Samsung Galaxy S3 Tutorials, Tips, Tricks and How Tos [Part 2]

We want to make it as easy for you as possible to fix your problems with your Samsung Galaxy S3. So, together with our troubleshooter series, we publish posts that contain basic and advanced tutorials and guides. Many of these tutorials may not be new to you but there may be some you don’t know yet.

In this post I included two very important procedures–wiping the cache partition and performing factory reset. These two are the most common solutions to many problems especially those that are related to apps and firmware. If you have questions and problems, feel free to email us at [email protected] and we may include your concerns in our future posts. Now, find out if you already know the following tutorials:

• How to Wipe Cache Partition
• Factory Reset Via Settings
• Master Reset Via Recovery Mode
• How To Show Battery Percentage
• How To Enable Email Sync
• Change Volume Key Function For Camera
• Prevent An MP3 File From Being Read By Music App
• Tether Internet Connection Via Bluetooth
• Keep WiFi On / Off During Sleep
• Using Sound and Shot Mode
• Disable Auto Word Replacement
• Clear Caches Of All Downloaded Apps
• Prevent Galaxy S3 From Scanning WiFi Networks

How to Wipe Cache Partition

Android stores caches in a specific partition that can’t be easily accessed by the user. These caches are used every time a user opens apps. They are basic information that makes the process smoother and faster. However, there are times when these files get corrupted and affect the normal operation of the phone. If this happens, they have to be deleted so that the system will cache newer sets of data.

1. Turn off the phone completely.
2. Press and hold the Volume Up, Home, and Power
3. When the phone vibrates, release the Power button but continue holding the other two until Android System Recovery screen appears.
4. Use the Volume Down button to highlight ‘wipe cache partition’ and press the Power button to select it.
5. Highlight ‘reboot system now’ and hit the Power key.

Factory Reset Via Settings

Factory Reset means that all factory defaults will be applied back to the device deleting all user settings and preferences. The easiest way to do is through the Settings menu while others prefer to use the code *2767*3855# as it does the same thing. One important thing you should know is that all data that are saved in your phone’s internal storage will be deleted and cannot be retrieved. So, before following the steps below, make sure you backed up your important data.

1. From the Home screen, tap the Apps
2. Scroll to the right and choose Settings.
3. Scroll down and touch Back up and reset.
4. Tap Factory data reset.
5. Choose Reset device.
6. Confirm your action by touching Delete all.
7. All data and setting will be deleted and you will have to re-setup all your accounts after the reset.

Master Reset Via Recovery Mode

Master Reset, otherwise known as Hard Reset, will delete all your settings and data, then reformat the data partition. But just like Factory Reset, it will leave all firmware updates in the phone. If you purchased your S3 with ICS and it already runs Jelly Bean, the recent update will NOT be wiped. So, after the reset, the phone will still be running Jelly Bean. This procedure is a bit more complicated but here’s how you do it:

1. Turn the phone off completely.
2. Press and hold the Volume Up, Home, and Power
3. When the phone vibrates, release the Power button but continue holding the other two until Android System Recovery screen appears.
4. Use the Volume Down button to highlight ‘wipe cache partition’ and press the Power button to select it.
5. When finished, use the Volume Down button to highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset’ and press the Power button to select it.
6. Still use the Volume Down button to highlight ‘delete all user data’ and press the Power button to select the option.
7. Once the master reset is finished, highlight ‘reboot system now’ and hit the Power button one more time.

How To Show Battery Percentage

Galaxy S3 is a powerful phone and with all its features enabled, its battery can only last for so long. One good way to monitor how much battery is left is to display the percentage on the notification bar.

1. From the Home screen, tap the Apps
2. Launch Settings and tap Display.
3. Tick the checkbox next to Display battery percentage.
4. Tap the Home button to return to the Home
5. The battery percentage should be showing on the notification bar now.

How To Enable Email Sync

There are times when your email messages won’t come in and you think there’s a problem with your phone. More often, it’s just the sync that was disabled that’s causing this issue. Turn on the sync back and the problem would be gone.

1. From the Home screen, tap the Apps
2. Launch Settings.
3. Under Accounts & sync, tap Email.
4. Enable sync and check if your messages comes.
5. After enabling the sync for a specific account and messages didn’t come in, go back to the Home screen.
6. Pull down the notification panel and make sure “Sync” is enabled.
7. Go back to Settings and choose Data usage.
8. Tap the Menu key and check Auto sync data.

This will fix the email syncing issue.

Change Volume Key Function For Camera

Before Android 4.3, the Volume keys in the Galaxy S3 can only be used to zoom in or out. The recent update, however, allows owners to change their function. Here’s how…

1. From the Home screen, tap the Apps
2. Choose Camera.
3. While inside the camera interface, tap the Settings icon (cogwheel).
4. Touch the Volume key
5. Mark the radio button next to the function you want to use:
   1. The zoom key – this will make the Volume key to zoom.
   2. The camera key – when enabled, the Volume keys can be used to snap pictures.
   3. The record key – this allows you to use the Volume keys to record videos.

Prevent An MP3 File From Being Read By Music App

This short tutorial is for those who asked us how to prevent a specific .mp3 file from being read or detected by the Music app. The process is very simple and pretty straightforward. Here’s how…

1. From the Home screen, tap the Apps
2. Choose My Files.
3. Navigate to the directory where the .mp3 file is saved.
4. Touch and hold the file and then tap Rename.
5. Now add “.nomedia” to the filename right after .mp3. Example, rename “song_title.mp3” to “song_title.mp3.nomedia”.
6. Clear the cache of the Music app.

Tether Internet Connection Via Bluetooth

This is for users who still don’t know they can share their internet connection via Bluetooth. Please note that some carriers or service providers don’t allow internet connection to be shared with other devices. So, proceed at your own risk.

1. Turn on your Galaxy S3’s Bluetooth.
2. Turn on the Bluetooth with your other device.
3. Pair them and make sure it’s successful.
4. Go back to the Bluetooth page in your Galaxy S3 and tap the cogwheel next to the BT name of the device you paired with.
5. Mark the checkbox beside Internet access.
6. The other device can now use the internet from your S3.

Keep WiFi On / Off During Sleep

We’ve received a lot of emails asking why their WiFi connection disconnects with the phone sleeps or becomes idle. Many thought it’s a serious issue but it’s not. There’s a setting that will allow you to keep WiFi on or off when it goes idle.

1. From the Home screen, tap the Apps
2. Launch Settings and tap WiFi.
3. Tap the Menu key and choose Advanced.
4. Touch Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep, and choose Always if you want to keep in on or Never if you want it off.
5. Now your WiFi will stay on or off even if the phone sleeps or goes idle.

Using Sound and Shot Mode

With your Galaxy S3, you can record audio to go along with the picture. It’s a good feature to make photos more alive and memorable. The Sound & shot mode will allow you to record audio up to 9 seconds before snapping a picture. Here’s how…

1. From the Home screen, tap the Apps
2. Choose Camera.
3. While inside the camera interface, tap the Settings icon (cogwheel).
4. Scroll down and tap Shooting mode.
5. Choose Sound & shot.
6. Go back the main Camera screen and get ready to take your first picture with audio.

Disable Auto Word Replacement

Have you ever experienced having your words replaced by your phone while you type? The worse thing is, the words the phone used weren’t correct. I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s very annoying especially if you are going to send an important message immediately. Well, here’s how to disable this feature:

1. From the Home screen, tap the Apps
2. Scroll to the right and choose Settings.
3. Tap My device tab and touch Language and input.
4. Touch the Settings icon next to Samsung keyboard.
5. Slide the Auto replacement switch to off.

You can also access this setting via Messaging app.

Clear Caches Of All Downloaded Apps

Wiping the cache partition is one general way of clearing all caches and includes caches of core services, pre-installed apps and third-party apps. But do you know how to clear the caches of your downloaded apps only?

1. From the Home screen, tap the Apps
2. Scroll to the right and choose Settings.
3. Tap More and touch Storage.
4. Find and tap Cached data.
5. You will be prompted to clear all cached data or not, tap the OK button to proceed.
6. All app caches will be cleared but the system will cache new sets of data when those apps are opened.

Prevent Galaxy S3 From Scanning WiFi Networks

As part of making the phone “smarter,” it was set to always scan for available networks. Such feature is not only annoying at times but also drains the battery quicker. So, here’s how you prevent the phone from scanning WiFi networks and save battery:

1. From the Home screen, tap the Apps
2. Scroll to the right and choose Settings.
3. Tap My connections
4. Tap WiFi and touch the Menu key.
5. Choose Advanced and unmark the checkbox next to Always allow scanning.

Connect with us

We are among the very few people who offer free Android support online and we are serious about it. So, feel free to contact us regarding your concerns, questions and problems. You may reach us at [email protected] or post on our Facebook and Google+ pages. I also urge you to visit our Samsung Galaxy S3 Troubleshooting page as it contains more than 500 problems that we’ve addressed over the years.