Samsung Galaxy S5 Problems, Glitches, Questions, Errors and Solutions [Part 53]

Welcome to the 53rd post of our Samsung Galaxy S5 troubleshooter series!

613lE7WVw9L._SX425_

If you have other concerns regarding your Samsung Galaxy S5, don’t hesitate to shoot us an email at [email protected] and we will do our best to get back to you as soon as we can. We will appreciate it very much if you can provide as many details as possible. If you are getting error messages on the screen, or have observed unusual phone behaviors,  kindly include them in your email. The more information you can provide, the easier for us to assist you. 

Should you prefer to contact us through social network sites, you can also engage us by visiting our Facebook and Google+ pages.

——————–

Verizon Samsung Galaxy S5 randomly drops music streaming volume

Problem: Hey there! I don’t see an S5 option on your troubleshooting page. So I posted to your Facebook page and am sending this email in hopes that you’ve run across this.

I’ve got an S5 with Verizon, and I’ve been having weird audio issues that started right after I updated to Lollipop. Audio streams will mysteriously stop — an issue I never experienced before. And perhaps most annoying of all, I’m experiencing sudden drops in volume. The volume setting itself doesn’t change — the slider is right where I left it. But right in the middle of playing audio the actual playback volume will suddenly drop by half or more — even cranking the volume up all the way doesn’t raise it to a reasonable level. After a few minutes to a few hours, suddenly the volume will snap right back to its normal state. Driving me nuts! Anyone else had this issue? Any fixes? Thanks! — Jeff

Troubleshooting: Hi Jeff. Looks like you are in the minority here as we have no other reports similar to this one. Are you using a third party app when streaming music? If you are, please re-install the app or clear its data. If this will not fix the problem, proceed to clearing the cache partition by following these steps:

  • Turn off the phone.
  • Hold the following buttons at the same time: Volume Up, Home, Power.
  • Once the device starts to vibrate, release the Power button but continue holding both Home and Volume Up.
  • Release the rest of the buttons once you see the Android System Recovery screen.
  • Go to wipe cache partition by using the Volume Down button.
  • Press Power button to select wipe cache partition.
  • After deleting the cache partition, press Reboot System Now to reboot your phone.

Clearing your phone’s cache partition is usually recommended before you proceed to a full master reset or factory reset.

——————–

Trash folder on email keeps on showing non-existent deleted emails in a Samsung Galaxy S5

Problem: I have a Galaxy S5 I purchased in January 2015. My carrier is Sprint.  It has had the Lollipop update for quite a while now, maybe a couple of months, with no real problems. Just in the last week or so I noticed an issue with the email app. (Stock app.).

When viewing the email folders the trash folder will show X number of deleted emails next to it. After opening the trash folder and deleting  all trash emails, the trash folder is empty, however, when you return to the folders view the trash folder will still show that there are X number of deleted emails in the folder, but when you open the trash folder again it is empty. For example right now the trash folder shows there are 63 deleted emails in it but when I open it, it is empty. If I delete all of my email accounts and then set them all back up it corrects the problem but after about a day or so the problem returns. I have done this 3 times now. Also when viewing the individual accounts  (I have 4) it is not always the same account causing the problem, it may be any of the 4 or a combination. I have looked online and this seems to be an issue that has been around for quite some time with Galaxy products but no one has found a solution for it so far. Also I called Sprint tech. support and after an hour and a half they gave up and connected me to Samsung support who tied directly into my phone and after another hour they gave up.

Would really appreciate any help in finding a fix. Thanks. — Marty 

Troubleshooting: Hi Marty. Are you using webmail email accounts like Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, or Hotmail? It usually takes some time for webmail accounts to push commands to other devices trying to access email servers to sync, resulting to the problem that you have. If you have a webmail version of your email, try logging into it using your computer and ensure that the trash folder is totally empty from there. This is no guarantee that it will fix the concern you have on your Samsung Galaxy S5 but this will ensure that the account’s webmail version is working properly.

Try to reconfigure your email accounts after checking the webmail version then clear the app’s cache and data as well.

If that won’t work, please continue to doing a factory reset.

——————–

How to recover lost messages in Samsung Galaxy S5

Problem: Hey there! I have been reading your articles about problems and their solution on Galaxy S5, and so far I haven’t written to you because I did not have any major problems.

Sure, the phone would restart occasionally, but I did not bother. Until I almost got late for work because of this “re-boot”. The problem seems to occur infrequently, sometimes when I’m not touching the phone and no apps are being opened. Even when I just carry it in my pocket. The phone does not seem to overheat, it sometimes a bit warm, but that’s most likely due to the usage. If it’s not being used, its cool.

Apart from this re-boots, I sometimes experience black screen when I launch the camera application. I’m using the default Samsung camera app. This cannot be fixed with closing and re-opening the app, but only by restarting the phone.

The phone in Samsung Galaxy S5 SM-G900F 16 GB, Android 5.0. If you should need any more info, I’ll gladly provide it. Best regards. — Gašper

Hey there. Me again. I forgot the biggest issue I had so far. All the messages got deleted. And this was while I wasn’t using the phone for sending messages. In the morning they were all there, in the afternoon the whole set of them was wiped clean. I only noticed this when a friend sent me a message. I don’t know if it’s relevant but I went to another country for work in the meantime. Is there any way of restoring those messages? Best regards– Gašper

Troubleshooting: Hi Gašper. Apologies for a delayed response to your emails. To answer your minor concern regarding the S5 getting warm, you are definitely correct. Any smartphone nowadays are designed (or expected) to generate tolerable heat levels even when on doing small tasks so it’s perfectly normal that your S5 may sometimes get warm to touch. This is true even for non-Samsung phones and tablets.

For the next concern about random black screen you are getting when opening the camera app, the reason for that may vary but we did have a reader before who reported it after installing a third party app. Try to clear the camera app’s cache and data. If you continue to experience the same issue, boot your phone in Safe Mode and run third party apps individually until you can replication the problem. That should tell you what the culprit is. This is tedious, for sure, so you may also try to do a factory reset to just simply clear erring apps in general.

For your biggest issue though, the answer lies on what messaging app you are using. If it’s the stock messaging app from Samsung, there is no way to recover deleted messages because they are saved locally, that is, your messages are only stored in the internal storage device of your S5 unlike, say, your Facebook messages which are stored directly to Facebook’s own servers.

We hope we are of help but should you have other concerns, please let us know in your next email to us.

——————–

Red, blue, and green arrows showing at the bottom right part of messaging app screen and unable to use keyboard in Samsung Galaxy S5

Problem: Hi!  Good day to you!

I’m so glad I came across your website. I’m having trouble with my phone’s keyboard and I’m not sure what exactly is the problem.  My phone is Samsung Galaxy S5, software is updated. I had this for just 7 months.

It is actually weird and it is the first time that it happened, today. Out of nowhere while I’m  having a chat with a friend, the spacebar on the keyboard suddenly didn’t respond.  And while investigating on what could’ve happened,  I noticed that there’s a tiny arrow in the bottom right corner of all my messaging apps (Kakao,  Yahoo Messenger, Viber, Facebook, Facebook chat, WhatsApp, WeChat). It varies in color too–red, blue, and green. When it’s green, I can use the keyboard without any problems. But when it’s blue or red, I can only use letters but the space bar and the symbol key are not responding.

I tried downloading a new keyboard app and it  still happens even when I am using the new one.

I was trying to search online but I couldn’t find any similar issue as mine. I have attached screenshots of the arrow in all the messaging apps that I use. You can see that the colors vary.  I’m not even sure how it determines the changes of its colors.

I really hope you can help me as I don’t want to reformat my phone.

(But as you see, I was able to use the keyboard in this email trouble free). Thank you so much and I hope you can help me. More power to you! — Christine

Troubleshooting: Hi Christine. As much as we would like to help you, we are unable to determine what these colored arrows are on the bottom right corner of your messaging apps. We are thinking though that they might be third-party keyboard specific, which means that you may want to revisit the settings of your keyboard and third-party keyboard (if you installed one). Because this happens when you are only using messaging apps, the issue may be tied to a particular keyboard setting you have configured before.

If you did not install any third-party keyboard, try to reinstall one messaging app like Facebook and see if the arrow remains.

We know this may be frustrating but if you cannot restore the messaging app default behaviors, factory reset is always a good last resort.

——————–

Samsung Galaxy S5 setting for vibration pattern and intensity

Problem: Droid Guy. Appreciate your openness to taking on more questions. Overall I’m not the biggest fan of the Lollipop update on my Samsung S5.

Two questions:

  1. I used to have a different vibration pattern for various notifications. For instance, a text message would be two short vibrations. Now all my notifications that are stock apps from Samsung: text message app, email app, etc. are one long vibration. If you go to settings and into vibration intensity it mimics two short vibrations but in reality never does that. I rarely use WhatsApp but noticed it does vibrate twice when a new message comes in. Please help.
  2. Any way to still have your alarm sound when you’re on silent mode/no interruptions without setting a time limit?

Thanks. — Rakesh

Troubleshooting: Hi Rakesh. The only way now to change vibration pattern and length is by picking the available options under Settings > Sounds and notifications > Vibration intensity. Keep in mind though that these settings are universally applied to a type of notification you are receiving and does not give you an option to specifically use for a particular app only. This means that you cannot give one specific vibration pattern for WhatsApp at this time. This is how Lollipop works. We know it’s not ideal but we really don’t have much choice in the matter right now.

For your second question, the answer really lies on the alarm app you are using. There is no way to give indefinite time alarm to the stock alarm app right now. Try using other third party alarm apps to see if there’s a way for you to customize them to fit your needs.

——————–

Lost calendar information in Samsung Galaxy S5 after Lollipop update

Problem: I just finished updating my Galaxy S5 on Verizon Wireless with the Lollipop update when I open the calendar app that comes with the phone all my information was gone! everything else seems to have updated smoothly can I retrieve my calendar information somehow? Any help is appreciated thank you! — Dana

Troubleshooting: Hi Dana. The solution for your problem depends on what calendar app you were using before the update. If this was the stock Google or Samsung calendar, all your information should automatically be migrated to the new one. Google’s calendar is linked to their cloud service so if you using the same Gmail account when you signed in to your phone or calendar after the update, you should still have the old information you had. This is true for Samsung’s Calendar.

However, if you were using a third party calendar app, you must contact the developer for more information how to retrieve (if still possible) your data. If that app was not linked to a cloud server at all in the first place, we doubt if there’s anything else that you can do.

Please let us know in another email if you have further issues.

——————–

Samsung Calendar lost event stickers after a Samsung Galaxy S5 was updated to Lollipop

Problem: Hi. I found your post from 4/6/15 with the section about another Samsung Galaxy S5 user (Mary Syrenne) who lost Calendar data after updating to Lollipop. I had a similar experience, so I wanted to share and to ask for any help you may be able to provide! The issue that I had was that after the Lollipop update, my Samsung Calendar showed my events, but all of the event icon stickers were missing. I had added each event within the Samsung app, always with the option selected to link them to my Google Calendar. I did not have a Samsung account. My guess is that the link to Google allowed my event info, minus the stickers, which don’t seem to be stored by Google Calendar, to be repopulated into the Samsung Calendar app after the Lollipop update and deletion of my Samsung Calendar data. 

I am still holding out hope that the sticker data could be in a Samsung Calendar data file on my phone somewhere (although this does seem unlikely, given that the stickers are still not showing up). More importantly, I am wondering where any Samsung Calendar data info is stored on my phone so that I can create a local backup copy of it in case something like this happens again in the future. Do you know how I may be able to get to any files containing Samsung Calendar data, or could you point me in the direction of someone who may have the answer? Do you know if Mary Syrenne was ever able to recover her data? I imagine this must have happened to many more S5 users who updated to Lollipop, and a solution would be greatly appreciated. Thanks so much! Sincerely. — Lauren

Troubleshooting: Hi Lauren. Samsung’s calendar, also known as S Planner, works in conjunction with the signed in Gmail account on your phone. This means that your Samsung Calendar information should have been kept in Google servers automatically, making it easier to recover data when something happens to the local app copy on a device. But not all information are automatically uploaded to remote servers though due to software compatibility issues. Honestly, we have no official information if codes for Samsung Calendar’s event icon stickers are compatible with Google’s system. However, reality points to the negative as you were able to recover essential calendar information from Google’s remote servers minus the said stickers. Samsung may be holding sole ownership of the sticker codes so Google’s system does not recognize them during regular sync sessions.

Looking for Samsung Calendar files requires rooting your phone so you can access hidden APK files. Lollipop has actually left us stranded at this point as there’s simply nothing that we can do. Mary Syrenne has not contacted us after we published the section that featured her issue so we hope the problem was fixed on her end.

We will do more research on this particular issue of yours so we can also educate other readers in the future. In the meantime, please continue to follow our troubleshooting posts so you will become aware for any solutions that we can provide.

——————–

Samsung Galaxy S5 randomly freezes and goes to black screen

Problem: I’ve had my Samsung Galaxy S5 with a LIFEPROOF case on it since early September and have never had problems with it until lately (this week). Randomly it will freeze and go to a black screen with a few zig zag lines that are all different colors going across the top of the screen. It will power off and get to the very first screen of powering on or restarting as if it will do it successfully repeatedly until it finally slowly powers on and is slow. An error downloading message occurs when I try to update apps whether I use mobile data or Wi-Fi. I’ve tried taking the battery out and it doesn’t do anything different. — Whitney

Troubleshooting: Hi Whitney. Have you installed an app prior to noticing this problem? If you did, that might be the source of this problem. Try to boot your phone in Safe Mode to confirm our hunch. While in Safe Mode, your phone will be forced to only run stock, first party apps so it’s a good method to isolate the issue.

If you did not install anything before this problem, chances are the operating system may be corrupt. Try to clear the cache partition  (instructions provided above) then proceed to factory reset if nothing happens.

Factory reset will erase everything off the phone so make sure you make copies of your data before doing it.

 

Connect with us

We are among the very few people who offer free Android support online and we are serious about it. If you happen to have an issue you want to share, kindly ensure to provide details of the problem as well as a short background or the things you were doing prior to noticing it. Feel free to contact us regarding your concerns, questions and problems. If you are getting error messages on the screen, or have observed unusual phone behaviors,  kindly include them in your email. The more information you can provide, the easier for us to assist you.You may reach us at [email protected] or post on our Facebook and Google+ pages.

TheDroidGuy Mailbag

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


Posts You Might Like

3 thoughts on “Samsung Galaxy S5 Problems, Glitches, Questions, Errors and Solutions [Part 53]”

  1. Hi
    My samsung s5 is missing the spam icon on the email account. Can it be recovered ?. I am running the latest update
    many thanks

  2. I have a Samsung Galaxy s5. I used to be able to open my email, go to the 3 little button menu at the top right and a “delete all” option was there. After the last android update that option has disappeared, inbox and trash folder. Now I have to check the box at the top of each days worth of email and then hit the trash can button. Occasionally I will see the “delete all”, it seems to come and go but mostly it’s gone. Did they take this option away or is something wrong with the settings on my phone?

Leave a Comment