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Apps Keep Crashing

How to fix Youtube that keeps crashing on Samsung Galaxy Note 8 (easy steps)

Youtube is one of the mandatory apps Google requires Android manufacturers to integrate into their phones. So, if you have an Android device, expect it to have Youtube and other Google apps. It’s deeply integrated into the system and it seldom has issues like other third-party apps. However, we have readers who own the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 who’ve been complaining recently about the error message “Unfortunately, Youtube has stopped” which basically notifies users that the app crashed for some reason.

This isn’t the first time we encountered an issue like this. In fact, we’ve also experienced crashing issues wherein the app just closes on its own without apparent reason. Of course, one way to make things work smoothly in a phone with pretty high specifications like the Note 8 is to keep all apps updated. Google can push updates whenever it wants and most of the time when apps like Youtube are being updated, you will be prompted the moment you open it. In some cases however, instead of being prompted with an update, some owners are notified by an error and that’s what we have to address in this case. So, if you’re one of the owners of this great phone and are currently bugged by a similar problem, continue reading as I will share with you the solution for this issue.

Before going further, if you found this post because you were trying to find a solution to your problem, then try to visit our Galaxy Note 8 troubleshooting page as we’ve already addressed most of the commonly reported issues with the phone. We’ve already provided solutions to some of the problems reported by our readers so try to find issues that are similar with yours and use the solutions we suggested. If they don’t work for you and if you need further assistance, fill up our Android issues questionnaire and hit submit.

How to fix Galaxy Note 8 with Youtube app that keeps crashing

When a default or pre-installed app crashes, more often, the problem is with the app itself and it’s pretty much easy to fix. However, there are times when the problem is with the firmware considering the fact that it’s embedded in the firmware. We know a method or two that could take care of this problem so continue reading…

First Solution: Reboot your Note 8

If it’s the first time that Youtube crashed, then don’t do anything that could potentially mess up settings in your phone. Instead, reboot your device to refresh its memory as well as reload all core services.

There are times when the firmware and apps glitch and while they may seem like a serious problem, they’re not; you can fix them with a simple reboot. So, hit that Power key and take a little time rebooting it. After that, open Youtube to know if the app still crashes and if it does, try the Forced Reboot procedure.

Press and hold the Volume Down button and the Power key together for 10 seconds. It will reboot your phone but during the process, the phone simulates battery disconnect. It’s effective against minor firmware glitches as well. If the problem occurs, then move on to the next step.

Second Solution: Clear cache and data of Youtube

By deleting Youtube’s cache and data you’re actually resetting the app back to its default settings. There are times when caches and data get corrupted and when it happens, the app’s performance might be affected and may result to unexpected crashes. This is how you do it:

From a Home screen, touch and swipe up or down to display all apps.
From a Home screen, navigate: Settings > Apps.
Tap App Manager.
Locate then tap Youtube.
Tap Storage.
Tap CLEAR CACHE.
Tap Cached data.
Tap CLEAR.

This is the most effective solution to almost all app-related problems but then there’s no guarantee that it will work to all cases. So, in case the problem continues after this, then the next method will definitely fix the problem.

Third Solution: Backup your files and data and reset your phone

For every app-related problem, a reset is also very effective especially if the app in question is pre-installed. However, you will have to go through all the hassle of backing up your files and data. So transfer your files over to the SD card or your computer. After the backup, disable the Factory Reset Protection by removing your Google account from your phone so that you won’t be locked out of your device after the reset. Once everything is set and ready, follow these steps to reset your phone:

Back up data on the internal memory. If you have signed into a Google account on the device, you have activated Anti-theft and will need your Google credentials to finish the Master reset.
Turn off the device.
Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
When the green Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
Press the Volume down key several times to highlight “wipe data / factory reset.
Press Power button to select.
Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
When the master reset is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
Press the Power key to restart the device.

I hope that this post can help you one way or another. Regardless whether this works or not, leave a comment below so we would know. Thanks for reading.

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Posts you may also like to read:

How to fix common Samsung Galaxy S7 apps issues & other problems caused by applications

Learn how to #troubleshoot the #Samsung Galaxy S7 (#GalaxyS7) error message “Unfortunately, an app has stopped” when trying to open an app.
What to do if some of your apps randomly crash, freeze or force close after updating the firmware in your device.
Troubleshooting procedures you need to do if some apps cause the phone to crash, freeze or reboot after installation.
Learn more about some of app-related problems sent by our readers.

There are millions of apps in the Play Store and most of them are compatible with any Android phones in the market today but it doesn’t mean there won’t be any issues with them. The fact is, app related issues happen everyday and they occur in various ways with different causes. Some of them can be fixed easily while others may require users to do further troubleshooting procedures to have a chance at discovering a solution.

The good thing about third-party apps is that they’re expendables; you can just get rid of an app if it’s causing too much trouble. In this post, I will guide you in troubleshooting app problems that Samsung Galaxy S7 owners reported to us and I will answer some of the questions our readers sent to us in a bid to discover how to fix their issues.

But before going further, should you have other issues with your device, visit our S7 troubleshooting page where we list down every problem or question we address each week. Try to find issues that are similar or related to yours and use the solutions we recommended. If you need further assistance, then don’t hesitate to contact us by completing our Android problems questionnaire.

Troubleshoot “Unfortunately, an app has stopped” error

You will know that you have this problem because you’ll encounter an error message that goes “Unfortunately, the app has stopped” every time you open a problematic application. Aside from random force closing, this one occurs more often, too. The good thing is it can be fixed by troubleshooting the app in question as most of the time the issue is limited to it and the first thing you need to do is clear its cache and data:

From the Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
Find and tap on Settings.
Touch Applications and then Application manager.
Swipe to ALL tab.
Find and touch the app in question.
Touch the Force Close button first.
Then, tap Storage.
Tap Clear cache and then Clear data, Delete.

If clearing the cache and data didn’t do any good, then you’ll have to uninstall the app and re-install it if it’s a third-party one. For pre-installed apps, the best thing you can do is proceed with firmware troubleshooting because they embedded in the system.

Some apps started to randomly crash after a firmware update

This is apparently a compatibility issue between the apps that crash and the new system. It’s been several weeks since Galaxy S7 was released and some owners may have already received a few updates. In fact, we already received a few complaints about this issue.

According to some of our readers, some of the apps they installed when they got the phone randomly close or crash after the update. There hasn’t been any major updates for the S7 yet but since they’re already experiencing this problem, it’s clear the issue with the system cache. That said, the best thing to do is to wipe the cache partition:

Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S7.
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.

Galaxy S7 freezes and lags after installing some apps

This is still a compatibility issue but on a higher scale because this time, it’s not just the app that keeps crashing but also the system. Things like this happen all the time and there are a couple of procedures you can do to rectify the problem. The first thing is to uninstall the app you suspect is causing the problem but since there are times when the phone is slow to respond or if the Settings menu is inaccessible, it’s better if you boot your phone in safe mode first.

Press and hold the Power key.
As soon as you can see the ‘Samsung Galaxy S7’ on the screen, release the Power key and immediately hold the Volume Down key.
Continue holding the Volume Down button until the device finishes rebooting.
You may release it when you can see ‘Safe mode’ in the bottom left corner of the screen.

Once in safe mode, you can easily uninstall third-party apps that have issues with the new firmware. You may then try to re-install them to see if the new version works well with the new version of Android. If not, then you have no choice but to perform the master reset. But please note that you will lose all your data and files that are stored in your phone’s memory if you do this, so back them up before following the steps below:

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.

Now, let’s go to some questions from our readers who are experiencing app-related issues.

Q: “Some apps in my Galaxy S7 can’t update or some of my feeds aren’t updated. It’s because the Wi-Fi connection isn’t working and I don’t want to use up my data. We have Wi-Fi at home and in my office so having to use mobile data is out of the question. The thing is my phone can’t connect to any of the Wi-Fi because the switch is greyed out. What should I do?”

A: This problem often occurs after an update regardless if it’s a minor update or a big one. It’s caused by some corrupt caches so the best thing you can do is wipe the cache partition and if that won’t, do the master reset.

Q: “I use my own Exchange Server 2010 to host my contacts, calendars and emails. I sync my mobile phone against this Exchange Server since a lot of years. The Name Solutions is done by a dynamic DNS Provider (formerly DynDNS, now selfhost.eu) This construct works fine since a lot of years. I used it with my S3 and S5. My wife uses these Settings until now successfully with a S5. Only my brand new S7 makes problems with these settings. If I’m connected to my WLAN at home, all works fine. If I’m connected to the mobile network, the mobile phone doesn’t find my server. But, if I change the settings for the Exchange account from server name to server IP address, all works fine until my internet provide changes my IP address – of course.

I already contacted the Hotline of my network Provider (Vodafone). He said, ask Samsung. I contacted the Samsung customer service. He said, this is a problem with your server and there isn’t a problem with the S7. But why it works on a S3, it works on a S5 and it doesn’t work on a S7? Why it works on WLAN and not on the mobile network? Why it works by IP address and not by server name? What is the difference between S3/S5 and S7 in the handling with the exchange settings? The settings are absolutely the same.”

A: It must be a bug in the firmware and Samsung has to do something about it. Try to see if there’s an available update for your phone and download it. If there’s none, I suggest you continue using the IP address instead of the server name. The bright side is, at least, you can still make it work.

Q: “Not sure if you can help but every time I try to purchase a song on the Play Store, I get the following error message: Error while retrieving information from server. [BM-PPH-01]

I can download other apps no problem and I’ve followed all the other forum solutions to go to Application Manager, Google Services Framework, Force Stop and Clear cache etc and reboot… problem persists.

Hope you can help me. Thanks! — Rita.”

A: Just wait it out, Rita. I think the problem is with Google and not your phone. This error happened a hundred times in the past and it all points to Google’s services issues.

Q: “This is an on going issue with the new phone. When I upgraded from the S5 to the S7 files were transferred from my old phone to the new phone via an app from the app store at a t-mobile location. All contacts, pictures, apps, etc were transferred over smoothly. The whatsapp calling feature and video keeps failing with overseas calls and in the United States. Sending text or voice messages is fine. Viper works some of the time but eventually fails. I think the problem is a direct issue with the new marshmallow operating system, considering it is brand new and the developers of whatsapp have not found a solution or work around yet. I’ve contacted the developer but have not received a response. Does TDG have a resolution for this problem? Thank you!”

A: If you received an update recently prior to this problem, then I suggest you try wiping the cache partition first and if that won’t work, do the master reset. Please follow the steps above. I believe it has something to do with corrupt caches and data.

Q: “Sync disabled on Facebook app greyed out tried everything.”

A: You might be disappointed in knowing this but the sync feature with Facebook has already been retired for some unclear reasons. There’s nothing we can do about it. Try using Sync.Me app from Play Store and see if you’d have some success with it.

Q: “I got my phone about a week ago and when i first got it, the sales person cut up my micro sim to nano sim manually so that it can fit to the sim card slot. I noticed then when putting the sim card tray into the device, it takes much more effort than it normally would.

The next day, the phone showed emergency calls only so I restarted the device and it went back to normal. On that night, I checked the phone again and like earlier today, it displayed emergency calls only again, so I tried to restart it again and it went back to normal.

This thing has been going on for about a week now and it’s starting to get annoying as I need to restart the phone almost every hour.”

A: I think you might have to call your provider about it because the “Emergency Calls only” mode means the phone can’t recognize the SIM card. It means it can detect something is mounted but it just can’t recognize it. Since it was manually cut, there’s a chance the interface on the card doesn’t make contact properly with the phone’s receptors.

Q: “Hello, I am having a problem with my S7. My notifications will not come thru will connected to my work wifi (email, snapchat etc.) It works fine on my home wifi and as soon as I walk out of work and disconnect from the wifi, all the notification will come through. I tried restarting the phone, turning the wifi off and back on, forgetting wifi. I’ve run out of ideas to try. Hopefully you have a solution for this problem. Thanks!”

A: For these apps, no notifications means no internet connection. You may be connected to your company’s network but there’s no guarantee you would have an internet connection. That said, I think you should contact your company’s IT department about it because apparently, the Wi-Fi in your phone works.

Q: “The notification continues to beep until I actually check my message whether is txt email or notifications on other applications. So I have to shut down all notifications in order to avoid the disturbing vibration during work and at night while sleeping. How can I fix this problem?”

A: It’s the Notification reminder in Accessibility that makes your phone beeps until you actually check on the new notifications. Just go to Settings > Accessibility and turn off notification reminder.

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Galaxy S5 lags and very slow in opening apps, touchscreen won’t respond when outdoors, other issues

Hello Android community! We welcome you again to another #GalaxyS5 article that answers some questions thrown at us for the past few days. If you can’t find any solution to your problem here, make sure to also visit our other S5 articles in this page.

Below are the specific topics we cover for you today:

Galaxy S5 is dead and won’t turn back on
Galaxy S5 won’t connect to mobile data
Galaxy S5 “Unfortunately, the process com.android.phone has stopped.” error when making calls | Galaxy S5 can’t make calls
Galaxy S5 overheating and freezing
Galaxy S5 touchscreen won’t respond when outdoors
Galaxy S5 lags and very slow in opening apps
Galaxy S5 lags a lot after installing Android update | Galaxy S5 has multiple issues after an update

If you are looking for solutions to your own #Android issue, you can contact us by using the link provided at the bottom of this page, or you can install our free app from Google Play Store.

When describing your issue, please be as detailed as possible so we can easily pinpoint a relevant solution. If you can, kindly include the exact error messages you are getting to give us an idea where to start. If you have already tried some troubleshooting steps before emailing us, make sure to mention them so we can skip them in our answers.

Problem #1: Galaxy S5 is dead and won’t turn back on

Hi. My Samsung Galaxy S5 is only 3 months old. I noticed last week on 2 occasions that when I thought I had taken a picture it didn’t capture it (thought it must have been my fault but now with what’s happened maybe it was a sign something was wrong).

Yesterday my phone did an update (can’t tell you which one) which I tried to decline but it did it anyway. The phone switched off and back on again. Throughout the day I found it was a bit slower than normal to bring up apps, e.g. Facebook and when I clicked on a link, say on Facebook, it would bring up a white page and seem to be attempting to load but would just take ages.

About 6 hours after the update my phone just died without any warning. Battery life was at about 50% at the time. I have tried removing the battery, tried holding all 3 buttons down, tried charging it but it it still remains dead. Any advice would be appreciated. Thanks. — Rhonda

Solution: Hi Rhonda. The main concern that you want to address here obviously is how to turn the phone back on. To do that, you must try to see if you can make the phone respond by booting it to other modes. If your phone would boot to any of the three alternate modes, you can then do follow up troubleshooting. For example, if you’ll be able to turn the phone on to recovery mode, you would then be able to wipe the cache partition and perform a factory reset.

If your phone remains unresponsive though and won’t boot to any of the alternate boot modes below, you should send the phone in.

For reference, here are the exact steps on how to start your phone to alternate modes:

Boot in Recovery mode:

Charge the phone for at least 30 minutes.
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.’
You can either wipe the cache partition or do a factory reset when in this mode.

Boot in Download Mode:

Charge the phone for at least 30 minutes.
Press and then hold the Home and Volume DOWN 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 DOWN keys.
Wait until the Download screen appears.
If you can boot the phone in download mode but not in other modes, that means that your only way out may be to flash a stock or custom firmware.
Use Google to look for a guide on how to do it.

Boot in safe mode:

Charge the phone for at least 30 minutes.
Press and hold the Power button.
Once the ‘Samsung Galaxy S7’ logo appears, release the Power key and immediately press and hold the Volume Down button.
Continue holding the button until the phone finishes rebooting.
Once you see the text “Safe mode” at the bottom left corner of the screen, release the Volume Down button.
The only difference of safe mode from normal mode is that the former prevents third party apps from running. If you can boot the phone in safe mode but not in normal mode, uninstall all apps until the issue (that prevents you from booting normally) is eliminated.

Problem #2: Galaxy S5 won’t connect to mobile data

Thank you for all of your tips on S5 data connection issues. I have tried them all including the factory reset. I am at my wit’s end and I cannot find a solution to my problem. December 2016, we switched to Cricket from Verizon. I took my S5 to their network. Everything has worked beautifully up until 3-13-17. I updated some apps over the weekend. When I went to work on Monday, Chrome & some of the other apps that access data would not work. I did everything, then a factory reset, still Chrome will not work. I live 11 miles from town, my data connection works fine, I can use Chrome and any of the apps that require data but when I get to town my S5 shows that I have a data connection and I can make phone calls & text but I cannot use chrome or any other app that uses data. They just spin their wheels. I tested my phone by driving outside of city limits in all 4 directions. On average I got all functionality of my apps back when I was 1-2 miles from town. I don’t know what is going on! — Jessie

Solution: Hi Jessie. If factory reset did not fix the issue, then the problem must be account- or network-related. The update you installed must have changed some network settings so there may be a need to reconfigure your phone. We have no idea how to do that so you should ask help from Verizon. Be sure to let your carrier know of the problem so they can assist you directly.

Problem #3: Galaxy S5 “Unfortunately, the process com.android.phone has stopped.” error when making calls | Galaxy S5 can’t make calls

I have issues with my S5 Android phone. When I receive or make a call, it cuts the call short and immediately the network signal strength fades away completely!!!! This is immediately followed by: “Unfortunately, the process com.android.phone has stopped.” Once I tap OK, it takes a while before the network gets back again, but sometimes it again fluctuates between ON and OFF! I have completely failed to make a call that lasts even a minute! I have tried troubleshooting but no luck. Kindly help. — Joy

Solution: Hi Joy. Any app that starts with “com,” like the com.android.phone is part of the phone’s core apps so you can try to force close it under Application Manager. If you can’t find the com.android.phone app in the list of apps, look for the Phone app instead. Depending on how an app is designed, force closing it may also return it to its default or original state so make sure that you that first. Here are the exact steps:

How to clear cache and data (in Android Lollipop)

Go to Settings.
Proceed to Applications.
Select Manage Applications.
Tap the All tab.
Choose the name of the app that has been going rogue.
From there, you will see the Clear Cache and Clear Data buttons.

How to clear cache and data (in Android Marshmallow and Nougat)

Open the Settings menu either through your notification shade (drop-down) or through the Settings app in your app drawer.
Navigate down to “Apps”. This may be renamed to something like Applications or Application Manager in OEM skinned versions of Android 6.0.
Once in there, click on an application.
You’ll now see a list of stuff that gives you information about the app, including Storage, Permissions, Memory Use, and more. These are all clickable items. You’ll want to click on Storage.
You should now clearly see the Clear Data and Clear Cache buttons for the application.

Clearing the cache partition may also help in this case so make sure that you do it if clearing the phone app’s cache and data won’t work. Here’s how:

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.

Problem #4: Galaxy S5 overheating and freezing

Gets hot and stops everything. Frozen on. New battery helped about a week. I also went back to default and redownloaded apps. Contact restored when I signed into outlook/msn and photos restored when I signed into google. My SD card was wiped out with going back to default. Today it happened again. It was so hot I put it in the freezer then did the 45 second deal to hold the power button on followed by volume up. It is now charging and I hope it did not go back to default again. I am trying to hold on for Samsung 8 due for release March 29th. — Onthego78

Solution: Hi Onthego78. If overheating happens randomly, it may be due to a software glitch but when it’s happening together with other symptoms like the ones you mention here, it’s almost always a sign of bad hardware. To check, try wiping the phone clean with factory reset and see how it goes. If the phone continues to overheat and freeze after a factory reset and even without any apps and updates installed, that’s proof enough that hardware is to blame. In this case, you can choose the phone to be sent in to Samsung, or wait for the new Galaxy S8.

To factory reset your phone, kindly do the following 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 Volume 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.

NOTE: Factory reset will delete everything in your phone’s internal storage device so make sure to create a backup of your files before doing it.

Problem #5: Galaxy S5 touchscreen won’t respond when outdoors

Hey. My touch screen has been acting up really badly particularly when I’m outdoors. What happens is that the touch screen becomes completely irresponsive and then it’s similar to the Nintendo 2DS ghost touch issue where I cannot even touch my screen and it will spam numbers into the password box on my lock screen. It starting to occasionally happen while I’m indoors as well. I did get a small crack (just the one it didn’t web) on it in February 2016 but my touch screen only started to act up a few weeks ago. Have any ideas on what’s going on? — Kate

Solution: Hi Kate. This screen behavior is definitely not normal and we haven’t heard of it before. It can be due to a software glitch so we recommend that you try a factory reset first. Because factory reset will return all software setting to their defaults, it’s an effective way to eliminate bugs that may have developed over time. If there’s an operating system glitch causing the problem, factory reset should remove it easily.

And like what we tell Onthego78 above, be sure to replicate the issue and observe the phone right after a factory reset without installing any apps or updates. If the screen continues to behave erratically, have the phone repaired or replaced.

Problem #6: Galaxy S5 lags and very slow in opening apps

Hi (sorry I don’t know your name?).

I saw your article of speeding up a mobile phone. My case is that my dad’s Samsung Galaxy S5 android version 4.4.2 is running INCREDIBLY slow. I mean it’s still running, but you know that type of device to requires you to sit in front of it for three days until the app you tapped on finally opens (yeah I’m exaggerating but it seems really literal-like). It’s driving ME crazy. yeah I have my own phone and all but my dad had just freaking bought that phone and it freaking treats him like that?? I think you understand that parents don’t follow up with technology these days and I was the only one handling most problems on his previous devices, fixing things and stuff and whatnot. I just wanna see him using his tab happily after a day’s of hard work and rest. Instead he has to go through a most stressful time waiting, even thinking it as a normal phenomena. I really need your help to boost it. I mean something more than removing widgets and clearing cache. You know that sort of stuff. And apps like Flipboard and Dropbox etc. are uninstallable. Some Androids don’t have them and you don’t even really use them, you know what I mean? That just helps lag the device. Do you have any really good and recommended device-boosting app that really lives up to its name and not just an addition to the lag? Or any one-tap trick that makes the tab go fast. At least it goes in a normal pace, not a slow one let alone an incredibly slow one. I think we get each other. Just please help me as a daughter who wants to see her hardworking dad enjoy his new electronic. Thanks, DroidGuy.

Yours. — Mary

Solution: Hi Mary. A brand new Galaxy S5 should not have any perceivable performance problem so we’re assuming that your dad’s phone is not brand new at all. It may be a used one and had seen better days since the Galaxy S5 was released about 2 years ago. If it belongs to the first batches of Galaxy S5 released a couple of years back, you should never expect much from it when it comes to performance. The older a smartphone is, the more cluttered its storage and memory becomes. This results to slower overall performance. From this point on, the phone’s performance will only degrade and never improve. And there’s no app that can help you reverse the degradation at all. The thing is, the more app you put in the system, the more that it slows the phone down.

If you’re willing to do some advanced stuff to remedy the situation, we recommend that you do some research on how to root the phone and on how to flash (install known, good firmware). Rooting and flashing procedures are beyond the scope of this article so try to invest some time reading some literature on who to do these procedures on your phone.

Problem #7: Galaxy S5 lags a lot after installing Android update | Galaxy S5 has multiple issues after an update

Good day. Recently my phone updated it’s Android system to 6.0.1, and after that next problem began to occur:

When I call someone my phone just lags a lot. Contacts and Phone apps just freezes and I can’t do anything except rebooting it by taking off battery. Sometimes it says that System app stopped to work.

And the most interesting thing is when I take my phone and listen to it (display turn off because I take phone to my ear) there are no crashes, lags or freezes and everything works just fine.

I believe it happened because of new Android update (I haven`t been installing any new apps or doing some work to phone for last few months).

With best regards, Oleksii

P.S.

I’m sorry for my awful English language skills.

Solution: Hi Oleksii. The first thing that you want to do is to install app updates. This is often an important step that many Android users fail to do after install an Android update. Updating the operating system without making sure that all apps are compatible and updated as well can lead to incompatibility issues. You must make sure that all your apps are up-to-date and compatible with the current Android version that you have. If you aren’t sure about the compatibility of an app, try to visit its installation page in the Play Store and check reviews of other users. You can also contact its developer for direct answers.

If all your apps are updated at this time, the next steps that you want to do should include wiping the cache partition, observing the phone in safe mode, and doing factory reset (steps provided above).

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If you are one of the users who encounters a problem with your device, let us know. We offer solutions for Android-related problems for free so if you have an issue with your Android device, simply fill in the short questionnaire in this link and we will try to publish our answers in the next posts. We cannot guarantee a quick response so if your issue is time sensitive, please find another way to resolve your problem.

If you find this post helpful, please help us by spreading the word to your friends. TheDroidGuy has social network presence as well so you may want to interact with our community in our Facebook and Google+ pages.

How to fix Instagram that keeps crashing on a Samsung Galaxy Note 8 (easy steps)

Instagram, being one of the most popular apps in the Google Play Store, is well-developed and maintained and if there are problems with it, they would be minimal and oftentimes easy to fix. However, some of the owners of the Samsung Galaxy Note 8 have been complaining about the app that reportedly keeps on crashing. Such problem could be limited to the app only or it could also be a sign of a serious firmware issue.

In this post, I will share with you the solution that we’ve been using to fix issues that are something to do with the crashing of apps. Problems like this are pretty easy to fix provided the firmware hasn’t been modified in any way. However, for owners who have installed custom ROMs, you may refer to the changelog that developers often provide to let users know what works and what not.

How to fix your Galaxy Note 8 with Instagram app that keeps crashing

When it comes to problems with third-party apps, you always have a choice to remove it if the problem isn’t fixed by basic troubleshooting procedures. However, based on experience, there would always be a method that would get rid of the problem or any app-related error messages. So, read on to learn how to fix Instagram that keeps crashing…

First solution: Reboot your Samsung Galaxy Note 8

It’s the most basic of troubleshooting procedures but it’s also very effective against almost all issues you may encounter with your phone. The things is a reboot is more than just turning the phone off and on again, services and core functions running in the background are also being reloaded during the boot sequence.

So, hit that Power key and reboot your phone before anything else. Once the phone has successfully rebooted, open Instagram to know if it would still crash or show the error. If so, then move on to the next solution.

Second solution: Reset Instagram by clearing its cache and data

This is the most effective procedure to any app-related problem. Even if the reboot didn’t fix it, this one might be the last thing you have to do about this problem. By doing this, you’re actually resetting the app back to its default settings while deleting all of its caches and data that may have been corrupted for some reason. This is how you do it:

From a Home screen, touch and swipe up or down to display all apps.
From a Home screen, navigate: Settings > Apps.
Tap App Manager.
Locate then tap Instagram.
Tap Storage.
Tap CLEAR CACHE.
Tap Cached data.
Tap CLEAR.

After this, open the app to see if it still closes on its own or shows up the error. You have to log in to your account to sync the phone with Instagram servers. However, if the problem remains, then try the next procedure.

Third solution: Uninstall Instagram and reinstall it

The reason why I prefer uninstalling an app and reinstalling it rather than just updating it is that when you remove an app from your phone, all files associated with it will also be removed. There’s always a possibility that some of those files are the cause of the problem that’s why it’s important to delete them all before you reinstall the app. By this, you’re also making sure you have the latest version of the app. So, to do these procedures, follow these steps…

From a Home screen, touch and swipe up or down to display all apps.
From a Home screen, navigate: Settings > Apps.
Tap App Manager.
Locate then tap Instagram.
Tap UNINSTALL.
Review the notification then tap OK to confirm.
Reboot your phone to refresh it’s memory and other connections.

Now, to reinstall Snapchat, follow these steps…

From a Home screen, touch and swipe up or down to display all apps.
Tap Play Store.
Type ‘instagram’ in the search box.
Select Instagram then tap Install.
To continue, review the required app permissions then tap Accept.

After this and the problem still continues, then you have to do the next method. App problems can be fixed by this but if for some reason the problem continues after you’ve reinstalled the app, then we can now say that problem is with the firmware. The next thing you should do is reset your device.

Fourth Solution: Backup your files and do the Master Reset

After doing the third solution and the problem still continues, then it’s possible that the issue is with the firmware. App-related problems can always be fixed by the first three solutions but since the problem with your phone continues, then it’s time to use the method that has a really great impact on your phone’s performance. So, backup all your files and data as they will be deleted during the reset process, then disable the Factory Reset Protection by removing your Google ID from your phone. Once everything is ready, follow these steps to reset your phone:

Back up data on the internal memory. If you have signed into a Google account on the device, you have activated Anti-theft and will need your Google credentials to finish the Master reset.
Turn off the device.
Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
When the green Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
Press the Volume down key several times to highlight “wipe data / factory reset.
Press Power button to select.
Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
When the master reset is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
Press the Power key to restart the device.

If you’re having a hard time removing your Google account, follow this procedure:

From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open the Apps tray.
Tap Settings > Cloud and accounts.
Tap Accounts.
Tap Google.
Tap on your Google ID email address if multiple accounts are setup. If you have multiple accounts setup, you will need to repeat these steps for each account.
Tap 3 dot icon.
Tap Remove account.
Tap REMOVE ACCOUNT.

I hope that this works for you. If you have other concerns you want to share with us, leave a comment below.

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Photos taken by Galaxy S7 camera app do not show in Gallery, other issues

Hello guys! Welcome to another #GalaxyS7 article! As usual, we bring you more S7 issues by publishing the experiences of some of our readers when using their S7. We hope that this material will help not only the users mentioned here but also those who may be experiencing the same problem.

Below are the specific topics we cover for you:

Galaxy S7 won’t power back on
Accidentally dropped Galaxy S7 won’t boot back up
Galaxy S7 screen is unresponsive and flickering
Galaxy S7 apps stop responding | Galaxy S7 keeps vibrating in quick succession
Water-damaged Galaxy S7 won’t turn on
How to unlock Galaxy S7 edge when PIN fails
Photos taken by Galaxy S7 camera app do not show in Gallery

If you are looking for solutions to your own #Android issue, you can contact us by using the link provided at the bottom of this page, or you can install our free app from Google Play Store.

Problem#1: Galaxy S7 won’t power back on

Hi there. As of this afternoon, I’m having problems with my Samsung Galaxy S7. I’ve been using the Phone for a few months now, and I have to say it’s been quite a disappointment because of a variety of issues that have plagued me. The significant being that since the latest update my phone will do random restarts every 2 or 3 days. When it does, it seldom boots up successfully in one go. Usually it’ll freeze in the middle of loading the Samsung logo and then just reboot by itself starting all over again. After about 10 – 15 times it will boot up successfully and I’m able to use to phone without any issues. I have to say that even doing a factory reset has not solved this problem. While this is annoying, it’s not something I’m willing to bring my phone to a technician over, since that would be quite a hassle for me.

The real problem I’m facing is what happened today. This afternoon I was using my phone without any problems, and when I was done I pressed the button that locks the screen and put it on my desk. About 10 minutes later I wanted to check the time and the phone is just dead. No response to anything. I’ve tried troubleshooting it with help of this website, but I haven’t been able to get the phone to boot. It’s very cold, much colder than it usually is so I assume it’s turned off. The battery isn’t the problem because it was freshly charged, 90%+ when I was using it. Connecting it to the charger also doesn’t do anything. No screen, no LEDs, nothing at all. Neither does connecting it to my PC. The phone also stays cold, while usually when it charges it warms up quite a bit. I’ve tried the Power + Volume Down button, Volume Up + Power + Home button, All buttons at once, all to no avail. I also probably have to note that a few days ago my phone fell for the first time, on a tile bathroom floor, cracking the backside glass but it seemed to function fine until today. Is there anything else I can do or should I just go to a technician? Thanks in advance. — Tony

Solution: Hi Tony. The only thing that you can do in this situation is try to restart the phone to other modes by doing the steps below. If the phone remains unresponsive and continue to fail to boot in any way, your only option is to send it in. there may be a hardware problem that causes the phone to fail to start normally, or to accept a charge.

And just to be sure, try to use another USB cable and charger to see if that will change anything. You can also check the charging port for any debris or lint that may prevent good contact with the charger. There may be a damaged pin in the charging port as well so if you can, try to do a closer inspection of the port.

For the benefit of other readers, here are the steps on how to boot your phone to other modes:

Boot in Recovery mode:

Charge the phone for at least 30 minutes.
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.’
You can either wipe the cache partition or do a factory reset when in this mode.

Boot in Download Mode:

Charge the phone for at least 30 minutes.
Press and then hold the Home and Volume DOWN 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 DOWN keys.
Wait until the Download screen appears.
If you can boot the phone in download mode but not in other modes, that means that your only way out may be to flash a stock or custom firmware.
Use Google to look for a guide on how to do it.

Boot in safe mode:

Charge the phone for at least 30 minutes.
Press and hold the Power button.
Once the ‘Samsung Galaxy S7’ logo appears, release the Power key and immediately press and hold the Volume Down button.
Continue holding the button until the phone finishes rebooting.
Once you see the text “Safe mode” at the bottom left corner of the screen, release the Volume Down button.
The only difference of safe mode from normal mode is that the former prevents third party apps from running. If you can boot the phone in safe mode but not in normal mode, uninstall all apps until the issue (that prevents you from booting normally) is eliminated.

Problem #2: Accidentally dropped Galaxy S7 won’t boot back up

My S7 edge turned crashed and then auto-restarted. Then it got stuck on the Samsung logo for a while after which it completely shut down out of the blue. Now it’s refusing to turn on no matter what i do. I’ve tried all the combinations mentioned in the posts but it just won’t turn on in any mode. I’m originally from India and here in USA for 2 weeks. I just wanted to check if there’s any other troubleshooting I can do on my own before I go searching for a nearby Samsung service center. — Mayur

Solution: Hi Mayur. As mentioned above, if you can’t get the phone going after attempting to boot it to alternate modes, you need to ask assistance from a professional. The accidental drop must have damaged a component/s in the logic board or affected the battery so a thorough hardware check is necessary. If the problem started right after the phone was dropped, that’s an obvious indication that there’s now a hardware problem.

Even when enclosed in a “shockproof” case, an accidental drop can still cause severe damage to an electronic device like an S7 because most internal components are made of fragile materials can only absorb so much shock.

We highly recommend that you send it to a Samsung service center but if that’s not possible, you can always try the services of an independent service center as well.

Problem #3: Galaxy S7 screen is unresponsive and flickering

I have Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge purchased this year. It has flickering only at the bottom 1/3 of screen so nothing can be read in that area. I have tried the resets and rebooting, however, I’m unable to complete. The touchscreen is not responsive most of the time. This just started happening about 4 days ago.

Also on the reboot, when the little Android man appears, he falls down with an exclamation point in a yellow triangle. — Croberts

Solution: Hi Croberts. Flickering and unresponsive screen are two of the common symptoms of a malfunctioning screen assembly. If you damaged the phone before either by exposing it to liquid or water or by dropping it, stop looking for solutions unless you are capable of fixing phone hardware problems (but we bet you’ll not contact us if you are). There’s no software tweak that you can do to fix hardware problems. Stop wasting your time and bring the phone directly to Samsung so it can be checked and repaired.

However, if your phone was never dropped nor exposed to water before noticing the problem, try doing a factory reset to see if there’s a difference. If nothing changes after resetting the phone, send it to a repair center.

Here’s how to factory reset your S7:

Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S7.
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 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.

NOTE: Factory reset will delete all user data so make sure to back up your important files before doing it.

Problem #4: Galaxy S7 apps stop responding | Galaxy S7 keeps vibrating in quick succession

Hey guys. Firstly, I left my Galaxy S7 on charge overnight and it was working perfectly. When I woke up most of my apps stopped working. I got loads of pop ups saying; ‘Facebook is not responding,’ Twitter is not responding’ and so on. I tried to restart my phone and after I typed in my password for verification it is now stuck on a screen with an unlocked padlock with two half circles rotating around it.

It also vibrates on and then twice in quick succession every 4 seconds or so. Please let me know if you can help I’ve only had this phone for a week.

Also I selected Marshmallow on the Android Version but I’m not completely sure. Thanks for your time! — Zach

Solution: Hi Zach. Although smartphones are designed to automatically shut off charging functionality once the battery is fully charged, leaving a phone connected to a charger long after full charging has been attained may result to problems. We’ve encountered sporadic cases of phones failing to boot up after leaving connected to a charger overnight. For some reason, some smartphones can encounter problems when constantly left connected to a power outlet for long durations. Unfortunately, there’s not enough data that’s been collected to see a pattern to identify the cause of the problems in these cases. Our suggestion is to do your best to unplug the device from a power outlet when charging is done to avoid problems. We suspect that fluctuations in voltage is the culprit but other factors such as overheating or faulty chargers can be just as destructive. Investigating the cause in this case is beyond the scope of this article so let’s discuss some concrete solutions that you can try instead.

The first thing that you want to do is see if the problem is being caused by a bad system cache. To do that, you want to clear the cache partition. Here’s how:

Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S7.
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 doing the Master Reset. Once completed, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and press the Power key.
The phone will now reboot longer than usual.

Because you’re having problems with multiple apps at once, it’s very unlikely that the issue is on an app’s level. It must be something higher than that. It can also be due to some third party app so you also want to observe how the phone would work if it’s booted to safe mode. Safe mode blocks third party apps and services so if the errors won’t show and the phone will work normally, a third party app must be to blame. To boot your phone to safe mode, follow these steps:

Turn your Galaxy S7 off.
Press and hold the Power button.
Once the ‘Samsung Galaxy S7’ logo appears, release the Power key and immediately press and hold the Volume Down button.
Continue holding the button until the phone finishes rebooting.
Once you see the text “Safe mode” at the bottom left corner of the screen, release the Volume Down button.
Observe the phone for a few hours to see a difference.

If nothing will change when your phone is booted to safe mode, you should consider doing a factory reset to check if there’s a software-level glitch causing the problem.

The vibration issue may or may not be due to hardware malfunction so if factory reset won’t eliminate it, contact Samsung or the store and have the phone replaced.

Problem #5: Water-damaged Galaxy S7 won’t turn on

Phone fell in water and was completely submerged in 6-8 inches of water for about 15 seconds. I was not there when the phone fell in. I do not know what the person did with the phone after getting it out of the water. I was given the phone shortly after and I stood it up on end (charge port down) on a towel. It appeared to be dry and has been about 6 days. I could not discern any water coming from the phone after I got it. It will not power on. Plugging the charger in today = nothing. Wireless charger indicates charging. I have not attempted to disassemble the phone other than to remove the SIM card. Unfortunately I was unable to do the rice or 99% isopropyl alcohol things and decided I would like as much a chance as possible to recover my phone from certain doom. Look forward to hearing from you, thank you for your time and consideration. — Daniel

Solution: Hi Daniel. Although the Galaxy S7 is a water-resistant device, the protection may fail and allow some moisture to enter exposed areas. We’ve seen this happen a few times before, with the speaker the mostly affected component. We’ve heard of some S7s suffering from total boot failure after it was dropped in water or to high pressure liquid source like a faucet. Whatever the circumstances surrounding your case, the most pressing thing that you want to do now is to ensure that you have the hardware checked so it can be assessed if the phone has been permanently damaged or not. Because the Galaxy S7 is more difficult to disassemble compared to its predecessors, we recommend that you let a professional do the job for you.

Problem #6: How to unlock Galaxy S7 edge when PIN fails

Hey. I have a Galaxy S7 edge which belonged to my sister who recently passed away. We think there is some vital information on the phone due to the circumstances around her death.

We can’t get into her phone because of the PIN number lock. We have tried too many times now and every attempt locks you out for 1 hour. Hope there is some way you can advise or help us.

Many thanks. — One stop

Solution: Hi One stop. The only way to unlock a Samsung Galaxy S7’s screen is to enter the correct PIN, pattern, password, or registered fingerprint. Even Samsung can’t help you unlock a phone if you forget your own screen unlock code.

If the previous owner enabled Smart Lock feature on the phone, you may be able to unlock by doing the necessary Smart Lock actions. Smart Lock options include:

On-body detection
Trusted places
Trusted devices
Trusted voice

On-body detection keeps the phone unlocked if it detects that you’re carrying or holding it. It requires that you unlock it once though so this is definitely not enabled.

Trusted places prevents the device from locking itself up if it detects that it is a place previously registered such as the home of the original owner. This feature must be set up first in order to work. Try bringing the phone to the owner’s house, office, or favorite place to see if it works.

Lastly, Trusted voice feature, as its name suggests, only works if the phone hears the voice command set by the original owner.

If you think there may be something important on the phone that can help you shed light on the original owner’s death, we recommend that seek help from your government. Law enforcement agencies can use special software to help you unlock the phone after the legality of doing so will be established.

Problem #7: Photos taken by Galaxy S7 camera app do not show in Gallery

This been happening a lot and I can’t seem to find the cause. When i take a picture it’ll show in the little window my picture but when i go to the gallery to get a full view of the picture it’s not there. So, I’ll go back to my camera and still see it in the little window and try to open to view the picture but it won’t show it to me. It’ll just show the picture previous to that one. This is been happening quite frequently. I don’t take a lot of pictures but this seems to happen every other other picture. Any help would be greatly appreciated. — A.J.

Solution: Hi A.J. We don’t think we fully understood what you’re saying here but if you have a problem with the camera app, consider resetting its settings to return them to default. If that won’t work, delete the app’s cache and data by doing the steps below:

Open the Settings menu either through your notification shade (drop-down) or through the Settings app in your app drawer.
Navigate down to “Apps”. This may be renamed to something like Applications or Application Manager in OEM skinned versions of Android 6.0.
Once in there, click on an application.
You’ll now see a list of stuff that gives you information about the app, including Storage, Permissions, Memory Use, and more. These are all clickable items. You’ll want to click on Storage.
You should now clearly see the Clear Data and Clear Cache buttons for the application.

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How to fix your Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge with its apps crashing after the Nougat update [Troubleshooting Guide]

Hey guys. In this post, I will tackle a couple of problems sent by our readers regarding the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge which reportedly started to have apps-related issues shortly after it was updated to Android Nougat.

App problems are often rooted to the firmware but there are times when it’s just as minor as an app crashing or stopped working. In which case, you can easily fix it by doing some procedures that directly address the problem. However, if it’s an issue with the firmware, then there’s a lot more you need to do in order to prevent apps from crashing again.

If you own a Galaxy S7 Edge and are currently bugged by a problem or two that has something to do with apps, then I suggest you continue reading below as this post may be able to help you fix the problem. But please proceed at your own risk because a lot of things can happen while you’re troubleshooting.

However, if you are trying to find a solution to a different issue, then visit our troubleshooting page for we have already addressed hundreds of problems with this device since it was released. Try to find issues that are similar with yours and use the solutions and troubleshooting guides we suggested. If they don’t work, however, contact us by filling up our Android problems questionnaire. Just give us information and we’ll help you find a solution.

Several apps keep crashing on Galaxy S7 Edge, causing the phone to slow down

Problem: Hello guys! I have an issue with my phone. It’s a Galaxy S7 Edge I got 4 months ago and just last week I’ve updated it. I think it now runs on Nougat or Android 7. I didn’t have any issues downloading the update, in fact, it went so smooth and I was able to use my phone for a few days until I noticed that its performance dropped and now it keeps showing notifications or warnings about some apps that stopped working. Not sure what I have to do but if you can help me, that would be great. Thanks.

Troubleshooting: Taking into consideration that this problem started after updating your S7 Edge to Nougat, it’s possible that some of the caches of those apps or even the system caches got corrupted. Or, it could be just a minor issue with the firmware that affects some of your apps. Here’s what I suggest you do:

Step 1: Reboot your phone in safe mode to know if those apps still crash

We need to find out if the apps that crash have something to do with third-party apps on your phone. Booting in safe mode will temporarily disable all third-party elements so if they are the cause of the problem, the apps that crash when the phone is in normal mode won’t be crashing in this mode.

Press and hold the Power key.
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.
Continue holding the Volume Down button until the device finishes rebooting.
You may release it when you can see ‘Safe mode’ in the bottom left corner of the screen.

Once the phone is in this mode, observe closely if there are still apps that crash and if so, then move on to the next step as it might be an issue with the firmware or one of its services. However, if the problem is fixed or if the apps don’t crash in this mode, then the ones that are crashing might be third-party apps. Try to find out if there are available updates for each of those that crash and update them. You may also uninstall them one by one until the problem is fixed.

Step 2: Delete the system caches so they will be replaced with new ones

Assuming the apps are still crashing in safe mode, we might be facing a problem brought about by some corrupt caches. In this step, we want you to delete all the system caches in your device so that they will be replaced with new ones. You can do so by wiping the cache partition:

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 Edge 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.

If the problem still persists after this, then you have no other choice but to reset your device.

Step 3: Reset your Galaxy S7 Edge as it might be an issues with some system files or data

Firmware updates may also corrupt some of the files and data in your device and that may also result to the crashing of several apps not to mention your phone may slow down noticeably. At this point, it’s better that you reset your phone, after all, it’s now running a totally different, updated firmware. But before that, make sure you backup your files and data especially ones that are stored in your phone’s internal storage and make sure to disable anti-theft feature to prevent your phone from locking you out after the reset. Here’s how you do it:

From any Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
Tap Settings.
Tap Cloud and accounts.
Tap Accounts.
Tap Google.
Tap your Google ID email address. If you have multiple accounts setup, you will need to repeat these steps for each account.
Tap Menu.
Tap Remove account.
Tap REMOVE ACCOUNT.

After disabling the anti-theft feature, follow these steps to finally reset your phone:

Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge.
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 Edge 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 this helps.

Galaxy S7 Edge pops up notifications and then disappear after major update

Problem: Hi there Ever since I installed the latest android version I have problems with notifications on my S7. For example, a calendar notification just pops up for not even have for a second and then just disappears. Threema chat notifications don’t work at all. Gmail push is not working properly either. Are there others with problems since the last update? Thanks! Chris

Solution: Hello Chris, this issue is common not just in S7 Edge but to all devices that has an android firmware. Although system update can fix bugs and other issues in the system but sometimes it may also be one of the causes that several issues occur in the device. So, the best thing that you should do now is to isolate the problem by following the step-by-step troubleshooting procedure that we provided.

Step 1: Perform force reboot, for it might be a system glitch

If the problem occurs for the first time on your phone, then performing the force reboot procedure can help you fix it. This method will refresh the system of the device and eliminate those unused apps that runs in the background that complicates the other services that caused it to crash. To perform the method, press and hold the Volume Down and Power keys together for 10 seconds until the device boots up. So, after the force reboot try to open those troubled apps and see if the problem is still happening. If so, perform the next procedure.

Step 2: There might be third-party apps triggered the issue

This time, we have to determine if one of the downloaded applications you’ve been installed triggered the issue on your handset. By booting it in safe mode, the pre-installed apps will be running in the system alone and all third-party apps will be disabled temporarily and if the problem is not happening while in this mode, then a third-party triggered it. You can uninstall each app you downloaded until the issue is fix.

Step 3: Clear the cache and data of the troubled app

Usually, it is because of the update a big possibility that the cache and data of the app were become outdated and corrupted and caused the app to crash without apparent reason. In this instance, we recommend you to reset the app so that the device will create newer caches and data.

Here’s how to clear the cache and data of the app

Go to Settings
Tap Applications
Tap Applications Manager
Navigate by swiping left or right, make sure you are in ALL tab
Then swipe down and locate the app that has issue, then tap it.
Tap Clear cache
Tap Clear Data
Go back to Home screen and launch it

After doing so, observe closely if there’s changes on its performance. If none, then move to the next step.

Step 4: Clear the system caches for it may be corrupted

This method is similar to the previous procedure you performed the only difference is that, system caches works in the firmware so that next time you will open a website, app and assign some task on your phone it will be more easier for the device to locate the files. However, if those files were corrupted, then that might be reason that your phone could not perform the task properly.

So, after performing all the methods and the issue still not fix, then there might be a major factor caused the problem. The best thing that you should do is to reset the device. This method is more complicated compared to other procedures you performed because all saved files in the device will be deleted once you go through. Before you do the steps we recommend you to create first a backup.

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How to deal with Galaxy Note 5 virus infection issue, other Note 5 problems

Some users may be wondering why their #GalaxyNote5 may have suddenly started showing ads and popups from nowhere so one of issues we cover in this post is just exactly that. We also added 5 more Note 5 issues taken from reports since last week so we hope that this material can be a good source of solutions for Android community. For those looking to see if their own problem is unique to their own device, or if there’s already a published solution for it, please visit our main Note 5 troubleshooting page.

In the meantime, below are the issues that we cover in this post today:

Galaxy Note 5 drains battery fast | Galaxy Note 5 loses battery power in 2 hours even with gentle use
Galaxy Note 5 screen, keyboard app, voice calls, etc. not working properly
Galaxy Note 5 “Unfortunately Google Play has stopped” error | How to reinstall Google Play Store app on Galaxy Note 5
How to deal with Galaxy Note 5 virus infection issue
Galaxy Note 5 apps keep crashing
What to do if you encounter problems after updating your Galaxy Note 5

If you are looking for solutions to your own #Android issue, you can contact us by using the link provided at the bottom of this page, or you can install our free app from Google Play Store.

Problem #1: Galaxy Note 5 drains battery fast | Galaxy Note 5 loses battery power in 2 hours even with gentle use

Hi Guys! Thank you so much for the incredible working to help us and for the awesome posts. I bought a Galaxy Note 5 Verizon from eBay. it’s used gently and seems like it’s new. But I have a battery drain issue and I’ve read the posts about this issue here… and I got lost because my phone seems to be good without using and it stays on for a day. Once I start to use it a gentle using, the battery goes down fast. What’s app, Web browsing with a WiFi connection! Should it take all of this power?

I use only 2 hours and it won’t get me half the day. When I go to the battery using in settings.. it shows that the screen takes the power the most.. nothing else.. while the brightness is 30%.. lost!!! How can I know that my battery works normal? — Troy

Solution: Hi Troy. Well, based on your problem description, the battery of your device does not seem to work normally. 2 hours of usage is way too short, especially that you’ve already did things that should slow down battery consumption. Try to factory reset the device and observe how battery works without your apps. If the behavior remains the same, you must find a way to have the phone repaired or replaced.

For reference, these are the steps on how to factory reset your Note 5:

Create a backup of your important files and contacts.
Turn off your Samsung Galaxy Note 5 completely.
Press and hold the Volume Up and the Home buttons first, and then press and hold the Power key.
Keep the three buttons pressed and when ‘Samsung Galaxy Note5’ shows, release the Power key but continue holding the other two.
Once the Android logo shows, release both the Volume Up and Home buttons.
The notice ‘Installing system update’ will show on the screen for 30 to 60 seconds before the Android system recovery screen is shown with its options.
Use the Volume Down key to highlight the option ‘Yes — delete all user data’ and press the Power key to select it.
When the process is complete, use the Volume Down key to highlight the option ‘Reboot system now’ and hit the Power key to restart the phone.
The reboot may take a little longer to complete but don’t worry and wait for the device to become active.

Problem #2: Galaxy Note 5 screen, keyboard app, voice calls, etc. not working properly

Screen won’t work half the time. Keypad won’t work, screen blacks out and resets the page, won’t load anything. When on a phone call it will continuously switch from speaker to regular or it will drop the call. Phone keeps lighting up like it’s being charged when it’s not. Will keep saying irregular charging and battery will show charging symbol to none at all, so therefore phone will die. Phone will be powered off and when turned on will have less battery than when turned off. Erases everything I text when glitches. I have factory reset 2 times already and am at a loss to what’s wrong. — Tula

Solution: Hi Tula. We don’t know the full history of your device so we can only speculate here. The symptoms you mention here though appears to have no pattern at all. If factory resets did not improve the situation at all, you can scratch the possibility that software is to blame. There may be a general hardware malfunction that causes all these erratic behaviors so you have the phone’s hardware examined. If it’s still covered by a replacement warranty, we strongly suggest that you use it to get a new device.

Problem #3: Galaxy Note 5 “Unfortunately Google Play has stopped” error | How to reinstall Google Play Store app on Galaxy Note 5

Re: the error “Unfortunately Google Play has stopped,” Harold provided a beautiful article to help. In my case, I jumped the gun and uninstalled Google Play and now his instruction doesn’t work for me. I am unable to locate any link to reinstall the app, and I thought I could settle with getting apps simply from the Store site. This proves incorrect as 3 apps I’ve downloaded only arrived to my Tablet and not my Note5. Can you help? P.S. the Australian carrier Telstra is not listed in your form so I chose Verizon because they were the carrier I had before leaving the States. — Ikudama

Solution: Hi Ikudama. We don’t think we understand your problem correctly based on your problem description but if you’ve uninstalled Google Play Store by mistake (which we think is not possible at all), the only way to get it back again is by factory reset. As far as Harold’s article is concerned, we don’t think there was any suggestion to remove Google Play Store app at all. The closest to app uninstallation suggestion made was to clear the app data, which is basically a virtual equivalent of uninstallation. But that doesn’t actually remove the APKs or the app specific core folders from the system. Anyway, as we’ve said, if you want to get Google Play Store app re-installed in the system, you must do a factory reset (refer to the steps above).

Problem #4: How to deal with Galaxy Note 5 virus infection issue

I have problems with my Samsung Note 5.

It automatically install short cut Apps on my home screen. Most of these app have pornographic names like sex videos, hot sex, cecao, panda hot ladies among others. Even when the phone is set to disable installation of apps from unknown sources.
It slows down in performance as soon as mobile data or wifi is connected and instead of opening tapped Apps like Whatsapp or Facebook (any App), whenever I want to use it instead loads a browser page and says page empty.
It also displays messages like “App manager, Contacts, Twitter, etc automatically stopped” on my home screen. So I no longer use it for internet duties like Facebook, WhatsApp because the apps will never load when connected to internet. Regards. — Kiima

Solution: Hi Kiima. All these three issues may be due to one cause, which may be a malware infection or bad app. There’s a chance that your phone may NOT be infected with a real virus but since popups and ads keeps popping up out of nowhere, a bad application may be present in the system.

To check, below are the things that you can do:

Boot your phone in safe mode. Virus or malicious software infection in an Android device is almost always caused by a bad app first. If you are fond of installing apps without checking where it comes from, it’s highly likely that your phone may be hosting a form of virus or malware. There’s also a chance that a bad app may be behind all the troubles so booting your phone in safe mode is worth checking. Because safe mode prevents third party apps and services from running, it’s a good troubleshooting step to do in your case. Here’s how it’s done:

Turn off the phone completely.
Press and hold the Power key.
Once ‘Samsung Galaxy Note5’ shows, release the Power key and immediately press and hold the Volume Down button.
The phone will restart but keep the Volume Down button pressed.
Once the phone has finished restarting, ‘Safe mode’ will be display in the lower-left corner of the screen.
You may now release the Volume Down button.
Observe the phone for 24 hours to see the difference. Remember, if the issues you mention here won’t happen when safe mode is enabled, one of the third party apps must be to blame. In this case, you need to uninstall apps until the problems are eliminated. Safe mode won’t help you pinpoint the actual offending app so you must do trial-and-error in identifying it. The most effective way is to uninstall apps individually then observing how the phone behaves afterwards.
On the other hand, if the issues remain even when the phone is booted to safe mode, proceed to the next step.

Wipe the cache partition. This procedure will not remove malware or virus on an Android system but it may be of help is there’s an issue with the phone’s system cache. Apps can sometimes show erratic behaviors if the system cache gets corrupted so it’s good if you can wipe the cache partition. This will force the phone to build a new system cache. To wipe the cache partition, follow these steps:

Turn off your Samsung Galaxy Note 5 completely.
Press and hold the Volume Up and the Home buttons first, and then press and hold the Power key.
Keep the three buttons pressed and when ‘Samsung Galaxy Note5’ shows, release the Power key but continue holding the other two.
Once the Android logo shows, release both the Volume Up and Home buttons.
The notice ‘Installing system update’ will show on the screen for 30 to 60 seconds before the Android system recovery screen is shown with its options.
Use the Volume Down key to highlight the option ‘wipe cache partition’ and press the Power key to select it.
When the process is complete, use the Volume Down key to highlight the option ‘Reboot system now’ and hit the Power key to restart the phone.
The reboot may take a little longer to complete but don’t worry and wait for the device to become active.

Install an antivirus app. There are many free effective antivirus app in the Google Play Store so installing one of them may help. If you plan try more than two antivirus products, make sure that you uninstall the first one first before installing the second one. Having multiple antivirus running on one system will not only be taxing for the system, but can even create a conflict that results to more complications. Also, keep in mind that more recent viruses or malware may be able to dodge attempts by antivirus apps to identify them. If popups remain even after trying multiple antivirus apps, proceed to the next step.

Wipe the phone clean via factory reset. Restoring all software settings to their known working state via factory reset is the most effective way to get rid of a virus or malware from an Android device. Refer to the steps above on how to do it. Make sure that you observe how the phone behaves after a factory reset.

Prevent virus or malware from being installed again. What many Android users do after a factory reset is to re-install the same set of apps. This is fine as long as they are 100% certain that the apps are safe. In majority of cases though, users fail to check if apps come from reputable sources. This makes

Factory reset useless. In your case, make sure that you don’t fall into this trap. Never install apps outside of Google Play Store. If you can’t help but install one from third party sources, be ready to accept the consequences for your action. We’re not saying that all apps outside of Google Play Store can’t be trusted but users who install them are assumed to know the risks involved. This means that if they encounter problems after installing apps outside of the Play Store, they should be able to handle the situation themselves.

Some apps from the Play Store are not all good too. If you never installed an app outside of Play Store but still encountered the problems you mention here, you must also be wary when reinstalling apps after a factory reset. If the issues return once you’ve reinstalled your apps, that’s clear proof that one of the apps is problematic. Just like in safe mode, you must uninstall apps individually until you’ve eliminated the cause of the problem.

Problem #5: Galaxy Note 5 apps keep crashing

Hello. My Galaxy Note 5 has been driving me crazy for more than a couple of months now, and I REALLY need your help on this guys. ALL apps are crashing occasionally whether I’m using them or not. I have read the article you wrote about that problem and I tried everything in it but nothing worked. Yes I did a factory reset, and every time I do a reset nothing changes and all apps crash like crazy.

Google+ crashes the most, like every 10 minutes. I get 3-4 messages in a row saying “Unfortunately, Google+ has stopped.” I get a lot of -504 errors when I try to download any app from the Play Store. Other popular apps like Facebook and Whatsapp also crash occasionally but less frequent than Google+. I’m talking 4-5 times a day which is a LOT. Other apps like S Note and even apps I’ve never used and never knew was on my phone are crashing and showing the same message “Unfortunately, (app) has stopped”.

One time I did a reset, I found that everything was going fine until the apps that are preinstalled on the device started updating. So I did a reset once again and this time, since Google+ crashes the most, I turned off automatic update for it and for Google app. And guess what, it’s much better now! Crashes are less, but still much more than normal, and I still have errors when downloading apps from Play Store, and recently there are problems with some apps when I’m connected via wifi. Apps like Telegram and Facebook don’t take a huge time to connect and update, while wifi is actually working well.

I did some basic hardware checks using the code *#0*# but I found nothing extraordinary. I was thinking maybe it’s Samsung fault in this particular version of the software, and maybe if I rooted the phone and installed another version of the software my problems will be solved. I really don’t know what else can I do.

Thanks in advance for your help! — David

Solution: Hi David. The symptoms in your problem description don’t provide enough details to help us pinpoint where the problem lies (we’re not saying you can provide any more details anyway). We’re not saying that we’ll be able to know for sure what the reason is as Google can’t even do so. Some Android sites would recommend wiping Google Services Framework and Play Store cache and data. The general rule in fixing Google Play Store related issue though is factory reset. There’s no specific solution that’s reserved when a certain error code shows up due to a bad Play Store app.

That factory reset did not improve the situation at all is an indication that software may not be to blame at all. This means that rooting or flashing stock or custom ROM to your device will not help too. There may be a hardware issue that’s causing the software to behave erratically. If the phone is still covered by a replacement warranty, we strongly suggest that you have the phone replaced.

Problem #6: What to do if you encounter problems after updating your Galaxy Note 5

My Samsung Galaxy Note 5 recently did an update (Marshmallow) and I was unable to get into it. I normally use the finger print but as you know I also had a back up password, which it told me was wrong and ended up having to factory reset my phone in order to use it. Whatever, right? Well now all the luxuries I got of making this phone my own are gone. All the features from changing the LED indicator, different colors to the widgets I had on there previously are just gone. I would like to know how to get them back or why it’s happening or why it wouldn’t let me into my phone in the first place after this stupid update. Not to mention the update happened twice in one day and then again the next day before all this stuff happened. Please help me! — Maya

Solution: Hi Maya. Telling you the reasons why your phone’s software behaved erratically after installing an update would be like a doctor giving you distinctive diagnosis for a headache right away without properly examining the symptoms, checking your medical history, or doing some tests. We’ve heard of some users being unable to log back in to their phones via factory reset or PIN but causes vary. Some of them noticed the issue after installing an update (like you did), while others happened during a normal course of action. To tell you frankly, even Samsung and Google have not identified the cause of these problems at all so third party technicians like us can only speculate and talk about it in a general sense.

An issue like yours can be caused by one out of the many possible variables that includes bad apps, operating system glitch, unknown hardware malfunction, or simply a poorly coded update. In an Android environment, identifying a bug can be very resource demanding so many developers (even those from Samsung and Google), may not be able to fix an issue right away. If you received the update via over-the-air (OTA), that is, from a notification that’s pushed by your carrier, make sure that you let them know about the issues so they can take note of them. Your carrier’s customer service representative may not be able to fix the issues but if other users have the reported similar or related problems, their software developer team may act on your report.

For the cosmetic changes that happened after an update, try to do a little more research with help from Google. Try to use specific terms like “change widget colors Marshmallow update Note 5,” or change LED light indicator Android Marshmallow” to be able to get better results.

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If you are one of the users who encounters a problem with your device, let us know. We offer solutions for Android-related problems for free so if you have an issue with your Android device, simply fill in the short questionnaire in this link and we will try to publish our answers in the next posts. We cannot guarantee a quick response so if your issue is time sensitive, please find another way to resolve your problem.

Why does Facebook keeps crashing on Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus? This is how you fix it…

Facebook is one of the pre-installed apps in your Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus. If it crashes, there’s a possibility the problem is with the firmware itself since the app is deeply integrated into the system. However, there are also times when it’s basically just a problem with the app that’s why it’s necessary to perform some basic troubleshooting to know more about the problem.

In this post, I will walk you through in troubleshooting your Galaxy S8 Plus with a Facebook app that keeps crashing. May it be characterized by the app that closes on its own or shows an error “Unfortunately, Facebook has stopped.” If you’re one of the owners of this phone and are currently bugged by a similar problem, continue reading as this post may help you.

Now, before we go to troubleshooting, if you are currently experiencing a different problem, try to visit our troubleshooting page for we have already addressed some of the most common issues owners encountered with their device. Find issues that are similar to yours and feel free to use our solutions or troubleshooting guides. If they don’t work, however, and if you need further assistance, contact us by completing our Android issues questionnaire. All we need is information so we can help you. Don’t worry, it’s free.

How to troubleshoot Galaxy S8+ with Facebook that keeps crashing

The course of our troubleshooting will be to rule out each possibility until we easily pinpoint what it is that causes the app to crash or close on its own. App related problems are oftentimes very easy to fix for as long as they’re issues with the apps only. With that said, here’s what I suggest you do about this…

Step 1: Update Facebook and its Messenger

First off, let’s make sure that this problem isn’t due to compatibility issue between the Facebook app, its Messenger and the firmware. There might be available updates for these apps that need to be installed or you may have recently updated the firmware of your device and now both apps may already be obsolete. Both Facebook and Messenger work side-by-side and one may cause the other to crash that’s why we have to deal with the two of them considering the fact that we’ve seen cases wherein one of them caused the other to crash before.

From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open the Apps tray.
Tap Play Store.
Tap the Menu key and then tap My Apps. To keep your apps automatically updated, tap the Menu > Settings then tap Auto-update apps to select the check box.
Tap Facebook or Messenger and then tap Update to update them.

Better yet, update all other apps that need to be updated:

From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open the Apps tray.
Tap Play Store.
Tap the Menu key and then tap My Apps. To keep your apps automatically updated, tap the Menu > Settings then tap Auto-update apps to select the check box.
Tap Update [xx] to update all applications with updates available.

After this, open Facebook to see if it crashes or not. If it does, do the next step.

Step 2: Clear the cache and data of Facebook

After the first step and the app still crashes, it’s time to reset it and with that I mean clear its cache and data. It will reset the app back to its default settings but if it has recently been updated, the new version remains. For an app related problem, this is a very effective method:

From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open the Apps tray.
Tap Settings > Apps.
Tap Facebook.
Tap Storage.
Tap Clear cache.
Tap Clear data and then tap OK.

Step 3: Reboot your phone in Safe mode

If clearing the cache and data doesn’t fix the problem, then we’ll have to look at the problem from a different perspective because maybe some third-party apps are causing the problem. We have to reboot the phone in Safe mode to temporarily disable all downloaded apps. If Facebook doesn’t crash while in this mode, it means there’s a third-party app that’s causing it to crash. This is how you boot your phone in Safe mode:

Turn the device off.
Press and hold the Power key past the model name screen.
When “SAMSUNG” appears on the screen, release the Power key.
Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume down key.
Continue to hold the Volume down key until the device finishes restarting.
Safe mode will display in the bottom left corner of the screen.
Release the Volume down key when you see Safe Mode.

If the problem seems fixed in this mode, find the app that’s causing the problem and uninstall it:

From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open the Apps tray.
Tap Settings > Apps.
Tap the desired application.
Tap Uninstall.
Tap Uninstall again to confirm.

Step 4: Uninstall Messenger

If the problem still persists in Safe mode, then we’ll have to try to uninstall Messenger. It’s a third-party app and you won’t lose anything if you uninstall it. We’ll have to see how your phone works after doing it:

From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open the Apps tray.
Tap Settings > Apps.
Tap Messenger.
Tap Uninstall.
Tap Uninstall again to confirm.

Now try to open Facebook to see if the problem is fixed, if not, then move on to the next step.

Step 5: Reset All Settings

After doing all the previous steps and the Facebook app still crashes when used, then it’s time to troubleshoot the firmware. Resetting all settings will bring the phone back to its default settings without deleting your personal files and data. It’s a very effective method for problems that have something to do with the firmware or incorrect settings:

From a Home screen, touch and swipe up or down to display all apps.
From a Home screen, navigate: Settings > Backup and reset.
Tap Reset settings.
Tap Reset settings, to confirm.
If applicable, enter the PIN, password or pattern.
Tap Reset settings.

If the problem still persists after this, then you have no other choice but to do the Master reset.

Step 6: Perform Master Reset

You are now at a point wherein you will have to see how your phone works after a full reset. I understand the problem is with the Facebook but as I said earlier that it’s integrated into the system as it’s already pre-installed, there’s a chance it’s a firmware problem you’re experiencing right now. A Master Reset will fix this problem but you may lose some of your files and data so make sure you make a backup before following these steps:

Turn off the device.
Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
When the green Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
Press the Volume down key several times to highlight “wipe data / factory reset.
Press Power button to select.
Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
When the master reset is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
Press the Power key to restart the device.

If you don’t know your Google ID and password, it’s better to reset your phone this way:

From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open the Apps tray.
Tap Settings > Cloud and accounts.
Tap Backup and restore.
If desired, tap Back up my data to move the slider to ON or OFF.
If desired, tap Restore to move the slider to ON or OFF.
Tap the back button to the Settings menu and tap General Management > Reset > Factory data reset.
Tap Reset.
If you have screen lock turned on, enter your credentials.
Tap Continue.
Tap Delete all.

I hope this troubleshooting guide can help you.

Galaxy S8+ posts you may also like to read:

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How to fix app crashes on Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge including “Unfortunately, Internet has stopped” error

Learn how to fix the error message “Unfortunately, Internet has stopped” on the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (#Galaxy #S7Edge).
What you need to do if some of the newly installed apps won’t open.
Learn how to troubleshoot apps that keep closing on their own after an update.

Hey guys! Welcome to another installation of our Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge problems troubleshooting. In this post, I will address the most common app-related issues that owners encountered after the recent minor updates including the error “Unfortunately, Internet has stopped.”

These issues could range from minor app problems to more serious issues with the system. While there are problems we cannot solve, it is recommended you do some troubleshooting to rule out possibilities to understand and learn what issues really are. Once you do, you can formulate a solution that might just fix your problems.

For those who have other issues, make sure you visit our troubleshooting page for the S7 Edge for we have already addressed a lot of problems with this phone. Find ones that are similar or related to yours and use the solutions we suggested. If they work, you can always contact us by completing our Android issues questionnaire. Just make sure you provide us with details so we can help you better.

The error “Unfortunately, Internet has stopped” shows on Galaxy S7 Edge

Problem: “Hi guys! I’ve been following your blog for quite some time now and I think you can help me with my problem. I own a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge and it’s been just a couple of months since I bought it. Basically, whenever I try to browse some websites there’s an error that keeps showing up “Unfortunately, Internet has stopped.” I use my phone for texting, calls and browsing so you can tell I’m not really knowledgeable when it comes to fixing issues like this. Can you help me?” — John

Troubleshooting: The error message speaks of the native web browse in your phone and it basically means the app crashed or stopped working. This problem can be an indication that your device is currently suffering from a minor app problem or a more serious firmware issue. Since it’s already telling us what app is crashing, we’ll start our troubleshooting from there.

Step 1: Clear the cache and data of the Internet app

Doing this procedure will reset the app and deletes all your preferences, browsing history, bookmarks, etc. and there’s no guarantee the problem will be fixed. However, it is necessary to do this before doing other troubleshooting procedures. So, backup everything that you can and then follow these steps:

From the Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
Find and tap on Settings.

Touch Applications and then Application manager.
Swipe to ALL tab.
Find and touch Internet.
Tap Storage.
Tap Clear cache and then Clear data, Delete.

Step 2: Boot your device in safe mode

While the Internet app is pre-installed, there are third-party apps that use it. There’s a chance that the crash may have been caused by one of those third-party apps that is connected to it. Booting in safe mode will temporarily disable all third-party apps, so if the problem is caused by one of them, Internet won’t crash in this state.

Press and hold the Power key.
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.
Continue holding the Volume Down button until the device finishes rebooting.
You may release it when you can see ‘Safe mode’ in the bottom left corner of the screen.

Step 3: Perform the master reset

You do this if the error still pops up in safe mode because it means that the issue might be with the firmware. You already cleared both the cache and the data of the app to no avail, so it’s time to reset the phone and not just the app.

Backup your data.
Remove your Google account.
Disengage screen lock.
Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge.
Press and then hold the Home and Volume UP keys, then press and hold the Power key.

When the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge 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 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 this troubleshooting guide can really help you.

Newly installed apps won’t open on Galaxy S7 Edge

Problem: “I own a brand new Galaxy S7 Edge and after three weeks of use I encountered issues with some apps I recently installed. There are three apps that won’t work or open whenever I tap on them so I’m a bit confused what the problem with my phone is. This is the only problem I encountered, so far. Can you guys help me out please?” — Deere

Troubleshooting: First off, some apps don’t have a user interface so even when you tap on them, they will run in the background but nothing is actually opening. You haven’t told us what those apps are so we really can’t pinpoint if that is the issue here because if it is, then there’s no problem with your phone.

On the other hand, if you have another device, try to install them and see if they work. If they don’t, then they might have some issues and you need to report the problem to their respective developers so updates will be rolled out to fix them. But if they work on a different device, then it might be a compatibility issue and here’s what you need to do:

Make sure they run on Android 6 Marshmallow.
Uninstall and re-install them back to see if they work.
If nothing works, report the problem to their developers.

Some apps force closes on the Galaxy S7 Edge after an update

Problem: “There was a minor updated for my phone recently and it installed automatically. It was successful I think but the thing is, some apps just automatically close sometimes. They close randomly and I haven’t noticed a pattern. Does this mean that there was a problem with the new OS? What do I need to do to fix this? Thanks a lot!” — Mac

Troubleshooting: Honestly, without doing tests on your phone, we really can’t pinpoint what the problem really is but since it is firmware-related, it might be because some of the caches got corrupted during the update.

I don’t know if the apps you’re having problems with are pre-installed or third-party ones but if you downloaded them, the first thing you have to do is clear their caches and data. You need to go to Application Manager and do the same procedure for all apps that have issues. If the problem persists, you may try to uninstall and then re-install them back.

Another thing you can do is to wipe the cache partition so that all system caches will be deleted and be replaced with new ones. Caches get corrupted all the time and when the new system uses them, conflicts occur that may lead to force closes, crashes and even random reboots. Follow these steps to delete old system caches:

Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge.
Press and then hold the Home and Volume UP keys, then press and hold the Power key.
When the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge 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.

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Apps on Galaxy S7 crashes when trying to open links after an update, won’t charge, other issues

Apps are the lifeblood of today’s smartphones and without them, even top-of-line models will be as boring as dumb phones a generation ago. But while apps are what makes smartphones interesting to have, they can sometimes cause a few headaches here and there. That said, our post today addresses some app-related problems as reported by some #GalaxyS7 users.

Below are the specific topics we have prepared for you:

Apps on Galaxy S7 crashes when trying to open links after an update
Galaxy S7 doesn’t receive SMS
Galaxy S7 does not power back on
Water damaged Galaxy S7 won’t charge and turn on
Galaxy S7 screen keeps flickering and apps crashing
Galaxy S7 “Unfortunately, Touchwiz Home has stopped” error after installing substratum theme engine app

If you are looking for solutions to your own #Android issue, you can contact us by using the link provided at the bottom of this page, or you can install our free app from Google Play Store.

Problem #1: Apps on Galaxy S7 crashes when trying to open links after an update

Hello, I recently upgraded to an S7, but with the latest Android update 6.0.1 my phone has been playing up. I am restricted in terms of clicking on links to open in my browser (chrome is my main one but I’ve tried using others to see if this solves the issue, same thing happens with Youtube links). So, for example, if I click a link in Facebook, an error message appears “there’s a problem with opening this app.” If I click a link through Whatsapp or Outlook/Gmail, then the app in which the link is crashes. I have tried uninstalling and reinstalling these apps. I’ve also tried clearing the cache partition, but none of these methods have solved anything.

I also have an issue with an overlay but I have figured this out yet. It tends to pop up every so often when I’m using an app saying I need to change the overlay options through app settings. When I try to change settings it doesn’t solve the issue as it won’t allow me to change anything. Again this has only happened after I updated. Do you think I need to hard reset the phone and start again? — Sky

Solution: Hi Sky. Both issues can be caused by an unknown software glitch introduced by the latest update. We are yet to receive similar reports from other S7 owners so these problems must be specific to your phone. Wiping the phone via factory reset may do the trick for you. Below are the steps on how to master reset your S7:

Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S7.
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 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.

Problem #2: Galaxy S7 doesn’t receive SMS

My new Galaxy S7 doesn’t receive SMS messages. It will receive MMS and successfully send both types. This happens whether I use Samsung Messages or Verizon Message+ as the default. I’ve been to Verizon. They suggested a backup followed by a factory reset. I’ve done both and nothing changed. I’ve looked at your suggestions re messaging but didn’t see this exact problem. Any suggestions for this problem? Thanks. — Arlene

Solution: Hi Arlene. The very first thing that you want to know in this case is if SMS in your network is working. Try sending a test message to yourself to check. If you’ll receive your own message, you must proceed to the next step. However, if the test message will not appear in your inbox that indicates that there’s either a problem with your phone, or with your wireless carrier’s SMS system. To check if the issue is on the phone side, make sure that you wipe the cache and data of the messaging app you’re using. You must do this especially if you simply restored your back ups after a factory reset. You basically wants to ensure that the messaging app is bug free. Here’s how to do it:

Open the Settings menu either through your notification shade (drop-down) or through the Settings app in your app drawer.
Navigate down to “Apps”. This may be renamed to something like Applications or Application Manager in OEM skinned versions of Android 6.0.
Once in there, click on an application.
You’ll now see a list of stuff that gives you information about the app, including Storage, Permissions, Memory Use, and more. These are all clickable items. You’ll want to click on Storage.
You should now clearly see the Clear Data and Clear Cache buttons for the application.
Send a test message to your number again.

If the test message will come to your inbox this time, that’s a sign that you must have fixed the issue. To check further, ask some of your friends to send you SMS.

On the other hand, if the problem stays after wiping the cache and data, proceed to the next step. This step is to check for possible blocking mechanism you’ve set in place. To do that, you must do the following:

Open the Messaging app.
Tap MORE.
Tap Settings.
Tap Block messages.
Check if there’s anything under Block list, Block phrases, and Blocked messages.

If all three items are clear, contact your wireless carrier to see if there’s anything that blocks SMS to your account. There’s nothing more that you can do at this time so your carrier must help fix it. There’s no better party that can do it for you. Since you’ve already tried a factory reset, something in your carrier’s system must be preventing SMS from being delivered to your account. What that thing is is for your carrier to figure out.

Problem #3: Galaxy S7 does not power back on

I’ve tried a soft reset already. Yesterday I was listening to music while texting a friend when the phone froze, I tried a soft reset and it just went off. Tried a few more times to no response, so I left it to rest. Well, during the night it was very hot but I just let it be hoping that it would run out of battery and turn itself off. This morning, it’s cold to the touch but isn’t turning on at all, not even after charging for an hour. I’ve tried soft resetting it already a few times. What do I do? I’m travelling and there’s no licensed Samsung where I am, should I just wait ’til I get back? — Eduardo

Solution: Hi Eduardo. Your main concern right now is to check if you can still turn the phone back on. There are three other alternate boot modes that you can try so make sure that you do them. Each of these boot modes will give a different approach to a solution. For example, if you’ll be able to boot to recovery mode only, the only way out for can be factory reset. Below are the steps on how to do each one.

Boot in Recovery mode:

Charge the phone for at least 30 minutes.
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.’
You can either wipe the cache partition or do a factory reset when in this mode.

Boot in Download Mode:

Charge the phone for at least 30 minutes.
Press and then hold the Home and Volume DOWN 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 DOWN keys.
Wait until the Download screen appears.
If you can boot the phone in download mode but not in other modes, that means that your only way out may be to flash a stock or custom firmware.
Use Google to look for a guide on how to do it.

Boot in safe mode:

Charge the phone for at least 30 minutes.
Press and hold the Power button.
Once the ‘Samsung Galaxy S7’ logo appears, release the Power key and immediately press and hold the Volume Down button.
Continue holding the button until the phone finishes rebooting.
Once you see the text “Safe mode” at the bottom left corner of the screen, release the Volume Down button.
The only difference of safe mode from normal mode is that the former prevents third party apps from running. If you can boot the phone in safe mode but not in normal mode, uninstall all apps until the issue (that prevents you from booting normally) is eliminated.

If the phone remains unresponsive after trying all three, then the issue must be with the battery or the motherboard. Either way, you’ll need to submit the phone for repair.

Problem #4: Water damaged Galaxy S7 won’t charge and turn on

Hello, I have a Galaxy S7, a phone that is advertised to be water proof. With that in mind, I decided to take it in the pool to take some goofy underwater pictures. It was submerged for less than 10 minutes and I allowed it to dry after I took it out. The next day, I was using my phone regularly and I looked away for a bit. I looked back at it and it would not turn on. I tried charging it but it doesn’t seem to respond, even though the wireless charger seems to recognize that it’s powering something. I tried all of the different reset options like holding power, volume up and home but none of them work. Could the problem be related to water damage even though the phone is supposed to be water proof up to 30 minutes at a depth deeper than my swimming pool? Thanks! — Spiderman1999

Solution: Hi Spiderman1999. You may misinterpreted the ads you saw about the S7. First of all, we’re pretty sure those ads did not say the phone is water proof. Secondly, there’s a big difference between water proof and water resistant. Your S7 is NOT water proof, but water resistant. It’s designed to be able to withstand exposure to water for 30 minutes in depth of not more than 1.5 meters but it doesn’t mean you should take it when you’re swimming. CNET did a rough test on the survivability of Galaxy S7 in water in this article and it doesn’t look good at all. That said, if you are now experiencing problems with your phone after dunking it in your pool, the best course of action for you is to have it’s hardware checked by Samsung. Keep in mind that if the Liquid Damage Indicator (LDI) has been tripped, Samsung will charge you for the repair. Otherwise, the checkup should be free. To check the LDI, follow these steps:

Place the SIM card ejector in the SIM card hole.
Remove the SIM tray from your device.
The LDI used in the device is a Universal LDI sticker. When exposed to liquid damage it will turn bright red. If LDI is showing pale x marks only, that means that there’s no liquid damage on the device.

Problem #5: Galaxy S7 screen keeps flickering and apps crashing

Hi, My name is Jerry and recently (about six months ago) i bought a Galaxy S7 to my wife. it was previously used but had been restored. Everything was working fine until about a month ago when the screen started flickering, experienced massive slowdowns and apps and even texting was impossible to use as it all kept crashing and took me back to the home screen. I tried to update the firmware and reset it to factory settings after googling the problem but it was all in vain as the problem persisted. Right now i’m out of ideas and would highly appreciate any help i can get. Best regards. — Jerry

Solution: Hi Jerry. Troubleshooting Android problems follows a simple rule — if all software solutions have been tried, then hardware must be to blame. In your case, the solutions that you can try includes wiping the cache partition, booting the phone to safe mode, and factory reset. If you’ve already tried all of them before contacting us, don’t waste your efforts in looking for more software hacks. Flickering screen issue is an indicator of a hardware malfunction. If you want to get to the bottom of the issue, submit the phone for repair as soon as possible.

Problem #6: Galaxy S7 “Unfortunately, Touchwiz Home has stopped” error after installing substratum theme engine app

My Touchwiz has stopped after installing application “substratum theme engine” and attempt to customize my home screen (which was a bad mistake, apparently). I faced this problem after required rebooting. I wasn’t even able to use the home screen, it constantly was posting me message “Unfortunately, Touchwiz Home has stopped.” I hoped after I’ll make a data reset in settings it will solve the problem, but it doesn’t. I don’t have any clue how to find out a solution. I’m afraid to wipe data via recovery to turn my phone to brick. I hope you have some ideas? — Bohdan

Solution: Hi Bohdan. A quick Google search about “substratum theme engine” shows that this app requires rooting your device. Our blog does not support rooting- or flashing-related issues so the best thing that you can do right now is to contact the developer of this app. Rooting and flashing software are developed by certain groups of Android users so we highly recommend that you reach out to the developers if you encounter problems with their products.

Engage with us

If you are one of the users who encounters a problem with your device, let us know. We offer solutions for Android-related problems for free so if you have an issue with your Android device, simply fill in the short questionnaire in this link and we will try to publish our answers in the next posts. We cannot guarantee a quick response so if your issue is time sensitive, please find another way to resolve your problem.

Galaxy Note 4 “Unfortunately Settings has stopped” error showing after an update, other issues

Hello Note 4 users! Welcome to another article that addresses more Note 4 issues. As usual, all issues mentioned here are taken from messages sent by some members of our community. If you have your own issue you want to share to us, don’t hesitate to do that so we can help you too.

If you are looking for solutions to your own #Android issue, you can contact us by using the link provided at the bottom of this page.

Below are specific topics we’re bringing for you today:

Problem 1: Galaxy Note 4 keeps showing emmc failed message

Good day My name is Nadeem. I got your email off this blog. i am currently having issues with my Note 4. It started showing me the write emmc failed message and i couldn’t reload the firmware to it. i have sent it away for repairs with no luck but now it does not seem to power up at all. I have inserted my other Note 4 battery in as well with no luck. however when i connect to my pc i can hear the USB connect sound from my PC but nothing picks up or any activity on the phone. Could you help please? Thanks. — Nadeem

Solution: Hi Nadeem. “Emmc failed” error is a sign that the system is unable to read properly off the storage device. This is either due to a software glitch or a hardware failure. In a lot of cases though, it all boils down to bad hardware. Unfortunately, most cases of emmc failed issue requires repair; you can’t fix it with a software tweak. This is especially true in your case since the phone no longer boots up normally at this point. That said, let a professional check the hardware first and see what happens from there. Depending on the motherboard damage, your device may or may not be repaired.

Problem 2: Galaxy Note 4 keeps downloading update but won’t install it

I bought a used Note 4. It seems to work great but it keeps downloading update. When i install it says it was successful but then proceeds to download them again and ask me to install them again. I am only on wifi as i have not had the phone switched over yet. Could that be the problem [no sim] or does it sound like bigger issue?

I need help before i switch over to a phone that will not work. — Chad

Solution: Hi Chad. There may be a software glitch causing this problem so we recommend that you try a factory reset and proceed from there. Factory reset will restore all software settings back to their defaults. Also, make sure to unroot the device or flash back stock firmware if it’s running custom firmware.

Below are the steps on how to factory reset your Note 4:

Create a backup of your important files such as photos, videos, contacts etc. You can use Smart Switch for this task.
Turn off the Galaxy Note 4 completely.
Press and hold the Volume Up and the Home keys together, then press and hold the Power key.
When the Note 4 vibrates, release both the Home and Power keys but continue holding the Volume Up key.
When the Android System Recovery shows on the screen, release the Vol Up key.
Using the Volume Down key, highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset’ and press the Power key to select it.
Now highlight ‘Yes — delete all user data’ using the Vol Down key and press the Power key to begin the reset.
When the master reset is complete, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and hit the Power key.
The Note 4 will restart but it will be longer than usual. When it reaches the Home screen, then begin your setup.

Problem 3: Galaxy Note 4 “Unfortunately Settings has stopped” error keeps showing after an update

Yesterday, May 24, 2017, I noticed that my Note 4 was receiving an update that was labeled Samsung Internet. After this update completed I noticed if I went into settings under Applications and tapped on Internet it would set there a few seconds and I get the message “Unfortunately Settings has stopped.” It was working the day before as I went into this to clear out internet cache files. Everything else seems to be working fine. I rebooted the phone, even pulled the battery and no changes. This is very frustrating! — Steve

Solution: Hi Steve. We don’t know what happened exactly to your phone but updates change core system files and something may have gone wrong. The thing is, there’s no test that you can do to see where the problem lies. You must try to isolate possible factors in order to arrive a fix. To do that, there’s a series of software troubleshooting that you must perform.

Wipe the cache partition

The first one is the cache partition wipe. The aim of this step is to see whether the system cache has been corrupted following an update. Sometimes, a corrupted system cache can lead to all sorts of problems. To fix it, you need to delete the old system cache so the phone will be forced to create a new one. Here’s how to do that:

Turn off the Galaxy Note 4 completely.
Press and hold the Volume Up and the Home keys together, then press and hold the Power key.
When the Note 4 vibrates, release both the Home and Power keys but continue holding the Volume Up key.
When the Android System Recovery shows on the screen, release the Volume Up key.
Using the Volume Down key, highlight the option ‘wipe cache partition’ and press the Power key to select it.
When the wiping of the cache partition is finished, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and hit the power key.

Install app updates and make sure apps are compatible

The next step that you want to do if a cache partition wipe won’t work is to ensure that all apps are in tip-top shape. Go over your list of apps and make sure that you install updates for all of them. If you tend to install apps without checking where they come from, now is to the time to be aware. Incompatible apps can sometimes cause crashing problems, or make other apps behave erratically. Since there’s no direct way to know whether an app is causing a problem or not, this is a trial-and-error step at best.

If you think an app may be causing the problem though, consider booting your phone to safe mode. Here’s how it’s done:

Turn off the phone completely.
Press and hold the Power key and the Volume Down key.
When the phone starts to boot, release the Power key but continue holding the Volume Down key until the phone finished restarting.
Safe mode will be display at the lower left corner; you may release the Volume Down key now.

Booting Galaxy Note 4 in safe mode will temporarily disable all third-party or download apps leaving pre-installed ones and core services running. This procedure can help you determine which of your apps is causing a problem.

Return the phone to clean slate with factory reset

If the problem remains after doing cache partition wipe and safe mode observation, there’s no better way to fix it than by doing a factory reset. Refer to the steps above to see how to do it.

Problem 4: Galaxy Note 4 mobile data is slow | How to download TDG Smartphone Troubleshooting app

I unlocked my T-Mobile Note 4 phone, carrier was MetroPCS — due to year long issues with service. The phone was set between T-Mobile & Metro settings 50/50.

Data would not download. Even at 50/50 the data would drop constantly. Got lost a billion times and Google directions would drop GPS constantly or downloads from contacts were slooow.

SO….I had my phone unlocked, ported number, left original memory card in. AND …. THE DROID GUY APP IS GONE!? Can’t find on Google, did you drop your app for the Web? It was a Lifesaver! I got my phone from a previous friend, it was on my phone then, so I couldn’t ask where she got it. I assumed it came from Samsung, when I Google your app I only get blog stuff. Did you remove your app from Play Store? And I lost thru an update? Or do you still have it? Thank you. — Ellen

Solution: Hi Ellen. The best thing that you can do about your mobile data issue is to ask support from your current carrier. Although there’s a chance that a device issue is causing it, majority of the time, it has something to do with network-related problem. The advantage of asking support from your carrier for this issue is the fact that they can also help you troubleshoot the device in case the problem is not from their end. If you haven’t done that at this time, make sure that you do it.

As far as device troubleshooting is concerned, you are limited to doing a factory reset only. We don’t think it’s a configuration issue because mobile data is actually working, albeit slow. If you’ve already tried a factory reset before calling us, then the best thing that you can do is to seek support from your network.

Our support app is up-and-running. It’s been renamed TDG Smartphone Troubleshooting. Please follow this link to download it from Google Play Store.

Problem 5: Galaxy Note 4 not detecting SD card

Today, my 8GB micro SD card in my Samsung Note 4 stopped working. It’s an older card, but it happened so suddenly. I was browsing and preparing my photos to back up onto my PC. I moved all the photos from the phone storage to my hard drive first, then it stopped seeing the SD card in my phone through the file explorer. I tried removing and replacing it, but my phone started saying it was an unrecognized format and wanted to reformat the whole thing. I reset then factory reset my phone without the card inserted. I’ve tried a desk top memory card reader. The drivers installed, the device will light up, but the PC doesn’t act like there’s a card inserted. I’m at a loss. I feel like I know it’s gone for good, but was hoping you had an idea of something I may be overlooking. — Boxer

Solution: Hi Boxer. If your computer also fails to detect the SD card at this time, you may be right, the contents or the card itself may be gone for good.

Try inserting the card to another smartphone to see for the last time if our suspicion is true. If that phone won’t detect that card either, you must accept the fact that your SD card has failed.

Problem 6: Galaxy Note 4 won’t boot normally, stuck in installing system update screen

My Note 4 will go into a reboot loop for hours, sometimes even after removing the battery. After a while the Android fella pops up saying unable to reboot or installing system update.

I have wiped the phone and my service provider won’t replace it since my warranty stopped last year. I was told the software is too advance for the firmware. Is there anything else you can suggest I try? — Jaimeeantonik

Solution: Hi Jaimeeantonik. The first thing that you can try is to flash the bootloader. The bootloader is the first series of codes that runs when you start up the phone. It’s independent of the operating system but like any software in your phone, it can also get corrupted, leading to an issue just like the one you’re experiencing. To flash it, you need to follow a certain guide. Flashing guides are phone model specific so there’s no one-size-fits-all one for you. We can give an example of steps how to flash the bootloader but we are not sure if they are exact ones for your device. You must find a good guide for your phone model using Google.

Below are the sample steps on how to flash the bootloader:

Look for the correct firmware for your phone model and download it. Make sure that you select the right one. It should be the same exact firmware that ran previously on your device. We assume that you list down the firmware version somewhere. If you did not take note of it before, there’s a chance that you may pick the wrong one. As you may know now, using an incorrect firmware can cause complications so good luck with that.
Let’s now say that you have identified the correct firmware. You then want to download it to your computer. The firmware file should have a bunch of files in it like AP_, BL_, CSC_, etc.
Look for the file that starts with a label BL; this should be the corresponding bootloader file for this firmware. Once you’ve identified the bootloader file, copy it to your computer’s desktop or to any other folder that you can easily access.
Proceed with the rest of the flashing procedure using the Odin program.
In Odin, click on the BL tab and make sure to use the bootloader file you’ve identified earlier.
Now, make sure that the “Device Added” status and its “ID:COM box” has turned blue before hitting the START button. This will initiate the flashing of your phone’s bootloader.
Restart the phone once the procedure is finished.

If flashing the bootloader won’t fix the issue, you can also try to flash the firmware itself. The steps should be slightly different than the ones provided above so, again, make sure that you find a good one first.

Problem 7: Galaxy Note 4 purchased from eBay has bad speaker

My sound system is not working. I have a new one bought from eBay, a Samsung Galaxy Note 4. I had to do a factory reset on it and now my volume does NOT work. There’s no music sounds, no notification sounds, no sounds. Please help me. I don’t want to spend another 200 some dollars to get another phone that doesn’t work. I don’t know the Android version of it. And I’m currently with MetroPCS. — Cristine

Solution: Hi Cristine. If factory reset did not help at all, there must be something wrong with the hardware. Try to check if the speaker is working by accessing the phone’s service menu first. Here’s how:

Open the dialer or Phone app.
Dial “*#0*#” (without quotes).
Tap the box that says Speaker. The phone is supposed to make a sound after tapping this box. If nothing comes out of the speaker, that’s proof that you have a bad hardware.
To go back to normal mode, simply hit the Back button.

You can’t fix a hardware problem like this so you either have to return the phone and get a refund, or have it tested and repaired.

Problem 8: Galaxy Note 4 apps keep crashing after an update

After an update last week my phone keeps restarting and I keep getting error messages that apps have stopped working. I see where a factory reset may help this but I don’t really understand how to do it. I’ve connected my phone to my laptop but nothing pops up saying a device has been connected. I need step by step. It has a SD card. — Hoodsybil

Solution: Hi Hoodsybil. We suggest that you do a cache partition wipe first (refer to the steps above). If that won’t work, here are the steps on how to factory reset your phone:

Create a backup of your important files such as photos, videos, contacts etc. You can use Smart Switch for this task.
Turn off the Galaxy Note 4 completely.
Press and hold the Volume Up and the Home keys together, then press and hold the Power key.
When the Note 4 vibrates, release both the Home and Power keys but continue holding the Volume Up key.
When the Android System Recovery shows on the screen, release the Vol Up key.
Using the Volume Down key, highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset’ and press the Power key to select it.
Now highlight ‘Yes — delete all user data’ using the Vol Down key and press the Power key to begin the reset.
When the master reset is complete, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and hit the Power key.
The Note 4 will restart but it will be longer than usual. When it reaches the Home screen, then begin your setup.

Problem 9: Galaxy Note 4 stuck in boot loop

My phone suddenly is stuck in some sort of loop. It came up on a boot menu screen and I wasn’t sure what to do. So I selected the top option that was reboot system. It then goes to the Galaxy Note 4 black start up screen and freezes there, goes black and back to the galaxy start up screen. I’ve removed the battery, bought a new battery and it’s still doing the same. Any help appreciated. — Lorra32

Solution: Hi Lorra32. You did not give us enough information to help us identify the cause of the problem for you. An issue like this does not happen out-of-the-blue. You must have done something different to cause it.

If you tried to install something, or change some settings without knowing where they’ll lead, that may be the cause of the problem. We suggest that you check our suggestion for Jaimeeantonik above and see if you can fix the issue by flashing the bootloader or firmware.

If flashing won’t solve the problem, consider sending the phone in for repair or replacement.

Problem 10: Galaxy Note 4 microphone not working

No audio is being picked up on video camera and voice recorder apps. Already played music, mp3s and Youtube videos to test audibility. Those work just fine. Volume is up all the way for: Ringtone, Media, Notifications, and System. Was in the middle of clearing out space on my phone and afraid I may have deleted some key ingredient to receiving up &/or putting out audio. My recorded videos and voice recorder are the only apps that have this problem. — Cbowers613

Solution: Hi Cbowers613. We don’t think you’re testing the right functionality here as the speaker is not the problem. Playing music and videos will only allow you to check whether or not the speaker is working. If your recorded videos lack audio, the most likely problem is the phone’s microphone, not the speaker.

To check if the microphone is working, try calling someone. If you can hear them but they can’t hear you, the microphone is most probably fried.

If this problem started after deleting some system files, do a factory reset.

Engage with us

If you are one of the users who encounters a problem with your device, let us know. We offer solutions for Android-related problems for free so if you have an issue with your Android device, simply fill in the short questionnaire in this link and we will try to publish our answers in the next posts. We cannot guarantee a quick response so if your issue is time sensitive, please find another way to resolve your problem.

Galaxy S6 won’t read SD card, won’t recognize apps stored in SD card, DCIM folder is missing, other issues

As promised, we welcome you to another post that discusses #GalaxyS6 problems and solutions. We hope that this article will be of help to our Android community.

If you are looking for solutions to your own #Android issue, you can contact us by using the link provided at the bottom of this page.

Below are specific topics we’re bringing for you today:

Problem 1: Galaxy S6 losing battery power faster after installing an update

I was suspicious of the battery drain (I thought it might just be me), so I charged phone to 100% at 10pm at night. Made sure all apps were updated, closed all open apps, wi-fi on, all notifications turned to silent, then unplugged the charger. By 8am the next day the battery was down to 16%. During the day when I’m actually using my phone, the battery now drains even faster. Figured out this started happening right after the recent update (that also made the text too small to read without my glasses on). Any help you can suggest? — Goodjujucami

Solution: Hi Goodjujucami. Battery drain issue is almost always caused by poor usage habits more than anything else but if you’re 100% that it suddenly occurred after installing an update (this is often a common scapegoat), then it can only one of the following:

an app/s (pre-installed or third party) may have suddenly become erratic
power management of the device is poorly implemented or not working
there’s an unknown operating system glitch behind the trouble

Refresh the cache partition

Because your battery drain issue occurred right after an update, you can eliminate other possible causes and focus on the three items listed above. It is therefore important that you first try to wipe the phone’s cache partition to ensure that the system cache is good. Below are the steps on how to do that:

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.
Observe the phone for 24 hours to see if there’s any difference.

Check what apps or services are on top of battery consumption list

You don’t need to install another app to do this simple step. Simply head to Settings>Device maintenance>Battery>Battery Usage. In an Android environment, the main power consumers should be system services and apps like Screen, Android System Cell Standby, Device idle, etc. If there seems to be a lot of pre-installed and/or third party apps in the top part of the list, make sure that you deal with them by either putting them to sleep during most times, or by uninstalling them.

Install app updates and remove potentially problematic ones

If there’s no change after a cache partition reset, your next move is to deal with a possible app problem. Bear in mind that not every app is built with the same expertise and resources. Inexperienced and resources-strapped developers often end up with substandard products, which in turn can lead to problems.

If you’ve already installed all updates for all apps but the issue remains, make sure to restart the phone to safe mode to see if any of the third party apps is behind the trouble. While in safe mode, all third party apps (those that you install after you first setup the phone and not built by Samsung and Google) will be blocked, allowing only pre-installed apps. If the battery will not lose power as fast when the device is in normal mode, it’s very likely that one or a few of your third party apps are to blame.

Now, safe mode by itself is not a solution so if you think that there’s a significant difference in power consumption between normal mode and safe mode, you must invest some time and effort in identifying the culprit/s. You can do that by uninstalling apps one by one, then observing how battery consumption works each day. This will take some time to accomplish but it’s the only effective way if you suspect that an app is to blame.

To restart your phone to safe mode, here’s the steps:

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.

Do a factory reset

One of the effective solutions for issues that surface after installing an update is factory reset. If all our suggestions above won’t work, be sure to wipe the phone with factory reset.

Create a backup of your important files such as photos, videos, contacts etc. You can use Smart Switch for this task.
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 Volume 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.
Observe the phone for 24 hours without installing any app.

Contact your carrier and ask for support

Some post-update issues can never be fixed by an end user simply because they’re caused by poor or inefficient coding. This means that the operating system version itself is problematic because it was not coded properly, or there’s an unknown bug during its release. If the issue remains after a factory reset, contact your carrier for assistance (we are assuming of course that you updated your phone by downloading the files by air, also known as OTA update).

By the way, if you’re wondering how to change the font, font style, and font size on your device, simply head to Settings>Display and around with the options in that section.

Problem 2: Screen of water damaged Galaxy S6+ stays black

Hi. I have a 1-year old Samsung Galaxy S6 Plus. Yesterday, I went running with my phone, played music, it worked great. I had noticed earlier in the week that the color of my screen would change slightly. Not enough to make me concerned. After my run, I took a shower, had the phone in the bathroom at the same time, and afterwards, I had a vertical purple stripe on my phone that wouldn’t go away, even after restarting it several times. Then it suddenly turned black. It still vibrates, some voice on it would randomly speak, and none of the combinations of pushing the buttons down would work (e.g. Volume Down + Power Button for 10-15 seconds).

Today, I hooked it up with a USB to my computer and did the Volume Down+ Power, and got the purple stripe to flash, but still couldn’t get my screen to show up.

I took it to the cell phone repair place. He just cleaned the screen, told me that it was slightly water damaged, and that it would cost $300 to get a new screen, since my probably warranty wouldn’t cover a water-damaged phone and it’s not insured. The only thing I can think of, since I didn’t drop it or anything, is that the mist from my shower must have gotten inside and damaged my phone. Is there anything else I can do or am I screwed? — Kelsie

Solution: Hi Kelsie. Water and electronics don’t mix. Even a tiny amount of moisture can damage a device not designed to resist water so, yes, the phone’s screen may be damaged at this time. There’s no software tricks that you can do to fix that so you have no other choice but to send it in for repair or screen replacement.

Problem 3: Galaxy S6 cannot create back up to a computer, DCIM folder is missing after an update

Since the update, I cannot download photos and videos off my phone to a computer. The DCIM (?) file is no longer visible. I get the massage to allow the phone to be used a s storage device and click on the message, but nothing changes. I can’t use the pro feature in the camera either – the app crashes. The camera was the primary reason I loved the phone. I was considering updating to S7 or S8 to improve the battery, but now I’m considering other non-iPhone because this last update has ruined so many things I enjoyed about Samsung phones. For now, I just want my photos with having to upload to cloud or send via email. — Mitsuko

Solution: Hi Mitsuko. Try to install Smart Switch in your computer and use it to back your files up. If creating a backup via Smart Switch won’t work either, upload as many valuable files to a cloud service as you can before doing a factory reset on your phone.

Problem 4: Wet Galaxy S6 edge won’t charge and turn back on

Hi team! My S6 edge got wet the other day and I tried everything to dry it out. After 3 days i plugged in the charger and it charged and even turned on to the point where i had to put in my pin but then it just crashed and since then, it doesn’t do anything. Doesn’t charge or respond to any input. I checked the water indicator and it is red. My question now is, how do I find the broken part to replace! Cheers. — Max

Solution: Hi Max. First of all, exposing an electronic device to water almost always lead to permanent damage. At this time, there’s very little chance that repair will save your phone.

Secondly, knowing what part is not working can be tricky and requires both expertise and the right tools. A trained technician also has to run a number of tests to determine where the possible point of failure may lie (if that’s possible at this point at all). These tests depend on how a technician approaches the problem, which also largely depends on the physical condition of the motherboard. If you don’t have a solid electronics background and training with Samsung devices, we suggest that you let a professional do the checking for you.

Problem 5: Galaxy S6 won’t read SD card

I own a Galaxy S6. I bought a San Disk 32GB Micro SD Card. This is my first time putting an SD Card to card to my phone since the day of this Samsung Galaxy S6 came out in the market.

So I turned it off then put it in its slot but when I turned it on, the device can’t read it. When I go to settings to see the storage, in the Mount SD Card it says “Insert SD card”, so it means the phone doesn’t recognize my SD card. I turned it off, then on again, restart it, and even factory reset my phone, none. Nothing happened. Please help me. I don’t know what to do. Thank you in advance. I really need your help. — MJ

Solution: Hi MJ. Knowing what’s causing your problem is actually easy. Simply insert the SD card to another known, working phone! If the second phone won’t recognize the SD card either, then it’s an SD card problem. Replace it.

Otherwise, it can only be your S6. since you’ve already tried to factory reset it, the cause of the problem must be hardware in nature. It can be a bad SD card slot so you’ll want to either have the phone repaired or replaced.

Problem 6: Galaxy S6 apps keep crashing

Hi droid guy. Please help me out with the following issue:

My S6 Android apps keep crashing one after the other. Model # SM-G920T – Usually starts with weather daemon; then Touchwiz home, media storage and so on
Got the phone used. Had been working fine for a month or so.
Tried factory data reset multiple times. Phone works fine for a while. But problem reoccurs approx 24 hours after factory data reset.
Tried wiping cache partition. Doesn’t work.
Tried malware protection & security apps. Didn’t help.
Do not have any games or other non-basic apps downloaded.
Found out that the OS is custom. Cannot be updated. Currently running on 5.1.1. — Bilalazam40

Solution: Hi Bilalazam40. If your device works fine initially after a factory reset, the cause can only be one of two things:

you’re installing a bad app after a factory reset, or
the firmware itself is problematic

To check if it’s an app issue, do another round of factory reset and observe how your device works for a longer period without any third party apps installed at all. Let it run for at least 48 hours and see how it works. If everything works normally, install apps individually and observe phone performance again for a day. Do the same cycle for each of your app until you identify the culprit.

If the problem returns right after a factory reset (and even when there are no apps installed yet), replace the custom ROM with a stock firmware.

Problem 7: Dual SIM Galaxy S6 can’t make calls or use mobile data

Hello. I have a Samsung S6 dual-SIM phone, bought in Russia 2 years ago. As of now, I leave in Switzerland and use the phone with 2 SIM cards – from Swiss provider and from Russian one. Several months ago – not sure if with Android 7.0 update or before – the device has started to lose cell connectivity – data is not coming in and I can’t make or get a call from / on any of the 2 numbers I’m using. What is interesting – the phone shows it’s in a network, so I do not know if i’m offline up until I try to call somebody or to use any app outside wifi zone.

Shutting-off LTE, changing the places of the cards, running the phone in a safe mode, wiping out cache didn’t help. S6 dual-sim models were not offered on Swiss market, so services (Samsung and other) refuse to deal with it. Samsung call center’s guys in Switzerland can’t help since the phone was bought abroad, and the guys in Russia know nothing about Swiss network. I haven’t tried to restore the settings to factory ones – do you think this may help? Are there any other actions which may bring the phone back to work? Thank you in advance. — Mikhail

Solution: Hi Mikhail. There’s really nothing much that you can do at this point except to factory reset your device so yes, you want to try that. If the problem won’t go away after that, the problem must be hardware related.

Problem 8: Galaxy S7 stuck in Samsung logo screen, won’t boot past Samsung screen

I don’t remember what version of Android it has and I can’t get it to boot. I see articles such as yours that mention an Android boot animation but I am not sure what that is. When I try to power up my phone it says “Samsung Galaxy S6” but then it says just “Samsung”. After showing just “Samsung” it plays a jingle and then it does not go past there. The two lights at the bottom flash and I feel a slight vibration. The splash continues and the lights occasionally flash and occasionally I feel the slight vibration but nothing else happens. I am not sure what the lights are called but they are the lights/buttons for list of applications and for returning from something. The phone has been acting up. What I did just prior to this problem is that I powered the phone down then removed the SD card, added stuff to the SD card then put it back in. Then I had the problem. I removed the SD card and still have the problem. Since there is a possibility that the SIM card was inserted improperly I removed it temporarily but that made no difference. — Sam

Solution: Hi Sam. Try to boot your phone to any of the three alternate modes to see if you do follow up troubleshooting. We list the corresponding follow up procedures that you can do if you can manage to start the phone to any of them (though you still need to some research for flashing). If the phone remains stuck in its current state and won’t respond to any of the hardware button combinations, it’s time that you send it in.

Below are the steps on how to boot to alternate modes:

Boot in Recovery mode:

Charge the phone for at least 30 minutes.
Press and then hold the Home and Volume UP keys, then press and hold the Power key.
When the Samsung Galaxy logo 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.’
You can either wipe the cache partition or do a factory reset when in this mode.

Boot in Download Mode:

Charge the phone for at least 30 minutes.
Press and then hold the Home and Volume DOWN keys, then press and hold the Power key.
When the Samsung Galaxy logo shows on the screen, release the Power key but continue holding the Home and Volume DOWN keys.
Wait until the Download screen appears.
If you can boot the phone in download mode but not in other modes, that means that your only way out may be to flash a stock or custom firmware.
Use Google to look for a guide on how to do it.

Boot in safe mode:

Charge the phone for at least 30 minutes.
Press and hold the Power button.
Once the Samsung Galaxy logo appears, release the Power key and immediately press and hold the Volume Down button.
Continue holding the button until the phone finishes rebooting.
Once you see the text “Safe mode” at the bottom left corner of the screen, release the Volume Down button.
The only difference of safe mode from normal mode is that the former prevents third party apps from running. If you can boot the phone in safe mode but not in normal mode, uninstall all apps until the issue (that prevents you from booting normally) is eliminated.

Problem 9: Galaxy S6 stuck in boot loop after unrooting

Hey DroidGuy. I need your help. i had rooted my Galaxy S6 edge because i had a problem with S Health and i forced to edit build.prop to fix it. i make it and later i thought that i should unroot my device. i opened supersu and i pressed full unroot and after that bootloop happend. Now my phone only boot up the screen “samsung galaxy s6 edge” then the the screen gets black and again again the same happens. i tried hard reseting my device by twrp which i had downloaded before so i could root but it didnt help me!!! What i should do?? plzzzz i need ur help!!! — Timosmagkaki

Solution: Hi Timosmagkaki. Many users usually fix boot loop issues by flashing the bootloader. If you haven’t tried that, make sure that you do. If flashing the bootloader won’t fix the problem, proceed with firmware flashing.

Below are the sample steps on how to boot a bootloader. Exact steps may be different for your phone model so make sure to do some research on how to do it properly.

Look for the correct firmware for your phone model and download it. Make sure that you select the right one. It should be the same exact firmware that ran previously on your device. We assume that you list down the firmware version somewhere. If you did not take note of it before, there’s a chance that you may pick the wrong one. As you may know now, using an incorrect firmware can cause complications so good luck with that.
Let’s now say that you have identified the correct firmware. You then want to download it to your computer. The firmware file should have a bunch of files in it like AP_, BL_, CSC_, etc.
Look for the file that starts with a label BL; this should be the corresponding bootloader file for this firmware. Once you’ve identified the bootloader file, copy it to your computer’s desktop or to any other folder that you can easily access.
Proceed with the rest of the flashing procedure using the Odin program.
In Odin, click on the BL tab and make sure to use the bootloader file you’ve identified earlier.
Now, make sure that the “Device Added” status and its “ID:COM box” has turned blue before hitting the START button. This will initiate the flashing of your phone’s bootloader.
Restart the phone once the procedure is finished.

Problem 10: Galaxy S6 won’t recognize apps stored in SD card

I have an unlocked Verizon phone running on Straight Talk. it’s a Samsung Galaxy S6. I could not get YouTube on my data to run and I did not have Wi-Fi. So I factory reset the phone trying to fix the problem. Before I did that, I took the apps I wanted to save and put them on the SD card. I took the SD card out and then factory reset the phone and then put the SD card back. I’m unable to find the apps I stored on the SD card. Can you help? It’s a kernel version 60.1. The email I put on here is not correct it would not take my correct email which is d***@gmail.com the other email really does not exist anymore. — Dawn

Solution: Hi Dawn. Moving apps to the SD card, then doing a factory reset on the phone might have deleted critical system files used by Android to recognize the apps again. If the apps stored in the SD card were downloaded from Google Play Store, simply redownload them.

Engage with us

If you are one of the users who encounters a problem with your device, let us know. We offer solutions for Android-related problems for free so if you have an issue with your Android device, simply fill in the short questionnaire in this link and we will try to publish our answers in the next posts. We cannot guarantee a quick response so if your issue is time sensitive, please find another way to resolve your problem.

Galaxy Note 4 won’t read SD card, keeps saying it’s corrupted, other issues

Welcome to another #GalaxyNote4 article! Our post today answers 8 more Note 4 cases reported to us for last few days. We hope to give you another good reference material as you look for a solution to your own Note 4 problem.

Below are the topics we’re discussing for you today:

Galaxy Note 4 won’t read SD card, keeps saying it’s corrupted
Galaxy Note 4 not receiving SMS from one number
Galaxy Note 4 lost Gallery folders, Gallery app won’t work
Galaxy Note 4 screen remains black after an accidental drop
Amazon app won’t work when Galaxy Note 4 is connected to wifi
Galaxy Note 4 shuts down when camera is used and battery level is low
Galaxy Note 4 randomly reboots and overheating due to wrong firmware
Multiple issues on Galaxy Note 4 after deleting bloatware

If you are looking for solutions to your own #Android issue, you can contact us by using the link provided at the bottom of this page, or you can install our free app from Google Play Store.

Problem #1: Galaxy Note 4 won’t read SD card, keeps saying it’s corrupted

Hi! Thanks for offering to help! I have a Note 4 that I have been using for a couple of years. I have used a micro SD card during this time for photos and other files. The phone recently stopped recognizing the card. I pulled the card and checked it on my PC and it is fine. All the files appear to be there. I put the card back in the phone and under the Storage section of Settings it now says the SD card is corrupt. I don’t know if it said this before. It appears the card is fine because the files all show up on the PC. Could there be a problem with the phone instead? Any insight is appreciated. Thank you! — Sabins4

Solution: Hi Sabins4. We can’t eliminate the possibility that the phone may causing the problem so you must narrow down the causes on your end.

The first thing that you want to do is to create a backup of your important files in both the SD card and phone. This is a must-do step whenever you troubleshoot memory issues. Of course, we assume that you regularly create a backup of your files as storage devices can fail without warning.

Once you’ve copied your files in a safe location, the next thing that you want to do is to insert the SD card to your Note 4 so you can format it. It’s important that you format an SD card using the device you’re planning to insert it to to minimize bugs. To format the SD card, follow these steps:

From a Home screen, tap Apps (located in the lower-right).
Tap Settings.
Tap Storage.
Tap Format SD card.
Tap Format SD card. If presented, enter the appropriate password, PIN or pattern then tap Continue.
Tap Delete all.

Once you’ve reformatted the card, load your files to it and observe how it works for a few days. If the problem persists right after you’ve formatted the card, unmount it from the phone and check it on the computer. If a second device can read it fine, the problem must lie on the phone itself and not on the card.

To fix the problem, do a factory reset and see if it works. Here’s how:

From the Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
Find and tap Settings and then touch Backup and reset.
Tap Factory data reset and touch Reset device.
If you have screen lock feature turned on, enter your password or PIN.
Touch Continue.
Tap Delete all to confirm your action.

Should the issue remain even after you’ve reset the phone, consider sending the phone in so it can be replaced.

Problem #2: Galaxy Note 4 not receiving SMS from one number

Hello. After an update I cannot receive texts from just my daughter! She has an iPhone. I’m with T-Mobile. They tried clearing the cache, didn’t work. I deleted my daughter’s info and then added her back, didn’t work. T-Mobile can’t figure it out. They wanted me to do a reset but I have lots of texts messages from my niece who recently died and I don’t want to lose those texts and screenshoting them all is very difficult. Now they want to give me a refurbished phone and hopefully they can transfer my text messages from my niece over. What do you think? AND are refurbished phones OK? My niece bought me this phone, I hate to give it up. Thank you so much for your help. Sincerely. — Helen

Solution: Hi Helen. We’re afraid troubleshooting this issue involves wiping the messaging app’s cache and data, which means deleting your messages (SMS and MMS) as well. To preserve your messages, we suggest that you back your phone up with using the official Samsung Smart Switch first. You need to install this app on both your phone and computer to work. Once you’ve created a backup of your files and messages to a computer, you then need to start troubleshooting your phone.

Make sure inbox is not full. Be sure to check that there’s enough space to receive more SMS and MMS. A messaging app’s allocated storage is not unlimited so if you are fond of keeping years-old conversations, your inbox may have become full at this time. To make more room, simply delete a few old conversations. If you are absolutely sure that there’s available space in your inbox, just skip this step.

Check if there are no blocks. Go under the settings menu of your messaging app and make sure that you are not blocking your daughter’s number. You also want to check that there are no blocked phrases that can prevent your phone from receiving messages.

Check the spam folder. Sometimes, a message will be forwarded by your system to its spam folder, or blocked messages folder, so be sure to check it as well. Messages or numbers marked as spam before will automatically be sent to this folder.

Boot in safe mode. If you are fond of installing apps, chances are one of them is causing this problem. To check if that’s the case, boot the phone to safe mode. Safe mode blocks third party apps and services. Here’s how to do it:

Turn your Galaxy S7 off.
Press and hold the Power button.
Once the ‘Samsung Galaxy S7’ logo appears, release the Power key and immediately press and hold the Volume Down button.
Continue holding the button until the phone finishes rebooting.
Once you see the text “Safe mode” at the bottom left corner of the screen, release the Volume Down button.

Be sure to let the phone run in safe mode until you can replicate the issue. Ask your daughter to send you another message and see if you can receive it while the phone is in safe mode. If your phone will get the SMS, that’s proof that a third party app is blocking your daughter’s message. Why that is so is for you to find out. In the meantime, try to fix the problem by uninstalling third party apps until the issue is eliminated.

Delete the cache and data of Messages app (or whatever messaging app you’re using). If the problem remains even when your phone is on safe mode, the next thing that you want to do is delete the messaging app’s cache and data. Here’s how to do it:

Open the Settings menu either through your notification shade (drop-down) or through the Settings app in your app drawer.
Navigate down to “Apps”. This may be renamed to something like Applications or Application Manager in OEM skinned versions of Android 6.0.
Once in there, click on an application.
You’ll now see a list of stuff that gives you information about the app, including Storage, Permissions, Memory Use, and more. These are all clickable items. You’ll want to click on Storage.
You should now clearly see the Clear Data and Clear Cache buttons for the application.

Do a factory reset. If all else fail, wipe the phone clean via factory reset. Here’s how:

Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S7.
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 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.

Problem #3: Galaxy Note 4 lost Gallery folders, Gallery app won’t work

On my Galaxy Note 4 lost access to my GALLERY photos. Only photos I can access are on the Camera and downloaded (saved to my phone) from texts messages. Any new photos I take are there under Camera. All photos I took before went to the Gallery. Got message it was ” Unable to open Gallery” the other day.

I removed battery after shutting off and reinstalled it, but that did not change anything. Battery was not low, near full charge at the time. Tried going to Settings>Applications> Gallery to see if that would bring it back, but that didn’t help. Tried to download the DCIM folder on my computer…. (usually where all the photos show up from the Gallery ) Opened it and saw two other folders never seen there before! These had nothing inside them.

Also noticed all the other folders on the phone showing on the computer had a backwards letter U in front of each name, like udroid instead of Android, uost instead of Host, etc. A corruption of some kind?

All the other Apps still work OK. Still can get Internet as well. Just the Gallery disappeared. Never had any issue like this before. Thank you in advance for any help. — Jim

Solution: Hi Jim. There’s no way to know for sure what caused the disappearance of your folders or the erratic behavior of the Gallery. It can be due to a bad app or a software bug. The first thing that you want to try is clearing of the cache partition. If that won’t work, consider wiping the phone via factory reset. Any of these two should help fix the problem. Factory reset returns all software settings and databases to their defaults so the pre-installed Gallery app will be restored to its known, working state.

Problem #4: Galaxy Note 4 screen remains black after an accidental drop

I dropped my phone on a tiled floor about a meter from the ground and then the display went off. Well the batteries came out of as it fell down. when I picked it up and put the batteries in, instead of working well like it should, the phone wouldn’t turn on. so later, I could see the purple and blue notification sign. light is still there as well as the fact that when I put the stylos/pen back in the phone it vibrates like it does. Else I don’t seem to be receiving calls or anything but I know that my phone is on and working because when I connected to my already open web Whatsapp page it was connected although it doesn’t show up on my laptop when I connect it via usb. I don’t know what to do to be honest. please help. — Midhat

Solution: Hi Midhat. If the screen remains black even though the phone seems to be powered on, that means that the accidental drop damaged the screen assembly. There’s no software fix for this type of problem so make sure to send it in to Samsung. If you’re lucky and the damage is limited to the screen assembly only, a replacement of a screen may easily fix the issue. Otherwise, a replacement unit may be needed to give you a good working phone again.

Problem #5: Amazon app won’t work when Galaxy Note 4 is connected to wifi

I have several apps that require internet to use and make sure that I am under a wifi connection to use them. But when I try to connect to them, it says that I need a better connection to use them. I cannot get these apps to work, no matter what I have done to get them to work. even some web pages will not load because it says that I am not using a secure settings, but I have not changed anything on my phone. I am not sure how to fix the settings or fix the apps so that they will use the wifi and not the data on my phone. The apps I am trying to use are Amazon app and it says it is not secure. If you could help to fix it that would be great.

Also a note… I got this phone recently from my mother and did not do a factory reset because she had some apps that I wanted to keep. — Momof6

Solution: Hi Momof6. We can’t see a logical reason why an Amazon app won’t work on wifi connection unless there’s something on the phone itself that causes the problem. If your phone is not rooted and does not run a custom ROM (in other words everything is official), we suggest that you contact Amazon so they can help you troubleshoot the issue. There may be a coding problem that only them can fix.

If your phone is rooted and does not use official software, that may be the reason why apps that require a secure connection doesn’t work as expected. Revert everything to stock before attempting to install apps again.

Problem #6: Galaxy Note 4 shuts down when camera is used and battery level is low

Basically, I’m having all listed problems with my Galaxy Note 4, but the copied question matches my issues the most. T-Mobile has replaced my phone 3x now, and each one has the same issues. I basically can’t use my camera without my phone shutting off. If I’m at 40% or less, my phone will shut off and power back on repeatedly or just stay off until i take the battery out and put it back in. Here is the question I copied that is most closely related to my situation. “When my battery percentage reaches in the 50s (not while using any specific app or the internet etc) phone shuts off and won’t turn back on until I plug it in. Then it when I do plug it in, it shows around 40% or so. I have replaced the battery, done a soft reset, cleared the cache, deleted several apps, done a factory reset, and it still has the issue.” I’m at my wits end with the Note 4. I never had these problems until after the Marshmallow update. After that, every single Note 4 that I’ve had, gives me the same issues. —Wirelessamber

Solution: Hi Wirelessamber. If the problem happens on at least 3 different units, its cause must either be an app that you install or inefficient coding of the software.

The first thing that you want to try is to observe the phone while it’s booted to safe mode to see if a third party app is to blame. Because this issue can also be caused by a pre-installed app, there’s no way that you’ll know it. Safe mode only works for third party apps so if nothing changes when you boot your Note 4 to it, you must try a factory reset as the next step.

If factory reset won’t make a difference, you can assume that this is a firmware bug. Since you download updates by air, there may not be a solution right away from your carrier. If you are really desperate to make the camera to work, try to manually install a previous Android version, the one that didn’t have this problem before.

Manual installation, also called flashing, is a risky procedure which can potentially brick your phone. Make sure to do some research before you do it.

Problem #7: Galaxy Note 4 randomly reboots and overheating due to wrong firmware

Hi. I have a Note 4 previously owned and the person put the wrong firmware on. Now the phone still work but constantly reboots, overheats and the screen has a yellowish tint on 3 quarters of the screen. And where the notification area is you can see the real color the screen is meant to be.

Now i can’t update my Note 4. i presume its because of the firmware. And I’ve tried using Odin, Samsung Kies and Smart switch and they all have failed. Is there anyway i can upload new firmware or any other solutions? I’ve been struggling with this issue for more than 2 months now and can’t get a break through. The Samsung store in our town is useless because they have no knowledge about dealing with any of this.

My Note 4 was running fine until the 6.0.1 update came out. Then it went completely down hill from there but if i can get a way to some how get the right firmware on i think it might fix the problem. — Joshuagrant1132

Solution: Hi Joshuagrant1132. The only effective way to manually update a firmware on a Samsung device is by booting it to Odin mode and use a computer to reprogram the device via Odin application. We don’t provide a full guide on how to flash a firmware as the steps vary from phone to phone. You have to do some research on how to flash your own phone. Keep in mind that firmware can vary a lot even on the same phone lines as the Note 4. in other words, you can’t use a T-Mobile firmware in an AT&T Note 4 so make sure that you use the correct firmware. You also need to use the right guide on how to flash a particular firmware as even a small misstep can lead to complications. If you want to do the flashing yourself, use Google to find a good guide for this task.

Problem #8: Multiple issues on Galaxy Note 4 after deleting bloatware

A week ago I was cleaning up my phone deleting and disabling bloatware etc. Since my Pebble Time watch disconnects every few minutes I often need to manually reconnect. Other times it showed not connected on the phone but the app shows it connected.

Also my Nixie clock widget is mostly displaying the wrong time even though the correct time is always visible upper right of screen. My Internet Speed Meter app always showed speed upper left of screen. Now only does for a few minutes after I manually open the app. WiFi Manager app doesn’t show the correct information in the widget. Often Shows connected when not and not connected when it is. Also often when I’ve changed to a different WiFi connection the widget still shows the last one. Several other similar things with apps as well as just locking up periodically for a several seconds. All these anomalies started at the same time. BTW this is a Note Edge but I didn’t see it in your choices. And when I’m in USA I use Cricket network. – Acme71

Solution: Hi Acme71. If all these problems started happening all at the same time, there must be a software glitch causing it. Be sure to revert the software settings to their defaults by doing a factory reset. Refer to the steps above on how to do it.

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How to change the appearance of Galaxy S7 after updating to Android Nougat, other issues

Hello everyone and welcome to our #GalaxyS7 article for the day. We’ve been receiving more S7 issues in the past weeks so we’re gradually increasing the frequency of our published articles. If you can’t find a solution for your issue here, be sure to keep watching for more S7 articles in the coming days.

If you are looking for solutions to your own #Android issue, you can contact us by using the link provided at the bottom of this page.

Below are specific topics we’re bringing for you today:

Problem 1: Galaxy S7 can’t read encrypted SD card

The phone isn’t reading my encrypted Micro SD card. I was using it normally and then I tried to open a picture in the Gallery and the album wasn’t there. At first I thought I was in a different root but then I realized that the phone wasn’t reading and opening the information in the SD. I turned off the phone, removed the Micro SD and mounted on my laptop. I was so happy to see all my albums and files in the SD. I tried to open any file BUT surprise, my info is encrypted. I return the SD to the phone, turn it on but nothing. If I go to the security menu on my phone / Encrypt SD card, I have the 2 options: decrypt and encrypt. If I try to decrypt the card, the process start searching and then crash. So? What can I do? I can’t format the card, but I can’t format the phone either so what’s wrong? — Juan Pablo

Solution: Hi Juan Pablo. We have no way of telling what exactly is wrong why you have this situation. All we can do is speculate but unfortunately, that won’t fix your issue at all. To be honest, there’s really nothing much that you can do. Perhaps, a software glitch hit something that changed some operating system configuration. Again, we can’t be so sure about that. Doing device troubleshooting like factory reset is a big no-no so that leaves you with SD card reformat option, which obviously deletes all your data. Inserting your SD card in another phone is definitely out of the question.

We are not aware of any effective third party recovery tool out there but if you think your data is worth a few hundred dollars of investment, consider using the services of companies that specializes in data recovery. There’s no guarantee that they can successfully access your files so be ready to part ways with your money if that happens.

Try using Google to look for reputable companies that can help you. Be sure to let them know of the entire situation so they can give you advise before paying up.

Problem 2: Galaxy S7 won’t turn back on after used under water

I took underwater photos with my Galaxy S7 phone (it was under water for about 3 or 4 seconds and it was just 3cm under the water). I don’t know if that matters but it happened in Greece and the water has much salt in it. After I went out of the sea I noticed that the phone doesn’t work correctly and doesn’t accept my commands. I put it next to me in order for the sun to dry it. It didn’t work so I got home and wrapped it in a towel and waited for about an hour and it didn’t start to work. After all, I decided to leave it on the shelf with the SD card out of it because there was nothing left that I could do in that situation. We are on a vacation and I can’t take it to a technician. Can you please tell me if I can do anything else because after everything I have done the display still doesn’t work. I also restarted it from the power and the volume down buttons two times because it can’t shut down. It just doesn’t accept any of the commands I try to give it. I’ll be very thankful if you give me any advise for that problem. — Elizabeth

Solution: Hi Elizabeth. Although a Galaxy S7 is rated as water-resistant, it’s not fully water proof. Dunking it in free flowing water might still damage it and we’ve already seen a lot of such cases before. Not exactly a confidence builder for an expensive device marketed as almost water proof.

Anyway, if your phone is dead and doesn’t respond to any hardware button combination at this time, there’s nothing much that you can do. The best thing that you can do right now is to wait until you get home so you can send it to Samsung. The hardware must be checked so it can be assessed if repair can fix it.

Problem 3: How to customize notification settings in Galaxy S7

I just got the Galaxy S7. Yesterday, when my screen was locked/black, it showed the date, time and battery level as well as any notifications from messaging and emails. Today the messaging and emails don’t show up. How do I get that back?

Also, I don’t like that when a text come and I unlock the screen the text is showing up in a large box in the middle of the screen. Is there a way to change that? — Emily

Solution: Hi Emily. To fix these issues, you must customize how each app shows notifications. Below are the steps on what you need to do:

Open the Settings app.
Tap Notifications.
Look for the app you want to turn notifications for and tap it. This will turn on notifications for this app.
Tap ADVANCED at the upper right hand side.
Select the app you want to set the notifications for.
Select the setting you want. The explanation for each option should be easy to understand.

Problem 4: Galaxy S7 drains battery power faster when using AT&T SIM card

I’ve had my Samsung Galaxy S7 for over a year with T-Mobile as my carrier. Soon I will be moving from California to Iowa. The location in Iowa has no T-Mobile coverage, so prior to moving, I have decided to switch carriers to AT&T. Herein lies my problem. I used to get upwards of 24 hours on a full battery charge. The very moment I switched to AT&T, I noticed a serious and rapid drain on my battery and I can literally watch the % go down. I am lucky to get 3-4 hours now, and have it constantly attached to my portable charger.

I have not changed anything on my phone, no updates, no new apps, no settings adjustments. The ONLY thing I did was replace my T-Mobile SIM card with the new AT&T SIM card and that is all.

Of course, the AT&T reps deny that my battery issues are caused by their towers or switches, and instead, suggest I buy a new phone (or battery at the very least). I checked Battery Usage and I show only a couple of apps using less than 3%. Nothing out of the ordinary. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks. — Ray

Solution: Hi Ray. We can’t think of any logical explanation for the problem other than the possibility that your phone may be working harder to establish good connection to AT&T network compared to when it was still in its mother network (T-Mobile). Keep in mind that your phone is still running the T-Mobile firmware. This means that everything on it has been validated to work efficiently with T-Mobile system. Now that your still running a T-Mobile software but using the network settings of AT&T, some things must have changed, causing the device to spend more battery or processing power. We can’t be sure of this for sure but since you’re positive that the only change you’ve done is to use an AT&T SIM, this is the most likely explanation. Try to factory reset the device and see how it works. If that won’t solve your issue, you just have to accept the situation.

Below are the steps on how to factory reset your S7:

Create a backup of your important files such as photos, videos, contacts etc. You can use Smart Switch for this task.
Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S7.
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 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.

Problem 5: Wet Galaxy S6 won’t power back on

Hello. So, my Galaxy S6 got wet. Not submerged. Just wet. My daughter splashed water on it from her bath (it was sitting on the bathroom floor) and I didn’t notice until about 10 minutes later. I took it out of the case and wiped the water off. It appeared to be fine. Then the touch screen stopped working. The phone is still on (at least until the batter dies) and because the touch screen isn’t working, I cannot turn it off. It doesn’t have a removable back either, so I don’t know how to go about taking it apart further to let it dry out. It is sitting in a bag of rice right now (dumb, I know, but what else can I do?) and before I put it in, the power button on the right side of the phone had also stopped working. What should I do? Can I take it somewhere? It is a Straight Talk phone. — Cailtinjmichael

Solution: Hi Cailtinjmichael. Unlike the Galaxy S7 and S8, your S6 does not have water resistance protection so even a splash can hurt it bad. Putting your phone in a bag of rice won’t do much at this time. Bring the phone to Samsung or an independent service center so the hardware can be checked. A professional also needs to check the hardware so it can be assessed if a repair will likely fix it or not.

Problem 6: Galaxy S7 won’t charge, won’t turn on

I have a Galaxy S7. Yesterday it froze and it won’t reboot at all. When I plug it into the wall, it shows a battery with a lightning bolt but it doesn’t fill up green showing it’s got charge. I have tried all the possible reboot fixes by holding in the power key and volume keys ETC but none of which have fixed the phones issue. I’ve looked all over the net but nothing seems to give me the right advice. — Kailadobson58

Solution: Hi Kailadobson58. The tips and possible solutions that you’ll find online are mostly intended to fix software causes of this problem. If your phone no longer boots up right now, that means that you can’t perform any of the suggested software tricks that you’ll find. It also means that bad hardware is the mostly cause of your problem.

Try to charge the phone with a different charger and USB cable and see if that will work. If you have a wireless charger, you can also try that to see if the problem lies in your phone’s charging port.

If you can’t power the phone back on using any of these means, have it repaired or replaced.

Problem 7: Accidentally dropped Galaxy S7 has cracked screen

I dropped my phone and there is a small superficial crack on the bottom by the home button. If I hit the power button, my screen goes black; it stays on. I can hear the pages opening or the volume buttons. Everything is responsive except the screen. it will blink and if I mess with it for a couple hours I can get it to light up. But I can’t let the display go dark or time out. Cuzco I’m screwed. — Jennifer

Solution: Hi Jennifer. If you want to fix the problem, you should stop looking for any software solution. There’s no amount of software tweak that can be done to fix a damaged hardware. Contact Samsung and have the device repaired or replaced. If your phone was part of your subscription plan, contact your carrier so it can be replaced.

Problem 8: Galaxy S7 apps keep crashing after installing Android Nougat

Hi. I recently updated my phone to Android version 7.0 and it is a nightmare. The most important issue is that I can’t view my messages or text on the system’s messaging app. When I tap to open… it immediately shows this message on my screen: “com.android.cts.ctsshim has stopped” or “com.android.cts.ctsshim keeps stopping”. Please help me what can I do to fix this problem? Many thanks, Sabrina P.s. if possible I’d like to avoid doing a factory reset. Thanks. — Sabrina

Solution: Hi Sabrina. The first possible solution to your problem is cache partition wipe. Do that and observe how your phone works for some time.

If the problem returns, make sure that all your apps are up-to-date and compatible with the current operating system. Even if the specific app you’re having problem with is okay, it’s possible that one of your apps is affecting the working ones. Go over your list of apps under Google Play Store app and make sure to check each one if it’s compatible with Nougat (Android 7.0). You can also observe how your phone works when it’s on safe mode. This will help you tell if one of the third party apps is to blame or not.

Below are the steps on how to restart your S7 to safe mode:

Turn your Galaxy S7 off.
Press and hold the Power button.
Once the ‘Samsung Galaxy S7’ logo appears, release the Power key and immediately press and hold the Volume Down button.
Continue holding the button until the phone finishes rebooting.
Once you see the text “Safe mode” at the bottom left corner of the screen, release the Volume Down button.

If nothing changes even when your phone is safe mode, do a factory reset.

Problem 9: Galaxy S7 screen flashes green, screen won’t turn on right away after a restart

So, I have an S7. I began to notice something. Every now and then, when I turn off my screen, it would flash green, then turn off and when I try to turn it on again, it doesn’t turn on after I try for a few minutes.

Also, whenever I leave it in a cold environment, the same thing tends to happen. I tried asking somebody about it and they said it might be because I dropped it. I’m not sure if that is the case so that’s why I’m asking here before I pay for a repair. Hope you can reply, and thanks. — Cedric

Solution: Hi Cedric. Most issues about erratic or discoloration of the screen are caused by hardware malfunction. If you did dropped the phone badly before, that may have damaged something in the motherboard though it’s only now that you’re seeing the negative effect. Like water damage, the unnecessary shock from an accidental drop can lead to anything. For some, issues can begin showing right away, while in some cases, much later.

To check if hardware issue is to blame, do a factory reset first and observe the phone for a day. During this time, try to replicate the issue by doing the things that you normally do when this issue occurs. If the issue won’t occur, a software glitch may be to blame. That’s good news since you can most likely fix it by removing a problematic app, installing an update, or flashing.

If the problem continues even after a factory reset (and without apps installed), you must have a hardware issue at hand. In this case, you should consider repair or phone replacement.

Problem 10: How to change the appearance of Galaxy S7 after updating to Android Nougat

Hi guys. It’s not so much a glitch but everything seems dull and boring in the update. When I get emails, there is no colour to differentiate new emails from old ones and all the writing is the same size, nothing stands out. In the notification window the writing is like outlined as opposed to the writing being filled in like, it’s kinda ghost writing. It’s horrible. Can I change the text on everything? — Davedave1973

Solution: Hi Davedave1973. If you don’t like how the new update changed the previous look, there are a number of options that you can try.

Firstly, you can try to download a new font to replace the existing set of fonts. You can change the font, font style, and font size by going under Settings>Display>Screen zoom and font.

If changing the font won’t be enough, you can also try to change the look of some aspects of the phone by using a different theme. Just go under Settings>Wallpapers and themes.

Finally, you can also change the overall look of the phone by using third party launchers. Try to take a look at this link and visit a website that lists some of the popular Android launchers nowadays.

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If you are one of the users who encounters a problem with your device, let us know. We offer solutions for Android-related problems for free so if you have an issue with your Android device, simply fill in the short questionnaire in this link and we will try to publish our answers in the next posts. We cannot guarantee a quick response so if your issue is time sensitive, please find another way to resolve your problem.