Samsung Galaxy Note 8 turned off by itself and won’t turn back on [Troubleshooting Guide]

A high-end smartphone like the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 should work without a hitch but that’s not the case with some of our readers who contacted us about a problem or two. Some reported that their phones turned off on their own and when the power key is pressed, they won’t power back on.

We have addressed similar issues before so we already know a thing or two that could bring the phone back to life. But the thing is, every problem is unique on their own way and they may be triggered by different factors. That’s what we need to look into to be able to fix this problem.

In this post, I will tackle this problem and we’ll consider every possibility and rule them out one by one until we can determine what the problem with your phone is. If you’re one of the owners of this device and are currently bugged by a similar problem, continue reading as this post may be able to help you.

Now before we move on to our troubleshooting, if you have other issues with your device, make sure you drop by our Note 8 troubleshooting page for we have already addressed some of the most common issues with this phone. Browse through the page to find issues that are similar with yours and feel free to use our solutions. If you still need our help after that, drop us a message through our questionnaire.

YouTube video

Troubleshooting Galaxy Note 8 that powered down and won’t turn back on

The course of our troubleshooting is to determine if there are external factors that caused the problem and then we will try every possible method we know to see if we can bring the phone back to life. For methods that don’t require opening your phone, you can do that without any help from a tech. However, after doing everything in this guide and the phone is still unresponsive and won’t turn on, that’s the time you seek assistance from the tech who can perform further tests. With all that being said, here’s what I suggest you do about this problem:

Perform the Forced Restart procedure

Most of the cases we’ve encountered before wherein the device just stopped responding and won’t turn on when the power key is pressed are a result of a system crash. That’s the first possibility we need to rule out and to do that, all you need to perform is the simple Forced Reboot procedure: press and hold the Volume Down button and the Power key simultaneously for 10 seconds. If this doesn’t make your phone boot up, try doing it again. But if the phone starts after doing this method, then I guess we can consider this problem as solved.

After a few attempts of doing the forced reboot method and your phone didn’t start, then you must try the next procedures. One of them may be able to bring your phone back to life.

RELEVANT POSTS:

Check for signs of physical and liquid damages

Before we proceed with our troubleshooting, it’s better that we make sure this problem hasn’t been caused by physical and/or liquid damage. For physical related problems, it would be a lot easier to determine them since any force that could render the phone useless will surely leave a mark on the outside. So for instance if your phone got dropped on a hard surface and then this problem occurred, it would be obvious that the problem is due to the physical force that may have broken a thing or two in your phone.

As to the possibility of liquid damage, as the user you should know if the phone got dipped in water or got splashed with any form of liquid. I understand the Note 8 has the IP68 rating which assures owners that the phone is water-resistant but still it’s possible that this problem is due to liquid damage as the rating isn’t for waterproofing. The best thing you can is check the USB port as that’s where water could come in. You should immediately see if there is moisture in there but to make sure it’s dry, use a cotton swab to clean around the area or insert a piece of tissue paper to absorb any liquid element.

You may also need to check on the Liquid Damage Indicator found in the SIM slot to see if it’s tripped because if so, that’s a clear sign that the phone suffered a liquid damage and that could be the cause of this problem. To check the LDI, remove the SIM card tray and look into the slot to find the indicator. Any color except white is indicative of liquid damage and if that’s the case with your phone, you should immediately bring it to the tech. Forget the rest of the procedures below.

Try charging your phone for a few minutes

After making sure the problem isn’t due to physical or liquid damage, it’s time to see if this is just due to lack of power. Plug the charger to a working wall outlet and then connect your phone to it using the original USB cable. Should the battery been depleted, it would take a minute or two before the charging signs (red light above the screen and charging symbol on the display) show up. But regardless whether these signs show or not for as long as the phone doesn’t heat up, allow it to charge for ten minutes.

After such time, try turning the phone on to see if it responds, if not then you should perform the Forced Restart procedure but this time while the phone is connected to its charger. If the problem occurred because the system crashed when it ran out of battery, then this procedure should be able to fix it. However, if it still won’t respond with this, we have a couple of methods you could try before sending the phone to the tech.

Try running your phone in Safe mode

There are cases wherein third-party apps can also cause a system crash but now that we’ve already done the most effective methods to no avail, we simply want to know if the phone can still boot up in Safe mode because it can, then you can consider the problem fixed. So, follow these steps to run your Note 8 in this mode:

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

Should your device boot up in safe mode successfully, then try booting it up in normal mode. If it gets stuck for some reason, reboot it in safe mode once again and then find the apps that cause it and uninstall them one by one. This is how you uninstall apps from your phone:

  1. From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open 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.

However, if the phone couldn’t boot up in safe mode as well, then there’s another mode you need to try to boot the phone into.

Boot your device in Recovery mode

Here’s the thing, if the problem is due to a serious firmware issue for as long as the hardware is fine, then your phone should be able to start in Android system recovery or Recovery mode. Once inside, you can do a couple of things that can fix this problem and that’s what I want you to do now. So, go through the procedures below to bring your phone back to life:

Boot Note 8 in Recovery Mode and wipe cache partition

  1. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
  2. When the green Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
  3. Press the Volume down key several times to highlight ‘wipe cache partition’.
  4. Press Power button to select.
  5. Press the Volume down key until ‘yes’ is highlighted and press the Power button.
  6. When the wipe cache partition is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
  7. Press the Power key to restart the device.

Boot Note 8 in Recovery Mode and do Master Reset

  1. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
  2. When the green Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
  3. Press the Volume down key several times to highlight “wipe data / factory reset.
  4. Press Power button to select.
  5. Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
  6. Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
  7. When the master reset is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
  8. Press the Power key to restart the device.

If these procedures failed to get your phone started, then the last option is to…

Bring phone to service center

As far as basic troubleshooting is concerned, you’ve already done what you could to no avail. So, it’s time to get somehow who could do tests on your phone. Bring it to a Samsung authorized service or any service centers the company setup to get the phone checked.

I hope that this troubleshooting guide can help you one way or another. If you still need our help, feel free to contact us any time.

Posts you may also like to read:

TheDroidGuy Mailbag

🛠️If you have questions, check our Help section for details on how to submit your questions.💡


Posts You Might Like

1 thought on “Samsung Galaxy Note 8 turned off by itself and won’t turn back on [Troubleshooting Guide]”

  1. Thank you, thank you, thank you! The first step, forced re-start, worked. It’s great to have this page as a resource. I hesitated to get the Note 8 due to some of the issues I’d read about but got one anyway because I’ve always had good luck with Samsung. I love this phone but don’t want to have to deal with quirky issues like this over its lifetime.

Leave a Comment