- Read and understand why a high-end smartphone like the #Samsung Galaxy S7 (#GalaxyS7) started to freeze after the recent Android #Nougat update and learn how to troubleshoot your device when it happens to you.
One of the most common performance issues you may encounter if you own a smartphone is the freezing. There have been more reports of high-end phones freezing and lagging than any other problems and the fact is that we also receive more complaints regarding this issue.
So, this post is dedicated to the freezing problem many Samsung Galaxy S7 owners may have encountered. The term “freeze” may seem like a minor problem but there have been cases wherein the device started to freeze then the problem progressed to a more serious one–won’t turn on.
The thing is that if the phone started to freeze from time to time, it’s already a sign that something is going on in the background and affects the overall performance of the device. As soon as you experience this problem, it’s better you immediately do something to discover what the problem is all about before the phone suffers from a more serious issue.
Read on to know more about the freezing issue with the Galaxy S7 and understand why it happens to such a powerful device. I will also walk you through in troubleshooting your phone in a bid to fix the problem.
In case you’re looking for a solution to a different problem, visit our troubleshooting page for we have already addressed hundreds of problems with this device. Those problems are based on complaints we received from our readers so there’s a high possibility we’ve already addressed similar issues. Just try to find issues that are the same with yours and feel free to use the solutions we suggested. If they don’t work for you or if you need further assistance, fill up our Android issues questionnaire and hit submit to contact us. Just make sure you provide us with the information we need and we’ll help you find a solution.
Troubleshooting Galaxy S7 that keeps freezing after Nougat
The purpose of this troubleshooting guide is for us to know what the cause of the freezes is, why it occurs and what needs to be done to get rid of it. However, there’s no guarantee that we can fix the problem by ourselves especially if the issue is due to a serious firmware and hardware problems. But as the owner, you should take some time troubleshooting your device as more often than not, these kinds of problems are temporary and can easily be fixed.
Before we jump right into our troubleshooting, here’s one problem sent by one of our readers that best describes the issue…
Problem: Hi guys! I own a Galaxy S7 unit and there seems to be a problem with it now that it has been updated to Android Nougat a few days back. It’s now freezing randomly and I noticed that the freezes become more frequent than usual. The phone freezes for several seconds and I cannot use it when the problem occurs. For an expensive and powerful phone like this, freezes shouldn’t occur, right? Well, it shouldn’t because I’ve been using this phone for almost a year now and it didn’t have this problem until recently. Do you know how to fix this?
Troubleshooting: Actually, you can immediately tell if the freezing is due to an app or the firmware. If it occurs while you’re opening or using an app, it’s most likely linked to that app but if it occurs out of the blue or if you’re using pre-installed apps, then it might be a firmware problem. However, we won’t know for sure what the problem is if we don’t troubleshoot let alone fix it. Therefore, I suggest you try to follow the steps below to troubleshoot this problem:
Step 1: Force reboot your phone when it freezes
I understand that you can still regain access to your phone once it freezes but I also know that a few seconds would seem like hours especially when you’re doing something important and your device freezes for some reason. So, if you can’t wait for your device to become responsive again after it froze, I suggest you do the forced reboot procedure.
Press and hold the Volume Down and the Power keys together for 15 seconds and assuming your phone still has enough battery to power up everything in it, it should reboot normally. The Forced Reboot procedure is more than just the normal reboot. Aside from making your phone respond again, it refreshes the phone’s memory as it does the simulated battery disconnect or the battery pull procedure, which was popular with phones that have removable batteries. The effectiveness of this method depends on how serious the problem is. So, after doing this and the phone is still freezing up, move on to the next step.
Step 2: Reboot your phone in safe mode
Rebooting in safe mode alone doesn’t fix the problem but it sure will give you an idea if it’s caused by one or some of the apps you downloaded from the Play Store or ones you sideloaded as all third-party apps will be temporarily disabled. So, while the device is in safe mode, observe closely to know if it still freezes or not. In case the freezing occurs when you’re using a specific app, try to open that app and if the phone still freezes, then we might be facing a firmware issue. This is how you restart your phone in safe mode:
- Press and hold the Power key.
- When Samsung Galaxy S7 logo appears, release the Power key and immediately hold the volume down key.
- Continue holding the Volume Down key until it finishes its rebooting.
- When “Safe mode” appears on the screen immediately release the Volume Down key.
Assuming the problem gets fixed in this mode, it’s time you tried finding the app that’s causing the problem and clear its cache and data first.
- From Home screen, tap App icon.
- Tap Settings.
- Tap Applications and Application manager.
- Swipe to ALL tab.
- Find and tap suspected app.
- Touch the Force Close button first.
- Tap storage.
- Tap Clear cache and Clear data, Delete.
If clearing the cache and data won’t fix the problem, then you have to uninstall them one by one until the problem gets fixed. To uninstall an app, follow the same procedure but hit Uninstall.
Step 3: Delete the system caches so they can be replaced with new ones
System caches get corrupted most of the time especially during firmware updates and when this happens, performance-related issues may occur and that might be the reason why a high-end phone such as your Galaxy S7 is freezing from time to time. We need to rule this possibility out to see if the problem gets fixed.
- Turn off the phone.
- Press and then hold the Home and Volume UP keys, then press and hold the Power key.
- When the Samsung Galaxy S7 shows on the screen, release the Power key but continue holding the Home and Volume Up keys.
- When the Android logo shows, you may release both keys and leave the phone be for about 30 to 60 seconds.
- Using the Volume Down key, navigate through the options and highlight ‘wipe cache partition.’
- Once highlighted, you may press the Power key to select it.
- Now highlight the option ‘Yes’ using the Volume Down key and press the Power button to select it.
- Wait until your phone is finished wiping the cache partition. Once completed, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and press the Power key.
- The phone will now reboot longer than usual.
You don’t have to backup your files and data when you do this as you’re only deleting the caches and not the data. Once the phone has booted up successfully, try to observe if the phone still freezes and if so, then you have no other choice but to do the next step.
Step 4: Perform Master Reset on your Galaxy S7 to bring it back to its default settings
Firmware issues, as long as they’re not that complex, can easily be fixed by a reset that’s why when all else fails, you have to reset your phone to see if the problem can still be remedied by it. However, make sure you backup all your personal files, pictures, videos, etc. so that they won’t be deleted during the reset. Once you’re ready, follow these steps to reset your device…
- Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S7.
- 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.
- When the Samsung Galaxy S7 shows on the screen, release the Power key but continue holding the Home and Volume Up keys.
- 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.
- Using the Volume Down key, navigate through the options and highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset.’
- Once highlighted, you may press the Power key to select it.
- Now highlight the option ‘Yes — delete all user data’ using the Volume Down key and press the Power button to select it.
- Wait until your phone is finished doing the Master Reset. Once completed, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and press the Power key.
- The phone will now reboot longer than usual.
I hope that this troubleshooting guide helps.
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