Help Stuck in boot loop

brull857zyku · Dec 19, 2011

Hi to all --

I had a problem today with my phone while it was on wi-fi - and it sort of froze.
I say 'sort of froze' because I'm not sure what exactly happened, only that the phone would not respond to my pressing the power button (right) to awaken the device. Yet, my LED was pulsing, indicating received messages/emails. I then attempted a long-press to restart the phone - nothing. I had to pull the battery to get the phone to restart. I've had the phone since Friday - and this is the first time this has happened. And, the only difference in usage between today and Fri/Sat was that I had the phone on Wi-fi since last night.

I know I'm probably in the wrong thread...but this seems close to my problem.

Any thoughts on whether I should contact Verizon?

Thanks,

ymDroid · Dec 19, 2011

brull857zyku said:
Hi to all --

I had a problem today with my phone while it was on wi-fi - and it sort of froze.
I say 'sort of froze' because I'm not sure what exactly happened, only that the phone would not respond to my pressing the power button (right) to awaken the device. Yet, my LED was pulsing, indicating received messages/emails. I then attempted a long-press to restart the phone - nothing. I had to pull the battery to get the phone to restart. I've had the phone since Friday - and this is the first time this has happened. And, the only difference in usage between today and Fri/Sat was that I had the phone on Wi-fi since last night.

I know I'm probably in the wrong thread...but this seems close to my problem.

Any thoughts on whether I should contact Verizon?

Thanks,

Different problem.

Make sure your software is on 4.0.2.

If it's working now, I'd wait to see if it happens again before contacting VZW.

meisterle · Dec 19, 2011

ymDroid said:
(...)
Over the rest of the night , I will being to reinstalling each app one by one and see if the boot loop happens at any point.

But as of right now, it's definitely a software issue related to my backed up account. But what exactly, I don't know.

Hope this works for you if you decide to try it. Remember to make a list of your apps.

Is the Light Flow App on your list by any chance? I had random reboots AND boot loops after I installed it (though nothing to do with wifi from what I could tell and I could seemingly not reproduce it) until I uninstalled Light Flow yesterday afternoon... Let us know what the outcome of your manual app reinstall project is. :cool:

edit: I'm on a rooted GSM GN 4.0.1

ymDroid · Dec 19, 2011

So... 4 1/2 hours later, all my apps are installed and it's working as designed.

I have re-installed every app manually and took and walked away form the home network every 5 or so apps and it's never rebooted when switching over form 3g/4g (knock on wood). I went over to my buddies house and added his network, and left his home with no problem.

LIGHTFLOW is installed but I haven't set up the different LED colors.

I'll do it before I go to bed. If it resets when I leave for work tomorrow, we'll know that LIGHTFLOW caused it, since that will be the only change I made after I post this.

I DID NOTICE THAT....

While I was manually re-installing my apps, that there were many that were not in the app market. I'm assuming that it's because they are not compatible.

BUT...When I let the phone back up my apps on it's own over the weekend, many of the apps that I couldn't install today or didn't exist in the market, were in there.

The glitch is definitely tied to Google's back up of your account, but I can't really say if it's the remembered networks, or the stored apps.

I am worried that if I had to do a factory reset, that the back up from Google would create another glitch. Who knows, maybe it won't because everything on the phone has been cleaned up.

I strongly recommend doing this, and hopefully it will fix your boot loop issue so we can start redirecting our gripes at the horrible signal strength.

ymDroid · Dec 20, 2011

meisterle said:
Is the Light Flow App on your list by any chance? I had random reboots AND boot loops after I installed it (though nothing to do with wifi from what I could tell and I could seemingly not reproduce it) until I uninstalled Light Flow yesterday afternoon... Let us know what the outcome of your manual app reinstall project is.

edit: I'm on a rooted GSM GN 4.0.1

No issues with LIGHTFLOW today. I was able to go from my wifi, to 3g in my city, to 4g in dc with no problems or reboots.

I recommend this as a fix. Let me know if anyone else tries and it works for them.

Wraith5181 · Dec 21, 2011

ymDroid said:
I walk in to a Verizon store, and get with the tech and flip on the wifi, and all the techs gather in amazement because they've never seen a Galaxy boot loop.

So the tech thought it is being caused by the hardware. The demo in the store dis not boot loop when we turned on the wifi.

I factory reset the store demo, and turned the wifi on, and surely, it did not reboot.

The tech pulled out a phone form the brand new batch that came in today, and replaced my phone for the 3rd time. We reinstalled everything from my Google account, and turn on the wifi.....and the reboots began.

SO BASED ON THIS, I BELIEVE I HAVE A FIX...

So far, I have the my phone up and running, and wifi switched with no problem.

HERE'S WHAT I DID...IN THIS ORDER...

***I would get a replacement phone form VZW first, but fell free and try this on your current phone before replacing.

***Make a list of all your apps...you'll have to manually reinstall them.

1) I factory reset the phone.
2) I booted it back up, and let the phone activate.
3) I DID NOT back up my data from my Google.
4) I DID NOT back up my contacts from VZ Backup Assistant.

5) Phone the phone is fully booted up, I turned on the wifi. The phone should NOT boot loop.

6) Add your home wifi network. Your phone should not boot loop.

**At this point, I walk a half black from my house to make the wifi flip to 3g. It did not boot loop.

7) I installed the 4.0.2 update. Your may already have it.

**At this point, I walk a half black from my house to make the wifi flip to 3g. It did not boot loop.

8) I added my Google account, this only added my contacts. (everytime, and walk away and make sure the wifi flip doesn't force it to boot)
9) I added VZ Backup Assistant, and still good.

SO...right now, the Nexus is running with no problem, and it does not boot loop.

Over the rest of the night , I will being to reinstalling each app one by one and see if the boot loop happens at any point.

But as of right now, it's definitely a software issue related to my backed up account. But what exactly, I don't know.

Hope this works for you if you decide to try it. Remember to make a list of your apps.

I did very similar steps. Like you i did a reset and did not restore/sign into my Google account or VZW Backup Assistant. Once i got the phone up and running i literally did not install any apps for the first 24 hours. I basically did very little other than verify that WITH 4G ON i could toggle Wi-Fi on and off. It worked flawlessly. I could connect to any network, disconnect in a variety of ways and never had the boot loop.

At this time i have re-installed all my apps, including lightflow and customized it. Also signed into my Google account and restored most of my apps.

The only difference that I am aware of,is in the past when i was resetting phone and signing into Google, it was pulling down my saved preferred networks. Anytime i enabled wi-fi it locked up if i was not on my home network (the original preferred network). Now, after restoring from Google it did NOT bring down my preferred network but it works flawlessly at this point.

I'm down on 3g to save battery, but either 4g or 3g toggling between wi-fi and back has no issues.

This forum has helped me a ton!

ymDroid · Dec 21, 2011

Wraith5181 said:
I did very similar steps. Like you i did a reset and did not restore/sign into my Google account or VZW Backup Assistant. Once i got the phone up and running i literally did not install any apps for the first 24 hours. I basically did very little other than verify that WITH 4G ON i could toggle Wi-Fi on and off. It worked flawlessly. I could connect to any network, disconnect in a variety of ways and never had the boot loop.

At this time i have re-installed all my apps, including lightflow and customized it. Also signed into my Google account and restored most of my apps.

The only difference that I am aware of,is in the past when i was resetting phone and signing into Google, it was pulling down my saved preferred networks. Anytime i enabled wi-fi it locked up if i was not on my home network (the original preferred network). Now, after restoring from Google it did NOT bring down my preferred network but it works flawlessly at this point.

I'm down on 3g to save battery, but either 4g or 3g toggling between wi-fi and back has no issues.

This forum has helped me a ton!

Glad it worked. It's the only fix we have right now, since Verizon keeps acting like it's not happening.

Depth Afield · Dec 22, 2011

Update on replacement:

After 2 attempts to send me a replacement since the 15th, VZW finally realized they could not ship me a replacement because I bought it in-store (corporate). They claim that if they ship me one, they will not be able to credit the old one when I send it back.

So my options are: try the fix above in this thread, or drive an hour back to the store (closest is in Orem) and exchange it in person.

Not happy that it has taken a week to get to this point.

teddyearp · Dec 23, 2011

Wow. That blows. How long have you been with VZW?

On another note, I guess I will always keep on buying from telesales and/or online as it's at least that far one way for me to get to a VZW store.

ymDroid · Dec 23, 2011

Depth Afield said:
Update on replacement:

After 2 attempts to send me a replacement since the 15th, VZW finally realized they could not ship me a replacement because I bought it in-store (corporate). They claim that if they ship me one, they will not be able to credit the old one when I send it back.

So my options are: try the fix above in this thread, or drive an hour back to the store (closest is in Orem) and exchange it in person.

Not happy that it has taken a week to get to this point.

Thats's sucks. I've realized over 11 years with VZW, that if I did not get the answer I wanted, I could just hang up, and call back. There's always a different answer out there form another rep.

I'd definitelty try the fix first before I made the drive.

salasidis · Dec 26, 2011

I had the same problem with boot loop crashing on a bell canada phone.

It would go in a boot loop for many minutes, abd consume about 10+% of the battery life each time.

I uninstalled most applications to no avail. I noticed that in addition to the crash loop, the phone would never sleep (always awake).

I dut a factory restart, and all was ok until i installed a battery saver program that modulated the wifi on off to save battery. Symptoms all came back. I uninstalled tgat program, made sure wifi is always on, and have not had a similar occurence in 1.5 weeks

syntrix · Dec 26, 2011

Depth Afield said:
Update on replacement:

After 2 attempts to send me a replacement since the 15th, VZW finally realized they could not ship me a replacement because I bought it in-store (corporate). They claim that if they ship me one, they will not be able to credit the old one when I send it back.

So my options are: try the fix above in this thread, or drive an hour back to the store (closest is in Orem) and exchange it in person.

Not happy that it has taken a week to get to this point.

BS! I've bought phones specifically in-corp-store because it makes a warranty replacement easier. Has to be something with the brand new SGN or a misguided rep.

ymDroid · Dec 26, 2011

I just wanted everyone to know that VZW isn't plannig on doing anything about this.

A little over a week ago I spoke to one of the senior techs at VZ Customer Care. She said she would do more research into the issue, addressing it with Samsumg and other senior techs.

Well she called back, today to explain to me that she had been extensively looking into it and VZW has been unable to replicate it or identify such an issue.

The only issue they can find is related to boot looping from customers trying to root thier phones, which they do not support.

Basicaly, they don't plan on doing anything about it.

Just an FYI.

The fix above, may be your only recourse.

jmeden · Dec 26, 2011

My phone has turned itself off when losing wifi and going to 3g/4g as well. Google didn't restore anything other than my contacts when I activated it (coming from an Original Droid) . I've remembered to turn wifi off before I leave such areas, so it hasn't been too much of a problem. I'm hoping 4.0.3 will fix it, but if not I'm not sure what to do.

ymDroid · Dec 26, 2011

jmeden said:
My phone has turned itself off when losing wifi and going to 3g/4g as well. Google didn't restore anything other than my contacts when I activated it (coming from an Original Droid) . I've remembered to turn wifi off before I leave such areas, so it hasn't been too much of a problem. I'm hoping 4.0.3 will fix it, but if not I'm not sure what to do.

Did you put in your gmail account during the initial activation? If you did, you did a full restore of your data, even if it didn't install any apps. AVOID THIS.

Factory reset the phone, activate the phone, but skip all the activation screens such as Google and VZW back up assistant, and move ahead to home screen.

Once you've done this, then go into settings, accounts, add an account, and add a google account.

Doing it this way lets you pick what you want to restore.

Just follow the instructions on my previous thread and let me know if works for you.

OH...and call VZW (611) and make them log it in their internal tech support forums.

jmeden · Dec 27, 2011

ymDroid said:
Did you put in your gmail account during the initial activation? If you did, you did a full restore of your data, even if it didn't install any apps. AVOID THIS.

Factory reset the phone, activate the phone, but skip all the activation screens such as Google and VZW back up assistant, and move ahead to home screen.

Once you've done this, then go into settings, accounts, add an account, and add a google account.

Doing it this way lets you pick what you want to restore.

Just follow the instructions on my previous thread and let me know if works for you.

OH...and call VZW (611) and make them log it in their internal tech support forums.

So you think this is still because of the backups? That's strange since it didn't even restore my wifi settings and networks. I added them myself. And yes, I did log in during the initial activation. Thanks for the advice though, I'll definitely try it if it happens again and I get the chance to I'll try resetting it. Will the factory reset in the settings menu work or are you talking about through recovery?

ymDroid · Dec 28, 2011

jmeden said:
So you think this is still because of the backups? That's strange since it didn't even restore my wifi settings and networks. I added them myself. And yes, I did log in during the initial activation. Thanks for the advice though, I'll definitely try it if it happens again and I get the chance to I'll try resetting it. Will the factory reset in the settings menu work or are you talking about through recovery?

I did my factory rest through recovery, but it shouldn't matter.

Reset the phone and do not log in to your Google account during activation, and see if that makes a difference. I can pretty much guarantee that it's tied to your nakedd up Google account, regardless of the backed up wifi account.

but try it and see if it fixes the problem.

Factory reset, activate the phone, don't log into your old accounts, turn on the wifi (don't log on yet, just turn it on), check for reboots.

Leave wifi on, walk away from the access point.

Log on to your wifi account, leave wifi on, and walk away from the access point.

If all these work, then log into your Google account through settings, then accounts.

kkeyte · Dec 28, 2011

This isn't just limited to Verizon. I've just experienced this in the UK with the GSM (HSPA) edition and with Vodafone as the network operator. No idea whether there's a wireless issue here. I simply ran an app. that I've run many times and got the click/pop and an endless reboot. Amazon sent me a replacement immediately.

Problem is that the replacement didn't do the OTA update to ITL41F so I'm stuck with the volume bug now! Hmmm. Amazon are sending me ANOTHER, so see what this does. Unfortunately, Samsung can't tell me how to manually apply the update and I don't really want to start messing around with the bootloader.

Something seems a bit messed up with this device and I suspect we all need another OTA (and reliably, to all devices!) very quickly.

BTW, anyone ANY idea how to access files from a device with the boot loop? I've a few previous (un-backed-up) photos on the device I'd like to get to, which is why I haven't done the full factory wipe/reset from the recovery mode.

jmeden · Dec 28, 2011

kkeyte said:
This isn't just limited to Verizon. I've just experienced this in the UK with the GSM (HSPA) edition and with Vodafone as the network operator. No idea whether there's a wireless issue here. I simply ran an app. that I've run many times and got the click/pop and an endless reboot. Amazon sent me a replacement immediately.

Problem is that the replacement didn't do the OTA update to ITL41F so I'm stuck with the volume bug now! Hmmm. Amazon are sending me ANOTHER, so see what this does. Unfortunately, Samsung can't tell me how to manually apply the update and I don't really want to start messing around with the bootloader.

Something seems a bit messed up with this device and I suspect we all need another OTA (and reliably, to all devices!) very quickly.

BTW, anyone ANY idea how to access files from a device with the boot loop? I've a few previous (un-backed-up) photos on the device I'd like to get to, which is why I haven't done the full factory wipe/reset from the recovery mode.

It seems going back in range of wifi that the phone has connected to previously stops the boot looping, but if that doesn't work I'm pretty sure recovery has an option to mount the phone.

miller_nick · Dec 30, 2011

Really glad to see this because I'm not the only one. 2 days ago it did this when I was leaving work, it was the same day as the 4G outage, so I had Wi-Fi turned on at work. As soon as I got in the car it did this, nothing would fix it (didn't try to factory reset at the time). Immediately took it to Verizon and had them swap it out. Funny thing about it though is I had unlocked the bootloader (but not rooted yet) so it showed the "unlock" icon at the bottom with the Google splash screen. The rep helping me said, "looks like you got locked out of Google somehow." No matter how many times I actually said that it was an "unlock" icon and that it was "unlocked" he kept saying, "yea, I guess you got locked out of Google." Then, yesterday, I was leaving my work for lunch and I can't remember if I had Wi-Fi on, but as soon as I got into the car the new phone did it. I must have had Wi-Fi on at the time given all the responses. This time though I was in a rush, so I tried to do a factory reset. Haven't had Wi-Fi on since, so I can't test it yet, but basically I just want to report that I'm yet another person with this issue. Verizon/Samsung/Google, get it fixed.

XxMalicexX · Jan 10, 2012

has anyone found any other work around for this issue. my phone has started doing it since i rooted and unlocked my bootloader. I tried doing factory resets and not signing into google accounts but when i do that i start getting constant acore.processing and contact errors. i really don't want to have to be stuck not rooting because of something stupid like this.

ymDroid · Jan 10, 2012

XxMalicexX said:
has anyone found any other work around for this issue. my phone has started doing it since i rooted and unlocked my bootloader. I tried doing factory resets and not signing into google accounts but when i do that i start getting constant acore.processing and contact errors. i really don't want to have to be stuck not rooting because of something stupid like this.

I think this may be better suited in the root section of the forum.

There is definitely a wifi created bootloop and root bootloop, but unfortnately they are caused by two different issues.

There were many people who had bootlooping when the originally rooted their device. I would do a search and see what thos people did to fix their issue.

Sorry.

XxMalicexX · Jan 10, 2012

yeah pretty sure its not caused by the root...its the same symptoms as everyone else, walk away from wifi signal get the audible pop and constant bootloops till i walk back in my front door. wondering if i should just flash back to stock and see if it fixes the problem. If it doesn't i may see about getting a replacement....so just got off the phone with vzw tech support, they said they have never heard of the issue and told me to contact samsung...I am just going to flash back to stock and take the phone in for replacement tomorrow.

ymDroid · Jan 11, 2012

XxMalicexX said:
yeah pretty sure its not caused by the root...its the same symptoms as everyone else, walk away from wifi signal get the audible pop and constant bootloops till i walk back in my front door. wondering if i should just flash back to stock and see if it fixes the problem. If it doesn't i may see about getting a replacement....so just got off the phone with vzw tech support, they said they have never heard of the issue and told me to contact samsung...I am just going to flash back to stock and take the phone in for replacement tomorrow.

Odd...And you factory reset and and did not log into Google during activation?

***Try this (if you haven't alredy)...

Factory reset, do not log into anything during activation. (Click ahead/cancel/click later).

Once you get to the home screen, turn on the wifi (See of it reboots).

If it doesn't, walk away form your access point until the 3g/4g flip (See if it reboots).

If it doesn't, it's tied to something backed up in your account.

XxMalicexX · Jan 11, 2012

ok so I tried this, and amazingly it didn't reset so I guess its not a device issue. Thing is now what do I do? If it is something backed up to my google account is there a way to delete whatever it is? Getting a new account isn't really an option.

Help Stuck in boot loop

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