• After 15+ years, we've made a big change: Android Forums is now Early Bird Club. Learn more here.

My S8 keeps freezing randomly

M

Missfit396

Lurker
I bought my S8 in May and have had no issues until a couple weeks ago when it started freezing every other day or so. The first time it froze on a home screen I took it to U S Cellular. They restarted it by holding volume down and the power button simultaneously for 7 seconds. Since then it freezes at random times but never when I'm actually using it. It was froze this morning when I woke up. I am technology challenged and know this problem could be caused by any number of things. I looked but couldn't find any similar threads. I really need some help and ideas to solve this freezing issue. Thanks!
 
Ok.. if it was my device, this is what I would do.

1) Make sure I have a backup of all of my photos, videos, documents, etc.. that I have on the device.

2) Make a list of all of the apps that I have that I care enough about to want to restore.

3) remove my SD card, if i've put one in

Once I've done that, I'd

4) Factory reset the device.... and set it up again. If during the setup process I'm offered the chance to restore my apps... I'm going to say no. And have my phone with just my contacts (from my gmail account, and email etc)

5) now.. I'm not going to install any other apps.. I'll use the device for a few days and see if it locks up.... If it does, and I'm only using the things that were on the device, I can throw it back to the vendor, and they can either swap it or repair under warranty (depending on how long i've had it)


6) If its working fine... then i'll put the SD card back in.. and see if the problem doesn't come back... if it does then i'll blame the SD card and replace that.

7) If it is still working fine, i'll re install all of the apps, one by one... with plenty of time between them till i find out which one is the cause.

8) if I have everything back and working.. and it hasn't frozen again, I'll chalk it up to one of life's little unsolved mysteries... but at least i'll have a working phone again.
 
The first thing I'd try is clearing cache. Turn off your phone. Then press the power, volume up and bixy button together. It seems awkward to hit all three at first but turn your phone so the power button's pointing down and you should be good. It's been a long time since I've used the stock recovery but I'd assume the volume up and down still goes through the options and power selects them. Select the clear cache option then reboot and see if that helps.
 
If that doesn't work then boot into safe mode and see if your phone still freezes. If it doesn't then it's most likely down to an app you've installed. If you can remember installing an app shortly before the problems started try uninstalling that and see what happens. If you can't remember which it'll be a bit of trial and error but you should get there :)
 
Shotgun84 said:
If that doesn't work then boot into safe mode and see if your phone still freezes. If it doesn't then it's most likely down to an app you've installed. If you can remember installing an app shortly before the problems started try uninstalling that and see what happens. If you can't remember which it'll be a bit of trial and error but you should get there :)
Click to expand...


OK.. Good point... one I'd completely forgotten..

I'd throw Safe mode in at step 2.5 (in my list above) and run with it till it hung/i was convinced it wasn't hanging...

If it hangs there,,, i'd be getting ready to visit the store.. but would probably still run through the rest of the plan.

If it doesn't hang there... i'd be getting ready to blame an app (or possibly the dodgy SD card)
 
Sorry I should've said. To get into safe mode, turn off your phone, then hold the power button, you should see the Samsung Galaxy s8 screen, as soon as that disappears let go of the power button and hold volume down until your phone starts. All your downloaded apps will now be greyed out as they aren't active at this moment. So if your phone works fine it's one of them. Just restart your phone to get back into normal mode and then you can go from there :)
 
psionandy said:
OK.. Good point... one I'd completely forgotten..

I'd throw Safe mode in at step 2.5 (in my list above) and run with it till it hung/i was convinced it wasn't hanging...

If it hangs there,,, i'd be getting ready to visit the store.. but would probably still run through the rest of the plan.

If it doesn't hang there... i'd be getting ready to blame an app (or possibly the dodgy SD card)
Click to expand...

Wasn't disagreeing with you you, we were just typing at the same time. We're all here to help so hopefully we have:)
 
Shotgun84 said:
Wasn't disagreeing with you you, we were just typing at the same time. We're all here to help so hopefully we have:)
Click to expand...

Absolutely... I agree with you as well... no disagreement here.

Cache cleaning step... I probably wouldn't have... but can see why you might... as its a little bit tricky for new users.. but It might solve the problem. Maybe I'd slot that in at step 2.4... if it does work, its an easy win.


my little list, is just my little list... it would take a while to work through.. and there are other ways of tackling the problem.. Its just what I'd do if it was me.. (use it if its helpful, ignore it if it's not ;) )


Anyway, we all hope you get this sorted out soon :)
 
psionandy said:
Absolutely... I agree with you as well... no disagreement here.

Cache cleaning step... I probably wouldn't have... but can see why you might... as its a little bit tricky for new users.. but It might solve the problem. Maybe I'd slot that in at step 2.4... if it does work, its an easy win.


my little list, is just my little list... it would take a while to work through.. and there are other ways of tackling the problem.. Its just what I'd do if it was me.. (use it if its helpful, ignore it if it's not ;) )


Anyway, we all hope you get this sorted out soon :)
Click to expand...

Don't worry it was helpful :D
 
Thank you everyone for the ideas on how to stop my phone from freezing. I'm going to try your suggestions and also look back to see if I can figure out what app I might have downloaded around the time my problem started. I appreciate your help.
 
I would try what the Shotgun said , the clear cache on recovery..BUT!!, mix it with the dalvik cache format..one after the other..then reboot your phone..those two together are like having a Jack & Coke WITH alcazelhzer..I've discovered the power of those two together since a while ago..it will purge your phone straight out..frogs and snakes will come out..
 
Why not try going to google play -------my apps & games-------installed. from there go back 2 weeks or so and uninstall all the updates or anything you might have installed from when it started, plus turn off auto update. If it still happens it can't be anything installed around that time period.
 
fecallacies said:
Why not try going to google play -------my apps & games-------installed. from there go back 2 weeks or so and uninstall all the updates or anything you might have installed from when it started, plus turn off auto update. If it still happens it can't be anything installed around that time period.
Click to expand...


Sorry to bring up such an old post, but I am really perplexed. Also sorry it's a little long... but I'd really like to know if this would potentially work? This is the next step I was going to try. The problem is, my phone won't come on at all right now and I believe it is because of a password app I downloaded recently and I was trying to set up. Not only did I have a bunch of difficulties getting it set up, within a few days my phone shut off in my pocket. It has never had a problem before this and had never shut off. I couldn't get it to restart with anything I tried. I did get it started again by combining a few of the suggestions I had seen on several websites.

The key is when the phone is off and won't restart, you have to press the power button, the volume up, and the Bixby button at the same time and hold them until the phone vibrates and restarts. It was a restart, not a reset. That was the best part of the whole situation. I didn't want to lose all of my phone info.

After getting restarted, and having no idea why it had shut down in the first place, I worked on my phone as always. One of those things was to disable the Bixby button. Another was to keep trying to keep setting up the password app. Within a day, the phone shut down. Since I disabled the Bixby button, I can't use the same trick to get my phone started.

Does anyone have a way to get my S8 phone started again? I would also really like to know about removing the most recently downloaded programs from Google Play Store if that will possibly help keep it from happening again.

Thanks for any help!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom