Help - Pie bricked my phone

[Luke2080]

I got the update to Android 9.0 (pie) like a week ago. Haven't had issues.

Last night, my phone was on the charger over night (turbo charger). This morning, it will not turn on.

I plugged it back in, and the camera flash on the back flashed quickly, but that's it. I tried to do a reset of the phone (held down the stupid bixby button, volume down, and power - that is the right step, right?) and nothing.

Trying a different (non-turbo) charger now. But, what can I do? Has anyone seen this?

 

[Luke2080]

It is in the section, but my phone is a Galaxy S8.

 

[Hadron]

If the phone has worked for a week it's quite likely that this failure is nothing to do with the update. Indeed it could well be a hardware failure.

Can you get any response at all? If you cannot boot it at all, even into recovery, bootloader or download mode, then the only thing you can do is take it in for repair.

(One thing to check: is it really not booting or is the screen dead?).

 

[Luke2080]

Wasn't booting at all. On a USB cord trying to charge, a soft reset gave me some blue screen that gave me an option to press volume up and download a new OS, or press down to cancel and restart. I obviously press down, then back to black screen, no booting.

At work on my wireless charger, it starts to charge, but keeps cycling at the boot screen, and back off.

Seeing a lot online of charging issues post Pie update. I just can't find the right resources to help me resolve. A co-worker said her husbands phone had the same issue, and only charges on wireless post update. So, interesting...testing that.

 

[Hadron]

I'm not a Samsung expert, but that sounds like "download mode" (which plays a similar role to "fastboot mode" on many other phones).

So it's not completely dead, since your "soft reset" produced a response ("soft reset" a forced restart, e.g. by pressing and holding power? I'm never quite sure that people use these terms in a consistent way, so like to check). Nor is it completely out of power: phones always draw their power from the battery, so if the battery is dead it won't boot even if plugged in.

See if it charges wirelessly, though if it worked normally for a week it's very odd for something to start now, and as the firmware won't change a week after an update if it is related to that it must be something in your data that's not playing well with it. If you can get it charged sufficiently to get it into recovery mode you could try erasing the system cache, just in case. Factory reset is another possibility, though more of a pain (but bootlooping often requires that). Maybe try charging with it just turned off, until it can develop enough charge, but this combination of other symptoms (bootloops, going into download mode) sounds like more than a charging problem to me.

The final resort would be to try reflashing the phone, but I'd much prefer it to be properly charged before attempting that (you don't want to lose power part way through that operation).

 

[lunatic59]

held down the stupid bixby button, volume down, and power - that is the right step, right?

On other Samsung phones (I don't have an S8) that will take you to download, or Odin mode. To get into recovery it's Bixby + volume UP + power. You also might want to force a complete shutdown (simulated battery pull.) That would be volume down + power and hold for up to 45 seconds.