Samsung Galaxy S3 Problems, Errors, Solutions and Troubleshooting Guides [Part 74]

Welcome to the 74^th part in our series of troubleshooting articles dedicated to the Samsung Galaxy S3. Released in 2012, this model is still used by a considerable number of people judging from the amount of emails we receive on this device. While it can’t match the current high end Android smartphones in terms of performance this phone can still function quite well and is now commonly used as a secondary or back up phone.

For owners of this phone waiting for the official Android Lollipop update it seems that the development of the latest software for this device is not pushing through. Those owners who are adventurous enough who have loves to experiment on the Android platform may consider installing a custom Lollipop ROM on their phone.

If you own a Galaxy S3 or any other Android device for that matter then feel free to send us an email at [email protected]. We will be more than happy to assist you with any concern that you may have with your device. This is a free service we are offering with no strings attached. We however ask that when you do send us an email try to be as detailed as possible so that an accurate assessment can be made and the correct solution can be given.

If you would like to browse the previous parts in this series then check out this link.

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S3 Stuck In Boot Logo

Problem: Hi, I was using my phone fine this morning and then pressed the home button as I wanted to get on to you tube, but the screen just went blank. I could see the top row, the batt was half green and the time was visible and changed. As my phone is getting laggy I thought it’s just frozen so took the battery out, reinserted it and switched it on again but it stayed on the Samsung Galaxy SIII screen and won’t move from there. I have left the battery out, pressed the power button without the battery in the phone and taken out the sim and sd card….I still don’t know what is happening. Hope you can help!

Solution:   One of the most common reasons why a phone gets stuck in its boot logo is due to some corruption in the system software. The phone gets stuck in a certain process and can’t proceed which is why you will see the Samsung logo. Since you have already taken out the battery and pressed the power button to no avail, then next step to do is to wipe the cache partition of your phone. This deletes any temporary data in your phone that may be causing the issue. Make sure to do this and the succeeding troubleshooting procedures without the microSD installed.

• Turn off the device.
• Press and hold the following three buttons at the same time: Volume Up key, Home key, Power key
• When the phone vibrates, let go of the Power key but continue to press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key.
• When the Android System Recovery screen appears, release the Volume Up and Home keys.
• Press the Volume Down key to highlight ‘wipe cache partition.’
• Press the Power key to select and wipe the cache.
• With ‘reboot system now’ highlighted, press the Power key to restart the device.

If the problem still persists then you should consider doing a factory reset. Make sure t only do this if you have previously made a backup of your phone data since all data in your phone will be deleted.

• Turn off the device.
• Press and hold the following three buttons at the same time: Volume Up key, Home key, Power key.
• When the phone vibrates, release the Power key but continue to press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key.
• When the Android System Recovery screen appears, release the Volume Up and Home keys.
• Press the Volume down key to highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset.’
• Press Power button to select.
• Press the Volume down key to highlight ‘delete all user data.’
• 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 turn the restart the device.

If the factory reset fails then your last option is to reflash your phone software using Odin. Search for the exact procedure on this, you will find it at several of the popular Android forums online.

S3 Device Memory Damaged

Problem: Hi Droid guy, You are doing awesome job. My Samsung S3 is almost 2 years old with no problems until a few months ago. Meanwhile yesterday a message appeared that said “samsung device memory damage, the data partition has been corrupted. You need to reset your device to factory defaults. This will erase your data.” Beneath the message sits a reset button. Rather than press it I restarted my phone. The message did not appear again. Now my phone is not working. While doing restart my phone, it is showing white screen only. Please revert back with solution.

Solution: It appears that the data partition of your phone is corrupt. One possible fix to this issue is to take out the battery while the phone is turned on then press and hold the power button for a minute. Reinsert the battery then turn on your phone.

If the issue still remains then you will have to perform a factory reset. This is a critical step to consider since you need to have your data backed up but then you can’t back up your data since your phone does not function normally. Only consider this step if you are willing to lose your phone data or if you have previously made a backup.

• Turn off the device.
• Press and hold the following three buttons at the same time: Volume Up key, Home key, Power key.
• When the phone vibrates, release the Power key but continue to press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key.
• When the Android System Recovery screen appears, release the Volume Up and Home keys.
• Press the Volume down key to highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset.’
• Press Power button to select.
• Press the Volume down key to highlight ‘delete all user data.’
• 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 turn the restart the device.

S3 Gallery Frozen

Problem: I have a Samsung S3 mini 1890 and the gallery of photos is “frozen”. I am not on Facebook and would be grateful if you could advise me how best to fix this problem. I have taken the SD card out and now the camera seems to work and view the latest photos but the ones already stored in the gallery are not accessible. Any help you can give is much appreciated. kind regards.

Solution: Are the photos stored in the internal storage or in the microSD card? You should try to use a new microSD card if some of your photos are stored in the microSD card and see if the freezing issue disappears.

If the issue still persists despite using a new microSD card then try to clear the cache and data of your phone gallery app.

• From any Home screen, tap the Menu key.
• Tap Settings.
• Tap the More tab.
• Tap Application manager.
• If swipe to the All screen
• Tap the Gallery application
• Tap Clear data and then tap OK.
• Tap Clear cache.

S3 Multi Window Not Working

Problem: Hello! I got a problem with one of the most usefull apps on my S3, I can’t use multi-widow! I turned it on from settings and I long-pressed the back button but nothing happens and that little white arrow does not appear to let me use the compatible apps on multi-window! PLEASE HELP!

Solution: The first thing to check in this type of issue is if your phone settings. Make sure your phone is set to Standard Mode and not to Easy Screen Mode. You also need to make sure that the Multi-Window option is enabled. To do this just pull down on the notification drawer and make sure that the icon for this option is green.

If your phone settings are good but the issue still persists then you should back up your phone data and proceed with a factory reset.

• Turn off the device.
• Press and hold the following three buttons at the same time: Volume Up key, Home key, Power key.
• When the phone vibrates, release the Power key but continue to press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key.
• When the Android System Recovery screen appears, release the Volume Up and Home keys.
• Press the Volume down key to highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset.’
• Press Power button to select.
• Press the Volume down key to highlight ‘delete all user data.’
• 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 turn the restart the device.

S3 Not Detected By Computer

Problem: Hi, have a problem with my S3 with this imei 3537210578xxxxx I was told is a firmware problem…The phone  will ON but stop at the Galaxy logo ….i have try to download  using odin software but the computer cnt find the phone…….pls is there any way you people can help me?

Solution: Before using Odin to fix your phone did you already perform a factory reset? This usually helps in this type of issue. If you already performed all of the necessary troubleshooting steps then Odin is the final option.

Now to your problem, since the phone can’t be recognized by your computer try to use a different USB cord. You should also try connecting your phone to the different USB ports of your computer. Make sure to connect your phone directly to the computer USB port, do not use a USB hub.

If the phone still can’t be recognized make sure that you have the necessary drivers installed in your computer. Try to install Kies first in your computer then see if it can detect your phone.

You should also try to use a different computer if all else fails. Download a fresh copy of Odin to the other computer then check if your phone can be detected.

S3 No Signal

Problem: Hey there. Had my galaxy s3 for a while now. Ever since the last update my phone has 0 bars. Would maybe get an occasional single bar for a few seconds in the middle of the night. (Receive 1 text that’s 3 days old type of thing.) Start playing around… so I remove my extra memory card of 64gig. Sim card is still in device. I reboot my phone without extra memory card in it and I get better signal now then I have ever gotten on the phone. Crazy. Went looking for a reference to this issue. Couldn’t find any so I thought I’d drop you a line. Thanks for doing what you do.

Solution: It’s highly unusual for the microSD card to cause signal related issues. The issue may have been fixed when you turned off your phone while removing the microSD card. Turning off the phone then turning it back on resets your phone software and fixes any software glitches that may occur.

To verify if it really is the microSD card that is causing the signal issues try to insert it again in your phone then observe if the phone has a signal drop.

S3 Wi-Fi Turns Off When Sending/Receiving Photos

Problem: Hi there, Thank you so much for being willing to help with my phone issues.

 Info:

• Phone: Samsung Galaxy S3
• Model Number: SGH-T999
• Android Version: 4.3
• Carrier: T-Mobile

I have been thinking about upgrading to the Samsung Galaxy S6, but before I did that I wanted to give my S3 another chance. Most of the time when I try to send a picture or receive a picture my wi-fi automatically turns off, obviously resulting in the image not being sent or not downloading. Can you please tell me why the wi-fi kicks off and most importantly what I can do about it? I went to T-Mobile to talk to them about this. They said it was my router’s fault and gave me a T-Mobile router. Unfortunately, my phone is still doing the same thing with the new T-Mobile router. (My previous router was the Cisco Linksys E4200.) Thank you in advance for your help!

Solution: If the Wi-Fi in your phone turns off then this does not appear to be a router issue. Have you tried checking form the phone settings if the Wi-Fi does indeed switch off on its own? If it does then this is a phone related issue.

The first thing you should do in this case is to determine if a certain app installed in your phone is causing this to occur. To do this you should start your phone in Safe Mode.

• Turn the device off.
• Press and hold the Power key.
• When ‘Samsung Galaxy S III’ 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.’

Try to send a picture in this mode. If the Wi-Fi does not turn off then the issue is most likely caused by an app. Find out what app is causing this and uninstall it.

If the problem persists even in Safe Mode then you will have to back up your phone data and do a factory reset.

• Turn off the device.
• Press and hold the following three buttons at the same time: Volume Up key, Home key, Power key.
• When the phone vibrates, release the Power key but continue to press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key.
• When the Android System Recovery screen appears, release the Volume Up and Home keys.
• Press the Volume down key to highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset.’
• Press Power button to select.
• Press the Volume down key to highlight ‘delete all user data.’
• 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 turn the restart the device.

S3 System Information Shown On Display

Problem: Hi, So… today my samsung Galaxy S3 Mini suddenly started showing what I assume is what’s happening in the system processor on my screen.  There are 4 bars with green and red at the top right of my screen and there are rows of words  (like “zygote”, “sdcard”, “dhd_phc”, “kworker/0:2″…)witht the top row of words being numbers.  The words and numbers change, the words increase and decrease, but the top row is always numbers.  I tried restarting it multiple ways, I am just short of resetting it, why reset it and lose al my info if that’s no the problem. When I restarted my phone, the words, numbers, and color bars don’t appear until my information starts coming through.  It even shows over my lock screen.  It does not affect my use of the phone but does block certain things from view.

Solution: Do you have the Developers Option activated in your phone? If you have this option then open it then go to the Show CPU Usage option and see if it has a check mark. Uncheck this option.

S3 Keeps On Crashing

Problem: Hi, was wondering if you could help me? I have a galaxy samsung s3 mini, have had it a couple of yrs with no problems, just this evening (28/05/15) it started crashing when I tried to access facebook then when trying to access the settings. I have tried takin the battery out etc but then even notifications coming through made it switch off & on again, any ideas what I can do? Many thanks.

Solution: If your phone keeps on crashing this could mean that the software has a problem. Try to wipe the cache partition of your phone first and see if this helps.

• Turn off the device.
• Press and hold the following three buttons at the same time: Volume Up key, Home key, Power key
• When the phone vibrates, let go of the Power key but continue to press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key.
• When the Android System Recovery screen appears, release the Volume Up and Home keys.
• Press the Volume Down key to highlight ‘wipe cache partition.’
• Press the Power key to select and wipe the cache.
• With ‘reboot system now’ highlighted, press the Power key to restart the device.

If your phone still crashes then back up your phone data and do a factory reset.

• Turn off the device.
• Press and hold the following three buttons at the same time: Volume Up key, Home key, Power key.
• When the phone vibrates, release the Power key but continue to press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key.
• When the Android System Recovery screen appears, release the Volume Up and Home keys.
• Press the Volume down key to highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset.’
• Press Power button to select.
• Press the Volume down key to highlight ‘delete all user data.’
• 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 turn the restart the device.

S3 Screen Goes Black Randomly

Problem: Hi there, my phone screen goes black at least few times a day. I need to reboot the device to make it work again. Sometime I see the lights blink. Sometime when I am in call the screen goes black and once the call ends whatever I do the screen would not come back up. I need to reboot to bring it back up. So, could you please help to fix the problem? Best Regards.

Solution: When the display goes black do you still notice some activity in your phone? Are you notified of any new messages or calls that may come in?

Try starting your phone in Safe Mode and see if your display still goes black.

• Turn the device off.
• Press and hold the Power key.
• When ‘Samsung Galaxy S III’ 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.’

If the problem does not occur then it may be caused by an app installed in your phone. Find out what app this is and uninstall it.

If the issue still persists then do a factory reset. Make sure to back up your phone data first before performing this procedure.

• Turn off the device.
• Press and hold the following three buttons at the same time: Volume Up key, Home key, Power key.
• When the phone vibrates, release the Power key but continue to press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key.
• When the Android System Recovery screen appears, release the Volume Up and Home keys.
• Press the Volume down key to highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset.’
• Press Power button to select.
• Press the Volume down key to highlight ‘delete all user data.’
• 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 turn the restart the device.

If your phone display still goes black then this may already be a hardware related issue. Bring your phone to an authorized service center and have it checked.

S3 Cutting Off If Not Connected To Charger

Problem: My s3 has been cutting off randomly lately. Its fine if its on the charger but once off the charger, itll start cutting off amd wont go past carrier screen unless plugged into charger. Do you think it could possibly  be the battery being weak.

Solution: It looks like the battery of your phone may already be weak. Try getting a new one and replace the old one your phone is using.

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