Help Galaxy S4 turned off overnight while charging

[adockerty]

Hello, new to the forum..
Last night I charged my Galaxy S4 overnight as I always do and the phone turned off overnight somehow. This morning my alarm didn't go off and I checked my phone to see the time and the phone was completely turned off. I had to hold the Power button for 10 seconds for it to turn back on, and the phone was fully charged with the green battery indicator lit up.
I was late for work because of this and this can't happen.. I only got the phone 3 weeks ago!
Does anybody have any insight as to why this happened or how to stop it from happening in the future? I have Jellybean 4.2.2 and it is a brand new phone. My carrier is Telus in Canada.

 

[CyberWinter]

My phone is only 2 days old and I used the alarm this morning. This is horrible news! The same issue used to happen to my OG droid and droid 3 (very rare though). Now the same issue on the S4? This is scary!

 

[allanlaw]

Hello, new to the forum..
Last night I charged my Galaxy S4 overnight as I always do and the phone turned off overnight somehow. This morning my alarm didn't go off and I checked my phone to see the time and the phone was completely turned off. I had to hold the Power button for 10 seconds for it to turn back on, and the phone was fully charged with the green battery indicator lit up.

I've posted about this problem a couple times. I think it started after the recent update. My solution has been to NOT leave the phone plugged in overnight. However, I've been doing some testing to see if I can narrow down the possible causes for the issue. My working hypothesis is that something is interfering with the phone's full-charge detection process so that it starts or continues charging until some overcharge detection process shuts the phone down to protect it. Right now, I've turned off automatic updating in the Google Play Store setup to see if updating apps interferes with maintaining the full-charge detection "true" state. Also on my list - removing apps from the SD card and restoring disabled apps.

 

[SAL8116]

Been using my S4 for a few months with an alarm set every morning Mon-Fri, and never any issues.

There are a number of reasons a phone shuts down on its own. For time being I would set a back up alarm and see if your phone continues to do this.

 

[allanlaw]

There are a number of reasons a phone shuts down on its own.

Alright then, could you suggest one or two that might occur when the phone is on the charger and idling?

 

[SAL8116]

Alright then, could you suggest one or two that might occur when the phone is on the charger and idling?

I'm not a tech expert. But I've had phones in the past that would shut off once on their own and never do it again.

No I cannot suggest what may cause a phone to shut down on its own.

 

[damewolf13]

Welcome to AF, adockerty!

If you have installed any kind of task killer to your phone, it could result in interfering with the alarm. You really can do without a task killer so if that is the case, you can just uninstall the task killer, however, that would not explain why your phone powered down in the middle of charging. It may have overheated, or it could be something else all together. That may be something to look into while you are still under warranty, assuming the phone is a new one.
Also, depending on the type of alarm clock app you are using, there are some kinds that I believe can be set to ring even when the phone is powered down.
I think that you can get some of those types of alarm clock apps in the Google Playstore if you do not already have that setting on your current alarm clock.

 

[allanlaw]

Just to be clear, the phone is powering off by itself when on the charger after it reaches full charge. The fact that an alarm might be set is irrelevant - the phone shuts down completely. I have no task killers running, and I believe this behavior started after the OS update. It happens frequently, not just once or twice. Yesterday, it did it in the afternoon after maybe one hour of full charge - so apparently it doesn't require a whole night to act up.

I'm going to check how long I have to bring it in under warranty - I'm not in any hurry because it might get cured by another update. It was purchased new last month from Costco, on Verizon, and the paperwork is here somewhere . . .

 

[jimjam]

I have the same problem with a 4 day old S4 Got up this morning 3am and the LED was flashing but the phone would not switch on. Removed the charging cable and the only way I could get it restarted was to remove the battery.

 

[kfnb]

Hello adockerty

Had the same problem last night. No alarm this morning so I was late at work.

It's exactly the same situation which happened like 5-6 times since the update. I leave my S4 charging and after some time it goes off.
The light flashes out but the mobile doesn't turn on. I have to take off the battery every time.
Thought it is a hardware issue but found your comment here.

Bought it last May and my carrier is UK Three mobile.

 

[CrimsonPride]

Well there is a new problem with the netflix app and the new Google Chromecast causing phones to freeze when they sleep and not come back on. But I've never had my phone shut off on itself, I wouldn't be surprised if there may be another app causing it.

 

[allanlaw]

I exchanged my phone for a new one (thanks Costco) and so far no issues - but I am NOT leaving it on the charger overnight. Also, I turned off auto update in Google Play just in case that is the issue.

 

[WonderFull]

I'm facing a problem after overnight charging. This i noticed since last few days. Once fully charged and when i remove the cable and press the menu button or power button nothing happens till around a minute and than the phone wakes up. Also if i leave the phone after taking out the cable the green light of full charge remains on for almost 4-5 minutes. Normally other phones (S3 & Note 2) when i remove the cable they wake up and show the lock screen. I always put my phones to charge overnight but never it switched off. Does any one else had this problem.

 

[alyssathrasher]

I just switched to the s4 from the iPhone 4s last week and this has happened to me twice now, and I am starting to regret the switch. If android doesn't fix this fast I'm going back to apple. I've missed classes because of this twice now. Completely stupid. And I highly doubt it's being caused by any apps considering that I have like 5 downloaded.

 

[speedlever]

Have you folks with this issue done a FDR? Has the problem reappeared after doing a FDR?

Just curious...

 

[allanlaw]

Yes and yes.

 

[SebaKL]

I just switched to the s4 from the iPhone 4s last week and this has happened to me twice now, and I am starting to regret the switch. If android doesn't fix this fast I'm going back to apple. I've missed classes because of this twice now. Completely stupid. And I highly doubt it's being caused by any apps considering that I have like 5 downloaded.

I hope this doesn't sound hostile or rude, I do not meant to. I just don't understand why people keep doing the "I switch to iphone" threat, just because they are not happy with their device.

First of all, Samsung doesn't read the forum, nor am I aware that anyone from this forum work for them. So really, no one will get heartbroken if you were to move back to iphone. Your device choice, is, just yours.

According to WIKI:
The S4 was made available in late April 2013 on 327 carriers in 155 countries. Upon its release, it became the fastest selling smartphone in Samsung's history; the company sold 20 million Galaxy S4 units worldwide in the two months following the device's launch.

Given the enormous amount of devices sold, and such tiny fraction of the problematic ones that makes to this, or other forums, I don't consider it to be exactly a problem, but something to be expected. It's a real shit that it happened to you, and I truly sympathize (having such experience with S3). But when dealing with quantities, there is no way every device is perfect. I have 4 S4s devices at home right now. All 32 LTE Int. Unlocked, and none has a single problem.

Go to the place you bought it from, and return it. Tell them exactly what you shared with us. It shuts down, you failed to turn up for class etc.. And demand replacement, or return it and change to MotoX, Note3 or iphone5S.

Seriously, self shutting device is never good sign. In case of S3, it was a certain batch that came with a specific chip model. It would brick the device beyond fix. Perhaps you are part of a certain, problematic batch.

 

[Deleted User]

Similar situation with my fiancee's Galaxy S4. It's happened twice now in a two month period.

It's as the phone goes into a deep sleep! The screen goes black, the notification led flashes and that's all it does. No alarm works, can't call it, no messages get through. It's practically dead at this point.

It works more often than not, so if this was any other issue she could deal with it, but since it's her primary alarm, it's not okay and she can't take the chance. I just switched SIM cards with her and I'm using her GS4 today to talk with both T-Mobile and you guys about this issue.

However reading over this thread it looks like no progress has been made. It would seem it's a Samsung Touchwiz issue because over in the XDA forums, it doesn't seem to be an issue with custom ROM'ers.

Sooo.... here's another one.

 

[BGoode]

My S3 has just started to do this. I charge it overnight, wake up to find the alarm hasn't gone off, I've missed work, and I can only switch the phone back on after taking the battery out and putting it back in again. It's 100% charged when it starts up again.

It's happened 3 times in the last 2 weeks. I changed network a couple of months ago (from Vodafone UK to 3 UK) but can't work out if that would cause this to happen. After missing work yet again today I've uninstalled all recent apps. But is this a software problem or a hardware (overheating) problem?

 

[michaelhijinx]

Has anyone determined the issue that causes this? I've read a few theories, but I need a solution. I was late for work today and it CANNOT happen again. Of course I could always start using a conventional alarm clock, but I could always start carrying a camera, camcorder, computer, and a collection of books everywhere I go as well; then maybe I would get a man purse.

 

[allanlaw]

Has anyone determined the issue that causes this? I've read a few theories, but I need a solution. I was late for work today and it CANNOT happen again. Of course I could always start using a conventional alarm clock, but I could always start carrying a camera, camcorder, computer, and a collection of books everywhere I go as well; then maybe I would get a man purse.

Two thoughts. I have not had the problem again in the last few months, either because (1) I don't leave the phone plugged in overnight, and (2) the last update supposedly addressed some charging issues, so maybe I could leave it plugged in overnight. I don't have any reason to experiment with this so I don't know. My routine is to plug it into the official 2amp charger first thing in the morning, and it's pretty well 100% charged in a few minutes.

 

[speedlever]

I do the same thing and use Timely for my alarm. No issues here.

 

[Joshua Francis]

Ok so hello guys,for ME at least,these were EXACTLY my issues that were occuring on my sch-i545,so i fixed it because just prior and recently i installed an led changer for my led indicator.When i uninstalled it,the issue was fixed,hope someone installed it and had this problem so this could be helpful

 

[CKKho]

I had the same problem, factory reset or soft reset doesn't help. It turns out that the power button is faulty, it's shorted from time to time causing it to turn on by itself or keep rebooting itself indefinitely.

 

[CKKho]

Here's a link I found to troubleshoot if the power button is faulty. It's pretty detailed and definitely not for the amateur. If you are ready for the challenge go for it.