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Galaxy S6 turns itself off even when battery is charged, other issues

s6

Good day everyone! Welcome to another post that covers some of the submitted issues for the #GalaxyS6. If you don’t find your own issue here, keep watching for more of the same in the coming weeks.

  1. Galaxy S6 turns itself off even when battery is charged
  2. How to recover photos from wet Galaxy S6 that is stuck in boot loop
  3. Galaxy S6 won’t charge when it’s on
  4. Galaxy S6 screen not responding and speaker making crackling sound
  5. Galaxy S6 Custom binary blocked by FRP Lock error

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 S6 turns itself off even when battery is charged

I’m inquiring about my husband’s phone. He got it brand new from Verizon six and a half months ago and it has been having charging problems; like he’ll unplug it after it has fully charged and the charge drops rather quickly, even if he has hardly used it. and lately it has started turning itself off with 8% battery remaining; even 5%. I’ve read that this model has a lot of problems but I also think it’s the battery but we haven’t had the money to buy a new battery.

so I’ve been researching and trying various things. like I’ve wiped the cache partition and trying to make sure apps are manually closed. and now I’m stuck cause I don’t know what else to try or if maybe I was trying the wrong things.

The other problem is that his Gmail won’t automatically update and sync is not working for some reason that I’m unaware of. Plus I’ve gone through the settings for it, and this problem is how I even came across wiping the cache partition. Any help is greatly appreciated. — Jenn

Solution: Hi Jenn. The first thing that you want to try in fixing the battery or charging problem is battery calibration. It’s needed to ensure that the device displays the true state of charge of the battery. We think that the battery has lost its reference as far as telling the system what its true state of charge is. That may be the reason why the phone turns off even though it’s still showing 8% on the battery level meter. To calibrate the battery, simply follow the steps below:

  • Charge the phone until the battery level reaches 100%.
  • Drain the battery to 0% by playing some games and doing resource demanding tasks.
  • Charge the battery up to 100% again.
  • Drain the battery to 0% one more time.

If battery calibration won’t change anything, you can also do a more drastic solution by wiping the phone clean via factory reset. This will be the last thing that you can do on your end. Again, our aim here is to check if the issue is being caused by a software glitch. To do it, just do the steps below:

  • 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.

Find a way to have the phone replaced if the issues remains after a factory reset.

Problem #2: How to recover photos from wet Galaxy S6 that is stuck in boot loop

Phone got wet and would not show anything. Took 10 days in bag of rice but finally came back on and worked. Battery died, tried plugging in to charge since Fast Wireless pad won’t work (due to phone, not pad) and am stuck in loop showing Boot screen with Reboot System now Reboot to Bootloader, etc. Choose Reboot system now, goes to Samsung Galaxy S6 edge+ then Installing system update blue screen with Android guy clockwise spin thing then he rolls sideways with big yellow triangle with exclamation point inside and back to Reboot system now screen.

I would like to get some pictures and video off there from vacation when it got wet so am trying to avoid Wipe data/factory reset. I HAVE DONE the wipe cache partition with same result of loop. — Rob

Solution: Hi Rob. To access photos and other files in a storage device, you first need to ensure that the operating system works normally. That means that if you are stuck in a boot loop, there’s no other way to reach the boot sequence wherein the operating system takes over. Needless to say, you’ll be unable to access the storage device and move files from it. We always keep it a point to say in our posts that if basic software troubleshooting won’t fix issues following water- or liquid-damage, the next best thing to do is factory reset and eventually repair/replacement. This applies to your case as well.

Try booting your phone in safe mode to see if it turns on that way. If you’re lucky and the phone boots in safe mode, you will be able to recover your photos. Otherwise, those files are good as gone. To boot in safe mode, follow the steps below:

  • 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.

Problem #3: Galaxy S6 won’t charge when it’s on

Just recently my phone wouldn’t charge. i plugged my phone in and left it over night. i knew it wasn’t charging at all with 35 % left during the middle of the night. the phone managed to turn off by itself and start charging only when its off. Doesn’t seem to charge anymore when it’s on. i have a feeling it’s to do with the actual port itself where you plug in the cable.

the same thing happened to my old Samsung s4 and now that won’t charge at all. i got a feeling when plugging the cable in it seems little loose not sturdy. apparently speaking to another person it’s a common thing with Samsung. but any help to fix this and not buying new phones cause I’m done with new phones. Haven’t had this phone for a year probably only 6 months if lucky. — Daniel

Solutions: Hi Daniel. Our blog only deals with software issues that can be fixed by basic software troubleshooting. Although many charging-related problems are caused by software bugs, which means that they fixable at a user’s level by doing software solutions, yours may be different. If you think that your S6 has a bad charging port, the best thing that you can do is to have that component or phone replaced. We don’t provide hardware diagnostics and troubleshooting. Obviously, hardware problems cannot be fixed software solutions. If you want to do a hardware solution yourself, do it at your own risk.

As we said, many charging problems are results of software problems. If you haven’t tried anything at your end yet, we suggest that you do the troubleshooting that we recommend in this post. For starters, wiping the cache partition is a good thing to do.

For minor firmware-related issues brought by apps and firmware updates, wiping the cache partition often does the trick. It’s because this procedure will literally delete all cached files in the cache partition, which will force the system to create new ones during the next boot up.

This procedure is also very helpful in fixing issues like random reboots, boot loop, stuck during boot up and random freezes after updates. Here’s how you wipe the cache partition on your S6:

  • 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.

You can also try restarting your phone in safe mode while charging to see if there’s any difference. Finally, a factory reset would be a good last step. If these procedures won’t work, you can assume that the issue is hardware in nature and the only way out is either repair or replacement.

Problem #4: Galaxy S6 screen not responding and speaker making crackling sound

Ok so today (20160607) I was on the way home from the gym and tried restarting my phone. It was playing music at the time and it did some weird flashing stuff on the screen then wouldn’t bring up the menu to restart it yet kept playing music. I stopped the music and looked in the drop down menu hoping to find a way to turn it off and maybe hit the back camera flashlight or something. but all i know is the screen went dark but the two lights in front next to the home button were lit and the flash light was on. I couldn’t get the screen to come on to stop it or reset the phone. it all flickered out soon after and then I plugged it in  and the front key lights came on, the flashlight started flickering again and the red notification light next to the ear speaker started flashing. all the while the main bottom speaker was making crackling noises and the back of the phone to the left of the camera started heating up.

I then unplugged it and let it sit for a bit then tried again and the same thing happened. I then unplugged it and let it sit there. I don’t know f if its water damage as I was careful with it while at the gym.

If there is a way to at least get my files off of the thing I’d appreciate it. It has everything important I need to do my job as a US Marine. — Mitchell

Solution: Hi Mitchell. The things you mentioned like the bottom speaker making crackling sound, flashlight turning on by itself, and LED flashing, and unresponsive screen are classic symptoms of hardware malfunction. That they are present all at the same time is a strong indication that the phone may have been exposed to elements or may have been dropped. Whatever the true cause is, the only thing that you can try right now is connect the phone to a computer and hope that it can still talk to it. If a computer no longer detects the phone, the files you’re trying to recover are gone.

If possible, try bringing the phone to a Samsung repair shop to see if there’s something that they can do.

Problem #5: Galaxy S6 Custom binary blocked by FRP Lock error

I bought 2 Galaxy S6 devices, unlocked by the store I bought them from. 3 days ago my wife’s phone rebooted and came up with the following error:

KERNEL IS NOT SEANDROID ENFORCING

Custom binary blocked by FRP Lock.

I tried doing the smart switch restore, but the app doesn’t like my model/SN combination. I got ODIN and a Lollipop 5.11.1 firmware for my model, flashed it using the ODIN flash procedure, that was successful. Once my phone power cycled it is now stuck on the SAMSUNG logo startup screen and will not boot any further, the error messages have gone away.

I can get it into recovery and download mode, but not sure what else to do to fix this bootup problem. Maybe the bootloader is toast? — Ben

Solution: Hi Ben. If your phone still responds to hardware button combinations to allow you to boot to recovery or download mode, we suggest that you try wiping the cache partition and/or wiping the phone via factory reset first. If that won’t change anything, try flashing another compatible stock firmware. This second procedure is your only hope in making the phone boot normally again. If that fails though, make sure that you flash the original stock firmware before asking for a replacement from the store.

 

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. 

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.

Galaxy S6 can’t connect to the internet when using home wi-fi, other issues

Welcome to another post that will try to fix issues reported by some #GalaxyS6 users this past week. There are 6 issues that we pick for you so we hope that you will find this material helpful.

s6

Below are the topics that we answer:

  1. Solution to “Unfortunately IMS Service has stopped” error on AT&T Galaxy S6
  2. Galaxy S6 won’t turn on
  3. How to create backup of files from Galaxy S6 if it keeps on rebooting
  4. Galaxy S6 drains battery while charging | Galaxy S6 only charges using a car charger
  5. AT&T Galaxy S6 Edge group messages is sent to both the original sender and members of the group
  6. Galaxy S6 can’t connect to the internet when using home wi-fi

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: Solution to “Unfortunately IMS Service has stopped” error on AT&T Galaxy S6

“Unfortunately IMS Service has stopped”. Solved it differently from your way via S6 Settings > Applications > Messages > AT&T Messages Backup & Sync > Stop Backup (link).

This issue happened after an update to Marshmallow 6.0.1 and a prompt asking if I wanted to backup my messages to the cloud. I said yes. From that point onward, I had a spinning icon in my bar showing it was actively trying to backup and sync. Then a popup message every 15 seconds “Unfortunately IMS Service has stopped”. Click OK and 15 seconds later reappears. Read forums everywhere, including yours and NO ONE had this solution. All were way over my head techy. Please add it to your solutions. It addresses the actual problem. — Amy

Solution: Hi Amy. Yeah, we covered this issue in this post before. Errors due to carrier-specific app and/or service like IMS service can sometimes be tricky for us to resolve because we are not familiar with thousands of such apps around the world. The best that we can do is to offer general directions in troubleshooting such as booting the phone in safe mode, in the hope of isolating if the issue is due a third party app or not. And of course, for an issue that appears to be app-specific, wiping the app’s cache and data is also a must.

The thing with safe mode is that it only filters third party apps. Since IMS Service is an AT&T app (which we failed to identify initially), it won’t be snagged by safe mode, thus it would continue to run.

We thank you for your effort in letting us know of a solution for this particular issue. We think it will be very helpful for other members of Android community. If we are not mistaken, this issue also occurs in other devices  from AT&T as well so publishing your solution will be very valuable. Thank you.

Problem #2: Galaxy S6 won’t turn on

Hi! So I’ve had my phone, the Galaxy S6 for a year and a half now. Never had any major problems that weren’t resolved by a normal restart. I’ve always kept a good, sturdy case on it and it has never been cracked. But today, all of a sudden, the screen went black and showed to start up screen (all black with white letters “Samsung Galaxy S6, powered by Android”). It stayed like this no matter what I did. I tried restarting, holding down the power, volume, and home keys in various formations, but nothing. I left it alone for 2 hours and then the screen went all black and still wouldn’t turn on. I plugged it in the charger and it showed the charging symbol but has not made any progress in 40 minutes. Please help. – Steph

Solution: Hi Steph. The only potential solutions that you can try at your level are attempts to boot the phone in different modes. If your S6 remains unresponsive when you try to boot in either safe mode, recovery mode, or Odin mode, then the issue has now become beyond an average user’s ability to resolve. You must tap the expertise of Samsung or other qualified repair shops to help you fix whatever hardware issue the phone is having.

Problem #3: How to create backup of files from Galaxy S6 if it keeps on rebooting

My husband’s Galaxy s6 turns off every few seconds and won’t turn on at all without being connected to the charger but even then continues to turn off and reboot. He has been advised by US cellular to just send it in to Samsung because they don’t fix these issues but we desperately want recently taken photos from the phone before we do that and Samsung wipes the phone. The photos are recent and didn’t get backed up in time before issues arose and they are extremely sentimental as they are the only photos from the OR the day our son was born. Is there anything we can do? The technicians at US cellular were not very helpful and just kept telling us that they don’t work with these problems and to send it in. — Whittmcg

Solution: Hi Whittmcg. Like Steph above, the issue is most probably beyond resolving at your level right now. If the device keeps rebooting even when connected to a charger, the cause of the issue may be a bad battery, or another failing component. In order to access your phone’s files, we need to make sure first that the device’s power remains uninterrupted for at least a few minutes (depending on how fast you can move the files to a PC via USB cable). If you can’t achieve an uninterrupted mode on your S6, there’s just no way to move files. Needless to say, it may be too late now to try to save those photos as there’s no trick that can make your S6 remains stable for some time.

Problem #4: Galaxy S6 drains battery while charging | Galaxy S6 only charges using a car charger

My Galaxy S6 will only charge when it is on the car charger (which is a lightning charger). When it is plugged into the wall unit (any wall unit – I’ve tried various ones) it won’t charge at all if it is dead. If it has a bit of a charge, it charges insanely slow. I plugged it in at 15% at 9pm, and at 7am it was only at 54%. Seriously?! I’ve never had this problem. It will charge slowly in my computer as well. I recently downloaded some spy app stuff on my daughters phone and not sure if some of it is on my phone too so maybe a 3rd party is doing this?? I tried putting it in safe mode to charge, but it didn’t charge any faster that way. It seems to only charge quickly when it is on the car charger. I really don’t want to do a factory reset. Is there any way I can remedy this without extreme measures?– Stacy

Solution: Hi Stacy. The first thing that you want to do in this situation is to make sure that you are using the right charging cable, with correct amperage, and charger (with correct amperage as well). We don’t want to go into technical details how to go about that but the simplest way to achieve that is by using the Samsung supplied USB cable and charger FOR this phone. That means using the cable and charger that came with the box. If you are no longer using that, get the correct charging kit for this phone model from any Samsung store or order one from their website.

Once you’ve established that the charging cable and charger are not the cause, you can further narrow down the possible causes to either the phone’s software or hardware.

Since booting in safe mode did not make a difference, the next logical step is to perform a factory reset. We know it’s a hassle but it’s the only way to help you check if the reason of the problem is software related. As an average user (and assuming you don’t do rooting or flashing custom software), there’s only so much that you can do to fix an issue like this. Factory reset is actually the last and final software “tweak” that you can do. If the phone remains the same and the battery continues to drain even when charging after you performed a factory reset (and without third party apps), you can assume that you have a hardware problem at hand.

And since hardware issue is almost always unfixable by average users, we don’t cover them in this blog. If you think you have the right knowledge and tools to perform hardware repairs, please look for guides somewhere.

For reference, below are the steps on how to perform a master or factory reset on the S6:

  • 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.

Problem #5: AT&T Galaxy S6 Edge group messages is sent to both the original sender and members of the group

So I just bought a Galaxy S6 Edge (I know, a little late to the party) and whenever people send group messages to me, I’m included as one of the recipients to the messages. In other words, my phone number is listed as one of the contacts to send the message to. Because of this, every time I reply to a group message, I receive the message myself in addition to everybody else in the group. So there will be a yellow sent message, as well as a blue received message that is from me. Is there any way I can turn that off? I’ve checked with my carrier (AT&T), and everything is good on their end, and I have reset my phone multiple times. Any suggestions? — David

Solution: Hi David. Messaging apps vary by carrier so we are not quite sure if this issue is unique to  AT&T’s messaging app on the S6 Edge. We don’t have access to an AT&T S6 in our laboratory so we can’t independently check the exact settings. The only suggestion that we can give is to check what happens if you play around with the messaging app’s Group MMS option under settings. Your carrier should be able to help you with this issue as it concerns their product but if they really can’t try to look for solution from AT&T’s forum site or other third party forums that talk about AT&T devices.

Problem #6: Galaxy S6 can’t connect to the internet when using home wi-fi

We have the phones in my house and all work on WiFi except the Galaxy S6. By work on WiFi I mean, they function on wifi the same as if they were using 4G. The Galaxy S6 works on 4G in the house but not on WiFi. It does however, work on my work’s wifi. My home connection is not slow. I know this because all other devices and computers use it just fine. I have tried everything except a factory reset because I don’t think that will do anything. I’m not sure why only the Galaxy S6 has problems. The problems started when we switched to a better router. The old router worked out with the S6 just fine but that router is very old and the new is a big upgrade. I have messed with all the settings I can think of to get the computer S6 to work but nothing works. — Jarom

Solution: Hi Jarom. First of all, we assume that when you say your S6 doesn’t work on Wi-Fi, you are referring to the phone’s inability to connect to the internet via your home wi-fi.

The second thing we want to point out is the fact that if your S6 works with other Wi-Fi networks, that’s a clear indicator that the issue may only be on how your home wi-fi network allows devices to connect, or that your phone’s network memory needs to be cleared (especially if the SSID or network name remains after switching to a new router).

Check router settings

In order to check if the issue is being caused by router-level restriction, you must ensure that your S6 is not blocked from connecting to the internet by the router itself. If you are the administrator of your home wi-fi, log in to your router’s graphic user interface (usually done by pulling up a browser in a computer and typing the router’s log-in page like 192.168.254.254). Every router has its own way of allowing access to its GUI so make sure that you consult the manual or contact the manufacturer for support. If this router was provided by your internet service provider, call your ISP accordingly.

Once you’ve logged in to your router’s GUI, check if you’ve accidentally blocked your phone’s MAC address or IP address. Doing so can result to your S6 being unable to connect to the internet. If the phone is not blocked, there’s also a possibility that it may be restricted or throttled down to only connect to the internet with a very limited bandwidth. Again, routers vary on how their GUIs look so make sure that you ask for assistance if you don’t know what we’re talking about here. Put simply, you want to ensure that your S6 is not blocked from connecting to the internet, or if it’s not, only allowed to connect but with very slow connection speed.

If there’s another family member acting as the administrator of your home wi-fi, make sure that you let him or her know whether or not the above scenarios are happening.

Do a factory reset

If everything is clear on the router level, don’t hesitate to do a factory reset. While “forgetting” then reconnecting to a wi-fi network is sometimes enough to fix this issue, yours may be different. Making sure that you set all software settings back to their default state may be the only effective solution for the problem. Before you commit to a factory reset though, you can also try to wipe the cache partition to see if that will work. Here’s how it’s done:

  • 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.

 

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. 

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.

MMS on Galaxy S6 creates separate conversation thread, other issues

S6 MMS

Welcome to another post about #GalaxyS6! Our post today covers 6 issues shared by our community members. Don’t forget to also visit our S6 troubleshooting page for our previously published articles.

  1. MMS on Galaxy S6 creates separate conversation thread
  2. Galaxy S6 does not power on
  3. Galaxy S6 lags and loses battery power fast
  4. Galaxy S6 won’t factory reset under Settings
  5. Galaxy S6 is not recognized by computers
  6. Replacement Galaxy S6 has fast charging feature not working and battery drain issue

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: MMS on Galaxy S6 creates separate conversation thread

I have a Verizon phone but my carrier is AT&T. Regular SMS text messages, phone calls etc., work. However, when I receive a picture (MMS message) my phone creates a separate text thread for that person as if we are in a group. It will not come through the regular text thread that already exists. For example, I’m sending regular texts to John, John then sends me a picture. I have to go to my conversation list and click on a whole new thread my phone created, and it is now a group conversation message with “Me, John”. If I text back in this new thread in the group, it sends me a separate message just to me as well, but not to the original text messages John and I had while just texting. It is like the messages do not recognize my number as being my phone and sends them to me twice.

All APN options are correct and mobile data is on etc. I’m not using a 3rd party messaging app. I am using the Samsung message program within the phone, which is set as the default messaging service. — Greg

Solution: Hi Greg. Did the issue start to appear after installing an update for Android or your messaging app? If yes, make sure to delete the phone’s cache partition first, then wipe the cache and data of the app involved. Below are the steps that you must do:

How to wipe the cache partition of Galaxy S6 Edge

  • Turn the device off.
  • Press and hold the Power, Volume Up and Home buttons simultaneously.
  • When the phone vibrates, release the Power button but continue to press and hold the Volume Up and Home buttons.
  • Now, when Android recovery screen appears, highlight the wipe cache partition option using Volume Down button.
  • To confirm the selection, press the Power button.
  • Wait for a while until wiping the cache partition is finished.
  • Now, “Reboot System now” will appear on the screen. To highlight the option use the Volume Up/Down key.
  • Press the power button to confirm it, and your device will automatically reboot.

How to delete an app’s cache and data

  • Go to Settings.
  • Proceed to Applications.
  • Select Manage Applications.
  • Tap the All tab.
  • Choose the name of the app by tapping it.
  • From there, you will see the Clear Cache and Clear Data buttons.

If nothing changes after doing these procedures, or if you’ve already done them, the cause of the problem may be firmware-specific. That means that poor coding makes the current operating system work improperly resulting to this erratic behavior. Be sure to get the latest Android software update. You can also try to do a factory reset to see the difference.

Problem #2: Galaxy S6 does not power on

At first it wouldn’t hold a charge. It is not hardware issue. I tried several different charging devices. I believe, the AT&T carrier representative did a hard/soft reset. Returned to factory settings. I don’t know if it completed a software update also. It said something about trying to use an alternative operating system as a selection/option.

I believe I’m at this point of the troubleshooting: Otherwise, I recommend you wipe the cache partition if there’s enough battery left, if not, then you need help from a tech.

I did not have enough battery life to complete the cache partition. The AT&T carrier rep advised I have it sit with the original charger for a few hours and if that does not work, I must warranty it.

After he did the factory reset for a short time after it was showing the charging lighting bolt consistently, but not gaining percentages. Now…. nothing. Please HELP! Pretty Pretty Please. — Stephanie

Solution: Hi Stephanie. The first thing that you can do is to see if your phone still responds to hardware button combinations. Before you do this, make sure that the phone has been charging for at least an hour. The first thing hardware button combination that you can try is to boot the phone in recovery mode. Here’s how it’s done:

  • 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.

If your phone can’t boot into recovery mode, try to go to download mode. Using the same steps above, simply press the Volume Down, Home and Power buttons at the same time for at least 10 seconds.

You can also boot in safe mode by doing these 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.

If your phone still fails to boot to any of these modes, you can assume that a hardware issue may be at play. Make sure that you have unit checked or replaced.

Problem #3: Galaxy S6 lags and loses battery power fast

I got my S6 like half a year now. And it is really terrible! it is totally slow when i open apps, going back to the home screen or doing anything else. Everything lags!

Another problem i have is that my power is going down very rapidly, so i had to buy a power bank and charge my phone like 2-3 times a day even though i am not using it that much.

Thirdly, it suddenly crashes sometimes. or my music just begins to play without pushing any button.

i tried a hard reset but it didn’t help. Furthermore i try to clear my cache as you have explained it in your article but that didn’t work. when i have reached the second white screen, the screen turned black with a small picture of a mobile phone and inside of it a red triangle with an exclamation mark in it. After like 2 minutes, my phone restarts and I’m coming back to my home screen.

Please help me! it is really awkward having my phone and i don’t have enough money to buy me a new one. — Katharina

Solution: Hi Katharina. There are two potential causes to the issues you mention here — either the phone is infected with a virus or malware, or there are many apps running actively and in the background at the same time. The best thing that you can do first is to do a factory reset. For serious firmware-related issues, the factory reset is often the ultimate fix. It’s because it will bring the phone back to its factory defaults by deleting all files, data, settings, apps, personal information, accounts, etc. Ensure to create a backup of your personal data first before doing the steps below:

  • 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.

Now, doing a factory reset is, in itself won’t be an effective fix if you will not be careful what apps to install. After the factory reset, be sure not to install least used apps or those applications that may be the reason of the problems. Although it’s tricky to know what app is exactly the cause of the problem, in general, you must get rid of games and downloaders. Least known developers tend to monetize their products by resorting to dubious means which can include allowing viruses, adware, and even malicious software to piggyback on their app so they can get paid. Most developers intentionally publish their apps for monetary gain. If their product can’t get enough audience, they may switch to other suspect means of making money.

If you are fond of installing free apps, it’s time to review them. Stick to official apps if possible and avoid installing new ones if you are not sure where they come from.

Problem #4: Galaxy S6 won’t factory reset under Settings

I’ve been able to factory rest my phone before through SETTINGS but now it annoyingly refuses to hard reset even though I’ve tried many times…all it does is restart the phone.

Also there is this message that I usually get this period which even usually terminates whatever I am doing with the phone: “measure not responding” or “Unfortunately Measure has stopped”. Actually there was a time something was happening which I did not understand and I uninstalled the program called measure thinking it was a Malware that just installed on its own trying to attack my phone and slowing it down. But now it appears that this program is a critical system app (well I don’t really know that for sure yet).

So please what is your diagnosis and help me get my phone back to it factory state. — Anderson

Solution: Hi Anderson. We’re not aware of a critical app for Samsung devices called Measure but it can be a carrier-specific app instead. This may be the reason why the error comes up everytime you do something. If you are not sure of this, be sure that you do a master reset. Simply follow the steps provided on how to do a factory reset above.

Problem #5: Galaxy S6 is not recognized by computers

Hello. I have been having difficulty for the past two weeks attempting to get my phone and computer to cooperate and I was hoping you could help. Prior to two weeks ago I would plug my phone (using its original cable) into my computer and on my phone I would click something to the effect of to share content from my phone via media or camera to my computer. Once I completed that, I was free to interchange music pictures etc.

For the past two weeks when I plug my phone into my computer nothing happens other than my phone begins to charge. What I mean by nothing happens is there is no sounds from either my phone or computer upon plugging in (because I do believe there was a dig of some sorts prior to these two weeks) or unplugging, there is no appearing of any sort of icon on the bottom left icon widget bar on my computer or next to my local C Drive under the folder of MY PC. There is also no option on my phone for choosing which setting to connect to my computer with.

I have tried multiple times over the past two weeks to repeat my previous successful endeavors including restarting both pieces of technology, downloading the USB drivers for my computer and smart switch for my phone. I have tried plugging in another USB into my computer prior and post download of the USB driver and it still works. I have tried plugging in my phone to another computer (a Mac) and it shows USB installer options. I am unaware of how to proceed, if assistance is possible I would very much appreciate it.

Thank you. — Kathryn

Solution: Hi Kathryn. For an issue like this, make sure that you verify the obvious first. Try to connect the phone to your PC again then go over to your phone Settings menu. Once you’re in settings, go to Storage then tap on the more options menu icon at the upper right hand side (three-dot icon) to access USB computer connection option. Under normal circumstances, the Media device (MTP) should be shown. If nothing happens when you press the More menu icon, this means that your computer has a driver problem. Sometimes, a computer’s operating system may encounter USB-related errors especially if you use multiple USB devices (flash drives, keyboard, mouse, cameras, smartphones, etc.) all the time.

With your phone still connected to your PC via USB, navigate to your computer’s Device Manager under Control Panel. If your computer detects your phone but cannot read it properly, your device should be shown as one of the items. Make sure to right click on your device and click on “Update Driver Software”. Follow the rest of the instructions and let your computer look for available drivers online.

You can also try to use third party Windows applications like USBDeview to uninstall unnecessary USB devices. If you don’t want to install any app on your computer, simply go over the list in your Device Manager page and uninstall as many USB devices as possible. Make sure you don’t disconnect peripherals like a USB keyboard or mouse though.

Lastly, don’t forget the good old trick of enabling USB debugging option under Developer options.

Problem #6: Replacement Galaxy S6 has fast charging feature not working and battery drain issue

I saw your article on the Samsung S6 Edge having charging issues. I am now on my SECOND Samsung S6 because my first one wouldn’t not charge at all. I went to my Phone Service Carrier, and they sent me a new phone. My new phone is having the same issues as my first one. I received the fast charger in the box with my first phone, and I use this charger to charge my phone. My phone will not accept the fast charger function anymore. It will still charge but not “fast” (it will not be labeled as “Fast Charging.”). It will still say its “charging,” but I will leave my phone turned off, plugged in for hours waiting for it charge and it will charge about 5% an hour.

My battery drains at about the same rate as before I was having these charging issues, and I haven’t dropped/cracked/damaged my phone externally in anyway. Is there a simple way to fix this, do I just need a new charger, etc. I don’t want to have to spend money if I don’t have to. Thank you. — Gwen

Solution: Hi Gwen. Did you install the same set of apps after getting the replacement phone? If yes, that’s an indication that one of your apps must be causing this trouble. Do a factory reset and observe the phone for at least 24 hours. Make sure you don’t install any app during this period.

 

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. 

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.

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.

Solutions to Galaxy S7 battery drain issue, other issues

A few months after the #GalaxyS7 was released, we were already getting reports of battery drain issues so this post is written to partly address it. Due to space limitations for every post, our suggestions regarding this topic is not exhaustive. We want to focus instead on the basic and often overlooked solutions for this case. If our solutions for battery drain issue on this post won’t make any difference in your own device, please look for other sources.

s7

For now, these are the specific topics we cover in this material:

  1. Windows 7 PC needs to reinstall drivers after every restart to detect Galaxy S7
  2. Solutions to Galaxy S7 battery drain issue
  3. Galaxy S7 not receiving group texts from iPhone users
  4. Galaxy S7 Edge screen won’t power on
  5. Android 6.0.1 update causing Galaxy S7 calls to keep dropping | 4G LTE disappears when Galaxy S7 turns on Wi-Fi
  6. Galaxy S7 Edge overheating issue | Galaxy S7 battery drain issue

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: Windows 7 PC needs to reinstall drivers after every restart to detect Galaxy S7

I have an S7 Edge and everything is working except that EVERY TIME I connect the phone to my Windows 7 computer, the following occurs: 1. The computer recognizes the phone however, it is unable to access data on the phone. 2. When I go to DEVICE AND PRINTERS and right-click on the Samsung icon, I must allow the computer to troubleshoot the issue. 3. The issue is ALWAYS “There is a problem with the driver for the Samsung S7 Edge. Reinstalling the driver might fix this problem.” 4. After applying the fix, I can use Smart Switch and the computer also sees the contents of the phone. 5. If I restart the computer, I must repeat steps 1-4. — Rdaj1950

Solution: Hi Rdaj1950. It looks like the issue is on your computer and not on the phone. There may be a software that protects your computer like Deep Freeze (and similar software)  that reverts the state of the operating system to its previous condition after every restart. Make sure that you disable or make an exception on such software if ever you have one installed.

Problem #2: Solutions to Galaxy S7 battery drain issue

My phone had a black screen and would not turn on last night, but it had a blue flashing light showing I had a notification. I left it all night and then this morning I tried turning it on and it showed a dead battery when it had some of a charge that night before I went to bed. Now after charging and starting the phone back up it is losing battery power like no tomorrow. It goes down 10% in 3 min and I’m not even using it. It is just sitting there on.

My husband’s phone has done the same thing and he will be at work all day and come home with 15% battery life after 12 hours of not using it and it was fully charged at the beginning of the day. These phone are not even a month old and we have gone to store about the problem and they said they can’t help. Basically we are shit out of luck when it definitely a system flaw and we should get new phones because this is crap. We had S7 before we switch carriers and never ever had this problem with them. We do not keep apps playing in the background. We are really good at keeping our phones maintained. And we never had this problem till after what I believe is a system failure and now our phone are acting up and running slow and draining battery life for no reason super fast. What is up? — Lotuslove809

Solution: Hi Lotuslove809. Causes of battery drain issue can vary and you have to consider a lot of factors when dealing with it. Identifying the exact reason for the problem can be tricky and does not always result to resolution.

Below are some of the important things to look into. You may have already tried some of them but we don’t think it will hurt if you go over the list.

Check what app is using too much battery

The new Android Marshmallow provides a useful battery utility to give users a visible reference on what app consumes more power than others. We don’t recommend that you install any third party app to give you the information you need for this job; the built in app is more than enough. Simply  open phone Settings and under Battery, look what app/s is consuming battery power. The battery usage should give you a breakdown of the various apps and services running on your device. Most of the time, the top of the list should say Android OS, the phone’s screen, or social media apps like Facebook, Twitter, or even email apps. However, if you’ll notice an old third party app consuming power, it may be contributing to the battery drain issue so you should disable it.

Keep in mind that the more apps you install (even if they are official or legitimate ones), the faster a phone drains the battery. Even if an app is not actively open, its services may continue to run in the background waiting for updates from remote hosts. This is true for social media and online shopping apps. Some gaming or productivity apps may be designed to prevent phones from becoming idle, thus saving power, so the general rule is to try to minimize the things you install. Doing so may not totally address the battery drain issue but it should still lessen the impact of those services working in the background day in and day out.

Disable auto-sync options for all apps

Almost all email, social media, and e-commerce apps enable auto-update or auto-sync options by default. While most folks are okay with it, those struggling with battery drain issue may not find it very helpful. Social media apps require regular updates to make them convenient for users but such automatic feature does not come free. We strongly suggest that you go into each app you install and switch auto-sync or auto-update feature to manual. Each app has its own settings so you must invest time in doing this.

Ensure that all apps are compatible and updated

Not all apps are created equal. Some apps receive updates shortly after or even before a new Android iteration comes along while others may receive them much later or not at all. Sounds harmless, right? Wrong. An app needs to work properly with the operating system. This is done by making sure that its code is optimized so it runs flawlessly when interacting with the new operating system or another app. Not doing so can lead to issues, also known as bugs. In fact, this is one of the main reasons why many average users find a lot of problems after migrating to a new Android version. Needless to say, you have to make sure that your apps are all updated, especially that you have a battery drain issue.

Lower down screen brightness

We know how pretty things look when viewed in a Galaxy S7 screen on full brightness but again, such appeal comes at a steep price. Try to lower down screen brightness level to the lowest comfortable setting. This will not only help lessen power consumption but can also lengthen the lifespan of the battery itself in the long run.

Wipe all app and system cache

Sometimes, basic software solutions can be effective in resolving battery drain issue. One such basic solution is by wiping an app’s cache and a phone’s system cache.

To wipe an app’s cache and data, follow these steps:

  • 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.

To wipe the cache partition:

  • Turn off the device.
  • Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key, then press and hold the Power key.
  • When the device logo screen displays, release only the Power key
  • When the 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 key to highlight ‘wipe cache partition.’
  • Press the Power key to select.
  • Press the Volume down key to highlight ‘yes’ an 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.

You can also try to refresh everything via factory reset but we suggest that you find other materials in the web on things that you can do further. Remember, there’s no surgical way to identify the cause of your battery drain issue. You should take our blog as just one of the many other sources of ideas on how to fix your issue.

Also, don’t forget to use Power Saving Mode and Ultra Power Saving Mode in case you find yourself in an emergency and need to extend battery for longer.

Problem #3: Galaxy S7 not receiving group texts from iPhone users

Hi! I was a previous iPhone user and recently switched to a Samsung S7. I have been having issues receiving text messages from people in a group text. Haven’t noticed anything when it isn’t group text. Some of my phone contacts are saved under a SIM card; others are not. Does this make a difference? What should they be saved under?

Additionally, some people do not get pictures that I send; they show up as half pictures or with lines in the middle. The people I have been sending them to are iPhone users. Do I need to be connected to WIFI or can I just use data to send pictures? Thanks for your help! — Heidi

Solution: Hi Heidi. For your first issue regarding your S7 not receiving group texts the best thing that you can do is to ensure that your iMessage service is deactivated.

If you simply ported your old iPhone number to your current S7, chances are the main reason for the first issue is related to iMessage. Ideally, you are supposed to deactivate iMessage first before using your old number in your Android device. Not doing so will result to your iPhone-owning friends sending their group texts  to Apple’s proprietary server instead of them forwarded to your carrier’s servers. Make sure that you deactivate iMessage first before attempting another group texting. For more assistance, visit Apple’s official support site.

For your second issue, the fix may lie on the messaging app you’re using. Try to wipe the messaging app’s cache and data before you send another picture. Refer to the steps provided above on how to wipe an app’s cache and data. Multimedia Messaging System should work in both wifi and mobile data connection but for an accurate answer, we strongly suggest that you contact your carrier.

Problem #4: Galaxy S7 Edge screen won’t power on

Hello. I have a request. I use a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. I noticed that pressing no matter what button, the screen of my phone is unresponsive. I have tried the power button/volume combination and searched the web, but the phone doesn’t respond to anything. I can shut it down completely and turn it on, I can see a blue light blinking and yes, I have read the article related to that, but nothing works. Before seeking help at a phone shop and spending tons of money out again, I thought I’d ask you. Is there a way I can get the blank screen to respond? By the way, I do not remember what version this phone runs on. Thank you in advance. — Minty

Solution: Hi Minty. 99.9% of the time an issue like yours is caused by bad hardware so the only thing that you can do at this time is to submit the phone to Samsung or to any relevant party for repair and/or replacement. Our suggestion in this case is only to see if the phone can boot to other modes with the screen working. Since the suggestion did not work, then you can only blame hardware failure for the problem.

Problem #5: Android 6.0.1 update causing Galaxy S7 calls to keep dropping | 4G LTE disappears when Galaxy S7 turns on Wi-Fi

Hello. I have been having issues with my mobile connection since i updated my phone. I updated my phone 2 weeks ago to the 6.0.1 version. I used to be able to make and receive calls from inside my home with no issues before the update. After the update my phone calls keep dropping or the other person can’t hear me. When i am signed on to my wifi, i do not get 4G LTE. i just have 1 bar or zero connection. When i turn off my WIFI, I get 4G LTE but only 1 or 2 bars. I have taken my phone in to my carrier AT&T, and they ran a diagnostic and said nothing is wrong with my phone.  They also said that my area has good 4G service. They can’t help me. I did not have any issues before the update. I’ve cleared the cache and ran in safe mode. I’m trying not to do a factory reset because i don’t want to lose all my info. Is there a way to undo the update or anything that i could be missing. — Carmina

Solution: Hi Carmina. Unfortunately, there’s no way of reverting to previous Android iteration once you’ve installed the most recent version at this time. The only way to do that is by going through an unofficial way — flashing a stock firmware. Flashing as a procedure is relatively easy to do but it’s still risky and requires that you root your phone, which means that you will no longer be able to receive updates from your carrier, not to mention the fact that you’ll also be exposing your device to security risks.

We say you stay away from flashing at this time and do some basic stuff instead. You can start by making sure that all your apps are updated. This will help minimize issues due to incompatible apps. If nothing will change after you’ve installed all updates for your apps, the next thing that you want to do is factory reset. This will let you know if this glitch can be resolved by restoring all software settings.

For reference, follow the steps below on how to factory reset your S7:

  • Create a backup of your important files and contacts
  • 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 #6: Galaxy S7 Edge overheating issue | Galaxy S7 battery drain issue

I have a Samsung S7 Edge which has been having battery issues for a few months. Firstly the battery doesn’t seem to last long at all compared to when I got the phone. It also gets very hot sometimes and occasionally turns itself off during the night. This is very bothersome but my biggest issue is that once the phone gets to below 15% battery life it drains within minutes and if i don’t charge it immediately and it goes completely flat. Then the only way I can charge it back up is to put it on the pad and then it takes at least an hour before I can turn it on again.

If I were to plug it in to an ordinary charger from flat then it wouldn’t charge at all. It just shows the battery charge sign for a few seconds but the battery isn’t filling up or moving. Then it shows 0% for a few seconds followed by the S7 edge boot up screen before going blank. It continues like this in a cycle but never actually charges at all. Please help as it is driving me insane! I said goodbye to I phones due to crap battery life! — Jodie

Solution: Hi Jodie. Like any other Android issue, the general rule that we should follow in this case is simple — start by doing software troubleshooting. Once you’ve exhausted all software procedures, you can assume that hardware is to blame.

To start, you must begin by wiping the cache partition. The steps on how to do it are provided above.

If clearing the system cache won’t work, then your next step is to check if there’s a difference when you boot the phone in safe mode while charging. If charging becomes normal, then a third party app is causing the problem. To boot in safe mode, follow these steps:

  • 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.

You can also try to recalibrate the battery so the phone’s operating system can gauge the remaining battery power correctly. Here’s how:

  • Use the phone by playing games or doing tasks to hasten power discharge, until the phone turns itself off.
  • Turn the phone on and let it drain the battery until it turn itself off.
  • Charge the phone without turning it back on.
  • Wait until the battery says it fully charged to 100%
  • Unplug the charger and turn the phone on.
  • If the phone says it’s not 100% anymore, turn it off, plug the charger back in and wait until 100% charge is reached.
  • Unplug the charger the turn the phone on again.
  • Use the phone until you drain the battery down to 0.
  • Repeat the cycle once.

You can also try a factory reset to see if that will make any difference. If this final procedure doesn’t seem to change the charging behavior of your S7, contact Samsung or your carrier so they can repair or replace it.

 

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. 

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.

Galaxy S6 keeps making beeping sounds randomly, other issues

Hello guys! Here’s another post that covers 6 more #GalaxyS6 issues. As usual, these issues are taken from reports submitted by some members of our Android community. If you are yet to see your own question published here, make sure to keep watching for similar posts in the near future.

s6

Below are the specific topics covered in this post:

  1. Hardware buttons on water-damaged Galaxy S6 not working properly
  2. Transferring photos from a randomly rebooting Galaxy S6
  3. Galaxy S6 draining battery even while charging
  4. Galaxy S6 keeps making beeping sounds randomly
  5. Galaxy S6 Edge gets stuck in Samsung logo page after flashing stock ROM
  6. Galaxy S6 Edge+ screen keeps flickering

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: Hardware buttons on water-damaged Galaxy S6 not working properly

I was out in a vacation one day doing island hopping when I brought my Samsung Galaxy S6 in the water with me, which I also secured in a waterproof pouch so to avoid being wet/soaked. However, few minutes later, I noticed that the pouch started to form moisture inside and I realized that the water was able to get in the pouch. I immediately get out in the water and took my phone to the boat and immediately wrap it in a thick cloth (that was about 2-3 pm when it happened).

Later at around 6pm, I transferred it to a rice container as advised by my friends. That was Thursday and after 58 hours (Sunday at 1am) I turned it on to check if it will work and eventually it did. However when I charged it, it doesn’t charged normally (after 30 minutes it was still at 11%). So I turned it off again (Sunday at around 8am until Monday 6am) and put inside the rice container again for another 24 hours (Monday 6am until Tuesday 6am). I charged it and it charged up to 100% and I was really happy. I started using it until I noticed that GOOGLE SEARCH and CAMERA would suddenly appear (even if I didn’t open it) while I do texting or scanning through my phone.

So I tried to check the settings and was able to found the settings for the camera which prevent it from suddenly appearing even if I don’t really open it and I also disabled the google search. However, google search still appears but not as often as the first time. Few days later, I also noticed that the POWER ON/OFF BUTTON and HOME KEY would SOMETIMES malfunctions. Like it functions during daytime, then at night it goes off (but not simultaneously though and not at all times). I tried to search for troubleshooting these concerns in the internet and I found this way through the accessibility > dexterity and interaction > assistant menu which I found really helpful as to avoid using the home key/power on/off key.

Is my unit okay or do I still need to have it checked for any possible defects? I am afraid to use the factory reset for fear that I won’t be able to use it with a sim afterwards. and maybe having it configured would cost much also. My unit is a Dual SIM one and it’s open line too. I hope to hear from you soon. Thank you so much! — Maan

Solution: Hi Maan. If these issues were not there before you took your phone for a dive, then you can bet your S6 was indeed water damaged. We know you would want to hear good news on this situation but we’re afraid you really have to look for an effective resolution. And that resolution is phone replacement. An exhaustive hardware repair may have a small chance of fixing whatever problem there may be, but we won’t bet on it. Majority of the time, water-damaged electronic device eventually breaks down after repair so there’s really nothing much that you can do. Doing a factory reset won’t help in this case either as the main cause is hardware malfunction. If the phone is still within warranty, try bringing it to a Samsung store for replacement.

Problem #2: Transferring photos from a randomly rebooting Galaxy S6

On the “Thedroidguy” page the explanation about these phones shutting down randomly says “if the phone still shut itself down in safe mode, then the problem must be in the firmware or the hardware. You need to backup all your important data, especially ones that are stored in your phone’s internal storage, and perform the master reset.” Do you have a magic way to backup all your important data if the phone is constantly turning off?

My cloud has everything except for the last 3 months. Verizon decreased my cloud size causing my automatic updates to stop working. I have all my pics since June and would love to have the last 3 months. I have tried safe mode and even tried wiping the cache partition. Nothing works so I’m guessing it’s the firmware or hardware but I really don’t want to lose those pics. Help! — Denise

Solution: Hi Denise. There’s no magic way to create a backup of your files if there’s a very short time in between reboots. You need to have at least a full minute between reboots in order to move a few MBs of files from your defective phone to another device. A shorter time than 1 minute between reboots may not be enough to let your S6 initialize and establish a good connection with, say, a PC and transfer files. And remember, regularly interrupting a device while it’s trying to access its memory or saving something can also lead to file corruption. That said, there’s really nothing much that you can do in this case. Unless you can stabilize the phone long enough to move files, those important pictures are gone.

Problem #3: Galaxy S6 draining battery even while charging

I usually need to charge my S6 every night. No big deal. However, sometimes after charging all night (with the provided charger) it still does not completely charge. Sometimes on 50-60%, but sometimes completely. Last night, it didn’t charge at all and powered down during the night. Luckily, it went ahead and charged at that point. Unluckily, I was late to work because my phone is my alarm. What can I do to make it charge consistently? Secondly, it’s as if the phone goes “brain dead” sometimes. It seems to be overwhelmed when I ask it to do complex things like activate, or wake up. I’ll turn the screen on, touch a button and then it acts like it isn’t sure what to do. So I’ll try something else and maybe even a third time on something else at which point the phone does the first thing that I’d wanted. It’s very frustrating. I’ve cleared most photos out, and uninstalled any apps that I didn’t truly need hoping for better performance, but sometimes it still feels like my smartphone didn’t graduate smartphone class. — Darrinswait

Solution: Hi Darrinswait. The two issues may be related or not at all. In order to hit 2 birds with one stone here, we strongly recommend that you do a factory reset first so you can observe how charging works when all software settings are set to default. Make sure that you don’t install any app while observing the phone to see a difference. Try to observe the device for at least 2 days. For reference, below are the steps on how to do a factory reset:

  • Create a backup of your important files and contacts.
  • Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S6.
  • 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.

If your phone charges fine during the observation period (at least 2 days and no apps installed), then the battery drain issue during charging must be caused by an app/s. Only install apps that are compatible and updated. Because there’s no specific way to know what may be causing battery drain  (other than by going under phone settings and checking battery usage), you must do a trial-by-error isolation yourself.

Problem #4: Galaxy S6 keeps making beeping sounds randomly

First off, I have a Galaxy S6. My phone keeps beeping at random but there’s no message or notification given. I have followed so many tips on line, shut off every notification i could find, and it still beeps like every 5 minutes or so. This just started. I did recently switch my emails on the phone (wicked annoying task to do) and maybe that did something? I have downloaded just two apps ever, and that was a long time ago, i hardly use them.

Also, I have noticed my Gmail and my EMAIL app no longer is syncing, sync is currently experiencing problems. It will be back shortly. both things are super annoying. — Lionettes

Solution: Hi Lionettes. There are a lot of things that can cause an S6 to make a sound notification so we can’t really tell where to start looking. The best thing that you can do right now is to try to remember what you did or changed differently prior to noticing the notification issue. If you can’t do that, consider wiping the cache partition to see if that will change anything. Here’s 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.

If nothing will change after wiping the cache partition, you can also try to boot your device in safe mode. If the beeping sound is due to a bad third party app, the issue should not occur in safe mode. That should help you then further narrow down on the third party apps you’ve installed recently. To boot in safe mode, follow these steps:

  • Turn off your Galaxy S6.
  • Press and hold the Power key.
  • When ‘Samsung Galaxy S6’ appears, immediately release the Power key and then press and hold the Volume Down button.
  • Continue holding the Volume Down button until the phone finishes the restart.
  • When you see Safe Mode on the lower left corner of the screen, release the button.

Of course, if nothing will change further, you must do a factory reset. Refer to the steps provided above. Doing a factory reset should also help you fix your email syncing issue.

Problem #5: Galaxy S6 Edge gets stuck in Samsung logo page after flashing stock ROM

Please help me!!! I bought a Galaxy S6 Edge 925F off the aliexpress site for 02 months. it came in version 5.0.2 of Android, and updated via OTA to version 6.0.1. A month after installing, the phone restarted alone without reason, and was repeatedly restarting the logo “Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge” until after a few times alone system started.

After that every day was the same. To try to resolve, I reinstalled via Odin the most current stock ROM site SamMobile for the model, did the factory reset and also the cache cleaning as directed in site tutorials. At the beginning everything went well, but one week after cell did the same thing, restarted, was running several times the initial logo, to enter the system, and after a few minutes did the same thing. I do not know what to do, can you help me? Mobile is out of the company’s warranty period. Thank you very much in advance. — Allan

Solution: Hi Allan. If your phone starts working fine after flashing a stock ROM but then reverts to a problematic state afterwards, you should really question yourself what you did differently. There must be something you installed or changed that causes the issue. If you can’t figure out what may be causing the issue, flash a stock ROM again and observe the phone for long as you can, (at least a week perhaps) without installing any app or update. This will help you determine if something you’re adding later is causing the problem.

Problem #6: Galaxy S6 Edge+ screen keeps flickering

My Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+ had a screen flicker – then black screen, but I could still answer incoming calls – not much else. I did a soft reset and the display came back, but only for about 20 minutes. Tried again and now only a black screen, but sounds and vibrations when buttons are pushed. Even on start up the screen stays black – therefore, it does no good to do a hard reset because I can’t see where to scroll to wipe the device. I tried doing a factory reset from my laptop in Google Play, but it can’t find the device. Verizon was no help. Samsung tried but couldn’t help in the store. They said mail it back and maybe there is a fix, maybe there isn’t. No clue which operating system is running – been trying to update for over a month but got an error message every time.  — Round

Solution: Hi Round. If the phone boots up fine (because it still makes sound notifications, receives calls, the LED light continues to flash), then you have a screen assembly problem. To fix that, you must submit the device to a hardware check so the screen or unit can be replaced. Our blog does not provide guides on how to replace parts so if you want to do the replacement yourself, try to look for instructions somewhere.

 

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. 

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 transfer files from Galaxy S7 to a PC, other issues

S7 edge

For those of you who sent us requests for assistance regarding #GalaxyS7 and #GalaxyS7edge, check this article out to see if we have a resolution for you. We plan on posting more materials about Galaxy S7 issues in the coming weeks so watch out for them.

Below are the specific topics addressed here today:

  1. How to transfer files from Galaxy S7 to a PC
  2. Galaxy S7 Messages app crashes when making attachment menu full screen
  3. Work email not working on Galaxy S7 edge
  4. Galaxy S7 keeps showing message not sent message when sending text with over 160 characters
  5. Galaxy S7 won’t charge after it got dropped in pool
  6. Galaxy S7 charges on and off and drains battery power fast | Galaxy S7 randomly reboots, shuts down on its own

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: How to transfer files from Galaxy S7 to a PC

Using the USB cable that came with the phone, I still cannot download my photos onto my computer. I saw on some forums that I need to unlock my phone in order to do this.  It appears, however, after looking around, that Verizon simultaneously says:  All 4LTE items are sold unlocked out of the box but then below it, I read that you can’t unlock your phone until your contract expires. 

I can’t make head nor tails out of any of this. Even if I got Verizon to cooperate, how do I “insert” my new sim code (that I’ll have to pay for) into my phone? 

All I want is to free up space on my phone so I can take more photos. 

Help! — Tina

Solution: Hi Tina. “Unlocking” your Galaxy S7 means changing some aspects in the software so it can be used with other networks other than Verizon. Doing so has nothing to do with the first thing that you want, which is to move some of your files to a computer so you can free up some space. Unlocked or not, you should be able to transfer files from your S7 to a computer via USB cable.

As a reference, these are the things that you need to do, assuming that you have a Windows computer. If you have a Mac, the steps should be slightly similar but the general steps should still be the same.

  1. The first step is to connect your S7 again to your PC via USB cable. Once your phone is recognized by the computer, you can already start moving your files such as music, pictures, and other contents. To easily restore contents after the reset, you can create new folders specific for each type of file on your computer. For example, you can create a music folder for storing music (audio) files copied from your phone to your PC.
    • Insert one end of the USB cable to the charger/accessory port located at the bottom of your phone.
    • Insert the other end of the USB cable into an available USB port on your computer.
    • Remove the USB cable from the charging head to access it when necessary. (The device driver software will then automatically install on the computer the first time you connect your phone to it.)
  2. On your phone, drag the status bar down to show to notification panel.
  3. Select a file transfer option. (An indication that your phone is already accessible through your computer is a message prompt that says “Connected as a media device” or “Connected as a camera.”)
  4. Tap “Connected as a media device,” and then check the box next to Media device (MTP). By then you may begin moving contents from your phone. Hint: Generally, “Connected as a media device” is an option used for most file transfers. If you want to change this option, simply tap the Notification in the Notification Panel. Doing so will open the USB computer connection screen wherein you can tap to select any of your preferred option.
  5. To start copying contents, click the option to “Open device to view files” on your computer.
  6. Navigate to the desired contents on your phone.
  7. Drag and drop the files into the selected folder to your computer.
  8. When you are finished copying all important files, safely disconnect your phone from the computer.

Problem #2: Galaxy S7 Messages app crashes when making attachment menu full screen

When I try to add an attachment through Messages (the regular text app, not Facebook), it works fine until I try to make the attachment menu full screen.  If I swipe up to enlarge it or rotate the screen sideways, it crashes and I get “Unfortunately Messages has stopped.”  It does this if I try to make Camera, Galley, or Other full screen. The normal camera app works fine, as does gallery. It only happens if I try to take make one of the attachment options full screen through Messages. I tried forcing the app to stop, clearing its data, doing a soft reset, wiping the cache partition, and finally doing a factory reset.  The problem is still there and it hadn’t been a few weeks ago. I thought the for sure the factory reset would fix it.  Any thoughts? — John

Solution: Hi John. This can be a firmware-specific bug, which means that it only exists for the Android specific version released by your carrier. We have not heard of this issue in the wild so we think that it may either isolated to your device, or to devices running the same Android build.

Try wiping the cache partition first and see what happens. If nothing changes, we don’t think doing a factory reset will hurt.

Here are the steps on how to wipe the cache partition on a Note 5:

  • Turn off the phone.
  • Once the phone has completely shut down, press and hold Volume, Home, and Power buttons at the same time.
  • Wait until the Samsung logo appears before releasing the Power button.
  • Once the Android logo shows up, release the two other buttons.
  • Wait for the Recovery menu to appear (may take up to a minute).
  • Go to wipe cache partition option using the Volume buttons, then press Power button to confirm.
  • Wait for the device to wipe the cache partition
  • Once the cache has been deleted, Reboot system now option will then be highlighted.
  • Press Power button again to confirm the reboot.

Problem #3: Work email not working on Galaxy S7 edge

Thanks for all you do for the community. That said, I have yet to find any helpful hints for this issue. With both my S6 Edge, and now with my S7 Edge, I have the same issue – I cannot get the Android (or maybe Samsung) mail app to sync with my workplace email at all.

I put in the information manually, and it accepts it and seems to go into the inbox, yet it will not receive any emails, nor will it send them. I’ve enabled the sync settings within the app, as well as the master sync. I’ve removed and recreated the account, cleared the email app cache, and at this point I traded my S6 Edge in for the S7 Edge..still, I cannot get my company email on my phone. The closest I can get is opening up OWA. But, as a systems administrator for my company, I need to have immediate alerts and access to the email. Other users on other Android and iPhone devices have no problems adding their email accounts…Any thoughts about other configuration issues that might be causing my problem? — Kent

Solution: Hi Kent. An issue like this requires that you work with your IT department or Exchange administrators (assuming you’re having trouble with an Exchange account here) and not with us. We don’t have access to your corporate network configurations s so the best that we can do is speculate. With such a very general problem description, we can’t really pinpoint where the problem may lie.

If this is the first time that you’ve tried to configure your email account on a smartphone, there may be some settings that must be enabled by your corporate IT guys in order for the setup to work.

Problem #4: Galaxy S7 keeps showing message not sent message when sending text with over 160 characters

When I send a message longer than 160 characters, it says message failed yet the message is still received by the recipient. Also, if somebody sends me a message and I’m in the middle of using the phone and so reply using the pop up window that appears when the message arrives, I can only send a message of 160 characters. Yet if I open the messaging app fully and reply to the message that way, I can send any size message I want?

Also sometimes messages are being sent two or three times. I get an alert from giffgaff saying “that message was free…” every time I send a message and I am still receiving these even when a message is apparently failed. — Phil

Solution: Hi Phil. This can be an app or firmware bug so the first thing that you want to do is clear the cache and data of the messaging app. Here’s how:

  • Go to phone Settings.
  • Tap Device tab.
  • Look for Applications and tap it.
  • Once you’re inside Applications menu, look for Applications Manager and tap it.
  • Inside Applications Manager, tap All apps.
  • Look for the email app you’re using and tap it.
  • From there, you should see  a page that list app-specific information and options. Tap Storage.
  • Tap Clear Cache and Clear Data buttons.

If nothing will change, delete the cache partition (steps provided above). Still, if the issue remains, consider doing a factory reset to ensure that the firmware is refreshed.

Finally, call your wireless carrier first so they can offer you direct assistance in this matter regarding the message that keeps appearing after sending a text message.

Problem #5: Galaxy S7 won’t charge after it got dropped in pool

Good morning. I came across your article online and I was wondering if you could help me. I fell into my father’s pool with my S7 Edge + in my pocket 4 days ago. I was in the water a total of 5-10 seconds.

I made the mistake of drying it and trying to power it on and got the blue light then blank screen. So I tossed it into a bag of minute rice (only rice he had) and let it sit in that bag for 3 days. I also left it on a dry transformer to heat it up in the bag.

After all of the rice and heat and etc…. The phone actually began charging. It got to 2% charge (VERY slowly) and I tried to power it on.

The phone booted up, but died immediately due to low battery. Now when I plug it in, it registers the charge and even says fast charging and say “1hr19min until fully charged” which is the normal time for this phone at 0%. The phone does not charge though, just stays at 0%.

I really only want to get some pictures off this phone.

What are your thoughts? Thanks. — Chris

Solution: Hi Chris. Thoughts? Well, first of all, you must condition yourself with the idea that the phone may be gone. If the symptom you’ve described here was not present prior to exposing the phone in water, you can safely assume that the inside components of your device has been damaged. Whether or not the damage is extensive depends on the exposed components. If water is limited in the charging port area only, there’s a chance that replacement of micro-USB port may work. However, if water damaged has spread to other parts, or if it may have corroded the metallic components of the motherboard, the only resolution that you can hope for is unit replacement.

That you turn on your phone without making sure that there’s no more moisture or water inside may have also amplified the initial damage. In an ideal world, you’re supposed to immediately cut the power by physically removing the battery, which is not readily available in your case. Leaving the battery connected to a water damaged electronic device does not ends up well. Turning on the phone may have shorted some components at this time, complicating the situation further.

Since water damage automatically voids the warranty, you can’t count on Samsung to replace the phone free of charge at this time. If phone replacement is not an option for you, have the device checked by a competent technician so it can be cleaned and fixed if necessary. This route won’t guarantee that you’ll get the phone back to its previous working state fully, but it’s the only remaining option for you.

Problem #6: Galaxy S7 charges on and off and drains battery power fast | Galaxy S7 randomly reboots, shuts down on its own

A couple or issues that may or may not be related (IT idiot here).

Sometimes (and tonight has been especially horrible) the phone will be connected into the charger, and will not charge, or will continuously alternate between charging and not charging. I’ve tried cleaning out the port and have checked to see if the prongs are damaged but they appear to be okay. I’ve noticed that the battery is draining a lot quicker as well with the charger plugged in…like it’s sucking power out instead. I’ve tried a car charger, USB into computer and car jack, and also a wall charger (the wall has worked the best and kept it charging for the longer time).

Another issue, I don’t know if related or not, is the phone will keep shutting itself off when in my pocket. This only happens occasionally, but will do it several times in a row. And I never know that the phone has turned itself off until I go to press the main button on the bottom (not the power buttom), and it will turn back on and go throw the opening welcome pages.

This is all getting really irritating. I work a job that can be dangerous and I need to have this phone charged and working at all times. Also not looking forward to the prospect of having to replace it, can’t really afford it. Any help you can give is much appreciated! — Racheal

Solution: Hi Racheal. The general rule of thumb when troubleshooting an Android device issue like this is do software solutions first. We recommend that you do that as well.

That said, the first thing that you want to do is to see if a third party you’ve installed is causing it. Boot your phone in safe mode and let the phone run in this mode for at least 48 hours. This will give you ample time to observe the difference. Safe mode will prevent third party apps from running and only the basic ones will work. To boot your phone in safe mode, just 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.

If the issue remains after observing the phone for a couple of days, do a factory reset so you can eliminate possible bugs that may have developed over time. Just like in safe mode, observe the phone for another 2 days to see for any changes. If that won’t change either, that’s an indication there may be a hardware error behind the trouble. Call Samsung and have the phone repaired or replaced.

 

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. 

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.

Fixing battery drain issue on Galaxy Note 5, more power-related issues

Note 5

Samsung’s decision to make the new Galaxy Note 5’s battery non-removable, just like with the Galaxy S6 series, is one of biggest turn offs for this otherwise fine smartphone. Many long-time Samsung users found this deal breaker design unfavorable. The fact that nothing much was done to improve battery capacity and fix the perennial battery drain issue only makes matters worse. Our post today shares some of the power problems sent to us by some members of our TheDroidGuy community.

  1. Battery drain issue on brand new Galaxy Note 5
  2. Water-damaged Galaxy Note 5
  3. Galaxy Note 5 randomly restarts
  4. Galaxy Note 5 keeps getting Power Sharing and Samsung Gear VR pop ups
  5. What affects fast battery consumption on 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.

 

Problem #1: Battery drain issue on brand new Galaxy Note 5

I have had my Note 5 for under a month now. The battery life was great. I would only charge it one time per day and am very conscious of removing it from the charger when it hits 100%. I usually charge it before bed, then unplug it and put it in airplane mode while sleeping. When i wake up 7-8 hours later the phone has only lost about 4% battery life. Well out of nowhere, a few days ago, i did my normal routine, put the phone in airplane mode and went to bed. When i woke up my phone had lost about 50% battery life. I thought maybe it was a one time thing, but then it happened again last night.

I don’t install many apps. i have no games or even social media apps. And, why the change out of nowhere especially in airplane mode! The only thing is four days prior to this occuring, i downloaded the Hobby Lobby app. But i have since uninstalled it, yet the battery seems to still drain rather quickly. Should i go back to Verizon, as i said i barely got this phone on 11/22 and today is 12/17. — Mary

Solution: Hi Mary. We think that there might still another app that causes battery drain issue on your Note 5. Instead of turning on Airplane mode, try to reboot the phone in safe mode before going to sleep and observe it for 2 nights. If the battery works fine, then that’s an indication that one of your apps is to blame. Here are the steps to restart your phone in safe mode:

  • 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 Vol 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.

You also want to factory reset the phone prior to asking for a replacement. Keep in mind that the replacement phone is no longer brand new and may have its own problems as well. Fixing this issue on your brand new phone is better than getting a refurbished unit. As long as there’s no hardware issue involved, factory reset should easily take care of the battery drain issue. Here’s how to do it:

  • 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: Water-damaged Galaxy Note 5

I accidentally dropped my Note 5 into a bucket of water. After the first few minutes after I dried it, when I turned it on the screen was flashing with different colors. Then after I gave it a couple of hours, everything works fine but with a few problems. These problems are that both cameras front and back are foggy, the fingerprint scanner doesn’t work, and the home button (on the side) won’t work anymore so it’s difficult to shut off the phone, and also the touch screen won’t work unless I use the S-Pen.

Is there anyway I can fix these myself, or do I have to go to a repair shop? Would the repair shop even be able to fix the camera and the button? The back is unremoveable which could complicate things.– Jack

Solution: Hi Jack. We don’t recommend that you open the phone itself, especially if you don’t fix electronics for a living. Right now, there’s no telling what component is damaged. It’s also not recommended to power on a water-soaked electronics as that can only amplify the initial damage.

Your best option right now is to bring the device to a repair shop and let professionals check and handle the situation. Keep in mind that if damage is extensive and has affected a lot of components in the logic board, the phone is likely good as gone.

 

Similar reading: Things to do when you have a water-damaged Android phone

 

Problem #3: Galaxy Note 5 randomly restarts

My Galaxy Note 5 (with Verizon wireless) sometimes (but rarely) suddenly turns off from up to 60% battery and when turned back on, battery life is as low as 20%. Another issue is, every time (unless I put it to charge immediately) battery gets down to 20%, it drops to 10% then 3% then dies within 1-3 minutes.

Every time on either of those occasions, phone begins to heat up on just below and slightly to the left (if you’re looking at the phone’s backside) of the camera and again, I must remove and reinstall the battery or put it to charge in order to turn it on.

Also, whenever I take pictures (whether it’s saving to device or to external memory) and battery is  <31%,  it’s guaranteed to turn off. Sometimes but rarely, it turns off after a taking a picture, with more charge. I have done all the solutions and has factory reset the phone. Before I downloaded any apps after the factory reset I wanted to see if it still did this and it did. I have tried recalibrating the battery and nothing. I’m running stock Verizon software.

I have noticed a substantial difference in battery life after the 5.0.1 update. The only thing I have left to do is run a different rom but I have not done so because I’m unsure of the process of installing it.

Thank you for your help in advance. — Pedro

Solution: Hi Pedro. Your phone may have a rare power management issue wherein a system in an electronic device no longer works as intended causing it to randomly restart. Since you have already tried to do a factory reset, the next best thing to do is to just ask for a replacement from Verizon.

Problem #4: Galaxy Note 5 keeps getting Power Sharing and Samsung Gear VR pop ups

Hello. So today while I was at work I kept getting this screen on my phone saying welcome to Samsung Gear VR. I thought maybe somebody at my job was trying to connect their phone and maybe it was picking up mine. So couple hours later as I’m at home I keep getting this pop up saying power sharing (i believe that’s it) and I don’t know where that is coming from. Do you have any idea how to get rid of it? Please help I don’t want to have to get a new phone I only had this one since the summertime. — Patricia

Solution: Hi Patricia. The pop up you’re getting is due to a persistent Samsung app that keeps on notifying users of new flagship phones to install their own Power Sharing App and to use Samsung Gear VR. What you can do in this case, since you cannot uninstall first party applications, is to force stop or disable all Samsung Gear VR- or Samsung-related apps. To do that, just follow these steps:

  • Go to Settings.
  • Proceed to Applications.
  • Select Manage Applications.
  • Tap the All tab.
  • Look for the app in question and tap it.
  • From there, you will see the Force Stop or Disable buttons.

Problem #5: What affects fast battery consumption on Galaxy Note 5

Battery percenage: 49% 6:42pm. I purchased my Galaxy Note 5 understanding that the battery life was better than a Galaxy Note 3 (my previous device). Either I was misinformed or there’s something wrong. I’m 100% certain I was told the battery life granted at least another hour idle on the later Galaxy. I can’t go through one day without needing to charge my phone twice. 43% 6:50pm. This is the only app running on my phone at the moment. When I took my phone in I was told that the newer phone grants more hours, but sacrifices those hours for performance. I’m frustrated because I cannot use my phone at all, (not even to check the time) if I leave in the morning and aim to go through an entire day without charging.

This has been my situation since my purchase in May of 2015. Newly downloaded apps haven’t changed anything for me, for better or worse. — Robert

Solution: Hi Robert. Battery consumption on devices vary depending on screen settings, running apps, usage habits, etc. Battery endurance-wise, the Note 5 is rated higher than the older Note 3, but again, there are many factors that can affect the rate of battery drain of a certain device at a certain time. Even on the same device, battery consumption can sometimes change significantly faster due to some software changes. Assuming that your battery is fine at this time, the first good thing to do is factory reset (steps provided above). Then you have to wait for at least 24 hours before you install your other apps so you’ll know if the issue persists.

Outdated apps can sometimes cause battery drain issue by forcing the phone’s processor to run for longer periods of time. Even ordinary, official apps can also do that. E-commerce, social networking, shopping, and similar other apps can drain battery power faster than you may realize so make sure you check their settings, especially on how often they sync to remote servers.

Email apps can also cause fast battery drain if its sync feature is not managed well.

 

Related reading: Best tips to extend battery life on your Samsung Galaxy S4 and S5

 

 

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. 

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.

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Galaxy S7 keeps showing “Unsupported SD Card” error, other issues

Hello Android community! Welcome to yet another post that addresses issues about the #GalaxyS7 series. We cover 6 issues that we receive from some of our readers. We hope that this is helpful.

s7

Here are the specific topics in post today:

  1. Galaxy S7 keeps showing “Unsupported SD Card” error
  2. Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge dual-SIM model from T-Mobile won’t allow second SIM to access network when T-Mobile SIM is inserted
  3. Galaxy S7 poor battery performance
  4. Galaxy S7 takes a long time to send and receive photos via stock messaging app
  5. Galaxy S7 Edge won’t perform a factory reset
  6. Galaxy S7 Edge encryption not working properly

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 S7 keeps showing “Unsupported SD Card” error

My device has been showing an “Unsupported SD Card” message in my notifications for about a month. My device was running flawless up until this occurred. Quickly, I am not sure about the android version I am running. The device is an Android Galaxy S7 and I had it pre-ordered. Maybe that information will keep us both on the right track if you guys send the troubleshooting information back to me.

Basically, device is running fine. I started receiving these messages in the notifications drop down. When I tap on the message I was hoping it would take me to a setting that could possibly be set incorrectly, or maybe an advanced setting that I could just troubleshoot myself. Unfortunately, tapping on the message does nothing.

I have tried the following:

  • Restart Power off/back on after 10 sec. 
  • Removing the SD card with the device powered down, reinserting and powered up.
  • Plugging into a PC to see if SD card is visible (which since this message started showing, it is not).

The last couple of weeks, the message does not appear any longer, yet I still do not have a mounted SD card. Before I use useless apps to check my SD card, I was hoping to get some feedback from you guys. If you could please respond, possibly send me some type of sequence of troubleshooting I could try before having to take it to the T-Mobile store (which from my experience is a waste of time). Please let me know. Regards. — Mike

Solution: Hi Mike. You don’t need to go to your carrier’s store for this one. If a computer can’t detect the SD card card either, that’s an obvious indicator that said SD card has stopped working. We won’t enumerate why an SD card can stop working all of a sudden as that’s another topic. The important thing is that you’ve already established the fact that the SD card has become unreadable for some reason. If you want to check further, insert it to another phone and see if you’ll get the same result. If your next question is, “can there be anything that you can do to make it work again?” the answer is NO.  Accept the fact that everything you stored in that card is gone. You simply have to move on by getting a new SD card.

Now, if another phone or computer will still be able to  miraculously read the SD card, make sure that you do the following (in this order):

  • Create a backup of your files.
  • Reformat the SD card using that computer or phone.
  • Re-insert the newly reformatted SD card to your Galaxy S7 and reformat it again.

Problem #2: Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge dual-SIM model from T-Mobile won’t allow second SIM to access network when T-Mobile SIM is inserted

Hello Droid Guy. I am new to the world of Droid as I have just switched from Apple. I have purchased a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge dual SIM. I did this because I live in West Africa. I am an American working here and I have a T-Mobile account in the US that allows me to use that phone here in Ghana. I also, for work purposes, need a local phone and number. So instead of owning two phones, why not have one phone and two SIMs. The issue is that my T-Mobile SIM for some reason causes my local Ghanian SIM to not be able to hold a network signal. I tried resetting network setting and even did a hard reset and it still did not work. When I took out the T-mobile SIM and just ran two SIMs from Ghanian services, the phone works fine. I would like to be able to use my T-Mobile SIM as well as a local carrier SIM if possible. Any help will be appreciated. — Casey

Solution: Hi Casey. We’re not sure if the problem is a T-Mobile firmware restriction or not so the best party that can help you with this one is T-Mobile itself. We are not aware of any Samsung-related restriction that prevents another SIM from working when inserted to the second SIM slot. T-Mobile’s Android version may be programmed to forcefully lock the phone to their network whenever their SIM card is inserted. Please contact T-Mobile and ask direct assistance from them.

Problem #3: Galaxy S7 poor battery performance

I need your Samsung expertise please. I just bought a brand new Galaxy S7 and I feel the battery life is well below what it should be. I’ve done all the usual tips like disabling app refresh, syncing, brightness, etc., and even had the power saver on all the time. doing no streaming and barely using it yet when i take it off full charge but it’s already sitting at 10hrs remaining. Surely, for the brand new Galaxy S7 it should be better than that.

The main reason I upgraded was battery life but it isn’t even performing better than my iPhone 5. Could I have a faulty battery or is there something I should do? I’m very conservative at the moment with apps and brightness etc and its still average. I just want to be able to use it throughout the day with an average person’s usage and expect to come home with enough battery. After 3 days the battery is going down at an average of 10-15% per hour. — Shaunmcsweeney

Solution: Hi Shaunmcsweeney. Compared to its immediate predecessor, the Galaxy S6, the newer Galaxy S7 has a bigger battery capacity at 3000mAh. It is thus expected to have better battery performance than the other phones in this series. We can also attest that this is also our observation with our own Galaxy S7. Our Galaxy S7 can last for over 14 hours a day on average and that’s after normal to heavy usage. We are conservative when it comes to screen brightness though and we always make it a habit of turning off all sync features of apps and phone so that may have helped. Still, we don’t know how long you expect your phone’s battery to last in a day but if you’ve already tried all the tips and tricks in minimizing battery consumption, then there’s nothing more that we can do to help you. Call Samsung and have them replace the phone.

Problem #4: Galaxy S7 takes a long time to send and receive photos via stock messaging app

If I take picture with the camera I can’t always send the pictures out. I have the camera setting on the lowest resolution possible and it still takes forever to send one picture let alone 3. My S4 sends faster. Pictures come thru most of the time but some come thru with only half a picture and nothing else. Others come thru with the picture and 3/4 see thru green color and some look like a puzzle. I exchanged the phone and it worked good for the first few days and then with a new update this morning the issues have returned.

I’m now using an App called WhatsApp and when I send pictures that way they are gone within a few seconds and clear as a bell. Why doesn’t the Samsung Message app do the same thing? I might add I have a 3G Micro tower in the house and internet is full bars so shouldn’t the pictures be going thru the 3G cell tower hooked to the internet? — James

Solution: Hi James. The cause of the problem can be one of the following things:

  • bad stock Messaging app,
  • a firmware glitch (introduced after an update)
  • slow internet connection

To check if the issue is isolated to the Samsung Messaging app only, make sure that you wipe its cache and data. To do that, follow these steps:

  • Open the Settings menu.
  • Tap Apps (some versions may show Applications or Application Manager).
  • Tap the Messaging app.
  • Tap Storage.
  • Tap Clear Cache, then Clear Data (in this order).

If the problem remains after you’ve cleared the cache and data of the app in question, the next troubleshooting is to refresh the system cache. 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.

Refreshing the cache will force the phone to delete the possibly corrupted or outdated one and create a new one. If this won’t help either, the next best thing that you can do is factory reset. Here’s how:

  • Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S7.
  • 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.

Problem #5: Galaxy S7 Edge won’t perform a factory reset

Hi There. My S7 Edge was having problems with frequent lockups, garbled screen and spontaneous resets. Now I wiped the cache and ordered it to go to factory settings. When rebooting, it now says in a nice blue screen it is updating/installing the new firmware and after a while ‘erasing’. Then a falling Droid with exclamation is seen. it collapses into Recovery mode with an error after formatting: Formatting /data E: Format_volume: make ext4 failed on /dev/block/platform/155a0000.ufs/by-name/USERDATA with 1 (I/O error) — Set factory reset done… — Copying Media files… — Preload checkin… Datawipe failed. E: Data wipe failed — Applying Multi-CSC… Applied the CSC-code : PHN Succesfully applied Multi-CSC — Set factory reset done — copying media files — preload checkin… and that’s it. It won’t boot anymore and everytime I reset the same thing happens. Any suggestions? — Eric

Solution: Hi Eric. A normally working Galaxy device should be able to execute the complete factory reset sequence. That your phone is doing otherwise is an obvious indication that something’s wrong with its software. You must call Samsung and secure a replacement unit.

Problem #6: Galaxy S7 Edge encryption not working properly

I have a Galaxy S7 Edge and I have got a 128G SD card. The SD card was encrypted since I installed it the first time. When the new software was released, I went ahead and installed it. I turned off my phone couple of days later and turned it back on and chose to encrypt the SD card from the pop up screen. It’s been encrypting for the past week now! Knowing that, I turned the phone off again to decrypt the SD card but that didn’t work as it took a lot of time with no result at all. Now, it’s still encrypting and it seems like I lost my files and can’t access them on any computer since they were encrypted. I would really appreciate your help in this one. — Hsamus

Solution: Hi Hsamus. Encryption is a good way to secure important files but one of its downsides is the fact that no other device will be able to read the encrypted device afterwards. This means that even if you’ll stop the device at this time and try to recover your files by inserting the SD card in a computer, you’ll still be unable to access the contents. Even if the SD card is still working, no other device will be able to decrypt it.

The best thing that you can do right now is to wait until the device finish the encryption process (though 1 week is way too long). The most likely scenario now is that the SD card has been corrupted and the encryption process is either going in a loop or may have already stopped although your S7 does not indicate so. Give the device a few more days to try and do its job. If nothing changes after that, accept the fact that the SD card has stopped working and your files gone. There’s no way you’ll be able to recover your files back even if you insert the SIM card on another Galaxy S7 because of the way encryption in Samsung devices work. The actual decryption key is device-specific and cannot be transferred to another one. Even using the same password on the same exact phone model won’t work.

You’ll can continue using the same SD card in another device or the same phone by erasing everything off it via the format option.

Also, since you noticed that the issue started after an update, you might want to consider doing a factory reset to start fresh. This will help minimize bugs from emerging and possibly help in deleting existing ones.

 

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. 

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 recover files if your Galaxy S7 won’t turn back on, other issues

Hello and welcome to our new #GalaxyS7 article. Our post for today discusses 8 more S7-related issues and solutions. Don’t forget to let us know of your issue if you can’t find anything helpful in this post.

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.

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.

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

Problem 1: VR headset mouse cursor not working properly

I recently bought a VR headset and remote, but when i try to use the remote the mouse cursor drifts to the bottom right of my screen. I’ve went through all the settings and didn’t see anything for a mouse. I’ve done a reset on my phone and tried restarting it neither worked. Please tell me how i can fix this mouse drift issue i am unable to figure it out and i didn’t see anything about it on the forums. — Josh

Solution: Hi Josh. We don’t know what VR device and remote you have so we can’t give any specific instruction on what you need to do. We suggest that you try checking the manual of said devices, or contact their makers.

Problem 2: Unable to install Samsung Secure Folder app on Galaxy S7 edge

I recently updated my Samsung S7 edge G935W8 to Nougat 7.0 I purchased this phone from Best Buy April 2015 with Rogers carrier originally but paid the carrier to have it unlocked and now use it with Bell carrier. After doing the newest update, I went to download the secure folder app out of the Galaxy app store. But when I went through the set up wizard for the secure folder it popped up a message saying ” Secure folder cannot be set up as unauthorized software was installed on this device.” I had no idea what this message meant so I spoke to a few friends and Googled it to learn this often indicates my device was rooted. I did not root this phone (didn’t even know how or why it would be rooted) so I looked up how to see if your device is in fact rooted which showed me a few websites and apps. Each one I tried confirmed to me my device was NOT rooted. So are these apps/websites wrong? Can I get my phone into a mode to have it realize it isn’t rooted? I’ve tried factory resetting it both through smart switch and through recovery mode but they didn’t work. — Steve

Solution: Hi Steve. In a lot of cases, yes, the message you are receiving usually indicates that a phone may be rooted or running non-official software. In some cases, it can also be an indicator that Samsung does not detect the software as official even though it is. This usually happens if a carrier modifies the software, making it lose the original configuration that Samsung system recognizes. If the issue continues after a factory reset and without any apps or updates installed, there’s really nothing much that you can do, unless you want to revert the firmware version the one it came with originally.

Problem 3: Galaxy S7 keeps freezing, screen becomes unresponsive, reboots randomly

Hi, my S7 stays with unresponsive screen, freezes, lags and reboots without apparent reason. Sometimes, I can force the reboot with the [power + volume down], but the most of the times it stays unresponsive until the battery is empty (sometimes with the LED indicator turned on or blinking in green and blue). Then I have to charge and use it until it freezes again. I already did the master reset. It works for a week then it started to freeze again. I appreciate your help. Thank You. — Iván

Solution: Hi Iván. If your phone works fine after a factory reset, the main cause of your problems may be one of the apps you installed afterwards, or a hardware issue that can develop over time. One such hardware issue is a malfunctioning flash or memory. If it’s not an app problem, you should consider phone replacement as repair won’t fix it.

To see if it’s an app problem, you can either boot the phone to safe mode, or do another round of factory reset and see to it that only good apps are re-installed. Booting to safe mode prevents third party apps and services from running so if the issues won’t occur, you can bet there’s a bad app causing it. To start your S7 to safe mode, follow these steps:

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

Problem 4: Galaxy S7 phone calls keep dropping, battery drains fast, fingerprint reader not working after Nougat update

I updated my phone last night. it is a unlocked USA version. The software update is listed as G935UUEU4BQE2/G935U0YM4BQE2/G935UUEU4BQE2. It says text messages are not being sent but they are being received by people. I’m dropping a lot of phone calls, my fingerprint reader is not working at all, and my battery is draining quickly. I cleared the system cache but I am holding off on doing a full system. Is there any known version issues I am running an Android Nougat 7.0 not 7.1. I’m using Straight Talk wireless on Verizon towers. — Steve

Solution: Hi Steve. With millions of people using Galaxy devices running all sorts of Android versions, it’s not surprising to receive all kinds of issues following updates. There are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of possible points of failure in an Android system so anything can happen. Your issues are some of the common problems, even when updates are not installed so you should address them by doing software troubleshooting and solutions. We suggest that you try a factory reset and see what happens from there. Make sure to hold off installation of your apps until you have observed how SMS and other functions are working. This will allow you to check whether the issue remains or not. If the problems won’t occur, that’s an indication that either (A) a problematic app is responsible, or (B) the firmware version you installed is poorly coded. To fix a possible app issue, you can simply uninstall the offending app by doing trial-and-error. For the second possibility (poorly coded firmware), there’s not much that you can do about it. If you received updates by air (over-the-air update or OTA), you should let your carrier know so they can do something about it.

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

  1. Create a backup of your important files such as photos, videos, contacts etc. You can use Smart Switch for this task.
  2. Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S7.
  3. Press and then hold the Home and Volume UP keys, then press and hold the Power key.
  4. When the Samsung Galaxy S7 shows on the screen, release the Power key but continue holding the Home and Volume Up keys.
  5. When the Android logo shows, you may release both keys and leave the phone be for about 30 to 60 seconds.
  6. Using the Volume Down key, navigate through the options and highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset.’
  7. Once highlighted, you may press the Power key to select it.
  8. Now highlight the option ‘Yes — delete all user data’ using the Volume Down key and press the Power button to select it.
  9. Wait until your phone is finished doing the Master Reset. Once completed, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and press the Power key.
  10. The phone will now reboot longer than usual.

Problem 5: Galaxy S7 won’t go past carrier logo screen

Hello. My name is Steve and i recently bought an unlocked Samsung S7 whilst travelling in New York (on the 10th June 2017). I have been assured that the phone will work with other networks but i have entered another different SIM and the phone cannot go past the Metro PCS screen. Basically it seems that the phone just cycles around. I tried removing the SIM and the Micro SD card as well but no luck. I have tried using the Smart Switch software but since the phone does not get to start up properly, the software does not even communicate with the phone. Can you help with some advise on what i could do? I have left the United States already and back in my country, Solomon Islands. — Steve

Solution: Hi Steve. A working smartphone will work normally, that is, load the operating system properly, with or without a SIM card or SD card. We can’t see your logic why you chose to tell us that the phone won’t load at all (can’t go past the Metro PCS screen) with a different SIM card. Did the phone work while you were still in the US? You should have told us if it did, or if you tried doing so after purchasing the device.

We assume that your S7 is not brand new when you bought it (otherwise this issue won’t happen) but if it is, you should have it replaced right away. If phone replacement is out of the question, try to see if you can fix it by doing a cache partition wipe and master  via Recovery mode. Here are the steps on how to boot to Recovery mode:

  1. Charge the phone for at least 30 minutes.
  2. Press and then hold the Home and Volume UP keys, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the Samsung Galaxy logo shows on the screen, release the Power key but continue holding the Home and Volume Up keys.
  4. When the Android logo shows, you may release both keys and leave the phone be for about 30 to 60 seconds.
  5. Using the Volume Down key, navigate through the options and highlight ‘wipe cache partition.’
  6. You can either wipe the cache partition or do a factory reset when in this mode.

If wiping the cache partition or master reset won’t fix your problem, you can also try to flash the bootloader and/or firmware. Be aware though that flashing is a risky procedure and can potentially brick your phone. Make sure to do more research on how to do it on your particular phone model before doing it.

For demonstration purposes, here are the sample steps on how to flash a bootloader. The exact steps may vary on your phone. Again, you should research beyond our website how to the exact steps on your phone to prevent problems.

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. Proceed with the rest of the flashing procedure using the Odin program.
  5. In Odin, click on the BL tab and make sure to use the bootloader file you’ve identified earlier.
  6. 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.
  7. Restart the phone once the procedure is finished.

Problem 6: Galaxy S7 edge becomes unresponsive, overheats when charging

Hi there .. I got an Ss7 edge. The last few days, my phone start to freeze. The screen became blank and all buttons not responsive. I try all button combination like power + volume down, power + home + volume up or down and nothing is happen. It keeps black. But i feel my phone getting warmer. It will cool after the battery drain i guess (knowing by plug in charging and starts from zero again). When it freeze, all button not working, charging also not working.. please help me. This is really annoying.. i mean wait the battery to drain for a whole day and after charge who knows when it will freeze again ( mostly once a day ). This happen a month after i replace the screen. I don’t remember is there any update but the first time it happen is when i connected to wifi. Thats all… waiting for you suggestion Should i flash it back down to before update or …. well i don’t know anymore.. Thank you. — Primandayosepriadi

Solution: Hi Primandayosepriadi. Android troubleshooting is simple and your issue is not an exception to one particular rule — if no software solution can help, bad hardware must be to blame. That said, we suggest that you try factory reset and yes, if you did flash a non-official firmware to it, flash it back down to an older Android version. If those won’t work, have the phone repaired or replaced.

Problem 7: Galaxy S7 edge won’t charge, won’t turn on

I just read your article “How to fix your Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge that doesn’t charge via wired or wireless, heats up when charging [Troubleshooting Guide].” I had hope until I got to step 4. I can’t do anything from step 4 on as my battery is DEAD! However, I believe it to be a firmware issue as the battery had gone dead was remained in that condition for 4 days before I had the time to deal with it. But with a dead battery I cannot reboot, get into Recovery Mode or Safe Mode and it won’t charge by the Samsung Rapid Charger or the Samsung Wireless charger. I am desperate as I have so much on the phone (a lot saved but too much unsaved to lose). How can I get some energy into it? Just enough to get into Recovery Mode?? Thank you. — Rick

Solution: Hi Rick. If your phone does not show any indications of life (LED light lit, vibration during restart, sound or vibration when there incoming notifications), then the only thing that you can do is send it in. Sometimes, the phone can appear dead or not charging due to bad charging port so if you have a wireless charger, try wireless charging for at least 30 minutes. If the phone remains dead, have it repaired or replaced.

As far as data recovery is concerned, you can only do that if you can make your phone boot to normal or safe mode. If the phone is totally dead, you won’t be able to access its memory and transfer contents from it. There’s no software “magic” that you can do to fix bad hardware. It’s possible that the problem is isolated to the battery only so having it replaced by a technician first may solve the issue easily. If the problem is more serious and involves the motherboard, you can kiss those data goodbye.

To prevent losing irreplaceable data (photos, videos, documents, etc.) in the future, always make it a habit of creating a backup. We don’t know how many times we’ve emphasized this in almost all our articles but there’s a reason why this wisdom persists for decades now and that’s because digital storage devices and electronics are unreliable. If you won’t back your files up regularly, you only have yourself to blame.

Problem 8: How to recover files if your Galaxy S7 won’t turn back on

My phone got stuck while rebooting and was showing blue screen. I tried everything on your website and nothing worked then took the phone to the Samsung office. They performed something on it and now all i can see is the black screen with Galaxy S7 edge logo (same logo as you see when you restart the phone). From here I’m unable to start my phone or take it to the safe mode by pressing the keys as per your website. I want to recover my data from my phone before factory reset if required. Need your assistance. If you could help would be genius. — Talat1426

Solution: Hi Talat1426. As mentioned above, you can only access an S7’s memory or storage device if you can boot it to safe mode or normal mode. There’s no other way to moves files from and to the storage device in your phone’s current status. Even Samsung can’t do anything about it.

If you want to fix the issue though, consider doing a factory reset. That would, of course, wipe everything up but you may have a good working phone again.

Also, we don’t know what Samsung did to your phone but if they did try to flash it before, that is, installed a new copy of software, your files must already be gone by now so there’s no point holding off factory reset.

Some users were able to fix a similar issue by booting their phones to alternate modes. For reference, here are the steps on how to do that and the possible follow up troubleshooting that you can do for each:

Boot in Recovery mode:

  1. Charge the phone for at least 30 minutes.
  2. Press and then hold the Home and Volume UP keys, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the Samsung Galaxy logo shows on the screen, release the Power key but continue holding the Home and Volume Up keys.
  4. When the Android logo shows, you may release both keys and leave the phone be for about 30 to 60 seconds.
  5. Using the Volume Down key, navigate through the options and highlight ‘wipe cache partition.’
  6. You can either wipe the cache partition or do a factory reset when in this mode.

Boot in Download Mode:

  1. Charge the phone for at least 30 minutes.
  2. Press and then hold the Home and Volume DOWN keys, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the Samsung Galaxy logo shows on the screen, release the Power key but continue holding the Home and Volume DOWN keys.
  4. Wait until the Download screen appears.
  5. 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.
  6. Use Google to look for a guide on how to do it.

Boot in safe mode:

  1. Charge the phone for at least 30 minutes.
  2. Press and hold the Power button.
  3. Once the Samsung Galaxy logo appears, release the Power key and immediately press and hold the Volume Down button.
  4. Continue holding the button until the phone finishes rebooting.
  5. Once you see the text “Safe mode” at the bottom left corner of the screen, release the Volume Down button.
  6. 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.

 

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.

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.

Galaxy S6 takes a very long time to charge, fast charge not working, other issues

With a few more weeks left until the new #GalaxyS8 is released, we plan to continue supporting the millions of #GalaxyS6 users for as long as we can. This material is just another series of posts that we will be publishing in the coming months. If you have your own S6 question, make sure to contact us by using the questionnaire we provide at the bottom of this article.

For now, here are the specific topics that we cover for you:

  1. Galaxy S6 turns off on its own when battery has 30% | Galaxy S6 overheating, takes long time to charge | Galaxy S6 very slow
  2. Galaxy S6 edge plus keeps showing “not charging” notification even when it’s not connected to charger
  3. Galaxy S6 won’t charge and turn on
  4. Galaxy S6 takes a very long time to charge | Galaxy S6 fast charge not working
  5. Galaxy S6 Message+ app keeps crashing
  6. Galaxy S6 overheating and lagging due to bad hardware
  7. Galaxy S6 won’t work if not connected to a charger
  8. Galaxy S6 stops working after changing its IMEI

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 S6 turns off on its own when battery has 30% | Galaxy S6 overheating, takes long time to charge | Galaxy S6 very slow

The past 2 weeks my Galaxy S6 has been acting up. I read about the soft reset but I can’t get to my battery. My phone has been dying very quickly through the day when normally it will last me all day long. I’m not really on my phone that much until after school but when I get out of school my phone is at 30 or less %. And my phone will sometimes say I have 9% and then goes straight to 3% then I plug it in at 3% and it dies as soon as I plug it in. I used to have a fast charger but the one I’ve been using for awhile now isn’t, and sometimes I will use a wireless charger.

My phone has also been over heating a lot even when I’m not using it. In the recent 2 weeks, I plug in my phone and it says it’s going to take 6 and a half hours in order to fully charge when before it didn’t take but 2 hours.

My phone has also been glitching from time to time and has become a lot slower than normal. I have tried other outlets than the one I use most of the time and one outlet will say 6 and half hours and then the other tells me 2 and half. I have had this phone for over a year, but not sure what’s going on and whether I need a new battery or a new phone. — Danielle

Solution: Hi Danielle. To know whether the problem is due to a software glitch or bad hardware, you must do a series of troubleshooting steps.

The first one is to see if battery recalibration will help. Sometimes, Android can lose track of the actual battery level causing the phone to reboot prematurely even if the battery percentage is showing high figure. To fix the issue, you must do some steps to help the operating system detect the true remaining battery power. Here’s how:

  1. Use the phone by playing games or doing tasks to hasten power discharge, until the phone turns itself off.
  2. Turn the phone on again and let it turn itself off.
  3. Charge the phone without turning it back on.
  4. Wait until the battery says it fully charged to 100%
  5. Unplug the charger and turn the phone on.
  6. If the phone says it’s not 100% anymore, turn it off, plug the charger back in and wait until 100% charge is reached.
  7. Unplug the charger the turn the phone on again.
  8. Use the phone until you drain the battery down to 0.
  9. Repeat the cycle once.

Observe the phone for a few days to see if battery calibration will improve the situation. If the phone continues to shut down randomly and drain battery power fast, the next troubleshooting step to do is factory reset. This troubleshooting step is meant to eliminate any software glitch that may be causing all the problems. Factory reset returns all software settings to their defaults, effectively removing any glitch that may have developed after you unboxed the phone. To do that, follow these steps:

  1. Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge.
  2. Press and hold the Volume Up, Home and Power keys together.
  3. When the device powers on and displays ‘Power on logo’, release all keys and the Android icon will appear on the screen.
  4. Wait until the Android Recovery Screen appears after about 30 seconds.
  5. Using the Volume Down key, highlight the option, ‘wipe data/factory reset’ and press the Power key to select it.
  6. 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.
  7. After the reset is complete, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and hit the Power key to restart the phone.
  8. Observe the phone for at least 24 hours. Make sure not to install any app or update during this time.

If you observe the same problems after a factory reset, you can assume that bad hardware is the culprit. It can be a battery issue too so if possible, try to buy a new one and use it on your phone.

Should nothing change, simply send the phone in so its hardware can be checked and determined if it needs repair.

Problem #2: Galaxy S6 edge plus keeps showing “not charging” notification even when it’s not connected to charger

Greetings. I have started getting an issue on a S6 edge plus. It all began when i plugged in the device to be charged on a 5v 2A (the ones that come in the extension cords as a usb charging hub). As soon as i plugged it in, the phone went into VR mode and then blank. After that, i unplugged it and connected the original charger and that closed the VR mode screen and it went back to “normal.” However i keep getting a notification pop up saying “not charging” which is obvious as the device is not connected to any source of power. I think that’s all i got for you guys. Hope this info will help you so that you can help me. Thanks in advance. — Pablo

Solution: Hi Pablo. We think you need to ensure first that this is not a software issue. You can do that by doing a factory reset so you can compare how the phone behaves when the software is returned to its known, working state. Be sure that you don’t install anything so as to preserve the original software state during the observation period.

If “not charging” notification continues to popup, it can only be due to a malfunctioning hardware. The charging port must have been damaged for some reason, triggering the notification to popup even when the device is not being charged. In this case, you must send the phone to Samsung so it can be repaired or replaced.

Problem #3: Galaxy S6 won’t charge and turn on

Galaxy S6 won’t charge or turn on. I see the Lightning icon but nothing else happens. Things to note acted weird when I plugged it in last. It was dead but when I plugged it in it said 94% charged. This morning it was at 4% after being plugged in all night. Once it shut off and I attempted to turn it back on a yellow triangle with an explanation point in it along with the android man beneath it appeared. I believed it said rebooting a bunch of words appeared like it was rebooting then the phone shut off and never turned back on. Like I said I can see the charging symbol but nothing else. —Joellen80

Solution: Hi Joellen80. The only troubleshooting step that you can do in this situation is to see if you’ll be able to restart the phone to alternate modes. Only then can you do follow-up troubleshooting. If your phone remains dead, you must seek the help of a professional or Samsung so your hardware can be examined.

For reference, here are the steps on how to boot your S6 to other modes and their follow-up troubleshooting that you can do:

Boot in Recovery mode:

  1. Charge the phone for at least 30 minutes.
  2. Press and then hold the Home and Volume UP keys, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the Samsung Galaxy S7 shows on the screen, release the Power key but continue holding the Home and Volume Up keys.
  4. When the Android logo shows, you may release both keys and leave the phone be for about 30 to 60 seconds.
  5. Using the Volume Down key, navigate through the options and highlight ‘wipe cache partition.’
  6. You can either wipe the cache partition or do a factory reset when in this mode.

Boot in Download Mode:

  1. Charge the phone for at least 30 minutes.
  2. Press and then hold the Home and Volume DOWN keys, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the Samsung Galaxy S7 shows on the screen, release the Power key but continue holding the Home and Volume DOWN keys.
  4. Wait until the Download screen appears.
  5. 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.
  6. Use Google to look for a guide on how to do it.

Boot in safe mode:

  1. Charge the phone for at least 30 minutes.
  2. Press and hold the Power button.
  3. Once the ‘Samsung Galaxy S7’ logo appears, release the Power key and immediately press and hold the Volume Down button.
  4. Continue holding the button until the phone finishes rebooting.
  5. Once you see the text “Safe mode” at the bottom left corner of the screen, release the Volume Down button.
  6. 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 #4: Galaxy S6 takes a very long time to charge | Galaxy S6 fast charge not working

Previously when i plug the charger, it give me approximately 2 hours max to fully charge my battery. Suddenly it started giving me 6 hours. I tried to clean the USB thing and i tried switching to safe mode to see if any of the third party apps are the cause but it kept giving me 6 hours to fully charge. I tried the sysdump also and turned the low battery dump on but nothing worked.

Note: it’s not from the charger since my brother has a S6 edge also and it charges perfectly for him and i tried a lot of charges. they work for others but for me they are toooo slow. What should i do? — Toola.me1

Solution: Hi Toola.me1. If you’ve already tried  factory reset and charging remains slow, there must be something wrong with the hardware. It can be a faulty charging port. Try to inspect the charging port for dirt or bent pins inside. Sometimes, they can cause erratic charging behavior so if you see anything amiss inside, that may be the cause of the problem. Most of the time, charging port damage occurs beyond the visible part so you must have the phone examined by Samsung or an independent service center.

Other power- and charging-related issues can be caused by a bad power IC in the logic board. Again, the phone has be physically checked by a technician to know this. The general rule is to try all relevant software troubleshooting such as wiping of cache partition, observing in safe mode, and factory reset. If nothing will change after doing such steps, send the phone in for repair.

Problem #5: Galaxy S6 Message+ app keeps crashing

Hello. Every time I have attempted to open the messaging app in the last hour it fails to work and only a white screen shows up with a red bar at the top. After about 5 minutes a message shows up saying, “Message+ isn’t responding. Do you want to close it?” Leaving me the choice to either report, leave or ok. I click ok every time and I’ve gone to extremes in attempting to make it work including deleting all of the apps that didn’t come with the phone to frequently restarting it. That’s it. Please tell me how to fix my problem. — Maddy

Solution: Hi Maddy. Try wiping the app’s cache and data first. Doing so is the virtual equivalent of uninstalling and reinstalling the said app. Here’s how it’s done:

  1. Open the Settings menu either through your notification shade (drop-down) or through the Settings app in your app drawer.
  2. Navigate down to “Apps”. This may be renamed to something like Applications or Application Manager in OEM skinned versions of Android 6.0.
  3. Once in there, click on an application.
  4. 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.
  5. You should now clearly see the Clear Data and Clear Cache buttons for the application.

If this troubleshooting step will not fix the issue, you can then try to factory reset the phone. If we are not mistaken, Message+ is a Verizon messaging app so restoring the original version of the firmware may eliminate the bug. To factory reset your S6, follow these steps:

  1. Create a backup of your important files.
  2. From the Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
  3. Find and tap the Settings icon.
  4. Under the ‘Personal’ section, find and tap Backup and reset.
  5. Tap Factory data reset.
  6. Touch Reset device to proceed with the reset.
  7. Depending on the security lock you used, enter the PIN or password.
  8. Tap Continue.
  9. Touch Delete all to confirm your action.

Finally, if the issue remains after a factory reset, contact the developer for support.

Problem #6: Galaxy S6 overheating and lagging due to bad hardware

My phone is overheating way too much and way to quick. It has started up recently. i haven’t downloaded any new app or anything.

I have restarted the phone but no luck. When i start to charge it, it heats up even quicker and now i am starting to have problems with its performance like it crashes a lot. Once it’s hot it slows down. The touches on my screen don’t work properly. No clue what it could be. i have tried cooling apps but they don’t work so i delete them. i don’t know what to do. My phone is a Samsung S6 edge. Please could you help me with this thank you. — Zulaikhah

Solution: Hi Zulaikhah. Like what we tell others above, you must do a factory reset first and proceed from there. This is the only way to determine whether you can fix the issue on your end or not. We do think hardware malfunction is to blame. Taken together with other symptoms you mention, the overheating issue must be caused by a failing component. What that component is is for a technician to know and to do that, the phone must be physically checked. Be sure to send the phone to Samsung or to an independent repair shop so the hardware can be examined thoroughly.

Problem #7: Galaxy S6 won’t work if not connected to a charger

Hi. I have a Samsung S6. i bought it around 3 months ago. Here is the problem: yesterday, i noticed it had turned itself off despite having 70 percent battery. i turned it back on a few times it comes on then just goes off again. however if i connect the charger it will stay on. I’ve also noticed it will say 100 percent charged, then when i unplug it, it reads something like 70 percent. Can you help please? — Des

Solution: Hi Des. An issue like this is almost always  due to a bad battery issue.

Try doing a battery calibration first and see how it goes. If there’s no change, proceed to factory reset. If a reset won’t work either, find a way to have the phone repaired or replaced. Steps on how to recalibrate the battery and factory reset are provided above.

Problem #8: Galaxy S6 stops working after changing its IMEI

Well, I got this Galaxy S6 that first I locked and I forgot the back up password and I try to reboot but ended up deleting the whole software. So I took it in to a shop and I guess they were being honest and told me they just get it to work and ended up installing a whole new software and gave the phone a new IMEI. Now the phone won’t work and the original IMEI work but the new one is blacklisted and seem like no one can fix it. — Luis

Solution: Hi Luis. Well, the only people that can help you are the ones who modified the software in the first place. Only them knows what things they did on the device. We can’t see the logic of modifying the IMEI when the original problem is about unlocking the phone only so there must be an underlying reason for them to do it.

We also don’t know what exactly you mean by your “phone won’t work” phrase. If you can get back to us giving us more details, perhaps there’s something that we can suggest.

 

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. 

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 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.

note-5

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

  1. Galaxy Note 5 drains battery fast | Galaxy Note 5 loses battery power in 2 hours even with gentle use
  2. Galaxy Note 5 screen, keyboard app, voice calls, etc. not working properly
  3. Galaxy Note 5 “Unfortunately Google Play has stopped” error | How to reinstall Google Play Store app on Galaxy Note 5
  4. How to deal with Galaxy Note 5 virus infection issue
  5. Galaxy Note 5 apps keep crashing
  6. 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.

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 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.

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.

 

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. 

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.

Solutions to Galaxy S6 slow charging issue, other issues

Welcome to another post about #GalaxyS6 issues and solutions. We bring you 5 more issues that we’ve compiled since last week. There are hundreds of issues that we are yet to publish so if you haven’t noticed your issue posted in our blog yet, keep watching in the coming days and weeks.

 

s6

In the meantime, here are the topics that we cover in this material:

  1. Solutions to Galaxy S6 slow charging issue | Battery drain issue on Galaxy S6
  2. Galaxy S6 won’t boot normally
  3. Galaxy S6 stops charging and won’t turn on
  4. Galaxy S6 keeps losing cellular signal
  5. Causes of Galaxy S6 charging issues

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: Solutions to Galaxy S6 slow charging issue | Battery drain issue on Galaxy S6

My Samsung S6 is about a year old now, so maybe I just need a new battery…but thought I’d check with you first.

I never charge my phone overnight for fear of overcharging the battery, but lately, my phone has been losing lots of battery for what didn’t take up this amount of battery before: 40% of battery for listening to music on the way to work in the morning (20 min commute), 10% for receiving incoming texts, etc. I always use my original charger unless I am at work, and then I will use a power cord and charge my phone with my computer. After I started doing that, sometimes my phone would charge slowly with my original charger, but after unplugging it once or twice, it would fast charge again.

Today, I woke up and my phone was at 20% battery, and then I plugged it in…and it kept losing battery. Finally, I plugged it in and it seemed to be steady at 11%. And I had to leave, so I left – and when I came home it was dead! Even being plugged in for 4 hours!

I took it off of its original charger and plugged it into my computer instead, but it is charging very slowly (it is at 9% after almost an hour). What is wrong with my phone? Will buying an extended battery help at all? — Stephanie

Solution: Hi Stephanie. Battery performance steadily degrades after some time. The rate of loss of performance can vary per user. The more you use the device (and charges it) day in and day out, the faster this rate is. Loss of performance can usually be seen several months after unboxing the device so if you’re Galaxy S6 has been with you for over a year now, the problem must lie on the battery. To find out, you must do some basic software troubleshooting first. If nothing will change after doing these troubleshooting steps, then you can assume hardware is the issue.

Refresh the system cache of your Galaxy S6

The first thing that you want to do is wipe the cache partition. This will ensure that your phone’s system cache is new and not corrupted. 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.

Restart the S6 to safe mode before charging

Another software trick that you can try is to turn off the phone and restart it in safe mode. This will force the phone to run pre-installed apps only, preventing third party apps and their associated services from loading. If charging returns back to normal while in this mode, that’s a clear indicator that one or a few of the third party apps is to blame. To restart your S6 to safe mode, follow these 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.

Turn off the phone or ensure that only a minimum of apps are running

Signs of battery drain issue can sometimes show in many different forms and slow charging is one of them. It is not necessarily a battery problem but more of a situation wherein the phone is draining power faster than a charger can add to the remaining level. Most of the time, it’s due to the fact that there’s a lot of apps and services running at the same time while charging. This can be remedied by turning off the phone while charging but obviously, that means being unable to use your phone for at least an hour. If you want to use your phone while charging, you must ensure that you lower the number of running apps to the lowest as possible. Apps for social media, email, communication, gaming, and online shopping are some of the common categories that can continuously run in the background or actively while charging. Make sure that you turn them off, leaving only critical system apps.

Follow the steps below on how to do it:

  • Enable Developer Options (if you haven’t yet) by going under Settings>About Phone or About device>Software Info>Build number. Once you find Build number, tap it seven time to unlock a new menu. After the seventh tap, you will then a notification that Developer Options is unlocked.
  • Press the Back button and find Developer options. Tap it.
  • Tap Running services.

Keep in mind that Google hide Running services option for a reason and average Android users don’t typically need to access them as well. But for the sake of troubleshooting and information, we want you to do it so you’ll see what apps and services run in the background. Make sure that you tap on the STOP button for apps that shouldn’t be running while you’re not using them. Remember, some system services may appear unfamiliar to you; make sure you that you only stop an app that you know. Stopping a critical service may cause system instability so be wary when stopping something.

Install available system and app updates

Always keep your system and apps up-to-date by installing whenever there available updates out there. New updates may bring a fix for known issues including battery drain.

Do a master reset

Finally, if all else fails, don’t hesitate to wipe the phone and restore all software settings to default. For reference, follow these steps:

  • Create a back up of your important files and contacts.
  • Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge.
  • Press and hold the Volume Up, Home and Power keys together.
  • When the device powers on and displays ‘Power on logo’, release all keys and the Android icon will appear on the screen.
  • Wait until the Android Recovery Screen appears after about 30 seconds.
  • Using the Volume Down key, highlight the option, ‘wipe data/factory reset’ and press the Power key to select it.
  • Press the Vol Down button again until the option ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted and then press the Power key to select it.
  • After the reset is complete, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and hit the Power key to restart the phone.

Should nothing change after doing all these steps above, find a way to have the hardware checked or replaced.

Problem #2: Galaxy S6 won’t boot normally

Hello, my name is Jacob and my fiancée is experiencing an issue with her phone and I was told to email you regarding the issue. She didn’t drop it or get it wet and randomly her phone started doing a boot loop. Her screen, when charging has the battery with lightning bolt icon duplicated left and right on her screen as if the screen is damaged. However there is no visible screen damage.  Her phone under a regular boot starts to turn on showing the Samsung logo with the black background, but then it shuts off. When holding the power button and the down arrow, even through the normal boot function it won’t boot, and when using the safe mode option it makes the boot loop worse, repeating the boot option infinitely without anyone pressing the power button. It is really strange. 

Since the phone won’t turn on, I don’t know what version of the Android OS it has or the exact model number, however it is the most recent OS to my knowledge and is a 32gb Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus. We are trying anything and everything to not do a factory reset because we have a lot of pictures we didn’t get a chance to backup.

Even if there is no way to get the phone to work again is there any way to get the pictures and other data off of the phone?  If there is anything you can recommend doing that I haven’t already tried that doesn’t involve losing any data it would be much appreciated, and feel free to email back if you need pictures or a video of what the phone is doing.

Thank you very much. — Jacob

Solution: Hi Jacob. In order to access files stored in the device’s internal memory, the phone must boot normally or in safe mode (and sometimes in recovery mode if you use a custom recovery software) first. If the phone refuses to complete the boot sequence and keeps getting stuck in a bootloop, there’s really nothing much that you can do.

Try to boot the phone in recovery mode and do a cache wipe. Should the issue remain, do a factory reset (if you want to see if the device can boot normally). Factory reset will obviously delete everything.

Problem #3: Galaxy S6 stops charging and won’t turn on

My phone recently started not charging when it died completely. It would show the charge symbol then disappear. I kept it plugged in all day and nothing. Then 2 days later boom it starts charging. When I plug the USB into charger it says on pull down screen that it’s connected but not charging again. Then it starts working here and there and the screen goes all green and other colors until late I unplug it then it looks normal.. never had water damage always in case. Is it a firmware problem? It is doing really odd things hope I explained well enough..tried many cables and wall plugs to rule that out. — Mike

Solution: Hi Mike. To know if this is a software problem, try the suggestions we provide for Stephanie above. If not one software troubleshooting will work, send the phone to Samsung or any relevant party for repair or replacement.

Problem #4: Galaxy S6 keeps losing cellular signal

I JUST WANT TO SAY THAT EVER SINCE I HAD AN ADVANCE PHONE I’VE BEEN GOING TO YOUR SITE FOR ANYTHING AND IT SAVED ME SO MUCH, THANK YOU SO MUCH! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU! ?

I’ve been having problems with my phone, having fights with my dad and mom even, because they cannot call my phone, can’t be reached and called, but I’m very sure that i have network and my signals are very good in my area, so I’m wondering what was wrong. I’ve searched and asked tons but all they answered me was a reset, but i can’t even do that because everytime i try to reset my network my settings stops! What do i do now? Please help me.

GOD BLESS YOU ALL? — Zaine

Solution: Hi Zaine. We’re glad to know that our site has helped you. We hope that we can continue serving Android community with our articles.

Now, first of all, we want to be frank with you on your case. We always make it a point that any issue that involves services from a user’s carrier must be referred to them first. This is due to the fact that the problem may be caused by some network-related issues. Even if you think that the issue may be on the phone, it’s good if you can talk to your carrier first so you can rule out possible account- or network-related causes.

Secondly, we’re not sure what you mean by “everytime i try to reset my network my settings stops.” We can’t proceed to the process of isolating an issue if, in the first place, we don’t even understand what you’re saying. That said, the safest thing that you can do right now is factory reset. Because this procedure will restore all your software settings back to their known-working state, it’s a good way to start for you. We assume that you didn’t modify the official software on your phone (by rooting, flashing a custom ROM, or installing other third party software) but if you did, try to look for forums or sites that discuss issues with the particular software you’re running. Our site does not provide troubleshooting and solutions for devices running unofficial software.

Problem #5: Causes of Galaxy S6 charging issues

Hi there. So I’ve just been looking at your troubleshooting page for my Samsung Galaxy S6 not charging. I’ve tried three different chargers on three different kinds of charging outlets. The most that will happen is the battery with a lightening bolt will flash up, but the green line won’t be there or the red light won’t register.

So, it seems like I’m going to have to send my phone in and I was just wondering two things please. Firstly, do you know why this has happened? Secondly, how much do you think it will cost to get it fixed please?

Also just want to say thank you for what you do, I’ve used your website for various different android related reasons and really appreciate all the help I’ve gained from it.

Hope to hear from you soon.

Many thanks. — Chloe

Solution: Hi Chloe. You’re welcome. It’s our pleasure to extend help to some members of our Android community.

The answer to your first question can be a bit tricky due to a number of factors that can potentially cause an Android device to stop charging. The general rule in dealing with the issue though is simple — if software solutions won’t work, then hardware issue must be to blame. Software-related causes are uncommon but majority of them can be effectively fixed by factory reset. Hardware malfunction is must difficult to fix and even identify unless a thorough check is done. In majority of cases though, a damaged charging port is responsible. If you want to know the real reason for the issue so you can prevent it from happening again in the future, you should ask the technician who will examine the phone.

Repair price for a Galaxy S6 usually costs $200 in the least. Repair can cover part/s replacement as well so it may even go beyond $200 depending on the complexity of the procedure and the replaced component.

 

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. 

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.

Galaxy Note 5 draining battery fast after an update, battery keeps showing incorrect level, other issues

Welcome to the final #GalaxyNote5 post for this week. In this article, we bring you 6 more Note 5 issues that were submitted to us. We hope that the solutions we provide can help not just those mentioned here but also those who may be experiencing a similar situation.

Below are the specific topics we are covering for you today:

  1. Galaxy Note 5 fails to boot up after unlocking
  2. Galaxy Note 5 charging port not working
  3. Galaxy Note 5 battery keeps showing incorrect level
  4. Galaxy Note 5 draining battery fast after an update
  5. Galaxy Note 5 won’t boot to Recovery mode
  6. Rooted Galaxy Note 5 won’t boot up normally | Galaxy Note 5 stuck in Samsung logo screen

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 Note 5 fails to boot up after unlocking

Good evening. I’ve been having some issues with my Note 5. For starters, ever since I unlocked the phone to work anywhere in the world it keeps resetting itself and gives me the error KERNEL IS NOT SEANDROID enforcing custom binary block by FRP lock. Just now I downloaded an application so that I could connect my phone to a computer because I was not able to do it ever since the unlocking of the phone. I then installed an app that helped me with this which is called USB something (I can’t really remember the name). I then turned off my phone to charge it so that I could download the update and I haven’t been able to turn it on since. I followed some steps that you provide on the page regarding the error mentioned, but when I do the wipe cache option nothing happens after.

Is there anything else I can do before I do a factory reset? Also, I’m not very sure of the Android version. Thank you in advance for your time! Kind regards. — Monica

Solution: Hi Monica. There’s only so much that you can do if the phone is unable to boot up. Try booting the phone to safe mode first to see if you can turn the phone on that way. Here’s how to do it:

  • 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.

If the phone remains unresponsive, try a factory reset.

Problem #2: Galaxy Note 5 charging port not working

I have had an odd issue with my Samsung Galaxy Note 5 out of nowhere. Here is a summary, I hope you can shed some light! Thank you in advance. Started draining battery too fast while plugged in and charging. Wasn’t charging at all while on, or very slow, even when not in use. I started turning it off to charge which helped. I thought it may be software related so I did a factory reset. Seemed to be better for a short while but not positive. After about a month, the device one morning didn’t turn on. Screen flickered and would not take a charge at all. No change while plugged in, etc. Technician said it was battery after diagnosis. Long story short, he couldn’t get a battery and he wasted 2 weeks of my time so I ordered a replacement with overnight shipping, watched the included video on how to replace it and did it myself in less than 10 minutes. Turned it on, it was 19% battery so I plugged it in, all was fine. 2 hours later it was 37% and I was about to use it for my first time in weeks when I noticed it was still plugged in but not charging icon! I tried swapping chargers, cables, nothing changed. I opened it back up and noticed one ribbon ran from charge port to battery so I reset the connection. No change. I removed the entire battery and reinstalled, plugged it in and no change. I put it down and started searching on my phone when I heard it beep for charging! It started to charge so I unplugged it and plugged it back in. Not charging anymore! Tried wiggling the wire gently, it never beeped again. Not sure what to do, maybe charge port? Why would it just stop working? No damage, quality cables, it was working and now it’s not. Any help is appreciated. Thank you! — Kevin

Solution: Hi Kevin. We need to examine the hardware ourselves in order to answer your questions. That replacing the battery did not change anything means that the next logical component to check in this case is the charging port. If it’s not the charging port, the power management chip on the motherboard may be the culprit. Our blog does not provide hardware troubleshooting and solutions though so please look for other online resource should you want to do the repair yourself.

Problem #3: Galaxy Note 5 battery keeps showing incorrect level

Hi guys! I have Note 5 from Verizon and it seems like I have a battery drain issue. I’ve tried to wipe data but nothing really changed. “Safe mode” too didn’t change anything. I’ve noticed that when I plug the charger, it jumps 4% or 6% suddenly. For Example: my phone was 3% today and when I plugged the charger it jumped to 7% and this is happening everytime I charge my phone when it’s under 10%. Do I have to change my battery and get new one? Or should I use a software knowing that I’ve tried that too! — Ibrahim

Solution: Hi Ibrahim. An issue like this can be caused by bad software just as by malfunctioning hardware. Thus, the first thing that you want to do is to try to identify which is which. This is done by performing software troubleshooting. The logic is that if no software solution can fix the issue, hardware must be to blame.

To start, you want to ensure that the operating system is reading the battery levels correctly. Sometimes, Android may get confused in detecting the actual battery power level so you want to train it again.  To do that, you must recalibrate the battery by following the steps below:

  1. Use the phone by playing games or doing tasks to hasten power discharge, until the phone turns itself off.
  2. Turn the phone on again and let it turn itself off.
  3. Charge the phone without turning it back on.
  4. Wait until the battery says it fully charged to 100%
  5. Unplug the charger and turn the phone on.
  6. If the phone says it’s not 100% anymore, turn it off, plug the charger back in and wait until 100% charge is reached.
  7. Unplug the charger the turn the phone on again.
  8. Use the phone until you drain the battery down to 0.
  9. Repeat the cycle once.
  10. Observe the phone for a few days.

Observing the phone for a few days should give you enough time to see any difference. If the problem remains, you must try a factory reset. Factory reset will revert all software to their known, working state. So, if the glitch has developed after unboxing the phone, factory reset should take care of it. Here are the steps on how to do that:

  1. Create a backup of your important files.
  2. Turn off your Samsung Galaxy Note 5 completely.
  3. Press and hold the Volume Up and the Home buttons first, and then press and hold the Power key.
  4. Keep the three buttons pressed and when ‘Samsung Galaxy Note5’ shows, release the Power key but continue holding the other two.
  5. Once the Android logo shows, release both the Volume Up and Home buttons.
  6. 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.
  7. Use the Volume Down key to highlight the option ‘Yes — delete all user data’ and press the Power key to select it.
  8. 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.
  9. The reboot may take a little longer to complete but don’t worry and wait for the device to become active.

If nothing will change after a factory reset, consider having the phone repaired or replaced.

Problem #4: Galaxy Note 5 draining battery fast after an update

I used to full charge my Note 5 daily at night and take it out of charger at 7.30 AM when I am going to work. The phone’s battery will last until 9 pm until it gets 5% and have to recharge it which is fine for me. But from almost previous week Samsung asked me to update the software and I did and since that time my battery life last only 4 or 5 hours and it is really disturbing. My phone still new. I purchased it 3 months ago. It is really annoying. please help me with the solution. — Nasser

Solution: Hi Nasser. There are three possible solutions that you can try for this issue.

Update ALL your apps. While many Android users are keen to install whatever system update are presented to them, these same users may not be as keen when it comes to updating their apps as well. It’s no wonder a lot of people starts complaining afterwards that their phone has suddenly become unstable, or experiencing issues. Keep in mind that installing a system update does not mean apps are automatically updated as well. This situation can be problematic, especially if there’s an incompatible app installed. If you haven’t updated your apps at this time, make sure that you do so as soon as possible.

Wipe the cache partition. Updates or app installation can sometimes corrupt the system cache. Once that happens, some apps or phone features may not work properly. Since the problem occurred right after an update, you want to ensure that the system cache is refreshed. Here’s how:

  • 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.

Wipe the phone via factory reset. As mentioned above, factory reset should revert software settings to their factory state. If the glitch is on the operating system level, factory reset should help you fix it. Here’s how it’s done:

  • From the Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
  • Find and tap the Settings icon.
  • Under the ‘Personal’ section, find and tap Backup and reset.
  • Tap Factory data reset.
  • Touch Reset device to proceed with the reset.
  • Depending on the security lock you used, enter the PIN or password.
  • Tap Continue.
  • Touch Delete all to confirm your action.

Problem #5: Galaxy Note 5 won’t boot to Recovery mode

My phone is frozen on the Samsung Galaxy Note 5 screen, and then it goes to the blue downloading screen. I tried to follow your troubleshooting advice. How long to I need to press the power, volume up and home key before I feel the vibration to release the power key? I held all three keys down for 6 minutes and felt no vibration, nor did I see anything on the screen. If I need to hold it longer, I will, but please advise. — Cory

Solution: Hi Cory. There’s no need to hold the buttons that long. If your phone can boot to Recovery mode, you only need to press and hold the Volume Up, Home, and Power buttons for a few seconds. If you don’t feel the vibration until then, that means that your phone is unable to boot to recovery at all. That means that there may be an issue with the buttons (or one of them), or there’s an unknown hardware malfunction behind the trouble.

If you can’t boot the phone to recovery, consider restarting it to other modes. Here’ s how:

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 problem remains after doing the hardware button combinations above, contact Samsung for repair or replacement.

Problem #6: Rooted Galaxy Note 5 won’t boot up normally | Galaxy Note 5 stuck in Samsung logo screen

Hi my name is Angel I have problems with my Samsung Note 5 phone. I reboot my Note 5 but it got stuck on the log. i waited several minutes but nothing happened. I retried several times but nothing happened. I watch several videos to see i was able to get some help. But nothing happen i was reading your page and also follow all steps you put. But still i am stuck on the Samsung logo. My phone is rooted I don’t know what to do know. if you could please help me. My phone is a Samsung Note 5 SM-N920T from T-Mobile. — Angel

Solution: Hi Angel. We don’t support rooted phones as well as devices that uses customized software. There’s a chance that your issue may be caused by the root software you’re using, or by one of the modifications made on your device. We suggest that you ask assistance from the developer of the root software you’re using, or from the community that uses it.

In some cases, unrooting a device and/or flashing stock firmware resolves issues so you can also try them. If you don’t know how to unroot your device, simply consult the developer or do some research via Google on how to do it. Some root software can be removed by doing a master reset too so if you haven’t tried that, 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 ‘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

 

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. 

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.

Galaxy S6 cannot send text message after updating to Marshmallow, other issues

S6 Marshmallow update

As promised in previous #GalaxyS6 posts, here are more issues that some of our community members are experiencing. Feel free to visit other Galaxy S6 troubleshooting posts in this index page.

  1. Verizon Galaxy S6 won’t send or receive MMS on AT&T network
  2. Galaxy S6 cannot send text message after updating to Marshmallow
  3. Galaxy S6 stuck on loading screen during an update
  4. How to improve battery life on Galaxy S6 Edge Plus
  5. Galaxy S6 display won’t turn back on after charging port was replaced
  6. Galaxy S6 Home button stopped working

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: Verizon Galaxy S6 won’t send or receive MMS on AT&T network

I bought this Verizon “Factory Unlocked” Samsung S6, brought it to AT&T for them to set up the APN information, and everything works except sending and receiving pictures through text,  well multimedia text. AT&T stated I shouldn’t be having problems of. It was factory unlocked but kinda blew me off. I asked if all factory unlocked phones were unable to send multimedia text, I was told yes they can but they guess mine can’t was the answer I received.

I pray y’all can help me I hoping I wasn’t ripped off. The seller is refusing the return as of now because I brought it to AT&T (he called it a third party) to activate it.

Thanks for everything y’all do it helps so much. — Kayla

Solution: Hi Kayla. There are a number of reasons why MMS won’t work on a device ranging from incorrect phone settings, bad messaging app, or account- or network-related problem. Your first task is to find out what is causing the issue by doing some basic troubleshooting. Below are the things that you can do:

Ensure that your messaging app inbox has enough storage space left. Messaging apps have a limited number of messages that they can store. If your phone has reached the limit at this time, it won’t be able to send and receive text messages or MMS.

Try to delete as many messages as you can then try to send an MMS to your number.

Check the network connection. Most phones are configured to automatically detect and connect to a network. They are also set to optimize the connection “session” but this process does not usually go as planned every time. You need to manually select a network under Settings to see if the phone is simply not “optimizing” the current connection.

To do this on a Galaxy S6, simply follow these steps:

  • From the Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
  • Tap Settings.
  • Scroll to Connections,  then tap Mobile networks.
  • Tap Network operators.
  • Tap Search now.
  • When presented with a list of available networks, try to select one that is NOT your carrier and wait for the error message.
  • Once you’ve selected another network, your phone is no longer connected to your carrier and is fully logged off from it.
  • Try to connect to your carrier’s network again.

Make sure that you have the correct AT&T MMS configuration setup. We know that AT&T representatives have already setup the APN on your phone but there’s still a chance that they may have missed something. Kindly revisit the phone’s APN settings and see if they correspond with the table below.

Name: NXTGENPHONE

APN: NXTGENPHONE

Proxy: Not set        Proxy

Port: Not set        Port

Username: Not set

Password: Not set

Server:        Not set

MMSC: https://mmsc.mobile.att.net

MMS proxy: proxy.mobile.att.net

MMS port: 80

MCC: 310

MNC: 410

Authentication Type: None

APN type: default, mms, supl, hipri

APN protocol: IPv4

Bearer: Unspecified

Check if you have a compatible SIM card. Older SIM cards or those from other carriers may not automatically allow sending or receiving of MMS on AT&T network. If you purchased a new SIM card from AT&T when you brought your phone to them, you can skip this step.

To check if your current SIM card is compatible, please visit AT&T website.

Ask AT&T if your existing data plan is compatible. If you recycled an old SIM card and put it on your new S6, the current data plan may not allow MMS. AT&T needs to update the current device information on your account to let it to send and receive MMS. If you aren’t sure about this step, make sure that you contact AT&T.

Problem #2: Streaming apps (SoundCloud and Google Play Music) on Galaxy S6 not working properly after Marshmallow update | Galaxy S6 cannot send text message after updating to Marshmallow

  1. Data has been choppy, when using any streaming service like SoundCloud or Google Play Music, the song stops and buffers, but when you open the app and stop and start the song, it fixes immediately. I began to see this problem immediately after installing the Marshmallow update. The song keeps stopping within 30 seconds every time, but if the phone is open on the app, it streams normally. It stops when the phone is locked.
  2. Can’t send text messages, this wasn’t a problem until 5 days after I installed the update. Happened suddenly, sent texts the same morning, tried restarting and powering on and off, text messages are received, but cannot send. Tried using your previous guide of deleting network cache, and app cache, didn’t work. — Vineet

Solution: Hi Vineet. The new Marshmallow update, like its predecessor appears to be causing minor app issues at this time. This can be due to a number of reasons and unfortunately, there’s just no way to pinpoint exactly what might be wrong on a certain situation. A good way to start though, especially if there are multiple issues, is to perform a factory reset. If deleting the cache partition or app cache won’t make any difference, resorting to factory reset might prove effective. This is because many post-update issues are caused by firmware glitches.

Perform a factory reset

Major updates that involve replacing one version with another, like the transition from Lollipop to Marshmallow, are usually messy as old system files are not usually replaced correctly, permissions not set properly, among other things. Ensuring that your phone runs a clean firmware after a major update can be done by doing a factory reset.

Update apps

Factory reset can only do so much. Many users think that updating to another Android operating system automatically updates all their apps. The complete opposite is true. You need to ensure that your apps are up-to-date as well to minimize issues. We know that you’re dealing with official apps from reputed developers here but keep in mind that software issues may not necessarily be caused by a firmware. An app optimized to work with Lollipop may not work properly with Marshmallow, for example. In an ideal world, app developers are supposed to ensure that their products will work with the new operating system but we know that this does not always happen. Outdated apps can sometimes lead to conflicts. Make sure to contact the developers to see if their product is ready for Marshmallow.

Fixing cannot send SMS issue

If a handset appears to have difficulty sending a text message, when it was able to do so before, that’s probably because there’s a problem on the receiving end. Try sending a text to your own number to see if it goes through. If it’s successful, that means that either your friend is having trouble with his/her phone or carrier, or that your own carrier is unable to transmit your text message to another network.

If you are unable to send a text message to your own number though, make sure that you check that the device’s message center number is correct. If the message center number is not configured properly, your device will be unable to send SMS. To check, just follow the steps below:

  • Tap Messages.
  • Tap MORE.
  • Tap Settings.
  • Tap More settings.
  • Tap Text messages.
  • Tap Message Center and enter the correct number (make sure you call your carrier for the correct one).
  • Tap Set.

If changing the message center number won’t work, call your wireless carrier to ask for direct assistance.

Problem #3: Galaxy S6 stuck on loading screen during an update

Dear The DroidGuy. I’ve read a lot on your website about troubleshooting the S6 boot issues and tried them to fix my phone.

My current issue is that, I got the official update through the phone settings and downloaded the new OS. While it was installing (plugged into the charger) it rebooted to the Galaxy S6 Edge screen and got stuck there. Power button won’t do anything, and the phone is permanently stuck on that screen.

Pressing power and volume down do reset the phone but it goes back to the same screen. The only mode I could access is the install mode. I want to keep my data but not sure how or if it’s even possible at this stage.

Please guide me to a solution, appreciate your great work. Regards. — Faisal

Solution: Hi Faisal. Over-the-air (OTA) updates resulting to a situation like yours are few and far between but if they do happen, there’s no effective way to boot back the device to normal mode than by installing a new ROM manually. This means that you need to boot your S6 to Odin mode and install a new ROM (stock or custom) yourself. You can use Google to search for detailed instructions how to do it.

Alternatively, you can call Samsung to help you flash the new firmware on your S6.

Problem #4: How to improve battery life on Galaxy S6 Edge Plus

I bought my Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge Plus about a month and a half ago from a carrier called Tigo. I have used the phone quite a bit and I almost never let it run out of charge, though most of the time it does go quite low: 5%, 7% even two percent.

However, recently my phone has not been able to stand those percents, immediately shutting off or draining the battery down to the point where I run to find a charger as fast as possible. I know this may not seem that much of an issue, but I’m afraid that percentage will rise and soon enough it won’t stand 12%, or even 20%.

Is there anything at all I can do about this? Should I talk to my carrier to have the battery replaced or…something? Do help me, please. — Daniel

Solution: Hi Daniel. The rate of battery drain on your phone depends on a number of factors including the how many apps are running actively and/or in the background, the status of the battery itself (if it’s still working properly or not), screen brightness, etc. The exact reason varies in every case so figuring it out is yours to do alone. We can only give tips that usually work for most Android users. Below are the things that you can try:

Check what apps are sucking your battery dry. The number of apps and services running simultaneously is one of the common reasons for losing that precious battery life fast. Go under Settings>Battery to see a breakdown of the apps and services eating up battery power. From there, it’s up to you how you’re going to create a strategy to minimize the bleeding. For example, if Facebook app stands out as among the top power consumer in your device together with Screen, you may want to lower the screen brightness to the lowest comfortable level while browsing over Facebook most of the time.

If you want to force an app or apps to go on hibernation mode without fully disabling or uninstalling them, consider using third party apps like Greenify. Doing so helps your phone free up resources and improve battery life without removing anything you might need in the future.

Turn off automatic sync for social networking apps. Another reason for your issue may be an unusually high number of apps that update themselves in the background. Online games, social networking apps, shopping apps, and email apps are among the most notorious reasons for fast battery drain issue across many types of smartphones. If you can’t live without mobile data or Wi-Fi on your handset most of the time, make sure that the sync settings of your apps that require to update their contents regularly are set to off or manual.

Consider dimming the screen. As mentioned above, screen brightness can quickly drain any smartphone’s battery. Samsung’s AMOLED screen is beautiful to behold but is power hungry. If you’re used to using the phone’s screen in full brightness, we say that you sacrifice a little comfort if only to save battery power.

Turn off unnecessary services. The Galaxy S6 is equipped with many services that makes our digital world a bit more comfortable at a cost of battery life. Make sure that you customize options and features that will help conserve battery power. Among the things that you can try are the following:

  • Discontinue use of Live wallpapers.
  • Turn off the Bluetooth® feature.
  • Turn off Wi-Fi®.
  • Turn off the GPS service.
  • Turn off the Smart features.
  • Decrease the backlight time (timeout settings).
  • Decrease the brightness of the display, or use Automatic brightness.
  • Turn off haptic feedback.

If the “percentage” continues to rise after doing our battery life improvement tips, there may be some hardware error behind the trouble. If your phone is still covered by a warranty, kindly call Samsung for repair or replacement.

Problem #5: Galaxy S6 display won’t turn back on after charging port was replaced

Hi. Ok this is my phone story. It’s been like a couple months that when I charge my phone on the power, I sometimes need to Giggle the cable at the charger port on my phone. Sometimes I wouldn’t need to, but with time, it became frequent till the day I’d ALWAYS need to do that.

Then it came to the point that my phone couldn’t charge again. i tried different cable, for sure the problem came from my phone. There was nothing wrong at all anywhere else then the charging thing, screen worked fine etc.

I took it to a phone repair place to fix it, they tried to change the port, and battery, since then screen wouldn’t work anymore!!! We picked it up without it being fixed unfortunately and when I plugged it on power, it would charge just fine, no need to giggle the cable in the entry port, now it’s just the screen. I see the red light showing its charging, when i try to turn on the phone, i can tell it does respond cause of the vibrator BUT no display at all.

Thanks for your help. — Hinata

Solution: Hi Hinata. If the screen issue happened after the repair session, your best option is to bring the phone back to the repair shop to have it fixed. Unless you want to replace the screen yourself, there’s just nothing that we can tell you that will fix it. No software troubleshooting can repair a broken display.

Problem #6: Galaxy S6 Home button stopped working, notification bar not showing, unable to install or uninstall apps after Android update

Hello. I have a Galaxy S6. I was prompted to update my system. Once the update was complete a lot of things stopped working. I no longer have access to the notification bar, the home button stopped functioning, the background went completely black, I cannot install or uninstall apps, and am also receiving the error messages “System UI has stopped working” and “Package Access Helper” has stopped working.

I also have a cracked screen and applied for the insurance replacement, which I received, but I have to return the old one. This wouldn’t be an issue, however I need to get the data off of the old phone that I have had for 2 years.

I don’t have a lot of tech experience, but I am really good at following instruction, as long as it is detailed. I know that it might be a little more work for you all to help me, but I  would be eternity grateful. I have read a lot of articles trying to find and solution and I think I found one. I think that if I could install the app Helium that I could backup my app data and transfer to my new phone. One: Would this work? Two: How do I get the app to install with the system UI & package access helper error? Can you guys please help? Thank you. — Lisa

Solution: Hi Lisa. We’re sorry to hear about this issue but if your device no longer allows app installation at this time, your only choices to get it back to working order is by doing either a master reset or by flashing a stock or custom ROM. Both of these procedures involve wiping the internal phone storage.

If you have a computer, try to connect your device to it via USB and see if it detects it. If you’re lucky, you may still be able to move your phone data to your computer before doing a factory reset or ROM installation.

 

 

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. 

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.