Database Users

Constant Phone/Touchwiz reboots - help if you can

Hello everyone, I've got an interesting problem that I want the experts here at XDA to help me troubleshoot. Feel free to ask questions as I know there's probably a million variables at this point with stuff installed, uninstalled, gps, root, task killers, etc.
alrighty with that said, I did the e-wrecked gps fix (changing the operation mode and server location+port). That seems to work great in terms of time to lock on my position as well as improved accuracy. Over the next couple of days I noticed some really choppy and lengthy phone start ups after the fix.
Eventually it got to (and currently is at) a point where it kept rebooting the phone, or at least touchwiz. It would load up, scan media, search for the network, do all the start up stuff, then lock up, and turn the screen off. Hitting the lock button/power button does nothing while it resets itself. Then it resets to the lock screen, the screen lights up and it goes into "searching" for the tmo network while doing the storage preparations, and other boot up stuff. It does not restart from cold (with the vibrant, tmo, and galaxy animations, only the lock screen and OS boot process)
Anyone else got any funky restarts going on, for whatever reason? I basically want to start seeing what would trigger this behavior. I started uninstalling stuff one by one trying to figure out why its doing that but sometimes it boots up fine, sometimes it boots but doesn't ever find tmo's network, and sometimes it just does the above.
Observations:
1. It will always boot up fine if the SIM card is out.
2. The last time it did it was today while I was at work, listening to music while the phone was charging. Im noticing that the phone gets pretty hot while charging and really hot if you're using while its charging (getting apps, surfing the web, playing games, etc)
So any thoughts from the tech gurus here? anyone have similar behavior in the past on other phones? is the heat affecting the sim card negatively? I can (and have) put my simcard back in my treo 680 backup phone with no issues whatsoever.

New observation, it consistently does the reset process as soon as the "Adjust Time and Date" as it registers/syncs with the network.
UPDATE: so, i did some research, ended up at the setCPU thread and saw that when set to OnDemand some people's phones experienced similar tendencies. Problem is, mine was already set to auto-detect and "Conservative". I un-checked start at boot, and tried again. Same problem. I uninstalled setCPU completely and my phone appears to be back to normal.
I'll update again if anything changes.

so one of the things that i removed during my troubleshooting was my corporate exchange account. When i added it back. it did its initial sync fine and gave me my calendar and contacts. I then rebooted and the problem came back.
I removed the account and rebooted. it went through two cycles of the restarts and on the third one, it worked. I left it alone after that.
I then was showing my friend some things (browser differences) and had 3 browsers open. It froze as i went to close Dolphin HD. Rebooted and now its back to the cycle.

Mine did this also. Installed several apps, woke up to find a slow phone. Resets galore. A quick reset to defaults and app restore fixed it, sans setcpu of course.
From XDA App on SGS-Vibrant

my phone resets itself also as described above, but not really doing anything in particular. i dont have a whole lot of apps installed. i even was using google maps the other day and after it started up the screen went black and the device was unresponsive until the screen came back and it said searching and the media scanner was running.

well first off thanks for responding lol. i thought i was by myself out here.
secondly, i found that if i leave it alone and let it go through its cycle, it does eventually boot up ok (this is recently, before, it was endless). i havent restarted my phone (im afraid to lol) since it did it on its own yesterday (showing my friend the browsers).
since yesterday, i've used it for navigation (motonav), serveral installs, downloaded podcasts, rss feeds, etc and its been ok (even while charging and wifi on). again, havent actually restarted it since yesterday because its actually functioning for once.
Lastly, i unchecked the auto update time and date from network in the settings just to see if that makes a difference because based on previous expereience that is the point where it freezes and resets. Thanks for chiming in and let me know if there's any other advice you have

I'd suggest a reset as mentioned above.

Been checking out this site for awhile but this is my first time posting, today my phone started to have this problem and it just bootloops touchwiz if i have a simcard in the phone.
It works fine without a simcard but my problem is it will not let me turn of auto update of time and date, i have tried disabling this setting and it just enables itself again. I have also noticed that if I started messing around with time and date settings even without a sim touchwiz reloads once. I guess im gonna give a reset a go.

martin0641 said:
Mine did this also. Installed several apps, woke up to find a slow phone. Resets galore. A quick reset to defaults and app restore fixed it, sans setcpu of course.
From XDA App on SGS-Vibrant
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
heygrl said:
I'd suggest a reset as mentioned above.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sorry, noob question (i came from winmo and a touch pro 2), what does "a quick reset to defaults" mean? is that like a factory wipe i.e. phone will be brand new again, gotta root again and reinstall everything, change settings, etc?

jblade1000 said:
sorry, noob question (i came from winmo and a touch pro 2), what does "a quick reset to defaults" mean? is that like a factory wipe i.e. phone will be brand new again, gotta root again and reinstall everything, change settings, etc?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Root will stick but settings and apps/app data will be gone. It briefs you on what is and isn't lost when you do a factory reset.

Smae problem, its setcpu!
SetCPU with any settings will do this.
It needs an update, the auto detect some how loses and
will set the cpu to 19mhz max and min.
This is too slow to process. I rebooted and pressed settings and uninstalled it
while I could. Seems to behave once out of touchwiz.

For me it was another app not setcpu I never used it. After i did a reset i restored all my apps with titanium backup and once i restarted my phone it looped again. So i did another restore and left off all the apps that i installed right before the problem started and so far i think for me at least one of these caused it
Google maps update
google translate
the extra language pack for translate
barnacle wifi tether
hero of sparta
these are apps that I installed right before the problem happened and without these my phone works fine I am going to see if i can find that one that caused my problem.

It's not the maps update because my phone works fine with it.

It was hero of sparta a gameloft game from there web market funny thing is its suppose to work on the vibrant while dungeon hunter which works fine would only give nexus as a check out option. Anyway im going to try to get a refund tomorrow.

I get the same touchwiz reboot but for me it has only ever happened while using google maps. I do not use set cpu, but I have applied the gps fix. It is more than a little annoying. I have done a system wipe but the problem persists.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App

yes, if you have setcpu, uninstall it - its buggy with the galaxys
- sometimes you can't wake your phone (if you set a screen off profile), forcing you to do a battery pull
- constant launcher restarts

Judgement5 said:
For me it was another app not setcpu I never used it. After i did a reset i restored all my apps with titanium backup and once i restarted my phone it looped again. So i did another restore and left off all the apps that i installed right before the problem started and so far i think for me at least one of these caused it
Google maps update
google translate
the extra language pack for translate
barnacle wifi tether
hero of sparta
these are apps that I installed right before the problem happened and without these my phone works fine I am going to see if i can find that one that caused my problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
and this is why i started the thread, to make sure i wasnt all alone. i have everything you have installed as well, but it was doing it before i picked up hero of sparta (and nova, and asphalt 5, man those guys make some good phone game lol).
anyways i just installed barnacle wifi tether yesterday so thats not it either (at least for me). That leaves the google stuff, out of the apps in your list, all of which were installed when i first got the problem, and are still on there after I've removed setCPU

heygrl said:
Root will stick but settings and apps/app data will be gone. It briefs you on what is and isn't lost when you do a factory reset.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ok so, contacts, text messages, etc stay? Meaning if i do a factory reset, root stays, and all app stuff can be taken care of by, say, AppBrain since it has a running list of everything installed and knows where to get it to install it again? I apprecicate the advice, but this would still be a last resort sort of thing. my phone has worked fine for the past few days but I also havent restarted it yet either

just a quick update, my phone still does this if i reboot my phone (which is never now that i got my 32gb sd card), but for the first time ever hero of sparta caused it to happen while the phone is on. I uninstalled it so we'll see.

[Q] New issues on stock rooted Epic

My epic is on the stock rom, just rooted. I have made no changes to the phone and the only recent changes were installing winamp and the market update. All of sudden the media scanner, at startup, never finishes and hangs until I force close it. My apps won't update, they download but hang at installing and after several reboots there is no change. The phone randomly makes the sound of lost signal twice in a row as if it looses signal and then finds it again right away even though I have full bars and this has never happened before. Also, CacheMate hangs until i force close it when I tried to clean out the cache to see if that would fix the market issue I was having. So out of nowhere, the market issue (apps not updating), media scanner hanging, and apps not working. Im just hoping that either someone knows what this could possibly be cause from or if im just going to have to hard reset my phone. I do have a backup from clockwork, but unfortunately it is quite old and I might as well just reset everything if it comes down to that. Thanks for the help.

Can't seem to wipe this Spring Galaxy Tab

I've been given a Galaxy Tab by my office to play with for a while for some various development projects we have coming up and to evaluate its use. Initially another employee had it, but he quickly lost interest.
Problem is, his Gmail account has been tied in as the primary account for the system, so I can't use my own Market apps, etc. No biggy, I'll just wipe it, right? First I tried a data wipe from recovery, but despite claiming to be successful after a reboot it's still got his account in there. So then I did Privacy/Factory data reset, but that mostly just reboots into Recovery where I do the same thing again and still fail to wipe his data off the device. I then pulled the memory card and formatted it and also reset with it out, but no improvement. I finally downloaded the stock image and flashed it with ODIN and STILL his account remains.
So... any thoughts on what I could be missing here? I just want this thing back to pure stock so I can put my own account in and work with it as though it were new.

I am having the EXACT same issue on a Verizon Tab...
No one has been able to help me.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=929999

Glad I'm not alone, but sorry to see you've not gotten anywhere either. This seem absurd...

Agreed. I thought I was the only one.. It just doesn't make sense.. I flashed mine using heimdall and still the same issue. The only problem is that mine force closes when you do anything.. So if I can't restore the software on this it's absolutely no good to me.

Yeah, same here. Nearly none of the apps functions now after the reset. This is absurd.

I'm in the same boat. It's very frustrating. Sprint was not able to help me. All he could do was walk me through the factor reset. I downloaded a Market app that bugged out something and now I'm getting quite a few force closes.

I just notice that if I merely restart this thing is loses all changes I made since I last restarted it, adding back any apps I uninstalled, removing accounts and WiFi settings I installed, etc. This is screwy. Wondering if there's a hardware problem with the flash memory.

TurboFool said:
I just notice that if I merely restart this thing is loses all changes I made since I last restarted it, adding back any apps I uninstalled, removing accounts and WiFi settings I installed, etc. This is screwy. Wondering if there's a hardware problem with the flash memory.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Listen to this, even more crazy than that... After my last unsuccessful wipe, I decided to just uninstall all of the applications. I just did another factory restore for the heck of it. Now ALL of the applications I uninstalled are back!.. AFTER the factory restore!
I think the only sure way to fix the problem is to get a zip file of the stock firmware and load it through the recovery screen.
Edit: since it put the applications back on there, I decided to try your situation. I uninstalled all of them, turned off the Tab and then back on. All applications are back.

sasiki said:
Listen to this, even more crazy than that... After my last unsuccessful wipe, I decided to just uninstall all of the applications. I just did another factory restore for the heck of it. Now ALL of the applications I uninstalled are back!.. AFTER the factory restore!
I think the only sure way to fix the problem is to get a zip file of the stock firmware and load it through the recovery screen.
Edit: since it put the applications back on there, I decided to try your situation. I uninstalled all of them, turned off the Tab and then back on. All applications are back.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It seems incapable of now making permanent changes to the flash memory. This is really screwy and annoying.

I am having the exact same issues. We are all in the same boat.. I have a $30 reward if anyone can fix this..

Any updates from the others with this problem?

I received 2 more Tabs today for my sales reps. They both work fine as far as factory restore. I noticed that the bad one goes to the boot loader when I initiate the restore through the Android software. The new ones do not. They format and reboot back into the operating system. Sprint is going to exchange the bad one.

sasiki said:
I received 2 more Tabs today for my sales reps. They both work fine as far as factory restore. I noticed that the bad one goes to the boot loader when I initiate the restore through the Android software. The new ones do not. They format and reboot back into the operating system. Sprint is going to exchange the bad one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the comparisons. Mine also goes to Recovery mode when I initiate a data wipe, so clearly it's the same situation. I'll have to see how mine was acquired and whether an exchange is an option.

Overheating/Bootloop/Black Screen problem solved but...

Hey, I had been stuck with the issues as mentioned shortly after I upgraded to Nougat via ODIN (SM-G935F/probably Netherlands, Unlocked, no root, no mods). The phone would work fine and then suddenly start overheating and resultant bootloops and black screens when in certain standard apps like Google photos and Facebook. This would happen with no fixed pattern, sometimes everyday, sometimes once a month). I did cache clears and full resets but the problem would reappear. Phone stopped getting OTAs as well, although it got a few in the beginning. Security patches. Recovery typically showed updating and didn't progress.
Finally I decided to flash another latest stock ROM via ODIN. Now a few days have gone by without a sign of the previous troubles (God, I hope it stays like this).
My question after this long story, is this possibly a hardware problem, in which case I'll sell it off before it reappears. Or could it just be a software glitch solved by the new ROM, in which case I'd like to keep the phone. Which is more likely, I really want to keep the phone as the S8 upgrade is not worth the money for me, in my opinion.

waqar747 said:
Hey, I had been stuck with the issues as mentioned shortly after I upgraded to Nougat via ODIN (SM-G935F/probably Netherlands, Unlocked, no root, no mods). The phone would work fine and then suddenly start overheating and resultant bootloops and black screens when in certain standard apps like Google photos and Facebook. This would happen with no fixed pattern, sometimes everyday, sometimes once a month). I did cache clears and full resets but the problem would reappear. Phone stopped getting OTAs as well, although it got a few in the beginning. Security patches. Recovery typically showed updating and didn't progress.
Finally I decided to flash another latest stock ROM via ODIN. Now a few days have gone by without a sign of the previous troubles (God, I hope it stays like this).
My question after this long story, is this possibly a hardware problem, in which case I'll sell it off before it reappears. Or could it just be a software glitch solved by the new ROM, in which case I'd like to keep the phone. Which is more likely, I really want to keep the phone as the S8 upgrade is not worth the money for me, in my opinion.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like a bad flash. The new flash removed the issues, so you're good to go.

Guess what guys, the problem returned after about 3-4 weeks. Appeared randomly while using FB. Phone went into bootloop and overheating again, and even when it restarted properly, it would go into the same cycle when I started using apps like messaging, whatsapp and facebook.
I booted in recovery and cleared the cache after about 25 reboots. One thing I noted was that recovery initially showed an update running, which got stuck first, and then completed after another reboot and entering into recovery. Has been stable for the past 24 hours now, like it never happened. I can't figure out what the issue could be, since now I can do whatever I want and it won't overheat like before or reboot.
Feels like a software issue since it disappears like it was never there. Hardware rarely does that. Is there a possibility that storage of some sort is bad at some point, and when data is written over that point, the problem appears. I'm shooting in the dark but can't figure it out otherwise.

Yup.
Seems you have memory issues.
Go to Samsung service and replace memory chip.

Apps won't update

I am not sure if this is an Android or Galaxy issue so please redirect me if necessary.
I have a new S10 plus which has worked perfectly well since the beginning of January until a couple of weeks ago. It has the latest firmware. Suddenly, updates have stopped happening either automatically or manually. I notice that there are umpteen reports of this in many forums going back a couple of years and there is a wealth of advice as to how to fix it. I have tried them all many times (Play store cache, Play Services cache, rebooting, closing recent apps etc.) to the point where I gave up trying to find a solution and wiped the phone. It took a long while to restore some 200 apps but all came back and the first lot of updates updated correctly. However, a day or so later, the problem returned with apps only partially downloading or getting to 100% then not installing.
There was one "fix" I hadn't tried as I came upon it late on. I started the phone in safe mode. As soon as I did, the update whizzed through. However, after a normal restart, the problem was back. So I have a messy solution that I can apply when the list builds up but this is far from satisfactory.
This is where my ability and knowledge comes to an end. I am presuming that one of the apps that doesn't load in safe mode is causing the problem.....or is it? Could this be a system app? What can I do next? Is there an error log that could pin-point the cause of the problem?
Many thanks.

pdes said:
I am not sure if this is an Android or Galaxy issue so please redirect me if necessary.
I have a new S10 plus which has worked perfectly well since the beginning of January until a couple of weeks ago. It has the latest firmware. Suddenly, updates have stopped happening either automatically or manually. I notice that there are umpteen reports of this in many forums going back a couple of years and there is a wealth of advice as to how to fix it. I have tried them all many times (Play store cache, Play Services cache, rebooting, closing recent apps etc.) to the point where I gave up trying to find a solution and wiped the phone. It took a long while to restore some 200 apps but all came back and the first lot of updates updated correctly. However, a day or so later, the problem returned with apps only partially downloading or getting to 100% then not installing.
There was one "fix" I hadn't tried as I came upon it late on. I started the phone in safe mode. As soon as I did, the update whizzed through. However, after a normal restart, the problem was back. So I have a messy solution that I can apply when the list builds up but this is far from satisfactory.
This is where my ability and knowledge comes to an end. I am presuming that one of the apps that doesn't load in safe mode is causing the problem.....or is it? Could this be a system app? What can I do next? Is there an error log that could pin-point the cause of the problem?
Many thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I noticed this issue as well. I use Aptoide to get updates faster and updating either Play Services/Store got mine to start working again

I have play store issues too.
One issue is i have to clear cache and force stop Playstore and services to get a list of updates to show up. I keep hitting check for updates and nothing, but when i do the above i get some updates appear straight away
Another issue is my list of beta apps dissapears every night at 9pm and magically reappears next morning at 9am. This also makes the security updates for play services in biometrics security settings dissapear at the same time. After months of arguing with Google and them blaming Samsung, telling me im running beta firmware (which i never installed beta, i went straight to Android 10 Stable) doing a complete factory reset and clean install, the problems still prevailed, then i found an old nexus 10tablet and installed my google account. When the beta apps ect dissapears from my S10plus it also simultaneously dissapears from the nexus 10.
The nexus 10 only has Android 6, has a different version of playstore and services. Yet Google Still insist its because my S10plus is only on beta firmware, even though i sent them about phone screenshots.
Its pretty obvious that this is some kind of syncing issue with Google servers and playstore services
But they refused to take ownership of the issues.