What to do about your Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) that keeps hanging [Troubleshooting Guide]

When a smartphone with high specifications like the Samsung Galaxy A7 starts freezing or hanging, there might be something wrong with its firmware. However, there are also cases wherein freezes are caused by some apps that keep crashing so we really can’t tell which is which until we did some troubleshooting.

So, in this post, I will walk you through in troubleshooting your Galaxy A7 that started to hang from time to time or randomly. We will look into every possibility and rule them out one by one until we can easily determine what the problem really is and so that we can try to formulate a solution that might fix it for good. Our goal here is to make your phone run smoothly again minus the freezes, lags, hangs, etc.

But before we actually jump to our troubleshooting, if you have other issues with your device, then try to visit our Galaxy A7 troubleshooting page for we have already addressed the most commonly reported issues with this device. Try to find issues that are similar with yours and use the solutions and workarounds we suggested. If they don’t work for you or if you need more help, then feel free to contact us by filling up our Android issues questionnaire. Just give us the information we need and we’ll help you solve your problem.

How to troubleshoot Galaxy A7 that keeps hanging

Freezing issues are usually very minor problems especially when it comes to smartphones with impressive tech specs like the Galaxy A7. However, it could also be a sign of a more complex problem with the hardware depending on how the problem started but assuming it happened without apparent reason, it might just be some issues with the app or the firmware. We have to troubleshoot to know and fix it and this is what you need to do:

Step 1: Reboot your phone in Safe mode and observe

The first thing I want you to do is observe your phone’s performance while it’s in Safe mode because it will tell us immediately if it’s due to a third-party app or not. That’s the reason you need to start your phone in safe mode first so that all third-party apps will be temporarily disabled and this is how it’s done…

  1. Turn the device off.
  2. Press and hold the Power key past the model name screen.
  3. When “SAMSUNG” appears on the screen, release the Power key.
  4. Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume down key.
  5. Continue to hold the Volume down key until the device finishes restarting.
  6. Safe mode will display in the bottom left corner of the screen.
  7. Release the Volume down key when you see Safe Mode.

While in this environment, all you gotta do is observe to know if the phone is still hanging or not because if not anymore, then it’s clear that one or some of the apps you installed is causing the problem. In this case, move on to the next step. However, if the problem still occurs in safe mode, skip to step 3.

Step 2: Update, reset and / or uninstall suspected apps

Assuming the phone works fine while in safe mode, then the third-party apps have to be blamed for this problem. However, it won’t be easy find the culprit that’s why you need to update apps that need to be updated first as it may be just a compatibility issue.

  1. From the Home screen, tap the Apps tray.
  2. Tap Play Store.
  3. Tap the Menu key and then tap My Apps. To keep your apps automatically updated, tap the Menu > Settings then tap Auto-update apps to select the check box.
  4. 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.

If updating the apps doesn’t help, then try to go through each of the app you suspect. Probably start from the most recent installation. Try clearing the cache and data of suspected apps and then reboot your phone back in normal mode to see if the hanging continues and if so, uninstall them one by one.

How to clear apps cache and data on Galaxy A7

  1. From the Home screen, tap the Apps tray.
  2. Tap Settings > Apps.
  3. Tap the desired application in the default list or tap 3 dots icon > Show system apps to display pre-installed apps.
  4. Tap Storage.
  5. Tap Clear data and then tap OK.
  6. Tap Clear cache.

How to uninstall applications from your Galaxy A7

  1. From the Home screen, tap the Apps tray.
  2. Tap Settings > Apps.
  3. Tap the desired application in the default list or tap 3 dots icon > Show system apps to display pre-installed apps.
  4. Tap the desired application.
  5. Tap Uninstall.
  6. Tap Uninstall again to confirm.

I understand finding the culprit would be difficult especially if you already have a lot of apps in your phone. So, if it’s easier for you to make a backup of your important files and data and just do the reset, then that would make life a lot easier.

  1. 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.
  2. From the Home screen, tap the Apps tray.
  3. Tap Settings > Cloud and accounts.
  4. Tap Backup and restore.
  5. If desired, tap Back up my data to move the slider to ON or OFF.
  6. If desired, tap Restore to move the slider to ON or OFF.
  7. Tap the back button to the Settings menu and tap General Management > Reset > Factory data reset.
  8. Tap Reset.
  9. If you have screen lock turned on, enter your credentials.
  10. Tap Continue.
  11. Tap Delete all.

Step 3: Boot your phone in Recovery mode and wipe cache partition

Assuming your Galaxy A7 is still hanging or freezing while in safe mode, then we can say it’s more of a firmware problem than anything else. Well, some built-in apps might have some issues but they’re deeply integrated into the firmware that’s why we’ll have to go after the latter. The first thing you have to go after is the system cache as it might have been corrupted. You just have to delete it so that it will be replaced with a new one and you can only do so by booting your phone up in recovery mode and wiping the cache partition:

  1. Turn off the device.
  2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds, then ‘No command’ before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
  4. Press the Volume down key several times to highlight “wipe cache partition”.
  5. Press Power button to select.
  6. Press the Volume down key to highlight “yes” and press the Power key to select.
  7. When the wipe cache partition is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
  8. Press the Power key to restart the device.

The phone will rebuild the cache during the boot up process so it may take a little longer for it to boot up but after that and the problem still exists, you have no other choice but to reset your phone.

Step 4: It’s time to reset your phone

After doing everything and the problem still persists, then a reset is your last bid to fix this problem unless you want a technician to handle this problem for you, which will of course, result to a reset as well. If you want to go with the reset, then make sure you make a backup of your important files and data especially ones that are stored in your phone’s internal storage as they will be deleted. After the backup process, disable the anti-theft feature of your phone so that you won’t be locked out of your device after the reset. Here’s how you do that…

  1. From the Home screen, tap the Apps tray.
  2. Tap Settings > Cloud and accounts.
  3. Tap Accounts.
  4. Tap Google.
  5. Tap on your Google ID email address if multiple accounts are setup. If you have multiple accounts setup, you will need to repeat these steps for each account.
  6. Tap 3 dot icon.
  7. Tap Remove account.
  8. Tap REMOVE ACCOUNT.

As to the reset, you can try the reset procedure in step 2 or you can follow this method which requires you to start your phone up in recovery mode…

  1. Turn off the device.
  2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds, then ‘No command’ before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
  4. Press the Volume down key several times to highlight “wipe data / factory reset.
  5. Press Power button to select.
  6. Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
  7. Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
  8. When the master reset is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
  9. Press the Power key to restart the device.

A reset will surely fix this problem for as long as the firmware hasn’t been modified in some way. However, if the phone still hangs or freezes after it, the firmware may have some corrupt files and may need to be reinstalled. For that, you need a technician as it will actually void the warranty if you’re the one doing it.

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1 thought on “What to do about your Samsung Galaxy A7 (2017) that keeps hanging [Troubleshooting Guide]”

  1. Hi there,
    I just got my version of A7 (2017) two days ago on Nov 14th, to give it away as Christmas present, and once started, it updated to Nougat. All good here. While downloading the 1.4GB OS update, I played a bit on Marshmallow and observed some hanging and micro-freezes from time to time just navigating through menu and tinkering with the options trying to set it up. I can say that the hanging was bad enough to drive someone crazy. Updated it to Nougat and the problem still persists. It doesn’t have any 3rd party apps installed yet, just the ones pre-installed from factory. Erased Cache Partition and also Factory Reset (several times both) after Nougat update, following your advice, thank you for it, but still have these micro-freezes. Any other idea on how to fix them or if anybody else have them? Could be some faulty hardware and then I just have to return it to the seller? That would be too bad because the phone is awesome under all other aspects and it would make a wonderful Christmas present. On the other way, I don’t want to give a faulty present…

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