash the stock firmware and copy the EFS folder to its proper directory.

Problem #3: File recovery on a Galaxy Note 5 that crashed

I have a Galaxy Note 5 which has crashed. Battery does not show as charging. When battery is inserted the very first screen with black screen and phones name appears on screen but phone does not switch on fully and it shows battery sign but not as charging. The phone shop said it can be a hardware problem. I’m really upset because I’ve had the same phone for more than 3 months and I had all my holiday and wedding photos and videos and don’t want to lose them. Can you help me save them? Is there any way you can help that I don’t lose all my photos, videos, text messages and contacts. I would greatly appreciate your help, support, advice and time in helping me.

Kind Regards. — Zarina

Solution: Hi Zarina. If your personal files (photos, videos, contacts, etc) were saved locally on that device only (which means a copy of them were never saved in a remote server or another device like a computer), there’s really nothing that we can do to save them. The situation is just like losing your entire files when your computer’s hard drive malfunctions or no longer works. The best that you can do from here on is to move forward and ensure that the situation won’t happen again.

We highly recommend that you keep a copy of your important files somewhere. Many cloud services are offering free storage up to a certain limit so we recommend that you try them. Digital memories die when your storage medium dies. USB flash drives or the phone’s internal flash drives can fail after using them for several year. They can’t simply run forever so keep it a habit of creating a backup of important files in the near future.

Problem #4: Galaxy Note 5 boot loop issue

Hello there. So I had just recently bought this phone from a friend and did a factory reset to start from scratch. Anyways, two months passed and didn’t had an issue but then my phone died. While charging it, it turned on and an update message box appeared asking if i wanted an update. I said yes, then I didn’t notice that my phone died while in the update and when i tried to turn it back on only the Samsung logo appeared but never actually rebooted. I have tried everything on your page and cleaning the cache but i only get a dark screen with a dead battery logo with an upside down red warning sign on it and stays like that for like 30 secs, after that it turns back to the whited screen with the Samsung logo on it.

Please help!

By the way im not sure what the software version is. — Michael

Solution: Hi Michael. For future reference, never download and install an update while charging as it may result to your situation. It’s more prudent to wait until the battery has been fully charged before doing an update to ensure that the phone operates normally. Well, since the device appears to be in a boot loop situation now, what you can do is to bring it to recovery mode and attempt to wipe the cache partition and/or do a factory reset, whichever of them work. Below are the steps to do these procedures:

How to wipe the cache partition of a Galaxy Note 5

Turn off your Samsung Galaxy Note 5 completely.
Press and hold the Volume Up and the Home buttons first, and then press and hold the Power key.
Keep the three buttons pressed and when ‘Samsung Galaxy Note5’ shows, release the Power key but continue holding the other two.
Once the Android logo shows, release both the Volume Up and Home buttons.
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.
Use the Volume Down key to highlight the option ‘wipe cache partition’ and press the Power key to select it.
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.
The reboot may take a little longer to complete but don’t worry and wait for the device to become active.

How to factory reset a Galaxy Note 5

Turn off your Samsung Galaxy Note 5 completely.
Press and hold the Volume Up and the Home buttons first, and then press and hold the Power key.
Keep the three buttons pressed and when ‘Samsung Galaxy Note5’ shows, release the Power key but continue holding the other two.
Once the Android logo shows, release both the Volume Up and Home buttons.
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.
Use the Volume Down key to highlight the option ‘Yes — delete all user data’ and press the Power key to select it.
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.
The reboot may take a little longer to complete but don’t worry and wait for the device to become active.

Problem #5: Galaxy Note 5 touchscreen not working

My phone screen may have internal damage. It lights up still but doesn’t function otherwise. There are no images showing up, just faint colors/lines that light up. It still rings and I am able to answer calls by pressing the Volume Down button but I cannot see who is calling and cannot retrieve any text.

This all happened after my phone slipped out of my jacket pocket while I was driving and it fell between my seat and the center console. I had to leave it there for a few hours while I was at work but I thought it was fine because it basically just slipped down and didn’t crash to the floor or anything. When I was able to take a break and go to my car to get my phone the screen was like I described above.

I have tried soft resetting the phone and I can hear it reboot but the screen is still not functioning.

Please let me know if there is anything I can try to fix this problem, If all else fails, at least Samsung has that Uh Oh Protection I guess. — Dominique

Solution: Hi Dominique. The small drop may have been enough to result to a big display problem on your phone. The lines you described here are consistent of a failing or damaged screen, which renders your Note 5’s touchscreen unusable. There’s nothing that you can do on your end to fix that, unless you want to go fix the hardware issue yourself.

If there’s no visible physical damage, you can try to bring the phone to a Samsung store for a replacement repair or replacement. Just make sure not to mention dropping the device previously. Keep in mind that user misuse such as damaging the phone through liquid exposure or drop voids the warranty.

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How to turn off a frozen Galaxy Note 5, more power charging issues