What to do about your Samsung Galaxy A3 that keeps freezing [Troubleshooting Guide]

Freezing problems are among the most common issues many Android device owners have reported. We have also received similar reports from owners of the Samsung Galaxy A3, which according to them, started without apparent reason or cause. More often than not, freezing issues are firmware-related, although there were also cases wherein hardware problems resulted to the same concern.

In this post, I will tackle this issue with the A3 being the subject of our troubleshooting. We will look into every possibility and rule them out one by one until we can easily determine the cause and hopefully fix the problem and even prevent it from occurring again in the future. So, if you are one of the owners of the Galaxy A3 and are currently bugged by a similar problem, continue reading below as this post maybe able to help you.

Now, before we jump to our troubleshooting guide, if even you found this post because you were trying to find a solution to different issue, then I suggest you visit our Galaxy A3 troubleshooting page for we have already addressed some of the most commonly reported issues with this device. Try to find a problem that’s similar with yours and use the solutions or workarounds we suggested. If they don’t work for you and if you need further assistance, then fill up our Android issues questionnaire and we will include your concern in our next posts.

How to troubleshoot Galaxy A3 that keeps on freezing

Problem: Hi guys. My Galaxy A3 has become really slow starting last week but I continued using it since I don’t know what to do about it. About two days ago, however, it started freezing from time to time to the point that it’s almost unusable. I don’t have a clue as to what caused this problem but if you guys can help me out, that would be great. Thanks.

Troubleshooting: Performance issues are sometimes caused by third-party apps that keep crashing. In some cases, freezes and lags may be due to some issues with the firmware. Knowing what the real problem is may give us a hint as what to do in order to fix the problem and that’s what we’re trying to achieve in this post. So, without further adieu, here’s what I suggest you do:

Step 1: Find out if the phone still freezes when in safe mode

By booting your phone in safe mode, you’re temporarily disabling all third-party apps in your phone that might have something to do with the problem. If that’s the case, then your phone shouldn’t freeze while it’s in this mode. Just by doing this, you’re not actually fixing the problem per se but you’re just trying to find out if the apps you installed on your phone has something to do with it. So, this is how you boot your phone up in safe mode:

Turn the device off.
Press and hold the Power key past the screen with the device name.
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’.

Assuming the phone works fine in safe mode without the freezes, then our suspicion that the third-party apps are causing the problem is confirmed. In this case, try finding the apps that are causing the problem and after which, try to find out if there are available updates for them. After updating the apps and the problem still occurs, try clearing the caches and data of the apps you suspect and if still no, then you should uninstall them.

How to update applications in your Galaxy A3

From any Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
Tap Play Store.
Tap the Menu key and then tap My Apps. To keep your apps automatically updated, tap the Menu key, tap Settings, and then tap Auto-update apps to select the check box.
Choose one of the following options:
- Tap Update [xx] to update all applications with updates available.
- Tap an individual application and then tap Update to update a single application.

How to clear the cache and data of apps in your Galaxy A3

From any Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
Tap Settings.
Tap Applications.
Tap the desired application in the default list or tap Menu icon > Show system apps to display pre-installed apps.
Tap Storage.
Tap Clear data and then tap OK.
Tap Clear cache.

How to uninstall applications from your Galaxy A3

From any Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
Tap Settings.
Tap Applications.
Tap the desired application in the default list or tap Menu icon > Show system apps to display pre-installed apps.
Tap Uninstall.
Tap Uninstall again to confirm.

However, if you have a lot of apps and it’s difficult to determine the culprit, then backup your files and data and just do the reset at this point.

Back up data on the internal memory. If you have signed into a Google account on the device, you have activated Anti-theft and will need your Google credentials to finish the Master reset.
From any Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
Tap Settings.
Tap Cloud and accounts.
Tap Backup and restore.
If desired, tap Back up my data to move the slider to ON or OFF.
If desired, tap Restore to move the slider to ON or OFF.
Tap the back key twice to return to the Settings menu, then tap General Management.
Tap Reset.
Tap Factory data reset.
Tap Reset device.
If you have screen lock turned on, enter your PIN or password.
Tap Continue.
Tap Delete all.

Step 2: Delete all system caches so that they’ll be replaced

Assuming the phone still freezes even in safe mode, then it’s time to go after the firmware but instead of doing the reset right away, you should try wiping the cache partition first. As you know, system caches get corrupted more often and when it happens and that the firmware happens to use the corrupt one, performance issues may occur including freezes and lags. So, here’s what you should do to try and fix this issue…

Turn off the device.
Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key, then press and hold the Power key.
When the device logo screen displays, release only 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 several times 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.

It will take a little more time for the phone to boot up after wiping the cache partition but once it becomes active, continue to observe if it still freezes or not. If the freezes continue, then you should move on to the next step, otherwise, problem solved.

Step 3: Backup your important files and data, then reset your Galaxy A3

After wiping the cache partition and the phone still freezes when you use it, it’s time to bring it back to its factory default settings because we don’t know for sure what’s causing the problem. There’s, however, a 90% possibility it’s just an issue with the firmware but then again, a reset is necessary. All you need to do now is to make a backup of your important files and data as they will be deleted during the reset and once it happens, they can no longer be restored.

Prior to the reset, however, make sure you disable the Factory Reset Protection or the anti-theft so that you won’t be locked out of your device after the reset.

How to disable the Factory Reset Protection in Galaxy A3

From any Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
Tap Settings.
Tap Cloud and accounts.
Tap Accounts.
Tap Google.
Tap your Google ID email address. If you have multiple accounts setup, you will need to repeat these steps for each account.
Tap Menu.
Tap Remove account.
Tap REMOVE ACCOUNT.

How to to do the Master Reset on your Samsung Galaxy A3

Turn off the device.
Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key, then press and hold the Power key.
When the device logo screen displays, release only 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 several times key 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.

I hope that this troubleshooting guide can help you bring your phone back to its optimum performance.

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