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MMS not working

Galaxy Note 5 keeps getting notification to download system update, other issues

Hello and welcome to another #GalaxyNote5 article! This post discusses 8 more Note 5 issues and their respective solutions. If you won’t find anything helpful in this material, we strongly suggest that you also visit our main Galaxy Note 5 troubleshooting page.

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

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

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

Problem 1: Galaxy Note 5 won’t charge via USB cable

So, i have been having this problem recently and my phone only seems to charge using a wireless charger. I don’t have any problems with that part. But, using the same Samsung charger i got with my wireless pad that charges my phone through the wireless doesn’t work. I have almost resorted to changing out the charging port itself i even have the replacement parts. Any ideas as to why this is? I have done a factory reboot here recently but didn’t fix the problem. I’m currently running Android Nougat i think that’s 7.0? — Brian

Solution: Hi Brian. The most common reason why a charging port stops working is misuse or carelessness. Regular plugging and unplugging of  the charger can physically damage the port as well. We don’t know what really happened to your device though but if it doesn’t charge via USB cable now, you should assume the port is malfunctioning. You should have the phone repaired to fix it.

Our blog does not provide hardware troubleshooting and solutions so if you want to do the repair yourself, please look for other resources.

Problem 2: Galaxy Note 5 screen is broken after an accidental drop

I dropped my phone this morning, noticed a black and purple area on the lower left corner. It looked like it was bleeding internally. by this afternoon it spread to about half my screen and splotchy. So I was concerned that I would lose some of my files. I tried an app called smart switch. moved some files to my old Note 3. But I had to remove some files to get them on so I connected the Note 5 to the computer and downloaded my photos and videos. Then tried the transfer. There wasn’t enough room so I connected my Note 3 to the computer to remove photos and videos and anything else I could manually remove. Now I need to transfer my messages and contacts and snotes. I can connect the devices as I have figured out where to touch the screen to do this but my problem is after I select the files I can’t remember where the send button is located. the screen is getting darker all the time. I have turned off the phone to maybe slow down this process. Help! — Kspreadborough

Solution: Hi Kspreadborough. The screen’s LCD must be damaged and leaking liquid crystals, which can be the reason why you’re seeing splotches. We don’t know what kind of help you’re asking here but if you believe there’s anything else that you can do software-wise, you’re mistaken. The only effective solution to your problem is by replacing the screen assembly. We suggest that you bring the phone to a good service center in your area so the screen can be replaced. Make sure that you let the technician know not to touch the memory to prevent data loss after repair.

Problem 3: Galaxy Note 5 adds extra “1” number when calling someone from contacts app, MMS not working

For one, my phone has been acting as if I’m calling France and it seems to have added a “+1” to all of my contacts, and it won’t let me make outgoing calls if I call them directly from the contact list. But if I type the number out manually it’ll call correctly. And my second issue is that I can’t send or receive MMS or picture messages even though my data is configured in a way in which I can access the internet via 4G. Just no MMS or picture messaging. If y’all can help me out with this I would greatly appreciate it because I spent a lot of money on this phone. It is a Galaxy Note 5 and it has been carrier unlocked so that it goes with any carrier. — Shaun

Solution: Hi Shaun. Firstly, a network unlocked phone only means it’s software has been slightly modified to allow it to work in other networks. The majority of its software, including its pre-installed apps remain unchanged though. This is sometimes the reason why some original features of the phone won’t work when the device is used in another network. For example, some features like MMS may not work properly in a Verizon phone when used in a T-Mobile network. If this is the set-up in your case, you must talk to your current carrier so they can help you. This may be the reason why the phone appears to add an additional digit to the number every time you make a call.

Make sure that you input your contacts in correct format before checking if it’s working. Delete a contact from the list, re-enter it correctly, and dial again. If the problem remains, it’s possible that the Phone app you’re using is the problem. Consider installing third party apps as a workaround.

Secondly, the most likely reason for your MMS problem must be a device issue. It may not be properly configured preventing MMS to not work properly. Again, we recommend that you talk to your carrier so they can check the configuration of your phone. In general, as long as voice calling works in a phone, MMS should work too. Some unlocked phones like those from Verizon may be problematic though simply because of how their codes were written, so again, your carrier may not be able to help you with this.

Problem 4: Galaxy Note 5 showing screen discoloration, touchscreen registering false touches

I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 5, bought used last year about this time. I think the previous owner had it for a year or two before me. While I’ve had it, I haven’t had any hardware or software issues issues until now haha.

No massive drops, no screen cracks, no sticky keys. The problem that I’m having is that occasionally when I put the phone in sleep mode or turn it off, when I press the lock button to turn the screen back on or wait for the load-up screen, the screen will go black, or a grid of green/yellow lines will flash for a second before going black. I’m assuming that it might be a problem with the screen hardware but am unsure.

A slightly different problem is (with touch visibility on so I can see where the screen is being activated/touched) the screen registering touch where there is none, even without interaction with the phone screen at all.

Hoping that these may be connected or there could be a simple fix for this! Thanks! — Catherine

Solution: Hi Catherine. To determine if it’s a hardware issue, the only thing that you need to do is factory reset. If the screen and touch screen issues remain after wiping the phone via factory reset, you can bet bad hardware is to blame.

Below are the steps on how to factory reset your Note 5:

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

Problem 5: How to change Galaxy Note 5 themes

Since the update last week many things have changed. Contact numbers flutter like white butterflies. The text had become too fine & hard to read. Text message icon are hidden when trying to send texts. I have no idea what has happened, but immediately after the update things went astray. Can you help. — Mick

Solution: Hi Mick. If you don’t want the current setup of your phone’s interface, we recommend that you play with some options to fix it. We really don’t understand what you mean by “flutter like white butterflies” or “Text message icon are hidden when trying to send texts” but hopefully you can address them by tweaking some cosmetic changes on your device. The easiest way to do that is by using non-default themes, as we assume you don’t want the current default one, under Settings. We didn’t the things you’re describing here after installing an update in our own Note 5 so we’re thinking you may have installed a different Android version, even a non-official one. If you tried to manually install an update by flashing it, our suggestions will not work. You must work with the developer of the software you’re using to get support.

However, if you’re running the official Samsung firmware by downloading it from your carrier’s network (OTA update), then go ahead and do the steps below:

  1. Open the Settings app.
  2. Tap Wallpapers and themes.
  3. Wait for the system to load Samsung Themes page. Samsung Themes will give you three sections: Wallpapers, Themes, and Icons. If you want to change the overall look of your phone, we suggest that you go over Themes section and try as many as you want to see if you’ll like one. Some of the items under Samsung Themes are not free so you may end up paying for one that you may like.

Problem 6: Galax Note 5 won’t charge, charging port not working

Hi friend. Actually my mobile is working perfectly for a couple of days and the display alone is not working. When I went to the service centre for more than 5times they told me to use the original charger or used to charge by the computer with data cable. In service centre they easily fix it but they are charged rs500/- every time. How can I fix it? — Manny

Solution: Hi Manny. We don’t think we understand what you mean exactly here but if you’re saying that your Note 5 does not charge properly anymore and a technician has determined that repair is needed to fix it, then there’s nothing more that you can do on your end. The charging port may be malfunctioning causing this charging problem right now. There’s no software solution that you can try to fix a bad charging port or any other hardware malfunction. The best that you can do are basic software troubleshooting that should include wiping the cache partition and factory reset.

If you haven’t tried a factory reset at this point, you must do so after wiping the cache partition. Refer to the steps above on how to factory reset your Note 5.

Below are the steps on how to how to wipe the cache partition on Galaxy Note 5:

During the first boot up, just after you bought the phone, the system will create files for each app and service. These files will be stored in a certain directory only the system could access; the directory is called cache partition. Over time, some of the files get corrupted especially during updates. If the new system tries to use them, conflicts may occur. Hence, you need to delete the obsolete files so that the new system will create new ones but since you don’t have access to those files, you need to use the procedure that Android developers setup for you–wipe cache partition via Recovery Mode.

So, you need to boot the phone up in Recovery Mode first before you can wipe the cache partition. Here’s how…

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

Remember, if your phone continues to mess up and won’t charge, send it in to be repaired.

Problem 7: Galaxy Note 5 lost Accessibility settings after installing an update

My phone updated last night and i lost important features such as voice text, and swipe and number buttons on text keyboard. My Note 5 i used as a  computer for work on the go. This hinders my abilities. How can i get these back? — Gretta

Solution: Hi Gretta. If an Android update reconfigured your phone to something different, you should be able to customize some settings again under Settings.

For example, it looks like you’ve actually lost the accessibility settings so you want to do the following:

  1. Open the Settings app.
  2. Scroll down and tap Accessibility.

In order to fix your voice text option, you can try the Text-to-speech and configure it to your taste.

All your other needs should be under Accessibility section so just play with them until you’ll get back what you’re missing.

Problem 8: Galaxy Note 5 keeps getting notification to download system update | How to stop annoying system update notifications from showing

I’m actually guessing at the OS because I haven’t been able to find it listed anywhere for my phone. This new Note 5 (SM-920V) was just purchased within the last week from U.S. Cellular over Amazon.com.

The problem I’m experiencing is that, whenever the phone has access to a data link, either mobile or wi-fi, it is constantly trying to do a system update. Of four system updates it notified me of this morning, I watched it complete two to 100%, followed by Android optimization (also both through to completion) but within a minute, the phone shows another available system update. I had the same problem with another (certified refurbished) Note 5 – it used an entire month’s data (and then went over, to incur charges) within about 15 minutes. Verizon was kind enough to reinstate all of my data and just advised me to keep the data turned off and that they thought the phone was defective. Unfortunately, it looks like this factory-new Note 5 is doing the same thing. I followed instructions to wipe the cache partition, which didn’t fix the problem but I’m very reluctant to try anything else. — Jq101817

Solution: Hi Jq101817. There’s an option under Settings menu to disable a device from automatically connecting to a server to download update files. Below are the steps on how to disable

  1. Open the Settings app.
  2. Scroll down and look for Software update. Tap it.
  3. Disable Download updates automatically option by sliding the slider to the left.

If you don’t have the option to disable automatic system update, that means that the  firmware of the original carrier removed it. Unfortunately, there’s really nothing much that you can do about it, unless you want to install a non-offical firmware, or a root software that can intentionally block OTA updates.

If you don’t want to install non-official software or root your phone, you may want to try third party apps that can do similar tasks. Some users have reported success in blocking over-the-air updates by using Package Disabler Pro (Samsung) from Google Play Store. If you decide to use such an app, make sure to read their disclaimer as they can potentially hinder some important system functions. For example, Package Disabler Pro works by disabling some critical packages which may be needed by your system, which can then lead to errors or malfunction. Be sure to know what app you’re installing by doing some research about it. Reading reviews from other users is a good way to know what potential problems you may encounter when installing it. We also encourage you to contact the developer of said app should you encounter problems right after installing their product.

 

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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Galaxy S6 microphone not working when using speakerphone during calls, other issues

Hello Android fans! Here’s another #GalaxyS6 post for you. We hope that this will become another useful reference for our ever-growing community.

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

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

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

Problem 1: Galaxy S6 won’t charge, charging port not working

The phone started having issues charging about two days ago. When plugging in the charger I had to wiggle it around to get it connected properly. Yesterday it would not stay connected even after wiggling it. It would keep connecting and disconnecting. Now the charger will not connect at all even after wiggling the charger plug in the phone. I tested the charger and it works properly. I believe maybe there is some build up of dust in the charging port of the phone or there is a loose connection within the charging port of the phone. I used a flashlight to check look into the charging port and got a small amount of dust out with a paper clip. This did not fix the issue. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks. P.S. I am not completely sure about the Android version. I always update to the new version but an update showed up yesterday (24Jun17) and I have not updated it yet and am not able to now because my phone is dead.         — Daniel

Solution: Hi Daniel. We don’t think you would be able to fix this issue on your end.  The most likely problem is a broken charging port, which means the device has to be repaired. Unless you have the expertise and tools to do a charging port replacement, the only effective way to fix your problem would be to contact Samsung or your carrier so the device can replaced or repaired.

If you want to do a do-it-yourself charging port replacement, go online and look for a good guide to help you.

Problem 2: Galaxy S6 stopped charging after installing an update

I let my phone update last night 06/24/17 after it had been harassing me to update for the last 2 days. When update was completed everything seemed fine. Then i realized that it would no longer charge using multiple cords and chargers. I have come to the conclusion it is not my charger or cords that are the issue, it is my phone. Please help. it was working fine before the update. Now I’m going to have to buy a new phone if the issue cannot be resolved. — Blkcloud85

Solution: Hi Blkcloud85. If you’re sure that the problem started after an update, then the usual set of post-update software solutions may help. First, you want to wipe the cache partition. This will help ensure that your device is using the fresh system cache. If you haven’t tried it before, these are the steps:

  1. Turn off the device.
  2. Press and hold the following three buttons at the same time: Volume Up key, Home key, and Power key.
  3. When the phone vibrates, release the Power key but continue to press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key.
  4. When the Android System Recovery screen appears, release the Volume Up and Home keys.
  5. Press the Volume Down key to highlight ‘wipe cache partition.’
  6. Press the Power key to select.
  7. When the wipe cache partition is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
  8. Press the Power key to restart the device.

If wiping the cache partition won’t fix the problem, create a backup of your data (photos, videos, etc.) and factory reset your phone. Below are the steps on how to factory reset your phone:

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

Problem 3: Water damaged Galaxy S6 won’t charge, stopped working

Hello. Yesterday I took my phone (Samsung S6) to the bathroom, and a few splashes of water went onto it. It suddenly stopped playing music and turned off. i tried charging it, and it shows the symbol but doesn’t actually charge. i put it in a bag of rice overnight, as i don’t think it was a lot of water, but from what I’m reading, turning it on, is going to damage it further if all the water inside of it, isn’t cleared. what do you advise that i do? take it straight to be fixed or try putting it on again. And if water damaged, will it actually work again like before, or must i think if getting a new one? — Winnieliagatha

Solution: Hi Winnieliagatha. Your Galaxy S6 does not have water resistance protection so even if only a small amount of water reached the motherboard or some components inside, permanent damage can occur. Ideally, you’re supposed to do the following:

  1. turn the phone off
  2. remove the battery
  3. dismantle the phone
  4. clean and dry dismantled parts for days or weeks
  5. pray that your phone works normally afterwards.

We understand that you cannot easily open your phone to remove the battery and dismantle it (which is one of weaknesses of this phone). Thus, we recommend that you let  a professional check your phone so you’ll know if it can still be saved. Water damage can lead to all sorts of problems so there’s no telling what happens after repair. In some lucky cases, wet phones can continue working normally. A majority of cases do not always result to happy users though. Water and electronics do not mix and even tiny moisture can lead to serious motherboard damage. If you’re lucky and damage is isolated to an easily replaceable component only like the battery or charging port, repair may fix the problem for good.

If your phone no longer turns on at this time, it’s very likely that the device has already been damaged permanently. If money is not an issue, we suggest that you let the phone go and simply get a new one.

Problem 4: Galaxy S6 edge won’t power back on

Hi guys! I have a Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge. It’s been with me for a couple of months now and I’ve always took good care of it. No water damage, it wasn’t dropped or something. Today, it turned off on its own and when I tried to turn it on, nothing happened. I’m freaking out now because I don’t know what to do so if you could just help me with it, I would surely appreciate it. — Kenan.sakirovski7

Solution: Hi Kenan.sakirovski7. The first thing that you must do is ensure that you’re using a known, working charger and USB cord. The current charger may have stopped working so checking it is an important first step.

If you’ve already checked the charger before contacting us, then the only other troubleshooting step that you can do is to see if your phone will respond to different hardware button combinations. Each of these combinations is supposed to restart the device to a specific boot mode, which would then allow you to perform a follow up troubleshooting. If your phone fails to power back on after attempting all three boot modes, send it in for repair or replacement. Below are the steps on how to do each one:

Boot in Recovery mode:

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

Boot in Download Mode:

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

Boot in safe mode:

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

Problem 5: Galaxy S6 camera not working properly, phone vibrates when loading camera app

A friend recommended your site when all else options for me faded away. It’s my camera. Let me give you a little background here.

When I had my s6 edge plus I was more than satisfied with the camera results and it’s functionality. The quality never disappointed me. Then after few months the problem first occurred. Whenever I opened my default camera app, it produced a vibrating sound like buzzing of a bee . Then after sometime it progressed to faltering of image on screen before focusing fully to any image. My carrier gave me the replacement. Now after few months, I again had to face same problem. When I open my camera, 5 out of ten times, it produces buzzing. The faltering of image not yet developed. But I’m positive it would like the previous phone.

My current phone is updated to newest software and Android 7.0. I’ve already performed camera resetting, soft reset , safe mode and finally phone reset (just like I had done so with my last phone ) but of no use. What’s going on here? Kindly reply me back with some solid reason and solution. Counting on your help.. Regards. — Waqasjaved1

Solution: Hi Waqasjaved1. There’s a very slim chance of experiencing exactly the same camera problem on at least 2 devices so we’re thinking that the cause of the problem is either due to a problematic app installed on both phones, or you’re simply unlucky of having to get the a replacement phone with the same bad hardware.

The second one is rare but can happen but we think the problem lies on one of your apps. To check that, do another round of factory reset and observe how camera works without any apps installed. If our suspicion is right, your camera should work fine when there are no apps installed. This won’t mean that all your apps is bad though. To see which of yours is responsible, you must install each one and observe how camera works afterwards. Do the same routine until the very last one is installed. You should see the difference somewhere along the way. This is the only way to pinpoint the culprit.

If the problem stays after a factory reset without any apps installed though, you should continue to work with your carrier to have the device replaced.

Problem 6: Galaxy S6 deleted SMS/MMS

I have a Galaxy S6. I have 1585 SMS/MMS sent messages on the device. I also have 1864 SMS/MMS received messages. If I delete all of these, are they deleted from the cloud? If i delete these, they are permanently removed?

Also, if I lock the most recent messages from some people I have been texting, then go to my eraser app and delete all the messages, will the ones I have locked, be deleted? Thanks. — Rhett

Solution: Hi Rhett. If you’re using the native Samsung messaging app (named Messages), then deleting your messages from the phone may be permanent. SMS stored by Messages app is stored locally, that is, they’re kept within the device only. If you delete them from the messaging app, you will lose them permanently.

However, if you’re using a third party (non-Samsung) messaging app with cloud support, which means that your messages are being backed up in some remote somewhere, deleting your messages from the device will not lead to permanent loss. You only need to access your cloud account (exact steps can vary) and redownload your messages.

The lock feature (we’re assuming that you’re using the Samsung Messages app) only applies within the app. If your eraser app can override the functions of the messaging app you’re using and will delete the message from the system, your locked messages may still get deleted. To see if that’s the case, you can try to simulate what happens before you actually erase your precious messages. Try to lock an SMS message that you can afford to lose, then delete it using your eraser app to see what happens.

Problem 7: Galaxy S6 microphone not working when using speakerphone during calls

My wife’s Samsung S6 Nougat O/S T-mobile has an issue with the speaker phone. During a call, you select the speaker phone option. I can hear the other person but the other person cannot hear me. I have powered down and restarted, started in Safe Mode, factory reset and restored and also tried a voice record. My voice recording was fine. Hands free does not work, does not allow the other participant in the call to hear my voice. Any suggestions? — Jeffreyedgar

Solution: Hi Jeffreyedgar. If nothing happens when the phone is in safe mode, or after you wiped it with factory reset, the problem is most probably caused by inefficient firmware coding. This means that the operating system from your carrier may be buggy. Unfortunately, there’s nothing that you can do about it at all. Make sure to report the issue to your carrier though so they can keep note of it and hopefully build a patch for it.

Problem 8: Galaxy S6 sound notifications not working properly after an update

So I installed the new update on my Samsung Galaxy s6. Now my notifications are all wack. Sometimes I’ll receive them but no sound will notify me, or sometimes ill get the notification with sound the second time a notification comes up, this issue is really making me regret this update. I don’t understand why this issue is occuring, I have already tried restarting my phone but it still does the same thing. — Rosanna

Solution: Hi Rosanna. Please refer to our suggestion for Blkcloud85 above and wipe the cache partition and do a factory reset.

Problem 9: Galaxy S6 MMS not working on Consumer Cellular service

I’ve had my phone for about half a year now and I still haven’t been able to figure this out. I am not able to send pictures through text messaging. When I send a picture it keeps saying “sending” and then later says that it couldn’t send. It still happens when I have my data on, too. I have a Samsung Galaxy S6 active, and my carrier is AT&T. (My phone being Consumer Cellular). Hope that this could be fixed, and if not that’s okay. Thanks! — Nicole

Solution: Hi Nicole. Phones built for a particular carrier may not work fully when used in a different network. Your issue is not uncommon. We suggest that you contact your current carrier though for support. They should help you check the APN settings on the device. If they can change it, there’s a chance that MMS will work.

 

Engage with us

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

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

Galaxy Note 5 from China won’t connect to 4G network in the UK, no sound during calls, other issues

Welcome to another #GalaxyNote5 article for this day. We cover 10 more Note 5 issues in this article so we hope that it’ll be a helpful guide for some of our readers.

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

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

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

Problem 1: Galaxy Note 5 MMS not working

Hello. I bought this Note 5 on Ebay late last year. My carrier is Straight Talk. At first I have messages, which came with the phone, hangouts, that I was was using at first and messenger through Facebook. Since December last year I still can’t send or receive MMS. I get an error that says something about AT&T that storage is 90% full. If i tape on the web address every once in a while I can see a MMS that was sent to me, but most of the time I can’t see the MMS that was sent to me. I’ve tried all my apps. The only way I can receive a MMS is through messenger through Facebook MMS. I cant receive MMS on messenger sms. I am so frustrated. I hope you can help me. I wish i could send you the error message I receive when someone is trying to send me a MMS. It’s really weird. I get the error message from like a 6 digit number starting with…288….if i block that number, it sends it through one of my contacts as if they sent it to me. I would text that person and they say they haven’t sent me a MMS. I am so frustrated. I hope you can help me. I do use wifi with my note 5. Thank you. —  Tina

Solution: Hi Tina. If mobile data connection works in your phone, then the most probable reason for your problem must be incorrect network configuration. Contact your carrier and tell them about your issue so they can check the APN as well as other relevant settings.

Keep in mind that if the phone is not originally from your carrier, that is, it’s from another carrier but was unlocked to allow it work with other networks, MMS may never work at all. We often see this problem with Verizon phones being used in other networks.

Problem 2: Galaxy Note 5 not detected by PC after flashing

Rooted the N5 (SM-N920A) no issues. Tried installing TWRP with either N920T/N920(unlocked/No carrier) phone kicked back “At&t had found unauthorized software on device, please bring to a authorised At&t store”. I was able to get back into the OS once, but after that I cannot get into anything other than “Download Mode”. OEM unlock and USB debugging we’re both enabled prior to brick. They main issue is with connection to PC, or lack there of. My windows 10 & 7 machines both show a device but with some sort of error. Can not connect to ODIN/Kies. I did uninstall and reinstall drivers, also connected a GS6(which connected just fine). Doesn’t show any devices connected. Don’t really know where to go from here. Any help would be amazing. — Ryan

Solution: Hi Ryan. Try using another computer with installed Smart Switch on it and see if that will work. Otherwise, consider doing a master reset on your phone to fix it. If a master reset won’t work either, you’re out of luck. Having attempted to modify the official Samsung software, we assume that you’re aware of the possibility that you might brick your phone in the process.

Below are the steps on how to master reset your Note 5:

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

Problem 3: Galaxy Note 5 won’t turn back on

I have a Galaxy Note 5 and this morning it randomly shut off, and wouldn’t turn back on or even respond, even when I plugged it into the charger. Nothing. I’d appreciate all the help I could get cause this is really frustrating. — Blair

Solution: Hi Blair. If the phone won’t power back on at all, there’s very little to nothing that you can do about it. Try to check if you can restart it to alternate boot modes. Only then can you do follow up troubleshooting. Below are the steps that you must try:

Boot in Recovery mode:

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

Boot in Download Mode:

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

Boot in safe mode:

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

Problem 4: Galaxy Note 5 keeps getting “Media Player Error”

Receiving “Media Player Error” when accessing voicemail app and will not play videos. I disabled Cloud and it worked for one day afterwards. Then I was told by the Verizon rep that it was a common issue and to do a factory reset. That only worked for a day. — Faylee

Solution: Hi Faylee. If the issue returns after a factory reset, that’s probably because one of the installed apps is causing it. Try to uninstall apps one by one, and make sure to test if the problem remains after each uninstall.

If you’re having a problem with an app from your carrier, make sure to talk to your carrier’s technical support team for help.

Problem 5: Galaxy Note 5 and other devices can’t send and receive MMS

I’ve had my Samsung Note 5 for a year now. I’ve recently started having problems receiving and sending pictures. It says “failed” when someone sends me a pic and when I send them a pic I can see it but they say it says failed on their end also. Also, when I first got the phone I could send videos and now when I try to send a video even its 2 seconds long or 2 mins long, it’s so distorted on my end and on theirs. Oh and my mom, dad and sisters all have certain samsung android phones too and they are having the same problems. I also sometimes I can’t receive text or other ppl aren’t getting my text at times. If anyone can help me with this it would me AMAZING! — Kat

Solution: Hi Kat. If your family are on the same network, the reason for all these issues must be on your network’s side and not on the devices. Make sure to let your carrier know about the problems so they can help you troubleshoot them.

Problem 6: Verizon Galaxy Note 5 keeps saying phone does not have a SIM card

With my Verizon Samsung Note 5, I received an error message that the phone does not have a SIM card. Starts off as a random occurrence progressively getting worse over the next few months until I can no longer tolerate the error message occurring 6 to 8 times a day. I am an Uber driver and have lost data and rides as a result. I have taken it into Verizon and am now on my 3rd replacement Note 5. I soft and hard reboot with the same problem showing up over a few days. — Chuck

Solution: Hi Chuck. Verizon is using CDMA technology, thus its mobile phones don’t need SIM cards to work. If your phone does use a SIM, that’s to allow it to use 4G LTE, which is a modified GSM technology. Try observing the phone for a day without a SIM card inserted to see if the problem stays. If it does, the issue is most probably caused by poor or inefficient coding of the operating system, which is Verizon’s fault. Unfortunately, that also means that all you can do is to report the issue and wait for them to fix it.

Problem 7: Galaxy Note 5 SIM card locked by Sprint

I have Sprint service for my Note 5. I moved outside the coverage zone in a rural area. Only service in my area is AT&T and Verizon. My SIM card became invalid or locked recently. That’s because the two carriers “locked” my SIM since I was using their service towers. Over 10 plus years with Sprint in a Metro city… lousy customer service lately.. Just don’t know what to do.. End contract? Become stuck in another contract? I am Deaf and need cell service to communicate via text or video chat.. Please help with intelligent advice! Thank you! — Mr. O

Solution: Hi Mr. O. AT&T and Verizon can’t lock your SIM card, even if you’re using their services, for unknown reasons. We don’t even know how you can use their services when you are a Sprint customer. What probably happened was that Sprint detects that your SIM card has become “inactive” in their system for a certain period because you’re out of coverage area and decided to deactivate it. Carriers often do this automatically so all you have to do is to contact them again (we know it can be a challenge for you) and have them unlock or reactivate it. There’s a chance though that they may deactivate the SIM again after some time. We suggest that if your area does not have good cellular coverage from Sprint, just discontinue your service with them and get a new contract with either AT&T or Verizon. There’s nothing much that you can do if Sprint has poor or non-existent service in your area.

Problem 8: Galaxy Note 5 stopped detecting USB scope camera after an update

I bought one of those cheap USB scope cameras for my phone. It worked fine several times until I updated to 6.0.1 recently. now it won’t recognize the cam. It will turn on the LED on the camera but no picture. I thought the camera was bad so I had them send another, same issue. I know the camera is fine because I hooked it to my desktop using adapter and it worked fine. Tried rebooting phone and the OTG troubleshooter but could figure anything out. Any suggestions? Thanks! — Txrankin

Solution: Hi Txrankin. If the only thing that you did prior to noticing the problem was to install an Android update, then the peripheral may not be compatible with the new Android version. Contact the maker of the device and see if there’s a way to make it compatible with your phone again.

Problem 9: Galaxy Note 4 has no sound during calls

Hi. I have a note 5 which is about 4-5 months old. Recently I encountered this issue that whenever I received incoming calls or making outgoing calls , my phone have no sound during the calls. There’s sound only when I put the calls on loudspeaker. My phone’s audio is working perfectly fine when it comes to playing videos or songs without my earphone connected to the phone . I’ve tried all possible ways but they just won’t work. Please kindly help me out as I would love to try any other ways that can fix my phone’s issue , thanks . — Tessa

Solution: Hi Tessa. Try wiping the cache and data of the Phone app you’re using. Here’s how:

  1. Open the Settings menu either through your notification shade (drop-down) or through the Settings app in your app drawer.
  2. Navigate down to “Apps”. This may be renamed to something like Applications or Application Manager in OEM skinned versions of Android 6 or 7.
  3. Once in there, click on an application.
  4. You’ll now see a list of stuff that gives you information about the app, including Storage, Permissions, Memory Use, and more. These are all clickable items. You’ll want to click on Storage.
  5. You should now clearly see the Clear Cache and Clear Data buttons for the application.

If wiping the cache and data won’t work, your next move would be to wipe the cache partition. There may be an issue with the system cache so deleting the current one may fix it. Here’s how:

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

If these two procedures won’t help, wipe the phone by doing a factory reset. Refer to the steps above.

Problem 10: Galaxy Note 5 from China won’t connect to 4G network in the UK

My phone is from China (I think, though bought it on eBay) but I live in the UK. My phone, my wife’s and my sons are all on the same network, yet they can get 4G and I cannot. I have contacted Tesco, my supplier (O2) and they say it must be my phone. I have contacted Samsung and they say my guarantee is only valid in the country it was purchased. The phone is fine in every other way, except it doesn’t get 4G. I hope you can help me out? — Mick

Solution: Hi Mick. Does your phone have an LTE option under Settings>Connections>Mobile networks? If it does and you can’t select it when you try to tap it, it’s possible that it’s radio is incompatible with the 4G LTE frequencies your carrier is using. Unfortunately, there’s nothing that you can do about it because network capability in a phone is determined by the hardware. You can’t just adjust something in settings and make it compatible with a certain radio frequency. That’s why it’s highly recommended that you do more research when buying electronics online, especially when it comes to smartphones. This phone may be designed to work in a particular network in China which uses a different 4G frequency. Try to talk to your carrier and see if they can help you troubleshoot what’s causing the issue. Make sure to ask them if the phone is compatible with their network. Try to do some research about your phone before calling them so you can provide relevant information like the model number among other items.

We also suggest that you Google the model number of the device so you’ll know what it’s frequencies are.

 

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Galaxy S6 has no internet access when connected to wifi, won’t send SMS, other issues

Hello #GalaxyS6 users! Welcome to another S6 article that answers some questions sent our way by some of our readers. Below are the specific topics we discuss for you:

  1. Galaxy S6 edge stuck in boot loop
  2. Galaxy S6 won’t send SMS when wifi is ON
  3. Galaxy S6 edge randomly rebooting, won’t turn on
  4. Galaxy S6 won’t install new system update
  5. MMS on Galaxy S6 not working properly on T-Mobile network
  6. Galaxy S6 froze and stops turning on
  7. Galaxy S6 has no internet access when connected to wifi

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

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

Problem #1: Galaxy S6 edge stuck in boot loop

Good Evening. I am writing because my Samsung Galaxy S6 edge continues to reboot in a boot loop. I have tried wiping the cache partition and it still does not help at all. It will turn on and boot up to the home screen for about 5 seconds and then shut off/reboot and will continue to do that.

I also booted it in safe mode to see if that would help but it didn’t. Now it is updating the OS, and even while it is updating (I don’t know how i got it to update) it continues to go through a boot loop even while updating so it doesn’t finish updating. If you can provide me with any suggestions/advice that would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much for your time and attention to this email. Warm Regards. — Abby

Solution: Hi Abby. A huge number of boot loop issues are usually the result of a failed flashing procedure. If you tried to flash (install) a ROM or custom Recovery software before encountering this problem, you may only have yourself to blame. To fix the issue, you should try flash the stock bootloader first and proceed from there.

Flashing a bootloader is generally the same when you flash a stock firmware but the exact steps can vary by phone model. Below are the general steps on what you need to do. Keep in mind that the steps provided here are only for illustration purposes only. The exact steps for your phone may take a variation. It’s your responsibility to find a good guide for your phone model.

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

If you never tried to flash your phone before experiencing the issue, you should boot the phone to Recovery mode again and do a master reset.

Problem #2: Galaxy S6 won’t send SMS when wifi is ON

Hi there, I’m having a similar issue to #4 in this older post (https://thedroidguy.com/2015/09/galaxy-s6-cant-send-text-when-wi-fi-is-on-other-sms-and-mms-problems-1048854#comments) but I didn’t see any solution – also note, it says it sounds like an isolated issue, but commenters on the post experience the problem as well. Just wanted to provide some background now I’ll describe my issue in detail.

I had a Moto x (1st Gen) unlocked, and a few weeks ago my texting would fail to send almost constantly. I finally narrowed it down to when the wifi was on, text messages would fail. Please note, cellular service and data would still be on during this time. If I turned off the wifi, mostly the text messages would still fail. A soft reset, with wifi turned off would usually allow me to resend the text successfully. But after a few weeks of frustrating failed texts (and suspicions that maybe I wasn’t receiving all my calls/voicemail alerts) I decided perhaps the phone was just getting too old (had it for 3 years) and it was time for an upgrade. Also note, I don’t recall downloading any new or unusual apps during this time period.

So yesterday, I picked up a new (brand new out of the box) Galaxy S6, unlocked. Everything seemed to work fine, sent a few texts… good start. Today, after connecting to my office wifi, failed text messages once again. Really frustrating. However, at least with this new phone it seems I can simply turn off the wifi and resend successfully instead of needing to soft reset the phone. Please remember, I’m not turning off any cellular data while the wifi is on. Any idea why this is happening or how it can be fixed? Could it be an issue with the SIM card? Appreciate any help!!  — Leashchild

Solution: Hi Leashchild. This issue has been around but unfortunately, we are yet to collect enough information from all these reports to see any pattern in identifying the cause. We understand there’s been a number of comments in the post you mention but they don’t provide details to allow us to see a common denominator. We do think that it may be narrowed down to the same carrier (T-Mobile) so if you already tried our suggestions of wiping app cache and data and factory reset before, make sure to let your carrier help you fix it. They are in a better position to isolate the possible causes than us anyway.

Problem #3: Galaxy S6 edge randomly rebooting, won’t turn on

Hey! So I have a S6 edge that was working fine and then it started to turn itself off the odd time. Then it started to turn itself off more and more often. Eventually it just shut off barely charged and it didn’t matter what you did. Now, you can not charge the phone nor can you turn it on. When you plug it in it just comes up with a screen that reads “an error has occurred while updating the device software use the emergency recovery function in the smart switch PC software” however when you plug it in to the computer, smart switch says the phone is not compatible. Let me know your thoughts. — Brian

Solution: Hi Brian. A phone that randomly cuts out, won’t charge, and won’t turn on is definitely problematic. Unfortunately, the problem in this case is not software in nature, which is usually easy to fix, but hardware related. The only software troubleshooting that you can do right now is master reset. If nothing changes after you do that, if you can actually do it, given the fact that you said the phone is not even turning on, you can bet bad hardware is to blame. It can be a damaged battery, malfunctioning charging port, or an unknown logic board issue. To get to the bottom of the issue, you must let a professional check the hardware. If the phone is still in warranty, send it to Samsung and see if you can have it replaced instead.

For reference, here are the steps on how to factory reset your Galaxy S6:

  1. Create a backup of your important files such as photos, videos, etc. (if still possible at all).
  2. Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge.
  3. Press and hold the Volume Up, Home and Power keys together.
  4. When the device powers on and displays ‘Power on logo’, release all keys and the Android icon will appear on the screen.
  5. Wait until the Android Recovery Screen appears after about 30 seconds.
  6. Using the Volume Down key, highlight the option, ‘wipe data/factory reset’ and press the Power key to select it.
  7. Press the Vol Down button again until the option ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted and then press the Power key to select it.
  8. After the reset is complete, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and hit the Power key to restart the phone.

Problem #4: Galaxy S6 won’t install new system update

My phone is telling me that a software update is available. It lets me download it but when i install it gets to 32% then it shows the broken Android logo and then restarts. A message then appears telling me the firmware failed to install and to contact Samsung. I have tried deleting the cache partition, i have tried a factory reset and still the problem is the same — gets to 32% of the install and then goes off. I’ve tried to install using Kies. I don’t know what else to do.

Also, my wifi won’t remember passwords. I’ve tried everything to solve that too with no success. Any help would be greatly received. Thanks in advance. — Becki1980

Solution: Hi Becki1980. If your phone is not rooted and does not run unofficial software, there must be software glitch preventing the installation of a software update. If your phone is rooted or runs a non-Samsung firmware, you must contact the developer of said software for assistance. There may be a software-specific setting that locks the system out from being updated. This is not necessarily bad. Some software developers prevents a system from installing updates not coming from them to prevent bricking the device so you should talk to them for answers. There are hundreds of custom software for the Galaxy S6 out there so it’s beyond us to know exactly if this is the case in your device.

If your phone has been running stock or official software all along and it’s never been rooted, there may be an unknown software bug that blocks installation of a system update. The thing is, there’s no way to know where this software glitch may be coming from so you must do further troubleshooting to narrow down possible causes. The interesting thing though is the fact that such a bug should have been eliminated following a factory reset. If you re-installed apps and updates after a factory reset before attempting to install the new update, we suggest that you do another round of factory reset. Make sure that this time, you try to install the update first before re-installing apps.

Also, be sure to do a master reset instead of factory reset via Settings.

  1. Create a backup of your important files such as photos, videos, etc. (if still possible at all).
  2. Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge.
  3. Press and hold the Volume Up, Home and Power keys together.
  4. When the device powers on and displays ‘Power on logo’, release all keys and the Android icon will appear on the screen.
  5. Wait until the Android Recovery Screen appears after about 30 seconds.
  6. Using the Volume Down key, highlight the option, ‘wipe data/factory reset’ and press the Power key to select it.
  7. Press the Vol Down button again until the option ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted and then press the Power key to select it.
  8. After the reset is complete, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and hit the Power key to restart the phone.

If your phone continues to fail to install the OTA (over-the-air) update, let your carrier know so they can help you.

Problem #5: MMS on Galaxy S6 not working properly on T-Mobile network

I have a Samsung Galaxy s6. I switched to T-mobile about 3 weeks ago, and the problem seemed to start then, but I can’t be for certain. When I am texting a person with simple SMS, it works fine. When MMS becomes involved, such as sending/receiving an image, it goes crazy. After the image is received, if I reply, my reply is sent to the recipient in our original thread. But then I also receive my own text within a group text that consists of me and the recipient. I have tried everything including blocking my own number, but nothing has worked. I also wiped the cache partition after reading that it might solve the problem. I contacted T-Mobile and they said it could be a problem with the Samsung messenger app; however, I switched to Google Hangouts, and it did the same thing. — Devinlhardin

Solution: Hi Devinlhardin. The general rule when it comes to SMS, MMS, mobile date, and voice calling issues is to always get support from your carrier. Your issue is definitely not a Samsung issue as it happens when using a different messaging app. We will recommend though that you still try to factory reset the device before contacting them again.

This does not also occur in all Samsung S6 devices so it can only be related to your network. There may be some problems with their computers or servers so it’s for them to fix, not us. After all, you’re paying them to have a working service in the first place. It’s their responsibility to fix the issue whether it’s due to a technical glitch on their end, or whether it’s the Samsung built Galaxy S6 devices.

Problem #6: Galaxy S6 froze and stops turning on

My Samsung Galaxy S6 was working perfectly fine and was in mint condition. However I saw my battery getting low so I plugged it in to charge. After a couple hours of charging I wanted to check my messages and tried to turn on my phone to do so and it was frozen. The home screen wouldn’t turn on and the screen was black even though I was hitting the power button to turn it on. I saw the blue light flashing like it normally does on sleep mode which means I had a message so I thought there was just a glitch and it froze. I held the power button and the home screen button down together at the same time and it still didn’t run on. I plugged it into my computer and nothing happened. It won’t turn on and I tried everything. I followed all your steps on your forum but nothing is working. Can you please help me? — Karissa

Solution: Hi Karissa. There are a few things that you must check to identify where the problem lies.

The first one is to see if it’s related to your charger. Try using another known, working Samsung charger and see if will charge your device. Try to avoid using third party USB cable or charger during this time. The current charger may not be working properly at this time.

If another Samsung charger won’t power the phone back on, you must then do an ocular inspection of the charging port. Try to use some form of magnification so you’ll be able to see clearly the insides of the charging port. Sometimes, lint or a bent pin can prevent good charging so if there’s something out of place in there, do your best to remove it. If you think the port is dirty, or if a lint is blocking something, try to use a hair blower to wipe it out. There’s only so much that you can do for a bent pin though so if you think that’s where the problem lies, send the phone to Samsung so the port can be replaced.

If the charging port looks normal and you’ve already tried using another charger but the phone remains unresponsive, consider booting the phone to alternate boot modes so you can do follow up troubleshooting. Here are the steps:

Boot in Recovery mode:

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

Boot in Download Mode:

  1. Charge the phone for at least 30 minutes.
  2. Press and then hold the Home and Volume DOWN keys, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the Samsung Galaxy S7 shows on the screen, release the Power key but continue holding the Home and Volume DOWN keys.
  4. Wait until the Download screen appears.
  5. If you can boot the phone in download mode but not in other modes, that means that your only way out may be to flash a stock or custom firmware.
  6. Use Google to look for a guide on how to do it.

Boot in safe mode:

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

Problem #7: Galaxy S6 has no internet access when connected to wifi

My daughter has a Samsung Galaxy S6 and has had it since just before Christmas. When she first got it, everything was fine — she could connect to the internet, download apps, etc… Her phone is not hooked up to a phone plan. She just uses it when it is connected to the wi-fi like an iPod. Now, it won’t connect to the internet even though it shows that it is connected. She can’t use the apps (like Instagram won’t update or post) or download new ones. We have done a factory reset, removed the battery, and it still persists. Any ideas? — Nicole

Solution: Hi Nicole. Being connected to a wifi network does not necessarily mean a device can also connect to the internet. The wifi’s administrator may allow access to the local network (phone to router) but not to the internet (phone to router to internet). In other words, there may be restriction in the router set by the administrator to block your daughter’s phone from connecting to the internet. To see if that’s the case, try to connect the phone to another known working wifi network and see if internet works on the device. If it does, that’s proof that there’s no wifi problem on the device and that your home wifi is restricting internet access.

If you are not the administrator of your home wifi, contact your internet service provider so they can help you reset the settings or remove the restriction.

If you are connecting to someone else’s wifi, talk to the administrator so the restriction will be lifted.

 

Engage with us

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

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

Can’t hear caller when T-Mobile Galaxy S7 wi-fi calling is OFF or out of range, other issues

We’re finally getting a confirmation that the latest Android iteration, #AndroidNougat (Android 7.0), has finally been released for the #GalaxyS7 and S7 Edge in South Korea. This means that other regions may be getting the awaited update before 2016 will end. Like you, we’re also excited how the new official Android version looks in the Galaxy S and Note series. Until then, let’s continue to address S7 issues as they come.

s7

This post covers 6 more problems as reported by other S7 users. If you’ve don’t find a solution for your own S7 issue here, make sure to visit our main Galaxy S7 troubleshooting page. In the meantime, below are the specific issues that we address in this article today:

  1. Galaxy S7 cannot send MMS
  2. Galaxy S7 keeps pausing when playing videos
  3. Verizon Galaxy S7 MMS not working when using AT&T SIM card
  4. Galaxy S7 no longer boots back up after installing Android update
  5. Can’t hear caller when T-Mobile Galaxy S7 wi-fi calling is OFF or out of range
  6. Galaxy S7 won’t connect to work wi-fi network

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 cannot send MMS

Hi I’m having issues sending MMS. I can text no problem. I have contacted my service provider to confirm my APN settings are correct for MMS and internet which they are but they asked me to add a new APN for mms as all the options are greyed out so am unable to edit. I have done this. They are greyed out too for Internet but I can connect to my data so assume the settings are fine. I have tried a few numbers on both wifi and data connection separately with no luck. The service provider say they can’t help further which is highly frustrating. I really hope you can help. Thanks in advance. — Michelle

Solution: Hi Michelle. There can be a number of possible reasons why a phone is unable to send MMS. Because there’s no way to know the exact cause, you must do a number of troubleshooting steps to nail it. Below are the things that you can try:

  • Make sure that your phone has good signal reception. If you are located in an area where mobile data and/or cellular signal is weak, MMS sending may take longer than usual, or may not even work at all.
  • Inbox is full. Before attempting to send another MMS, make sure to delete old SMS and MMS threads to make more room for the sent items folder.
  • Reset network selection. Sometimes, changing network modes and temporarily disconnecting from one’s network can do the trick. Try to cut the connection to your network by connecting to another one in range. Once you’ve done that, force the phone to connect the phone to an unregistered network until the phone prompts you that no connection can be established. Then reconnect to your own network one more time before attempting to send another MMS.
  • MMS must be activated. Another important thing that you must do is ensure that your account permits MMS service. This can only be checked by your carrier’s technical support team so make sure to contact them about it.
  • Operating system restriction. Some carriers may put a software restriction on their devices that even if they’ve been network unlocked, MMS may still not work. We’ve received multiple reports of some former Verizon devices having this problem. If your phone is originally from Verizon, MMS may not work properly if you’re using other wireless carriers now.
  • Try factory reset. If all else fails, try restoring the phone’s software settings to default to see any difference. Here’s how to do it:
    • Create a backup of your irreplaceable files and contacts.
    • Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S7.
    • Press and then hold the Home and Volume UP keys, then press and hold the Power key.
    • When the Samsung Galaxy S7 shows on the screen, release the Power key but continue holding the Home and Volume Up keys.
    • When the Android logo shows, you may release both keys and leave the phone be for about 30 to 60 seconds.
    • Using the Volume Down key, navigate through the options and highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset.’
    • Once highlighted, you may press the Power key to select it.
    • Now highlight the option ‘Yes — delete all user data’ using the Volume Down key and press the Power button to select it.
    • Wait until your phone is finished doing the Master Reset. Once completed, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and press the Power key.
    • The phone will now reboot longer than usual.

Problem #2: Galaxy S7 keeps pausing when playing videos

I recently came to China and installed a VPN (not sure if this matters but I try describing everything). I used it for about 2 weeks and my phone was perfectly fine. But then my phone wifi suddenly kept pausing and then starts again. For example, while I’m watching YouTube, the video will stop and I have to press play again. Or when I use a app that uses WiFi the app will pause and then go back to the app home screen. I already tried everything you suggested and even factory reset ed twice but the problem still happens. The only thing I didn’t do was update the phone. But I’m unable to because my wifi connection is unstable because of the pause so I can’t update. — Jonathan

Solution: Hi Jonathan. If factory reset did not improve the situation, that’s probably because the issue is not the device but something outside it. The problem may be on the Wi-Fi network you’re using. If you have another wireless device like another smartphone, try to observe if the issue on your S7 also occurs on the second one. If it does, you must troubleshoot your Wi-fi network or have someone do it for you.

On the other hand, if the issue does not happen on the second device when connected to the same Wi-fi network, the issue must lie on your Galaxy S7 itself. To troubleshoot it, try booting it in safe mode first. This will help you tell if a third party app is creating a conflict. To boot in safe mode, follow these steps:

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

Remember, while safe mode is on, all third party apps and services will not run. If the issue remains even though safe mode is on, the issue must not be related to one of your installed apps. If the result is opposite and the issue appears to be absent when safe mode is enabled, you must continue troubleshooting until the cause is eliminated. Now, safe mode won’t help you pinpoint the offending app so you must do trial-and-error to identify it. This means uninstalling apps one by one and checking if the issue remains after each uninstall. This is going to take you time but it’s the only effective way to trace a problematic application.

If you have lots of apps, we suggest that you do the opposite by doing another round of factory reset, then observing the phone afterwards without installing any app. Then when you’re positive that the problem don’t occur when no third party apps are installed, you can start installing apps again individually. Just like in safe mode, make sure that you observe how the phone works after you install a single app.

Problem #3: Verizon Galaxy S7 MMS not working when using AT&T SIM card

Hello. I’m writing in regards to a problem I’m having using a Samsung Galaxy Edge 7. I’m using an AT&T SIM card, in a Verizon Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. I have full functionality of the phone, but I am unable to send or receive MMS. I have the correct APN setting for my network, and have had AT&T update my IMEI. They weren’t able to offer any advice other than inputting the correct APN Settings. If I’m connected to Wifi the message won’t come through at all, but if I’m not, I will receive the message, and upon clicking the ‘download’ button for the image in the txt, I receive the error code I have input below. — Chris

Solution: Hi Chris. As mentioned above for Michelle, Verizon devices usually shows MMS problems if used on other networks. Sadly, there’s no known effective method to bypass the software code that prevents MMS from working properly in Verizon devices. This means that you must start accepting the fact that you will never be able to use MMS on this phone if you stay with AT&T or other non-Verizon networks.

Problem #4: Galaxy S7 no longer boots back up after installing Android update

To whom it may concern. Last week Monday i saw that my phone ran the software update by itself without me even doing or choosing anything. Ever since then I have been having trouble with my phone with my setting being completely disorganized and changed. Some of my things are just gone. I keep getting this pop up of NFC not supported. When i get emails or Whatsapps etc, i don’t get any notification pop ups in the top corner of my phone. it just beeps or vibrates even if i don’t have any of those. it also just keeps beeping or vibrating. My home key (middle of phone) and my left corner key next to the home key does not work at all.

Now, yesterday i couldn’t receive any calls and more problems occurred. so last night i went and backed up all my things and loaded it on to my laptop and cleared my phone and did a factory reset, once all of that was done and the reset finished i put my phone on and everything worked like normal again. so i left it and put it on charge. now this morning when i took my phone i saw that it is off and does not want to go back on. i’ve been charging my phone for the past 9 hours now and it still doesn’t want to go on and seems like it’s not charging. I really do hope that you can help me cause i’ve been to a lot off places and phoned a lot of places and no one can help me because they don’t know what’s wrong with it, or they can’t help because it’s not normal for my Samsung S7 to do it, and they don’t have the problems on their system to help. — Danielle

Solution: Hi Danielle. Since the main problem now is on how to boot the phone back up, we suggest that you try to see if you can power on the phone to other modes. Below are the steps that you can try:

Boot in Recovery mode:

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

Boot in Download Mode:

  • Charge the phone for at least 30 minutes.
  • Press and then hold the Home and Volume DOWN keys, then press and hold the Power key.
  • When the Samsung Galaxy S7 shows on the screen, release the Power key but continue holding the Home and Volume DOWN keys.
  • Wait until the Download screen appears.
  • If you can boot the phone in download mode but not in other modes, that means that your only way out may be to flash a stock or custom firmware. This means that for some reason, the phone no longer has the capability to boot in normal mode and the only way to get it back to working order is by manually installing an official Samsung operating system. This procedure can be tricky for first timers and can potentially brick your device so make sure that you use a reliable guide. You also need to select the correct firmware (operating system) version. Use Google to look for a good guide on how to do it.

Boot in safe mode:

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

Problem #5: Can’t hear caller when T-Mobile Galaxy S7 wi-fi calling is OFF or out of range

Hi. I’m hoping you can help me. I have a Samsung S7. All of a sudden I can’t hear the caller and they can’t hear me. I got a new phone so I decided to do a factory reset so my kids could use the phone. After the reset I was able to make a call and hear it. I proceeded to set up the phone and put apps on it. I switched it to network calling etc etc. Then got a phone call and could hear nothing. I did a wiping of cache…didn’t work. I started in safe mode…didn’t work. Then I remembered that I switched calling from wifi to network. I switched it back to wifi calling and I can hear and they can hear me. Only thing is I can’t keep it on wifi calling when I’m not at home. Do you have any idea why it’s doing this? I went to T-Mobile and they said “oh you should just buy this new phone.” They didn’t even want to help me. I took my SIM card out of the S7 and put it in my S3 and I can hear calls etc etc so it’s not my service. Help me please. — Amber

Solution: Hi Amber. This issue can be caused by some settings under Wi-Fi calling menu so make sure that you check them. Below are the steps that you can try:

  • Turn on Wi-Fi and connect to a Wi-Fi network.
  • From any Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
  • Tap Settings.
  • If necessary, slide the Wi-Fi Switch right to the ON position.
  • Scroll to “Connections,” then tap More connection settings.
  • Tap Wi-Fi Calling.
  • Make sure NOT to select “Never use Cellular Network.”

If the steps above won’t work, you can also try to enable VoLTE. Here’s how:

  • Tap Phone app.
  • Go to Keypad tab.
  • Tap More options.
  • Tap Settings.
  • Tap Call.
  • Go to Voice over LTE settings.
  • Tap Use VoLTE when available.

Problem #6: Galaxy S7 won’t connect to work wi-fi network

Hello. I used to have the S5 and had the same issue. Now I have the S7 and when connecting to my work wifi, it would not work. So then I tried changing the IP status to static and manually entering the IP address from my work computer. Now it connects, but does not actually work. I cannot run the browser or the app store, it says network error or is not connected.

How do I fix this? Maybe it’s problematic because my computer desktop and my phone are running off the same IP address? I even tweaked the DNS, but the problem persists. I don’t want to eat data! Help!

Thanks. — AK

Solution: Hi AK. Having two devices (smartphone and PC) sharing the same IP address in one wi-fi network almost always does not work. If you’re having trouble connecting to your work wi-fi only (and assuming this phone does not have any problem working on other wi-fi networks), you must seek the help of your IT department. They may have set some form of restriction that prevents unknown or unregistered devices from connecting to the network. Once you’ve made sure that your phone is now registered to connect to the network, make sure to switch back network settings on your phone to automatic or DHCP and not static.

 

Engage with us

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

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

AT&T Galaxy S6 Active unable to send SMS to one contact after system update, other issues

Welcome to another #GalaxyS6 post! We bring 6 more issues reported by some members of our Android community over the past few days.

s6

Below are the specific topics we cover today:

  1. Galaxy S6 is sluggish and typing SMS is very slow
  2. AT&T Galaxy S6 Active unable to open SMS from one contact after system update
  3. Recover files from a water-damaged Galaxy S6 Edge
  4. Sprint Galaxy S6 keeps failing during activation to Pakistani network
  5. Virtual keyboard on Galaxy S6 won’t appear
  6. Verizon Galaxy S6 can’t connect to AT&T’s 4G LTE network | Galaxy S6 MMS not working on AT&T network

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

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

Problem #1: Galaxy S6 is sluggish and typing SMS is very slow

I own a Samsung Galaxy S6 that I purchased new from a 3rd party about 5 months ago. I purchased it when I switched from one provider to another and needed a phone that was going to be compatible with the new provider (Verizon). I’d heard nothing but good things about the S6 and was sure it was going to turn out to be a good phone at a good value. Shortly after purchasing and activating the phone, it has become nothing but a nuisance. Its network connectivity is sporadic and I can’t connect to 4G in areas that are known to have great 4G. It even struggles to connect to 3G. I have less than 100% confidence that sent/received messages are making it to their destination.

For the past several months, I’ve just been dealing with the problem, but it has become intolerable. I visited Verizon recently and they suggested it sounded like a SIM card issue and just replaced the SIM card. The new SIM card didn’t do anything to resolve the issues. I’m about ready to consider scrapping this phone and purchasing a replacement, but phones aren’t cheap and I did not get more than 5 months use out of this one. Everything about the phone is sluggish including typing text messages. Words and letters don’t appear when they should. Sometimes autocorrect occurs prematurely. And sometimes the words/letters I’m typing and even parts of sentences get duplicated automatically. I want to enjoy this phone, but I’m on the last straw and might just get rid of it.

Some potentially helpful details:

-Phone was activated new with Verizon, but a number from the old provider was ported to the new phone

-Phone hasn’t been subjected to any abnormal conditions (no major falls, no submersion in water, etc.)

-every single application on the phone down to the test messaging system is sluggish

-System cache partition has been cleared without any improvement in performance

-Phone is rebooted at least 3 times per week.

Any other questions that might lead to helpful answer, please feel free to ask. I can’t tolerate having a dumb smart phone anymore. I’d rather have a dumb clamshell and a separate computer. — Brenton

Solution: Hi Brenton. Hi Brenton. Since you’re dealing with the overall performance of your Galaxy S6 here, the best thing that you can do is to establish a benchmark performance so you can determine if the device has to be replaced. To do that, you must do a factory reset first, then observe it for a few days. This is an important step since a newly factory reset Galaxy S6 means it’s running a known working version of the operating system and built-in apps. If the phone remains sluggish during the observation period, that’s a clear sign that the issue never software in nature but hardware. During the observation period, you also want to check how text messaging works. If the messaging app continues to work slow, then that’s another proof that something in the phone is not working right.

Also, make sure that you don’t install anything during the observation period. Some issues are caused by bad apps or updates so ensure that you don’t add anything to the system during this time. Many average uses re-introduce apps and updates right after a factory reset causing them not being able to identify if a third party app or update is causing the issue. That said, you must also observe how your phone behaves once you’ve re-installed your apps. If the phone works fine after a factory reset but then starts to show issues later on (after re-installing apps), then that’s a clear sign of a third party app issue.

Basically, what we’re advising is to check if there’s a difference in performance after a factory reset (and no apps installed) and when you start using your phone once all your apps are installed. If there’s no observable difference between the observation period and when you have all your apps installed, you can bet hardware is to blame. You must find a way to have the phone replaced.

Problem #2: AT&T Galaxy S6 Active unable to open SMS from one contact after system update

I have a Galaxy S6 Active (AT&T). I have had no issues until the recent (a few months ago) software updates. Since the software updates, there is one, only one, contact in my phone I can no longer receive text messages from. I can send them text messages and they get them, but I cannot open the ones they send. This particular contact is marked as a favorite so I see that I have messages from them in the favorites at the top of the messaging app. I receive text messages from this contact when in a group message without issue. I was able to send and receive text messages to this contact without any issues before the software updates. Any help would be appreciated. — Bonny

Solution: Hi Bonny. We can’t see any reason why your messaging app will suddenly pick on one contact after an update but if you are positive that the issue started happening after you installed a system update, the first thing that you want to do is refresh the system cache.

Wipe the cache partition

Here’s how to do it:

  • 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.
  • Try to test sending a message again.

Delete and re-add the contact in question

Delete the contact from your Contacts app then add it again. If that won’t make a difference, proceed to the next procedure.

Check if the contact is blocked

You may have installed another app that may be blocking the SMS of this contact from loading. Go over your list of apps and see if you recently installed an app that may be restricting your interaction with a particular contact.

Delete messaging app’s cache and data

If nothing happens, the next thing that you want to do is delete the messaging app’s cache and data. Here’s how:

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

NOTE: Tapping on the Clear Data button will wipe out entire message threads. If you don’t want to lose important conversations, make sure that you back them up before doing this procedure.

Do a factory reset

Finally, if the issue persists, the final step to do is to reset all software settings back to default. Try not install apps after a factory reset so you can observe how sending SMS to this contact works now that the OS has been restored to default. If the issue still remains, contact your carrier to see if there’s anything that they can do.

Problem #3: Recover files from a water-damaged Galaxy S6 Edge

My husband’s Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge phone had been previously where the glass broke. The phone still worked fine. We are on vacation and he was charging his phone. When I woke up to his phone being face down on the floor where some water was. The phone is/was on, but only the edge screen works. So it just shows the time and battery percentage. We tried turning it off and pushing the home button but nothing happens. We aren’t as concerned about the actually phone itself, but getting the pictures from our vacation. The phone is in a bag of rice because we don’t have the tools to take off the back cover. Any suggestions for how we can at least get the pictures? — Chelsey

Solution: Hi Chelsey. If your main concern is file recovery, bring the device to third party repair center and let them check if they can repair or replace the screen assembly. If that can’t be done, your photos are good as gone as there’s no other way to access them.

Going through Samsung’s service center route is out of the question since they will ensure that the memory is wiped out first before any repair is attempted.

Problem #4: Sprint Galaxy S6 keeps failing during activation to Pakistani network

I have Samsung Galaxy Sprint S6. I bought it here in Pakistan from a local shop. I used it with my local carrier here in Pakistan. It sometimes used to detect my service, sometimes i have to pull out the SIM and put it again and then it detects it. My cousin by mistake restored the cellular network data. And from then it has stopped detecting any SIM. I tried activating it but it gets stuck there. Although when i put a SIM in it, it shows the name of my carrier on top left corner of the screen and shows the signal strength as well. And when i try to activate it shows 3G as normal phones show. But it doesn’t activate it. I opened browser from recently used apps tray and checked if 3g is working or not. But 3g is not working though settings are 100% accurate. When i put my SIM and start the phone it shows a black screen which says please wait while we are activating your device and it never gets completed. Help me out please. — Ali

Solution: Hi Ali. We don’t know anything about your phone software-wise so we can’t say this for sure but resetting the network back to default may had re-configured the device to work only in Sprint network. Try to bring the device to a shop and see if they can network unlock it. That may be the problem why activation keeps failing.

Problem #5: Virtual keyboard on Galaxy S6 won’t appear

When I tap “Enter Message” on a recipients text message thread from within the Messages app, the virtual keyboard does not appear. However, all other facets of the touch screen work: I can scroll, tap attach button, go back, menu, etc. Also, if I rotate the phone into landscape orientation, I can get the keyboard to appear once I tap Enter Message. The keyboard will then stay open if I rotate back to portrait orientation. I have tried the following fixes, all of which have resulted in non-solution: 1. Safe Mode boot 2. Delete recently installed/updated apps 3. Clear Cache/Data from Messages app, as well as TouchWiz Home app. 4. Force stop messages app and reboot. 5. Selected a different default keyboard other than Samsung native or Google. Of note, when I changed my default messaging app to Message+, I had full functionality of my text messaging. So something seems to be stemming from the Messages app in portrait mode. — Kyle

Solution: Hi Kyle. How about factory reset? We say you try it to see if it makes any difference. Here are the steps:

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

Problem #6: Verizon Galaxy S6 can’t connect to AT&T’s 4G LTE network | Galaxy S6 MMS not working on AT&T network

Good morning! I recently bought a Galaxy S6 that was a Verizon phone that has been factory unlocked. I used my SIM card from my iPhone 4S that was with AT&T and then set up the APN with AT&T tech support. I was told that was all I needed to do in order to receive AT&T service on my new phone. However, using my mobile data or wifi, all I can get is 3G instead of 4G LTE.

Also, I am unable to receive photos and group texts. A button will appear that says “Download.” When I touch the button it says “Downloading.” But nothing ever downloads! I have checked and double checked to make sure the network mode is set correctly to LTE/GSM/UMPS. There may be other issues but I have not discovered them as of yet. I really like my new phone and it has so much more to offer than my previous phone. Please help! — Mrscaptmorganiv

Solution: Hi Mrscaptmorganiv. The first issue is either caused by a limitation on your phone, or by AT&T’s coverage in your area. Each network has its designated operating frequencies so the devices they provide to their customers are built with the right chips to work with a certain frequency band. If your Galaxy S6 is not compatible with the operating frequency of AT&T’s LTE network in the area, you’re out of luck. You simply have to contend with 3G on the at phone. Do some little research about the 4G LTE operating frequency of your S6 so you can check with AT&T if it’s compatible with their network.

The second issue can only be fixed by your carrier. As long as the APN settings on an activated device is correct, MMS should work. If that’s not happening, the issue is either caused by a software restriction (Verizon phones are notoriously buggy when it comes to MMS functionality on other networks), or by AT&T’s restriction on your account. Please work with AT&T so they can enlighten you on the true case. If they’ll say that MMS is allowed under your account and should work, then you can bet the phone MMS functionality won’t work in AT&T’s network.

 

Engage with us

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

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

Verizon Galaxy Note 5 does not allow MMS when on Cricket Wireless network, other issues

Here’s our final #GalaxyNote5 post for this week. We hope that the solutions provided here will be useful for those users mentioned here as well as for those experiencing identical or similar issues.

note-5

Below are the specific topics we tackle in this post today:

  1. Verizon Galaxy Note 5 does not allow MMS when on Cricket Wireless network
  2. Galaxy Note 5 stops charging after it got updated
  3. How to bypass Galaxy Note 5 Factory Reset Protection
  4. International roaming not working on T-Mobile Galaxy Note 5
  5. Galaxy Note 5 randomly rebooting
  6. Can’t transfer files between Galaxy Note 5 and computer

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

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

Problem #1: Verizon Galaxy Note 5 does not allow MMS when on Cricket Wireless network

First, I am a District Manager for a Cricket Wireless Dealer in Florida. So I would like to think I am pretty knowledgeable about trouble shooting android devices. Problem — pesky MMS not working on Verizon Note 5. I know you have addressed it several times and I am familiar with all those steps. I believe the issue lies in the fact that Verizon uses both CDMA and GSM signals to run their network. And though their devices come factory unlocked, they still have the hardware and software configured to run on their network. So when you try to use a Verizon device on another network such as Cricket, MMS doesn’t work. I have a Verizon Note 5 I got a great deal on but am sacrificing MMS. I can’t confirm my theory. And if I am right, I don’t know if the issue can be fixed. On that note (no pun intended ) I also do not have the ability to talk and use data at the same time. With any other carrier device except sprint, these problems do not seem to exist. I cannot seem to get a sprint device to work on another network at all and Verizon phones you seem to lose mms and talking while using data at the same time. — Jason

Solution: Hi Jason. The issue you raise here is almost one of the perennial issues we come to encounter year in and year out. MMS not working on Verizon phones is a problem not only occurring in Note 5s but even on older Galaxy Note and S series devices as well. In fact, our blog is only one of the many forums all over the internet that deals with the issue. A quick Google search will give you the impression that it’s a pervasive issue on all Verizon phones (when used in other networks). Although there’s no official word from Verizon about it (and we don’t expect them to comment about it anyways), we would like to think that Verizon’s operating system may actually be limiting or blocking MMS functionality. Despite the fact that this issue has been going on for years now, we are not aware of any customization of official Verizon firmware that can totally fix this MMS problem. Right now, there’s still no tweak available for Android end users to make MMS work on their Verizon phones if they chose to use them on other networks. We know this fact sucks but you just have to accept it.

Problem #2: Galaxy Note 5 stops charging after it got updated

I have the Note 5 and about two weeks ago it got updated. For the last week the phone now almost spontaneously dies for lack of battery charge. When I plug in a charger nothing happens. No, vibrate, no battery level no indication of charging. If I do a soft reset and leave it plugged in it will charge. However if you boot the phone and plug in the charger it NEVER shows that it is charging. It will drain to 0 even if plugged in. Just about to take the phone to the Samsung repair center to see if it is a hardware issue. I believe that it is a software issue. FYI, I have tried with multiple chargers and cables and also factory reset the phone as well. — Eric

Solution: Hi Eric. Since you’ve already tried factory reset, you might as well bring it to Samsung for a hardware check. The problem may lie on the battery so replacing it should be the first thing that they’re going to do. If battery is not the issue, some other hardware component may be at fault. Either case, Samsung should resolve the issue by doing a repair or give you a replacement unit.

Problem #3: How to bypass Galaxy Note 5 Factory Reset Protection

Hi. I have a problem with my Galaxy Note 5. My hand was wet and it did not accept my fingerprints. It then asked about my back up password but I forgot it. what I did is restore my phone to factory setting but when I entered my email address it always says “please sign in using owner’s account for this device.”

My email address and password were correct. I even change the password that I used after I bought the phone but still nothing happens.

When I check my Google account in my devices it is there. Please do help me. I’ve read that it will take 72hours so that I can enter my email. Also the bypass thing is not really good in gadgets. Thank you. — Sheila

Solution: Hi Sheila. We want to be straightforward in this case. If your Note 5 won’t allow you to factory reset because of an incorrect Google account you’re providing, there’s nothing that you can we or you can do about that. First of all, you have a computing machine that will only respond to your request to unlock itself (or factory reset itself) if you enter the correct credentials. That it’s saying it doesn’t recognize the email address and password is an obvious sign that the credentials are not correct. Your phone won’t listen to your excuses or reasons. It merely needs the correct username and password for the last Google account registered to it.

If you’ve already tried RootJunky’s first method of bypassing Factory Reset Protection (FRP) and it didn’t work, this video from him may do the job this time. We don’t know if Google and Samsung have already patched this security hole so it’s worth testing on your end. Keep in mind that the bypass option in the video may not work if your phone is not connected to the Internet before it got locked out.

Now, if you will be unable to bypass FRP this time, you’re out of luck. You just got yourself an expensive paperweight.

Problem #4: International roaming not working on T-Mobile Galaxy Note 5

Hi. So I have a Note 5 with a T-Mobile phone plan with free roaming in Canada. it worked for two weeks roaming off Bell then it stopped working. Now I tried the SIM in a different phone and it worked so i knew the problem is my phone, not the SIM. So i tried every troubleshooting possible including factory resetting my whole phone to no avail. The only way I ever get it to work is if I take out my SIM, put it in an iPhone and switch it back to Bell and then put it back in my phone. Then it would work for like a day. Sometimes only a few hours.

However switching it on my own phone settings through other networks doesn’t work. It tells me “unable to connect, try later”.

I also tried adding new access point names but still didn’t work. And in an iPhone it works with Bell Telus and Rogers which are carriers we have here in Montreal. On my phone, it will sometimes connect to Telus for 3 seconds and then drop connectivity. Again I’ve tried all troubleshooting steps. What do you think I can still do? Thanks a lot for your time. — Boruch

Solution: Hi Boruch. First of all, you should have told us what specific issue of roaming services you’re missing. Are you having trouble with calls? SMS and/or MMS? Data? Or all of them? Each of them requires a specific set of troubleshooting steps to do and due to space limitation in every article, we can’t provide them here. You may want to visit your carrier’s website instead to see if you can find something useful. This guide from T-Mobile site may prove useful.

Also, this type of issue should be handled by your carrier in the first place. Not only can they assist you in troubleshooting your phone but they can also help you if there are any account-related issues causing the issue.

Finally, don’t forget that hardware malfunction or failure can also be a factor. If nothing will change after doing all the troubleshooting T-Mobile can give you, there’s a chance that hardware issue may be to blame.

Problem #5: Galaxy Note 5 randomly rebooting

Hi there. Hopefully you all have some insight on my issue. My Galaxy Note 5 had been working perfectly fine until a few days ago when it shut off a couple times during the day. I was able to turn it back on but when the battery life was low, it shut off and I haven’t been able to turn it back on. All I can get is a vibrate and then Samsung screen for about 2 seconds.

I tried trying to restart in a custom OS where I get the warning screen- then I press the up button to continue and the android screen flashes for a second and the phone shuts off. I also tried booting it in safe mode where I see the blue dots in the upper left hand corner, but that only flashes on for about a second and the phone shuts off.

I don’t think the battery is the issue. I think it’s something else, but unfortunately I can’t bring it in to a technician because I am currently living in Africa for the next year. so I was hoping for some home remedies.

Also, I bought this phone “unlocked” but I haven’t been able to use it in this country. Please let me know if this problem is fixable or if I should just give up. Thanks. — Ashley

Solution: Hi Ashley. There’s usually little to nothing an end user can do if the phone has suddenly becomes incapable of booting normally. The only thing that you can attempt now is to see if you can wipe the cache partition or factory reset via Recovery mode. If that won’t work, then you can bet you have a hardware issue. Hardware problem can’t obviously be resolved by doing “home remedies” or software troubleshooting. You must have the phone’s hardware checked if you hope to get it back to working order again.

To boot in Recovery mode, follow these steps:

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

Problem #6: Can’t transfer files between Galaxy Note 5 and computer

Monday night, 12 September 2016. Mr. Android Guy: I hope my e-letter finds you well. I have a problem that I hope that you or one of your associates can help me solve. I have a Samsung Galaxy Note phone. When I first bought it, it works well. However, when I plug in a USB cord from the phone to my computer for adding photos from the computer to my phone or phone to my computer and also music as well, it now only shows my phone as a camera icon instead of a phone icon as it used to do before. This is causing me problems. Whenever I open a file folder on the phone to show on my computer, first the memory card shows icon up and also the phone icon. However, when I click into them, folders do show up, but when I click to open the actual folders, it always says “This Folder is Empty”. This is Not true because when I go directly on my phone, everything is there, photos and music. I think the reason is because my phone now only displays as a camera icon instead of a phone icon as it did before all this year and from last September when I bought it. Can someone please tell me how to change it back to show a phone icon and not a camera icon when I plug in my USB cord from the computer to phone? I would appreciate any help that you can offer as long as it will work. Thanks in advance. — katosubzero75

Solution: Hi Katosubzero75. First, make sure that your computer has updated USB drivers in order to ensure that it communicates to your Note 5 properly. Once that’s taken care of, you then want to start connecting the phone to your computer. A Galaxy Note 5 uses two file transfer protocol when connected to a computer — MTP and PTP. When you first connect your phone to a computer, a popup will usually ask whether you want to use MTP or PTP. If this popup won’t appear, follow the steps below to change it to whatever protocol you want:

  • Connect the USB cable to your computer.
  • Plug the USB cable into the phone.
  • Touch and drag the notification bar down.
  • Touch Connected as a camera.
  • Touch the desired option (e.g., Media device (MTP)). Select MTP.
  • The USB connection option has been changed.
  • Your device will now be connected. You can then access your files by using Windows File Explorer (for Windows) and the equivalent application in Mac.

 

Engage with us

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

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

Apps on Galaxy S6 keeps saying no connection, other issues

Here’s another post that addresses some issues about #GalaxyS6 series. If you sent us a report about your own issue but are yet to see it published in our blog, please continue to watch out for more posts in the coming days. We always do our best to answer your queries so please check every article that comes out in this blog everyday.

s6-edge-plus

In the meantime, these are the specific topics discussed in this material:

  1. Galaxy S6 Edge keeps showing the charging screen
  2. Galaxy S6 Edge keeps showing OK Google popups when headset is inserted
  3. Apps on Galaxy S6 keeps saying no connection
  4. Sprint Galaxy S6 bootloop issue
  5. Galaxy S6 resets all settings back to default after installing Android Marshmallow
  6. MMS on Verizon Galaxy S6 not working when on MetroPCS network

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

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

Problem #1: Galaxy S6 Edge keeps showing the charging screen

I have a Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge. I bought it last year, and I haven’t had a single issue with it – until recently. I was sitting on the couch, browsing a forum I have browsed often, when suddenly my phone went completely black. I didn’t drop it. It didn’t get wet. I was literally just sitting there and it stopped working. My husband was able to restart it, but after that it was glitching so badly it was barely usable. I was constantly having to restart it and it seemed to get really hot really quickly. Finally I got fed up and did a full factory reset. At first it didn’t seem to work, but after a day or so it was noticeably much better – I may need to restart once or twice a day but better. Then today my phone died at work. It’s died since these issues started and charged just fine, but today when I plugged it in the charging icon started just flashing on and off rhythmically. I could get it to go to download mode, but when it gave me the option to continue or restart, hitting restart only brought me back to the flashing icon. I tried different chargers, even our car charger, with no success. Now it’s indicating that it’s fully charged even though it hasn’t been nearly enough time. I just tried to turn it on and got the power on screen, but then it goes back to the flashing charge icon and then the fully charged one a second later. What the hell is going on? Is there anything I can do? — Nakita

Solution: Hi Nakita. In case you don’t know, most of the solutions available for an Android user are software in nature. This means that if you’ve already tried doing all the basic software solutions (like the ones you mention above) and there’s no positive result, the problem might be caused by bad hardware. Try having the phone checked for hardware issues or simply replace it.

Problem #2: Galaxy S6 Edge keeps showing OK Google popups when headset is inserted

Hello. I used the Samsung headphones on my S6 Edge device without a problem for about a week. Once it started with a problem of the OK Google going on any time I inserted the headset, and I was simply unable to use Youtube, or answer my calls. In the meantime the volume control stopped working, the pause button is not working either. In the meantime I switched off OK Google (although it went on without me switching it on at all), and it solved one part of the problem. Volume control, pause still don’t work. I read many forums, many are facing the same problems, but no solutions offered. Kindly advise. Thank you. — Kinga

Solution: Hi Kinga. An issue like this is caused by a bad audio port. Try checking the port itself for possible visible obstruction or dirt and clean it. If that won’t change anything, do the basic software troubleshooting like booting in safe mode or factory reset. Any of these two software procedures will not fix a bad audio port but will help in isolating if the cause of the problem is software or hardware in nature.

For reference on how to do the procedures, check the details below.

Boot the S6 to safe mode. This procedure is not a solution per se as its main purpose is to check if the issue is being caused by a third party app or not. While in this mode, no third party app will be allowed to run. If one of your apps is the cause, the issue should not occur. To boot your phone in safe mode, follow these steps:

  • Press and hold the Volume Down and Power keys for 20 to 30 seconds.
  • Once you see the Samsung logo, release the Power key immediately but continue pressing the Volume Down key.
  • Your phone should continue booting up and you will be prompted to unlock your phone as usual.
  • You will know if the phone successfully booted in safe mode if the text “Safe mode” is displayed at the lower-left corner of the screen.

Boot the S6 to factory reset. For serious firmware-related issues, the factory reset is often the ultimate fix. It’s because it will bring the phone back to its factory defaults deleting all files, data, settings, apps, personal information, accounts, etc. In short, if there are things you don’t want to lose during the process, you must back them up prior to performing the Factory reset.

  • 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.

If nothing will change after doing these two software procedures, you can bet a hardware malfunction is to blame. Contact Samsung so you can have the phone repaired or replaced.

Problem #3: Apps on Galaxy S6 keeps saying no connection

Over the past few months my phones connection has been acting up, when either on Wi-Fi or 4G. Internet-based apps like Youtube, Facebook, Tumblr etc lose connection regularly. For example while on YouTube after watching a video for a few minutes i go to click on another but it says “no connection” at the bottom. Facebook says the same. I go to watch a video or refresh and it says “no connection”. My Spotify will play a few songs in the queue and then will not play the next one but when i open the app back up it starts playing the song. Any help? — Sam

Solution: Hi Sam. Wiping the cache partition may fix your issue.

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

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

  • 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 wiping the system cache won’t help, make sure that you delete the cache and data of each app in question. Here’s how to do it:

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

Finally, don’t hesitate to factory reset the device if the issue persists.

Problem #4: Sprint Galaxy S6 bootloop issue

Hi Droid Guy! I have a Samsung Galaxy S6 (32GB on Sprint). I just upgraded to Android 6.1 and not long after the phone has started to boot loop. never have rooted the phone and it is fully stock and just getting the OTA updates. I did a lot of research and these are the options I have tried to fix it:

  1. Empty Cache
  2. Master Reboot
  3. Re-flashed manually using ODIN3

After I re-flashed it continued to boot loop. I re-did the empty cache/master reboot and was able to get it to the first screen, log in to wi-fi, then to the screen where it says “preparing phone for use” and that’s where it is rebooting at now. Any ideas on what is causing this and how to fix it? Thank You. — Casey

Solution: Hi Casey. There’s only so much that you can do about this problem. That the basic software troubleshooting (which includes manual flashing) did not help is a clear indicator that the issue can not be fixed on your end. Find a way to have the phone replaced.

Problem #5: Galaxy S6 resets all settings back to default after installing Android Marshmallow

Yes. after I did the system update on accident, to the Android 6.0 Marshmallow, my phone has been restarting by itself. It will restart the whole phone to where it takes off my camera icon for lock screen. I have military time and it takes that off to the normal time zone, it resets my notification panel, it takes off my lock screen picture and it takes off the battery percentage indicator off. It’s becoming annoying and I need it to stop. I don’t have time and patience to keep re-doing everything on my phone just because it has to restart itself for no reason. Can someone please help me? I don’t know why it keeps doing this. I uninstalled apps I don’t use, apps that just came with the phone like all the music apps I uninstalled. Does anyone know how to fix the problem and to have my phone stop restarting its self all the time? — Cagirl0104

Solution: Hi Cagirl0104. If this problem started happening ONLY after installing an Android update, then you may be able to fix the problem by wiping the cache partition and performing a factory reset. Refer to the steps above on how to do them. Also, make sure that you only install compatible apps. Remember, outdated or incompatible apps can create conflicts with the operating system, which can manifest in erratic phone behaviors.

Also, make sure that you are installing the correct firmware for your device. You should only install OTA (over-the-air) updates from your carrier. If you manually flash a non-carrier firmware, there’s a chance that you may have installed a buggy version or even an incompatible one.

Problem #6: MMS on Verizon Galaxy S6 not working when on MetroPCS network

Hi. I recently switched from Verizon to MetroPCS. I have a Samsung Galaxy S6 that I purchased from Verizon so it has all the Verizon software on it. I now use the MetroPCS SIM card they gave me. I make calls, and use data without issue. I am able to send and receive messages via the Messages app the phone came with from Samsung. However I am unable to send or receive MMS messages. I have followed your steps to resolve the problem to no avail. This is the list of steps you posted: Name: MetroPCS APN: fast.metropcs.com Proxy: Not Required Port: Not Required Username: Not Required Password: Not Required Server: Not Required MMSC: https:// metropcs.mmsmvno.com/mms/wapenc MMS proxy: leave it blank MMS port: leave it blank MCC: 310 MNC: 16 Authentication type: Just leave the default settings there The MNC 16 does not allow the change to be saved. It was set to MNC 260 and that is the only number that allows the save of the MMSC address. I even contacted MetroPCS and other sites that also recommended using the MMSC address of https://mms.msg.eng.t-mobile.com/mms/wapenc and again this also does not work. Can you help? — Tony

Solution: Hi Tony. This is the usual issue many users encounter when using Verizon phones with other networks. If you already called MetroPCS  and they’ve verified that all the APN settings are correct, then the problem might be something deeper in the operating system. That means that you won’t be able to use MMS on this phone unless it’s using Verizon network.

 

Engage with us

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

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

Verizon Galaxy S5 messaging app issue after Android update, other issues

Welcome to another post that covers problems and solutions about #GalaxyS5. In this post, we give you 6 different problems that some of members of Android community has encountered.

s5

Below are the specific topics we discuss here today:

  1. Galaxy apps on Galaxy S5 with Marshmallow not working
  2. Verizon Galaxy S5 MMS not working on AT&T network
  3. Galaxy S5 stuck in Samsung logo screen after several flash attempts
  4. Galaxy S5 screen goes black when booting up
  5. Verizon Galaxy S5 messaging app issue after Android update
  6. Galaxy S5 keeps rebooting on its own

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

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

Problem #1: Galaxy apps on Galaxy S5 with Marshmallow not working 

Good day guys! I have just acquired a new Galaxy S5 with the Android Version 6.0.1 so I wanted to synchronize my Facebook calendar with my S Planner. I usually update the SNS Provider from the Galaxy Apps, and it works. Problem is Galaxy Apps is just a ghost shell. It shows the information of all apps, but no images, and it doesn’t start any downloads. I tried downloading some apps for the built-in camera, but it also doesn’t download anything. I’ve factory reset, backup, manually wiped temp cache, and it’s still without success. I can download anything through the Play Store, but I don’t know if this is an issue with this version. I received this error from the Galaxy Apps after the factory reset. It wasn’t showing anything before: java.net.UnknownHostException:2040:100003 I also tried downloading the latest version of the Galaxy Apps (APK), and performed a manual updated. After installation, same thing. Just no life. Please help! — Cristhian

Solution: Hi Cristhian. We can’t see no reason why Samsung apps won’t work, unless the phone is running a non-stock ROM and/or is rooted. Make sure that you revert everything back to stock/official state, that is, you unroot the device and use a stock/official Android version first. If you don’t have handy guide on how to do these things, use Google to search for them.

Alternatively, you can contact the store where you got the phone from and ask them if they can flash an official firmware on it.

Problem #2: Verizon Galaxy S5 MMS not working on AT&T network

Hi! I recently upgraded from my ancient Samsung Galaxy (no S number, just the original Galaxy) to an S5. I purchased this S5 from a retailer online as Verizon GSM unlocked, refurbished. My service provider is AT&T. I installed my SIM card, set the APN settings from AT&T’s website, and was good to go. Everything worked, except – I was unable to send or receive media messages. Regular messages, fine. Phone calls, fine. Just no media messages of any sort. I took the phone into AT&T – they said they couldn’t help. They didn’t even look at the phone. They sent me to a specialty store. The guy at the specialty store looked through the APN settings and other settings on the phone and said he couldn’t understand why it wasn’t working. Everything was set up right. Figuring I had just received a faulty phone, I went through the long process of sending it back and getting a new one. Well, I just unpacked the new one, punched in my SIM card and the APN settings, and – still no media messages. Please help. I really like this phone and I’m really frustrated! Thanks. — Lynnea

Solution: Hi Lynnea. MMS requires that correct APN settings as well as functioning mobile data plan. We don’t see you mention your mobile data is working so make sure you have that checked by AT&T. If you don’t have a mobile data plan in the first place, there’s basically nothing that we can do.

Again, call AT&T’s technical support team (and not their customer service department) and ask the for the correct APN settings for your particular model. A correct APN setting is needed so your phone knows how to send and receive MMS. When your device receives an MMS message, what is actually being received is just an MMS notification message, not the exact content itself. This notification message is sent over Wireless Application Protocol (WAP), which is basically a way to send and receive information over a mobile carrier’s wireless network. The MMS notification message your device receives includes a header for the content and a uniform resource locator pointer that your device must access to get the actual MMS content. The entire process needs data connection in the first place in order to work. This also means that connecting your phone to Wi-Fi won’t allow you to receive MMS. You must have TCP/IP connection provided by your carrier to send and receive MMS.

Problem #3: Galaxy S5 stuck in Samsung logo screen after several flash attempts

Dear Droid Guy. My name is Lucas and I have a S5 SM-G900H. I’m facing very tricky issues that I hope you help me. I’ll try to be very economic in my writing.

I bought this phone last year from a friend. I live in Brazil. I discovered now that this specific model (G900H) is an international model, so the authorized store here in Brazil said to me that they only give assistance to Samsung mobiles produced here as they don’t have parts from international phones.

This S5 was working perfectly until my dummy idea to took underwater pictures with my son. It got soaked and stopped to work. I left it in a rice tin for 48 hour and everything was fine again. It worked for months until three weeks ago when started from nothing to restart randomly and it some needs some tries to turn on. I already did a factory reset and wiped all cache, but the problem is still the same. In fact this reboots just get worse and worse since the first.

What I noticed: I can only pass the Samsumg logo only if I stay holding the power saving mode on. I can use it for long periods without problems. After this, I start to think that the problem was the battery, but I tried to change the battery and the problem seems to be the same. At the moment I tried to flash a firmware for it via Odin, but get stuck at Samsung logo. (I already did a factory reset and wipe cache). I guess I flashed a wrong firmware. Actually, I didn’t find any firmware for my region (Brazil) G900H. I’m trying to fix this at the moment, but I confess that my options is getting fewer. Please, I will be more than happy if you can help me!! Warm regards. — Lucas

Solution: Hi Lucas. We doubt if there’s anything much that we can do since you’ve already tampered with the official software on your device in the first place. We also don’t know the full history and the true state of both the software and hardware so the best that you can do right now is keep trying other firmware until the phone boots back normally. You’re right, there’s no specific firmware labeled for Brazil users but you can start with those designed for the Americas. If you are positive that you have an international version, make sure that you try firmware nearest to your region. There’s no guarantee that doing so will work but it’s the only option left for you at the moment.

Problem #4: Galaxy S5 screen goes black when booting up

Actually my phone is an Galaxy S5. A day after I upgraded to Note 7 at a Verizon Store my S5 stopped working. I have tried all the tricks to reboot it but no success. When I take the battery out and put it back in it vibrates and the white Galaxy S5 logo appears for a couple of seconds and then disappears leaving just a black screen. If I put the battery in and hold the volume up button it vibrates the white logo appears and in the upper left hand corner it in blue it says recovery booting for a split second and then goes black and not booting up. If I put the battery in and hold the volume down it vibrates and the Warning Message about a custom os can cause critical problems…etc. with instructions about pushing the up or down volume button for further actions. However it disappears in about a second and the screen goes black. Any suggestions on how to fix this issue? — Dursop75

Solution: Hi Dursop75. Consider booting the phone in safe mode first to see if it responds. Here’s how:

  • Turn the device off.
  • Press and hold the Power key.
  • When ‘Samsung Galaxy S5′ appears on the screen, release the Power key.
  • Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume down key.
  • Continue to hold the Volume down key until the device finishes restarting.
  • Safe mode will display in the bottom left corner of the screen.
  • Release the Volume down key when you see Safe Mode.

If your S5 won’t boot in safe mode, you should have it checked or replaced for possible hardware issue. This is a must especially if it had been dropped or got wet before (but you didn’t tell us about it).

Problem #5: Verizon Galaxy S5 messaging app issue after Android update

Hello! I have a Galaxy S5 through Verizon. Recently there was an update performed (Not 100% sure which one) and ever since the update I have had issues using Message+ to send/receive picture messages only. All other texts come through fine. However, if I try to send a picture message I get an error that the size limit has been exceeded & it fails. If restart my phone and immediately hit retry, then the picture will go through. But then the next picture, I have to restart again. If I get sent a picture message it will come through, but the picture will be a great mountain background image with a red dot on it instead of the actual picture. Again, if I restart my phone & go in to view I can then see them. Is there any solution to this, without having to completely reset my phone? Can I go back to pre-update status somehow?! Thanks! — Christin

Solution: Hi Christin. There are four things that you can try in this situation.

Wipe the cache partition. The system cache can sometimes get corrupted after an update. Refreshing it may resolve whatever problems you have right now. Here’s how to do it:

  • 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.

Delete app cache and data. If you’re having trouble with a single app only, you might want to ensure that you refresh the cache of said app, or that you virtually re-install it. Here’s what you want to do:

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

Keep in mind that tapping Clear Data button will wipe all your conversation threads. Make sure to back them up if you want to retain important conversations for reference.

Update ALL apps. Updating Android does not mean apps are updated as well. Ensure that ALL your apps are updated to make all of them compatible with the new operating system. Incompatible apps often results to problems as they can cause conflicts with the OS and other apps.

Do a factory reset. If you are 100% certain that ALL your apps are compatible with the current Android OS  but the issue remains, don’t hesitate to do a factory reset. This will force the phone to restore all software settings to their factory state. Factory reset will also wipe the primary storage device so make sure that you create a copy of your personal data like photos, videos, contacts, music, etc before you proceed. To do a factory reset, follow these steps:

  • Power down the Galaxy S5.
  • Press and hold the Volume up button, the Home button, and the Power button together until you see the Android on screen.
  • Use Volume down to highlight the wipe data/factory reset option and press the Power button to select it.
  • Use Volume down again to highlight Yes – delete all user data and press Power to select it.
  • Use the Power button to select Reboot system now.
  • When the S5 restarts it should be completely wiped and ready to set up again.

Problem #6: Galaxy S5 keeps rebooting on its own

Hi. Here is my saga. Phone speaker and headphones stopped working and it started to reboot continually. My wife says phones only last a couple of years. I said I expect at least 5 years for what I paid (It’s nearly 3 years old). As I had been increasingly fed up with all the bloatware, I did manage to Root the phone but still had the problem. So, I have a replacement Logic board via eBay. Changed it over, booted up and, great, sound back again. Alas, so is the rebooting. As the on/off button is on the replacement logic board, I would guess this is OK. I have checked the power button on the side of the case but it looks OK. I am assuming that the new logic board is not rooted. I have booted with POWER, VOL UP & HOME, wiped cache, and factory reset but it still keeps rebooting. If I turn on and hold VOL DOWN to boot to safe mode I get Android man with message “Downloading… Do not turn off target!!” In the top left it says ODIN MODE with Knox warranty – 01x if that helps. I have tried both my batteries which charge OK but I am pulling out what little hair I have left. Any advice would be great. — Paul

Solution: Hi Paul. Root is an Android term that refers to a procedure to grant a user higher level software access. Thus, root is not applicable to anything hardware like a logic board.

For your random reboot issue, the cause of the problem may not be the logic board or components in it but rather an entirely separate piece — the battery. A Lithium-based battery like the ones in Galaxy phones start to show significant degradation after about 300 charging cycles. Since you’ve been using your phone for a few years now, it would be good if you can replace the battery to see if that’s where the trouble lies. Otherwise, simply find a way to have the current device replaced.

 

Engage with us

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

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

Galaxy Note 5 shuts down when battery level reaches 60%, other issues

Good day everyone! Welcome to another collection of #GalaxyNote5 issues. If you don’t find your own issue published here or answered yet, keep watching for more posts in the near future.

Note 5

Below are the items discussed in this post today:

  1. Galaxy Note 5 “Facebook has stopped” error | Galaxy Note 5 multiple issues after Marshmallow update
  2. Galaxy Note 5 black screen after it’s dropped
  3. Verizon Galaxy Note 5 MMS not working in KT network (Korea)
  4. Galaxy Note 5 shuts down when battery level reaches 60%
  5. Galaxy Note 5 won’t charge up to 100%

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

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

Problem #1: Galaxy Note 5 “Facebook has stopped” error | Galaxy Note 5 multiple issues after Marshmallow update

Hi! My Galaxy Note 5 restarts itself all the time since it was updated to 6.0.1. Sometimes on the restart, I get a black screen with teeny tiny cryptic writing I can barely read. Other times I see a little Android guy with gears turning on a teal screen, it is so annoying. It has eaten my contacts 3 times since May. I get flags that “Facebook has stopped” or NFL has stopped”, yet, I do not even use of have those apps installed. I bought it for its size (so I could read it!) and the SNote feature. Since it is over a year old, Verizon is no help at all. Short of taking it to Gadget Guru for $75, not sure what to do with it! — Jeannette

Solution: Hi Jeannette. Post update issues can be quite annoying but most of them can be fixed. Below are the three things that you must do.

Delete the cache partition. Your Note 5 uses a system cache to quickly and efficiently load apps. Sometimes, this cache gets corrupted after an update due to irrelevant files that may be added, or to old system files that refuse to go away. Any major operating system update is supposed to automatically update the cache partition but this doesn’t happen at times. This situation can result to all sorts of problems including the one you’re experiencing right now. Refreshing the cache partition where the system cache is stored may help. Here’s how to do it:

  • Turn off your Samsung Galaxy Note 5 completely.
  • Press and hold the Volume Up and the Home buttons first, and then press and hold the Power key.
  • Keep the three buttons pressed and when ‘Samsung Galaxy Note5’ shows, release the Power key but continue holding the other two.
  • Once the Android logo shows, release both the Volume Up and Home buttons.
  • The notice ‘Installing system update’ will show on the screen for 30 to 60 seconds before the Android system recovery screen is shown with its options.
  • Use the Volume Down key to highlight the option ‘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.

Update apps. A common mistake most Android users commit after updating the operating system is to do nothing about their apps. For example, those users who upgraded their Android device from Lollipop OS to Marshmallow simply assume that their apps will work in the same manner. Hardly the case.

While some app developers may put contingencies in place to minimize bugs when a device upgrades to a higher Android version, most of them do not. This means that a lot of apps will exhibit problems after an Android update. To fix the situation, you must ensure that ALL your apps are updated after an Android update to minimize glitches. Keep in mind that some incompatible apps may create conflicts with Android, affecting other apps and functions in the process. It is therefore your responsibility to ensure that you only install apps compatible with the OS running on your device.

Some developers may not be able to release updates for their apps in time to make them compatible with the new Android OS. If you have apps that are not updated, they may lead to problems. In this case, you must uninstall them right away and only re-install them once you have the confirmation that they are already made compatible by their developers. If you are not sure if an app is compatible with the Android version on your phone, make sure that you contact the developer for information. There’s no excuse for this so make sure that you check every app you have.

Wipe the phone via factory reset. If you are 100% certain that ALL your apps are compatible with the current Android OS  but the issue remains, don’t hesitate to do a factory reset. This will force the phone to restore all software settings to their factory state. Factory reset will also wipe the primary storage device so make sure that you create a copy of your personal data like photos, videos, contacts, music, etc before you proceed. To do a factory reset, follow these steps:

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

Problem #2: Galaxy Note 5 black screen after it’s dropped

Everything on your page about trouble shooting says to take out the battery, well, you cannot take out the battery on a Note 5. My Note 5 just never ever works correctly, but today I dropped it, and now the screen is totally black, except for a tiny green flashing in the top right corner of the screen. The light at the top comes on to indicate that there are messages, and that it is fully charged when on the charger, but I cannot turn it off to turn it back on, and I do NOT want to have to factory reset, if I can avoid, because I have tons and tons of pictures and videos of my precious children and family on there. Please help if possible! — CeeCee

Solution: Hi CeeCee. We’ve been writing troubleshooting tips and solutions for the Note 5 for over a year now and we can’t recall ever telling our readers that its battery pack is removable. You must have read a different article for another device and not about Note 5 issues.

Anyways, it’s interesting to know that you’ve been having on-going issues with your device but you did not seek help. You should have simply asked for a replacement device then.

Now, since you yourself said that the current screen problem happens after dropping the device, we don’t think there’s anything more that we can do to help. There’s no point doing a factory reset on a device with a hardware problem as it won’t obviously fix it. Call Samsung and have them repair or replace it.

As regards your pictures and videos, you can kiss them goodbye. If you’re lucky and the issue is isolated to the screen assembly only, replacement of this part may work. However, if other components are affected by the fall, we doubt if screen replacement may work.

As a friendly reminder, always make it a habit to keep a copy of important personal data like photos and videos to another device. Doing so will save you a lot of heartache if a situation like what you have right now arises. The sad thing with digital memories is that once the storage device fails, there’s no way to recover them, unless a copy are saved somewhere.

Problem #3: Verizon Galaxy Note 5 MMS not working in KT network (Korea)

Hi. I have a Samsung Galaxy Note 5, bought through Verizon. I had to move to Korea for the military and switched my phone SIM card from Verizon to kt olleh , a Korean phone provider. Now I can’t open or send any MMS messages, even though my plan has unlimited texting. SMS works fine. I went to the olleh customer service center, they just said that because it’s an American phone, there are going to be problems and they can’t do anything about it. I don’t know anyone else whose phone is having this problem. Is there any way to fix this problem? Hope you can find a solution for me. Thank you! — Joan

Solution: Hi Joan. Make sure that your phone’s APN settings are correct so mobile data is enabled. MMS needs data to work. If you don’t have handy information for the settings, call your carrier’s technical support team or visit their store.

Also, MMS is an account feature that must be turned on. Again, only your carrier in Korea can help you with it so make sure that you work with them on how to fix it.

Problem #4: Galaxy Note 5 shuts down when battery level reaches 60%

Hi guys, went thru the list of Q&A but none of them seem to resolve my issue. So hoping you have a solution for me. My Note 5 had been recently heating up each time i charged it but didn’t think much of till the phone died and refused to turn on. Had done a full charge on the battery and initially it would stay on if it were connected to a charging point (power bank/ wall point). But would switch off the moment it was disconnected. After doing a full charge on the battery and several factory resets and cache partition clearance it worked.

However now it does the same thing almost every time once it reaches 60% of battery life. When i connect to a charging point it will show 0% battery or sometimes 56% battery.

Once again i can turn on the phone while its charging. After it’s 100% and disconnected from the charge it will last till 50-60% before it auto shuts down again. Please advise as my phone is out of warranty. Several factory reset have been done and an upgrade to marshmallow OS all completed. No back-up data has been restored but it still behaves the same way. And there are rare moments when the phone turn off with a black screen but i can see the notification led flashing. Please help. — Yogi

Solution: Hi Yogi. The logic in solving any Android issue is actually simple — if software solutions won’t work, then assume that you have a hardware problem. That said, since you’ve already exhausted software tips and solutions on your end, then the issue must only be hardware-related, which means that you need a professional to look into it. There are no other special software tricks that you can do anymore to resolve the problem. It may be a battery problem, or other hardware components not working properly at this time.

Contact Samsung and have the phone repaired or replaced.

Problem #5: Galaxy Note 5 won’t charge up to 100%

I recently bought a “new” Samsung Galaxy Note 5. I’m not sure if it’s actually new or a refurb. It came with a Samsung charger. I did an Android update immediately but I can’t get the phone to charge past 85% without unplugging and plugging it back in to get the charge rate back up briefly. Then the current drops back down to trickle charge level until I unplug and plug it back in again. I can get it up to 89% if I do that, but no more than that. I contacted the ebay store that I bought the phone from and then said they had another Note 5 there and the phone had the same exact problem.

I tried fully charging it (as much as I could) and then discharging it completely, holding in the power button for a minute, and then fully charging it to try again to re-calibrate the battery with no luck. The phone seems to run for a reasonable amount of time which leads me to believe that the 85% is a full charge, but the phone doesn’t register it to be fully charged for whatever reason. Any suggestions on how to get it to register 100% charged? Thanks. — Jane

Solution: Hi Jane. Make sure that you calibrate the battery first. Here’s how:

  • Charge the phone until the battery level reaches its maximum % level.
  • Drain the battery to 0% by playing some games and doing resource demanding tasks.
  • Charge the battery up to 100% again.
  • Drain the battery to 0% one more time.
  • You should now have a calibrated battery for your Android device.

Battery calibration is supposed to reset the power management system of the operating system. If nothing changes after a battery calibration though, make sure that you wipe the phone’s cache partition and do a factory reset.

Should the problem remain after doing all these steps, find a way to have the device replaced.

 

Engage with us

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

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

Sprint Galaxy S5 won’t send SMS after Marshmallow update, other issues

We’ve been supporting the #GalaxyS5 for almost 2 years now but we can say we are yet to see all issues related to it. We continue to receive new problems from time to time. Some of these issues are mentioned below.

s5

Here’s the complete list of issues we cover today:

  1. Galaxy S5 bootloop issue
  2. Galaxy S5 screen goes blank | Galaxy S5 black screen issue
  3. Galaxy S5 delayed notification problem after update installation
  4. Verizon Galaxy S5 MMS not working when on T-Mobile network
  5. Galaxy S5 on Sprint network won’t send SMS 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.

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

Problem #1: Galaxy S5 bootloop issue

* The phone is not rooted and no root attempt was being made

* I can’t boot phone into recovery mode. It boot loops continuously. When I hold down UP volume, Power and Home buttons it shows the top-left corner blue text about booting into recovery but then it goes black and starts booting again.

* There was ONE time last night where it stopped at the recovery screen and I was ready to set to factory defaults and the battery died and the phone went dead. Since then it’s been boot-loop period.

* When I hold down DOWN volume, Power and Home buttons it shows the “Downloading… Do not turn off target!!” screen but freezes there forever

I suppose it’s behaving like the wrong firmware is flashed on the set but unless someone was hacking my phone while I was using it this didn’t happen.

I’ve read several articles that dance around my issue but I can’t find one that talks about my specific circumstances. — Brian

Solution: Hi Brian. The causes of your issue can range from a simple bad Power button, a corrupted bootloader, to a hardware error. Most of the time though, an average user will be unable to identify the exact cause unless because a thorough hardware check is needed. The general rule of thumb when it comes to troubleshooting an issue like this is to try limited software troubleshooting, which basically revolves around checking if the phone can boot in other modes. Since you’ve confirmed that restarting in both recovery and download modes are not working, the only other thing left for you to do is to go on safe mode. If this won’t work still, you must seek the help of a professional who can physically check the device.

For reference, here are the steps on how to boot your S5 to safe mode:

  • Turn the device off.
  • Press and hold the Power key.
  • When ‘Samsung Galaxy S5′ appears on the screen, release the Power key.
  • Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume down key.
  • Continue to hold the Volume down key until the device finishes restarting.
  • Safe mode will display in the bottom left corner of the screen.
  • Release the Volume down key when you see Safe Mode.

Remember, if your phone still fails to boot, find a way to have it repaired or replaced.

Problem #2: Galaxy S5 screen goes blank | Galaxy S5 black screen issue

i was using Snapchat on 27 July around 11am, 2016 and my phone hang. i pressed the lock button and it went black but didn’t come back on. i removed the battery and the phone turned on but the screen was still black. i continued restarting the phone but it didn’t come on. it later came on around 5pm and the first thing i saw was Truecaller isn’t responding and i uninstalled it. Since then if i press the lock button, the screen goes blank and won’t come on until after 20-30 mins later and when it comes on the screen moves on its own, hangs and the keyboard dances. when i restart the phone it will be black and sometimes it comes on and shows the S5 message in 2 different places and the half below black and white (like when TV channels arent showing). i don’t know if it a software issue, but a night before, i downloaded one file mistakenly which i have deleted. Please help. thanks. — Bisi

Solution: Hi Bisi. To know if the problem is a bad hardware, try booting your phone in Recovery mode first. If it’s the screen that’s not working properly, you should see the same symptoms while in Recovery mode. Here are the steps on how to boot your phone in this mode:

  • Power down the Galaxy S5.
  • Press and hold the Volume up button, the Home button, and the Power button together until you see the Android on screen.
  • Continue Holding These Three Buttons Until You See Some Blue Text and/or the Display Flickers
  • Let Go of These Three Buttons When You See the “Recovery Booting…” Text at the Top
  • Wait Until the Galaxy S5 Boots Into the Recovery Mode

Since Recovery mode is a different environment than normal mode, a difference in how the screen behaves should indicate if the issue is isolated to the screen only. In that case you should have the phone checked by Samsung or a qualified technician for potential repair scenario.

In the event that the screen works normally if the phone is in recovery, there’s high likelihood that there’s an operating system glitch or a third party app causing the trouble. You should do the basic software troubleshooting that we usually provide to fix the problem.

Boot in safe mode. The first software troubleshooting that you want to try is booting your phone in safe mode (steps provided above). Safe mode is a different state of your device wherein you can securely uninstall apps, remove bugs, and observe how your phone behaves for some time. Safe Mode is usually recommended when an S5 encounters problems like freezing, random reboots, connection difficulties, etc. It is more useful in troubleshooting which app is causing problems by forcing the S5 to run only the original apps provided by Samsung or your carrier. Third party apps installed on the phone will not load, thus, it is very helpful in narrowing down the source of the problem. If the screen problem continues even when in safe mode, continue to the next step.

Wipe the cache partition. Sometimes, an Android phone’s system cache can get corrupted. Making sure that your S5 only uses a fresh system cache may help fix the problem. This is done by deleting the existing system cache so that the phone will be forced to create a new one. To do that, here are the steps:

  • Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S5 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 S5’ 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.

Restore software settings to default. Finally, if nothing appears to change for the better, don’t hesitate to try factory reset. As the name suggests, this procedure will erase everything on your phone and bring all software settings to their factory state. If you haven’t created a back up of your personal data before the screen started to show the problem, there’s no way you can recover them after a factory reset. Refer to the steps below on how to do a factory reset on an S5.

Have the phone repaired or replaced. If the three software procedures won’t change anything, find a way to have the phone checked, or better still, replaced.

Problem #3: Galaxy S5 delayed notification problem after update installation

So I recently had the update…phone has been acting weird, although I haven’t found an article listing my issues yet. At first I noticed that Whatsapp wasn’t telling me that I had messages. I would open the app and all of a sudden the phone would remember to tell me that I had a bunch of messages from so and so. This doesn’t happen all the time, it’s kinda random. Facebook has a similar issue where the phone won’t buzz or give me a notification sometimes, then I’ll notice the app itself has the little 1 in a red circle telling me there is a notification (this has happened while having the phone in my hand being actively used, so there is no way I simply missed the buzz/notification message). Again though, sometimes I get the notifications, sometimes I don’t. Then this morning, the kicker.  The same thing happened with my alarm (sleepbot)! I woke up 45 minutes after my alarm, and when I opened the app to check if I had set it, immediately it remembered and started ringing at me. Yet the alarm has worked other times since the update. I have no idea what to make of this behavior but it’s incredibly frustrating. — Mike

Solution: Hi Mike. If this issue started happening coincidentally after an update, the best thing that you want to do first is to wipe the cache partition (steps provided above). If that won’t fix the problem, do a factory reset. Here are the steps:

  • Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S5 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 S5’ 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 #4: Verizon Galaxy S5 MMS not working when on T-Mobile network

I got a Walmart family plan SIM runs off T-Mobile. I have Verizon Galaxy S5 that I am using I needed and SIM card and stuff so my dad got me the starter kit and put me on his plan, the Walmart family plan. I’m able to use the Internet and everything but I’m still having problems with MMS messaging. I can’t send picture messages or receive them.

I went into settings and changed the APN to T-Mobile and all that but still don’t seem to me working. Can you help me?

Also could you maybe tell me how that set up should go to make sure I have it right since I have to change those settings? I mean I got the Internet to work just not the mms, specially cause I send long messages.

Also lol and they turn into MMS message they won’t send either so I have to send part of the message then another. I can’t just send one whole, one, or any photo. Could you please help and email me what I should do? I just want my phone to work like it should for once. Thank you. —  Deanna

Solution: Hi Deanna. There are a number of reasons why MMS won’t work in a phone. The following are some of the common factors that prevents MMS from working properly:

  • poor signal reception
  • phone needs a reboot
  • messaging app inbox is almost/already full
  • MMS configuration is not set
  • network setup is incorrect (this includes APN settings and other network-related settings)

The last two factors in this list can only be checked together with your carrier so we suggest that you work with T-Mobile for resolution. Only T-Mobile can provide you with the correct APN settings for your particular model as well as ensure that MMS feature is allowed on your account.

In some cases, the running operating system may prevent MMS settings from working even if set properly. This is due to the fact that firmware of some carriers may not be fully compatible with another carrier’s network setup. Verizon phones are notoriously difficult to modify as their firmware tamper protection feature is more robust than others. We can’t be 100% sure on this but this may be the reason why MMS is still not working on your end even after you’ve configured APN to T-Mobile. Make sure that you let T-Mobile know about the problem so they can provide you with a solution.

Problem #5: Galaxy S5 on Sprint network won’t send SMS after Marshmallow update

I am with Virgin Mobile USA (Sprint Network), and I recently updated my OS to Marshmallow 6.0.1. Since then, I am not able to send SMS messages; however, I can receive them. I can also access online content using mobile data. I am using the standard Messenger app that came with the phone. I have done a clear cache partition, followed by a factory reset, making sure not to reinstall any backup info from previous devices when prompted. I purchased my phone via Ebay months ago, and it did not come with a SIM card, but I was still able to access the internet through mobile data (only 3G though), as well as send text messages, so I never called Virgin Mobile to order one. Now after this update, sending texts are not possible, giving me the error message “Message not sent. Message saved. Please try again later (425).” — Thank you for your time and attention. — Todd

Solution: Hi Todd. Like Deanna above, we highly recommend that you contact your network service provider in order to fix the problem, especially since factory reset did not change anything. An issue like this can be due to many things including carrier-specific ones. Below are potential causes of an Android phone failing to send SMS:

  • On-going network outage
  • Poor signal reception
  • SMS not enabled on account
  • Insufficient funds (if you’re on prepaid setup vs postpaid)
  • Message center number has changed
  • Call Barring is active (can be disabled with help from your carrier)
  • Fixed Dialing is enabled  (can be disabled with help from your carrier)

Since you’re on a CDMA network, you can’t check if this is an account/SIM-related issue because you are not using a SIM in the first place. The only other step that you can try on your end is to ensure that the phone registers the correct Message Center number. This can only be done by calling your carrier and asking them for the correct number. If your phone already has the correct message center number, the problem must either be on your account or network. Either way, your carrier should help you fix it.

 

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