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Galaxy Note 5 randomly disconnects from mobile network, other connection problems

Galaxy Note 5

As we welcome 2016, here are some of the #GalaxyNote5 connectivity problems shared to us by some members of our community. We hope that the solutions provided below will also help others that may be experiencing similar troubles.

These are the specific topics discussed in this post:

  1. Error Searching network on Galaxy Note 5
  2. Galaxy Note 5 icons and widgets change to different colors
  3. Galaxy Note 5 Google Play Store and Clash of Clans not working
  4. Galaxy Note 5 no longer booting up after charging
  5. Galaxy Note 5 randomly disconnects from mobile network
  6. Galaxy Note 5 won’t connect to 3G 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.

 

Problem #1: Error Searching network on Galaxy Note 5

Phone will not connect to mobile network. I can go to the mobile network screen in Settings and when I try to search for networks it says error searching network. I try to choose manual network and says the same thing. I have tried rebooting, rebooting in safe mode (same issues in safe mode), clearing the cache during restart. And most anything else I could think of. IMEI does show up, Wi-Fi does work fine. When I restart the phone, it does connect to mobile network then lost immediately. Shows x over network bars. Have also run Malware scans (360 Security) says it is good. Not sure what else to do besides factory reset. I have not made any known updates. Latest app download was 2 days ago (Ibotta) — Nick

Solution: Hi Nick. Assuming there’s no hardware failure involved (possibly a networking chip or part), doing a factory reset is an indispensable troubleshooting you must try. Since you have done almost all the other suggestions we usually provide for potential software problems, performing a master reset will help ensure that there’s no firmware-level problems behind this trouble. For a quick reference, here are the steps to perform a factory reset on your Note 5:

  • 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 icons and widgets change to different colors

The icon of apps like “Here maps” & others appears to be black completely, the same thing happens several times with different applications or with folders & sometimes the widgets appears to be liquidly, I mean the blue coloured weather widget appears with greenish lines in it and somewhat with some other widgets.

When such things occur, I have to either reboot the phone or I have to wait to get it settled by itself.

So, is there anyway to fix it rather than rebooting it or formatting by pressing power button, volume up & down button.

I don’t want to lose my data. — Nilay

Solution: Hi Nilay. If this problem occurred after an update or an app installation, the first next thing that you can try is to ensure that the system cache is refreshed. Outdated or corrupted system cache can sometimes lead to issues with other apps or the operating system. Wiping the cache partition usually fixes the problems easily. If you haven’t done it before, here are the steps to delete the system cache on a Note 5:

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

Problem #3: Galaxy Note 5 Google Play Store and Clash of Clans not working

My name is Ikaho and I’m using a Galaxy Note 5. Since last month once is reset my note. I cannot link my email and for which I cannot use Play Store nor can bind my account playing Clash of Clans. Whenever I try to bind my email it shows something like it couldn’t establish proper connection” but I’m sure this is not because of connection error cause I have even tried with a hi speed Wi-Fi. But the problem is still not solved every time I try loading but still it’s the same.

I also tried connecting with customer care and they even help me with remote support and helped with troubleshooting problems on setting and cleared all the data’s and from app manager and Play Store from there and so on but they even failed to assist my problem. So I will be ever grateful to the Samsung team if the team could assist me to get rid of this issue cause my phone is still new in look and process. So kindly look on the problem stated above from genuine user ikaho! will be waiting for the reply and assistant as soon as possible thank you. — ikaho

Solution: Hi Ikaho. First of all, we don’t work for Samsung and they don’t pay us anything eventhough we do provide free troubleshooting tips for their products. Secondly, the issue you have of being unable to use your email for Google Play Store and Clash of Clans game may not be phone problem. The best thing that you can do to check if your email is having problems linking with Play Store is by using another phone or device so you can login using your credentials. If you have another Android phone, try to login to Play Store and CoC game to see if you have any problem. If the issue persists on the second device, make sure to contact Google or the customer service of Clash of Clans game so they can help you on the things that you need to do.

Problem #4: Galaxy Note 5 no longer booting up after charging

Hello. My problem first started when I plugged my phone into the charger. It didn’t charge even though the sign of charging had been on the screen.

After that, I tried to reboot my phone, but suddenly I had the “downloading … please do not turn off target” after I restarted it. I left the phone plugged to the charger for few hours, because I thought it was downloading an upgrade or something.

I checked the phone after few hours and it was dead, I tried different chargers but unfortunately it didn’t solve the problem.

I plugged the phone into the computer, there was a notification for a new hardware was plugged but not recognized. Also, when the phone is plugged for few minutes, I can hear the sound of electricity for a bit then an electricity sign pops up on the screen then disappears.

I hope you find a solution for this problem.

Thank you in advance. — Ali

Solution: Hi Ali. If your Note 5 no longer boots normally even after leaving it charged for several hours, the problem is most likely hardware in nature. Make sure that you try using another charger first to see if there’s an issue with the existing one. Sometimes, the charging cable can malfunction out of the blue so using another charger is necessary.

If the charger’s fine, make sure to have the phone checked by a professional. At this point, anything can be the cause of the problem — a bad charging port, depleted or damaged battery, or failing component in the power circuit. Our blog does not provide hardware troubleshooting and diagnostics so your only choice is either have the phone repaired or replaced.

Problem #5: Galaxy Note 5 randomly disconnects from mobile network

I had my Samsung Galaxy Note 5 for a few months without any trouble. My phone sometimes would not connect to the mobile network. It usually happened in certain building and in my basement, but it would also happen at random times. I did a factory reset twice and still the same problem. During this when I connect to a WIFI network, I don’t have any connectivity issues with WIFI.

Recently I tried using the phone again and I had problems with text messages not sending but once I resent them, they would send. Today it suddenly stopped connecting to the mobile network at random again. When it has its problems, it doesn’t lose connection with the network, it just gets too weak to connect. At first I thought that it could be the areas and locations but I bought a Samsung Galaxy AVANT and had no problems with the mobile network and in those areas. Other people do not have problems in those areas and I know that it’s not the SIM card since I was able to get it to work in my newer phone. I took my note apart and it looked really clean and well made on the inside with no problems. The only solution I can think of is to replace the mother board or the antenna cable. Is my problem cause by hardware or could it be Lollipop? — Jordan

Solution: Hi Jordan. Random drops in cellular connectivity can be caused by a few factors like firmware on the device, condition of the networking components, network quality of service, malware, or third party apps. If you updated the operating system or an app prior to noticing the problem, that might be a good clue on where to start your troubleshooting. Try to do another round of factory reset and observe the phone for several days without installing any third party application. This will help you narrow down the possible causes. If your software troubleshooting won’t change anything, there must be a hardware problem behind the problem. Make sure to have the phone checked for possible hardware defects.

Problem #6: Galaxy Note 5 won’t connect to 3G network

Hi. I have Samsung Galaxy Note 5. I am having issues regarding 3G Connectivity/network. Only GSM Network mode is working fine. When I change the Network mode from ‘GSM/WCDMA’ to ‘WCDMA only’ signals are gone and message comes up saying “No Service. Selected Network not available.”

When I click the message, it goes to Available Networks option and start Searching after few minutes nothing happens. It searched nothing.. I tried automatically searching, nothing happened.

In my area 3G is provided by Etisalat Afghanistan..

I have also tried my SIM to different mobile, 3G signals are coming in that mobile. Tried different networks SIM with the same result.

Tried flashing same firmware version of different country but result is same, 3G signals not coming. Tried flashing Modem file but no advantage gained.

Any solution for this issue? will grateful for the responses!! — Salim

Solution: Hi Salim. Your phone may not be compatible with the network’s 3G technology in your area. Try to call your service provider to ask for direct assistance regarding this matter. If your Note 5’s 3G connectivity works fine outside this area or when using another SIM card from a different service provider, there must be a compatibility issue at play.

 

 

 

Engage with us

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

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

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Galaxy S7 losing network and LTE connectivity, other issues

s7 edge lte

For those looking for solutions to their #GalaxyS7 issues, this post might help. Don’t forget to also visit other troubleshooting guides for the S7 and S7 Edge.

  1. Galaxy S7 losing network and LTE connectivity
  2. SMS on Galaxy S7 is converted to MMS
  3. Galaxy S7 not syncing stock Calendar and Microsoft Exchange accounts properly
  4. Google apps on Galaxy S7 not working properly
  5. Galaxy S7 screen flickers on and off randomly when not in use
  6. Galaxy S7 cannot send MMS

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 losing network and LTE connectivity

Dear DroidGuy. I recently purchased a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge. I am already having issues with the network connectivity and the LTE signal. I really hope you can help me.

The problem is as follows:

When i unlock my phone the H+ is displayed on the top right corner but it seems that the internet is not working. After a couple of seconds the H+ becomes H and then the phone completely loses connectivity to the network and also does not allow me to make calls or send text messages. This keeps happening throughout the day.

Firstly, i contacted my carrier and also talked with other people that are on the same carrier. It would seem that the problem does not liye with the carrier.

I then proceeded with solutions found on the internet. One solution that seemed to have solved the problem was the wiping of the phone’s cache. This worked for about a day but then again the problem resurfaced making me lose connectivity.

I now cannot make calls, send texts or connect to the internet.

If you need any more information let me know.

Thank you. — Harry

Solution: Hi Harry. If the problem appears to get fixed after wiping the system cache, albeit temporarily, that may suggest that your device’s software may be at fault. We are yet to receive similar reports from other S7 users so we can assume that this may be an isolated case.

Boot in safe mode

First off, try to observe how cellular connectivity works for a few days while the phone is in safe mode. While in this environment, all third party apps will be prevented from running so you will have to do a little sacrifice by not using them during the observation period. Booting in safe mode won’t fix the problem but it will give you an idea if one of your apps is causing this trouble.

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

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

 

Do a full wipe via factory reset

Should nothing change even when on safe mode, the next logical step for you is to reset all settings back to default. You can do this by performing a factory reset. Keep in mind that factory reset will erase everything in your phone’s memory so make sure that you create a backup of your personal data before you proceed. Simply follow these steps:

  • 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.

Ask for a phone replacement

If the issue remains even after a factory reset, call Samsung or your wireless carrier to ask for replacement.

Problem #2: SMS on Galaxy S7 is converted to MMS

When I send text messages they are often sent as MMS incurring ex-plan charges. This happens seemingly randomly. I am not sending pictures with such text messages. I saw in outer forum that it could be to do with the Emojis – so, whilst I have only used the ones embedded in the messaging system that came with the phone (i.e. I am not using any ‘downloaded’ app, it still happens.

I have gone into the settings for the messenger and changed it (Input Mode) from ‘automatic’ to ‘Unicode’ and it even happens if there are NO Emoji’s … just text.  The messages are generally short (< 160 characters) and are sent to one mobile phone recipient (i.e. not an email address). Do you have any suggestions, please?  Many thanks. — William

Solution: Hi William. The best thing that you can do on your end is to contact your wireless carrier as your concern has a billing side. For stock Samsung Messaging app, a user will get a popup notification if an SMS will be converted to MMS. If this is not happening on your phone’s messaging app, you may be using a third party messaging app or that the current messaging app provided by your carrier has been modified to skip this warning.

Each wireless carrier has their own criteria when an SMS is converted to MMS so you need to talk to them so you’ll know what to watch out for. T-Mobile, for example, automatically converts into MMS an SMS that exceeds its standard 160-character limit.

Alternatively, you can try any third party messaging app (like Handcent SMS) that will warn you if your message has been converted into MMS.

Problem #3: Galaxy S7 not syncing stock Calendar and Microsoft Exchange accounts properly

Hi. Hope you can help as no one else can.

Here it goes: I have 2 of these phones and both updated to the new software on the same day. Mine works fine, however my wife’s has a problem.

It is with the default Calendar and Microsoft exchange. It will sync the whole calendar only after going into settings, account, exchange and repeatedly hitting sync. It will work for an hour or so and when you open the calendar up all of the info is gone. If I scowl back to let’s say 2012 it will be updating 1 line at a time 1 day at a time, than stop and will have to repeat the steps above again. This is a very important feature to us and we rely on it often every day. Called Google and they said it is a known issue and to use a third party app to sync. Brought the phone to Sprint and they installed the Outlook and Google Mail app and I now have three calendars that won’t sync. Called Samsung, a total of 8 times. They told me to bring the phone to Best Buy for a re-flash. He spent 3 hours on it with no resolve. In between all this I had done a factory reset several times both from the settings menu and also by using the Volume, Menu and Power button to reset the phone. On two occasions Samsung remotely controlled my phone changing settings to no avail.

He installed a program called smart switch and said there you go the calendar is updating; it took an hour to do so. Same thing info is wiped out and have to wait for a reload. I have the calendar to sync 1 month in the past to speed up the process.

The only difference between my phone and my wife’s is I connect to Exchange using outlook.office  and she is connected as s.outlook. Still wait for the Microsoft Migration to exchange server. What gets me is that all of this worked fine for a year until the 6.01 update.

By the way the tech that installed the Smart Sync was a second level tech and I had to wait on hold two hours to talk to him. With every reset I always chose a new install and never used any backup files. Thanks. — Vinny

Solution: Hi Vinny. The minor difference between your phone and your wife’s when it comes to connecting to Microsoft Exchange may actually be the deal-breaker. If Samsung representatives can’t figure out where the issues lies exactly, that’s an indication that a configuration or an app glitch may be to blame. Since this issue is not present on your own phone, try to do another round of factory reset on your wife’s phone, then try to configure it like your own by setting up your own. Set it up to connect to Exchange using your own profile (outlook.office) and observe how it works.

Problem #4: Google apps on Galaxy S7 not working properly

Syncing issues with Google Play Music, Google Contacts, Gmail, Google Play Books, Google Play Music. Worse still, absolutely everything is greyed out when attempting to access my music in Google Play Music. This is all a nuisance when streaming over Wi-Fi. Then I remembered from my old Samsung Galaxy S1 that you had to access your Google Account Sign in from the phone’s browser (a form of security check to make sure the device associated with the account was genuine). It worked!!! I am able to stream music over a mobile network. So this is half the problem solved. On returning indoors to a Wi-Fi environment, everything is again greyed out with the K-itchen Sync thrown in my face. I hope this helps you guys solve the underlying prob. All the best and keep up the good work! — Chris

Solution: Hi Chris. Make sure you wipe the system cache first to see if the problem is due to a corrupted or outdated cache. Once you’ve done that, you then need to delete the cache and data of Google Services Framework app. Here’s how:

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

Problem #5: Galaxy S7 screen flickers on and off randomly when not in use

Hey there. So i had a Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge but dropped it and the screen smashed. I had an insurance replacement (which was a refurbished handset) and backed up my broken screen Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (on the same software as this new one) and loaded it to the new phone. Before i even put the sim in the new phone and in the initial set up – the screen was flickering randomly. It would be fine (untouched on a table) then suddenly flicker without any interaction.

I sent it to Samsung to have them fix it and they have sent it back but the same issue persists. Untouched – the screen will randomly and intermittently flicker between on and off. The only time this doesn’t happen is when it is plugged into a charger. Soft/hard resets do not fix it and the old s7 edge plus with the cracked screen and same software version never had such issues. Have you any ideas or tips? Thanks in advance! — David

Solution: Hi David. It’s our first time to encounter an issue like this on a new S7 and we have no idea what’s happening. A full screen assembly diagnostics will be needed to see if a bad hardware somewhere is the cause. If this issue has already been submitted to Samsung without any positive answer, chances are they also don’t know where the problem lies. We suggest that you have the phone replaced instead.

Problem #6: Galaxy S7 cannot send MMS

Hello. I bought a brand new Galaxy S7 about a month ago and paid full-price for it. I LOVED it and everything worked great at first. Now, I cannot send MMS messages. It began sending them sporadically then just stopped sending at all. It is an AT&T phone but I am using Straight Talk. My OnePlus One sends MMS without issues. Is the problem on Straight Talk’s end? AT&T? Samsung?

I have tried everything from factory reset to getting a new SIM card to trying every APN setting I can find.  Nothing works! Please help.  This is a lot of wasted $ so far and I am so aggravated with it! — Michelle

Solution: Hi Michelle. If you are currently using a Straight Talk SIM, you need to make sure first that there’s no account- or billing-related issue that prevents your device from sending out MMS. Contact your wireless carrier and ask for direct assistance regarding the matter.

To see if your account can send MMS or not, insert the SIM card to another phone. If MMS works fine on another phone, the problem may have something to do with your S7’s APN settings. Make sure that you contact your wireless carrier for the correct information so you can manually change the current APN settings.

 

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.

Fix Samsung Galaxy Note 5 that can’t send/receive text messages & MMS, more messaging issues [w/ Troubleshooting Guide]

This one’s for Samsung Galaxy Note 5 (#Samsung #GalaxyNote5) owners who are having problems sending and/or receiving text messages and MMS. It also goes to owners who have difficulty using this basic feature.

Galaxy-Note-5-text-mms-problems

Text messaging is a very basic feature and a smartphone as powerful as the Note 5 shouldn’t have issue sending 1Kb worth of data over a cellular network. However, things like this happens all the time and it’s not really about the phone but most of the time about the network, the account of the subscriber or misconfiguration.

If you’re having problems with your phone, try these troubleshooting steps:

Step 1: Check the signal bars immediately – without signal, the phone cannot send or receive messages. If the signal disappeared without apparent reason, it might be a network problem. Call your provider and inquire about it.

Step 2: Reboot your device – if the phone’s signal bars show there’s coverage, then try rebooting your phone just to refresh its memory as well as its connection to the network. For minor coverage issues, this simple procedure is very effective.

Step 3: Try sending a message to your own number – this is the most effective way to know whether or not your phone can send and receive messages. If messages aren’t sent, it might be the Message Center Number that has issues. Call your provider and ask for the correct one and make sure it’s setup on your phone. If messages are send but not received, make sure there’s enough storage space left.

Step 4: For MMS, make sure mobile data is turned on – mobile data is everything when it comes to sending and receive picture messages, texts with pictures and group texts.

Step 5: If mobile data is turned on but MMS messages don’t come through, check the APN settings. Every letter or number or character should conform with the settings of your provider. You may google the correct APN for your phone or call your provider and ask for it.

Furthermore, if you have issues sending SMS and MMS without apparent reason, make sure your account is still in good standing and that it’s not barred from using those services. Your service provider will always be your go-to guy when it comes to these issues.

If you have other concerns, fill up this questionnaire and hit submit to reach out to us. We are always willing to help you fix your issues with your phone. However, we need your cooperation. Make sure you provide us will sufficient information about the problem so that it would be easier for us to help you. You may also visit our troubleshooting page and try to find issues related to yours and use the existing solutions.

Now, here’s the list of the messaging issues I addressed in this post…

  1. Galaxy Note 5 can’t send or receive MMS
  2. Note 5 stopped sending text messages due to coverage issues
  3. Some letters on the keypad doesn’t work
  4. How to get messages preview pop up on lock screen?
  5. Wi-Fi has to be turned off to receive texts with pictures

Galaxy Note 5 can’t send or receive MMS

Problem: I cannot send or receive MMS. This is a new issue to my phone. It is a major problem.  I know that you start by saying that you have addressed this before many times. Did it ever occur to you that this really means that you have failed to address it successfully? I am using the stock app. I regularly use a better app and I want to continue to do so. Just saying “don’t use advanced messaging”  is lame. Simply put it back the way that it was. Please! I do not consider this basic feature optional. Put your programmers in a room and don’t let them out until they have fixed this! — Hal

Answer: Well, Hal, even if we successfully addressed an issue, it’s inevitable that we receive the same complaints from our readers after a few hours since we posted our solution. That’s why, even if we already addressed an issue a hundred times before, we are still obliged to answer questions sent by our readers.

Now, let’s try to solve your problem by asking your series of questions:

  1. Is mobile data enabled in your phone?
  2. If it is, have you checked the APN settings and verify it so that it conforms with the settings with your provider?
  3. If so, what’s the error message you get when you try to send an MMS and failed?
  4. Assuming every setting in your phone is correct, have you tried calling your provider and make sure it’s not an issue with the network?
  5. If it was not a network issue, have you verified your account status to see if there are no bars that prevent you from sending/receiving MMS?
  6. If this issue started just recently, didn’t it occur to you that you may have changed something in your phone that led to it?

As far as MMS is concerned, we end-users can only check if all the settings are correct and if the service still doesn’t work, it’s the provider that has to figure out what the problem is since it has total control over its mobile data network as well as the customer’s account.

We, too, don’t consider this basic feature optional. However, there’s nothing we can do about it since we are not, in any way, affiliated with Samsung. So, if you have better suggestions, call them!

Note 5 stopped sending text messages due to coverage issues

Problem: I am on vacation in San Diego (not in my home carrier area). Suddenly my Note 5 stopped sending text messages.  I followed your trouble shooting all the way through and including a complete factory reset.  It still isn’t sending texts, and now I can’t set up my email account. That error message says try again with network providers default APN. Can you help or do I need to locate an ATT store here in San Diego?

Answer: If your phone was detecting a signal even outside your carrier’s coverage area, you should still have services. And when it comes to text messages, a factory reset isn’t always effective to resolve messaging issues because more often, the problem is with the network.

The best thing you can do for now is call your service provider and ask if you can get a service in the area you’re currently in. If so, ask the rep to setup the APN for you.

Some letters on the keypad doesn’t work

Problem: I have a Note 5 and my phone doesn’t so much lag but I can never get the letter L to work. Never dropped it in water and no damage to phone. I had this problem with the last one. I literally just got this phone and it is already doing it again. My last phone started as the letter A then the L then other spots on the keyboard. Anyone else experience this? If so any fixes?

Troubleshooting: It could have been more helpful to us if you told us the keyboard you’re using if any. I encountered this issue with Swiftkey before; it cause the stock messaging app to lag or freeze for a few seconds resulting to some keys not responding. Clearing the cache and data of the messaging app you use may fix the problem. And if you’re using a third-party keyboard, try disabling it first and use the stock keyboard to see if the problem remains. If so, you need to try to wipe the cache partition and proceed with master reset if it failed.

Delete Note 5 System Cache

  1. Turn off your Galaxy Note 5.
  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.

How to get messages preview pop up on lock screen?

Question: How do I get my text message alerts to pop up on my screen again?  I dint want to see the content I just want a window to pop up showing I have a text message when a text comes in like it used to when I first got the phone.

Answer: This feature is still in your phone but it may have been disabled that’s why the message preview doesn’t show on the lock screen anymore. To enable it back, go to Apps > Settings > Lock screen and security > Notifications. In that screen, you can choose which apps to show on lock screen.

Wi-Fi has to be turned off to receive texts with pictures

Problem: I am having a hard time when people send me texts with pictures I have to shut off my Wi-Fi to get them. It just started doing it and I don’t know why. Thank you. I don’t want to use up my data ’cause I shut my Wi-Fi off.

Answer: On or off, Wi-Fi has nothing to do with MMS or picture messages. What matters is the mobile data. Just make sure it’s turned on so you can receive MMS. If you don’t want to use up your data then, tell your friends not to send you picture messages because the fact that you’re downloading those pictures means you’re already using up your data.

Connect with us

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

How to fix your Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge that can no longer send and receive picture messages [Troubleshooting Guide]

Text messaging is one of the basic service any mobile phone can offer. For smartphones as powerful as the #Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge (#S7Edge), sending and receiving text messages should work without a hitch. But when it comes to transmitting #MMS like texts with attached pictures, emojis or other files, there’s something that needs to be met before you can send or receive large files over cellular data network.

galaxy-s7-edge-mobile-data

In this post I will tackle this problem once again as we keep receiving complaints from our readers who are bugged this text messaging issues including this one. So, if you own an Galaxy S7 Edge or any Android smartphone for that matter and are currently experiencing this problem, read on to understand more about it and to learn how to fix it.

But before anything else, if you have other concerns, make sure you visit our S7 Edge troubleshooting page and find issues that are similar or related to yours. If ever you need more assistance from us, you can always reach out to us by completing our Android issues questionnaire. Remember that our troubleshooting depends on the information you provide, the more detailed your description is the more accurate our solutions are.

Galaxy S7 Edge cannot send and receive picture messages anymore

Problem: For some reason, my Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge now has difficulty sending and receiving picture messages or text messages with pictures. It just happened and I don’t have any idea what caused it let along have a clue how to fix it. All I know is that on Wednesday I was still able to send a few pictures to a friend and I got a few replies with attached pictures as well but now whenever I send the text with a picture it fails and since this problem started, I haven’t received any picture messages when in fact, I receive at least 2 a day. Can you help me look into this matter and see if I can fix it on my own? Thank you!

Troubleshooting: To be able to send and receive picture messages or MMS, mobile data has to be enabled on your phone. Most of the time people think that sending an SMS and texting with pictures are the same. They’re not. The latter needs to transmit the files over the mobile data network so the phone has to be connected to it first off and then the account must be in good standing to use the service. But that’s not all so I’m giving you the list of possibilities that might have resulted to this problem:

  • Mobile data may have been disabled for some reason.
  • APN Settings on your phone may be incorrect.
  • Your account may not be in good standing or barred from using the service.
  • Signal or the reception keeps dropping.
  • Corrupt cache and data may have affected the phone’s radios.
  • It might be a more complex hardware problem.

Now that we’ve enumerated these possibilities, here’s what you need to do:

Step 1: Verify mobile data is enabled

Mobile data is the key to sending picture messages or MMS. While there are apps that offer the same service over Wi-Fi, if you’re using the built-in messaging app then you really have to check on this. Here’s how you enable mobile data:

  1. From a Home screen, tap Apps (located in the lower-right). (These instructions apply to Standard mode only.)
  2. Tap Settings.
  3. Tap Data Usage.
  4. Tap the Mobile data switch to turn on.

Once you’ve enabled mobile data, compose a text messages and attach a picture and send it to your own number that way you’ll be able to tell if the message comes through and if you can receive it.

Step 2: Verify the APN Settings on your phone are correct

If you’ve already enabled mobile data and the test message didn’t go through, then you’ll have to check the APN Settings and verify if your phone still bears the correct ones. Just like email settings, APN also has outgoing and incoming settings. So if your text message did go through but you weren’t able to receive it, then the incoming settings should be checked. Remember that if there’s one incorrect character, the messages won’t be received. Here’s how you check the APN Settings on your phone:

  1. From the Home screen, tap the Apps icon.
  2. Tap Settings.
  3. Tap Mobile networks.
  4. Tap Access Point Names.
  5. If available, tap the T-Mobile US APN (the bullet point fills with green). If not available, tap the MORE icon, and then tap New APN. Note: To reset your APN settings, tap the MORE icon and then tap Reset to default.
  6. Verify and update the settings for the Data APN based on the settings provided by your service provider:
  7. After making necessary corrections, tap Save.
  8. Tap the desired APN profile you want to use. The bullet point fills with green next to the
  9. APN profile.

After this, try to compose another message and attach a picture and send it to your own number.

Step 3: Check the signal bars and call tech support

Checking the signal bars will immediately tell you if your phone is getting a decent reception from the tower because if it doesn’t, then that’s the reason why you can’t send and receive messages. While checking the signal, try to see if there’s an icon of a plane beside the bars. If there is, then disable Flight Mode first.
Assuming the phone has good reception but still can’t send and receive MMS, then it’s time to call tech support and inquire about the following:

  • if there’s an issue with the service in your area
  • if there’s a problem with your account
  • if it’s a known problem and if so, how long it has been happening and when it would be fixed

After calling tech support and the problem isn’t with your account nor with the network, then it’s time to resort to a couple of troubleshooting procedures that may address all issues with the firmware.

Step 4: Delete the system cache and then reset your phone if necessary

We won’t know for sure if the problem is caused by some corrupt caches but if it occurred out of the blue without apparent cause, then it’s always safe to assume that some caches got corrupted and caused the phone to work this way. So, delete all the system caches as we can’t delete them one by one. Here’s how…

  1. Turn off the phone.
  2. Press and then hold the Home and Volume UP keys, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge 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. Once highlighted, you may press the Power key to select it.
  7. Now highlight the option ‘Yes’ using the Volume Down key and press the Power button to select it.
  8. Wait until your phone is finished wiping the cache partition. Once completed, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and press the Power key.
  9. The phone will now reboot longer than usual.

Once the phone has successfully rebooted and ready, compose a text message with attached picture and send it to your number. If the message doesn’t go through or if you can’t receive it, then it’s time to backup your data and reset your device.

  1. Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge.
  2. Press and then hold the Home and Volume UP keys, then press and hold the Power key. NOTE: It doesn’t matter how long you press and hold the Home and Volume Up keys, it won’t affect the phone but by the time you press and hold the Power key, that’s when the phone starts to respond.
  3. When the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge 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. NOTE: The “Installing system update” message may show on the screen for several seconds before displaying the Android system recovery menu. This is just the first phase of the entire process.
  5. Using the Volume Down key, navigate through the options and highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset.’
  6. Once highlighted, you may press the Power key to select it.
  7. Now highlight the option ‘Yes — delete all user data’ using the Volume Down key and press the Power button to select it.
  8. Wait until your phone is finished doing the Master Reset. Once completed, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and press the Power key.
  9. The phone will now reboot longer than usual.

After this, set your phone up but don’t install apps just yet. Instead try composing a text message with a picture in it and send it to your own number. If the problem remains, then you have to send the phone in for repair.

Galaxy S7 Edge having difficulty sending picture message to an iPhone

Problem: I as well as my husband who has the same phone (Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge) and my mother who has a Galaxy S6 are having problems with sending and receiving pictures.  Sometimes they go through and sometimes they do not.  As well sometimes I receive photos sent from them and sometimes I do not.  We also have problems sending pictures to my mother in law who has an iPhone.  Besides the pictures not always going through, sometimes after you send the same picture 4-6 times and one finally goes through then the picture is scrambled and or discolored.  Any advice on this issue?

Solution: There are a lot of reasons why your phone cannot receive and send picture messages that’s why we need to troubleshoot it to know what the issue is. This problem is common not just with Samsung device but to other smartphones as well.

One of the factors why the device cannot receive picture messages or MMS is maybe because the mobile data is disabled or turned off.  Keep in mind that mobile data is a prerequisite when transmitting large files over cellular network.  

But if it is already turned on and the issue is still happening, then there might be a problem with the signal or reception in your area or the APN settings needs to be re-configured. If you are not familiar with the procedures on how to configure the APN of your handset, calling your service provider is the best thing to do. Perhaps, there will be troubleshooting procedures to be provided by the representative and if it’s just a minor problem there is always a chance that the issue will be fixed.

On the other hand, maybe the reason why your mother in-law cannot receive the photos you sent to her is because there might be a problem with the signal reception in her area or there can also be settings in her device that needs to be changed so that she can receive picture messages from Android phones without a problem.
I suggest you follow the same troubleshooting as above to see if you can solve this problem on your own.

CONNECT WITH US

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

Galaxy S7 Edge sends 4 different copies of the same image, other issues

Hello Android community! Welcome to another new series of posts that answers some questions about #GalaxyS7 issues. There are 6 issues here that may be similar or identical to your issue so we hope that this material will be of help. If you sent us a request for help lately but are yet to see it published, please continue to watch out for more S7 articles in the near future.

s7

  1. Galaxy S7 loses mobile data connection
  2. Galaxy S7 Edge not syncing contact photos properly with Sync2 app
  3. Galaxy S7 Edge sends 4 different copies of the same image
  4. Galaxy S7 Edge call answer buttons won’t appear when connected to Wi-Fi
  5. Sprint Galaxy S7 not booting normally
  6. Galaxy S7 Edge touchscreen won’t turn on

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

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 loses mobile data connection

I’ve been using S7 Edge for 6 months and it was fine till this 1 night. Everything was as usual, me using it to browse Facebook and played some games while waiting for dinner to be served. Dinner is served, me putting away my phone and had my dinner. When I was done, I got back to my phone and I was devastated to find out that I couldn’t connect to the internet. No Facebook, no Whatsapp, No Wechat, No Google, No INTERNET.

I reset phone, checked data usage and even called the operator and confirmed that i have plenty of data left unused for the month. Reset phone again, not working. Reset cache, not working. Boot using safe mode, still no internet. oooh and my other few relative using same operator have their internet so no problem with the network provider. — Jason

Solution: Hi Jason. Since this is obviously not a carrier issue and you’ve already tried some basic software troubleshooting, the next step that you must try is factory reset. This will help you determine if a firmware glitch may have developed preventing the phone to lose cellular connection. Make sure to create a back up all your important files before you do this step. To factory reset your phone, kindly do the following steps:

Step 1: Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge.

Step 2: Press and then hold the Home and Volume UP keys, then press and hold the Power key.

NOTE: It doesn’t matter how long you press and hold the Home and Volume Up keys, it won’t affect the phone but by the time you press and hold the Power key, that’s when the phone starts to respond.

Step 3: When the Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge shows on the screen, release the Power key but continue holding the Home and Volume Up keys.

Step 4: When the Android logo shows, you may release both keys and leave the phone be for about 30 to 60 seconds.

NOTE: The “Installing system update” message may show on the screen for several seconds before displaying the Android system recovery menu. This is just the first phase of the entire process.

Step 5: Using the Volume Down key, navigate through the options and highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset.’

Step 6: Once highlighted, you may press the Power key to select it.

Step 7: Now highlight the option ‘Yes — delete all user data’ using the Volume Down key and press the Power button to select it.

Step 8: Wait until your phone is finished doing the Master Reset. Once completed, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and press the Power key.

Step 9: The phone will now reboot longer than usual.

Keep in mind that mobile data connection can also fail if the chip that handles cellular traffic is physically damaged. If nothing will change after you factory reset the device, you can bet that hardware malfunction is causing it. Find a way to have your phone replaced.

Problem #2: Galaxy S7 Edge not syncing contact photos properly with Sync2 app

I am currently experiencing problems with the syncing of Contact photos on my Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge phone. I sync Contacts from Microsoft Outlook 2010 to Google Mail. Then, as I understand it, I sync Google mail Contacts to Samsung phone using Sync2. Sometimes the Contact images are fine, and stay that way. Sometimes, the images load blurry with a small circle in the bottom left-hand corner. (I have attached a confidential copy of an image of the phone screen). Then, some of the good images at a later date, also turn blurry.

Google are stating that there is nothing wrong their end. Ditto, Microsoft and Sync2. However, this situation can be very frustrating. We have tried taking a screenshot of the images, and downloading in various ways, but nothing stops this happening. We have reset all sorts of things, etc. We have kept the images/screenshots in the Gallery, still the same. We have deleted the images in the Gallery, still the same. Have you heard of this happening to other Samsung phone users, and if so, what is the solution? Many thanks. — Jean

Solution: Hi Jean. You’re the first one to have called our attention for this particular problem, most probably because it’s also the first time we hear about Sync2. We are not familiar with this third party app and service so we recommend that you continue to work with them to get a resolution. Upon checking their Google Play Store page, it looks like their technical support team attends to reviews posted by users like you so we strongly recommend that you also post your own review of this app.

Problem #3: Galaxy S7 Edge sends 4 different copies of the same image

I wish that I could attach a picture so I could show you. I have an S7 Edge and my boyfriend has an LG V10. I sent him a picture of my dog laying by the door and for some reason when he received it, it broke it up into 4 different colored pictures of the same picture, if that makes sense. Like it took the picture divided into four and all four sides are different color schemes. It looks really messed up and it’s one thing I’m starting not to like about my S7 Edge. I used to have a Samsung Galaxy Mega and honestly I like that slow ass phone way better than I like this one this phone is constantly messing up especially with Snapchat and my camera and my locks, and now I can’t even send pictures to other people that aren’t even iPhones. Please help. I paid a lot of money for this phone. Thank you. — Cierra

Solution: Hi Cierra. We are yet to hear of similar or identical problem from other Galaxy S7 users so we can’t say for sure if it’s a phone or app issue. We would like to think that it may be an app issue. What app is directly responsible is yet to be determined though. This problem can caused by a bad messaging app you’re using to send the photo, or it can be the camera or any third party app that associates itself to the camera app.

Boot your S7 to safe mode

The first thing you want to try is boot the phone in safe mode so you can check if a third party app is to blame. Restarting your phone in safe mode prevents third party apps from running so if the issue won’t occur, you can bet the problem is being caused by an app you installed. To boot your S7 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.
  • Observe the phone for sometime and try to replicate the issue by sending another photo to your boyfriend’s phone. If the issue won’t occur, uninstall all third party apps starting from the most recent until the problem is eliminated.

Reset the camera app

If the problem happens when in safe mode, the next logical step is to reset the camera app itself. You can do that by opening the camera app and going under settings menu. Once you’ve reset the camera app, replicate the issue again by sending a photo. If the issue persists, you can also wipe the camera app’s cache and data by doing the following steps:

  • Go to 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, look for the camera 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.

Wipe the cache partition

If the issue coincidentally happens after you installed an app or Android update, you can also wipe the cache partition. This can be safely done and is even recommended to be done regularly whether you notice a problem or not. Here are the steps:

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

Finally, if nothing will work, don’t hesitate to see how the phone works after you reset all software to their default state via factory reset. Once you’ve done the factory reset, make sure not to re-install your apps right away. Instead, let your phone stand for a few hours without any new installation so you can check if sending of an image will work normally. If it does, then one of your apps or updates is the culprit.

Problem #4: Galaxy S7 Edge call answer buttons won’t appear when connected to Wi-Fi

Hi. When my Galaxy S7 Edge receives a call it rings but does not appear to wake up. If I touch the screen I can unlock it but there are no buttons to answer the call. I have also tried answering with the home button and it does not answer even though it is enabled. I have noticed the problem only occurs when I am connected to my home network via Wi-Fi. If I switch the Wi-Fi off on the phone it accepts calls OK and the green & red buttons appear. It also accepts calls OK when connected to Wi-Fi when in safe mode. So I assume this means that it is an app that is causing the problem. How do I detect what app it is without doing a factory reset and losing all my data and apps. My work around at the moment is to keep Wi-Fi off and use my data connection instead but this is not ideal. Thanks. — Mick

Solution: Hi Mick. There’s no clear-cut way to identify which of your apps may be causing the issue. The only thing that you can do is to do a trial-and-error uninstall. This means you have to uninstall third party apps until the problem is gone. We recommend that you start the process by removing third party apps that use Wi-Fi and connects to a phone app as well. We have no list of apps installed on your phone so we can’t be more specific.

Problem #5: Sprint Galaxy S7 not booting normally

Hello. This is for a S7 on Sprint. You have some great info on your site. I tried them all and nothing works. Here is my problem. They did a firmware update last night. I let it download and said install and then just left it there and went to bed. When i got up this morning it was showing the android screen for about 5 seconds (normal), then it would go black for a couple seconds and then show the Android screen again. It wouldn’t get past that screen. So i found your website and tried all of them. now it says in the upper left hand corner ‘recovery booting…’ The only thing that changes it is if i push the home key and the volume down and then it comes to a blue warning screen and if i push the volume down key it say downloading something that takes about .5 seconds. and goes right back to the recovery booting again. if i do it the other way it just goes straight to that screen without the really short download page.  i have tried it plugged in and not plugged in. Please respond by email. Thanks. any ideas? — Shawn

Solution: Hi Shawn. First of all, we don’t respond by email; we want our answers to be publicly available so the rest of the Android community can see them as well.

Secondly, there are only three things a user can do when faced with issues after installing Android update (assuming you’re talking of over-the-air update). These things are:

  • wiping the cache partition
  • making sure that ALL apps are compatible and updated
  • performing a factory reset

If you’ve done them already but the phone remains stuck in recovery mode, you must let your carrier know of the issue so they can check if their released firmware is causing it. They may also simply replace the phone if they can’t identify the problem.

If you rooted the phone or installed third party or unofficial software on the phone, make sure to consult the developer of the software you used.

Problem #6: Galaxy S7 Edge touchscreen won’t turn on

Hi! They bought me a Samsung S7 Edge from B&H 2 weeks ago. i am in Argentina. i started using it on Thursday without any problems. On tuesday i was buying it a cover and they turned it off at the shop so as not to hurt the phone. When i turned it on again the touchscreen no longer worked and by restarting the phone the same happens. i cannot even turn it off. what appears is “insert your pin number” and the dialing pad at times when i press a button on the side or the main button but the touchscreen looks as if it was dead. i did not hit the phone or anything. What could be the problem? Here in samsung Argentina they told me that it could be either the touchscreen or the “mother” plaque of the phone. Please help me! B&H, Ssquaretrade insure and Samsung are not taking responsibility for it. — Maria Luisa

Solution: Hi Maria Luisa. If the only thing you’ve done differently before the problem occurred was to buy a cover for the phone, then the people in the shop who handled your device may have done something to break it. Try removing the cover or the touchscreen protector (if you have it) and see if that will help in making the touchscreen work. Otherwise, your only means of resolution is to have the phone checked for possible repair or replacement.

 

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 S5 keeps going to “Emergency Only” state, other issues

Hello dear Readers! Let’s continue our discussion of some issues about the #GalaxyS5 series. In this post, we give you 6 more issues that were reported by some users during the past few days.

s5

These are the specific topics in this article:

  1. Galaxy S5 intermittent charging problem
  2. Galaxy S5 does not have LTE/WCDMA/GSM option under Network settings
  3. Galaxy S5 screen won’t turn back on
  4. Galaxy S5 keeps going to “Emergency Only” state
  5. Galaxy S5 Bluetooth keeps on turning on and off
  6. Unlocked AT&T Galaxy S5 Active won’t accept MetroPCS APN settings

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 intermittent charging problem

Hello. I am having a charging problem. Both my husband and I have the Galaxy S5. Mine is about a year and a half old and his is about a year old. We both started having this problem randomly about a month ago. Our phones will be charging fine and then all of a sudden a message saying that this charger is incompatible with the phone and to use the original charger. Well, we are using the original charger. We’ve purchased 4 OEM Samsung chargers for the S5 and they will work for a while and then we will get this message. We’ve also purchased 3 off brand chargers. We get the same result. It will charge for a few days and then pop up with that message. I am not sure what to do.

If a charger gives me the message I’ll pass it to hubby. He will use it for a day or two and then he’ll get the same message. I haven’t taken it in because as I said above all chargers work for a few days before getting this message. We have both made sure we are fully updated, I’ve done a factory reset, I’ve started it in safe mode, I’ve tried in ultra power saving mode, turning it off while charging, wiggling the cord to see if in a certain position if it’ll charge and everything doesn’t work. I do have a crack in my screen up by the camera. But that happened 6 months ago and the problem with both our phones started within the last month. Hubbies phone is perfectly fine condition wise. So it doesn’t make any sense. Please help I’m running out of chargers lol. — Stephanie

Solution: Hi Stephanie. The next logical step for you is to have the hardware checked, particularly the condition of the charging port. That the issue happens after doing a factory reset (assuming that you observe the phone for a few days without installing any app) is a clear indicator that you’re not dealing with a software issue.

Problem #2: Galaxy S5 does not have LTE/WCDMA/GSM option under Network settings

Hello. First of all thank you that you did possible to contact you guys when we have problems.

1.) I have a Samsung S5 G900F. The problem with this device is that I can’t connect with 4G network, and it doesn’t show the last option LTE/WCDMA/GSM like in the photo: (https://i.ytimg.com/vi/aixYwt4XLBc/maxresdefault.jpg) The strange thing is that when I insert other SIM card carrier like T-Mobile, up in the top near to the battery and clock, it shows 4G. But still I don’t have the LTE/WCDMA/GSM like in the photo. So I don’t understand what’s going on.

2.) In the box when I bought the phone it was said that it does have 4G and in the back of the phone does too. I have the 4.4.2 KitKat version of Android. Do I have to update it? That’s what some people told me to do. (That’s another topic, that my phone didn’t pop up the Lollipop update or Marshmallows. If it’s possible to help me with this too. ^.^ )

I haven’t tried with unofficial update, cause I was afraid that I will have problems with my phone. If you guys can give me some tips, I will be very thankful. 🙂 Thanks, best regards. — Arbi

Solution: Hi Arbi. First of all, let us emphasize the point that carriers modify vanilla versions of Android to add or remove features that may or may not help in personalizing their products. Thus, it is expected that T-Mobile Galaxy S5s look different than a Verizon S5 in terms of software options and features. Since your phone’s model is G900F (which is an international version) it may not have the same exact set of options with any other Galaxy S5 models out there. The software appearance of devices are determined by carriers so if you can’t find LTE/WCDMA/GSM option, stop looking for it since there’s nothing that you can do about it. If it bothers you that said option is missing, there’s nothing that we can do to help. You must simply take it or leave it. The important thing is that your phone is capable of connecting to LTE or 4G LTE. If the current SIM card you’re using does not allow you to do that, make sure to contact your carrier and ask them what their 4G LTE frequency band is. Once you have that information, check your phone manual and see the phone’s own 4G LTE frequency band. You have to make sure that your carrier’s frequency is compatible with your phone’s operating frequency for LTE. As far as we know, Samsung Galaxy S5 SM-G900F operates 4G in the following frequencies:

LTE 800 / 850 / 900 / 1800 / 1900 / 2100 / 2600. Again, please refer to the documentation of your phone to get accurate information about this topic.

Also, keep in mind that frequency band of a phone is determined by a certain chip designed to handle specific bands only. This means that you won’t be able make your phone connect to a carrier’s network operating only on 1700 or any other frequency band not supported by your phone.

For your second issue, the answer is most likely in the negative. Carriers only release Android updates to phones running their own version of Android. Because you have an international version, it’s operating system is most likely not fully compatible with your carrier’s Android version. In other words, if you’re not receiving any notification of a pending system update when you insert a SIM card, then there’s no way you can install an over-the-air (OTA) update. Your only option would be manual flashing of a stock firmware for this particular model. If you want to know how to do that, use Google to look for a good guide.

Problem #3: Galaxy S5 screen won’t turn back on

When I use my camera to take pictures, view pictures, share pictures, delete pictures, all is well… same for videos. Then I set my phone down afterwards and the screen shuts down from inactivity (as it should), it’s still ‘seems’ normal. BUT when I hit my home button or power button to wake my phone up it does NOTHING! It’s as if I powered it off. I hold my power button to turn it on and still nothing. The only thing I’ve found that works to turn it back on is to remove my battery and put it right back in (1/2 a second is long enough but I have even left it out a full minute before with no difference) and power it on. Once it boots, all is well like nothing ever happened!

Just the other day I had taken a screen shot, then texted it to my mom and set my phone down to work on my laptop and my phone started ringing. I could not see the display, I tried hitting every button on the phone and it just kept ringing. I eventually got my protective cover off and removed the battery and it stopped ringing. I had a feeling it may have been my husband so I called him and he said he did call. He said it rang 4 times and went to my voice mail. But on my end it rang forever!!

I have memory issues (mine, not my phone) so I don’t recall when this started in relation to my last update… but I’m pretty sure it was not right after or I would hope I would have made that connection. — Donna

Solution: Hi Donna. There’s only one thing that we can say about the issue — it’s either a software glitch or hardware malfunction that we haven’t heard of. To check, do a factory reset and observe the phone without installing any apps. Do the observation as long as you can so you’ll know if there’s a difference once you’ve restored the software setup to default. If nothing changes during the observation period, find a way to have the phone replaced.

For reference, below are the steps on how to factory reset your phone:

  • Create a backup of your important files.
  • 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 #4: Galaxy S5 keeps going to “Emergency Only” state

Hello. My wife and I are have been having the same issues on our Galaxy S5s. Throughout the day they will randomly go into “Searching” or “Emergency Only” with no warning. We only discover this when we go to use our phones and have no service. To fix this, we either have to restart the phone or put it in and out of airplane mode. It seems to happen most often when we leave an area where we are connected to the Wi-Fi. Rather than re-establishing a 4G connection, the phone just switches to “Searching” or “Emergency Only”. It does this regardless of whether or not Smart Network Switch is checked in the Wi-Fi settings. This has been a nonstop issue since around January 2016 and I have been unable to find any information online specific to this problem. It isn’t specific to our phones either, as I have replaced my wife’s phone due to a cracked screen and the refurbished replacement has the same issue. This has been a serious frustration as it renders our phones essentially useless to contact us unless we constantly check to make sure they haven’t lost service. Any help from the experts here would be amazing. — Josh

Solution: Hi Josh. There are a number of factors (or even a combination of factors, which is very rare) that can cause your problem. Among the common factors though are the following (they are relatively easy to isolate):

  • Software/app glitch
  • bad hardware (like a malfunctioning radio chip)
  • network issue
  • wireless account issue

If the problem is due to a bad app or even an operating system glitch that may have developed after some time, you may be able to fix it by doing software troubleshooting. In fact, our blog can only provide you these software solutions and nothing else. You and Samsung (or your carrier) must do the heavy lifting if these software solutions won’t isolate or fix the issue.

The first software troubleshooting that you want to do booting the phones in safe mode for as long as you can allow. There’s a chance that both devices may have a common app installed causing network function interference. Booting a phone in safe mode will prevent third party apps from running so if the issue won’t occur while in this mode, you can bet one of your apps is the culprit. To boot in safe mode, follow these steps:

  • 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 you can’t isolate the issue to an app/s, the next logical step is to do a factory reset and observe the phone (for several days if possible). Refer to our suggestion to Donna above. If the issue remains after a factory reset procedure, you should extend the troubleshooting beyond the phone. “Emergency only” situation usually shows after a phone loses a connection to a cellular network. Make sure to let your carrier know about this problem so they can check if other users in the area are experiencing the same problem. You also want to check with them if there’s no account-specific issues that may be causing this situation. If they’ll say that everything is clear on their end, then you should consider having the phone replaced (although we doubt this is hardware-related issue).

Problem #5: Galaxy S5 Bluetooth keeps on turning on and off

First off I have tried all of the online troubleshooting and solutions but none seem to try to fix my Bluetooth issue on my Samsung S5. Here it is. So I

upgraded to Marshmallow a few months back. I’ve noticed a lot of changes with my phone. Some I have grown to look over but my main issue is my Bluetooth keeping switching on and off and it won’t allow me to turn it off or on. And to top it off, I went to application manager to see if I can do it there but my Bluetooth isn’t in application manager. It’s not there which is strange. needless to say my bluetooth isn’t working. I can’t connect because it won’t say on or off so now I keep having the bluetooth sign flashing on and off and I can’t seems to fix it.

Also, I keep getting the message flash on the bottom of my screen unable to download at this time. I try all of the cached clearing and stuff and it’s still there. please please help me thanks. — Sherifa

Solution: Hi Sherifa. If you’ve already tried factory reset but Bluetooth function remained greyed out, that’s an indication of hardware malfunction. Bluetooth function is handled by a separate hardware chip in order to work in a device. The same is true with other networking functions like Wi-Fi, mobile data, and even the normal FM app (in some older phone models). That said, you either have to simply contend that you don’t have Bluetooth functionality on this phone, or you can seek for a replacement phone.

For your second issue, kindly send us a more detailed information about it. We don’t have extraordinary powers to look into your phone history and take a look at your system remotely. Needless to say, we don’t know what you’re saying. Is this happening when using a particular app or when you’re doing anything? The more information you can give us about the issue, the closer we become to identifying the cause. There’s really nothing much that we can tell on what to do about it other than doing a factory reset.

Problem #6: Unlocked AT&T Galaxy S5 Active won’t accept MetroPCS APN settings

I recently bought a locked Galaxy S5 Active into ATT off eBay. Once I received the phone, I gave the IMEI # to ATT and got the unlock code. I entered it into the phone, and it worked great. I immediately began using the new phone with my SIM card from MetroPCS, and was getting text messages and had LTE data. After a while, around 20 minutes, I started getting the error message. I now can no longer send or receive texts, make calls, or connect to data (though Wi-Fi still works). I have watched tutorials on changing the APN and have read several forum posts which indicate what to change the APN to and when I do it either doesn’t save the MetroPCS APN or it just does nothing. I have also attempted to manually change the mobile network and Metro was not an option so I changed it back to automatic. I’m kind of at a loss here. Help. I have used both the Metro and T-Mobile MMSC website and several MCC and MNC 310/260. — Ashley

Solution: Hi Ashley. If you can’t save the APN of MetroPCS, then the issue may be firmware-related. Try to do a factory reset to see if that will clear the glitch. Once you’ve done that, re-enter the APN settings. Make sure that you enter the correct information by getting the APN settings from MetroPCS. These are the only things that you can do on your end. If the issue (of being unable to enter the APN settings) persists, try to manually flash a stock firmware on the device or look for third party apps (which require root) that can help you edit the network settings of your device. We are not familiar with AT&T software so may have to dig a little deeper for specific instructions.

 

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 stuck on Edge network type after Marshmallow update, other issues

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

Note 5

These are the specific topics discussed in this post today:

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

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

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 screen is cracked | Contacting Samsung support for a cracked Galaxy Note 5 screen

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

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

  • factory defects or problematic workmanship
  • discovery of defective components

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Solution: Hi Britt.

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

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

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

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

Problem #5: Galaxy Note 5 stuck in download mode

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

 

Engage with us

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

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

How to prevent Galaxy S7 losing data stored in SD card, other issues

Due to lack of space, we only provide you three issues in this #GalaxyS7 troubleshooting page. We hope that the solutions, or rather recommendations, will be helpful for our Android community.

s7

Below are the topics covered in this material:

  1. Galaxy S7 keyboard randomly resets itself
  2. How to prevent Galaxy S7 losing data stored in SD card
  3. Moving files from Galaxy S7 to laptop

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 keyboard randomly resets itself

Hi. So my phone does a few annoying things. The first one is that sometimes the keyboard settings will randomly switch itself off. So autocorrect will stop working, the predictive text will turn off, and the continuous swipe will stop working. Each time I have to go back into settings and turn it back on. There is no “save” button once I’ve adjusted these settings so I’m unsure how to make it stay.

My other issue is that the audio will randomly turn itself down. And persistently. It will be working fine and then suddenly turn it down until it is muted, and when i turn it back up, it will instantly do it again. And eventually it will stop bugging.

But both of these things are driving me insane and I really hope you can help me figure it out.

Thanks so much! — Emma

Solution: Hi Emma. Issues such as these usually happen after updating an app or operating system. Sometimes, installation another app can result to minor issues with other apps. If you did an update or install anything before the issues started to appear, the first thing that you want to do is to wipe the phone’s system cache. Try to follow these steps and see if they make a difference:

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

In many cases, wiping the cache partition is enough to bring everything back to normal. However, if nothing will change, your next step is to check if a thir dparty application is to blame. Thankfully, you don’t need to check every app you’ve installed to do this troubleshooting. You can simply boot the phone in safe mode. This mode prevents all third party apps and services from running. If the issue won’t occur in safe mode, that’s an indication that one of them is to blame. Keep in mind that booting in safe mode as a troubleshooting will only cover third party applications. Apps that came with the phone when you first unboxed it are considered first party apps and thus, will continue to run even if you restart the device in safe mode. To boot your Galaxy S7 to safe mode, simply follow these steps:

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

Finally, nothing appears to change even when your S7 is in safe mode, don’t hesitate to do a factory reset. Kindly refer to the steps below.

Problem #2: How to prevent Galaxy S7 losing data stored in SD card

I have a brand new Samsung Galaxy S7. I ordered a Sandisk 16GB micro SD card and transferred the data from my nearly full 2GB memory card to this new Sandisk one. I did that this morning, and this evening when I was browsing through my gallery I noticed done pictures were half showing. I thought this was odd and restarted the gallery, but the same thing happened. I clicked on the half creaked picture and the gallery then shut idled down saying that it “stopped working.” I then restarted the phone.  

After restarting my phone, I went back into my gallery and there were no pictures whatsoever. I went into settings and storage and the memory card was not showing. All it says was “mount memory card” which I clicked but nothing happened. I then removed and re-inserted the memory card and it now says “blank memory card/formatting issues” and it had said that every since. I even tried it in my old mobile phone.  

I have tried using the adaptor and pouring it into my laptop and netbook but nothing loads up in my computer. 

Now I’m stuck with what to do and I’m worried I’ve lost my data. — Amir

Solution: Hi Amir. If other devices, that is other smartphones or computers, don’t read the same SD card either, you’re out of luck. That means that the said SD card has become unreadable, most probably due to file corruption. The problem is that there’s nothing that you can do about it. A corrupted SD card can not be fixed and the only way to use it again is to reformat it. Of course this means wiping whatever traces of bits are there in the uncorrupted sectors. Right now, the best thing that you can do is to condition yourself to accept the fact that your data are gone.

If you want to attempt file recovery though, make sure that you stop using the SD card right away to prevents files from being overwritten.  You then want to search for third party file recovery services online that may help you. We don’t know a particular third party file retrieval service so it’s your call. The thing about file recovery though is the fact that there’s no 100% guarantee that you’ll get what you want. If you think the contents are worth the time, effort, and ultimately, money, then go ahead.

Right now, the best thing that we can impart to you is to teach you how to prevent this situation from happening in the future. Technically, a corrupted SD card means the said storage medium has ceased to function properly, resulting to it becoming unreadable. This means that it’s dead and there’s very little chance that its contents will ever be recovered. It is therefore very important to prevent SD card corruption from happening. Right now, there’s no technology that can “fix” a corrupted SD card, if by fix you mean making it readable (by other devices) again. It is therefore worth anyone’s effort to avoid the SD card from becoming corrupted. Most of the time, SD card corruption is due to human error so below are the basic things that you can do on your end.

Avoid interrupting a save when saving

This is a general principle that can be applied to all things digital. There had been countless tales of regret and sadness across the years from users losing precious digital memories and important data because of this. Sometimes, a smartphone or electronic device can take a long time to process and save data so making sure that you let your phone do its job is the key. Be patient when your phone tries to move or save files from one storage medium to another, such as transferring files from internal memory to an SD card.

Do not remove the SD card from a device without unmounting it properly

The option to mount and unmount as SD card in a Samsung device is provided to avoid SD card from getting corrupted. Make sure that you don’t remove the SD card prematurely while your phone is still writing to or reading from it. In our hurry, we sometimes forget to unmount the SD card before removing it from our device. If you’re lucky, doing so may not result to anything but should you realize it, make sure to create a backup of your files to another device as soon as possible.

Do not let your phone run out of gas

Sometimes, SD card corruption can happen if your phone loses battery power while it’s trying to use the SD card. Keep in mind that your phone can access your SD card without you actively navigating to Settings or checking the Gallery app (which is often times what average users do to check photos, videos, etc). Some apps are kept in the SD card instead of being stored in the internal memory so the battery conking out all of a sudden can potentially kill the card. This is one of the common reasons why users suddenly find their SD cards becoming totally unusable, despite being new.

Format the SD card using the device it’s supposed to work with

At other times, an SD card can suddenly become corrupted if inserted to a different device. If you are fond of moving SD cards from one device to another, there’s a high chance of corrupting the said card in the process. Make sure that you format the SD card using the device it’s intended to be working with to minimize the chance of file corruption.

Keep apps in internal memory

To further minimize the chance of corrupting as SD card, ensure that all apps are stored in the phone’s internal memory. This will not only help lessen the risk of damaging the card when your phone runs out of battery often, but also to hasten loading time. Apps kept in internal storage loads faster compared to those stored in the SD card so it’s a win-win situation for you. Your SD card can be used as a backup of photos and videos stored in the phone’s internal memory.

Avoid saving to SD card when battery is low

This is often hard to do and mostly slip under our radar since we tend to forget our phone settings. In light with your situation though, we recommend that change all settings that allow the device to store to SD card automatically to prevent it from becoming corrupted. These settings include camera setup wherein you let the device store photos to an SD card, or other apps saving their cache and other files to the SD card. As mentioned, if your phone suddenly loses battery power while, say, saving or processing a photo, there’s a high chance of it resulting to SD card corruption.

Don’t be a fool to think SD card can not happen

Most of the time, an average user likes to think that while SD card corruption is a possibility, it cannot happen to him or her. Wrong! Any SD card, however expensive or “reliable” (as per their maker’s advertisement) can become corrupted due to so many factors that can come into play. If you want to make your digital life harmonious, avoid the false thinking that your data is safe where it is right now. Always ensure that any important personal file or data is copied to another device. There’s no guarantee that your phone’s internal memory or SD card will work in the next hour or day or week. Always, always create a back up. We can’t emphasize this enough. If you don’t do this often, you only have yourself to blame if you suddenly find yourself grieving over irreplaceable data.

Problem #3: Moving files from Galaxy S7 to laptop

Hello. I have an S7 and have 2 issues with it. Since the beginning, I cannot seem to stay online when others in our house have no issues. Don’t get it. 

The biggest issue I am having now is that my phone began to tell me that my memory was full and I needed to delete things. Not knowing much about computers or what to delete as I needed everything, I was awaiting my daughter to assist in removing/transferring photos etc (there was a lot) to a recently acquired laptop.  I started to do uploading (got the written instructions from my daughter) and was doing fine, uploading about 5-8 pictures at a time in case I screwed up, and then it froze and will not shut off or allow a reset. I am freaking as I need EVERYTHING on there (middle of a court case and evidence is on there). What can I do?

I didn’t have assistance to do this before and apparently text messages from family members never got to me but didn’t know that. I’ve had a stroke and have chemo brain from chemotherapy drugs so I have a difficult time understanding things at times. It is often hard to teach me unless it is written down and simplified. I don’t know what to do and am a mess.  Can you help me?

I also was never shown how to transfer files to my computer now that I got one and all my notes either. I would owe you so much if you could help me out.  Thank you so much. — Tina

Solution: Hi Tina. We can’t provide you the specific steps for both issues since we don’t have important information to begin with in the first place. For example, for the first issue (connection problem), we need to know whether you’re having an issue with mobile data or Wi-Fi. Giving us the error message or other useful information/symptoms would make it easy for us to isolate the true issue. We suggest that you visit Google instead and search for more specific troubleshooting for the issue you’re having. You can type the problem description in Google like “mobile data issue Galaxy S7” or “Wi-Fi not working Galaxy S7” as a starter. Alternatively, you can also follow these two links from our previous posts to help yourself:

The same situation confronts us with the second or main issue you’re having. We need to know whether you have a Windows laptop or an Apple device. Specific steps on how to move files from a Galaxy S7 can be found in this link: How to transfer files from Galaxy S7 to a PC.

If you have an Apple device or non-Windows laptop, go to Google website again and type the phrase like “transfer files from Galaxy S7 to Mac.”

Keep in mind, almost everything can be found in the web as long you know how to enter the correct search word or phrase. If you’ll be unable to follow online instructions by yourself though, consider asking help from someone who can.

 

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 S5 loses Wi-Fi internet connection after an update, other issues

Do you have any #GalaxyS5 problems lately? This post might help. One of the issues we tackle here, an S5 loses Wi-Fi internet connection, covers a common but nevertheless effective solution for post-update problems.

s5

We also include four other problems as specified below:

  1. Galaxy S5 sound is low when using a headset
  2. Galaxy S5 loses Wi-Fi internet connection after an update
  3. Galaxy S5 won’t connect to StraightTalk mobile data
  4. Galaxy S5 screen keeps flickering if phone is not connected to charger
  5. Calls sound muffled using a Galaxy S5

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 sound is low when using a headset

I bought a new Galaxy S5 for Verizon a few days. When I turned it on, it connected to Google and Wifi. The updates began, and when I tried to listen using my wired headphones post the updates, the sound was low even when Media volume is highest. There is static and cracking noises (only when using the wired headphones, tried several different ones, no issue with the speaker when the headphones are out).

When I listen to a high quality mp3 using the headphones, the sound is very “thin” – i.e., no bass, the singer’s voice is barely audible, and you only hear the arrangement – as if some frequencies are absent.

Also, when I change the volume up and down a Google Voice recognition pops up expecting some action, even though I explicitly turned it off “OK Google” detection in Settings.

When I cleared the defaults, changing the volume up and down at times pops up the box below with: “Do you want to open with Google App or S Voice”? As if the microphone is reacting to the audio when the headphones are in, which is very strange. I disabled all the Motions and Gestures in Settings.

I tried the following to fix this problem without any success:

1) Cleared the cache partition

2) Removed and inserted back the SD card, battery, restarted the phone many times

3) Did a factory reset (it rolled back some updates, but not Android 6.0.1.)

4) Disabled/enabled Google app, re-installed YouTube and other key apps

5) Started in the Safe mode – same issue persists.

Perhaps something is wrong with the phone jack (I tried inserting the headphones better, cleaning it with air, etc., but I still suspect a software issue of some kind, based on how it works).

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! — Leonard

Solution: Hi Leonard. An audio problem like this can only be fixed if proper isolation is done first. We suspect that the problem is not software-related since you’ve already tried to do a factory reset. While Android system updates can sometimes lead to problems, they don’t normally affect how a hardware works because their drivers remain unchanged. In fact, we haven’t had any case documented before demonstrating that a headphone jack stops working properly after a system update.

If the problem does not occur when inserting the same headset to another device, you can rule out a headset issue. Headphone jacks can sometimes go bad, even on other electronics so the best thing that you can do right now is ask for replacement phone from your carrier.

Problem #2: Galaxy S5 loses Wi-Fi internet connection after an update

Hi. I did the system update through the phone as it downloaded automatically through wi-fi at work. Since then I have had no internet connection at all.

I have tried a soft reboot. Did the reboot deleting the cache.

Still no network connection. Network is definitely on when I turn off wi-fi.

Also went to the SIM card provider, Lebara.es, who sold me sim card in January and they can’t see anything wrong and it says I have internet credit. The setup is correct and they tried a new connection. This has all happened since the update. Connects to wifi fine! just no internet whatsoever. I am going to try another SIM in the phone tonight after work but am at a loss. Last option is a full system reboot to factory settings I believe so am backing up everything today while I am on wifi at work.

I am hoping you will come up with something so I don’t have to do that. Data network is definitely active. I’ve tried taking battery out as well as turning on and off multiple times.

Thank you for any help you can give me.

Regards. — Toni

Solution: Hi Toni. There are only two things that we recommend if you encounter problems right after updating Android — wiping the cache partition and performing a factory reset. Assuming there’s no hardware problem involved, like a malfunctioning Wi-Fi radio, a factory reset should help you bring back Wi-Fi connectivity.

Problem #3: Galaxy S5 won’t connect to StraightTalk mobile data

I bought a Samsung Galaxy S5 used and bought an accompanying “bring your own phone” package. Everything set up fine and I used it for several months without issue. Recently there was a software update available which I started. There was a problem and the phone ended up getting turned off. The update was then failed and the phone would then only show me the screen saying that the update had failed and I needed to run the Verizon Software Upgrade Assistant (the repair portion) to repair the phone and finish the update.

After a few failed attempts, the repair assistant finally worked overnight while I was sleeping. The phone was usable again. It sent and received texts and calls and hooked up to wi-fi fine but will not connect to the internet via data.

When I go to look at the APN it shows VZWINTERNET and only that one. Doesn’t give me the option to add others either. (plus sign is gray and unclickable).

So I tried having StraightTalk update my APN and data settings but it shows up as an incompatible SIM, even though it is absolutely the same StraightTalk SIM I’ve had and was working.

Did the repair assistant mess up my SIM? Is there any way to fix it or do I now need a new SIM? Thank you in advance for your consideration. — Scott

Solution: Hi Scott. Verizon phones are notorious for giving problems to users if used on different networks. We can’t be sure if the Verizon update is responsible for the present issue so you have to talk to StraightTalk support for guidance.

Trying another SIM card is definitely a must in order to isolate the problem. If the second SIM fails, that’s a confirmation that some settings may have changed that prevents the phone from connecting to StraigtTalk’s services. Because we don’t know the full history of your phone, we can only speculate. You must work closely with your carrier to get this issue resolved.

Problem #4: Galaxy S5 screen keeps flickering if phone is not connected to charger

After I uninstalled those two apps (Game of War and Clash of Clans. Installed them to get free stuff and then un-installed then phone started freaking out), I was recording a video on the camera. It suddenly shut off and then started flickering to the black start up galaxy screen off and on. It shows the galaxy screen and vibrates once like its starting up and then starts over doing it over and over but never fully turns on. 

I pulled the battery twice letting it sit for about 20 seconds and when i turned it back on it starting flickering again. I plugged it in even though I knew there was about 35% battery life and it started up and was working fine but only while charging. I went to bed and let it charge. When I got up this morning, as soon as I pulled it off the charger it started doing it again. It continues to flicker back on that screen every time if I don’t keep it on the charger. I did clear the cache but that didn’t help. Please help.  — Stevie

Solution: Hi Stevie. If the only you did prior to noticing the problem was to install the said apps, the best thing that you can do right now is to do a factory reset. Doing so will erase any glitch that may have developed after the installation. Here are the 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 #5: Calls sound muffled using a Galaxy S5

Hello. I’m desperate. Found your site on Google. Didn’t see my problem so I’m writing hoping you still are active with site.

I have a Samsung Galaxy S5. Not sure if Android version is Lollipop. It doesn’t say.

Anyway I just turned phone in, because no one can hear me and when they do they say I’m “muffled” or sound like I’m in a “washing machine.”

Most times I have “2 bars” for my phone. When I received “new” phone, I still have “2 bars” most times. Does not matter where I am. I could be in middle of town where a tower is visible.

Anyway, my girlfriend has an iPhone and she can walk through out my house with no problems, like she is on a landline. I’m ready to either try another phone brand or phone company. Do you have any suggestions?

One more thing. When I talk on the phone, the phone at time puts my volume on “vibrate,” or my “settings” menu pops up. And if I text or hang up on call most times it will call person back. I’m at my wits end with this. Thanks for any help you can offer. — Dennis

Solution: Hi Dennis. The first thing that you want to do is check if the call problem you’re having is due to a bad microphone. To do that, try to record your voice using the phone and listen to it. If the audio is bad and sounds like the line is full of static, that’s an indication that you have a  hardware problem. The only solution is to ask for a replacement device from your carrier or Samsung.

If the microphone works fine though, consider doing some basic software troubleshooting. The first one that you can try is wiping the phone’s cache partition. This troubleshooting step is usually recommended if you have updated a device to another operating system version or if the phone is having some weird glitches. Despite not having installed the full set of new operating system files, we suggest the you do the following steps to erase possibly corrupted cache on your device:

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

You can also try booting the phone in safe mode to see if a third party application is the problem. While in this mode, your phone is put in a diagnostic state, allowing only first party apps to run. This is mostly performed if a user suspects that a third party app may be messing with the operating system, or if the phone suffers from performance issues. If your calls work just fine while in safe mode, that’s a confirmation that one of the apps you installed is the root of the problem. Just follow these steps:

  • 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 nothing changes after doing these procedures, do not hesitate to do a factory reset.

 

Engage with us

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

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 S7 Power Saving Mode questions and answers, other issues

Some Samsung device users may have heard of Galaxy S7 power saving mode but some may don’t have any clue what it is or how it works. In this post, we try to answer some of the questions posited by one of our readers. We also include other #GalaxyS7 issues so we hope that reading this article may be worth your while.

Galaxy S7 power saving mode
Galaxy S7 power saving mode
  1. Rooted Galaxy S7 won’t turn on
  2. Galaxy S7 Power Saving Mode Questions and Answers
  3. AT&T update for Galaxy S7 causing text messaging to stop working intermittently
  4. Galaxy S7 “Unfortunately, Settings has stopped” error after an update
  5. Unlocked T-Mobile Galaxy S7 has very slow mobile data when connected to Vodafone 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: Rooted Galaxy S7 won’t turn on

A few weeks ago, I rooted my phone to remove some apps that I never used. I just kept using my phone as always and did nothing special except removing those apps. Today I decided to unroot my phone because I felt it would be safer in case anything should happen to it. It’s only 3 months old and I didn’t want to lose my warranty. I opened the SuperUser app and clicked full unroot and clicked continue. My phone instantly returned to the home screen and then powered off. Then it turned on again, but now the message “Samsung Galaxy S7 powered by Android” keeps flashing. I went into recovery mode and tried wiping the cache first, but nothing changed. Then I wiped all my data (*cries silently*) and did a factory reset, but my phone keeps flashing and won’t turn on. I’m really desperate and don’t know what to do because I’m afraid I can’t take it to my retailer because my phone is rooted (if it still is rooted, but I have no idea). What should I do?

(Before I wrote this email I could turn it off using volume up/down, home button and power button, but now it won’t turn off either… and I can’t pull out the battery of course.

With kind regards. — Erlynn

Solution: Hi Erlynn. This is an issue that concerns a third party app, apparently one that modifies official Samsung/Google software, so there’s really nothing much that we can do to help. We recommend that you contact the developer of the app you used so they can provide direct support. Make sure that you give them a detailed description of the problem as possible to ensure that they understand what’s happening. You also would want to provide a full history of software changes on your device so they can determine other factors that may have caused their software to fail.

You can get the email of Superuser developer team by visiting their info page in Google Play Store.

Problem #2: Galaxy S7 Power Saving Mode Questions and Answers

I read your article: Samsung Galaxy S7 Power Saving modes and how to extend its battery life. I am looking for more info about the App Power Saving feature on my new S7. I continue to get an icon message every couple of days indicating something like save power by shutting down apps you are not using. It looks like many of my installed apps are set to save power and may not receive notifications. Does this feature just disable the push and update functions of the app until I click on its icon and open it? How frequently do pushes actually occur on these apps and how much power am I actually? Will I miss updates such as expiring trial periods, etc on apps like Spotify and Amazon Prime, if these apps are off?  Will I miss bonus updates on apps such as my Regal Cinemas if it is turned off?

Is an opened app turned off when I click on the bottom left windows button and close all, or is it still running in the background? Do I need to close it another way?

Also, how do you perform a soft reset on an S7, as I believe it does not have a removable battery?

Thank you for your attention to these questions. — Chris

Solution: Hi Chris. Let’s answer your questions one by one.

Does this feature just disable the push and update functions of the app until I click on its icon and open it? Samsung’s Power Saving Mode is a streamline method of turning off other features that usually drains the battery faster. If you enable Power saving mode, you have 3 specific options that you can turn on or off:

  • Restrict background data
  • Restrict performance
  • Greyscale mode

If you enable Restrict background data option, this will prevent all apps running in the background to use mobile data connection to sync or receive updates. This means that apps like social networking apps will not receive new updates unless you manually ask them to.

How frequently do pushes actually occur on these apps and how much power am I actually? The answer depends on the app. Some apps allow users to set sync frequency. If you can’t find any option to let you know that, contact the developer.

Will I miss updates such as expiring trial periods, etc on apps like Spotify and Amazon Prime, if these apps are off? Will I miss bonus updates on apps such as my Regal Cinemas if it is turned off? Again, if you select the Restrict background data option, these apps would not normally be able to get updates from their respective servers. That means they will fail to notify you of real time promos and other time-sensitive information unless you happen to use them actively when such information are pushed.

Is an opened app turned off when I click on the bottom left windows button and close all, or is it still running in the background? Do I need to close it another way? By “bottom left windows button” we think you are referring to the Recent Apps button. As the name suggests, tapping on this button pulls up a lineup of the apps you opened not too long ago. Some of the apps may or may not be running in the background. If you want to know which apps or services are running in the background, do the following:

  • Go to Settings.
  • Proceed to Applications.
  • Select Application Manager.
  • Swipe to the right to select Running.

If you want to disable a particular running app, select it and tap on STOP button.

How do you perform a soft reset on an S7, as I believe it does not have a removable battery? To perform a soft reset on a Galaxy S7, kindly follow these steps:

  • Press and hold the Power (located on the right edge) and Volume down buttons (located on the left edge) for 12 seconds.
  • Use the Volume down button to scroll to the Power Down option.
  • Press the Home key to select.

 

Related reading: Samsung Galaxy S7 Power Saving modes and how to extend its battery life

 

Problem #3: AT&T update for Galaxy S7 causing text messaging to stop working intermittently

Hello. Approximately a week ago I had the Samsung Galaxy S5 and after receiving multiple AT&T software updates my messages sporadically stopped working.

For example, I would be texting multiple people and getting texts back but then with no warning every single one of my messages would disappear and I wouldn’t be able to send or receive text messages. I would have to restart my phone to be able to send/receive messages again every time this happened and it was getting to be at least 4 times a day.

AT&T tried putting a new SIM card in my phone, it didn’t help.

Best Buy Samsung reps tried hooking it up to their computer and checking it, didn’t help.

So, I thought maybe the S5 was just dying and went and traded in for a BRAND NEW Galaxy S7 last night.

Much to my disappointment, this afternoon my new S7 did the same thing with my messages! It also installed the new AT&T software update last night so the only thing I can think of is it’s some issue with the software update.

Do you know how I can fix this? Thanks in advance! — Ashleigh

Solution: Hi Ashleigh. If the only change you did before noticing the problem again was to install AT&T update, you can safely assume that the said update is buggy. You have to let AT&T know of this problem so they can, in turn, let the proper department know of this trouble. We are not aware of this issue happening on Galaxy S7 devices from other carriers so this may be isolated to the latest AT&T update for their own S7s.

As far as troubleshooting is concerned, there are only two things that you can do on your end — wiping the cache partition and performing a factory reset. These two solutions are only effective if the source of the problem is either due to a bad cache, or a glitch that may have developed after some time. If the issue is poor firmware coding, there’s really nothing that you can do. You must report the issue to your carrier so they can act on it.

For reference, these are the steps on how to wipe the cache partition or do a factory reset on your S7:

  • Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S7.
  • Press and hold the Volume Up, Home and Power keys together.
  • When the device powers on and displays ‘Power on logo’, release all keys and the Android icon will appear on the screen.
  • Wait until the Android Recovery Screen appears after about 30 seconds.
  • Using the Volume Down key, highlight the option, ‘wipe cache partition’/ ‘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 #4: Galaxy S7 “Unfortunately, Settings has stopped” error after an update

Hi, I’m facing the “Unfortunately, Settings has stopped” problem. It all started when I upgraded Android. Anyway, once I upgraded, I did a factory reset. After the reset process was complete & setting up the phone, I connect it to my Wi-Fi & as I sign-in to my Google account to start downloading apps from the Play Store. The Play Store & Play Services gets updated automatically, as usual, and as I go to Settings>Account & click my ‘Google’ account to see whether it’s done syncing, the Settings app just closes & says “Unfortunately, Settings has stopped”. Because of this problem, I’m not able to sync my Google account at all.

And also, this happens before I even download any apps from the Play Store. When this same problem happened to my friend’s Galaxy Note 3, which is running on ‘Lollipop’, I knew that I wasn’t alone because the same, exact problem happens to his phone, too. So, I guess this all happened after upgrading. Hope you guys can help me out. Thanks. 🙂 — Denham

Solution: Hi Denham. We’ve seen this issue happening in some rooted devices (not necessarily Samsung) and those running with custom or modified firmware. If you rooted your phone, or if your S7 has a custom (non-official) Android operating system, consider removing root or installing stock firmware first before attempting another log in. This is the only effective solution that we know so far

Problem #5: Unlocked T-Mobile Galaxy S7 has very slow mobile data when connected to Vodafone network

The issues are the following. I got the phone from US T-Mobile and unlocked it. Was using the phone abroad for a while and no issues with internet. Now currently in Germany and using the phone with Vodafone. The internet is slow eventhough i have bought the fastest available package. My sister has the same provider on an iPhone 5S and her internet is lighting fast. Internet is normally 4G but now is E(Edge). After i go to settings data connectivity and I i turn the internet off/on, it fixes for a certain amount time. I get the 4G sign and internet gets a little better but after some 15-20 minutes it goes back to E(Edge). Is there anything i can do to get better connectivity on my phone.

Please advise. Thanks. — Sasho

Solution: Hi Sasho. If your S7 does not remain connected to a 4G network, there are only two possible causes for the issue. It’s either a problem with the phone itself, probably  software or hardware in nature, or your carrier in Germany has some problems. The first thing that you want to do is wipe the cache partition (steps provided above). If that won’t fix it, try to observe the phone while in safe mode to see if a third party app is to blame. To boot your S7 in safe mode, kindly do these steps:

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

If the issue won’t occur while in this mode, that’s a confirmation that one of your apps is causing this mess. Uninstall apps starting from the most recently installed to isolate and eliminate the problem.

If the issue persists even while in safe mode, consider performing a factory reset. Once you’ve done the reset, observe the phone again without installing any apps. If nothing changes, call Vodafone and ask them for support.

 

 

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 connection issues after Marshmallow update, other issues

Note5

Here’s another collection of #GalaxyNote5 issues for you today. We hope that the solutions we provide here will help our ever-growing community.

  1. Galaxy Note 5 connection issues after Marshmallow update
  2. Galaxy Note 5 keeps rebooting by itself
  3. Galaxy Note 5 intermittent SMS issue during the night
  4. Galaxy Note 5 does not power on
  5. Galaxy Note 5 won’t connect to mobile data

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 connection issues after Marshmallow update

I am a little gun shy on updating my Note 5 to Marshmallow. This is my THIRD Note 5. Verizon replaced my first one when they had 4G connection issues. when I updated again on the second phone I again had connection issues (documented here on TDG).  I have had the 3rd phone for 2 months…I ignore the update prompt everyday but know there will be security updates I need as well.

Has Verizon/Samsung worked it out and patched the 6.0 update?  Just don’t want to end up with a 4th phone.

Thanks for all you do here. It really helps. — Bryan

Solution: Hi Bryan. There are a lot factors to consider when dealing with post-update issues and 99.9% of them are usually beyond a user’s ability to check. With the current firmware in Galaxy Note 5s, there are hundreds of thousands of potential points of failure. Throw in the apps you install after an update and you are adding more of the same.

Now, an important thing about update that’s often lost to many Android users is the fact that an Android update does not automatically update apps as well. Ignorance of this fact is most of the time the source of frustrations and disappoints come a new Android update. Most of the time, users update to a new operating system without making sure that their installed apps are compatible with the new OS. While there are some apps that may be able to run  with a new OS without problems, many of them can lead to complications. As you can see, an application, in order to run without problems, must be coded properly. In order to minimize bugs when a new Android OS arrives, developers must roll out updates for their products. Not doing so often results to glitches that many Android users attribute to a bad Android OS. If one incompatible app can cause problems, imagine what happens when you have many such similar apps installed.

Now, we’re not saying that Android Marshmallow is a perfect OS and the blame only lays on apps. Far from it. We only want to remind you that other than the factors (which are too many and too technical to mention here) that may cause post-update issues, the most common cause (and something that a user can actually control) is app incompatibility. We know that you want your apps to work after you update to Marshmallow of course but we obviously don’t have control over developers. Users can only let them know about issues but we can’t tell them to update their products right away. Even Google can’t. That said, if you have the same problems with all three Note 5s, it may be safe to assume that reason for the issue is one of your apps. Or not.

As regards your question, whether or not Verizon/Samsung has released a patch, the best thing that you can do is ask them yourself. We don’t work for either of them and right now, we are not aware of any official announcement that indicates they’ve fixed issues you are having. Contact them and give them as many details as possible so they can help you.

Problem #2: Galaxy Note 5 keeps rebooting by itself

Phone starts relatively normally. I can swipe to unlock phone and get to home screen but phone will run for only 10 seconds or so before rebooting itself. From there the phone enters a loop of rebooting, running for 10 seconds and rebooting again, over and over.

I have tried starting in safe mode but the issue continues with the same reboot loop.

I have tried wiping the cache partition as well.

I’d really like to not have to factory reset this phone as I have no way of backing it up in this state (I have a backup from a while ago).

Any help? — Sean

Solution: Hi Sean. This type of problem can also be caused by hardware malfunction. If the basic software troubleshooting you’ve tried did not work, you can assume that either the battery is not working properly, or there may be motherboard issue. We still recommend that you try to factory reset the device though to see a difference. If that won’t fix it, then find a way to have the phone replaced.

There’s nothing that you can do to backup files if your phone won’t load normally, or won’t even stay long enough to allow file transfer.

Problem #3: Galaxy Note 5 intermittent SMS issue during the night

I bought a refurbished Samsung Galaxy Note 5 about a month ago and it has given me more problems than I have ever had before. but my main problem i keep having is my texting. it will work all day long but around 10:30 PM, every night it stops working. I reboot it 4 or 5 times…still won’t work. I send and call myself still won’t work. it will only send a few here and there whenever it wants to for a couple hours. Then it’ll work fine again in the mornings. it is really starting to annoy me. Why am I having This this problem? Is it because it’s refurbished or what? Please help. — Tiffany

Solution: Hi Tiffany. If SMS works intermittently during a certain part of the day, it may be a good first step if you can check the possibility of an app causing it. Boot your Note 5 in safe mode and observe it for at least 2 nights to see the difference. If the issue fails to occur while safe mode is enabled, that’s a confirmation of our hunch. To boot your Note 5 in safe mode, follow these steps:

  •  Turn off the phone completely.
  • Press and hold the Power key.
  • Once ‘Samsung Galaxy Note5’ shows, release the Power key and immediately press and hold the Volume Down button.
  • The phone will restart but keep the Volume Down button pressed.
  • Once the phone has finished restarting, ‘Safe mode’ will be display in the lower-left corner of the screen.
  • You may now release the Volume Down button.

If the problem remains even when in safe mode, let your carrier know about it. This may not be a device issue but rather a network-related one. If you are in a GSM network, you can also insert your SIM card to another device to see how SMS works during the night.

Problem #4: Galaxy Note 5 does not power on

Hi! I’m having a big problem with my phone. These past few weeks, it started doing some random restart and lags. I have wiped the cache, downloaded some antivirus apps (thinking there might be a virus but there isn’t), reset factory and it worked… somehow. the random restart was minimal comparing to the one before and then a few days this week, the screen randomly showed “downloading do not turn off the target.”

When this happens, i usually press the power, volume down and home button to do the trick.

This morning, the screen showed “downloading do not turn off the target.” I immediately pressed the power, volume and home button, and to my surprised, it didn’t do the trick. The screen was pitched black and there was a continuous vibration. So I waited for 5 minutes to see what would happened but it kept going. My phone was sometimes unresponsive when I try to check on it.

But today, I charged my phone after it reached 20% of its battery. I let it charge, untouched for 15 minutes until I decided to check for some notification. The LED light shows green which means i have a message from Facebook Messenger. I tried opening my phone but no button responded. I tried the power, volume down and home button but it didn’t work at all. 

I tried several ways of turning it on. I tried performing the soft reset, plugged the phone to charge, plug the phone to my laptop (which made a noise that meant a device was connected to my laptop but when I checked, my phone wasn’t recognised or at least it didn’t show up on my laptop screen. My phone charger is not broken at all I can assure you that because I used it on the other phone.

Please help. Your quick response would really be much appreciated. — Bianca

Solution: Hi Bianca. Well, frankly speaking, we’re just as blind as you are in this situation. If we are to know the exact cause of the issue, a thorough hardware check must be done. We have no way of knowing whether or not the issue is isolated to screen only, or if it’s on the motherboard. We think that the problem may be a bad screen assembly since the phone seems to work and still indicates it’s receiving notifications, but we really can’t say that for sure. There’s also nothing much that you can do because you need the screen to perform troubleshooting. The best option that you can do right now is bring the phone to a Samsung shop so it can be checked properly.

Problem #5: Galaxy Note 5 won’t connect to mobile data

Problem is that this phone thinks it has one number for phoning and another number for data!  And it will only connect to Internet /data via wifi – never when there is just phone network coverage. 

The phone was previously used, probably on Orange. It is now unlocked, and with a live contract on the Life Mobile network. ‘Settings>Status’ shows Network = LIFE and ‘Service status’ = In service. If I call or SMS to/from it, everything is fine: it recognises, sends and receives its own new Life Mobile number namely 0797…653. 

OK so that all sounds good, right?.  BUT 1. the phone will not connect to data even though data is switched on and 2.

‘About phone – Status > My phone number’ reveals a completely different number 0742…884!  And ‘Settings > More…>Mobile network settings> Data connection’ says ‘Orange’ and lists the 0742…884 phone number. 

Nothing I do will change this. I have tried: 1. adding a new APN to Life Mobile exact specification, enabling and saving it – it doesn’t appear in the list at all, which only shows a load of Orange options.  2. Amending the existing Orange APN to the Life (EE) settings. 3.Turning Data connection to off. 4. Switching to Airplane mode and back again. 5. Switching off and leaving unconnected. 6. Calling the network carrier helpdesk. 

Nothing has any impact. I still have no mobile data, only wi-fi. 

I have also tried 7. Putting the SIM in a completely different Android phone (also unlocked). This does nearly the same, i.e. the phone works correctly for telephony but “About my phone” gives the same wrong number – however the new APN does save and connect and I get data from the network, not just wi-fi.   

Who will rid me of this ghost old phone number (this problem seems linked to the SIM), and why can’t I save a new APN, and get any data connection (other than wifi) on my primary phone (yet I can with the same SIM on another phone)?  — Michael

Solution: Hi Michael. Of all the things you mention here, one critical information that you seem to fail to mention is the specific help you get from your carrier. An issue like this is best addressed by your carrier and not by a third party like us. The main reason for that is the fact that we don’t have any information regarding your network account status and whether or not it’s provisioned properly. These are things that only your carrier’s customer service and technical departments can check. That said, what we can do to help is very limited in scope. For instance, we have no idea whether there’s an issue with the SIM card you’re using, or if it’s provisioned properly. The safest course of action that you can do to check if the issue is isolated to the SIM card is by asking for a new one from your carrier. If you want your phone to connect to network data, we suggest that you go back to your carrier and ask them for direct assistance.

The other issue regarding your difficulty changing your phone settings like APN to that of Life Mobile/EE can be attributed to the firmware running on your device. Some carriers may provide extra layers of protection to their devices by making sure that some items under settings cannot be changed. That means that users may not be able to change the network settings unless they root the device or flash a different ROM to it. Again, we can’t be certain on this as we are not familiar with every firmware for the Note 5 but we’ve seen this with other devices from certain carriers in the past. Keep in mind that rooting or flashing can potentially brick your device so if you want to do it, make sure that you do it carefully and you’re ready to accept the consequence. Try to look for reliable guides online on how to modify the firmware of your particular phone model.

 

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.

Wi-Fi issue after Galaxy S5 Marshmallow update, other issues

s5

Many #GalaxyS5 devices around the world are now starting to receive the new Marshmallow update. As expected, not all users have a good time with said Galaxy S5 Marshmallow update. Some of them contacted us to air their frustrations so we publish two of these issues here.

  1. Screen not working properly after Galaxy S5 Marshmallow update
  2. Galaxy S5 stuck in bootloop
  3. Galaxy S5 won’t connect to mobile data
  4. Wi-Fi issue after Galaxy S5 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 screen not working properly after Marshmallow update

Hi. I bought my Samsung Galaxy S5 about a year ago in Malaysia, and it was working pretty great until 2 weeks ago where it just started malfunctioning (See the videos in this DropBox Link: https://goo.gl/SVLkhj).

This actually started happening after I received and accepted the update to the new Android 6.0.1 update (currently in Europe). After that, all hell broke loose on my phone and I am not sure why it would happen, unless the update was broken.

I have been reading your website and trying to find ways to fix my phone (Samsung Galaxy S5 – SM G900F).

And I have tried the following: Enabled Developer mode, allowed USB debugging, Cleared all the cache, resetting into factory mode, I even tried re-installing an older firmware from the Samware website (the correct one for my phones region  and model).

I even went to a Samsung certified technician, and they told me there was nothing they could do because my Samsung was a model from Asia, and they did not have the tools to fix it. When asked what tools they needed, they kindly told me it was the firmware (the same firmware I had obtained from Samsung themselves).

But as you can see from the videos, nothing seems to work and I am running out of ideas on what exactly the issue can be and if it is even possible to fix it.

Thank you for any help/advice you could give me.

Kind regards. — Marc

Solution: Hi Marc. First of all, we would like to appreciate your effort in coming up with videos to give us a clearer picture on what’s going on.

Now, the issue appears a malfunctioning screen at first glance but we don’t think that’s the case due to two things. The first reason, based on what you said, is the fact that everything was working fine until you installed a system update. The second reason is the fact that the first screen that says “Samsung Galaxy S5 Powered by Android” does not show the same symptom. If it’s a screen problem, the Samsung splash screen should also show the same.

We can’t come up with an explanation why the issue is happening other than the fact that the update may have messed up some graphics or screen drivers during the update installation process. All we can do at this point is speculate about the cause but honestly, there’s really nothing that we can think of in terms of resolution. We don’t know as well if this issue is temporary and if a software update can eventually bring everything back to normal, or if the damage is permanent or not.

If a Samsung service center declined to touch your phone, that’s most probably because they see doing it as pointless. If you’ve already tried to manually flash older firmware without positive result, we doubt if there’s anything else that they can try on their end. There’s no other “advanced” software troubleshooting that we can do to fix it ourselves. After exhausting all software troubleshooting on your end, the only resolution for your problem is to have that device replaced.

Problem #2: Galaxy S5 stuck in bootloop

Hi. I have a Galaxy S5 (SM-900F), which today started rebooting a couple of times. At the same time the battery seemed hotter than normal.

Later in the day it started rebooting but remained in a loop where you see the Galaxy S5 logo and then the (kind of blinking) Samsung screen. After a while it reboots and repeats the same thing.

I did a factory reset through the recovery mode but that didn’t help.

I wiped the cache partition and that didn’t help.

I downloaded a stock firmware (G900FXXU1CPD2_G900FPHN1CPC4_PHN) from sammobile.com and flashed the phone by using Odin.

No change in behavior.

I then tried to boot the phone into safe mode a couple of times but it wouldn’t go in safe mode.

Then after having tried to boot it into safe mode unsuccessfully, I put the phone down and unintentionally left it on for a while searching for answers online. When I looked at the phone again all of a sudden it was in the “optimizing applications” (or something like that) screen. Then it went into the first boot up menu where you enter language, google account etc. All that went fine and then I had the option to restore from back up, which I did.

Having been at it for a couple of hours I was not very confident that the problem was completely solved. Something was telling me there is more to it.

Unfortunately I was right and at that point (so during restore) the phone got stuck and I am back where I started.

Boot loop…

I am fresh out of ideas…

Hope you can help… — Anthony

Solution: Hi Anthony. Have you tried observing how the phone behaves after a factory reset, without installing anything at first? We don’t know what you did exactly after a factory reset but if you immediately tried to restore everything, without letting the phone run for at least a day minus third party apps, we highly recommend that you do so. We think that the problem is being caused by something that you install previously and the best way to confirm that is by letting the phone run without apps after a factory reset.

If you modified your phone’s official software in any way, rooted it, or if you’re using a custom ROM, we recommend that you revert everything back to stock. If the problem continues to occur after a factory reset and everything back to stock, then that’s a sign that the cause of the problem is hardware. In that case, your only way out is phone replacement.

Problem #3: Galaxy S5 won’t connect to mobile data

Have not been able to connect to mobile data for a week. I have tried uninstalling a battery doctor that I thought was the cause. Other recent changes were a software update to Marshmallow. I think it hasn’t worked since then.

I also dropped the device but it was on the end and not heavy. I have reset the APN. I have turned Airplane mode on and off. I have cleared the cache in recovery mode. I have removed the sim, rebooted, then turned off and re-inserted the SIM. I received several text messages from previous days, but still no data.

On the mobile suppliers website they have a service to send a configuration SMS to set up the data. I have tried several times but the SMS do not arrive.

I have also tried changing the Network mode to all the options. I have tried data roaming on and off.

Any other ideas?

Thanks. — Darren

Solution: Hi Darren. The first thing that you want to do is ensure that there is no account- or billing-related issue preventing your device from using your network’s mobile data connection. That said, you should have called your wireless carrier first rather than contact us about this problem. The troubleshooting that we offer regarding mobile connectivity issues are similar to what carriers tell their customers asking for help. They are in a better position to help you with this case than us since they can double check their network as well as account details that we don’t have access to. There may be a network outage in the area, or that something may have been changed in your account resulting to loss of mobile data connection. A good thing to try to know if this cause of the problem is account related, is by inserting your SIM card in a different phone. Obviously, if you are in a CDMA network, this is not possible but if you are in a GSM network it’s a logical step.

You’ve done almost all of the possible solutions to fix an issue like this so the only step that remains is to make sure that you update the firmware. If you’ve done this already, the only hope left is to call your carrier and hopefully get a replacement from them.

Problem #4: Galaxy S5 Wi-Fi not working properly after Marshmallow update

Android version 6.0.1 Since my last update my wifi does not work like it used to. When I would move from one place to another I could check my Status bar and it would tell me what wifi network I was logged into. It would auto connect to wifi networks I had previously used. This was a very convenient feature.

I am very unhappy about the change. Now some networks will not even connect.  I read a couple of problems others are having  which are similar to mine.  When I tap the wifi now app I get this message: “Sorry but Wi-Fi cannot run on your device. Your software version is not compatible, or your phone cannot be verified as a us cellular phone.”

I am a U.S. Cellular customer and the Wi Fi worked find as described above until the upgrade.  I am getting very discouraged with Samsung phones because my last phone completely crashed after the upgrade and I had to purchase a new one and it was only about one year old. That cost me dearly. I let it go without a fuss but now after an upgrade on this phone, that is not even a year old,  I am starting to have problems. Maybe my choice in phones is not very good. My husband is still using my old Samsung which is about five years old and it works better than the new ones.

Please find a solution for me, but I will tell you I do not want to go through the process of reformatting my phone. Also can you choose not to download an upgrade if you are happy with what you have. — Judy

Solution: Hi Judy. Although updates are meant to improve user experience and fix known bugs, at times, they can also be a source of frustration as they seem to break things rather than improve them. This does not necessarily mean that Samsung phones are to blame. In the first place, it’s not accurate to blame Samsung at all. If the phone or its apps were working properly prior to installing an update provided by U.S. Cellular, it means that your carrier’s firmware is poorly coded, or that there an app may be creating a conflict with the operating system. Samsung has nothing to do with it.

Since you are having an issue with Wi-Fi Now, a U.S. Cellular app, make sure that you wipe the phone’s cache partition first.

This troubleshooting step is usually recommended if you have updated a device to another operating system version or if the phone is having some weird glitches. Despite not having installed the full set of new operating system files, we suggest the you do the following steps to erase possibly corrupted cache on your device:

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

If wiping the cache won’t fix the problem, the next logical step is to delete the cache and data of your Wi-Fi Now app.

This troubleshooting step goes hand in hand with wiping the cache partition, albeit for targeted apps only. If the issue appears to be limited to a specific app only, deleting its cache and data may easily fix the problem for you. Here’s how it’s done:

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

Finally, if these two procedures won’t fix the Wi-Fi problem, don’t hesitate to do a factory reset. If you don’t want to do it, that’s on you but there’s really nothing much that you can do for issues affecting a smartphone after an update.

For your last question, the answer lies on the specific configuration of your phone. Carriers modify software of phones so they can add their own features, services, and some functions including a way to decline a system update or not. Most of the time, these types of updates appear as a notification and they can not be rejected. Call your carrier and ask them if there’s an option in your particular device to reject over-the-air update.

 

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 S7 mobile data connection disappears after a phone reset, other issues

S7 edge

Here’s another collection of interesting issues some of our #GalaxyS7 users have encountered during the past few days. We will continue to post more S7-related issues in the coming days so keep watching!

  1. AT&T Galaxy S7 mobile data connection disappears after a phone reset or when inside a building when there’s no signal
  2. Galaxy S7 randomly drops calls
  3. Galaxy S7 keeps overheating and battery drains even while charging

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: AT&T Galaxy S7 mobile data connection disappears after a phone reset or when inside a building when there’s no signal

I have an Samsung S7 on the AT&T network. It is an AT&T branded phone that I bought from the store. The problem I am having is that when I am in an area (where I live) that only has partner towers, my data disappears as soon as I reset the phone or I go inside a building where I lose connection. What I mean is then my data is gone for good. The only way to get my data back is to drive 45 miles away where there is an AT&T tower and reset my phone. Then my data is back and fine.

Then if I drive home I have data until I either reset my phone or lose connection again. My wife has a Samsung S5 and has no problems with her phone at all. Furthermore if I take my SIM card out of my S7 and put it in my wife’s phone or I put it in an old iPhone 5 then I have data. So it is telling me that it is a phone issue.

Also, I have contacted AT&T and they have no ideas. They have sent me 3 new S7s and everyone does the same thing. I have done a factory reset and didn’t install any apps and the same thing happens. As soon as I reset the phone my data disappears. Any help would be amazing. Thanks much. — Ehren

Solution: Hi Ehren. If this problem happens on at least 3 S7s, we don’t think any software troubleshooting on your end can fix it. This may be an AT&T firmware-specific glitch that can only be resolved by tweaking the OS code.

We are yet to receive similar complaints from S7 users using other wireless services so there’s high likelihood that it’s more of an AT&T issue. The OS running on your phone may be Android but it’s a modified version from AT&T. The thing about an open source operating system like Android is that a modified version from a carrier can easily mess it up (aside from having to do with a lot of crappy apps). It’s impossible to know exactly what part of firmware code may be causing the glitch so we suggest that you find a way to let the proper department in AT&T know about this specific problem so a patch can be released.

Problem #2: Galaxy S7 randomly drops calls

Phone intermittently cannot make calls. I dial a number and it just says call ended. Happens when receiving as well. Sometimes it just happens to some numbers and not others, like my home number, which I call often. Sometimes I can receive, but not call, sometimes vice versa. It is hard to pin down the exact problem as I am no longer a heavy user of the phone, but I know it has been happening a lot. I was on vacation and noticed the problem. I attributed it to being on another coast. It usually clears, but I cannot have a phone that is unreliable. I have run through every troubleshooting I can, no luck.

I have Tracfone with bring your own phone using an unlocked Verizon phone. Internet usually works just fine during this problem. — Carol

Solution: Hi Carol. Identifying the exact reason of your problem is just as difficult for us as well. We obviously need more information than what you’re giving us here to even decide where start the troubleshooting. Call issues may seem simple to an average user but it requires several systems working together in order to work normally. It can be a phone-related problem, or totally beyond your control as the cause lies on the network side.

The only thing that we can recommend in this case is that you do the basic software troubleshooting like wiping the cache partition, booting in safe mode, or performing a factory reset. If none of these procedures won’t work, call your wireless carrier and let them know about the situation.

In order to wipe the cache partition on your Galaxy S7, kindly follow these steps:

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

Wiping the cache partition forces the phone to create a fresh system cache. If the call error is due to an outdated or corrupted system cache, wiping the cache partition should easily fix it.

If nothing changes though, try to restart the phone in safe mode. Doing so will disable third party apps from running. If you’re using a third party calling app or dialer, or if another app is the cause, the problem should not occur in this mode. The thing is, safe mode won’t pinpoint which of your apps is to blame. You still need to eliminate possible apps in order to identify the culprit. We suggest that you let the phone run in safe mode for a few days to see a difference. Here are the steps on how to boot your S7 in safe mode:

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

If nothing seems to work, or if the issue remains even if you’re in safe mode, make sure that you do a factory reset (refer to the steps below).

Problem #3: Galaxy S7 keeps overheating and battery drains even while charging

Hi. My phone keeps overheating especially when charging, and the battery is draining even when charging. I am very worried why is that happening that my battery is still draining even on charge. I went to the mall last week to have it tested. I wanted to find out if the battery or charger is the problem. This one particular store i went to, the tech guy didn’t test my battery or my charger. instead he tested my phone and told me that my phone is the problem not the batter or the charger. He said it could be something inside that had been shorted but it has to be troubleshoot yet to find out what particular piece inside that’s is causing up the heat and damaged.

I haven’t had a 2nd opinion but this is worrying me too much and the replacement or repair could cost me a lot. I have been very careful with my phone yet this happened. Please, I need your help. Looking forward to your response. Thank you very much. — Shiela

Solution: Hi Shiela. Well, if a competent technician has already checked the hardware and declared that more hardware tests are needed to pinpoint the problem, he or she is probably right. There is no better way to check an overheating smartphone than to have it physically checked. We think that the attending technician has more authority than us in this case.

However, it also doesn’t mean that there’s nothing else that you can do on your end. Software glitch can be a cause as much as hardware failure so make sure that you do the basic software troubleshooting stuff on your end. These things include deleting the cache partition, booting in safe mode, and doing a factory reset.

We especially want you to do the last one (factory reset) in order to reset all settings back to default. This will help you determine if overheating is being caused by bad apps or services or a firmware glitch. Before you proceed with this procedure, make sure that your important files are saved somewhere for safe keeping. If you haven’t tried doing a factory reset before, kindly follow the steps below:

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

After you factory reset the phone, give it time to run the default firmware for at least 48 hours. Be sure not to install any apps during this period so you’ll know if one of your apps is to blame. If your phone continues to overheat even without the installed apps, you can safely assume that hardware malfunction is the cause.

 

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