Phone started rebooting and I can't stop it

[Randy72560]

This afternoon out of nowhere my phone retsarted, then restarted again, and again, etc -

I updated all apps to eliminate that as an issue, that didn't help so I took the battery out, and sims card for a bit, that didn't help.

I went ahead and updated to the new software, which I had been putting off. I also deleted some apps to eliminate those as an issue.

But it keeps happening. I'm not sure wtf to do next. A factory restore?

I see googling this seems liek a common issue, does anyone know why? And how do I fix it?


Thanks in advance guys and gals

 

[cr6]

I would try a factory data reset first and go from there. Good luck Randy, let us know how it goes.

S5 tap'n

 

[Jonny Kansas]

I have to agree with cr6. Given what you've already tried, your options are either to do a factory reset, or start uninstalling apps one by one, then clear cache and data on system apps, and basically do a reset anyway piece by piece until you see if you can find exactly what's causing the issue.

Either way, you'll have a bit of setting up to do again, but the factory reset will be quicker since it'll take the entire phone back to "out of the box" conditions versus uninstalling everything one by one only to find out that you need to reset anyway, or at the very least, finding out it was the last app/setting that you clear that cause the issue and generally fixes similar issues, especially after taking a software update (which I know didn't start the problem, but may very well be contributing to it now).

 

[Randy72560]

I noticed if I didn't do anything with my phone, it woould be longer and longer between random reboots. Keep in mind I use my phone to internet daily, we live in the boonedocks, and I have a grandfathered unlimited data plan, so ya know its out best option/.

So an odd thing happened. I started pulling all my pics and videos off my phonne. Totlly deleted all pics and videos. And it hasn't rebooted since. So I haven't done a factory reset yet, and it's been fine all day?

So not sure if that fixed it, I'm wondering if maybe I had my phone full of videos and pics. I did take close to 100 or so pics yesterday, but still had some room left in my memory. I also don't have an external memory card installed.

So anyway, I'll report back if it started again. What do you guys think?

 

[Jonny Kansas]

It's possible it just couldn't process things I guess. This is a new one to me. Since RAM & device storage are separate, I wouldn't think it'd have that big of an effect, but maybe.

Sent from my Note 4

 

[bbtkd]

I noticed if I didn't do anything with my phone, it woould be longer and longer between random reboots. Keep in mind I use my phone to internet daily, we live in the boonedocks, and I have a grandfathered unlimited data plan, so ya know its out best option/.

So an odd thing happened. I started pulling all my pics and videos off my phonne. Totlly deleted all pics and videos. And it hasn't rebooted since. So I haven't done a factory reset yet, and it's been fine all day?

So not sure if that fixed it, I'm wondering if maybe I had my phone full of videos and pics. I did take close to 100 or so pics yesterday, but still had some room left in my memory. I also don't have an external memory card installed.

So anyway, I'll report back if it started again. What do you guys think?

OK, so possibly related to media. If it happens again, try disabling Wifi if it is on. Could be trying to sync those pictures to a DLNA service on a PC or media device on your Wifi network. I had this happen once, though in my case it didn't reboot - it caused the phone to freeze for long periods. Turned out my Plex server was offering to sync pictures and video, and I had a large video on my phone. I noted the issue only on Wifi, so I monitored my network connections from my phone, figured out the culprit, and disabled the offending DLNA service on my Plex server.

 

[killerz298]

You are the third person on various forums reporting the same issue recently. I had my S4 (not rooted, stock rom) on my dock streaming google music. A phone call came in and the phone started vibrating like crazy and wouldn't stop. The screen shut off and the phone was still vibrating. Finally it stopped and was shut off. When I try to start it a few things happens. It will sometimes boot to my lock screen and the screen goes black and I think it is powered off. Sometimes it will get past the lock screen and then die shortly after. After like 2 or 3 times of that it won't even boot. It loads the Samsung screen but never gets to the Sprint screen or boots. If I leave it for some time shut off with battery out it will go back to booting to the lock screen then dying etc... Recovery mode and download mode can stay on forever without shutting down. I wiped the entire phone, used ODIN to flash most recent stock rom, and the phone rebooted and worked for a time. A few hours later it started random reboots every 10 mins or so. Now it is back to instant crashing and rebooting. Any idea what could be the issue? I'm assuming at this point it is hardware related however why can recovery and download mode run consistently without crashing but when an os is fired up it has issues? If it was a hardware issue shouldn't it not work across the board? Are there any recovery utilities I can try to do hardware diagnostics?

 

[Randy72560]

OK, so possibly related to media. If it happens again, try disabling Wifi if it is on. Could be trying to sync those pictures to a DLNA service on a PC or media device on your Wifi network. I had this happen once, though in my case it didn't reboot - it caused the phone to freeze for long periods. Turned out my Plex server was offering to sync pictures and video, and I had a large video on my phone. I noted the issue only on Wifi, so I monitored my network connections from my phone, figured out the culprit, and disabled the offending DLNA service on my Plex server.

Ya know I do use Might Text, and I took a ton of pics that day as I said. And Mighty text snyc's all pics to my computer when they are in contact, so that's interesting.

 

[Randy72560]

It also didn't start until I pulled in the driveway/. So I suspect it was tyring to sync all those pics and just kept crashing. That's interesting for sure

 

[killerz298]

I did everything I could think of to get my phone to stop freaking out. It seems the longer I left it off, the longer it would work when I turned it back on. However no matter what I did, it would always start crashing again. The phone is currently at Sprint (thank god for extended credit card warranties). I will let you know if it turns out to be a hardware issue (which I doubt it can be anything else).

 

[killerz298]

So I had Sprint replace my phone on the 8th. I have been using my same batteries (1 stock 1 Anker) and chargers (some stock some not) without issue the past 5 days. I rooted and installed xposed and some modules (original broken phone was never rooted and was completely stock). Things were going great until tonight when it started reboot looping exactly like the old phone. I switched battery and same proble. After I took the battery out and left it out awhile it fired back up but I'm afraid the problem will return. Is it possible that the battery or charger randomly are causing damage to the phone? I only have 14 day warranty on this replacement and need to figure this out.

 

[bbtkd]

So I had Sprint replace my phone on the 8th.... I rooted and installed xposed and some modules (original broken phone was never rooted and was completely stock). ....it started reboot looping exactly like the old phone...Is it possible that the battery or charger randomly are causing damage to the phone? I only have 14 day warranty on this replacement and need to figure this out.

Very unlikely it is a battery issue unless it is presenting a low voltage due to a failed cell. Remove any app you loaded that you don't absolutely need for a few days, then see what it does. Are you using anything that takes over a lot of phone functions such as Juice Defender or a launcher? If so, I'd start there. If it reboots right after coming up from the previous reboot then it is almost certainly some service started at boot rather than an app that is only active when you manually run it. Unfortunately there are lots of service apps these days.

 

[killerz298]

Well like I said with the old phone, a hard factory reset didn't fix the issue so that made me believe it was hardware related. Now with the new phone doing the same thing the common elements are the charges and batteries. I did root and xposed so perhaps THIS time it is software. I suppose I can nandroid back to clean install backup and see how it goes. Phone has been fine since last night though.

 

[mountainbikermark]

Well like I said with the old phone, a hard factory reset didn't fix the issue so that made me believe it was hardware related. Now with the new phone doing the same thing the common elements are the charges and batteries. I did root and xposed so perhaps THIS time it is software. I suppose I can nandroid back to clean install backup and see how it goes. Phone has been fine since last night though.

Sounds strange but remove the battery and everywhere it contacts for power both on the phone and battery rub it well with a pencil eraser. The slightest bit of corrosion can send the phone bad voltage or temperature alerts sending the phone into a reboot, it reboots and gets same error, reboots......
If that doesn't work try a different charger.

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[killerz298]

Hrm... so I noticed that right before it does this the power menu comes up as if I had depressed the power button to shut it off. I don't press any of the buttons though but it still reboots. When it goes to reboot it gets to the Samsung logo and then either stays off or reboot loops. It just happened again. It also finally went on again and is now working normally. Perhaps this refurb they gave me has a bad power switch?