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What to do if your new Samsung Galaxy Note 9 starts to keep freezing and lagging?

ByHarold Hisona

Freezes and lags are very common performance issues you may encounter when you own a smartphone. These issues happened to Galaxy S9 and Note 8 (and owners of earlier Galaxy devices) owners and they may also happen to your new Samsung Galaxy Note 9. These problems often go together and most of the time you may notice your phone lagging before it freezes for a few seconds. Sometimes it’s the other way around but no matter the symptoms are, the problem is the same and you can do something about it.

In fact, we’ve already helped many of our readers who contacted us regarding these issues. In this post, I will walk you through in troubleshooting your new powerful device that’s plagued by these problems. We will try to consider every possibility and rule them out one by one until we can determine what the issue is and know what to do about it. So, if you’re one of the owners of the new Galaxy Note 9 and are already having these problems, continue reading as this article may be able to help you one way or another.

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Now, before anything else, if you have other issues with your phone, make sure you drop by our troubleshooting page for we have already provided solutions to hundreds of problems reported by our readers. Odds are that we may have already provided a solution to the problem you currently have so try to find issues that are similar with yours on that page and feel free to use the solutions we suggested. If they don’t work or if you need further assistance, fill up our Android issues questionnaire and hit submit to contact us.

How to troubleshoot Galaxy Note 9 that keeps on freezing and lagging

When a powerful device like the Galaxy Note 9 starts to freeze and lag, don’t worry too much as there’s always something you can do about it. Based on our experiences, these problems are pretty minor and here’s what you should do about them:

First solution: Reboot your Note 9 in Safe Mode

There are times when applications cause your phone to freeze and lag especially CPU intensive games. We are not quite sure if the freezes and lags with your Note 9 is caused by apps and if they are, we don’t also know if those apps are pre-installed or third party. So, run your phone in safe mode to temporarily disable all third-party apps and here’s how you do it:

  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.

Continue your observation to know if the freezes and lags disappeared while your phone is in safe mode. Assuming your phone works perfectly while in this mode, it means that there’s a third-party application that’s causing the problem. Reboot your phone in normal mode after this and it should run properly after that. However, the freezes and lags may occur again after a few days or after using apps. So, be observant enough what apps cause the problem as you can fix it by knowing the cause.

However, if the freezes and lags still occur even in safe mode, then it could mean that the problem is with the firmware. In this case, you have to do the proceeding procedures.

Second solution: Delete system cache

Firmware issues may occur from time to time and more often than not, the result will be characterized by poor performance like sluggishness, freezes, lags and even random reboots. This could be the case with your Note 9 especially if you recently received an update to the firmware. To rule out this possibility, this is what you’re going to do:

  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 three keys.
  4. An ‘Installing system update’ message will show for 30 – 60 seconds before the Android system recovery menu options appear.
  5. Press the Volume down key several times to highlight wipe cache partition.
  6. Press Power key to select.
  7. Press the Volume down key to highlight yes, them and press the Power key to select.
  8. When the wipe cache partition is complete, Reboot system now is highlighted.
  9. Press the Power key to restart the device.

After wiping the cache partition, observe your phone closely to know if the freezes and lags remained. If the problem hasn’t been fixed, then you have to move on to the next procedure.

Third solution: Backup files and reset your Note 9

App and firmware issues can be fixed by a Factory or Master Reset. This is going to be your last resort and it’s more likely to fix this problem since we’re not clearly dealing with a hardware issue here. So, take time to backup your files and data especially ones that are stored in your phone’s internal storage. I know it would be a pain to backup files especially if your phone is slow or keeps on freezing and lagging but do your best as you may lose some important files.

There are two ways to reset your phone and it’s up to you which one to use. Remember, both have the same effectiveness.

Factory Reset (through Settings menu)

  1. Back up data on the internal memory. If you have signed into a Samsung account on the device, you have activated Anti-theft and will need your Samsung 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 > Backup and restore.
  4. Tap the following sliders to desired setting:
    • Back up my data
    • Automatic restore
  5. Tap the Back key (bottom right) until you reach the main Settings menu.
  6. Tap General Management > Reset > Factory data reset.
  7. Scroll to the bottom of the screen, then tap RESET > DELETE ALL.
  8. If you have screen lock turned on, enter your credentials.
  9. If prompted to verify your Samsung account, enter the password, then tap CONFIRM.
  10. Wait for the device to reset.

Master Reset (through hardware keys)

  1. Back up data on the internal memory. If you have signed into a Samsung account on the device, you have activated Anti-theft and will need your Samsung 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 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.

Should the problem continue to bug you after these procedures, bring the phone back to the store so a Samsung tech can re-flash or reinstall the firmware for you.

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