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Galaxy S7 can’t be factory reset due to Factory Reset Protection (FRP), other issues

We bring you yet another article that talks about #GalaxyS7 issues and solutions. We hope that some of you will find this post helpful in fixing your own problems.

These are the specific topics discussed in this material:

Galaxy S7 messaging app won’t sound notification when receiving SMS from particular number
Galaxy S7 Edge corrupts SD card
Galaxy S7 Gmail app reply button not working properly
Galaxy S7 can’t be factory reset due to Factory Reset Protection (FRP)
Galaxy S7 not reading SD card
Storage space in Galaxy S7 not showing true figure

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 messaging app won’t sound notification when receiving SMS from particular number

I’ve had my phone for a few months now. I never had this problem before but whenever my husband, and only my husband’s number texts me. I get the message through the messaging app itself. But it doesn’t make a notification at the top of the screen like it used to or come across a game I’m playing or even make the notification sound. Whenever someone else, anyone else texts me, I don’t have this problem. So I can get up to 10 messages on my phone from my husband sometimes because I have to go in manually to see it. This is very unfair to have this problem with one lonely number that I’ve had in my contacts for years. This has caused quite a few arguments and needs to be fixed. Please help. Thanks. — Nicole

Solution: Hi Nicole. The first thing you want to try is wipe the cache partition. Minor firmware and hardware glitches can be fixed by deleting the system cache. In fact, we technicians always recommend doing it before performing any of the reset procedures.

The cache partition is a repository of system files used by the operating system during app load times. Rather than come up with sets of files to hasten loading times, your Android device “caches” previously created system files in the cache partition so it can access them easily the next time an app is loaded. In an ideal world, files in the cache partition should be refreshed automatically during an app or system update. This doesn’t happen most of the time though. Sometimes, manually wiping the cache partition is necessary in order to refresh it. Because the files themselves are temporary, they can be deleted safely without impacting the operating system or the apps. The system will automatically create a new set of cache files that next time you load your apps.

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

If refreshing the system cache won’t do anything, you must wipe the messaging app’s cache and data next. This will force the phone to virtually “re-install” the said app, resetting all notification settings back to default. Here’s how it’s done:

Go to Settings.
Proceed to Applications.
Select Manage Applications.
Tap the All tab.
Look for the messaging app and tap it.
Tap Storage.
From there, you will see the Clear Cache and Clear Data buttons.

Problem #2: Galaxy S7 Edge corrupts SD card

Recently, my Galaxy S7 Edge has been presenting itself with a large variety of problems. It began when my microSD became corrupted. I was receiving a ‘storage not found’ notification from Spotify, and most of the pictures in my Gallery which were on my SD card had appeared broken. Resetting it did nothing. Furthermore, my keyboard sometimes become unresponsive, and ‘TouchWiz Home’ kept crashing so I couldn’t go back to the home menu. Unsure if it was a problem with my device, I shoved the card into my PC, and attempted to repair it. It told me that it was irreparable because it was corrupted, so I thought it was a problem with the card. I replaced the card and the problem seemed to disappear. 3 days later, my photos still sometimes appear corrupt. Music playback sometimes stops abruptly, and then my phone becomes completely unresponsive, not even allowing me to do a force reset. It’s becoming a rather troublesome problem. What should I do about this? — Jayjaystownjo

Solution: Hi Jayjaystownjo. Try wiping the cache partition and observe the phone for a few days. If that won’t correct the erratic behavior of your phone, don’t hesitate to start fresh by wiping the phone clean via factory reset. Here’s how:

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.

Once you’ve factory reset the phone, make sure that you also reformat the SD card. It is important that you reformat it using your phone and not any other device.

Problem #3: Galaxy S7 Gmail app reply button not working properly

Hello. My Galaxy S7 is fine except for a little quirk in the GMAIL application. When I need to REPLY to an email I have just read and I click on the small arrow pointing (curving) to the left which is the symbol for making a REPLY, the cursor automatically goes to the END OF MY SIGNATURE BLOCK INSTEAD OF THE AREA JUST BELOW THE EMAIL I AM TRYING TO REPLY TO. Each time I have to redirect the cursor to the proper location before typing a reply. This did not happen when I was using a DROID MINI but in all other respects this Galaxy S7 is a great little smartphone. Thank you for your kind attention. — Will

Solution: Hi Will. We haven’t observed this behavior in any of our devices when replying via Gmail app so it must be isolated to your device. In order to fix it, the first thing that you want to try is reconfigure your Gmail account on the app. This means you need to remove your Gmail account from the said app before setting it up again. If that won’t solve the issue, the next step is to wipe the cache and data of the said app (steps provided above).

There’s a chance that the issue may be due to a bad Android update or operating system so if the two procedures won’t work, don’t hesitate to do a factory reset.

Problem #4: Galaxy S7 can’t be factory reset due to Factory Reset Protection (FRP)

My mother was recently diagnosed with early onset dementia. She now has trouble remembering her password and is locked out of her Gmail account. Her phone is requiring her Gmail account password (not sure why because she doesn’t have a passcode on her phone) to operate the phone. I have tried a factory reset and it still requires the Gmail password. Can I bypass this so I can delete the Gmail app from her phone? All I want on her phone is the ability to text & call. I don’t know which Android version she has since the phone is locked. — Lyndeweston

Solution: Hi Lyndeweston. Starting with Android Lollipop, Samsung had integrated an additional security measure on their devices so no one can perform a factory reset unless the Google account is either removed first, or its correct password entered. This security measure is called Factory Reset Protection (FRP). Basically, it strengthens the phone’s defenses again theft and unauthorized changes by blocking any attempt to factory reset the device without first doing any of the two conditions above. If the phone prompts you to enter your mom’s Gmail password during a factory reset, then FRP must be protecting it. You must exert all efforts to enter the correct password if you want to unlock the phone. FRP doesn’t not discriminate whether you are the device owner or not, or if you have simply forgotten your Google account password. If you can’t provide the correct credentials, there’s no hope that you can still perform a factory reset.

There was a simple hack previously published RootJunky in YouTube before that showed FRP can be bypassed but we don’t know if it’s working at this time. Since you cannot expect help from Samsung or Google on this issue, we suggest that you try the said hack. Keep in mind that hacks like this may already be patched by Samsung at this time so if it will not work, you’re out of luck. Please visit this page for instructions.

Problem #5: Galaxy S7 not reading SD card

Hi. My Galaxy S7 has been acting up lately. At first, it was just restarting at random times and I wasn’t too bothered by it. Then I noticed the phone started to get slower. Finally, while I was listening to music with earbuds and trying to load my gallery, my music suddenly stopped playing and the gallery albums were all gray. Somehow, my SD card wasn’t mounted although it was still in the phone and I hadn’t touched it. All my music was stored there and so were most of my pictures. My phone shuts off randomly or goes all dark except for the taskbar sometimes and sometimes the apps take forever to load, or won’t load at all until I close it and restart the phone.

I already tried taking SD card out and positioning them in again, but my phone never detects the SD card unless I try to put it in while my phone is on. Even then, it gets stuck on “Preparing SD card; checking for errors,” then proceeds to automatically go pitch black as if it turned off. What really bothers me is the fact that I can’t mount my SD card though, and I don’t want to erase anything in there. Can you help me or tell me what’s going on with my phone? My phone is updated to date and it was working fine until about 8:30 this morning, by the way. — Helen

Solution: Hi Helen. First of all, you want to ensure that the problem is not due to a bad SD card. To check, turn off the phone and remove the SD card. Then insert the card to another device or to a computer so you can see if a second device can still read it. If a computer or another phone won’t be able to access the contents on the card, that’s a clear indication that the SD card has been corrupted for some reason. You have no other options in this matter but to simply reformat it, which of course means deleting everything off it.

However, if the SD card can still be accessed by a computer or another device, try to create a backup of your contents then factory reset your Galaxy S7.

Problem #6: Storage space in Galaxy S7 not showing true figure

Hi! I’ve had my phone for a while, and consequently have installed and uninstalled plenty of apps, as well as downloaded plenty of pictures which I then backed up either to the cloud or my SD card and then deleted. My phone says its 16G of storage is full, and that ‘used space’ is what is taking most of it up. However, when I go to where ‘used space is broken down’ it doesn’t add up to the 10GB but my phone THINKS it is! I’ve taken pains to clear my caches and hidden files, delete any music or photos, old text messages, superfluous apps–everything. I’d attach screenshots to an email, but I can’t! On the ‘storage’ screen, it says 10.3GB are being taken up in ‘used space’. But when I tap on ‘used space’ for the break down, it tells me I’m 5.29GB on apps, and less than 1 GB on other things (pictures, videos, audio, and downloads). That doesn’t add up! What’s wrong? Thanks for your help! — Emma

Solution: Hi Emma. The “total” amount of used space under Storage does not always show the correct figure. The same can be said of the breakdown. We’ve been trying to get an official explanation from Samsung about this discrepancy ever since we noticed it on the Galaxy S3 years before but so far nothing. We think it’s because the breakdown does not take into account the true figure taken up by some apps or services. Whatever the true explanation is, it’s just pointless not to accept whatever the phone is telling you. For now, we suggest that you simply take whatever figure the phone is showing under Storage.

To free up more space, make sure to delete apps that you haven’t used for sometime. Games can sometimes install large updates so make sure that you get rid of them if you no longer use them. The same is true for other apps so we strongly suggest that you go over your list of apps (that are kept in the phone’s internal storage device and NOT in an SD card) and uninstall whatever is not necessary.

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.

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5 Best Email Apps for Android Smartphones

Hate them or love them, emails are one of the most used forms of communication, with over 205 billion emails sent every single day. Of course, most of them end up in the spam folder, but someone has to read those that don’t. That someone is you. And if you’re like us, you do most of your email reading and writing on your Android smartphone. The good news is that your device most likely already comes with an excellent email app pre-installed—Gmail from Google—and that alternatives are plentiful. In this article, we are going to cover top 5 best email apps for Android smartphones, including Gmail, to see what are their pros and cons.

Boxer

As a Webby Award Nominee for Best Mobile Productivity App 2015, Boxer is a worthy alternative to more established Android email clients. It supports Gmail, Exchange, Outlook, Yahoo, Hotmail, iCloud, Office 365, IMAP & POP3 mail accounts, integrates well with services like Dropbox and Box and Evernote, and it even comes with a built-in to-do list feature.

Using a wide variety of handy shortcuts, you can swipe to archive, trash, or block emails. And if that isn’t enough, there’s a total of 12 options for additional customization. There’s no need to type out every response—just select one from a long list of pre-configured messages and keep focused on your work.

Boxer is available in three versions: Boxer for Exchange, which adds exchange support via ActiveSync, Boxer Pro and Boxer Pro + Exchange. The Pro version comes with multiple account support, custom quick replies, and custom signature. The Pro + Exchange version than just throws in the extra Exchange support, because having four versions is apparently better than just two.

Gmail

Gmail the app started as a free, advertising-supported email service provided by Google. The service launched in 2004 as an invitation-only beta release and opened its gates to the public on February 7, 2007. For its time, Gmail offered impressive storage capacity of 1 GB per user. In comparison, Hotmail, now Outlook, offered just around 5 MB of storage space. Now, Gmail gives all of its users 15GB of free storage.

Given that Gmail has more than 1 billion users, it’s no surprise that it was the first app on the Google Play Store to hit one billion installations on Android devices. Today, it enjoys a great rating of 4.3-stars from almost 2 million users, and the popularity of the app is only growing as its features are increasing.

The thing is, the current iteration of the Gmail app for Android can do much more than just grant you the access to your Gmail account. It supports non-Gmail addresses, such as Outlook.com, Yahoo Mail, or any other IMAP/POP email services. Adding additional email accounts to the Gmail app is painless, and new emails are displayed in a single unified inbox. You can mark emails as spam, archive them, sort them into separate folders, set your own vacation responder, mute threads that you don’t want to follow, and do a lot more useful things.

While it’s possible to use an Android device without a Google account, only a very small fraction of Android users do so. Chances are that you aren’t among them, and if that’s really the case, you already have a Gmail address and are ready to use the Gmail app. Unfortunately, your Gmail address likely doesn’t even remotely resemble your real name. After all, with more than 1 billion active users, most names and their various versions have been registered. That could be a bad news from the professional point-of-view, since the Gmail app works best when paired with a Gmail account. Other than that, Gmail is the go-to email client for Android smartphone and tablets, and it will probably remain so for a long time.

K-9 Mail

Many die-hard Android fans who are using the mobile operating system since its infancy are fond of the K-9 Mail app, as it’s one of the original alternative email clients on Android. The app is also popular among the open-source crowd, not least because it’s a completely community developed project. Everyone can chime in and contribute in a variety of ways. This communal effort has given us a great open-source e-mail client with search, IMAP email support, Exchange 2003/2007 (with WebDAV) support, multi-folder sync, flagging, filing, signatures, bcc-self, PGP, mail on SD, and other useful features.

The PGP support is probably the most interesting feature, considering the current climate surrounding personal privacy and security in the digital era. As described by security-in-a-box, a project of Tactical Technology Collective and Front Line Defenders, K-9 Mail integrates seamlessly with Android Privacy Guard, which is a free and open source application that lets you encrypt, decrypt and sign files, messages or emails using Public Key Encryption (like OpenPGP) or encrypt/decrypt files or messages with symmetric encryption, securing them with a password.

With your OpenPGP keys imported into APG, all you have to do to enable the email encryption is to tick the “encrypt” checkbox located under the recipient field. This is a must-have feature for journalists, people living in countries ruled by oppressive governments, and all those who are not fond of the idea of the government snooping on emails.

The downside is that K-9 Mail, like so many other open-source apps, lacks the fine degree of polish and cohesiveness that the modern user is now used to. But get over the initial hump and you’ll be rewarded with a full-featured Android email client that knows how to keep your personal communication private.

Microsoft Outlook

Microsoft Outlook traces its origin to an email service by Sabeer Bhatia and Jack Smith, who named it HoTMaiL. It was acquired by Microsoft in 1997 for an estimated $400 million and promptly renamed to Windows Live Hotmail, only to be replaced by Outlook.com in 2013. Outlook represents Microsoft’s answer to Gmail and the entire paradigm of sleek, web-based applications accompanied by equally capable mobile apps.

The Outlook app for Android supports Microsoft Exchange, Office 365, Outlook.com, Gmail, Yahoo Mail, and even old Hotmail accounts. Its key selling point is called Focused inbox. The purpose of this feature is to keep the important messages near the top of the screen to ensure that you won’t miss them.

Microsoft has made it very easy to access calendars and files right from the inbox, making on-the-go productivity more enjoyable. What’s more, Microsoft’s suite of apps is a very compelling alternative to products from Google, especially for people who are using Microsoft Windows and playing on Microsoft Xbox.

WeMail

The odd thing about most email clients is that these clients don’t correspond to the way we communicate with one another. When we communicate with our friends or online stores or business associates, we organize our conversations around topics and people. However, most email clients display emails as individual thoughts.

WeMail organizes email into a chat-like experience, promising to reduce your inbox size by more than 50 percent. This means that you no longer have to scroll down several pages just to find a response from yesterday only because you’ve also exchanged several dozen emails with two other people.

On top of that, WeMail features one of the fastest and most advanced email search functionalities, allowing you to instantly find what you are looking for. All your documents and photos can be accessed with a single tap and you don’t even have to type to compose an email—you can just dictate it to the app and WeMail will automatically convert it for you.

Solutions to delays in sending Galaxy S7 SMS or text messages, other issues

Looking for #GalaxyS7 solutions? This post may help you. Below are some of the issues we’ve receive from our Galaxy S7 users for the past several days. We hope that the solutions we provide here can help our Android community.

Galaxy S7 default Messages app randomly converts texts into MMS
How to lock the Galaxy S7 screen everytime the device is locked? | Gmail and Hotmail emails all go to one inbox in Galaxy S7
How to unmute a previously blocked contact in Galaxy S7
Solutions to delays in sending Galaxy S7 SMS or text messages

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

Problem #1: Galaxy S7 default Messages app randomly converts texts into MMS

Ref: Default Messages app

At random times, my text messages are turned into MMS messages with a picture attachment. The instances of this is random. The pictures are random from my album. It doesn’t matter if I am sending to a group or an individual. However, the receiver doesn’t seem to receive the picture, just the text message, so far as I can tell. When it first happened, I was also receiving random pictures from 2 individuals in my group message where it was first noticed but the pictures were from my previously received messages from them to me and/or picture I have sent to them. One person has the iphone SE and the other has Samsung S7, same exact phone as mine.

I have cleared cache from Messages and any other messaging app I have installed and also wiped cache partition. It acted normally for couple of days but resumed random picture attachment…

Yesterday, my phone was not responsive/slow to respond from AOD screen and resumed normal operations when I wiped the cache partition couple of times. I haven’t performed a factory reset yet. I have tried to search forums for someone else maybe having the same problem, but I couldn’t find any…Please help! — MJ

Solution: Hi MJ. This is our first time to hear such a problem ourselves so it may be an isolated case. It’s good to hear that you’ve initiated wiping the cache partition as that appears to fix the issue temporarily. This means that either there’s a firmware glitch that develop after some time, leading to the issue, or that a third party app is causing a conflict with the operating system.

The first thing that we’d want you to do in this case is to boot your phone in safe mode for as long as necessary so you can observe the phone. While in safe mode, no third party apps will run so if the issue won’t occur, that suggests that you’ve installed a problematic app along the way. To restart your S7 in safe mode, follow these steps:

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

Try to leave the phone in safe mode state for at least a day so you have enough time to replicate the problem.

Another good thing to do is to uninstall third party apps you’re not using. Not only do they clutter your device’s memory but one of them is probably the reason for the issue.

If nothing appears to change while in safe mode and after uninstalling apps, consider doing a factory reset as the last resort. Doing so will address a potential problem that may be caused by a bad firmware. Restoring all software settings to default usually fixes a lot of ills.

Problem #2: How to lock the Galaxy S7 screen everytime the device is locked? | Gmail and Hotmail emails all go to one inbox in Galaxy S7

Screen lock password. Is there any way i can change this option to ask for my password everytime i lock my phone? Currently, right now, my phone will only ask for my password if i lock my phone for over 1 minute. But if i lock my phone for only 20-30sec and need to use it again, it doesn’t ask for my password and you can just access my phone right away. is there any way i can change this for more security reason? i want my phone to ask for my password everytime i lock the phone whether if its only for 20 sec or for over 1 minute.

How do i separate my Gmail emails from my Hotmail emails? Currently on my phone, i have set up both my gmail and hotmail account on here but my gmail account email always show the emails from my Hotmail account. how do i stop this? i want the Gmail account to only show emails from that account and the hotmail to only show emails from the hotmail account. i would get a notification for my gmail account that i have 4 new mails, when i click on it, it’s message from my hotmail account instead. how do i stop this? Thanks. — Kevin

Solution: Hi Kevin. We’ve decide to fuse your two issues into one in this post so we can address them together.

The answer to your first question is yes, there’s a way to do what you want. In order to force the phone to ask for your screen password right after locking the screen, go under Settings>Lock screen and security>Secure lock settings. Once you’re in this section, be sure to select “Immediately”. Alternatively, you can also enable the “Lock instantly with power key” option under Secure Lock options section to manually lock the screen using the power button.

Are you using the default email app? If no, then we try to look for options under settings of that email client to un-combine your email inboxes. The options may vary from client to client so try to find to find a way to do that.

If you’re using the stock or default email app, you’ll notice that each account is usually separated from another, though there’s still a “Combined inbox” that stores all incoming emails from multiple accounts like the ones in the image below

. We don’t think you’re using the default email app though so kindly provide us more information about the issue so we can assist you further. We need to know what exact email client/app you’re using.

As a workaround, you can also use separate app for each email account as Gmail and Hotmail have their own independent app.

Problem #3: How to unmute a previously blocked contact in Galaxy S7

In the stock text messaging app, I blocked a specific contact. The next day, I unblocked them. While their messages do go to my inbox, I don’t receive any notifications for their texts. No sound, no icon in the top of the screen or the drop down menu. All other texts from others come through fine. I’ve checked. The contact isn’t blocked. The contact is set to have sound for all calls and texts. In the messaging app there is a “mute” symbol next to their name on the message screen.

I receive phone calls from this contact normally. I’m at a loss. I’ve tried blocking, restart, unblocking, restart. I’ve tried soft reset. Nothing has worked. — Dorothy

Solution: Hi Dorothy. There’s a simple solution to this problem. Simply follow the steps below:

Open the Messages app.
Tap on the conversation thread of the muted contact.
Tap on the phone number on the top left.
Tap enable notifications.

Problem #4: Solutions to delays in sending Galaxy S7 SMS or text messages

I have the Galaxy S7. The phone itself is maybe a few months old. I had to buy a new one because the other one lagged any time that I used it. So the phone is new. I just recently, like within the past week, noticed that I am not receiving SOME texts and sometimes people don’t ever receive the texts I send them. I’ll be texting someone and then they will send a text asking why I didn’t respond or answer their question and I’ll have no clue what they’re talking about. And I’ll be waiting hours for a reply from someone when it turns out they never got my text even though my side says that it sent. OR they will receive it hours later. For example, I sent my mother a text at 9pm one night and asked her what she was doing in the morning, and she didn’t receive it until early morning. It didn’t happen SO much at first, but now it’s happening very frequently. I’ve even tried to clear up storage space in general and delete old texts.. To sum this all up, I’m not receiving random texts and mine are not showing up on others phones sometimes, either. Thank you in advance. — Pamela

Solution: Hi Pamela. Text messaging issues like what you’re experiencing are mostly due to a transmission error on the side of your carrier but we still recommend that you try to troubleshoot your phone first to eliminate possible issues with it.

Wipe the cache partition

The first thing that you want is to ensure that the phone’s system cache is refreshed. Simply follow the steps below on how to clear the cache partition:

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.

Wiping the cache partition forces the phone to delete the system cache and replace it with a new one over the course of time as you use the device. Sometimes, a corrupted or outdated cache can lead to app problems so it’s always good practice to keep it clean and fresh. You will have to observe the phone again for some time to see if wiping the cache partition has any positive effect.

Uninstall apps or boot the phone in safe mode

If the issue remains, the next thing you want to do is uninstall apps you’re not using. While this may not really be an accurate fix, it minimizes the chance of apps causing conflicts with the operating system which may be causing the messaging app to act up. If you don’t want to uninstall apps, simply boot your phone in safe mode for several days to observe how SMS works.

Restore settings to default via factory reset

As a final troubleshooting step that you can do on your end, consider wiping the phone by doing a factory reset. This will ensure that firmware bugs that may have developed overtime is addressed. Keep in mind that if the issue caused by an app, the problem may occur again after a factory reset. We recommend that you observe the phone for at least a day after a factory reset without installing anything. The messages app is pre-installed so you should be able to continue sending and receiving text messages even without the rest of your third party apps. Here are the steps on how to perform a factory reset:

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.

Important: Performing a factory reset will erase everything on the phone’s internal storage device. Make sure that you create a copy of your personal data like photos, videos, contacts, etc., before you do it.

Contact your wireless carrier

If SMS continues to be erratic after a factory reset and without any apps, that’s an indicator that the problem is network related. Although we’ve become accustomed to thinking that SMS technology is reliable, it’s always not the case. The operators or carriers still operate SMS in best-effort support only, meaning they don’t guarantee that all text messages are transmitted properly every time. There may be some outages in your area that you’re not aware of, or the network may have some server problems affecting SMS service. Contacting your wireless carrier is a logical final step towards resolution in this case.

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How to fix app problems on Galaxy Note 5

As long as smartphones uses apps, problems will always haunt us. Our post today demonstrates some of the annoying app issues on the new #Samsung #GalaxyNote5 devices. If you have your own share of app problems, this post may help you fix it.

These are the topics discussed in this post:

“Action Required” message keeps popping up after Gmail account was deleted off Galaxy Note 5
Galaxy Note 5 can no longer be accessed due to forgotten Google account credentials
LG Urbane watch won’t connect via Bluetooth to Galaxy Note 5
Wi-Fi connection very slow on Galaxy Note 5 when loading Snapchat, Instagram, Gmail
Unable to update Snapchat on Galaxy Note 5
Snapchat video taken by Galaxy Note 5 not working when sent to friends
Facebook and Instagram apps not loading in 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 that page.

Problem #1: “Action Required” message keeps popping up after Gmail account was deleted off Galaxy Note 5

Issue: I made a new Gmail account a few months ago and decided to delete it. Since it’s Gmail, it had a chance to tether itself to Google+ and all other google bs.

Resulted problem:

Ever since I’ve deleted this account I’ve been getting an “Action Required” message in my notification bar at the top of my screen.

Swiping this away is a temporary fix for maybe an hour. I’ve also attempted solving this by tapping the error message and erasing it again.

It’s a battery draining, irritable mess. And I’m losing sanity. Please help me get rid of this error message! Thank you so much. — Evelyn

Solution: Hi Evelyn. Android operating system is deeply tied to Google services so there’s a chance that some of the phone apps are still trying to establish a connection to Google servers in some way even after deleting associated Gmail account.

If you cannot identify the particular Google service or app that triggers error, consider doing a factory reset. 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 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 can no longer be accessed due to forgotten Google account credentials

I had the fingerprint security on my phone and I tried to open it while I was sitting at a football game on Saturday. My hand was cold, so it didn’t read my fingerprint. Then, of course, it goes to a password request. I didn’t remember my password, so, after too many attempts, the phone shut down, but not until after it did a factory reset. It is asking for my Google account and password that was set up on the phone initially. The people at the Verizon store set everything up for me when they synced my contacts, pictures, etc. I didn’t set up a Google account on this phone. I currently have a phone that I can’t even get to a screen that I can do anything with. I have been to the GoWireless store and they said it is a Google issue, and that there is nothing they can do. What am I supposed to do with this useless device? — Rosemary

Solution: Hi Rosemary. Samsung’s built-in security feature on their phones can only offer a few options to ensure that a device does not fall into the wrong hands. Once you have attempted to unlock a Samsung phone like your Note 5 unsuccessfully for a number of times, another layer of protection kicks in to verify that it’s the owner that’s trying to access the phone. In your case, this was the prompt to enter the correct credentials for the associated Google account, which you don’t have. Regrettably, after a few unsuccessful attempts in this level, the phone will lock itself down for good so there’s really nothing much that you can do on your end right now.

Apparently, Samsung and Google does not have an alternative for a situation wherein the owner cannot remember his or her Google account credentials. The two-level protection in your phone assumes that somehow, you have a record of your Google account ready when this scenario occurs.

The best thing to do is to bring the phone to a Samsung store and let their technicians unlock the phone for you. You may have to present some papers to show that you are the owner of the device so keep them handy.

To prevent this from happening in the future, make sure to keep a copy of your credentials somewhere safe.

Problem #3: LG Urbane watch won’t connect via Bluetooth to Galaxy Note 5

My LG Urbane worked fine with my Galaxy S5. I just moved to the Note 5 and I can’t get the watch to connect. I reset the watch to factory settings. I removed all Bluetooth parings. I restarted both devices. They seemed to pair up once, and my watch reported “loading apps”. But then it just seemed to hang and I can’t get them to pare up much less connect. Any thoughts? All software is latest version. Thanks! — Vrod

Solution: Hi Vrod. The new LG Urbane, just like any other Android device, can be affected by new operating system update and other Bluetooth-related bugs. If your Note 5 can connect to other Bluetooth devices without complications, the issue is most probably due to a firmware glitch on the watch. Because you have already tried the only recommended solution which is the master reset, the next best thing to do is to call LG for more direct product support.

Problem #4: Wi-Fi connection very slow on Galaxy Note 5 when loading Snapchat, Instagram, Gmail

When I’m connected to my Netgear modem/router, I don’t receive any notifications from Snapchat/Instagram/Gmail. And both Snapchat and Instagram either fail to load or load painfully slowly despite being connected to my high speed WiFi.

When I’m on my LTE network or on my WiFi at work, it all loads so fast. I just want to be able to use my Wi-Fi at home without it being a nuisance. — Isai

Solution: Hi Isai. Kindly delete the phone’s system cache to resolve the issue. 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.

Problem #5: Unable to update Snapchat on Galaxy Note 5

Hello I recently tried to upgrade my Snapchat & it wouldn’t let me so I shut my phone off to see if that was the problem but it wasn’t so I deleted the Snapchat app off my phone & tried re downloading it. And no, it won’t let me download the Snapchat app it keeps telling me to sign in to my Google account which I already am. Please help me out I feel lost without Snapchat. — Jordan

Solution: Hi Jordan. If you associate Snapchat with your Google account before, make sure that the same Google account is logged in on the Play Store app during the update.

Snapchat just recently released a new update to fix minor bugs so try updating again to see if that makes any difference. If nothing works though, visit their website and contact their technical support team.

Problem #6: Snapchat video taken by Galaxy Note 5 not working when sent to friends

Hello:) So my here is my problem. When i record a video on SnapChat, it will work perfectly, there’s no problem with the recording itself and also not with taking a look at the videos again. But whenever i then send it to my friends and they open it, they’re only able to see a green screen. There’s no problem with the sound but with the picture somehow.

By the way, there’s also no problem with taking and sending photos to others. It’s just the videos which wont work. I’m dealing with this problem for surely a months now and i tried alot, i deleted my snapchat version and downloaded an older one, i deinstalled the app and downloaded it again and i’m just out of ideas now. My friend told me to maybe reset my phone, but i would have a problem with losing all of my data WITHOUT knowing if it will surely get my snapchat problem solved.

Is there anything i can do about it or do i just have to live with it? And would resetting my phone maybe be a solution? Thanks 🙂 — Van

Solution: Hi Van. If reinstalling the app did not fix the issue, there must be a firmware problem causing this trouble. Unfortunately, there is no 100% fix for this problem. You have to do trial and error solutions in order to know. That means you really have to do a factory reset first so you will know if that will fix it.

As mentioned above, try contacting Snapchat support if nothing changes.

Problem #7: Facebook and Instagram apps not loading in Galaxy Note 5

Instagram and Facebook (Messenger also) will not connect to login server. Twitter, Snapchat, and Tumblr have no problem connecting to Wi-Fi and Data to login and operate.

I have tried to do this on and off of Wi-Fi and the same comes up for Instagram: “error: an unknown error occurred” and for Facebook: “Login failed Sorry, unable to login to Facebook. Please check your network connection or try again later. (SSLException: SSL handshake returned and invalid session. Socket state (closed, connected, bound, input_open, output_open, b-graph. facebook.com,/31.13.70.6) Stack Trace ()). — Katie

Solution: Hi Katie. The first thing you need to do is delete the cache and data of the apps involved. To do that, just follow these steps:

Go to Settings.
Proceed to Applications.
Select Manage Applications or Applications Manager.
Tap the All tab.
Choose the name of the app.
From there, you will see the Clear Cache and Clear Data buttons. Tap them.

If wiping an app’s cache and data won’t work, you can also delete the cache partition (steps provided above).

If the issue remains, uninstall the said apps and install them again.

Finally, proceed to factory reset if nothing works.

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How to fix Gmail that keeps crashing on Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus (easy steps)

Third-party applications–ones you download from the Play Store and install on your phone–have higher tendencies to crash than pre-installed apps. But it seems like some owners of the Samsung Galaxy S8 Plus are currently bugged by a problem involving Gmail that reportedly keeps on crashing for some reason. Gmail is one of the apps mandated by Google to come pre-installed on all Android devices so it’s actually embedded in the system and while there are circumstances wherein the problem is limited to the app, more often the issue will be on the firmware.

In this post, i will share with you the solution that we’ve been using for so very long to address issues like this. So, if you’re one of the owners of the Galaxy S8 Plus and are currently having similar problem, continue reading as this article may help you one way or another.

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

How to fix Galaxy S8 Plus with Gmail app that keeps crashing

First off, I would assume that the firmware hasn’t been modified in any way because if you installed a custom ROM, it’s possible that you haven’t installed Gapps properly. Reverting back to the stock firmware will fix this issue. But for those who haven’t rooted nor flashed a custom ROM, rest assured that you can fix this problem using the basic troubleshooting methods. With all that being said, here’s what I suggest you do about this problem…

First Solution: Reset Gmail

By reset I mean clear its cache and data. For app-related issues, this method is the most effective provided the problem is limited to the app. At this point, we really don’t know the reason why Gmail is crashing on your Galaxy S8+ so the safest way to deal with this problem is through this method:

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

After doing this, reboot your phone to refresh its memory and then when it becomes ready, open the app to know if it still crashes or shows the “Unfortunately, Gmail has stopped” error. If not, then you may log back in to your account but if the problem remains, there’s a couple more procedures you should do.

Second Solution: Wipe cache partition

When there’s a corrupt cache in your phone, it may result to a poor performance and that might be the case here. So, the next thing you should do is delete all system caches so that they will be replaced with new ones. You can do so by rebooting your phone in Recovery Mode and wiping the cache partition:

Turn off the device.
Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold 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 to highlight “wipe cache partition.”
Press the Power key to select.
Press the Volume down key to highlight “yes” and 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 the Gmail app still crashes after doing this procedure, then you must do the next solution.

Third Solution: Do the Master Reset

Gmail is embedded in the firmware. We’ve already tried resetting it to no avail. Then we tried deleting the caches thinking that’s where the problem lies but it’s the same. So, a reset is the most logical thing to do at this point. But before that, try to find out if there’s an available firmware update and then download it. If there’s none, then proceed.

First, make sure you make a backup of your important files and data especially the ones that are stored in your phone’s internal storage. Then, remove your Google account from your phone so that you won’t be locked out after the reset. Once everything is set and ready, follow these steps to reset your phone…

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

After the reset, you have to set your phone up like it’s a brand new phone. I hope that our solutions work for you. If you have other issues or concerns you want us to address, contact us or leave a comment below.

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We are always open to your problems, questions and suggestions, so feel free to contact us by filling up this form. This is a free service we offer and we won’t charge you a penny for it. But please note that we receive hundreds of emails every day and it’s impossible for us to respond to every single one of them. But rest assured we read every message we receive. For those whom we’ve helped, please spread the word by sharing our posts to your friends or by simply liking our Facebook and Google+ page or follow us on Twitter.

Galaxy S8 Plus posts you may like to read:

How To Block Someone On Gmail

Whatever your reason is why you want to block a person or a certain contact, that’s on you and you can do that with ease with Gmail. Google has improved its free email service in the last couple of years and there’s a lot of things you can actually do now including blocking contacts you don’t want to receive messages from.

In this post, I will guide you on how to easily block someone or a contact right from your Gmail inbox. The procedure is easy and straightforward so I’m certain you can follow it without any problem. So, continue reading this article as it may be able to help you one way or another.

How to block someone on Gmail easily

The following steps are the easiest way to block someone right from the inbox. Here’s how it’s done…

Open Gmail through your browser by going to mail.google.com.
Log into your account.
Once you’re in inbox, find the email from someone you want to block and open the message by clicking on it. If the message was sent a long time ago, you must use the search box to search for it.
Once the message is opened, look at the upper-right corner of the message and find the More icon. It’s the icon with 3 dots. Click on it to display the options.
When the options window pops up, find and click “Block [Name]” to block such person.

Right after doing this, all emails from the person will go straight to the Spam folder. Spams are automatically deleted without you knowing it after a period of time but you can also delete them immediately if you want to.

As far as blocking a contact or someone in Gmail is concerned, this is the easiest way to do it. If, however, you don’t want to receive emails from a certain domain name like Facebook.com or any other website, you can also use the above procedure but I suggest you do the following instead.

Go to the Inbox.
In the search field type the domain name you want to block but don’t hit Enter yet.
Instead, click on the small down arrow to the right end of the search field beside the X icon.
Once the options window appears, click on Create filter at the bottom of it beside the Search button.
You will be brought to another window so find the option Delete it and put a check mark in the box next to it.
Lastly, click Create filter.

What you did is create a filter containing the domain name you want to block but instead of sending its messages to the Spam folder like when you’re blocking a contact, the messages get deleted immediately.

Furthermore, if you want to delete multiple email addresses, you can also do such thing easily using the search box. For you to be guided accordingly, follow these steps…

Go to the Inbox of you Gmail account.
In the search field type the email addresses you want to block but instead of using comma, use this |. So, email addresses would appear like this: [email protected]|[email protected].
Don’t hit Enter after entering the email addresses, instead click on the small down arrow to the right end of the search field beside the X icon.
Once the options window appears, click on Create filter at the bottom of it beside the Search button.
You will be brought to another window so find the option Delete it and put a check mark in the box next to it.
Lastly, click Create filter.

And that’s it! All the messages that come from those email addresses can never reach your inbox.

I hope that this how-to post has helped you one way or another. Please help us spread the word by sharing this post to your friends or people who may also have similar problems. Thanks for reading!

How to fix Gmail app that keeps crashing or stops working on a Huawei Mate 10 Pro smartphone [Troubleshooting Guide]

Contemporary smartphones typically come with pre-installed email applications but many people would still prefer to use the Gmail app. Aside from the advanced features of the Gmail app, many people find it credible and more advanced than the stock apps. Most importantly, this app is developed by the Internet giant, Google Inc. Therefore it easily influenced global smartphone users. Even so, Gmail app also has its own share of flaws. And you’ll just realize that something is wrong if the Gmail app isn’t working as intended. Among the most prevalent issues with Gmail app is on random crashes and loading failures. If ever you’re facing these problems on your Huawei Mate 10 Pro and need some help in troubleshooting, then you may refer to the highlighted solutions below. Read on to find out how to fix Gmail app that keeps crashing or not loading properly on your Huawei Mate 10 Pro smartphone.

Before we proceed, if you’re looking for a solution to a problem with your phone, try to browse through our troubleshooting pages to see if we support your device. If your phone is in the list of our supported devices, then go to the troubleshooting page and look for similar problems. Feel free to use our solutions and workarounds. Don’t worry it’s free. But if you still need our help, then fill up our Android issues questionnaire and hit submit to contact us.

How to troubleshoot Huawei Mate 10 Pro with Gmail app that keeps crashing

Before you troubleshoot application errors, check your Internet connection and make sure that it’s strong and stable. A weak or intermittent connection to the Internet is among the common reasons as to why online apps like Gmail won’t load properly or experience random crashes. If you’re having trouble with your Internet connection, then you need to fix it first. Once you’ve got your Internet back up and running, online apps and services including Gmail app should all be working properly again.

First solution: Force stop Gmail app then reboot your phone.

Errant apps are usually remedied by a restart. Your Gmail app might have stayed opened among other background apps and eventually it went rogue. In that case, restarting the app can help. This also means you’ll need to end the app first. As the first possible solution to try, force stop Gmail app on your Huawei Mate 10 Pro and then reboot/soft reset. Doing so helps clear errant cache and temporary files that might have caused data corruption on the Gmail application. Here’s how:

Tap the Recent Apps button from the Home screen.
Tap the Active apps icon.
Tap End next to the Gmail app.
If you have multiple apps running in the background, close them too by tapping the End All button.
Tap OK to confirm action.

After ending Gmail and other background applications, reboot or soft reset your Huawei Mate 10 Pro with these steps:

Press the Power button for a few seconds.
When the Power off menu option appears, tap OK to turn your phone completely off.
After 30 seconds, press and hold down the Power button until the phone turns on.

A soft reset clears and refreshes the internal memory for better and smoother performance. This won’t affect any saved data on the phone.

Second solution: Clear cache and data or reset Gmail app.

Gmail app also stores cache or temporary files on its memory. While these files can benefit in terms of faster reloading of similar data, cached files can also become corrupted at some point. And when this happens, there is a higher chance for the entire app operations to become adversely affected. This is why regular clearing of app cache and data is recommended. If you haven’t done this yet, then follow these steps to clear cache and data on your Gmail app:

Go to the Main Menu.
Tap Settings.
Select Application manager.
Select the All tab.
Select Gmail from the list of apps.
Tap the option to Clear Cache or Clear Data. Clearing data will delete saved data for the app including your Gmail account and login credentials. This means you will need to sign into your Gmail account again afterwards.
If prompted, read and review the warning then tap OK to confirm action.

After clearing cache and data on your Gmail app, restart your phone to dump any residual errors.

Third solution: Update Gmail app and/or phone software to the latest version.

Updates often contain fix patches to address existing device issues particularly those that are inflicted by some malware or software bugs. The Gmail app regularly receives update offering new features and security enhancements. If you haven’t set your device to auto-update apps, then you’ve probably missed to implement critical updates for Gmail that might have prevented the app from giving into such performance problems. In this case, you can manually check for and install pending updates for Gmail and other apps on your Huawei Mate 10 Pro. Here’s how:

Open the Play Store or Google Play Store app.
Tap the Menu icon.
Navigate to My Apps & Games.
Look for the Gmail app.
Tap the Update button.

If you want to enable auto-updates for Gmail, tap the three vertical dots on the upper right corner then mark the checkbox next to Auto-update.

Reboot/soft reset your phone when your apps are finished updating to ensure that all new software changes are properly implemented.

Fourth solution: Uninstall then reinstall Gmail app on your phone.

The problem will likely continue if the app has been totally corrupted. Fatal data corruption can make this happen to your Gmail app. This therefore denotes the need for you to reinstall the application. But before you do so, you will need to uninstall or delete the Gmail app from your device. Here’s how it’s done:

Tap to open the Play Store or Google Play.
Slide your finger from left to right.
Tap on My apps & games.
Go to the Installed tab. Doing so will open a list of all your installed apps including Gmail.
Scroll to and tap on Gmail.
Then tap the Uninstall button. This will delete Gmail app from your phone.
If prompted, tap OK to confirm deletion of Gmail app.
Return to the Home screen.
Restart your phone and head back to the Play Store.
Search for the latest version of Gmail app that’s compatible with your phone software.

Follow the onscreen instructions to download and install the app on your device.

Fifth solution: Wipe cache partition on your phone.

Corrupted system cache can also trigger similar app problems to occur. System data can become corrupted when faulty update is installed. If your Gmail app starts to crash or fail loading after installing a system update, then this will likely be remedied by wiping cache partition on your Huawei Mate 10 Pro. Here’s how:

Turn your phone completely off.
Press and hold the Power button and the Volume Up button simultaneously for a few seconds.
When you see the Huawei logo, release both buttons. You will then be routed to the EMUI or Android Recovery menu with a few options to choose from.
Press the Volume Down button to scroll to and highlight Wipe cache partition from the given options.
Then press the Power button to confirm selection.
Wait until your device is done wiping the cache partition and once it’s done, the Reboot system now option will be highlighted.
Press the Power button to confirm device restart.

After the phone reboots, launch Gmail app and see if the problem is fixed.

Other options

If the Gmail app continues to crash or still fails to work on your Huawei Mate 10 Pro after exhausting all applicable solutions, contact Google Support for further recommendations or more advanced solutions. You may also have to consider deleting your Gmail account and then set it up again. This can be considered among the last options especially if the problem has something to do with incorrect or invalid account credentials.

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Galaxy Note 4 loses battery power fast, other issues

The #GalaxyNote4 was officially released on October 2014 and yet we know that millions are still using it at this time. This is a testament of the device’s reliability and popularity. However, just like any smartphone, it’s also prone to problems. This post brings you some of the reported problems about this device.

Below are the specific topics we cover in this material:

Galaxy Note 4 loses battery power fast
Galaxy Note 4 power IC not working
Galaxy Note 4 keeps showing pop ups from apps
Galaxy Note 4 showing “Please select recovery mode in Kies and try again” error
Gmail and Messaging app stops working properly after updating Galaxy Note 4
Galaxy Note 4 won’t connect to any network in India

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

Problem #1: Galaxy Note 4 loses battery power fast

My Note 4 is only 8 months old. It’s under warranty. Phone shuts down at 20%battery remaining, 36% remaining. There were few lags when i bought it — I thought it was temporary. Post marshmallow update the battery life is very poor — barely lasts 6 hours. I use very little. No such app or anything which is majorly consuming battery. Done factory reset, problem persists. I have been to the service centre, they updated my marshmallow with the binary version I think. They did not give me any paper saying they have tested my phone-however they said they did. I did not see any hardware tests running. I also feel they are trying to avoid testing as they have to replace parts for free under warranty. Is this a power IC fail? How can I ascertain and make Samsung give me some proof of their test? I really need your help. I spent a huge saving to get this phone for its camera & battery (for my family). Now it’s giving me no ROI. Kindly help. — Priyaani

Solution: Hi Priyaani. Based in our experience with our own Note 4, battery power can last almost a day provided that you do some basic power-saving tips like:

lowering battery screen brightness
turning off all sync settings of email apps, social networking apps, and even game apps
limiting streaming services like online music services to a few hours
keeping the number of installed apps as low as possible

The last one, that is, installing as few apps as possible is important since the more apps you have, the higher the possibility that the some of them may help drain the battery by actively running in the background.

We don’t think the power IC is defective since malfunction of this critical chip almost always results to power failure but not battery drain. We can’t tell with 100% certainty though if that’s the case. We don’t work for Samsung so we don’t know how they create a feedback after a repair. Repair centers, at least in the US, are not obligated to provide detailed information on the repair done on a device. We can’t be sure if there’s a way to pressure Samsung to give you proof of the tests done. If you’ve already done all the battery power saving tips you can find online but the issue stays the same, consider asking Samsung for a replacement phone instead.

Keep in mind though that a Lithium-based battery like the one on your Note 4 loses capacity as the time goes by and after each charging cycle. The more you use and charge the device, the faster it loses capacity. Thus, you will notice that after some time, the need to top it off becomes more often. A Lithium-ion battery on a typical smartphone will start to show capacity loss symptoms after between 300-500 charging cycles. If you charge the phone once everyday on average since you got it, you should really expect that usage time before the next charge will be shorter. Factor in other things that can help hasten battery drain and you have the “problem” you’re experiencing right now.

We suggest that you also buy another brand new Samsung battery so you’ll know the difference. Again, battery drain issue in today’s smartphones is not necessarily due to a software or hardware problem. If you want to extend the battery life of your phone everyday, use some smarts instead. Do some online research and you’ll discover tricks and tips that can help you remedy the situation.

Problem #2: Galaxy Note 4 power IC not working

Hi. I read your blog and found out the issue. I am facing same strange issue. I am from India. I have Samsung Galaxy Note Edge (SM N915G). The phone was working flawlessly for almost a year but after that it developed a bug where it started restarting randomly or it will get some strange error of “Boot file not available” Only solution available was to restart the phone after removing battery. After few attempts I was able to start the phone and I ignored the error. After a month of error now my phone is dead and I could not start it. I have given it to local Samsung Store and found out it has power IC problem but Samsung store doesn’t offer repair and offered me replacement which is as costly as a new mobile. Can you help in this regard? — Jigar1141

Solution: Hi Jigar1141. There’s nothing that we can do about this. If Samsung says the power IC has failed, you either have to submit the phone for repair or simply find a way to have the device replaced.

Problem #3: Galaxy Note 4 keeps showing pop ups from apps

HELP! My god, I decided to uninstall a cleaning / security app following an issue with texts not being received by one person I send to. It was suggested that perhaps it was the problem, so uninstall and reload a fresh and new one!! ARGHHHH… I was suddenly introduced to the merry-go-round of Screen Overlay Detected… and various apps including photos have become buggered on the round of instructions that resolved nothing yet bring me back to where I started…

I try and open say Image gallery, it tells me to open settings. there I cannot change anything until I select APPS That Can be on Top… These I turned off as one instruction suggested and started the process again, this time turning ON the selected app. NOTHING…I end up at the same screen Overlay Detected message, from which no matter what I do, I end up back to stage 1.. I have reset to original settings for all apps, still nothing, as each time I want to set access permissions, I start the process again. This did not exist before.. 2 weeks ago there was a system update to I don’t know which version, but it is the latest. If anyone could PLEASE suggest a solution, I would be most, MOST grateful. Thank you in advance. — Thomas

Solution: Hi Thomas. You may have installed a bad app that now resulted to a firmware glitch. We don’t know exactly what you’re trying to describe here but if your device no longer works normally due to pop-ups, make sure that you do a factory reset. Since factory reset will erase everything, ensure that you create a backup of all your personal data before proceeding. Here are the steps on how to do a factory reset:

Turn off the Galaxy Note 4 completely.
Press and hold the Volume Up and the Home keys together, then press and hold the Power key.
When the Note 4 vibrates, release both the Home and Power keys but continue holding the Volume Up key.
When the Android System Recovery shows on the screen, release the Volume Up key.
Using the Volume Down key, highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset’ and press the Power key to select it.
Now highlight ‘Yes — delete all user data’ using the Volume Down key and press the Power key to begin the reset.
When the master reset is complete, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and hit the Power key.
The Note 4 will restart but it will be longer than usual. When it reaches the Home screen, then begin your setup.

Remember, factory reset will not fix future problems, especially if they are due to apps that you will install later on. Make sure that you only install trusted apps after a factory reset. This is an important point that you must not overlook. You don’t even need any security app if you are a careful user as malware in todays smartphones are spread by apps.

Problem #4: Galaxy Note 4 showing “Please select recovery mode in Kies and try again” error

I am stuck in Firmware upgrade issue “Please select recovery mode in Kies and try again.” I am on a Sprint Lease and I am not telling them about this. I am recently unemployed and cannot afford their and Samsung’s expensive answers. I just signed up for Total Protection Coverage with Sprint but it’s not in effect until Sept. 4th. Will they charge me to fix this? I did nothing.

According to my research on this issue, it’s an upgrade issue from Samsung and is happening to a lot of people. I am NOT paying to have this looked at. It’s their glitch… I am temporarily using another Samsung phone that’s on a month unlimited card through Verizon. I either want out of this lease with Sprint or a free fix until my lease is up! I did nothing to cause this.

I went to Best buy to the Samsung desk and he almost got the update up and then it shut down again with the “Kies’ message. I tried to do this on my own and through Odin with a Samsung update which just “spun’ for two hours. I am at my wits end. I’m a paralegal, not a IT person! this is ludracris as I cannot afford to pay deductibles when it’s their program install problems! Help, please.

I have only 15 days left on my temp card and have a Sprint bill for 99.00 and paid 58 for this card for other phone! I will not pay Sprint for a non-working phone at no fault of my own. I have a reasonable expectation to usage of my device and expectation to have fixed in a timely manner with no fee due to no fault of my own. Any ideas are welcome! Time sensitive issue! Thanks, Droid Guys! — Kristin

Solution: Hi Kristin. We don’t answer requests for assistance on time so we hope this post can still help you right now. First of all, we want to make clear that we don’t work for Sprint so we are hardly qualified to give accurate information about their products and warranty. As far as their Total Equipment Protection is concerned, you can get first-hand information from their website. We think the Sprint Lease FAQs are self explanatory. If you are confused with the wordings though, we strongly suggest that you call Sprint directly.

On your question regarding a fee for repair, we think the answer is no. As long as you bring the device to any Sprint store once the Total Equipment Protection becomes active, we don’t think you’ll have to pay for any necessary repair. Damaged Device Fee is reserved for phones without the Total Equipment Protection so can rest assured that they will check and fix the issue for free.

Problem #5: Gmail and Messaging app stops working properly after updating Galaxy Note 4

I have a Note 4. I did the latest upgrade, I assume it was marshmallow as that is what is the latest and it says I have the latest software. Since the upgrade, my text app that came with the phone, and my Gmail are not working right. I CAN use them, but they are both wonky with the same issues and VERY difficult to use. It’s hard to explain, but the apps’ form fields when entering the info, ie contacts, subject, message areas aren’t working. You can’t see the whole window, it only shows one line at a time. If you go to the subject line in an email, you lose the rest of the window and can only see the line you are typing into. In a text, when you enter a contact, it’s all wonky sorry I can’t explain! It looks different in both email and text than its supposed to. The fields jump around. Then when you go to another field, you can’t see anything else but that one field. When you minimize the keyboard, the app jumps around and changes fields. I can’t do a soft reset, only a restart, or turn off and on, which I tried. Any ideas? Thank you! — Elle

Solution: Hi Elle. The first thing that you want to do is wipe the cache partition of your phone. Sometimes, updates can corrupt the system cache so forcing the phone to create a new cache is necessary. Here’s what you need to do:

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

Once you’ve updated the system cache, the next logical step is to ensure ALL apps are updated to make them compatible with the new operating system. If you have an app that’s not compatible with Marshmallow or whatever operating system you’ve installed, it may result to a glitch that can affect other apps and features. If you can’t find an update for that app, make sure you uninstall it.

Finally, if both procedures won’t work, make sure that you do a factory reset. Refer to the steps above.

Problem #6: Galaxy Note 4 won’t connect to any network in India

Hi Team. I am facing mobile network issues in my Samsung Galaxy Note 4 (SM-N910C). My brother bought the second hand mobile in Dubai and send to India. I have used around 4 network SIMs in India, however the network grassing is very less where as same network SIM gives good net speed in same area in other phones including basic Android phone. I am not even able to make/receive calls along with internet problem. I have used the 2G and 3G networks and changed the network settings accordingly, but no luck of getting the network. Sometimes network range shows 3 to 5 points, but when i make calls gives an error “Not registered on network.” Can you please assist to trouble shoot this problem. Thank you very much for your assistance. Regards. — Dinesh

Solution: Hi Dinesh. “Not registered on network” error is usually the generic message a Note 4 shows if it attempts to connect to a network that it has no permission to do so. In other words, the Note 4 you are trying to use may not be unlocked yet. Make sure that it’s unlocked first before attempting to connect to any network in your country again. Try to do some basic research online on how to unlock your specific phone model, or simply bring it to a shop that can do the job.

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Galaxy Note 5 stuck on Edge network type after Marshmallow update, other issues

We bring you yet another collection of #GalaxyNote5 issues and solutions. We tackle 7 different issues here today so we hope that some of you will find this material helpful.

These are the specific topics discussed in this post today:

Galaxy Note 5 screen is cracked | Contacting Samsung support for a cracked Galaxy Note 5 screen
Galaxy Note 5 stuck on Edge network type after Marshmallow update
3-day old Galaxy Note 5 having boot issues
Galaxy Note 5 can’t find new SMS | Gmail on Galaxy Note 5 not sending/receiving properly | Google Search on Galaxy Note 5 not working
Galaxy Note 5 stuck in download mode
Galaxy Note 5 Duos won’t use SIM 1 for mobile data | Galaxy Note 5 Duos can’t switch to 3G or 4G
Galaxy Note 5 keeps saying “finalizing update” after a restart

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

Problem #1: Galaxy Note 5 screen is cracked | Contacting Samsung support for a cracked Galaxy Note 5 screen

HI, I accidentally dropped my Note 5. First, everything seem OK when I picked it up. The screen did not crack at all and I can use it as normal. But after few minutes, right side of my screen is no longer responding to touch. Then, the whole screen became unresponsive and I can see something looks like purple liquid on the top left side of the phone starts to coming out and also started to appear on the other areas as well. I still can get notification from my social media and able to charge the phone as usual. What should I do? How much the repair cost? I just bought my Note 5 last September. Is the problem still covered by Samsung Warranty? — Nuraini

Solution: Hi Nuraini. In general, only two things are covered by Samsung warranty:

factory defects or problematic workmanship
discovery of defective components

To be sure though, you must refer to the actual warranty that came with your phone as they can vary by region.

In your case, a free screen replacement or hardware repair will not be covered by Samsung because the fault is a result of misuse. We have no exact pricing structure (because we don’t work for Samsung) but from what we’ve heard, you will more shelling out about $200 for a screen replacement procedure.

For more accurate information, visit this Samsung support page and make sure that you select the right country.

Problem #2: Galaxy Note 5 stuck on Edge network type after Marshmallow update

Hi. DroidGuy, I hope my email finds you well. I’m having mobile data connection issue, which is weak/intermittent and only stuck on E (EDGE) status. Just to give a quick backgroud I’m running Lollipop on my Note 5, region AU. I did a factory reset since there are so many applications installed in my phone and i want to clean it. After my reformat there was prompt to update my phone to 6.0.1 Marshmallow so i updated it.

after the update i noticed that my mobile data cannot acquire H+ which usually always have. i give it time thinking maybe there was outage on the network. after a few hours it didn’t change and there was late message that i am receiving. I tried to do the soft reset but to no avail. tried to reinsert sim, and waited for 20 seconds but still no avail. i tried to wipe cache partition and still no good. the last thing i did was to revert back to Lollipop which is what I’m using right now… but still same problem encountered. I hope you can help me on my problem.. lesson learned do not update your phone when there is an update.. you can reach me though my email. Regards. — Daryl

Solution: Hi Daryl. First of all, we don’t send our response to emails. We want all answers published in our blog so other readers can make use of them as well.

Secondly, this issue appears network-related so your carrier should be the one helping you and not us. Frankly, there’s nothing much that we can tell you about it since we have no knowledge whatsoever about your phone’s network status, network configuration, and even your account/billing status with your carrier. The only thing that you can try is to insert your SIM card to another phone and observe if the same issue occurs. This will help you determine if there’s a network problem affecting your area, or if there’s something wrong with your SIM card/account.

Finally, we do encounter problems across all types of phones after installing Android Marshmallow but this one is not one of them. This problem may be isolated to your unit or to your network so don’t hesitate to contact your wireless carrier about it.

Problem #3: 3-day old Galaxy Note 5 having boot issues

Hello. Three days after I got the phone Samsung Galaxy Note 5, my phone keeps on turning off and on. I believe it’s booting by itself and it will get hard and for that happen I’ll be on the phone and my phone will turn off at about 2 then I have to turn it on. but yet I still have to charge the phone in order for me to use it.

so I went on the website for Samsungs and on the phone I typed the type of cell phone. I have I found instructions and nothing has happened. another phone keeps doing the same. What should I do in this case?

I’ve tried all my best. I do have a code number and hopefully you guys can help me out and I’m fixing this problem. I’m going to give you the cell phone ID number SKU: SM n910v zwe FCC :ID is a3l SM n910v IMEI number is 99000 481-253-9702 I would like for someone to please email me right away and provide me with some Information/help. home tel 310 Thank You. — Martha

Solution: Hi Martha. Like what we tell Daryl above, we don’t communicate via email so we hope you’ll find this post.

Okay so we ran the IMEI number you provided and we realized that it doesn’t belong to a Galaxy Note 5 but for a Galaxy S5. Is it possible that you were provided with a fake phone? We suggest that you revisit the retailer where you get the device from and ask for a replacement. If your phone is starting to act erratically just days after acquiring it, we don’t see any point in providing you with any troubleshooting tips as they may never work in the first place. Make sure first that you get a genuine phone so we can provide proper support.

Problem #4: Galaxy Note 5 can’t find new SMS | Gmail on Galaxy Note 5 not sending/receiving properly | Google Search on Galaxy Note 5 not working

Hello. 1) Texts notifications/receiving is normal. I can see the abbreviated text message on my lock screen, but when I swipe the screen to open the home screen and click on my text message icon, the text message is not there. The conversation string from earlier texts is there, but only from weeks ago.

2) Gmail is no longer sending/receiving messages properly.

3) My Mobile Data is ON, however, if I try to do a Google search, the message is there is no connection. I have made screen shortcuts to other websites and they open fine and connect. My Google Browsing History is deleted periodically and was cleared recently, so that does not appear to be the problem. I have also installed very few apps in addition to those that came installed on the phone. — Britt

Solution: Hi Britt.

1.) make sure that the clock, date and timezone on your phone are set correctly. We often see this problem after a user changes a devices date and time for some reason. To prevent this issue from happening again, keep the date and time set properly.

2.) we need more information about the issue. We are not mind readers and require workable information to isolate a particular problem. Telling us that Gmail is not sending/receiving properly doesn’t help at all.

3.) this third point may be related to the second so make sure that all Google apps and services are working. You can do that by individually updating and enabling all Google apps, or by simply doing a factory reset. For reference, here are the steps on how to do a factory reset:

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 #5: Galaxy Note 5 stuck in download mode

Hi there Droid Guy. My Note 5 will not turn on. I have tried everything in the trouble shooting page but it will not go in to safe or recovery mode but goes to a screen which has the big green alien/robot with ‘Downloading…. Do not turn off target!!’ underneath it. It just stays on this page no matter what you press. in the top left corner it has the below: Could not do normal boot ddi : mmc_read failed ODIN MODE (HIGH SPEED) PRODUCT NAME: SM-N910F CURRENT BINARY: Samsung Official SYSTEM STATUS: Custom REACTIVATION LOCK: OFF KNOW WARRANTY VOID: 0X0 QUALCOMM SECUREBOOT: ENABLE (CSB) AP SWREV: S1, T1, A1, A1, P1 SECURE DOWNLOAD : ENABLE UDC START Is there anything that I can do? Thanks and best regards. — Ed

Solution: Hi Ed. If your phone only boots to Download/Odin mode right now, the first thing that you want to try is the following:

press and hold Volume Down button, then
press and hold Power button
Keep pressing the buttons for at least 10 seconds and wait for the device to boot back normally.

If this won’t do the trick, the only way out for you is by flashing a stock or custom ROM. Use Google to search for a reputable guide on how to do this procedure. Keep in mind that manually flashing a firmware is risky and can potentially brick your device. Do it at your own risk.

Problem #6: Galaxy Note 5 Duos won’t use SIM 1 for mobile data | Galaxy Note 5 Duos can’t switch to 3G or 4G

It’s actually not my phone but my friend’s Samsung Galaxy Note 5 duos. Basically SIM 1 is locked with a network carrier. now she does not use SIM 1 anymore and is using SIM 2 using a new network. Now the problem is about the mobile data. How can she switch the mobile data to SIM 2? It keeps on using SIM 1 which is not used anymore.

And also she can’t switch to 3G or 4G. It’s always 2G and grayed out. Do you think she needs the phone to be unlocked? Or is there any way to just use the mobile data for SIM 2? Thanks. — Dj

Solution: Hi Dj. We don’t have this type of Note 5 in our inventory so we can’t be sure if there’s a way to manage SIM cards just like in older Android version of another Samsung device. Anyhow, try going under Settings and look for SIM card manager option or similar. We think you’ll have this option available because you have a Duos. Now under SIM card manager, look for Data service network and select the SIM card slot that you want to use for data connection. If you can’t find it, contact your carrier for assistance.

The second issue appears to be network-related too so yes, making sure that your device is unlocked first is a must.

Problem #7: Galaxy Note 5 keeps saying “finalizing update” after a restart

Every time i restart my Galaxy Note 5, “finalizing update” pops up and it says “update successful.” but then after a few minutes the audio cuts and i have to restart the phone again and this just keeps happening.

The phone was bought second hand but in mint condition I am to reset the phone cause it’s a Sprint phone, but it has been unlocked. I’m not sure if the previous owner unlocked after or they bought it unlocked. I need to find a solution cause i rely heavily on the audio and it keeps cutting off every time the update keeps popping up. However i don’t live in the US, I am from the Caribbean. — Ridge

Solution: Hi Ridge. This issue happens if the device is unable to fully install a new update or if a firmware being installed in incompatible. Contact the seller of the device and ask them for more information about it. If that’s no longer possible, consider flashing the correct firmware for this device by yourself. Use Google to find the correct firmware for your particular model. Be careful with flashing though as it can potentially lead to more complications. Make sure that you follow a reputable guide.

User initiated flashing is never recommended by Samsung so you won’t find any official guide on how to do it. By doing it, you will be putting your device at risk but what’s there to lose if you can’t have it replaced anyway, right? Still, we remind you to be cautious about it.

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Why using a task killer on Galaxy S7 is not helpful, other issues

Here’s another collection of issues for the #GalaxyS7 series. We hope that the solutions we mention here today can help our ever-growing community.

Below are the complete list of issues discussed in this material:

Why using a task killer on Galaxy S7 is not helpful
Dual SIM Galaxy S7 keeps losing mobile signal
Gmail notifications deletes emails from inbox of Galaxy S7
Galaxy S7 can’t send and receive SMS when connected to 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.

Problem #1: Why using a task killer on Galaxy S7 is not helpful

Hello again. This is Scott and I just asked you 3 VERY LONG questions, but forgot to include these 2 quick ones…so this should be easy 🙂

You advised above to use “Advanced Task Killer” to close all the unused, memory-draining apps running in the background. I have always used one of these Advanced Task Killing apps faithfully in the past. However, over the last 1 or 2 years, many Support help, salespeople, tech’s, etc usually tell me the following (..but I’m actually GONNA USE YOUR ANSWERS this time around!):

NEVER use a task killer now since Android already has this built into their operating system (I have always used “Clean Master” by Cheetah — the one with the blue & yellow broom sweep icon) and if that’s a good app & is any indication of what Android DOESN’T close on its own, then I would “personally” agree with you to still use a task killer!!
Never stop or disable ANY of the system apps (to be clear, I’m ONLY talking about all the apps with the standard little a green Android guy) found under “Applications” because I go to disable or uninstall bloatware, apps I don’t like to use, and some of the system apps (those that have in their name something which is CLEARLY RELATED TO SOMETHING I DON’T NEED OR USE).

So… I would very much appreciate your comments & opinions on what I’ve been being told re: the above. And if you still suggest using an Advanced Task Killer from Google Play, and/or suggest stopping some clearly unneeded system apps, then:

– which Advanced Task Killer would you use (i.e. there are several highly rated ones out there, with many of them using the same green droid icon as well. So WHICH DEVELOPER’s Task Killer would you suggest?

-if in fact we CAN and/or SHOULD actually stop some system apps (including any that clearly have in their name something related to an app I don’t use), is there a guideline, or list, or those which we can manually disable or uninstall??

-I mentioned that I use the “Clean Master” app… do you like and/or recommend that app? If so, can I use THAT as my task killer, or should it do its own thing, or should I not use both together??

Again, I’m so appreciative of any help you can give, as I’m certain many others are too!!

Too many apps running in the background will drain the memory allocated to the apps you need. To maintain your phone, you should occasionally stop the apps running in the background that you are no longer using. — ScottE

Solution: Hi ScottE. Technically, third party task killers are redundant since Android operating system is designed to manage resources (like memory and cache) on its own intelligently. Task killer apps evolve from our previous experiences with Windows PC, which always advocate for more RAM (random access memory). In Windows computing, we were taught that our PCs should run faster if RAM is more than enough. Well, Android isn’t Windows and resource management for both platforms are different.

What you must keep in mind is the fact that Android works fine even if its RAM is full. This is how it’s designed and how it’s supposed to do its job. Android keeps all apps in a semi active state all the time after initially loading them at startup in order to launch them quickly. Seeing your phone’s RAM leveling at 80-90% should not be a cause for concern. In Android environment, unused RAM is a wasted resource. If the operating system needs more memory to accommodate a large application like a graphics-heavy game, it will simply kick out some apps it thinks you don’t need in order to provide more RAM. You don’t have to manually close an app/s first to ensure your S7 has enough RAM before opening a large app.

Closing an app yourself or via a task killer will only momentarily free up some memory and cache resources. It will eventually reactivate itself once again after some time (though it will not necessarily show as active). It is in this sense that we can say task killers are redundant and not necessary. In most cases, task killers are not any help at all, and some even can lead to troubles. For a brief discussion whether or not task killers are helping, follow this link.

If your main concern in sending these questions is on how to optimize your S7, then simply keep the number of installed apps to a minimum. Remember, the more installed apps you have, the more resources are needed to run them, both in active and semi-active states. Uninstall apps you don’t need. A good general rule of thumb in this case is to see if you have an app you haven’t used for at least two weeks and uninstall it. If you haven’t loaded an app that long, chances are it’s not that important to your digital lifestyle.

You also want to stick to official or mainstream apps only. Apps from well-funded developers tend to be well-maintained. They also receive regular checks to minimize bugs and problems compared to less popular products.

Again, we don’t usually recommend using task killers so we can’t give any specific product that you can try.

Problem #2: Dual SIM Galaxy S7 keeps losing mobile signal

This is a dual SIM phone with two Virgin mobile nano sims installed, G935FD unlocked, so should work OK in the UK. I know I am in an area with variable mobile signal, but never had any problem with full size SIMs in an S3, and my daughter has no problem with her Virgin mobile sim in an S5.

The network connections seem to change in strength minute by minute and 9/10 times I can’t even send a SMS. Sometimes I can get both sims back if I switch on and off, but I seem to lose the signal especially if the phone has been on standby – it’s almost as though it’s lost the signal while it’s not been active.

Is there a way of making it re-connect properly when it wakes up? Turning aeroplane mode on and off isn’t sufficient to fix things – only a formal off and on seems to work and even then not every time. I’ve read your page on trouble shooting the S7 that won’t send SMS messages and the settings on both SIMS – one 2G (in slot 2) and one 3G (in slot 1) seem fine. I’d welcome any clues for anything else that I could try. — Julia

Solution: Hi Julia. If you’ve checked some of our troubleshooting pages, you should know by now that if software solutions don’t work, that’s a go ahead signal for you to seek hardware resolutions. And as far as software troubleshooting is concerned, there’s really nothing much that you can do on your end. The first thing that you want to do is to check if changing some options under Network/mobile network settings will work. Try to switch between different network modes and network operators to see if the situation improves.

The next thing that you can do is to wipe the cache partition. This type of cache, also known as system cache, is one of the caches used by the device’s operating system to load apps properly and efficiently. It works differently than an app cache but it can also mess the basic functions of some apps if it’s corrupted or outdated. To clear it, just follow the steps below.

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.

You can also observe how your phone behaves when you disable all third party apps temporarily. There’s a chance that the problem is app related so booting your S7 in safe mode is the next logical step. Keep the phone in safe mode during the observation period to know the difference. While safe mode is enabled, all third party apps are prevented from running so if any of them is the reason for the trouble, you should know it. Observe the phone for at least 24 hours while safe mode is enabled. Follow the steps below:

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 your phone will continue to lose network signal strength, you can try the ultimate software solution of factory reset. Like in safe mode, make sure to observe the phone again for another 24 hours. If this solution will not yield any positive result and signal strength remains spotty, it’s time to consider for a unit replacement.

Problem #3: Gmail notifications deletes emails from inbox of Galaxy S7

This is an issue with the email app that comes bundled with Samsung phones: Galaxy S7 and Note 3 on Verizon and Mega on US Cellular. I believe it’s the same email app on all three (they look the same, but there is no version number or even vendor ID provided…it’s just embedded in the OS).

The symptom appears to be unique to Gmail when using POP3 on the Samsung email app. The mails show up as they should but you can’t read them. Why? The “notification” of the email erases the email contents. They don’t go into the Trash folder, they simply disappear from the phone. If you turn notifications off for emails, this disappearing act also occurs whenever you hit the manual sync button on the phone: all the existing in-box messages disappear from view. Not deleted on the phone, not deleted on the email server, just invisible and inaccessible.

This has nothing to do with having another email client (e.g., a PC) polling the messages or erasing them. In fact, when you look at Gmail via the browser, they are correctly marked as “unread” (because, well, they haven’t been).

This symptom has been in place for years, and it is really annoying. It seems to only apply to email accounts hosted on Gmail and read on Samsung’s email client. I wouldn’t be surprised if this is an intentional bug planted by one side or the other… — David

Solution: Hi David. We have no idea this bug exists on Samsung email app in some Galaxy Note 3 and S7 devices. We tried to setup our own personal Gmail account in our S7 in our laboratory but we can’t seem to replicate the issue you’re having. This is either a Gmail issue or something that Samsung failed to address for a long time (and we are not aware of). Since there’s no easy way to identify where the bug comes from, we recommend that you contact both companies so you can raise this issue on their technical support team. We will do the same so we can update this post once we hear any update from them. This is, so far, is the only thing that we can do to help.

Problem #4: Galaxy S7 can’t send and receive SMS when connected to Wi-Fi

My phone has a serious problem with Wi-Fi and sending/receiving messages.

First, it never stays connected to a Wi-Fi signal for longer than a few minutes, leaving me to either reconnect or eat up data. On the rare occasions I am connected to Wi-Fi (and it clearly says I’m connected) my messages and the Internet tell me I don’t have connection and to try again later.

Second, I can’t send messages (or make phone calls, but to a somewhat lesser degree). When I’m connected to Wi-Fi, my texts either fail to send, say it will send when connected to Wi-Fi (even if I’m already connected), or send the message only to have the other person never receive it. This is the same when I make a phone call.

Finally, I don’t receive messages or calls. If I’m in a group message, I’ll only get 2 out of the dozens of texts everyone sent. I’ll get them out of order. I’ll get them two days after they were sent. I even got them all at the same time. I have rarely received a text message the way I was supposed to — on time and In the correct order.

I’ve had this phone for nearly half year now and this has always happened. I’ve missed important event’s because people couldn’t reach me. Other people have missed events because I couldn’t reach them.

I would also like to point out that this is a safety issue. Once when I was home alone, a man showed up at my door and started banging on it and yelling. I couldn’t text anyone. I couldn’t call anyone. Not even the police. I had to sit on my kitchen floor and wait for nearly half an hour until he left.

Everyone in my family has this problem, as we all have the same make and model phone. Everyone, especially me because of the situation I mentioned, is sick and tired of having this problem, and we are sick and tired of having to jump through hoops to try and get answers.

This was supposed to be an outline of the problem, but it turned into an angry rant. I would say I’m sorry, but I’m not. I just want answers, and I want this problem fixed. — Titanwaves

Solution: Hi Titanwaves. First of all, demanding answers from us for your safety issue is not really wise. Any safety concern that involves a cellular communication should be handled by your network operator and not by a third party like us. The fact that it’s been going on for months now should have prompted you to call them in the first place! Keep in mind that all texting- and calling-related problems are best addressed by the network operator because they are in a better position to provide relevant information. Text and call problems are caused by a number of factors and most of said factors are within a carrier’s control.

Also, if more than one smartphone is having the same problem with Wi-Fi, then you should consider checking if that Wi-Fi network you’re connected to is working as it should be. Seeing the indication that your phone is “connected” to a Wi-Fi network does not necessarily mean that you’ll be able to connect to the internet. The “connected” status is only a confirmation that your device is communicating with the router or local area network (Wi-Fi network). The local area network, however, needs to be able to connect to the internet first in order to allow other devices connected to it to, in turn, link to the web themselves. In other words, you must make sure that the Wi-Fi network is reliable and has constant internet connection first before you blame to your device. We haven’t noticed you mentioned this aspect in your rant above so we want you to work on this one first.

If Wi-Fi connection is stable all the time, or if the issue happens when you connect to other known, reliable Wi-Fi networks, then call your carrier and ask them for direct assistance regarding all your calling and texting problems. If they say there’s no network problems in the area, demand for phone replacement.

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Galaxy S6 wi-fi and mobile data connection problems after Marshmallow update, other issues

Hi Guys! Welcome to another post that addresses some #GalaxyS6 problems. We also cover two Marshmallow-related problems below. We hope that we continue to be of help to our community.

Updating Galaxy S6 to Marshmallow results to issues with Power Saving Mode, Messaging app, and Gmail app not syncing
Galaxy S6 is not charging
File recovery on a Galaxy S6 that won’t charge
Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge stuck in Samsung logo screen
Galaxy S6 wi-fi and mobile data connection problems after Marshmallow update

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

Problem #1: Updating Galaxy S6 to Marshmallow results to issues with Power Saving Mode, Messaging app, and Gmail app not syncing

Ever since I updated to Marshmallow, several things have been happening:

1) I always keep my phone in Power Saving mode, but ever since I updated the OS, there is always a notification in the top bar that Power Saving mode is on. I’ve done the long press on the notification and turned off previews in pop ups, but it’s still there. It’s just kind of annoying to have to see it there all the time. I know it’s on, I turned it on.

Additionally, when in Power Saver mode, I cannot get voicemails in the visual voicemail program unless I go to More and Refresh. Whenever I get a voicemail, I instead get an error message saying there is a problem with visual voicemail and to try again later. I called Verizon about this and they said visual voicemail doesn’t work in Power Saver mode right now and it’s “a problem with the vendor”.

2) I’ve had to stop using the Samsung Messages program for texting and instead use the new Google Messenger because in the Samsung app, I can no longer see the previews of MMS texts. I still see the preview of the last MMS text sent before I did the OS update and the new messages won’t show up until I open the actual text message. SMS works fine, however.

3) I have one Gmail account that I need to sync emails, but they often don’t show up until several hours later unless I manually sync the account. This was never the case with the previous OS. — Ali

Solution: Hi Ali. The notification indicating that Power Saving Mode (PSM) is enabled cannot be removed from the notification bar. It’s one of the minor changes in Marshmallow that you may not like but has to accept.

The problem regarding PSM causing Verizon’s Voicemail app to not work properly is a known issue. There’s nothing that you can do on your end to fix it. The app’s developer must release a patch to fix it. This is a classic example of an issue stemming from a developer’s inaction after a major Android update has been released.

The second and third problems may be resolved by wiping the cache partition. Sometimes, updates messes up the system cache, resulting to minor glitches. Forcing the phone to delete the old cache is an effective trick to resolve bugs. 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.

If refreshing the cache partition won’t fix the problem, make sure that you restore your phone’s settings to defaults via factory reset.

Problem #2: Galaxy S6 is not charging

Hello! My phone is having a problem charging. i had forgotten to unplug my phone this morning to take it with me so when I returned to my room, I unplugged it for about 3 hours until I noticed that it was at about 40%. I went to go try to plug it in but the charging logo never showed up so I came here to see what the suggestions were. I do not think that it is the cable because it works with other devices (other cables did not work either). I plugged it into my computer but neither detected that that they were connected. I also tried to put it in safe mode and eventually a full hard reset but they did not work either. After about an hour, the phone eventually died so I tried to plug it in again. When I plug in the cable, the battery logo with the lightning bolt appears for several seconds before eventually going away and the screen returns to black. — Emily

Solution: Hi Emily. It appears that the problem lies on your phone itself. The USB charging port may have failed, which is why connecting it to a computer, or using other chargers and cables are not working. A malfunctioning charging port would eventually lead to a black screen after the battery becomes fully depleted. This is obviously a hardware problem so there’s little to nothing that we can do to resolve it. If you don’t want to void the warranty of the device, or don’t have the skills and tools to replace the damaged party , the best thing that you can do right now is to call Samsung or your wireless carrier so they can either repair or replace the phone.

Problem #3: File recovery on a Galaxy S6 that won’t charge

Hi im sana.my phone was working great until 3days back when it started on its own. light was continuously off and on with a sound and it was coming on from the screen that dock is attached or on (i guess that means battery is being charged or something). i switched it off for a while and then turned it on. It worked fine and after a while did it again in between.

The next day it got charged one time but later when i tried again, it was not charging. the sign is not coming. the sound and dock is connected with light off and it is coming every now and then even while I’m using the phone.

I’m using an original charger and the other phone is working fine so it means charger is fine. But phone is not getting charged.

Also, one time the screen totally went black and there was just a small cross in the end when i was pressing that it just showed too small that skype is ready and there was one more icon i couldn’t even read. and then it took long to start again. Its not even a year i have purchased the phone and im really worried. Please help urgently. I’ve all my docs in my phone. I’m a doctor and can’t survive without my phone at work as well .thanks. — Sana

Solution: Hi Sana. Your charging issue may be similar to Emily above. If you’ve already tried to use other Samsung chargers without any positive result, the phone’s USB charging port may be defective, or there are other hardware failure on the phone that prevents it from charging and/or booting up. Be sure to have your device checked so proper hardware diagnostics can be conducted. Better still, if the phone is still covered by a warranty, make sure that you call Samsung for a repair or replacement. If the phone can still be repaired, there’s a chance that you may still be able to recover your documents. Otherwise, your personal data are good as gone.

The Nand chip which stores your files in your S6 is totally inaccessible if it can’t be powered. That means that you need to ensure that you phone is turned on before you can get your files from that storage device.

And as a friendly reminder, you want to make it a habit to create a backup of your important digital documents. Storage devices like SD cards, USB flash drives, or even a smartphone’s flash storage are not reliable 100% of the time. As long as you keep valuable information solely in a single device, there’s always a risk of you losing them if that device fails.

Problem #4: Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge stuck in Samsung logo screen

Hello. I will explain you my problem, then I will tell you what I tried so far and I sincerely hope there is a solution as I am pretty down right now.

I was texting one of my friend, place my Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge on the table next to me, turn my head and turn it back to see the booting screen saying: SAMSUNG GALAXY S6 EDGE POWERED BY ANDROID with the blue notification light steady ON. I wait and wait nothing happen as the cellphone gets very hot!

(Original ROM, replaced the screen twice about 6 month ago, no back glass but covered with a strong casing)

1) Try hard reset using volume UP + Home + Power…………………. Nothing

2) Try a reset using volume DOWN + Home + Power………………….. I get to the screen where it says that I could install a custom rom. From there I had two options (UP = Continue, DOWN = Restart Phone). So I press down and the phone restart and doesn’t go further than SAMSUNG GALAXY S6 EDGE POWERED BY ANDROID screen with blue notification light ON.

3) I panic about the temperature of my cellphone, it is burning! So I rush to open it and unplug the battery and let it cool for 10 minutes

4) Unplug everything and check every connections. Everything looks clean

5) Power button does nothing

6) Volume UP + Home + Power does nothing

7) Volume Down + Home + Power bring me to the same screen as before! I choose restart and I get stuck onto the booting screen again.

8) I plug the device on its original charger and the screen only displays The battery logo with a lightning inside of it. Never been able to see my battery percentage as I used to when it was charging while being off.

9) Phone gets stupid hot, I panic and unplug it. Really don’t want to burn anything inside.

10) Now I’m here… out of solution

11)Late night update, it doesn’t do anything anymore and when I plug in the charger the output alternative at 0.92A at 5.02V, 0.37A at 5.XXV and 0.72A at 5.XXV

I never had any problem with my S6 Edge. Everything went perfect when I replaced the screen. The battery would hold up its charge very well and the phone never got hot. As I only use it to text and phone call (some Facebook.. ok)

Sincerely, I feel stupid right now… I own a cellphone repair shop for a year and a half and I have read everything I could find on the internet about this specific problem, but the solutions offered doesn’t suits my condition. I never thought I would be asking someone for help about cellphone… But here I am, desperate.

Thank you very much! — Alexis

Solution: Hi Alexis. There’s no way for us to know for sure what the exact reason for your S6 Edge to not boot properly, but based on your problem description, the issue may be due to a bootloader or firmware glitch. What is happening is that the operating system appears to fail to load. There are two reasons why this situation occurs — a bad bootloader or a corrupted firmware or operating system.

Before Android operating system runs on a phone, a bootloader has to kick it off with a series of instructions. If the bootloader itself is corrupted and can’t do its function, a user will usually observe that his or her Android phone won’t go past a certain loading screen like what’s happening on your phone right now. Bootloader is also responsible for loading recovery mode (although this is no longer possible right now) or download mode. In an ideal world, if an operating system fails to load properly, the bootloader should still allow the phone to be booted to other modes like safe mode, download mode, or recovery mode. To see if this is the case, make sure that you fix a potential bootloader problem first. Keep in mind that bootloader is motherboard specific. If it’s truly corrupted and you can’t find a way to fix it, you may have to replace the entire board completely.

Another reason why your S6 is now stuck in Samsung logo screen can be caused by a corrupted firmware. Since the circumstances only allow you to boot your phone in Odin mode at this time, it won’t hurt if you try to install a stock or custom ROM to see the difference.

Problem #5: Galaxy S6 wi-fi and mobile data connection problems after Marshmallow update

Hi I have an S6 G920F. I had to do the software update to Android 6.0.1 and now the wi-fi and internet seems to breakdown every now and then. While making wi-fi calls, the call will drop within 30 seconds. The problem also occurs using mobile data. and my emails don’t automatically come through, i have to go and manually fetch them to update.

i have tired clearing the cache and turning my router off and on…. still not working. what a mess.

what can i do now? can i revert back to previous software version? Or how can i fix this as i need my phone for work working asap.

Thanks. — Ric

Solution: Hi Ric. If clearing the cache partition (steps provided above) won’t resolve the issues, we highly recommend that you wipe the phone clean via factory reset. For reference, here are the steps on how to do that:

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.

Factory reset will erase everything off your phone’s storage so make sure that you create a backup of your personal data before proceeding.

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Gmail for Android updated with new formatting options: Bold, Italics and more

#Google has just updated the #Gmail app on #Android, offering users the ability to customize their mails to a greater degree than before. The folks over at Mountain View have added the ability to use bold, italics, underline, highlight or color your text with this new update, making this one of the biggest updates in terms of features.

This has been present on the web version of Gmail for as long as we can remember, but it’s good to see that the mobile app is finally getting support too. The update should be available gradually to all users of Gmail on Android, so stay tuned for an update. Of course, Google can’t offer a precise timeline for the rollout of the update at the moment, but it should hit all devices in due time.

In the meantime, make sure you head over to the Play Store to check if an update is available. If you’re already seeing the new Gmail, make sure you let us know in the comments below.

Source: Gmail Blog

Verizon Galaxy S5 cannot receive MMS on T-Mobile network, plus other problems

We bring to you some of the #GalaxyS5 issues we received from other readers in the past week. If you want to look for previously posted S5 troubleshooting articles, please visit this page.

Verizon Galaxy S5 cannot receive MMS on T-Mobile network
How to bypass Factory Reset Protection on Galaxy S5
Galaxy S5 freezes during software update
Galaxy S5 that won’t turn on loses all data in memory
Galaxy S5 Gmail account not receiving emails with attachments or links
Unable to update Galaxy S5
Galaxy S5 won’t power on

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: Verizon Galaxy S5 cannot receive MMS on T-Mobile network

I was originally with Verizon, bought my phone at full price. Switched to T-Mobile because they said my Samsung Galaxy S5 would work with T-Mobile. I called Verizon to verify my phone was unlocked and they said they come factory unlocked and since I paid in full and have no contact I was good to go. I followed your help I found on your site with APN settings and saved then restarted my phone. I now have data but still cannot receive MMS messages. I had a friend send me a picture and it came and said unknown address as the sender in the message says message not found. I have been getting these for days since activating on T-Mobile just didn’t realize what it was until now.

I also get a message saying SIM card not from Verizon that I can’t clear but I saw your info on how to remove that. I just haven’t attempted it yet. I really want to avoid buying another phone at the moment but will if it comes to that just trying to trouble shoot everything possible before spending money. Thanks. — Ryan

Solution: Hi Ryan. It’s a known fact in Android community that Verizon phones are particularly hard to work even when unlocked and used on another carrier’s network. The first thing that you want to do here is to ensure that all network settings are correct. To do that, you must ask help from T-Mobile technical department. Below is the APN settings for T-Mobile that we know of at this time. Some of the details may have been changed by T-Mobile so you have to contact them to confirm everything.

Name: T-MOBILE

APN: epc.tmobile.com but you it’s an LTE Device, use: fast.tmobile.com instead

Proxy: <Leave in Blank>

Port: <Leave in Blank>

Username: <Leave in Blank>

Password: <Leave in Blank>

Server: <Leave in Blank>

MMSC: https://mms.msg.eng.t-mobile.com/mms/wapenc

MMS proxy: <Leave in Blank>

MMS port: <Leave in Blank>

MCC: 310

MNC: 260

Authentication type: <Leave in Blank>

APN type: default,supl,mms

APN Protocol: Leave it to the Default one

If T-Mobile confirms that all your APN and network settings are correct, you may have to end up rooting your device so you can further customize and remove Verizon-related apps and restrictions. Please use other online resources for ways on how to root your phone. Keep in mind that rooting can brick your phone if not done properly. If you want to accept the risks, this guide can be a good start.

Problem #2: How to bypass Factory Reset Protection on Galaxy S5

Tried doing a factory reset and it is saying: This device is locked because of an abnormal factory reset. Sign in to the previous Samsung account that you have already signed in to on this device to confirm that it belongs to you.

The problem is that my brother gave me the phone and I don’t know his info and there is no way to get in touch with him. He did the same thing when he bought the phone from his friend and it worked fine. It wants me to enter an ID and password. I did go to the recover of and password website and created a new account with a new password but it isn’t accepting either. Is there a way to fix this or can I reboot it somehow?– Eric

Solution: Hi Eric. If your Galaxy S5 had been updated to Android 5.1 or higher prior to your attempt to factory reset it, the new security feature called Factory Reset Protection (FRP) must be at play right now. This new security feature was added by Samsung on their devices running Android Lollipop and higher to prevent unauthorized access and factory reset. A video created by RootJunky discovered a possible workaround but we are not sure if this is still effective at this time. Otherwise, your only other option is to contact your brother and ask him to enter his credentials on the phone.

Problem #3: Galaxy S5 freezes during software update

I plugged my phone into my Macbook and the Verizon software assistant icon came up asking me to upgrade software. The update was supposed to last up to 90 minutes, after 6 hours, it was clear that it had frozen. I disconnected the phone, then Verizon software assistant wanted to repair, but the repair freezes between 57-65% and my phone is absolutely useless! It does not boot up, only shows a screen stating that my software update fails, telling me to repair the device. I have tried 8 times, and the repair freezes every time. — Joi

Solution: Hi Joi. What you need to do here is to clear the phone’s cache partition and perform a factory reset if necessary. Updates can sometimes result to unforeseen consequences due to variety of reasons. Doing the above solutions though has proven to be effective. To clear the cache partition, simply follow these steps:

Turn the phone off.
Press and hold the following buttons together: Power, Volume Up and Home.
Release the buttons once the Android system recovery menu appears.
Use the Volume buttons to navigate to Wipe Cache Partition option.
Press the Power button to confirm selection.
Select Reboot System Now option after deleting the cache. Wait for the phone to reboot.

To do a factory reset, simply do he first three steps then select wipe data/factory reset option.

Problem #4: Galaxy S5 that won’t turn on loses all data in memory

After the last usage of the Merriam Webster dictionary app, I placed the phone on my kitchen table. I had dinner, went to use it after, and it was completely unresponsive. I have checked the battery, purchased a new battery, put that one in, charged, checked the battery pins to see if any were “odd looking” but nothing appears out of the ordinary physically.

I did not drop it on the floor, or in the toilet bowl or anywhere. It just stopped, totally, completely. I brought it to where I purchased it, Best Buy, and they tried a few things, like pressing the power button, volume button and the home button simultaneously, took the battery out but did not get the device to power up.

I’m currently using my old Galaxy Note 1 with a new SIM card and new memory card.

I recently lost my brother, age 48, and I had pictures and videos and texts from him on there that were not saved to the SD card. They are all in the internal memory of the phone.

I am so upset that I may never get to see all of the pictures and videos of my brother again. This is much more important to me than whatever the monetary cost of obtaining a new phone, obviously.

If you could help me in any way I would sincerely appreciate anything you could do to help me. I would pay for any service you could provide me. Thank you very much.

I am saddened by the fact that not only did I quite possibly lose these sentimental items, but also regarding the fact that I could have prevented this by saving the pictures and video to the SD card, which I have done on the phone before, but not in the time period of about a year. I could have backed it up to any service or cloud but I did not which I could kick myself for. Anything you can recommend, please. Thank you very much. — John

Solution: Hi John. We’re sorry to hear about your situation but the only way to recover data from a smartphone, Android phones included, is to ensure that they are powered. Your phone’s internal storage memory called Nandroid needs power in order to be accessed by whatever means.

Unlike a PC hard drive that you can easily remove and plug in to another device to access its contents, Nand flash memory is an integral part of the motherboard and has a hardware-based security protection that prevents access to its contents even if it’s physically plucked out. Removing the memory chip and reading its contents require highly specialized tools that may not be available in your local electronic repair shop. Only government agencies and investigators are crazy enough to attempt to try to access memory chip contents. And even them doing it cannot guarantee complete extraction of data. Current chip encryption in Samsung devices simply makes data extraction very challenging, if not impossible. Needless to say, failing to turn the phone back on means losing all your data.

Problem #5: Galaxy S5 Gmail account not receiving emails with attachments or links

For some reason I can’t send an email attachment or link to my wife’s Samsung S5 from my iPhone. I can send other emails. It is not that I can’t open the attachment, but the email will not even show up in her S5 for her Gmail account. I signed into her Gmail account through a browser and it does not show the email in her inbox. I was reading an article on my iPhone that I wanted to send her. I selected the up arrow on bottom of page and selected Mail and it created a link and I sent it. The message was sent from my iPhone successful but it never shows up on her S5 Gmail account. Everything else works. Just attachments or links. I just sent an email to her S5 Gmail account from my Comcast account from my laptop, and it sent with the link attached.

This just started today. Thank you. — Sean

Solution: Hi Sean. Please check your wife’s Gmail account settings using a PC browser to see if there are any Filters or Blocked Addresses enabled that might have caused this issue.

You also have to check other folders in her email like Spam and Deleted Items to see if your messages with attachments or links are forwarded there.

Alternatively, you can also post your issue in Google Help Forum so Google’s representative or its community can help you figure out a solution.

Problem #6: Unable to update Galaxy S5

Hello Sir/Madam. I am using Samsung Galaxy S5. i think it is imported from Korea and it is unlocked in India. When i purchased my mobile it has OS with 4.2 but I updated it to 4.3 with Samsung Kies 3. Now my issues are:

1) When I’m trying to update my OS through my mobile settings/software update it says “Your device has been modified. Software updates are not available”.

2) When I’m trying to update my OS through Samsung Kies 3, and I connect my mobile to my laptop it says “Device not responding. Disconnect and reconnect the cable”. I had tried other mobiles and there’s no problem with the cable. Samsung Kies 3 is up-to-date with the latest version. Please help. I need to upgrade my mobile to the latest version. Thanks in advance. — Ravi

Solution: Hi Ravi. If official methods of updating Android won’t work, you can always opt to do a manual update. The only downside to doing it yourself is the amount of effort required. If you haven’t tried to manually update Android before, you will need to spend considerable amount of time reading and researching to give you a better picture of what you’re about to do.

Doing an Android manual update requires rooting the phone, which is an entirely different procedure to do. Manual update procedure, also called flashing, together with rooting have inherent risks that can result to transforming your phone into an expensive paper. Make sure that you follow guides you will be using for both procedure to the letter. We can’t emphasize this point enough. While it’s not rocket science, the procedures can easily overwhelm an Android beginner. If you know someone who has already tried rooting or flashing, try asking for assistance from him or her. Otherwise, asking Mr. Google on where to start is smart idea.

Problem #7: Galaxy S5 won’t power on

Last night when I went to bed, I deleted a few unnecessary apps and then plugged my phone in to the charger like normal. However, when I woke up, there was an odd message on the screen that basically told me I could either wipe my phone’s cache or reset it to factory settings. This has happened once before after restarting my phone (about a month ago), and I simply took out the battery, waited an hour, put it back in, and it worked fine again (all without having to reset the phone or wipe the memory).

So, knowing this and having done it before, I simply took out my phone’s battery and decided to try the same method. However, after an hour, I got no response when trying to turn on my phone again. It has now been a day, and it still will not turn on. I have tried plugging it into a charger again, taking out the battery and holding down the power button, holding down all the volume, power, and home buttons, but nothing has worked so far.

I know this is a weird scenario, but if there is any way you can help me it would be much appreciated! My job and school work heavily depend on this device and the contacts I have saved to it.

(P.S. I’m not sure what the “Android Version” is because I am unable to turn my phone on and check in the settings like the instructions say). — Juliette

Solution: Hi Juliette. There’s really nothing much that we can tell you what to do if your phone won’t boot up normally. You should however try to see if you can turn it by going to recovery mode, download mode, or safe mode. These procedures require pressing a combination of hardware buttons. For example, to access recover mode, you have to turn off the phone completely and then press simultaneously the Power, Home, and Volume Up buttons. Download mode can be accessed by pressing Power, Home, and Volume Down buttons at the same time. For instructions how to boot in safe mode, please visit this page. If you’ll be unable to turn the phone on by doing any of these procedures, a hardware problem must be the reason behind it. Try replacing the battery to see if that will help. Otherwise, bring the phone to a shop so it can be physically checked for damage or errors.

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Gmailify brings the goodness of Gmail without needing an @gmail email

#Google recently introduced the ability to use a non gmail email account with the #Gmail app on Android. However, some of the features that Gmail account holders were enjoying was missing for users of an Outlook or a Hotmail account.

Google is now planning to change this with the introduction of something called Gmailify. This feature essentially links your non-Gmail account to Gmail, giving you all the features like spam filters, labels and much more without having to switch to a full blown gmail address.

This seems like Google’s way of encouraging non-Gmail users into using the app on Android. Surely, with this news, we can expect a lot of non-Gmail account holders to try out Gmail, now that there’s no distinction between a hotmail or a gmail account, at least in terms of the features offered.

It is believed that the update will be seen on the version 5.11 of the Gmail app on Android. The Play Store update should be happening any minute now, so you should be prompted of an update soon.

Source: Gmail Blog