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#S8

Galaxy S8 moisture detected error, won’t charge due to moisture detected error, other issues

We’re just starting to publish #GalaxyS8 issues and solutions so welcome to one of the first few posts for this device. We will be publishing more of the same articles in the coming days so keep out for them.

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

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

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

Problem 1: How to fix Galaxy S8 moisture detected error, won’t charge due to moisture detected error

My new Samsung S8 immediately for no reason told me to shut it off due to moisture in USB…so I did for a few hours….then it was doing nothing when I went to turn it on so I did what most would with an older phone sat it in rice for a day…then I turned it on and it would come on with a brand new fast charger and showed a battery with an wall outlet picture under it so I check my cords an outlets.. on some other chargers it buzzed and buzzed repeatedly…..eventually after messing with it check water damage and such it came in and acted as if it was downloading something so I let it try …hole bother day goes by nothing happens…i’ve watched Youtube videos read forums and searched everywhere I’m stuck what do I do??? — Meganborecky03

Solution: Hi Meganborecky03. You have come to the right place.  If your phone keeps showing moisture detected error, we have a few fixes for your to try below. This error message usually shows up if the system detects moisture or water in the USB charging port. It doesn’t mean that the phone is damaged. It only indicates that the device blocks charging via USB charging port to prevent shorting other components.

Moisture Detected Fix #1

With that said, usually this error occurs when you are charging your phone while the phone is off.  As simple as this may sound, but simply turn on your phone first (or reboot your phone) and then plug in the charger.  It’s simple as that.  The moisture detected error typically show up when you try to charge the phone while the phone is off.

Moisture Detected Fix #2

If your phone is out of battery and you cannot turn on the phone first prior to charging, then try holding the power button and volume down at the same time, and while holding both buttons, plug in the charger, you should see phone load up with the last bit of juice.

Moisture Detected Fix #3

And if you’re still getting the error, the last thing you can do is to take advantage of the wireless charging function.  You would likely have to pick up a new wireless charger if you don’t already have one.

Moisture Detected Fix #4

Here’s a low tech solution, take a Q-Tip and clean around the charging USB port to make sure it’s completely dry and dust free.  Also try using a blow dryer at low heat to blow around and dry out the area.  You might think this is so obvious and simple, but it has worked for several of our readers!

Moisture Detected Fix #5

By the way, you may continue to get this error over and over, even if your phone have not come near any water in days.  What we’ve found is that you can try this:

  1. go to apps settings
  2. go to system apps
  3. USB Settings
  4. Storage
  5. clear data
  6. reboot phone

comment below if this helps!

Problem 2: Galaxy S8 charger won’t go all the way in to the charging port

Hi. I recently had an upgrade to the Samsung S8 and twice now the charger jack plug has stopped going in to my phone to allow it to charge. i only ever use the charger that was supplied and it worked fine for 2 weeks, then stopped. i had a complete replacement and the same thing has happened this morning. I can get the jack plug to go in, so it slow charges but that is it. There is no debris or anything in the charger jack plug or the phone so im at a loss Please help i am a nurse and need my phone and find it unacceptable to have this problem happen again. Thanks. — Cheryl

Solution: Hi Cheryl. Your problem is hardware related so you don’t want to do anything to damage the charging port. There may be a bent pin in the port that causes this problem. We know it’s hard to really see the inside of the port without the aid of some form of magnification so we suggest that you let a professional take a look at it. If the device is covered by a replacement warranty, we suggest that you demand for a new phone instead of going through repair.

Problem 3: Galaxy S8 won’t send SMS to random contacts

I sent 6 text messages yesterday morning (Wed 5am) to my close family and friends. I text them regularly. and all failed and I cannot resend them either because they fail. However I can send messages to my husband (I text him all the time) and random friends. I even deleted their contact info and re-entered them in hopes that would help but it didnt. I have also turned my phone off for an hour in hopes that would help–it didn’t. — Storm

Solution: Hi Storm. The first move that you want to do here is to ensure that this is not app-related by wiping the cache and data of the messaging app. Here’s how to do that:

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

Tapping on Clear Data button deletes all your conversation threads so if you want to keep a copy of some, make sure to back them up ahead of time.

Another good thing to do in this case is to try using another messaging app. Doing so will help you identify if the problem is due to a bug in the current app or not. There are many free messaging apps that you can use like Google Hangouts or Facebook Messenger so just take your pick.

If the problem remains regardless of the messaging app, contact your carrier. The problem may lie on their end. Even if not, they’re still obligated to help you fix the problem though.

Problem 4: Galaxy S8 screen becomes totally black when Maximum Power Saving Mode is enabled

Yesterday, i turned my phone onto Maximum Power Saving mode through a notification. Now when phone turns on, i see boot screen, but screen is black after loading. If i press the Bixby button, a special Android notification pops up at bottom that can’t use Bixby in Maximum Power Saving Mode. I rebooted and charged it, no help. I can load it into recovery mode and it shows the screen fine. i tried wiping the cache, but no help. If i try loading into Safe Mode, i have same issue as normal, it’s a black screen, but says ‘Safe Mode’ at the bottom left. But i can’t see anything so i can’t uninstall anything. I tried ringing the phone and trying to answer it by swinging across, but that doesn’t work. Thanks for your time. — Vinnie

Solution: Hi Vinnie. Is it possible that you may have simply set screen brightness to the lowest setting? We don’t know if we understand your concern correctly as we haven’t heard or experienced this problem ourselves. We tried replicating your case in our own S8 and everything works fine, even if screen brightness is at its lowest. We suggest that you do a factory reset via Recovery mode and see how it goes from there. Otherwise, just stay away from Maximum Power Saving mode at this time until we can find more information about this problem. We’re going to update this post once we have an effective solution.

Problem 5: Galaxy S8 stops charging after charging port got wet, moisture detected error showing up

Hi. I saw Samsung’s commercial opening the Galaxy S8 from the box under water in a shark cage and then recording the sharks. So i put my phone in the water at the beach yesterday for 10 seconds. It’s still working but the charging port says moisture detected and it will not charge. It’s been 24 hours. Is the phone water proof or not? I bought a wireless charging port. — Heather

Solution: Hi Heather. We’ve seen the commercial too and we say it’s a bit extreme given the fact that the phone is not technically water proof. It’s only water-resistant in up to 5 feet (1.5 meters) of water for up to 30 minutes and even so, we won’t tell you to intentionally dunk your $700 phone in water. That’s because water-resistance protection is simply not water proof protection. Period. If you want to see the difference between water resistance and water proof protection, do some little Google search.

Now, for your main problem (well It’s not really a problem), you don’t have to worry at all. Try the steps we mentioned above to fix moisture detected error for Galaxy S8.

Problem 6: Galaxy S8 icon notifications for SMS won’t show, first call attempt always goes to voicemail

I have a new Galaxy S8 and I’m not receiving text notifications at all when the screen is unlocked or when it is locked. I do not care about notification sounds; I’m not getting the icon notifications, which I care about. I double-checked my notification settings, and messages has notifications set to allow. I double-check blocked application notifications under “advanced,” and notifications for messages are also set to “allowed.” I’m not sure if you can help me solve another riddle, but for the past 3 months or so, every time I have called my partner, the phone call goes to voicemail the first time, even when he’s not on the phone, and then the second time goes through. This is causing me to lose my mind! No one else mentioned to him that this happen when they call him. I live in Kansas and he lives in Iowa. He has an iPhone 6, and I’ve had 3 phones over the past 3 months, all of which this happens with. When I’m in Iowa, the problem usually goes away (but not always). Thanks for your help! — Cydney

Solution: Hi Cydney. To ensure that you’ll get an icon notification for SMS, you have to enable Allow notifications option under Advanced settings of the Messenger app. Here’s how to do that:

  1. Open Settings app.
  2. Tap Notifications.
  3. Move slider to the right for the messaging app you’re using.
  4. Tap ADVANCED button at the top right.
  5. Tap the messaging app you’re using.
  6. Move the slider to the right for Allow notifications option.

If these steps won’t fix the issue, try wiping the cache partition by doing the following:

  1. Turn off the device.
  2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
  4. Press the Volume down key to highlight “wipe cache partition.”
  5. Press the Power key to select.
  6. Press the Volume down key to highlight “yes” and 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.

Should the issue remain, you can also try a full factory reset. Here’s how:

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

Your second concern regarding initial call attempts going directly to voicemail may be network-related, or something caused by a bug in the software so you want to talk to your carrier about it. If factory reset won’t fix it as well, coordinate with your network’s technical team to solve it.

Problem 7: Galaxy S8 drains battery fast and won’t charge fully

Took pictures in salt water. A little while later the phone started glitching and the battery drained. Let it dry out for a few days and tried charging the phone, but it would not charge past 10%. Replaced the battery but would not charge past 45%. Wiped the cache partition and rebooted, afterwards the phone showed 96%. Now when the phone charges it won’t show past 18%-45% but it’ll last all day. Sometimes when I have the phone plugged in the battery still drains. When that happens it’ll restart and then it shows a charge of somewhere in the 90% range.

Tried wiping the cache partition again but nothing changes. Not sure if i have a defective battery or if it could be anything else. Any info with this issue would help. Thank you. — Eddie

Solution: Hi Eddie. Try recalibrating the battery first and see how it goes from there. If you haven’t tried doing this procedure, here’s how it’s done:

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

If nothing will change after a battery calibration, do a factory reset. If that won’t help either, there must be a physical damage to the phone that needs fixing. Send it in for repair or replacement.

Problem 8: Galaxy S8 won’t turn off

My daughter forgot her password after she put her fingerprint in her Galaxy S8 now the phone doesn’t recognize the print & wants the password. I have tried to hard reset this phone but it won’t let me turn it off. Any suggestions on how I can get this problem fixed so this phone isn’t a paperweight????? — Xxkimberlyxx08

Solution: Hi xxkimberlyxx08. The most effective way to restart an unresponsive or frozen S8 is by simulating a “battery pull,”  also known as soft reset. Here’s how:

  1. Press and hold the Power and Volume Down buttons for at least 10 seconds.
  2. Once the phone starts to vibrate, let go of the buttons.

Hopefully your phone will restart normally and you would be able to turn it off afterwards. If that won’t work though, simply wait until the drains the battery.

Problem 9: Can’t turn off camera shutter sound when taking photos in Galaxy S8

Wanted to turn off camera “click.” Have done so by muting system sounds. But…I don’t know what other sounds I’m turning off by doing so. Can you give me a list? I’m having trouble finding out through googling. Thanks. — Mitch

Solution: Hi Mitch. If you are in the United States, you’re out of luck since it’s illegal to take a picture using a digital camera or smartphone without the shutter sounding off. Yes, that’s right. Samsung is obviously abiding by said law but some phones can still take pictures without making a sound by simply pressing Volume Down button on the side of the phone until the phone goes into vibrate mode. If you haven’t tried that yet, go ahead and see for yourself.

If the first workaround won’t work, try using third party camera apps.

 

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 S8 Plus keeps disconnecting from wifi after Oreo update [troubleshooting guide]

This post will try to answer one curious issue following an Oreo update on a #GalaxyS8Plus. As stated below, one member of our community is reporting that his S8 Plus started disconnecting from wifi after installing Oreo update. We don’t know yet if this issue affects other devices, or if it’s an on-going issue with the S8 models only. We’ll monitor this issue and update this post accordingly if we find out anything relevant. For now, we suggest that you treat the issue as a regular intermittent connection problem on the S8. To fix it, follow our suggestions below.

Before we proceed, we want to remind you that if you are looking for solutions to your own #Android issue, you can contact us by using the link provided at the bottom of this page. When describing your issue, please be as detailed as possible so we can easily pinpoint a relevant solution. If you can, kindly include the exact error messages you are getting to give us an idea where to start. If you have already tried some troubleshooting steps before emailing us, make sure to mention them so we can skip them in our answers.

Today’s problem: Galaxy S8 Plus keeps disconnecting from wifi after Oreo update

Immediately following and ever since the recent update (I believe it updated to Oreo) I have had issues with my S8+ maintaining a connection. I have small connection failures (orange wifi symbol blinking in the middle of the screen) of 2 minutes or less probably 20 to 30 times a day and large ones (completely dropping the current app connection) 2 to 5 times a day. This is not a location based issue as it’s in my shop where it has not had this issue since I got the device. It is also not internet/router based as 3 other Samsung devices in the same area are not experiencing this. A TabS, a S5 and a S7. The fact that none of these devices received the Oreo update is another reason I believe this issue is related to / caused by the update. I should also mention that where my shop is located has very little cellular service so I believe it’s mainly wifi that we are connected through. I hope I’ve included all the information you require to help me correct this issue if it’s indeed correctable on my end. Thank you. — Robb

Solution: Hi Robb. If this problem is indeed caused by the latest update you installed, many similar or identical cases should be reported to us and to other Android forums in the coming days. At this time, we can’t say with certainty if your suspicion that the latest update messed up the device is true or not. To know if this issue can be fixed on your end, you should try the possible solution option below.

Solution #1: Clear system cache

The first thing that you can do in this case is to ensure that you take care of the system cache. Sometimes, updates may corrupt the system cache, which, in turn, may lead to all sorts of problems. To ensure that your S8’s system cache is working, make sure to clear the cache partition. Here’s how:

  1. Turn off the device.
  2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
  4. Press the Volume down key to highlight “wipe cache partition.”
  5. Press the Power key to select.
  6. Press the Volume down key to highlight “yes” and 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.

Solution #2: Verify with another wifi network

If our connection problem won’t go away after wiping the cache partition, your next step would be to verify if it’s a wifi issue or not. Try to connect your S8 Plus to another wifi network for a few hours and check for the problem. If internet connection returns to normal and you’re not getting any disconnection prompts or notices, then you have a wifi issue. If the issue is still there, proceed to the third solution.

Solution #3: Run your phone to Safe Mode and observe

This only works if the cause of the problem is app-related. Safe mode blocks third party apps from running so make sure to allow your S8 to run in this mode (at least a few hours) so you’ll notice the difference. If the problem returns even when you’re on safe mode, restart your phone to return to normal mode. Then, proceed to the next solution.

However, if the problem does not occur after running your S8 to safe mode, that’s an indication that one of your apps is causing the problem.

To boot to safe mode:

  1. Turn the device off.
  2. Press and hold the Power key past the model name screen appearing on the screen.
  3. When SAMSUNG appears on the screen, release the Power key.
  4. Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume down key.
  5. Continue to hold the Volume down key until the device finishes restarting.
  6. When Safe mode appears in the bottom left corner of the screen, release the Volume down key.
  7. Let your phone run on this mode for at least 24 hours uninterrupted.
  8. Check for the issues.

Solution #4: Reset network settings

Sometimes, resetting your device’s settings fixes network troubles so make sure that you don’t skip it. Here’s how to do it:

  1. Open Settings app.
  2. Tap General management.
  3. Tap Reset.
  4. Tap Reset network settings.
  5. Tap RESET SETTINGS button.

After you reset network settings, you’ll have to enter your wifi password again. If you have Bluetooth devices connected, you’ll also need to re-pair them afterwards.

Solution #5: Factory reset

A more drastic solution that you can try is factory reset. Hopefully, you’ll never reach this point in your troubleshooting ladder but if you do, make sure to back your phone up first to avoid losing files. We recommend that you use Samsung Smart Switch to back up your messages, files, photos, videos, etc.

Once you’ve backed your files up, you can then proceed to wiping your device. Here’s how:

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

 

Engage with us

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

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

How to fix slow wifi connection issue on your Galaxy S8 [troubleshooting guide]

Wifi is often a preferred way for many people to get internet connection on their devices and while in most cases the experience is reliable, there are times when this type of connection can become a source of problems. One of these problems is the slow wifi connection. Today’s troubleshooting guide will walk you through how to handle wifi slowdown on the #GalaxyS8. We hope you’ll find this post helpful.

Before we proceed, we want to remind you that if you are looking for solutions to your own #Android issue, you can contact us by using the link provided at the bottom of this page. When describing your issue, please be as detailed as possible so we can easily pinpoint a relevant solution. If you can, kindly include the exact error messages you are getting to give us an idea where to start. If you have already tried some troubleshooting steps before emailing us, make sure to mention them so we can skip them in our answers.

Solution #1: Soft reset

Before doing anything drastic on your phone or your router, you want to ensure that you’ve done a basic troubleshooting step first and that is to reboot your S8. Some connectivity bugs can only run when the current operating system session is up. Once the system is restarted, these bugs may also cease to exist. That’s why, at times, doing the simplest things when troubleshooting work. If you haven’t yet, make sure that you simulate a “battery pull” on your S8 to clear the system and RAM properly. Here’s how to do it:

  1. Press and hold the volume down button and don’t release it.
  2. Then, press and hold the power key while holding down the volume button.
  3. Keep both keys held down for 10 seconds or more.
  4. Let the phone restart.
  5. Check for the problem.

Solution #2: Verify how slow your connection speed is

Should restarting your S8 won’t work, the next troubleshooting step is to check whether or not you have a slow internet connection problem, or if the issue lies on the phone itself. To do that, you want to conduct a speed connection check. If you don’t have an app Speedtest by Ookla installed to check your internet  speed, you need to get one from the Play Store first. Then, once you have it, run a speed test three times. If the test results are more or less the same and they are way too low for your subscribed speed, that means there’s a problem with your router or Internet Service Provider side. On the other hand, if the speed test results are good, that is, it is within acceptable speed as far as your internet subscription plan is concerned, then you may have an issue with your phone. To fix it, continue with our suggested solutions below.

Another way to check if the issue lies on the router or your ISP is to check with other devices. If they also get slow connection problems when using your wifi, that’s a tell tale sign of an issue with your router or ISP side.

Solution #3: Forget wifi connection

One of the most common yet sometimes effective solution options that you can do in your case is to force the device to disconnect from the network, also known as forgetting network. This troubleshooting step disconnects your device from the router so if a bug has developed to occur only when the connection is up and running, this might help. To forget your S8 from your wifi network is easy. Here’s how:

  1. Pull down the status bar from the top.
  2. Press and hold on wifi.
  3. Press and hold on the wifi network you’re connected to right now.
  4. Select Forget network.

Now that your S8 has been disconnected from the wifi network, restart the device before reconnecting.

Solution #4: Reboot your networking device

One of the easiest ways to fix connection slow downs in wifi is to reboot the router and other networking equipment. Most of today’s Internet Service Providers or ISPs no longer provide a modem and a router but if you still have both, make sure that do a sequential powercycle. Here’s how to do that:

  1. Turn off the modem.
  2. Turn off the router.
  3. Turn off devices affected by slow connection issue.
  4. Wait for at least 30 seconds.
  5. Afterwards, turn the modem first and wait until it has fully initialized.
  6. Then, turn the router back on and wait until it too has full initialized.
  7. Finally, restart the affected gadgets and see if the connection speed has improved.

If you are only using a router, then simply ignore the step with the modem.

Solution #5: Try static IP

If you’ve been using dynamic IP or DHCP all along, we also suggest that you try using static IP to see if there’s a difference. This troubleshooting step presumes that you know how to configure and play around with your router configuration. If you have no idea how to configure your router, then simply ignore this step.

If you want to give static IP a try though, here’s how to do it:

  1. Pull down the status bar from the top.
  2. Press and hold on wifi.
  3. Press and hold on the wifi network you’re connected to right now.
  4. Select Manage network settings.
  5. Make sure that Show advanced options is checked.
  6. Under IP settings, select Static.
  7. Once you’ve done that, other fields below will become available so you can configure them. These fields include the IP address, Gateway, Network prefix length, DNS 1, and DNS 2.
  8. Make sure to enter a valid IP address and Gateway IP.

Solution #6: Use third party DNS

Sometimes, your router may actually be working fine and internet connection speed may be fast but apps or web browsers may still load pages so slowly. Sometimes, this kind of problem is due to an issue with the DNS server your ISP is using. DNS is short for Domain Name Server and is a basic Internet component. It’s a type of server that converts the URL you’re typing in the address bar into IP addresses that computers in the web can understand. For example, if you type in Google.com in the address bar, this is not really understandable for computers or servers. It’s the job of DNS to convert the letters into an IP address so that your request will be interpreted as wanting to reach Google.com website. At times, the DNS your ISP uses may encounter an issue causing slow browsing issue. To check if you have a DNS problem, you can try to change the DNS 1 and DNS 2 of your device’s wifi settings, just like when you change from DHCP to static.

To change the DNS servers:

  1. Pull down the status bar from the top.
  2. Press and hold on wifi.
  3. Press and hold on the wifi network you’re connected to right now.
  4. Select Manage network settings.
  5. Make sure that Show advanced options is checked.
  6. Under IP settings, select Static.
  7. Once you’ve done that, other fields below will become available so you can configure them. These fields include the IP address, Gateway, Network prefix length, DNS 1, and DNS 2.
  8. Enter the new DNS servers you want. We suggest that you use Google’s own DNS servers as they more reliable and faster than any other DNS servers out there. For DNS 1, enter 8.8.8.8 while for DNS 2, use 8.8.4.4.

Solution #7: Reset network settings

Resetting your device’s network settings is part of any network troubleshooting package. So, if the suggestions above has not worked in your favor yet at this time, be sure to reset all network settings with these steps:

  1. Open Settings app.
  2. Tap General management.
  3. Tap Reset.
  4. Tap Reset network settings.
  5. Tap RESET SETTINGS button.
  6. Restart your S8 and check for the problem.

Solution #8: Clear cache partition

Performance issues on Android devices are sometimes caused by a corrupted system cache. To check if your S8 is having trouble due to its system cache, make sure that you clear the cache partition. This partition stores the system cache so clearing it effectively deletes the said cache. Don’t worry as your device will eventually rebuild this cache over time.

To clear the cache partition on your S8:

  1. Turn off the device.
  2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the green Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
  4. Press the Volume down key several times to highlight ‘wipe cache partition’.
  5. Press Power button to select.
  6. Press the Volume down key until ‘yes’ is highlighted and press the Power button.
  7. When the wipe cache partition is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
  8. Press the Power key to restart the device.

Solution #9: Check for rogue apps

As long as you install third party apps, you can never totally eliminate the possibility of a bug being caused by an app. To see if you’ve added an app that causes this problem, you need to boot your S8 to safe mode. Here’s how:

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

Don’t forget that restarting to safe mode is not technically a solution. Instead, it’s a tool that should help you determine whether or not the issue is being caused by an app. If you won’t experience slow wifi connection when on safe mode only, that means one of the apps is causing a problem. In that case, you want to uninstall apps until you’ve identified the culprit. Here’s what you need to do exactly:

  1. Boot to safe mode.
  2. Check for the problem. If wifi is not slow at all, proceed to the next steps below.
  3. Uninstall an app. Start with the most recent ones you installed or updated.
  4. After uninstalling an app, restart the phone to normal mode.
  5. Check for the problem. If the issue remains, repeat steps 1-4.

Do the cycle until you’ve identified which of the apps is problematic.

Solution #10: Factory reset

In most cases similar to yours, there’s no need to do a factory reset at all. But, if the problem still exists at this time, you must be one of the unlucky few who has a more severe form of slow connection issue. Remember, the suggestions above already covered a lot of possible angles, so if nothing has worked so far, then you need to address the chance of a possible operating system problem.

To factory reset your S8, follow these steps:

  1. Create a backup of your personal data.
  2. Turn off the device.
  3. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
  4. When the green Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
  5. Press the Volume down key several times to highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset’.
  6. Press Power button to select.
  7. Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
  8. Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
  9. When the master reset is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
  10. Press the Power key to restart the device.

Solution #11:  Check your router

Almost all the recommendations up to this point so far dealt with the possible issues with your phone. Ideally, the issue should have already been fixed by now if the issue is due to a phone problem. If nothing worked at all, even after a factory reset, the next step for you must be to see if it’s a router problem or not. Some of the common issues that might affect the speed of your home wifi are the following:

  • a new setting/s on the router’s bandwidth
  • incorrect  broadcast channel of the router
  • wrong router security setup like firewall.

There are other possible factors depending on your router setup and type. If you are not familiar on how to troubleshoot the router, refer to your router documentation or contact its manufacturer.

Solution #12: Contact your ISP

If you can’t still resolve the issue at this time, especially if you are positive that it’s router problem, the most ideal thing to do is to contact your ISP. Unless you purchased your own router separately, you should let your ISP handle the router troubleshooting to prevent causing more issues.

 

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.

Samsung Galaxy S8 keeps showing “Unfortunately, Contacts has stopped” error [Troubleshooting Guide]

The error message “Unfortunately, Contacts has stopped” on your Samsung Galaxy #S8 smartphone notifies you that the built-in app that manages your contacts list crashes. While it’s clearly an app issue because an app crashes, it might just be a sign of a more serious firmware problem that’s it’s necessary to troubleshoot the device so that you may know what the real problem with your phone is.

I understand your Galaxy S8 is still new and it shouldn’t have any issues especially if it’s still a week or two with you. But then again, issues arise all the time even if you’re taking good care of your device. We need to know if this problem can be fixed without any help from a technician because if not, then that’s a valid reason to request a replacement. No one wants to deal with an issue like this, so read on.

But before anything else, if you’re currently experiencing different issues with your phone, then I suggest you visit our Samsung Galaxy S8 troubleshooting page for we’ve already started providing support to our readers who own this device. We understand your phone is still brand new and it should work perfectly without a hitch but not even Samsung can guarantee there won’t be any problems. What we do here is provide help to our readers the best we can so if we haven’t published posts about your concern, feel free to contact us by filling up our Android issues questionnaire.

Step-by-step guide to troubleshooting “Unfortunately, Contacts has stopped” error on Galaxy S8

Problem: Hi guys. I got a new Galaxy S8–I upgraded from S6 Edge–and just yesterday it started to show up the error “Unfortunately, Contacts has stopped” which puzzles me. The phone is barely a couple of week with me but there’s already a problem. It irritates because, first, it’s a brand new phone and second, I cannot make outgoing calls or receive incoming calls because this error shows up. I’m not quite sure what I have to do now and by the way, I hate going back to the store and explain this problem to the tech that’s why I’m contacting you guys because may be you can help. Thanks in advance.

Troubleshooting: The purpose of this troubleshooting is for us to know what’s happening with your phone so that we can immediately tell if this has something to do with the firmware or just a minor app problem. If it’s the former, you need to have to negotiate a replacement because it’s a serious problem and no one want to deal with it especially that the phone is new, however, if it’s just an issue with the app, then you can fix it without any help from a tech. That said, here’s what you should do for your Galaxy S8:

Step 1: Reboot your device in safe mode

First off, booting in safe mode is a safe procedure. None of your files or data will be deleted but the purpose of this procedure in this troubleshooting guide is for us to know if third-party apps, ones you downloaded or manually installed, is causing the problem. Booting in safe mode will temporarily disable all third-party elements and once the phone is in this mode, try to trigger the error or open the app that’s crashing. If the error still pops up, then third-party apps and services are cleared of liability; meaning none of them is causing the problem.

However, if the error doesn’t show up even if you open the Contacts app and close it multiple times, then this issue is caused by one of those apps. Therefore, you need to take time finding the culprit and try to clear the cache and data of the suspected app first. If that won’t work, then you will have to resort to uninstallation. Refer to the instructions below on how to carry out these procedures.

How to reboot Galaxy S8 in Safe mode

  1. Turn the device off.
  2. Press and hold the Power key past the model name screen.
  3. When “SAMSUNG” appears on the screen, release the Power key.
  4. Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume down key.
  5. Continue to hold the Volume down key until the device finishes restarting.
  6. Safe mode will display in the bottom left corner of the screen.
  7. Release the Volume down key when you see Safe Mode.
  8. Uninstall apps that are causing a problem.

How to clear cache and data of apps on Galaxy S8

  1. From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open the Apps tray.
  2. Tap Settings > Apps.
  3. Tap the desired application in the default list or tap 3 dots icon > Show system apps to display pre-installed apps.
  4. Tap Storage.
  5. Tap Clear cache.
  6. Tap Clear data and then tap OK.

How to uninstall apps from your Galaxy S8

  1. From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open the Apps tray.
  2. Tap Settings > Apps.
  3. Tap the desired application in the default list or tap 3 dots icon > Show system apps to display pre-installed apps.
  4. Tap the desired application.
  5. Tap Uninstall.
  6. Tap Uninstall again to confirm.

Once you’ve done all this and the problem still occurs or the error still shows up, move on to the next step to continue your troubleshooting.

Step 2: Reset the Contacts app as it might be just an issue with the app

An app reset will actually be clearing its cache and data. You’ve already booted your phone up in safe mode and the error still occurs so it might be an issue with the pre-installed app. Since Contacts is specifically mentioned in the error, we have reasons to believe it’s the one having a problem so we have to reset it.

  1. From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open the Apps tray.
  2. Tap Settings > Apps.
  3. Tap Contacts in the default list or tap 3 dots icon > Show system apps to display pre-installed apps.
  4. Tap Storage.
  5. Tap Clear cache.
  6. Tap Clear data and then tap OK.

You may have to reboot your phone after this and then try to open the same app to see if the error gets triggered and if so, we have to assume it’s a problem with the firmware. Move on to the next step.

Step 3: Delete the system cache as it might be just an issue with some of them

Since we are now trying to rule out the possibility that it’s a firmware issue, then we have to go after the caches first. They’re actually temporary files generated by the system to make the opening or launching of apps and services quicker the next time you open them. However, these files are also prone to being corrupted and when it happens, things like this could occur. Another reason why we have to do this first is because your files and data are safe and it has a reset-like effect on your phone. Here’s how you do it:

  1. Turn off the device.
  2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the green Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
  4. Press the Volume down key several times to highlight “wipe cache partition.”
  5. Press the Power key to select.
  6. Press the Volume down key to highlight “yes” and 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.

Observation is key to knowing what the problem with your phone really is, so after the phone rebooted, try to open the app that’s crashing to find out if the problem remained. If so, then you have no other choice but to reset your phone.

Step 4: Backup important files and then reset your Galaxy S8

This is your last resort. If the problem still shows up after this, then you have to bring the phone back to the store and have it replaced because such problem is very annoying and affects the most basic purpose of a phone–be able to make / receive calls. However, you will lose all important files you saved in your phone’s internal storage, so make sure to create a backup. After that, disable the Factory Reset Protection (FRP) or the anti-theft feature:

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

Then, follow these steps to reset your phone:

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

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.

Samsung Galaxy S8 no longer charges fast like before after an update [Troubleshooting Guide]

The firmware of your phone plays a big part in the charging process that’s the reason why your device may not charge if its system crashed. Some of our readers who own the Samsung Galaxy S8 contacted us asking for assistance because, according to them, their phone no longer charges normally after a recent firmware update.

So, in this post, we will tackle this problem with the Galaxy S8 being the subject of our troubleshooting. Let’s try to look into every possibility and rule them out one by one until we get to the point where we can easily determine what the problem really is. That way, we can formulate a solution that might fix the problem for good. So, continue reading this post if you’re one of the owners who have this kind of problem.

Before going further, if you found this post because you were trying to find a solution to your problem, then try to visit our Galaxy S8 troubleshooting page as we’ve already addressed most of the commonly reported issues with the phone. We’ve already provided solutions to some of the problems reported by our readers so try to find issues that are similar with yours and use the solutions we suggested. If they don’t work for you and if you need further assistance, fill up our Android issues questionnaire and hit submit.

How to troubleshoot Galaxy S8 that has charging issues after an update

Problem: I have a Samsung Galaxy S8 and my fast charging isn’t working. I haven’t used any different charger cord or block, it came with my phone. It takes 6+ hours to charge my phone and it started to happen after the new software update. I’ve tried other cords and blocks and it still happens. It’s very irritating because one night it worked and then the next it didn’t.

Solution: As you’ve been said that the issue started after the update, it is evident that the files and data may have been corrupted during the process and that may be the reason your phone is not charging normally. On the other hand, if numerous apps are running in the background that is also a factor why the battery is charging slowly because they also use the battery and that’s the reason why it takes several hours before the phone can fully charge. Now to begin our troubleshooting, here’s what you need to do:

Step 1: Force restart your Galaxy S8

Since the problem started after the update it is possible that a glitch in the system caused it. Through the forced reboot, the memory of the phone will be refreshed and all applications running in the background will be closed. So, if a glitch in the system caused the issue, then this procedure might fix it.

Press and hold the Volume Down and Power keys at the same time for 7-10 seconds and wait until your phone boots up. After doing so, connect it to the charger and observe if it is already charging normally. If not, move on to the next step.

Step 2: Reboot your phone in Safe mode and charge

Now try to find out if your phone fast charges or charges normally while in safe mode. There are times when a lot of apps are running in the background and they use up more battery. When it happens, your phone may resort to slow charging to let you know of the problem. Here’s how you start your S8 in Safe mode:

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

If the phone charges fine in safe mode, then rest assured the hardware of your phone is fine and the problem is just caused by some third-party apps running in the background. In this case, all you have to do is reboot your phone in normal mode and it should charge normally now.

Step 3: Turn your phone off and try charging it

If the phone still slow charges while in safe mode, then power it down and connect it to the charger. When everything is turned off, the fast charging feature should come into play and you will immediately notice that. However, if it’s still not charging normally even if it’s turned off, then you have to resort to other methods.

Step 4: Wipe off the cache partition

When some of the system caches get corrupted for some reason and the firmware continues to use them, performance issues may occur including slow and/not charging issues. In this case, all you have to do is wipe the cache partition so that the system will replace all the caches. But the thing is, we really don’t know if it’s really the caches that’s causing the problem so we just have to wipe the cache partition to rule this possibility out.

  1. Turn off the device.
  2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
  4. Press the Volume down key to highlight “wipe cache partition.”
  5. Press the Power key to select.
  6. Press the Volume down key to highlight “yes” and press the Power key to select.
  7. When the wipe cache partition is complete, “Reboot system now” is highlighted.
  8. Press the Power key to restart the device.

If the phone is still not charging normally after this, then move on to the next step.

Step 5: Backup your files and data and reset your phone

As I said earlier, the firmware plays a big role in the charging process that’s why if everything else failed, we have to do the reset to finally rule out the possibility that this problem is just one of the firmware-related problems.

  1. Back up data on the internal memory. If you have signed into a Google account on the device, you have activated Anti-theft and will need your Google credentials to finish the Master reset.
  2. From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open the Apps tray.
  3. Tap Settings > Cloud and accounts.
  4. Tap Backup and restore.
  5. If desired, tap Back up my data to move the slider to ON or OFF.
  6. If desired, tap Restore to move the slider to ON or OFF.
  7. Tap the back button to the Settings menu and tap General Management > Reset > Factory data reset.
  8. Tap Reset device.
  9. If you have screen lock turned on, enter your credentials.
  10. Tap Continue.
  11. Tap Delete all.

I hope after you do the reset your phone will function normally, because if not, then you can visit the nearest shop in your area or bring it back to the store where you purchased it and ask for a replacement.

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 S8 battery issue, won’t charge normally, drains power fast, other issues

Hello everyone and welcome to our latest #GalaxyS8 article of the day. In this post, we bring you 4 more S8 problems send our way by some members of our community. These problems are all boot- and/or power-related so we hope you’ll get something out of the provided solutions.

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

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

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

Problem 1: Galaxy S8 battery issue, won’t charge normally, drains power fast

Galaxy S8. I updated the latest Verizon update on October 3rd. For the past 3 days my phone will not hold a charge. I mostly use it to chat using AIM or Discord, do Facebook, and browse/post on an online forum. Before bed I’ll generally stream a tv episode. I have set my power management, cleared the cache, and performed the volume down+power button reboot. I went from very minimal use in a test my phone went from 100% to 21% in about 36 minutes. I took screen shots to track it.

Here’s the weird thing… I plugged in (original charger), charged to 36%, powered down the phone, and the power-down charging icon appears showing I was at 91%. Rebooted. In the time I’ve typed this I went from 90% to 86%. It should not be draining this quickly, but since that odd 36%-91% instance, I now wonder if it’s really the battery. Any ideas? Aryanun

Solution: Hi Aryanun. An issue like the one you’re having does not necessarily mean the battery is bad. Sometimes, it may mean there’s an operating system bug that causes Android to misread the actual remaining battery power so the first thing that you want to do in this case is see if it’s a calibration issue. To calibrate the phone’s ability to identify the true battery power level, you must do the following:

  1. Use the phone by playing games or doing tasks to hasten power discharge, until the phone turns itself off.
  2. Charge the phone without turning it back on.
  3. Wait until the battery says it is fully charged to 100%.
  4. Wait for an hour before unplugging the phone from the charger.
  5. Use the phone until battery reaches 0% percent. The phone should turn off by itself.
  6. Recharge the phone to 100%, wait for an hour before unplugging it again.
  7. The battery should now be recalibrated. Observe how phone works.

Reset all software settings

Another good software trick that you can do to pinpoint where the problem lies (whether it’s software or hardware) is by wiping the phone via factory reset. Once you’ve performed a factory reset, all software settings will be returned to their previous state, which also means that bugs may well be eliminated or minimized. Since we know that all power management related functions of an S8 are fine in factory settings, it’s a good method to use to determine if the cause of the issue is due to bad hardware or not. Simply put, if your phone will charge and hold charge normally after a factory reset, it means a content (app) or an operating system bug that has developed may be causing the problem.

If the issue remains though and the phone continues to behave erratically during charging and battery level drops faster than normal, these can be signs of hardware malfunction. In this case, you’ll need to send the phone in for repair or replacement

Below are the steps on how to factory reset your S8:

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

Problem 2: Galaxy S8 moisture detected error, won’t charge via USB port

After my phone got soaked, I retired to plug it in and got the moisture detected notification, and instructed to unplug it and wait until it was dry to charge it again. I did so, but they next time I plugged the phone in, it still would not charge. Instead, it got incredibly hot (within two minutes!), I smelled a mild burning metal scent and immediately unplugged it. Please note the phone did not show the moisture detected notification this time. The phone charges without an issue via wireless charging, but i can’t always charge it that way. This is going to be a major issue if it continues. — Melanie

Solution: Hi Melanie. Keep in mind that your phone may be water resistant but that doesn’t mean it’s completely protected from water intrusion. It’s not advisable to use your phone while swimming or exposing it to high-pressure water jets or sudden underwater movements. Its water resistant protection is effective against occasional splashes but that’s it. We don’t know what truly happened to your device but it’s obviously showing some signs of possible water exposure of internal components.

Normally, your S8 will warn you that there’s water or moisture in the charging port area by showing the “moisture detected” error. If there’s remaining moisture in the charging port, it may not give off the moisture detected error but will continue to prevent the device from charging. The burning smell of metal though can be a sign of something more serious, like the charging port being shorted or fried.

Try to shake the phone gently to dislodge some remaining water in the port and place the device near an indirect heat source, like the back of a TV. Do not place the phone near a fire, oven, direct sunlight, inside a hot car, or anything that emits too much heat to prevent damaging other components. Water generally evaporates on its own after a few hours so let your phone stand for a few hours. If the charging port continues to act up (won’t charge and makes burning metal smell), that may mean you have a bad hardware. You must contact Samsung so they can take a look at it.

Problem 3: Galaxy S8 can’t charge via USB port

Hi. Thanks before for your troubleshooting tips for Samsung S8. My phone is unable to charge via the USB port but it works well with the wireless charging dock. First I’m suspecting my USB port is broken, but I try to use the port using USB connector with USB flash drive it works fine and flawless. What kind of problem my phone is facing? Am I need to have full software reinstall in samsung service center? Thank you Henry.Soeratno

Solution: Hi Henry. There are three things that happen when you connect your phone to a computer:

  1. It can charge,
  2. transmit and receive data, or
  3. do both

If your phone charges fine when it’s connected to the computer and is able to move files to and fro, then there’s no phone issue at all. The problem must lie with the charger and/or USB cable you’re using. In this case, you’ll want to get a new Samsung charger for your S8.

If your phone does not charge when it’s connected to the computer but still allows transfer or files, that can mean a phone problem. It can be a port issue or something in the motherboard so you’ll want to send it in so it can be properly checked. A hardware problem does not have a software solution so forget about doing something in your end.

Problem 4: Galaxy S8 won’t boot normally, can’t boot to Recovery Mode

My phone just keeps saying recovery booting in blue in the upper left hand corner. I can’t get past it. I can enter into download mode however. Odin mode high speed (red)  current binary Samsung official  system status: official frp lock: On  warranty void: 0x0  Qualcomm secureboot: Enable rp swrev: B4(2,1,1,1,1) k1 s3  secure download: Enable. Please help. — Trevor

Solution: Hi Trevor. We have no idea what events led to the problem you’re having so telling you what is happening is mere speculation. Failure to boot normally is usually the result of failed software modification or tampering so if you did try to root the device or flashed an unofficial software prior to experiencing the problem, your only way out may be to reflash the bootloader and/or firmware back to stock. Below are the general steps on how to reflash a bootlooader. Exact steps may be slightly different for your device so be sure to consult other guides so you’ll not end up with more mess than what you currently have. Reflashing the bootloader or firmware back to stock are not guaranteed to work in this case so if the phone remains stuck in its current state, consider replacing it.

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

 

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 fix Instagram that keeps crashing on Samsung Galaxy S8 (easy steps)

Instagram is one of the most popular apps in the Play Store and it’s well-developed and well-maintained. However, we have readers that own the Samsung Galaxy S8 who’ve been complaining about the app that reportedly keeps on crashing. We have already addressed similar issues in the past but the for the benefit of our readers who’ve contacted us about this problem, we have to tackle this again.

I will share with you the solution that we’ve always been using to fix app-related issues. More often, when an app crashes, an error would show up and in this case it should be “Unfortunately, Instagram has stopped.” There are also situations wherein the app just closes on its own and you can’t continue using it because you’ll be brought back to the home screen a few moments after opening the app. Either way, the problem remains the same and that’s what we have to address here.

For smartphone owners who found our site while trying to find a solution, try to see if your phone is one of the devices we support. If it is, then visit the troubleshooting page for that device, browse through it to find issues that are similar with yours and feel free to use our solutions and workarounds. However, if you still need our help after that, then fill up our Android issues questionnaire and hit submit to contact us.

How to fix Galaxy S8 with Instagram app that keeps crashing


You can always consider app-related problems as minor ones because applications you downloaded from the Play Store aren’t embedded in the firmware. It means that if they have issues, those problems are probably limited only to concerned apps. Needless to say, it’s very easy to fix them but then again, we have to do something to fix the problem the right way so that you could continue using the app without having greeted by the same problem over and over. In this case, we’re dealing with the Instagram app that keeps crashing. Regardless whether it force closes on its own or shows up the “Unfortunately, Instagram has stopped” error, the following solution should be able to fix it.

First Solution: Try to restart your Galaxy S8

Before anything else, you should try rebooting your phone because there’s always a chance that this problem is due to a minor glitch in the system or hardware. It’s something that can easily be fixed by a reboot as it refreshes your phone’s memory as well as close all applications and services running the background not to mention it would also reloads all core functions and features.

Another thing you should try is the forced restart, which basically has the same benefits as with the normal reboot only that it’s more thorough as it simulates battery disconnect. Press and hold the Volume Down and the Power keys at the same time for 10 seconds or until the device restarts. After this, try opening Instagram to see if it still crashes. If it does, then move on to the next solution.

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Second Solution: Reset Instagram

Another possibility why an app crashes is when there are caches or files that became corrupt for some reason. That’s the reason why you need to reset Instagram to delete its old caches and data files.

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

This method is effective for both force close issue as well as the “Unfortunately, Instagram has stopped” error. So, after doing the procedure, open Instagram to find out if it still crashes. You may have to login to your account again. If the app still crashes, however, then try doing the next step.

Third Solution: Uninstall Instagram and reinstall it

More often I would suggest our readers to update apps they’re having issues with but this time I want you to be thorough. So, instead of updating Instagram, it would be better to uninstall it so that all files it created and accumulated will be deleted and all its associations with services and other apps will be removed. Follow these steps to uninstall Instagram from you Galaxy S8:

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

After uninstalling it, reboot your phone to refresh its memory and reload core functions and services. Once it’s ready, follow these steps to reinstall Instagram:

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

App related problems like this can be fixed by any of the procedures above so I hope that this article have helped you one way or another. If you have other concerns you want to share with us, feel free to leave a comment below so we would know.

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.

Samsung Galaxy S8 started running slow after an update [Troubleshooting guide]

High-end smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S8 may still suffer problems entry-level devices often encounter–slowing down. While it may seem like a minor problem, there are times when it is actually a sign of a serious problem in the hardware or firmware. We have received complaints from our readers who have encountered this kind of problem after an update so we feel the need to address it.

I will walk you through in troubleshooting your phone so that we would know if this problem can be fixed on your end without any help from a technician because if not, then you really have to bring it back to the store and have it replaced as soon as possible. Let’s try to rule out the possibilities why your S8 has started running slow. Hopefully, we can make it run faster again after troubleshooting. So, if you own this phone and are currently experiencing the same issue, continue reading below as it may help you.

But before anything else, if you’re currently experiencing different issues with your phone, then I suggest you visit our Samsung Galaxy S8 troubleshooting page for we’ve already started providing support to our readers who own this device. We understand your phone is still brand new and it should work perfectly without a hitch but not even Samsung can guarantee there won’t be any problems. What we do here is provide help to our readers the best we can so if we haven’t published posts about your concern, feel free to contact us by filling up our Android issues questionnaire.

How to troubleshooting Galaxy S8 that’s running slow

Problem: My Galaxy S8 is now running slow and I remember now that there was an update before this issue. I’m not sure what that update was for but after that, I noticed my phone started to lag that it takes forever to open apps I usually use like texting app and even facebook. I’m not quite sure what I have to do about it so if you guys know, please help me.

Troubleshooting: The good thing about this issue is that we know for sure the phone is capable of powering itself on so we can focus on our troubleshooting. Now, here’s what you need to do:

Step 1: Try to see if the phone is still slow while in safe mode

This is an important procedure because it will tell you if the third-party apps have something to do with the problem or not. Booting in safe mode alone doesn’t fix the problem but at least you can isolate it. So, here’s how you boot your S8 in safe mode:

  1. Turn the device off.
  2. Press and hold the Power key past the model name screen.
  3. When “SAMSUNG” appears on the screen, release the Power key.
  4. Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume down key.
  5. Continue to hold the Volume down key until the device finishes restarting.
  6. Safe mode will display in the bottom left corner of the screen.
  7. Release the Volume down key when you see Safe Mode.
  8. Uninstall apps that are causing a problem.

If your phone runs normally in this mode, then one or some of the apps you installed is causing the problem. In this case, you have to move on to the next step, otherwise, skip to step 3.

Step 2: Find the app that’s causing the problem, reset and / or uninstall it

Assuming the phone works well in safe mode, then this step may be a challenge since finding the app that’s causing the problem isn’t easy especially if you already have hundreds of them in your phone. But try to remember the apps you installed prior to the problem and once you already have a suspect, clear its cache and data to reset it and then boot your phone up in normal mode. If the problem still occurs, uninstall the suspected app.

How to clear app cache and data on Galaxy S8

  1. From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open the Apps tray.
  2. Tap Settings > Apps.
  3. Tap the desired application in the default list or tap 3 dots icon > Show system apps to display preinstalled apps.
  4. Tap Storage.
  5. Tap Clear cache.
  6. Tap Clear data and then tap OK.

How to uninstall apps from your Galaxy S8

  1. From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open the Apps tray.
  2. Tap Settings > Apps.
  3. Tap the desired application in the default list or tap 3 dots icon > Show system apps to display preinstalled apps.
  4. Tap the desired application.
  5. Tap Uninstall.
  6. Tap Uninstall again to confirm.

Step 3: Restart your phone up in Recovery mode and wipe cache partition

If an issue like this started after a firmware update, then there’s a chance it’s caused by some corrupt or obsolete system caches. To rule this possibility out, you just have to delete all of them at once in Recovery Mode so that the new firmware can create new files.

  1. Turn off the device.
  2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
  4. Press the Volume down key several times to highlight “wipe cache partition.”
  5. Press the Power key to select.
  6. Press the Volume down key to highlight “yes” and 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.

It will take a little longer for the phone to boot up after wiping the cache partition as it will rebuild those files. But if the problem still persists after this, then you  have no other option but to reset your phone.

Step 4: Backup your files and data and reset your phone

This procedure is your last resort, at least, before you send your phone to a tech. This will bring the phone back to its factory default settings but also delete all your files and data so make sure you make a backup of important files you have. After that, disable Factory Reset Protection so you won’t be locked out, then feel free to reset your phone.

How to disable Factory Reset Protection

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

How to reset your Galaxy S8

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

You can also reset your phone from the settings menu…

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

Step 5: Bring your phone back to the store

After doing all those steps and your phone is still running slow, don’t do anything to it anymore. A brand new phone should work without a hitch and it’s not really your job to deal with this kind of problem. So, bring the phone back to the store and have it replaced.

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 remove FBI Warning ransomware on the Galaxy S8 (and steps to prevent it )

Ransomware attacks have been around, first in desktop computing and now, in mobile computing. This brief article will show you the steps that you can do on how to remove the FBI warning ransomware, also known as FBI virus. We’ve received a plea for help from one of our readers so we want to include his letter in this post as well.

One of the hindrances a user may face when dealing with this type of malware is the fact that the device will basically become unusable. Like all ransomware, the FBI virus will lock the victim’s device down. The phone screen will then show a full page telling the user that he or she has violated a law (such as viewing child porn). The bogus notification will then demand that the use pay a fine in order to remove the lock on the device.

Keep in mind that no law enforcement agency will lock a device and force a user to pay a fine online. If your phone has been victimized by this kind of ransomware, refer to our steps below on how to fix it.

Before we proceed, we want to remind you that if you are looking for solutions to your own #Android issue, you can contact us by using the link provided at the bottom of this page. When describing your issue, please be as detailed as possible so we can easily pinpoint a relevant solution. If you can, kindly include the exact error messages you are getting to give us an idea where to start. If you have already tried some troubleshooting steps before emailing us, make sure to mention them so we can skip them in our answers.

Problem: How to remove FBI warning ransomware on the Galaxy S8

I have a big problem I got the “FBI warning” so obviously everything froze. Well I read everything i could find on the internet about how to reset the galaxy s8 and everyone said the same thing with one tiny flaw. You can’t power down the damn thing in order to factory reset or hard reset because as soon as the hard reset finishes the “FBI WARNING” pops up and freezes your phone so you don’t have time to put in your code or try and power down. I have spent all night and today and paid for a service to help me and guess what I’m still in the same situation. GOD I hope you can help me. — Robert Fair

Solution: Hi Robert. There have been many forms of ransomware attacks in the past few years and one of them is the one that supposedly used by the FBI or any law enforcement agency to extort money. If your phone was taken over by a ransomware virus, these are the steps that you can do on your end. Hopefully, the steps below will help you.

Restart the phone to Safe Mode

Because ransomware attacks usually depend on an installed app to work, restarting your phone to Safe Mode is the first step that you need to do. In this mode, all downloaded apps that are not part of the operating system will be blocked from running. This includes apps that you’ve downloaded as well as the ransomware app and its services. If you’re lucky, you should be able to boot your phone to Safe Mode to allow you to remove malicious apps later on.

To restart your S8 to safe mode, follow these steps:

  1. Turn the device off. If you can’t turn your S8 off normally, wait until the battery drains so it turns off on its own. Then, charge the phone for at least 30 minutes before proceeding.
  2. Press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the SAMSUNG logo appears on the screen, release the Power key.
  4. Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume down key.
  5. Continue to hold the Volume down key until the device finishes restarting.
  6. Safe mode will display in the bottom left corner of the screen.
  7. Release the Volume down key when you see Safe Mode.
  8. Once the phone has booted up, the FBI Warning ransomware should not load anymore.

Uninstall the malicious app

Android has a security protection feature that should prevent a device from installing apps outside the Play Store. This protection feature is enabled by default under Settings>Lock screen and security>Unknown sources. Sometimes, many Android owners turn this feature off without realizing that they may be making their device vulnerable to apps installing malicious apps without their knowledge.

If the malicious app was installed in your phone via third party sources, you should go over your list of apps and remove it. Because we have no idea what’s the exact name of the app causing the trouble, it’s up to you how to proceed. The basic rule is to find a suspicious looking app and uninstall it by doing the steps below:

  1. Open Settings app.
  2. Tap Apps.
  3. Tap the drop down arrow beside and ensure that you select All apps.
  4. Tap on a suspicious app.
  5. Tap Uninstall.

If you can’t figure out the exact app that’s causing the problem, an alternative solution is to factory reset the device. This will wipe the phone clean, effectively removing any malicious app from the system. To factory reset your device, follow these steps:

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

How to prevent malware attacks in your S8

Bear in mind that there’s no amount of antivirus apps that can substitute vigilance. When it comes to apps, playing it safe is the best approach towards prevention of malware infection.

Download apps from trusted sites only

Getting apps from legitimate app stores is one easy way to minimize malware infection. Sites like Google Play Store, Samsung, Amazon, and other major companies that hosts apps like your carrier have security practices in place to deter malware writers from using their service. Google Play Store for instance monitor and scan apps. On some occasions, malicious apps can still evade their security and scans so it still falls on you to be vigilant on what app to add.

Don’t install pirated or cracked apps

Apps hosted in third party app stores are sometimes copies of original ones and may contain some malicious codes that can allow installation of more bad apps in the future. In fact, most Android infection nowadays come from cracked or pirated apps as more cybercriminals use them to spread viruses. Avoid third party download sites as much as possible. To remind yourself not to install apps from possible third party sources, make sure to disable Unknown sources option under Settings>Lock screen and security. Turning this option off should prevent the phone from downloading apps from non-Google or non-Samsung sites.

Be suspicious

When it comes to protecting your personal information and preventing malware infection in today’s day and age, a suspicious mindset will certainly help. Don’t just take an app at face value. Before you install an unfamiliar app like a game, be sure to check the reviews of other users and run a Google search for it. If it’s a bad app, other users have most likely posted negative reviews about it somewhere.

Make sure app developer can be trusted

As mentioned above, other apps can pose as legitimate applications initially. Once you update them, the new version may include a backdoor that can let other bad apps to come in. Once that occurs, your personal information are fair game. A lot of malware are still designed to work stealthily in order to gather enough information that can benefit the developer. That’s why it’s very important that you only install products from app makers that are known to value privacy and security. Being adventurous does not always pay. Remember, once your personal information has been stolen, there’s no way to get them back.

The less app, the better

Apps are the lifeblood of smartphones. Without them, we’re back to using simple dumb phones that only allows us to call, text, and occasionally play games. Boring isn’t it?

Well, yeah. It’s definitely boring if we can’t harness the full potential of a powerful hardware as like an Galaxy S8 but important and tempting they can be, apps can also be the source of serious security and privacy issues. If you want to take a walk on the wild side, make sure that you do the necessary precautions as mentioned above.

In general, the fewer the apps you install, the better it is for you. Not only will it lessen the risks of malware infection but it can also make it easier on the system, the battery in particular, in the long run. It also minimizes the chances of bugs and glitches from developing.

Stick to a few needed apps as possible. Unless you absolutely have no life except spending all your time using your phone, better stay away from unnecessary apps.

 

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 S8 won’t send text messages and only shows “Sending” [troubleshooting guide]

Some #GalaxyS8 owners have been complaining that their device won’t send text messages and only shows “Sending” indicator all the time. If you’re one of these unlucky S8 users, this article is for you.

Before we proceed, we want to remind you that if you are looking for solutions to your own #Android issue, you can contact us by using the link provided at the bottom of this page. When describing your issue, please be as detailed as possible so we can easily pinpoint a relevant solution. If you can, kindly include the exact error messages you are getting to give us an idea where to start. If you have already tried some troubleshooting steps before emailing us, make sure to mention them so we can skip them in our answers.

Fix #1: Restart your S8

Refreshing the system should be the first thing that you want to do here. Network issues are usually caused by temporary bugs that go away once the device is shut down. Restarting is also a great way to refresh the network functionality of an Android device like your S8. By doing it, you’re basically re-establishing the connection to your carrier’s network. Just press and hold the Power button until options show. Then, tap on Restart to restart your S8.

Another way to restart your S8 is by simulating a “battery pull.” This description only makes sense for those who have tried using phones with removable battery packs. For phones with this type of batteries, removing the battery out is the easiest way to unfreeze an unresponsive device. Called soft reset, here’s how to do it:

  1. Press and hold the Power + Volume Down buttons for approximately 10 seconds or until the device power cycles. Note: Allow several seconds for the Maintenance Boot Mode screen to appear.
  2. From the Maintenance Boot Mode screen, select Normal Boot. Note: Utilize the volume buttons to cycle through the available options and the lower left button (below the volume buttons) to select. Also, allow up to 90 seconds for the reset to complete.

Fix #2: Clear the cache partition

Android uses a system cache to load apps and services quickly. This cache can sometimes get corrupted resulting to problems. To ensure that your S8 uses fresh cache, don’t forget to clear the cache partition. Here’s how to do that:

  1. Turn off the device.
  2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
  4. Press the Volume down key to highlight “wipe cache partition.”
  5. Press the Power key to select.
  6. Press the Volume down key to highlight “yes” and 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.

Fix #3: Check signal reception

Having good signal reception while sending or receiving messages is critical. In a lot of times, sending SMS or MMS almost always fails because a device is hardly able to establish solid connection to the network. If this occurs, only bits of the original data that’s supposed to be sent may be transmitted to your network’s computers. This can result to problems and may lead to messaging app glitch wherein the “Sending …” indicator appears to stay forever and won’t go away. To prevent this situation, try sending messages only when your device has consistent signal bar indicators. Avoid sending when it’s only showing 1 or 2 signal bars, or if the signal keeps cutting out.

If your home is located in poorly covered area, or if your room has poor signal coverage in your house, consider getting a signal booster. Not all carriers offer this additional equipment and it’s definitely not free. If money is not an issue though and you need to have consistent signal coverage at home, this can be a life saver.

Fix #4: Verify if voice calling works

Voice calling service uses the same network mode as SMS so if one is problematic, the other one must also be the same. If voice calling works normally though but SMS is not, that’s a totally different story. There must be other factors causing SMS functionality to not work properly. To troubleshoot, continue with the suggestions below.

Fix #5: Toggle Airplane Mode on and off

Some users claimed to have fixed SMS sending issues before by simply turning Airplane Mode on and off. To do that, just pull down the screen from the top, look for Airplane Mode, and toggle it on and off.

Fix #6: Delete old conversations

Incoming and outgoing messages may not work if your messaging app’s inboxes or outboxes are full. Make sure that it’s not the case by deleting several old conversations, especially those that contain MMS.

Fix #7: Reseat SIM card

Removing the SIM card then inserting it again forces a device to disconnect and reconnect to the network. It also re-establishes communication between your S8 and your carrier’s towers so it can potentially clear whatever bug that may have developed over time. Before you take the SIM card out, be sure to turn the phone off. Do the same before you insert the SIM card back.

Fix #8: Delete messaging app data

If voice calling works fine and only SMS is having trouble sending out, it may mean that the messaging app is problematic. To fix the issue, clear the messaging app data and see what happens. Here’s how to do that:

  1. Open Settings app.
  2. Tap Apps.
  3. Find and tap Instagram.
  4. Tap Storage.
  5. Tap Clear Data button.

Fix #9: Check Message Center Number

If you haven’t successfully sent a text message on this phone ever, there’s a chance that it may have an incorrect Message Center Number or MCN. Usually, the MCN is set automatically once you insert a SIM card to a GSM device. For CDMA phones, this is usually pre-set by the carrier. Just in case this has never happened, you can manually check the MCN by doing these steps:

  1. Open your Messages app.
  2. Tap More settings (three-dot icon) at the upper right.
  3. Select Settings.
  4. Tap More settings.
  5. Tap Text messages.
  6. Tap Message center.

If you don’t know the correct MCN, be sure to ask your carrier about it.

Fix #10: Reset network settings

By doing this, you’re resetting all data connections back to the factory defaults. The Wi-Fi, mobile data, Bluetooth, etc. will be returned to their default values.

  1. From the Home screen, swipe up on an empty spot to open the Apps tray.
  2. Tap General Management > Reset > Reset network settings.
  3. Tap Reset settings.
  4. If you have set up a PIN, enter it.
  5. Tap Reset settings. Once complete a confirmation window will appear.

Fix #11: Replace the SIM

Some users did fix this issue by replacing their SIM card with a new one. If the issue remains even after doing all the steps above, a new SIM card may help.

Fix #12: Factory Reset (optional)

We won’t recommend that you do a factory reset in this case, especially if the issue intermittent. However, this procedure is known to fix all types of issues so if you want to check how your S8 works when its software is returned to their defaults, go ahead.

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

Fix #13: Contact your carrier

If nothing fixes the issue, or if it only occurs from time to time, you should tap the expertise of your carrier regarding the matter. Network performance of a device can be affected by other factors that you can’t control. There may be account- or network-related problems causing this trouble. Most importantly, it’s the duty of your carrier to assist their subscribers when they’re having an issue like this. So, go ahead and let them do their job.

 

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.

What to do if Galaxy S8 keeps saying “moisture detected” and won’t charge

Many people expose their water resistant device to water and complain later. This post should be another reminder of what to do when a device like the #GalaxyS8 may stop charging due to moisture detected error, or after the phone has been wet. Just because an S8 is water resistant does not mean you want to intentionally expose it water or swim with it in the ocean or pool. High pressure water like in the sea waves or swimming pool can potentially damage an S8. Samsung’s IP68 rating on their devices are highly overrated and does not work reliably. Unless money is not an issue, we say you avoid exposing your electronic device to water to prevent problems. If you’ve already acted foolishly and now having a water damaged device, see our suggestions below.

Before we proceed, we want to remind you that if you are looking for solutions to your own #Android issue, you can contact us by using the link provided at the bottom of this page. When describing your issue, please be as detailed as possible so we can easily pinpoint a relevant solution. If you can, kindly include the exact error messages you are getting to give us an idea where to start. If you have already tried some troubleshooting steps before emailing us, make sure to mention them so we can skip them in our answers.

Problem #1: How to install OTA update for AT&T Galaxy S8

I have a Samsung Galaxy S8 (SM-G950U) that was bought from AT&T. It is now on T-Mobile. BUT it has an old software version from over a year ago, G950USQU1AQJC. I would like to update it to Android 8.0, but as you point out, it will not work on T-Mobile. Calls to Samsung were useless. Clearing Cache did not help. Smart Switch still tells me my software is up to date QJC(ATT) but AT&T’s own website tells me that this version is maybe 6 updates old. The phone is unlocked (obviously.)  I am not comfortable with flashing on the side. What I want to know is IF I go buy an AT&T Pre-paid SIM card and put it in my phone, will the phone eventually (or at least within the 30 days the card is good for) get the OTA from AT&T and do the update? It’s $30 for the pre-paid card, so I want to be sure this will work before spending the money. Everything else has failed. Thank you.

Solution: We haven’t tried it yourself so we can’t give you 100% confirmation if it will work. There’s a good chance that it will though as long as the phone is provisioned properly by AT&T. Since it’s originally from AT&T itself, there’s a good chance that it will receive an update for Android Oreo. Over-the-air updates are managed by an automated system and we don’t know exactly how often AT&T’s system push updates for compatible devices. As long as your phone was in good standing with AT&T and you can use AT&T’s prepaid services without issues, you may be able to OTA update your S8.

If you have a friend who can let you borrow his or her SIM, we suggest that you go that route instead of buying a SIM card. Once you’ve inserted the SIM card, be sure to manually check for updates under Settings > Software update. If that won’t work, wait for 24-48 hours before attempting another check. Some carriers may set a certain period of time that a device has been continuously connected to their network before an update may be paused. Try to talk to an AT&T representative if your phone is still unable to update after the prescribed time period.

Problem #2: What to do if Galaxy S8 keeps saying “moisture detected” and won’t charge

I’m in the military and I’ve been in the field for about two weeks and while I was out there my phone was giving me moisture cant charge for a whole day until it just went to slow charge instead. I’ve tried to see if turning the phone off and charging it would work but that just displays moisture problem and wont let me charge at all. any ideas ?

Solution: If your S8 keeps showing the moisture detected warning, that’s probably because the charging port is wet or has presence of moisture. This is meant to prevent the phone from developing rust or corrosion but also to avoid shorting the motherboard. Corrosion in the charging port or around its vicinity can lead to more serious hardware issues in the long run.

If there was a chance that your S8 may had been wet in the field, we suggest that you do the most obvious thing first: dry the charging port.

Dry the phone

Water deposited in the charging port naturally evaporates on its own after some time but if the charging port has presence of other forms of liquid, you may need to manually clean it. Samsung advise against immersing the device in salt water, ionized water, soapy water, or hot water. If your phone was exposed to any other form of liquid other than fresh water, be sure to rinse it thoroughly in fresh water. Then, dry the phone by wiping it with clean soft cloth and  gently shaking it to dislodge as much residue in the charging port as possible. If there’s any residue remaining in the charging port, the device may refuse to charge.

Avoid sticking anything inside the charging port to avoid damaging metal pins or connectors. You can also try to gently blow into the port to dry it out. Do not use a can of compressed air as that might push moisture inside, even if you think the phone’s water resistance protection is intact.

If none of the above works, or if you’ve already tried them before contacting us, then you’ll need to let Samsung handle the situation. Go to your local Samsung store and have the phone repaired.

Wireless charging

If you wish to turn the phone on so you can back your files up to the cloud, try to charge the phone wirelessly. Your S8’s wireless capability does not need a working charging port so it should work even if the charging port is damaged or wet. Be sure to use an original Samsung wireless charger for this task.

Problem #3: How to fix a Galaxy S8 that has stopped charging

Hey there thanks for your site. I’ve had an issue for several days with my galaxy S8. It stopped charging on my normal original charger. i let it go for about 24 hours, then switched to a 1A charger and it registered charging. That worked but slowly. After i was able to use my rapid charger no problem. Then a few days later i got a few phones calls and put it on and off the charger and bam it stopped charging all together. I did the soft reset, used 4 different bases and 3 different cords. I plugged it into the computer and that worked. i let it charge for 50% until turning it on, in which it stopped charging! Not sure if there’s an easy solution, it won’t link to my computer currently to get my pictures. I just watched a video on changing the battery and that’s extensive. Any help would be great please and thank you!

Solution: We have no way of knowing whether the issue is being caused by a bad battery or by some other hardware failure without physically checking and diagnosing the phone ourselves. We suggest that you do two things instead:

  • wirelessly charge the device, and
  • factory reset it.

Charging your S8 wireless, as pointed out above, is a good way to charge the battery in this situation. Once the phone boots up normally again, you can then start backing up your files to the cloud (if USB connection to computer is not possible). Alternatively, you can move files to your computer wirelessly with the help of third party apps like Shareit or similar.

Factory reset may be a necessary troubleshooting step for you if you want to find out if the issue is being caused by a software bug. We don’t know the full history of your device so we can’t say whether or not software is to blame. If your phone continues to fail to charge by cable after a factory reset, then you can assume that bad hardware must be causing it. To fix the issue, you should send the phone to Samsung.

For reference, these are the steps on how to factory reset your S8:

  1. Turn off the device. This is important. If you can’t turn it off, you’ll never be able to boot to Recovery Mode. If you are not able to shut the device off regularly via the Power button, wait until the phone’s battery is drained. Then, charge the phone for 30 minutes before booting to Recovery Mode.
  2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the green Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
  4. Press the Volume down key several times to highlight ‘wipe data / factory reset’.
  5. Press Power button to select.
  6. Press the Volume down key until ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted.
  7. Press Power button to select and start the master reset.
  8. When the master reset is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
  9. Press the Power key to restart the device.

Problem #4: Galaxy S8 keeps going back to home screen when using apps after phone got wet

My phone got wet. It didn’t seem or look like I had any issues with my phone until I went into one of my apps. It’s letting me in my apps but then it kicks me out & put me back to the front of my phone screen..so I then have to hit the left symbol on the front bottom of my screen & get back into the app I was in. Its upsetting me bc I can’t even text a whole sentence or online shop or text because it’s not letting me stay in the app. I have no clue what to do & I hope you’ve had this type of problem before & that it can easily be corrected. I don’t want the aggravation of having to get another phone & having to re download all my apps..texts..photos..ect. Thank You for your attention into trying to help me solve this upsetting..stressful & frustrating situation!

Solution: The Galaxy S8 is a water resistant device and should offer basic protection against splashes or even a brief, low-pressure dunk in a pool. However, this water resistance protection may be compromised if the phone is physically broken or accidentally dropped before. If your S8 was no longer protected from water exposed before you got it wet, it’s possible that water may have seeped inside and into some parts, causing the problem you’re experiencing right now. We suggest that you let a professional check the phone to see if there’s any moisture or water left in the screen area or in other parts. We don’t think bad software is to blame for this issue so doing some software troubleshooting is pointless. You can, of course, revert all software information to their defaults by doing a factory reset but we doubt if that will make any difference at all.

 

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.

What to do if Galaxy S8 has red tint on screen issue [troubleshooting guide]

The #GalaxyS8 red tint on screen issue has been going on since this device was first released and as far as our knowledge is concerned, Samsung had already addressed it by releasing a patch. What happens is that the screen appears reddish even for no obvious reason. Some users confirm that this is not true for all S8 devices, even if they’re purchased from the same store. Apparently, the problem is not that easy to fix because there are still many S8 devices going around with this issue. In this troubleshooting guide, we give you the steps that you can do to try and fix the problem.

Before we proceed, we want to remind you that if you are looking for solutions to your own #Android issue, you can contact us by using the link provided at the bottom of this page. When describing your issue, please be as detailed as possible so we can easily pinpoint a relevant solution. If you can, kindly include the exact error messages you are getting to give us an idea where to start. If you have already tried some troubleshooting steps before emailing us, make sure to mention them so we can skip them in our answers.

Do a soft reset

Android may be a complicated software platform but a lot of its minor issues are fixed by simply doing a restart. In your case, try to perform a soft reset instead to see if that can fix this issue. Here’s how:

  • Press and hold the volume down button and don’t release it.
  • Then, press and hold the power key while holding down the volume button.
  • Keep both keys held down for 10 seconds or more.

Soft reset has a similar effect to physically removing the battery so it should clear the memory s well as refresh the operating system. If that won’t fix the red tint problem though, continue with the rest of the possible solution options below.

Check display settings

A Galaxy S8 Display settings does not offer much in terms of customizations but it may be worth checking if changing options under this menu will help. There’s no specific option that you want to change here so just try to toggle or change whatever you have there. For example, you can try to change the brightness level first to see if that will make a difference or not. Then you can go ahead and see what happens if you toggle auto-brightness on and off. In a word, you want to adjust all settings under Display menu to hopefully bring the abnormal screen behavior back to its normal state.

Uninstall apps

If the screen on your S8 developed this red tint issue after installing an update or an app, it may be the reason for the current trouble. Try to delete that app from the system and see what happens. Some apps, especially those that offers ways to personalize the display or screen settings, change wallpapers and screensavers can be sources of bugs so be sure to remove them. If you’re lucky, doing so may be an effective way to fix this issue for good.

Check for bad apps

If you have plenty of apps that you install recently or if you’re just not sure if you installed an app recently, there’s another way to check — by restarting your S8 to safe mode. This option offers you a broader way to check if one added apps is problematic. In safe mode, only pre-installed apps will be allowed to run so if one of the apps that you added later is the cause of the problem, it should not occur at all.

To restart your S8 to safe mode, follow these steps:

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

Don’t forget, safe mode is not a solution in itself. If the screen works normally without the red tint only when the device is on safe mode, then you can bet you have an app problem at hand. The next best thing to do now is to identify which of the apps is responsible. To do that, you need to basically do the following steps:

Step 1: Uninstall the first third party app you suspect might be causing the problem

Step 2: restart the phone back to normal mode,

Step 3: check for the problem

Step 4: repeat steps 1-3 if the problem persists.

Install pending system updates

We would like to think that the reason for your problem is a software bug so installing the right system may be the only effective way deal with the problem. The thing is, Samsung does not usually indicate if a particular system update fix certain bugs like the one you’re experiencing right now. The best thing for you to do right now is to simply install any app that comes your way. By default, your S8 should automatically download and install updates for you but if changed this setting, make sure to manually check for new updates by going under Settings > Software update.

Clear cache partition

Usually, clearing the system cache comes first in most Android troubleshooting but if the problem still persist after doing the steps above, make sure that you do it. Android users several partitions in order to store different types of data and information. This scheme is also an efficient way to compartmentalize functions and software environments. Sometimes, update or app installations may corrupt the partition that stores the system cache called cache partition. This can lead to problems so as much as possible, you want to ensure that the cache partition is cleaned regularly. Cache partition only keeps temporary files that Android need to load apps efficiently. By clearing this partition, you are, in effect forcing the device to rebuild the system cache, possibly addressing bugs that may have developed.

In order to wipe the cache partition:

  1. Turn off the device.
  2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Bixby key, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the Android logo displays, release all keys (‘Installing system update’ will show for about 30 – 60 seconds before showing the Android system recovery menu options).
  4. Press the Volume down key to highlight “wipe cache partition.”
  5. Press the Power key to select.
  6. Press the Volume down key to highlight “yes” and 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.

Factory reset

Finally, if the problem is still unresolved after doing all the solution options above, you should not hesitate to return the software back to its defaults. This is often an effective solution for bugs with software-related causes. If you’re lucky and the reason for this red tint issue is due to firmware bug only, factory reset may help you.

To factory reset your S8:

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

Contact Samsung support

So far, many Android users have found out that software solutions did not help fix this red tint issue at all so that only leaves them with one possibility — hardware defect or malfunction. If nothing changed after you’ve exhausted every relevant software solution there is, there’s only one thing that you can do to fix it — repair or replacement via Samsung support. An issue like this will most likely end up with a replacement so make sure to bring the necessary documentation when you go to a Samsung store. If the phone is still under warranty, you’ll most likely end up with a free 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.

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

How to fix Galaxy S8 app not loading issue: “You cannot install this app because another user has already installed an incompatible version on this device.” error

Hello Android fans! One of the common issues that we address today is about the #GalaxyS8 being unable to load an app due to “You cannot install this app because another user has already installed an incompatible version on this device.” error. We also cover some other related issues so hopefully this article will be helpful for those of you who encountered issues on your own S8.

Before we proceed, we want to remind you that if you are looking for solutions to your own #Android issue, you can contact us by using the link provided at the bottom of this page. When describing your issue, please be as detailed as possible so we can easily pinpoint a relevant solution. If you can, kindly include the exact error messages you are getting to give us an idea where to start. If you have already tried some troubleshooting steps before emailing us, make sure to mention them so we can skip them in our answers.

Problem #1: How to fix Galaxy S8 app not loading issue: “You cannot install this app because another user has already installed an incompatible version on this device.” error

Some apps uninstalled after the update. When I try to reinstall the apps they come up with an error message of “You cannot install this app because another user has already installed an incompatible version on this device.” I’ve looked through the settings on my phone with no luck of finding any trace of them, so now I can’t reinstall them.

Solution: The error “You cannot install this app because another user has already installed an incompatible version on this device.” is weird since Samsung devices don’t support multiple users anymore at this time. It’s possible that the problem is due to the fact that the directory where the app was previously located may have moved. For example, some users in the past reported this error after moving apps from internal memory to SD card. If you have an SD card in your phone, try to see if the app you’re having an issue with was relocated by mistake. If it did, make sure delete it from the SD card, or remove (uninstall) it entirely from the phone, then install it again.

Clear data of Google Services Framework

Another troubleshooting step that you can try is to ensure that there’s nothing wrong with Google Play Store app and other Google-related services and apps. To do that, you want to clear your device’s Google Services Framework app. Here’s how:

  1. Open Settings app.
  2. Tap Apps.
  3. Tap on More settings at the upper right (three-dot icon).
  4. Select Show system apps.
  5. Find and tap Google Services Framework app.
  6. Tap Storage.
  7. Tap Clear Data button.
  8. Restart your S8 and check for the problem.

Reformat SD card

As pointed out above, it’s possible that the app may have moved to the SD card and Android is unable to locate it when trying to launch it. Since there’s no way to know this for sure, you might as well make sure that you clean the SD card so Android will be forced to scan the internal memory and look for directories there. This may clear the bug causing the problem.

To reformat an SD card:

  1. Open the Apps menu.
  2. Then tap Settings.
  3. Scroll to and tap Storage.
  4. Tap Format SD card.
  5. Read and review the warning message then tap Format SD card again. If this option is not enabled, you’ll need to Unmount the SD card first.
  6. Then tap Delete All to confirm SD card formatting.

Reset app preferences

The app you’re trying to open up may not be working properly because of missing or disabled default app/s. See to it that your device’s default apps are enabled to minimize issues. Here’s how:

  1. Open Settings app.
  2. Tap Apps.
  3. Tap on More settings at the upper right (three-dot icon).
  4. Select Reset app preferences.
  5. Restart your S8and check for the problem.

Factory reset

If the issue remains at this point, you should also do a factory reset. Be sure to back your files up before doing it.

To factory reset:

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

Contact app developer

If you’re having an issue with a single app only, the cause may be coding related. Make sure that you let the app’s developer know about the problem so they can look into it.

Problem #2: What to do if your Galaxy S8 encounters performance issue with a game app

We have been playing a game called Munzee via app. It uses location, camera, contacts, and storage in the phone. The app basically has two activities, physical and virtual munzees. By the way, physical munzees are QR codes. The physical munzees capture great 1-2 second. The virtual munzees are the problem. These are munzees that appear on the map and don’t exists in a physical form but you must be within so many feet to capture them. With my old phone (LG Aristo) it would process the virtual munzee in 1-2 seconds. With the new S8, it takes 6-15 seconds. I have turned off all of the background apps. I have even did a factory reset and only installed the Munzee app but no difference. The specs for the S8 are far superior to the Aristo, but the Aristo way out performs the new S8. I have checked and there are no updates for the app or phone. I have opened developer options and changed Window animation scale to .5x, Transition animation scale to .5x, and Animator duration scale to .5x. This did help to reduce the capture time to 6-8 seconds, but that is still too long when you need to capture a lot of Munzees.

Please don’t suggest to find another hobby…we addicted and have fun doing it. I will also mention that all of the other apps work very fast and absolutely no problems. I contacted Samsung and they suggested stopping background apps and check for updates and check with the developer. We have done that. We have had to resort to making the S8 at hotspot and capture with the old phone. Not ideal but a temporary fix. I have contacted the developer…”they are looking into it”. Any suggestion would be appreciated.

Solution: Your problem is app-specific, which means that the solution can most likely be provided by the developer. There’s nothing that you can do on your phone to enhance its current performance. Unless you’ve intentionally slowed it down before by using your phone’s Power Saving Modes, improving the default performance of your S8 is out of the question. We’re not even sure if the issue lies on your phone’s CPU capacity at all. There’s a chance that the app or game is not properly optimized to work with your current phone. You must ask the game’s developer because only them has the right answers. Samsung, Google, or any third party support teams like us do not have intimate knowledge how the game is supposed to work and whether or not it can be improved on this device.

Problem #3: Galaxy S8 Weather Forecast app not working properly

Hi. This is a new issue for a Samsung Galaxy S8. A particular app, ‘weather forecast’ has been working fine until a week ago. Now, it will give my location and weather as it is ‘right now’, but when tapping to go to the forecast (use to give forecast for 5 days ahead), it requests my location (it use to know this automatically).  When I type in my location, it just continually searches for that location.. and never finds it (the same location it gives me the right now forecast for). How can I fix this issue? Thanks.

Solution: First, you want to check if there is any available update for this app. Bugs are fixed by app developers via updates only. If many people are having the same experience as you, they must have already reported the issue to the developer and an update with a fix may already be out.

If the app has already been updated before contacting us, then try to see if deleting its data will help. Doing so will revert the app to its factory state. In many cases, such a step can fix most app issues. Refer to the steps above on how to clear an app’s data.

Problem #4: What to do if Galaxy S8 is unable to install Android update

Hi. My name is Peter. Currently residing in Turkey. Approximately a year ago, I bought my Samsung S8+ from Dubai. But since then I can’t update my phone to the latest version of Android which is Android 8. When I try to manually download it from settings, it says that the phone is up to date. Could you please tell me what is wrong with my phone and how can I update it. The characteristics of the phone are as follows: Model: SM-G955U Product code: SM-G955UZKAXAA PDA: G955USQS1AQF7 CSC: G955UOYN1AQF7 Baseband: G955USQS1AQF7 Bootloader: G955USQS1AQF7 Android version: 7.0 Best regards.

Solution: If you have a carrier-branded phone, which means it was originally built to work in a certain network operator in Dubai, then you won’t be able to update it via OTA (over-the-air). Carriers modify vanilla Android in order to add their own services and make it their “own.” In other words, each carrier firmware is “unique” to a certain degree  and so not compatible with a different carrier. Simply put, you won’t be able to install a firmware of Turkish network in your Dubai carrier-branded device.

If you’re dying to get Android Oreo experience on your Galaxy S8, you can manually update it via flashing. Use Google to look for the correct flashing guide for your particular phone model. \

Don’t forget: flashing is risky and only recommended for advanced Android users. Take extra care when doing it to avoid bricking the phone. And do it at your own risk.

 

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 fix a Galaxy S8 when Airplane Mode is stuck or won’t turn off [troubleshooting guide]

How’s everyone doing? Today’s troubleshooting guide will talk about an emerging issue we’ve come across the web — #GalaxyS8 with stuck Airplane Mode. We also answer one weird issue regarding Galaxy S8 Phone app having a green Call button everytime a user dials. We hope that you’ll find our solutions helpful.

Before we proceed, we want to remind you that if you are looking for solutions to your own #Android issue, you can contact us by using the link provided at the bottom of this page. When describing your issue, please be as detailed as possible so we can easily pinpoint a relevant solution. If you can, kindly include the exact error messages you are getting to give us an idea where to start. If you have already tried some troubleshooting steps before emailing us, make sure to mention them so we can skip them in our answers.

Problem #1: How to fix a Galaxy S8 when Airplane Mode is stuck or won’t turn off

My Airplane Mode is switched to off and is not displaying on screen but is stuck to “on”. I have manually switched on and off and it still stays on. Phone shows a circle with a slash through it where signal bar should be. Network reset does not help. I can send pictures if you need. AT&T has not been able to help me with this problem and Samsung wants me to send my phone back but I’d rather try other avenues first if there is a way I can fix it myself. — Amber Hobaugh

Solution: Hi Amber. We don’t know what troubleshooting steps and solutions you’ve tried already so we don’t know if our suggestions below will help. For the sake of others who may still be wondering what to do at this time, below are four of the common solutions an Android user can do if a core Android feature like Airplane Mode is acting up.

Solution #1: Force Restart

This is a basic potential solution that usually works with almost all minor software glitches. It’s possible that there may be a software bug causing Airplane Mode to stop responding. If this bug is minor and tied to the current session of the operating system, restarting the phone might help. Here’s what you need to do:

  1. Press and hold the Power + Volume Down buttons for approximately 10 seconds or until the device power cycles. Allow several seconds for the Maintenance Boot Mode screen to appear.
  2. From the Maintenance Boot Mode screen, select Normal Boot. You can use the volume buttons to cycle through the available options and the lower left button (below the volume buttons) to select. Wait for up to 90 seconds for the reset to complete.

Solution #2: Check in safe mode

As long as you use apps, there will always be a chance that one of them can cause problems. In line with this thinking, it’s good if you can try to see if one of your apps (third party) may be the reason for the issue. To do that, you want to restart your phone to safe mode. In this mode, all of your third party apps and services will be blocked, only allowing pre-installed ones to run. So, if your phone and/or Airplane Mode work normally on safe mode (but not on normal mode), you got yourself an app problem. That means that one of your apps must be interfering with Android.

To restart your phone to safe mode:

  1. Turn the device off.
  2. Press and hold the Power key past the model name screen.
  3. When “SAMSUNG” appears on the screen, release the Power key.
  4. Immediately after releasing the Power key, press and hold the Volume down key.
  5. Continue to hold the Volume down key until the device finishes restarting.
  6. Safe mode will display in the bottom left corner of the screen.
  7. Release the Volume down key when you see Safe Mode.
  8. Now, let your phone run in safe mode and check for the problem. If your S8 works normally, you can bet one of your apps must be to blame.

To identify which of your apps is causing the trouble, you should boot the phone back to safe mode and follow these steps:

  1. Boot to safe mode.
  2. Check for the problem.
  3. Once you’ve confirmed that a third party app is to blame, you can start uninstalling apps individually. We suggest that you begin with the most recent ones you added.
  4. After you uninstall an app, restart the phone to normal mode and check for the problem.
  5. If your S8 is still problematic, repeat steps 1-4.

Solution #3: Reset all settings

If there’s no change to your phone when it’s on safe mode and the issue remains at this point, another effective way to fix the issue is to reset your device’s settings. Here’s how you do it:

  1. Open Settings app.
  2. Tap General management.
  3. Tap Reset.
  4. Tap Reset settings.
  5. Tap RESET SETTINGS button to confirm.
  6. Restart your S8 and check for the problem.

The steps above will reset all settings and return the default apps to their factory state. This will clear all network settings so you’ll also lose all wifi credentials as well. You will need to re-enter wifi passwords after this procedure. If you are using a VPN, you’ll have to reenter all information to set it up again.

Solution #4: Factory reset

If Airplane Mode is still stuck at this point, the best possible solution that you can try is factory reset. This will ensure that all software settings are reverted to their factory state. Factory reset is an effective way to eliminate almost any form of glitches caused by a software bug. If the reason why Airplane Mode won’t turn off is due to a software bug, factory reset should take care of the problem.

Before you wipe your phone, be sure to back important user data. If you don’t use cloud services to back your files up, we suggest that you try Samsung Smart Switch. This will allow you to create an image of your phone. If you haven’t heard of Smart Switch before, make sure to visit this page: How to create backup from Samsung device to your computer via Smart Switch.

Once you’ve created a backup, follow these steps to factory reset your S8:

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

Problem #2: Galaxy S8 keeps showing a green Call button when trying to dial

Recently when I initiate a call by pressing the green button it gives me a bar across the screen with the word Call in it. See screen shot. I have to restart and then I can place the call. Sometimes after restarting the same message occurs and I can’t make the call.Screen Shot. — Anthony Duplessis

Solution: Hi Anthony. This may be an issue with the phone app you’re using. Try to clear its cache and data first to see what happens. Here’s how to do it:

  1. Open Settings app.
  2. Tap Apps.
  3. Tap on More settings at the upper right (three-dot icon).
  4. Select Show system apps.
  5. Find and tap your Phone app.
  6. Tap Storage.
  7. Tap Clear Cache button.
  8. Restart your S9 and check for the problem.

Should wiping the Phone app’s cache won’t help, repeat steps 1-6 and clear its data.

There are other factors that can lead to the problem you’re experiencing right now but since we know nothing about your phone’s history, we can only suggest the generic troubleshooting and solutions.

It’s possible that a third party app may be the reason for your issue too so you can also observe your S8 on safe mode, just like what we tell  Amber above and see how it goes.

Samsung Phone app is mostly stable and we rarely hear issues with it. If it continues to behave the same way it does right now when your S8 is on safe mode, there may be a software bug causing it. Make sure that you also factory reset the device to get rid of any software bug. Refer to the steps above on how to do it.

 

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