I will tackle an issue involving a Samsung Galaxy S6 (#Samsung #GalaxyS6) that entered the boot loop or constant reboots after the recent firmware update. This is one of the most common issues that may occur after updating your device. There hasn’t been any major update rolled out for the Galaxy S6 device yet, so basically, what our reader may have downloaded was an update containing bug fixes and patches.
Minor updates may also cause trouble but any problems that may arise are often fixed without doing some complicated procedure. In fact, this problem kept on happening with previous #SamsungGalaxy devices but the thing is that users couldn’t pull the battery out to perform soft reset, which can potentially fix this kind of problem. I will tackle this issue, too, so read on. Here’s the actual message from our reader to give you an idea how his phone behaves after installing the update…
“My phone is stuck in re-boot after I agreed to let the phone do it’s normal update & restart. I’ve read your article on how to reboot a phone stuck in loop, however the first stage says ‘turn off phone’ and no matter how long I hold the power button down for, it just won’t turn off. Any help would be much appreciated. Thanks, Mel.”
If you were looking for a solution to a different issue, visit the troubleshooting page we’ve setup for Samsung Galaxy S6 as it contains many solutions to problems we already addressed. Find a problem related to your and try our suggestions, if they didn’t work for you then feel free to contact us and provide as much details as possible so we can provide more accurate solutions.
Troubleshooting
This guide will be based on how the user described his problem, although, we still follow the standard procedure in troubleshooting a problem considering the fact that we can’t physically diagnose the issue.
Step 1: Reboot your phone
“…I’ve read your article on how to reboot a phone stuck in loop, however the first stage says ‘turn off phone’ and no matter how long I hold the power button down for, it just won’t turn off.”
In any problem regardless whether it’s firmware- or hardware-related issue, reboot is always a must. It has been proven time and time again that this very simple procedure is very effective in making any device boot up to its optimal settings.
The problem in this guide is that the user already attempted a reboot to no avail. If the phone refuses to turn off using the typical procedure, then it could be that the phone has frozen. But frozen or not, there’s another way to “force” reboot a Galaxy S6.
Press and hold the Volume down and Power key together for 20 to 30 seconds. This will trigger the simulated battery disconnect, which is equivalent to the Soft Reset (battery pull) on Galaxy device with removable battery.
If you can perform this step and successfully bring the phone back to life, you can proceed with other troubleshooting procedures. In case you failed the first time, try again and again but if the phone won’t whatever you do, then you must have a tech take a look at it. There could be something wrong with the Power key.
Step 2: Boot the phone in safe mode
“My phone is stuck in re-boot after I agreed to let the phone do it’s normal update & restart…”
The simulated battery disconnect, as I explained in step 1, is one of the device’s fail-safe measure and as long as all buttons function, you can always do this. That’s why it is imperative you bring the phone to a tech in case it won’t respond or reboot when you pressed and held the Power key and Volume down key for 30 seconds.
Now, assuming the phone responds to when you do the simulated battery disconnect, try this to boot your phone in safe mode.
- Press and hold the Volume Down and Power keys for 20 to 30 seconds.
- Once you see the Samsung logo, release the Power key immediately but continue pressing the Volume Down key.
- Your phone should continue booting up and you will be prompted to unlock your phone as usual.
- You will know if the phone successfully booted in safe mode if the text “Safe mode” is displayed at the lower-left corner of the screen.
In this mode, all third-party or downloaded apps are temporarily disabled but what we actually want to find out is if the phone can boot successfully into this mode because if so, there’s a big chance you can fix the problem.
Step 3: Wipe cache partition
If the Galaxy S6 got stuck during boot up or entered the boot loop after a minor update, more often, some caches got corrupted and need to be cleared so the new system could create new files to replace them. This time, the files would be compatible with the new firmware version.
Assuming you have successfully booted up your phone in safe mode, then you can follow this procedure step by step…
- Turn off the device.
- Press and hold the following three buttons at the same time: Volume Up key, Home key, and 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 cache partition.’
- Press the Power key to select.
- When the wipe cache partition is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
- Press the Power key to restart the device.
Once you’ve done wiping the cache partition, the phone will reboot and should be able to reach the Home screen. The problem should have already been fixed at this point, if not, then the last step will.
Step 4: Perform Master Reset
Assuming you have already wiped the cache partition to no avail, it’s time to bring the phone back to its factory defaults. This, however, doesn’t mean that the new firmware will be uninstalled; it will remain in the phone but all downloaded apps, files, data and settings will be deleted. The data partition where all system files are stored will be reformatted.
Follow the steps to start your phone in safe mode again and then follow these steps…
- Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge.
- Press and hold the Volume Up, Home and Power keys together.
- When the device powers on and displays ‘Power on logo’, release all keys and the Android icon will appear on the screen.
- Wait until the Android Recovery Screen appears after about 30 seconds.
- Using the Volume Down key, highlight the option, ‘wipe data/factory reset’ and press the Power key to select it.
- Press the Vol Down button again until the option ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted and then press the Power key to select it.
- After the reset is complete, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and hit the Power key to restart the phone.
As far as troubleshooting is concerned, this is as far as you go. After all these and the problem remained, send the device in for repair.
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