What to do if your Samsung Galaxy J3 gets stuck in bootloop and continues restarting [Troubleshooting Guide]

When the phone enters the bootloop, it continues to restart. When you turn it on, it boots and shows the logo but shortly after that, it would turn off and then power back on again. It’s called the bootloop because more often than not, your phone couldn’t get out of it. The same is true with the Samsung Galaxy J3. we have received messages from our readers who reported to have encountered this problem once or twice.

In this post, I will tackle this problem with the Galaxy J3 being the subject of our troubleshooting. We will look into each possibility and rule them out one after another so that we can easily determine what the problem with your phone really is and why it can no longer boot up successfully. If you’re one of the owners of this phone and are currently bugged by a similar problem, then continue reading this post as it may help you fix it.

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.

How to troubleshoot your Galaxy J3 that entered the bootloop

Problem: I do hope you guys can help me out with my problem because I can no longer continue using my phone as it won’t power on successfully. My device is a J3 and while it does turn on and shows the logo, it powers back down shortly after that then it turns on again and show the same thing. It would go on like this until its battery is drained. I know because I’ve already tried leaving it until it ran out of battery. Can you please help me out with it? Thanks.

Troubleshooting: More often than not, when a phone enters a boot loop, it’s a firmware issue. However, we encountered bootloop issues before that were also caused by hardware problems that’s why it’s not immediately clear if what our readers encountered are firmware or hardware issues. Try to go through the steps below to see if they can help you…

Step 1: Start your phone up in Recovery Mode and delete all system caches

Deleting the cache partition should be the first thing that you should do if you encounter a problem like this. Even if the problem is caused by a serious firmware issue, it will still be able to start in Recovery Mode so most likely, you will be able to do this procedure without being met with some issues.

Once in Recovery Mode, try wiping the cache partition to delete all system caches. It’s an indiscriminate procedure but it’s necessary since you really don’t have access to individual caches nor be able to determine which of them is corrupt and which is not. Follow the steps below to run your phone up in recovery mode and wipe 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 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.

If the phone still gets into a bootloop after this, then try the next step.

Step 2: Run your phone in Safe mode to see if it can start up successfully

We can, at least, try to see if the phone can successfully start in Safe mode. In this mode, all third-party elements are temporarily disabled so if one of them is causing the problem, you shouldn’t have issues starting your phone up in this state. This is how you do it…

1. Turn the device off.
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’.

If your Galaxy J3 successfully started up in this mode, then it’s clear that one or some of the third-party apps in your phone has something to do with this problem. So, which in this mode, try to find out if there are apps that need to be updated and then update them…

1. From any Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
2. Tap Play Store.
3. 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.
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 you also suspect some apps, then you should try clearing their caches and data to reset them. After which, try rebooting your phone to see if it can boot up successfully in normal mode this time, if still no, then you should try uninstalling them one by one until the phone can successfully boot up.

How to clear apps caches and data on Galaxy J3

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 preinstalled apps.
5. Tap Storage.
6. Tap Clear data and then tap OK.
7. Tap Clear cache.

How to uninstall applications from your Galaxy J3

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 the problem still persists after this, then move on to the next step.

Step 3: Boot your phone up again in Recovery Mode and perform Master Reset

Assuming your phone cannot start in safe mode, then you should already consider resetting it. Doing so will bring the phone back to its factory default settings or a configuration that works. While this procedure is very effective, your files and data will be deleted that’s why you have to make sure to create a backup of files that you don’t want to lose including your pictures, videos, contacts, message, etc. After which, disable the anti-theft feature of your phone or the so-called Factory Reset Protection so you won’t be locked out of your device after the reset.

How to disable Factory Reset Protection in your Galaxy J3

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.

How to do the Master Reset on your Galaxy J3

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.

Alternatively, you can also reset your phone from the Settings menu…

1. From any Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
2. Tap Settings.
3. Tap 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 key twice to return to the Settings menu, then tap General Management.
8. Tap Reset.
9. Tap Factory data reset.
10. Tap Reset device.
11. If you have screen lock turned on, enter your PIN or password.
12. Tap Continue.
13. Tap Delete all.

I hope this troubleshooting guide helps. If, however, the problem still occurs after the reset, then you should bring your phone to a shop and let the tech handle the problem for you. As far as basic troubleshooting is concerned, you’ve done your part.

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