Samsung Galaxy J3 gets stuck on boot screen after rebooting [Troubleshooting Guide]

• Read and understand why your Samsung Galaxy J3 can sometimes get stuck on the boot screen and learn how to troubleshoot it when it happens.

Getting stuck on the boot screen could be a sign of a serious firmware issue, however, based on our experiences, there are cases wherein the phone cannot boot up successfully and end up getting stuck on the logo or black screen during the boot up process due to apps that crash. The point is, we really don’t know what’s happening with your phone if it won’t continue booting up to the home screen. This is the reason why we need to troubleshoot your phone.

So, in this post, I will tackle this problem with the Samsung Galaxy J3 being the subject of our troubleshooting. We will try to look into each possibility and rule out each of them until we can pinpoint what the problem with your phone is. That way, it would easier to fix it and make it start successfully again. So, if you own this amazing device and are currently bugged by a similar problem, continue reading below to know what to do.

Before we jump right into our troubleshooting, if you have other issues, drop by our Galaxy J3 troubleshooting page for we have already addressed many issues with this phone since we started supporting it. Try to find problems that are similar with yours and use the troubleshooting procedures or solutions we suggested. Should you need further assistance from us, fill up our Android issues questionnaire and hit submit. Don’t worry, it’s free.

Step-by-step guide to troubleshooting Galaxy J3 that’s stuck on the boot screen

Problem: Hello droid guys. I have a Galaxy J3 smartphone I bought online for a fair price. It’s been like 4 or 5 months since I got it ever since, I never encountered issues with it until recently when it decided to reboot on its own. I’m not really a tech guy so I don’t know what happened to it. It just rebooted on its own while I was using and when it finally started to boot up, it got stuck on a black screen after the Samsung logo. Sometimes it gets stuck on the logo but most of the time, it’s just black screen. I am hoping that you guys can help me out to bring the phone back to life. Thanks.

Troubleshooting: As I said earlier, this problem could be the doing of some of the apps you installed or it’s a sign of a more serious firmware problem. Let us try to rule out one possibility after another because while this problem seems complex, more often, it’s not and hopefully we can fix it with the steps below.

Step 1: Try to do the soft reset to find out if it can make a difference

There are times when apps and the firmware glitch and when it happens, a lot of things can happen and more often, they’re performance-related. It includes apps crashing, phone lagging and freezing, random and frequent reboots and this–getting stuck on boot screen.

These glitches can be fixed by a simple reboot procedure and we want you to do that, which I think, you already did. If the reboot doesn’t fix the problem, then you should do the soft reset. Don’t worry, it’s a very simple procedure to do. You just have to remove the back cover and then pull the battery out. While the battery is out, press and hold the Power key for a minute. This will drain all stored electricity in some of the components inside and refresh the phone’s memory.

After which, place the back in and then the back cover. Just make sure the battery is properly inserted with connectors touching each other. Lastly, try to turn the phone on and see if it can boot up successfully.

Step 2: Try to reboot  your phone in Safe mode to see if third-party apps caused it

Now, we’re in the point wherein we need to rule out the possibility that one or some of the third-party apps is causing the problem. The rationale behind this procedure is this: if the problem is caused by a third-party app, then your J3 should be able to boot up in safe mode successfully considering the fact that third-party elements won’t be loaded during boot up. So, here’s how you start your Galaxy J3 in safe mode:

1. Power off your Galaxy J3. Press and hold the Power key, tap Power off and then touch POWER OFF to confirm.
2. Press and hold the Power key past the screen with the device name.
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’.

Now, if the phone successfully started up in this mode, then our suspicion that at least a third-party causes the problem is confirmed. In that case, move on to the next step, otherwise, jump to step 4.

Step 3: Find the app that’s causing the problem and uninstall it

You only have to do this if your phone has successfully started up in Safe mode because it means that one or some of the third-party app you installed or downloaded from the Play Store is causing the problem. All you gotta do is find it and then uninstall it. I suggest you begin your search from apps you installed when the problem started. Once you already have a suspect, follow these steps to uninstall it:

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

If this doesn’t work or if your phone cannot boot in safe mode, then move on to the next step.

Step 4: Try booting up your phone in Recovery mode and wipe cache partition

This procedure will delete all system caches but they will actually be replaced with new ones, so you’re not just deleting them. The point is, this procedure is very important because it makes sure the caches the firmware uses are not corrupt or obsolete.

I’m not sure if your Galaxy J3 received a firmware update because you said it just rebooted on its own after that, it could no longer continue to the home screen. Firmware updates have a tendency to corrupt caches and when it happens, performance issues may occur. So, you need to rule out the possibility that this problem is caused by some of the caches that got corrupted. Here’s how you do it:

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 device logo screen displays, release only the Power key.
4. 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).
5. Press the Volume down key several times key to highlight ‘wipe cache partition’.
6. Press the Power key to select.
7. Press the Volume down key to highlight ‘yes’ and press the Power key to select.
8. When the wipe cache partition is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
9. Press the Power key to restart the device.

It may take a few more seconds than usual before the phone becomes active so if the phone cannot immediately boot up, just wait a little longer. But 3 minutes is long enough to know if the phone is still stuck on the boot screen or not. So, if it cannot reach the home screen in 3 minutes, it may still be stuck.

Step 5: Make a backup of your important files and data and reset your phone

After doing the previous steps and the phone still cannot continue booting up, then it’s time to just backup your files and data and bring the phone back to its factory default settings. I suggest you reset it through the Recovery mode as both the cache and data partitions will be reformatted so it’s more thorough than the reset via Settings menu. However, make sure you know your Google ID and password as you may be locked out of your phone after the reset if you don’t. Better yet, disable the Factory Reset Protection (FRP) but following these steps:

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

Now, to reset your phone via Android system recovery, follow these steps:

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 device logo screen displays, release only the Power key
4. 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).
5. Press the Volume down key several times key to highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset.’
6. Press Power button to select.
7. Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
8. Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
9. When the master reset is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
10. Press the Power key to restart the device.

I hope the problem gets fixed by one of these steps but if it won’t, then it’s time you brought the phone to a shop and have the tech take a look at it for you.

How to troubleshoot Galaxy J3 that keeps freezing, lagging and gets stuck on the logo

Problem: It’s been a year now that I bought this cheap phone when my Galaxy S5 was lost. It’s the J3; it was cheap and a really good replacement phone. Well anyways, I was planning to buy a new but this phone never gave up on me and it was working really great for a year. Then, it started to freeze, lag and just yesterday, it can no longer reach the home screen. I didn’t expect much from it and I thought it might be time to buy a new one but I just want it to work just in case I’m gonna need it again. So can you help me? Thank you.

Troubleshooting: It is clear enough that your phone’s performance was the one that suffered from this issue. First, it slowed down and then this–stuck on the boot screen. While the Galaxy J3 has received positive review for its specs despite being an entry-level device, we can already expect it to slow down after months of use and that’s what happened. So, here’s what I suggest you do about it:

Step 1: Find out immediately if third-party apps have something to do with it

We need to know how the phone behaves when all third-party apps are disabled that’s why it’s imperative you start your phone up in safe mode. Now, if the phone successfully boots up in this mode, it is almost certain third-party apps caused the problem especially if the freezes and the lags disappeared.

In this case, finding the app that’s causing the problem and uninstalling it would be your best bet but I know it sounds easier than said. So, try to find suspects starting from the apps you installed shortly prior to the freezing and lagging.

If backing up your data and files and doing the reset is a lot quicker and easier for you, then you should do it for as long as the phone has successfully booted up in safe mode. Reset your device via the Settings menu, here’s how…

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 any Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
3. Tap Settings.
4. Tap Cloud and accounts.
5. Tap Backup and restore.
6. If desired, tap Back up my data to move the slider to ON or OFF.
7. If desired, tap Restore to move the slider to ON or OFF.
8. Tap the back key twice to return to the Settings menu, then tap General Management.
9. Tap Reset.
10. Tap Factory data reset.
11. Tap Reset device.
12. If you have screen lock turned on, enter your PIN or password.
13. Tap Continue.
14. Tap Delete all.

However, if the phone cannot boot up in safe mode, then the next might help.

Step 2: Attempt to boot your phone in Recovery mode

We simply want to know if it’s still capable of booting up in this mode because it can, then we are almost sure the problem can be fixed. You just have to try wiping the cache partition and if that won’t then you must go with the reset. Of course, your files and data won’t be backed up so it’s up to you if you want to go with it bring the phone to the tech.

I hope this troubleshooting guide can help you.

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