What to do if Galaxy J7 Prime is stuck, frozen, unresponsive, or randomly reboots [troubleshooting guide]

Like the current Samsung top phones at this time, the Galaxy J7 Prime (#GalaxyJ7Prime) has a non-removable battery pack so it can be frustrating if the device becomes unresponsive, just like what one user has described below. This troubleshooting guide provides the steps that you can take if you encounter the same problem.

Problem #1: What to do if Galaxy J7 Prime is stuck, frozen, or unresponsive

I’m using Samsung Galaxy J7 Prime. while playing Mobile Legends on my device for about 4mins, my phone suddenly stop working. I’ve waited for like for 3hrs or so, yet still i cant use it. i cannot access the recovery mode, etc. etc., i have read in your page. it wont turn on or even shutdown. my device is totally idle. the map of the game i’ve been playing is still there, it’s frozen. TOTALLY. pls help. i don’t wanna lose all my files stored in my phone. — May

Solution: Hi May. If the phone has frozen or has become unresponsive, trying to boot it to Recovery Mode should not be the first thing that you need to do. In order to boot to Recovery, you must turn the phone off. This is a requirement. Pressing the hardware button combinations to go to Recovery without turning the phone first would be useless.

We don’t know which of our J7 articles you’ve read but in cases like this, we always recommend that you try to force reboot the device first. Unless you can power down the phone, any other attempt to reboot your J7 Prime would fail. Below are the order of things that you need to do to find out if the issue is fixable on your end.

Step #1: Force reboot

If you are unable to restart your J7 Prime regularly by pressing the Power button and selecting Restart option from the menu, then you need to reboot it via another way. This process is called force reboot and involves pressing a combination of hardware buttons. Follow the steps below 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. You can use 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.

Force reboot is an important troubleshooting step in your situation and should determine the rest of the troubleshooting steps that follows.

If your Galaxy J7 Prime won’t respond at all and stays in its current state, it means your device has to be sent to Samsung for possible hardware trouble.

If your J7 Prime reboots after following the steps above but won’t continue to load Android like it should (stuck in Samsung logo screen), it’s possible that there’s an on-going operating system issue. You may be able to fix the problem by flashing stock firmware. If you want to go this route, make sure that you follow a good flashing guide. You can visit other websites for such guides.

Step #2: Let the phone drain its battery

Another route to follow should your J7 Prime fail to reboot is to see what happens when you reboot it to Recovery Mode. As mentioned above though, you won’t be able to run your device to Recovery Mode if you can’t power it down first. If you’ve already exhausted all steps to turn off the device and nothing worked, you can just wait for it to drain the battery to zero. Depending on the remaining battery level, this waiting process can last for a few hours to days.

Step #3: Charge the phone

Once the phone is off, make sure to charge it for at least 1 hour using a known working charger before you attempt to power it back on. If it doesn’t power on normally after that, proceed to the next step.

Step #4: Reboot to alternate boot modes

There are three other boot modes that you can run your J7 Prime to — Safe Mode, Recovery Mode, and Download or Odin Mode.

Below are the steps on how to do each of them:

How to boot your J7 Prime to Safe Mode:

  1. Turn the device off.
  2. Press and hold the Power key past the screen with the device name.
  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’.

How to boot your J7 Prime to Recovery Mode:

  1. Turn off the device.
  2. Press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the device logo screen displays, release only 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).

How to boot your J7 Prime to Download Mode:

  1. Turn off the device.
  2. Press and hold the Volume Down key and the Home key, then press and hold the Power key.
  3. When the device logo screen displays, release only the Power key.

Each of these alternate boot modes are usually not designed for use by an average Android user as they are primarily for use by technicians. In other words, they’re only meant to be used to troubleshoot the device by a trained person. In reality though, any Android user can use them to fix problems. Everyone of these modes has its  own purpose. For example, safe mode is used to determine if a downloaded or third party app is problematic, while Recovery Mode can be used to wipe the phone by doing a factory reset (master reset). These modes do not need Android in order to run as they’re separate software environments. If your J7 Prime won’t be able to reboot normally, it’s possible that it may have encountered a software problem. To fix it, you should try a series of troubleshooting steps such as wipe its cache partitio or factory reset via Recovery Mode. At other times, a software issue may only be fixed by flashing the firmware. Unfortunately, factory reset or flashing will wipe your phone. If these are the only two solutions left for you to do, you’re out of luck.

Problem #2: How to fix Galaxy J7 Prime shutting down by itself all the time

Hi. For the last few weeks i have problem with my Galaxy J7 Prime. It’s shutting down by itself all the time. Same thing is happening when phone is plugged in or when in safe mode (just not that often). When the problem started first it was also draining battery. It could be 100% and after restarting it was showing 0 but now it can turn off with 50% and after it turn on again its still 50%. — Joanna

Solution: Hi Joanna. The first troubleshooting step that you want to do is to calibrate the battery and Android. This is to help retrain the operating system in getting accurate battery readings. Sometimes, Android may get incorrect battery level causing the device to shut down on its own. This does not necessarily mean that the battery is bad. In some cases, it’s an indication that there’s a software bug sending incorrect data to the OS. To fix it, you need to recalibrate the battery. Here’s how:

  1. Drain the battery completely. This means using your device until it powers down by its own and the battery level reads 0%.
  2. Charge the phone until it reaches 100%. Be sure to use original charging equipment for your device and let it charge up completely. Do not unplug your device for at least two more hours and also don’t use it while charging.
  3. After the elapsed time, unplug your device.
  4. Restart your J7 Prime.
  5. Use your phone until it completely runs out of power again.
  6. Repeat steps 1-5 one more time.

Should nothing change after calibrating the battery and Android, you can then try a master reset to wipe the phone. This should help you determine if your J7 has a software problem, or if it needs fix from a professional. Here are the steps to factory reset your J7 Prime:

  1. Make 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.

Once you’ve factory reset the device, let it run for 24 hours without additional apps. If it continues to reboot on its own, then the problem is hardware in nature. It can be a battery issue or a motherboard issue. Either of this scenarios means repair so be sure to let Samsung fix your device for you.


TheDroidGuy Mailbag

🛠️If you have questions, check our Help section for details on how to submit your questions.💡


Posts You Might Like

Leave a Comment