Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge popping up “Unfortunately, Settings has stopped” error after Android 7 Nougat update, other app problems [Troubleshooting Guide]

  • Read and understand why the error message “Unfortunately, Settings has stopped” keeps showing up on your #Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (#S7Edge) and learn how to troubleshoot your phone when it pops up.
  • Understand why some of the apps may crash or force close after a firmware update and learn what you should do to make them work again.
  • Learn how to troubleshoot your phone that keeps showing “Unfortunately, com.samsung.android.sm.devicesecurity has stopped” error.

Galaxy S7 Edge nougat update1

More often, apps crash due to firmware issues. The latter can be caused by firmware updates or anything that may cause some glitches to the system as well as the hardware. App crashes are often represented by error messages like “Unfortunately, Settings has stopped” and other messages that talk about other apps.

In this post, I will tackle three of the common issues reported by some of our readers. If you own a Galaxy S7 Edge and you’ve recently updated it and then issues similar with what we’re tackling here occur, then read on as I’m sure you will learn a thing or two on how to address any of the issues here. Below is the short list of the problems addressed in this post:

If you have other concerns, however, make sure you visit our Galaxy S7 Edge troubleshooting page for we have already addressed hundreds of problems with this device since it was released last year. Try to find issues that are similar with yours and use the solutions or troubleshooting guides we suggested. If they don’t work for you or if you need further assistance, then feel free to contact us by completing our Android issues questionnaire. Make sure you fill up every field and describe the problem as accurate as possible so that we can give you more accurate solutions.

Error “Unfortunately, Settings has stopped” started showing up after Nougat update on S7 Edge

Problem: The error message “Unfortunately, Settings has stopped” keeps bugging me every time I try to access the Settings app to change some settings in my phone. Whenever the error pops up, the phone either freezes for a few seconds or lags until I close the Settings app. There was an update not so long ago, which I think is the cause why this is happening with my phone. If you guys know what I have to do to fix this, please help me. Thanks.

Troubleshooting: First off, we will have to consider that the phone’s firmware has just been updated and apparently, this problem started after the system got bumped up. So, there’s a mix possibility that this issue was caused by corrupt caches, data or even an issue with the app and other glitches. We have to try to thoroughly troubleshoot your phone to be able to determine what the real issue is and that way, we can try to fix the problem. Here’s what you need to do:

Step 1: Try rebooting your S7 Edge if this is the first time the problem occurred

If it’s the first time that this problem occurred, then don’t do anything yet, instead reboot your phone at least a couple of times. This will ensure that the issue isn’t just a minor firmware or hardware glitch.

Step 2: Restart your phone in Safe Mode and try to access Settings

This won’t fix the problem per se but would surely give you an overview what the problem is. If it’s caused by a third-party app, then the error shouldn’t occur when in safe mode. However, if the problem still persists even if all third-party apps are disabled, then it might be a problem with the pre-installed apps or the firmware itself.

  1. Make sure your device was totally off
  2. Press and hold the Power key.
  3. As soon as you can see the ‘Samsung Galaxy S7 EDGE’ on the screen, release the Power key and immediately hold the Volume Down key.
  4. Continue holding the Volume Down button until the device finishes rebooting.
  5. You may release it when you can see ‘Safe mode’ in the bottom left corner of the screen.

Step 3: Delete the system cache since it’s possible the cause is corrupt caches

It is almost inevitable the firmware updates could corrupt some of the caches in your phone get corrupted. When this happens and if the system continuously use the corrupt cache, performance issues might occur or some of the apps might crash. In this case, we’re dealing with the app that’s handling every preference you have. So, basically, you cannot change settings you want changed. In this step, learn how to delete all the system caches by following these steps:

  1. Turn off the phone.
  2. Press and then hold the Home and Volume UP keys, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge shows on the screen, release the Power key but continue holding the Home and Volume Up keys.
  4. When the Android logo shows, you may release both keys and leave the phone be for about 30 to 60 seconds.
  5. Using the Volume Down key, navigate through the options and highlight ‘wipe cache partition.’
  6. Once highlighted, you may press the Power key to select it.
  7. Now highlight the option ‘Yes’ using the Volume Down key and press the Power button to select it.
  8. Wait until your phone is finished wiping the cache partition. Once completed, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and press the Power key.
  9. The phone will now reboot longer than usual.

If this procedure fails, reset your phone but backup your files and data before doing so.

Various apps keep closing and hanging on Galaxy S7 Edge after an update

Problem: So my S7 Edge got an update a couple of days ago, I think it was for the operating system but there was a notification about an update. Don’t have really much of a choice so I downloaded it, after all, it was the first time I got similar notifications. As usual, the process was successful and the phone rebooted after it was finished. Tried to used for a couple of hours finding new features and the like. When I decided to change some things, the error about some settings has stopped popped up then followed by other errors. The phone would then hang or freeze for a several seconds. I’m not quite sure what the problem is but it seems the new update messed up my phone pretty bad. Can you suggest things I could do to fix this? Thanks.

Troubleshooting: It seems that after the new update Nougat released, there’s a lot of Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge owners complained about some apps keeps crashing after launching it for awhile and it displays an error message, I would assume that it’s the same as what you have now. For now, the developers still don’t have any permanent fix  for all the issues, especially for Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge, but they will provide assistance how to get rid of the error message of individual app. An example error is “Unfortunately, message has stopped”, the most common cause of this error is a system crash, meaning some of the files are either corrupted or damaged especially after installing a software updates.

There are delicate files that can be easily corrupted or damaged, if there’s a new system update installed then the system will try to convert and read it but it’s not 100 percent successful and that will cause an issue and mostly the app will crash or won’t launch. And that is the time an error message will display when you try to launch the app again.

We can recommend some basic troubleshooting procedure to narrow down the issue but, we will be fixing the only apps that displays an error message or won’t launch. So, by now you already have an idea if what app in your device is having an issue. Honestly, we don’t know what it is, but the best advice that we can give to you is to copy the error message because it will display the name of the app or service.

Here’s an idea how to determine if it’s a service or an app is having an issue:

  1. Service – If the error message contains or similar words in the example:  Unfortunately, com.sec.phone has stopped”
  2. App – If the error message contains or similar in the example words: “Unfortunately, Facebook has stopped”.

Launch the app again that has an issue, then copy the error message. Now, if you’ve already taken notes of the error message, you can search for that service or app in your device through the Settings. Here’s how:

  1. Go to Settings
  2. Tap Applications
  3. Tap Applications Manager
  4. Navigate by swiping left or right
  5. Go to ALL tab
  6. All applications and services are displayed here, search the name of the app or service, then tap it
  7. Tap Clear cache
  8. Tap Clear data
  9. Go back to Home Screen

In some cases, the app that has an issue is the Settings itself. So, how would you clear the cache and data if you can’t open the Settings menu? Then, the only solution is to clear the system cache partition. It is safe performing this procedure, it won’t delete your important files.  Here’s how to clear the system cache partition:

  1. Turn off the phone.
  2. Press and then hold the Home and Volume UP keys, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge shows on the screen, release the Power key but continue holding the Home and Volume Up keys.
  4. When the Android logo shows, you may release both keys and leave the phone be for about 30 to 60 seconds.
  5. Using the Volume Down key, navigate through the options and highlight ‘wipe cache partition.’
  6. Once highlighted, you may press the Power key to select it.
  7. Now highlight the option ‘Yes’ using the Volume Down key and press the Power button to select it.
  8. Wait until your phone is finished wiping the cache partition. Once completed, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and press the Power key.
  9. The phone will now reboot longer than usual.

After performing the procedure and the issue remained, it might be caused by a third-party app installed. One way to find out is to launch your Setting menu while in Safe mode, if it will launch without any problem, then we recommend removing those app that you installed prior to the issue. But first, let’s boot up your device in Safe mode.

  1. Make sure your device was totally off
  2. Press and hold the Power key.
  3. As soon as you can see the ‘Samsung Galaxy S7 EDGE’ on the screen, release the Power key and immediately hold the Volume Down key.
  4. Continue holding the Volume Down button until the device finishes rebooting.
  5. You may release it when you can see ‘Safe mode’ in the bottom left corner of the screen.

In case the issue remained after booting in Safe mode, then we recommend to start making backups and save it to your flash drive or PC, then proceed and master reset your device.

  1. Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge.
  2. Press and then hold the Home and Volume UP keys, then press and hold the Power key. NOTE: It doesn’t matter how long you press and hold the Home and Volume Up keys, it won’t affect the phone but by the time you press and hold the Power key, that’s when the phone starts to respond.
  3. When the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge shows on the screen, release the Power key but continue holding the Home and Volume Up keys.
  4. When the Android logo shows, you may release both keys and leave the phone be for about 30 to 60 seconds. NOTE: The “Installing system update” message may show on the screen for several seconds before displaying the Android system recovery menu. This is just the first phase of the entire process.
  5. Using the Volume Down key, navigate through the options and highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset.’
  6. Once highlighted, you may press the Power key to select it.
  7. Now highlight the option ‘Yes — delete all user data’ using the Volume Down key and press the Power button to select it.
  8. Wait until your phone is finished doing the Master Reset. Once completed, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and press the Power key.
  9. The phone will now reboot longer than usual.

Bring your device to the nearest Samsung service center or the store you bought it from to let the tech have a look at your device, it might be experiencing a more serious software issue that can’t be done by performing basic troubleshooting procedure, it’s better as early as now it will be taken care of by professionals before it will brick your device.

Galaxy S7 Edge keeps popping up “Unfortunately, com.samsung.android.sm.devicesecurity has stopped” error

Problem: I own the S7 Edge and there was this update that I was notified about I think it was the nougat update. But anyway, the update got downloaded successfully after a few tries. Used the phone for a day and then there was this error message “Unfortunately, com.samsung.android.sm.devicesecurity has stopped.” Had I known this would happen, I never should have downloaded it in the first place. It’s very annoying because it keeps popping up and I don’t really know what triggers it. Can you guys look into this problem? Thanks.

Troubleshooting: When Nougat 7.1,1 was released in the late 2016 issues were also emerged. In fact, this issue is one of the complaints we had received since Nougat 7.1.1 was available to Samsung users. At this point, all you need to do is to narrow down the issue to figure it out what caused the problem to occur. To begin, you need to clear the data of the com.samsung.android.sm.devicesecurity because the data might have been corrupted during the system update. Here’s how to do it:

  1. From the Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
  2. Find and tap on Settings.
  3. Touch Applications and then Application manager.
  4. Swipe to ALL tab.
  5. Find and touch com.samsung.android.sm.devicesecurity.
  6. Tap Storage.
  7. Tap Clear data, then Delete.

However, after clearing the data and the error message still showing up in the phone screen try to perform the next procedure.

In this procedure, we have to delete the cache and data of the Smart manager app because there is a possibility that might have been corrupted. Although this is a built-in app it is advisable to all users to clear the cache and data of the app especially after the system update to replace the old ones.

  1. From the Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
  2. Find and tap on Settings.
  3. Touch Applications and then Application manager.
  4. Swipe to ALL tab.
  5. Find and touch Smart Manager.
  6. Tap Storage.
  7. Tap Clear cache and then Clear data, Delete.

If the issue persists after clearing the cache and data, then you can proceed to the next procedure to figure it out if there are apps affecting device performance.

In this diagnostic state your device will be temporarily disabled all third-party apps installed in the system. So, while in Safe mode observe closely if the error message still pops up on your screen. If not, then obviously there are downloaded apps triggered the issue you can uninstall those suspected apps until the error message won’t occur anymore. To boot it on Safe mode, follow the steps above.

But if safe mode has no avail on the problem the next procedure that you should do is to delete the system cache of the device. Due to the system update you did on your phone the caches might be corrupted, so deleting all of it will get rid the error message to show up in the screen. But nothing to worry about because none of your important files will be deleted.

However, if all procedures could not fix the issue your last resort is to perform master reset on your S7 Edge. But before performing the reset try to backup everything first because unlike to the previous procedures, this will delete all files stored on your phone.

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