Question Phone Locks While In Use - Google Pixel 6

My phone all of a sudden sends me to the lock screen while it's in use. It could be playing a youtube video, playing a game or typing a whatsapp reply.
Before you tell me it's some lock assisting app; it isn't. It happens in safe mode as well, and it started happening about 2 years ago back when I used a Pixel 4. At the time I did use a lock assisting app (KinScreen, which is a wonderful app I wish I could keep using, but my phone locks me out of my device regardless of settings in mentioned app, so I discontinued it's use months ago).
Back with the Pixel 4 I reflashed OS's, I removed screen protectors, I discontinued use of cases, I factory reset the device.... Eventually I gave up and just live with it. I upgraded to an unlocked Pixel 6 (and I'm patiently waiting for the 6a, hoping it's a bit smaller since I don't like these large phones), and the problem came along with me.
This, to me, tells me the issue is linked to my account. Especially the fact that it still happens while in Safe Mode. It's hard to test since it's so random, but I have lived in Safe Mode for a few hours until I saw it happen twice and I decided this problem was beyond me and when I changed hardware and it kept happening.... I'm just at a loss.
I've googled this before, thinking it may be a pixel issue "Pixel 4 locks while in use", finding nothing.
It's worth noting this issue only happens to me with Pixel phones. I like testing phones and currently have a Samsung Galaxy Flip3 fully set up. This problem does not present itself in that phone.
It seems at this point, that if I want to use a Pixel phone, I'd need to either reset my google account entirely (which I've done before, back in 2013 or so, with a Nexus 4 after what was then Google Now had just messed up my preferences for news articles; and it was such an inconvenience I would rather not give that a try).
Removing the lock altogether does do the trick of course. "Smart lock" does nothing for me. I use a pattern as a password and it's incredibly inconvenient. Have not tried switching to a pin but I don't have any reason to believe that would solve anything.
I genuinely don't think there's much I haven't tried, but perhaps someone else has already come across this issue and found out what was going on. I'd gladly try any and all suggestions I get and update this in the event of figuring it out.
I have found some people claiming to have a similar issue, none with a pixel phone, and none newer than 2015.
Thanks for reading.
TLDR; My phone locks while it's in use. Been happening across multiple phones (pixel 4, pixel 6), happens in safe mode as well.

Go into your Google drive on your PC, click on the current space used indicator on the left, click on backups that shows up on the right, and delete your backups.
I would then factory reset your P6 and start over. Drastic, but it should fix the issue.
Also, the 6a is likely to be the same size as the 5, i.e. not much smaller.

Strephon Alkhalikoi said:
Go into your Google drive on your PC, click on the current space used indicator on the left, click on backups that shows up on the right, and delete your backups.
I would then factory reset your P6 and start over. Drastic, but it should fix the issue.
Also, the 6a is likely to be the same size as the 5, i.e. not much smaller.
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Click to collapse
Probably a dumb question, because I just went there, and there is no Pixel 6 backup, there is, however, (4) Pixel 4 backups, as well as backups to my work phone (a definitely-too-small Palm phone): If I delete the backups, but don't factory restore the device in question, the backup will self-generate automatically within a few hours/days, correct?
So, at the very least I can delete it all to make sure there are no duplicate backups I don't need.

Correct. Delete the old backups and that probably will help.

Related

Anyone else experiencing random locks/reboots?

My Photon has been acting up today. It has frozen on a black screen four or five times, requiring a battery pull each time. Also a couple of random restarts. The same thing happened once yesterday, but it has come back with a vengeance today.
Anyone else experiencing this? Bad phone? Not rooted, updated prl/profile, etc. Been on the road, so no chance to try the MR, so I don't know if that would solve anything or not.
I'm a Sprint Launch Ambassador supporting the Photon. I have seen reboots on my own device but it was due to a 3rd party live wallpaper I had downloaded and was running. When I removed it, the device was stable again. Does your device do this in a factory reset state with nothing installed 3rd party app wise and no SD card?
never had that type of issue with mine
mattvalenz said:
I'm a Sprint Launch Ambassador supporting the Photon. I have seen reboots on my own device but it was due to a 3rd party live wallpaper I had downloaded and was running. When I removed it, the device was stable again. Does your device do this in a factory reset state with nothing installed 3rd party app wise and no SD card?
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Click to collapse
Matt - thanks for your quick response.
I am not running third party or live wallpapers. Just a pretty static experience.
I have installed quite a few apps, of course, but I haven't had the time, at the moment, to do a factory reset (and frankly, doing a factory reset is a pain, and I'd rather not have to do it). My installed program list is also pretty standard (Google apps, Facebook, Pandora, Angry Birds).
I do, however, have a SD card mounted, which I actually considered might be the problem. Is there any clue about why this might be causing the problem?
Interestingly, it hasn't happened in the past few hours.
Are there any reports of specific applications that are causing issues, or reports that this is a widespread problem? I could forgive it a bit more if it restarted more than hard crashed, but the lockups with no warning on my primary business phone are rather problematic.
Also, any word you might be able to give on updates that might come out in the next week or two?
My main concern is just that I don't have a bad piece of hardware. I love the phone - as something to make phone calls, it's one of the best pieces of hardware I've ever had. If it's an issue where I need to switch the phone out for a different one, I'm fine with doing that, but I'd like to know before the warranty runs out.
Me too
I just want to chime in and report that I have seen some random black screen lockups on my new Photon. It usually requires battery removal to fix, but once while I was trying to pry the back cover off (it's a very stubborn cover), the phone came back to life.
No SD card, stock wallpaper.
Google voice
Skype
Twitter
Google +
Swiftkey X
Lastpass
Locked up after five minutes off the charger this morning. For what it's worth, the phone seems to get very warm when it is locked, possibly indicating a high power/processor usage.
I don't know if others have experienced this as well.
Random lock twice today when I went to answer the phone..and one time at 6 AM it was my 84 year old mother who had fallen.
I saw the #, grabbed my wife's EPIC and called my mom.
This is not a good thing on a 2 day old phone.
Apply the leaked Maintenance Release. There's a thread in the Dev sub-forum.
Beknatok said:
Apply the leaked Maintenance Release. There's a thread in the Dev sub-forum.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you know if this actually solves the lockup issues?

Recovering data after a full wipe

Hello,
First off I want to explain what happened exactly. Since April I am using an HTC One, but I gave my S3 to my girlfriend. I gave it to her exactly like I used it: running CM10.1 nightly's, no other mods, no custom kernels, etc. I updated her S3 once every few weeks with a new nightly. It performed normally, like it has been doing for many months.
Since a few weeks, the S3 started to show problems. The camera app would act weird sometimes, but it wasn't anything big. Then the freezes came. Once every few days, the phone would freeze and she needed to reboot. In the past week, the freezes happened many times daily. No matter what you did with the phone, it would freeze very fast. It just got worst and worst, until yesterday the phone wouldn't even turn on anymore. It would stay in the bootup screen.
The problem was, I had only downloaded a CM10.2 nightly update recently, had no Android 4.3 Gapps yet and hadn't succeeded in making a proper Titanium Backup (due to the phone being so unstable, it would freeze at 80% of the backup). Moving to CM10.2 without a wipe wasn't the best idea, but having no TB, I didn't want to wipe data. In the end, desperate measure called for desperate actions. I flashed a nightly build of CM10.2 I had downloaded already on the phone, but still the same. It wouldn't get past bootup animation.
To keep this story as short as I can, I ended up flashing the latest Samsung Touchwiz build (4.1 based) via Odin, but even that wouldn't get past the bootup animation. So I managed to get in some sort of recovery, where a wipe data option was available. Did that, phone started working normally again. Only problem is, this wipe data option apparently was a different kind of beast. I am used to the "wipe data" option that deletes your apps + data, etc, but doesn't touch your photo's, music, etc. This one did.
Is there any known way to recover some of the files that got deleted?
And if anybody is in the mood, any explication on what exactly happened to this S3? I mean, nothing changed, it was working normally for months with CM10.1...
Kind regards
I've never found anyone that recovered any data from the internal sd card, there are pc programs that claim to be able to do this for sd cards and hard disks but doubt they will work on MTP device.
Freezing is common for a minority of phones due to nand block failures, or it could be due to the rom you were using.
boomboomer said:
I've never found anyone that recovered any data from the internal sd card, there are pc programs that claim to be able to do this for sd cards and hard disks but doubt they will work on MTP device.
Freezing is common for a minority of phones due to nand block failures, or it could be due to the rom you were using.
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Click to collapse
Thank you for the quick reply. I suspected this but I though it's worth asking.
I guess my S3 was one of this minority, can't imagine CM10.1 to be the bad guy here. Ah well, at least now she can use the damn thing again. RIP photo's and other important data though. It's near impossible now for Samsung to get me to buy another product from them again in the future.
Unless you have a government grade software/hardware that's being used on digital forensics then it's really quite impossible to recover the files.
For future, look at FolderSync on play. It will sync sdcard data to the cloud or to a computer that is always on.
I set my sdcards syncing over wifi whilst I am asleep. I never lose anything.

Issues with Verizon V30 freezing

Past 3 or 4 months my VS996 has been freezing or locking up randomly.
When this happens, the phone is not in use . It's asleep in my pocket, or on my desk, or on my night stand. I have to hold volume button and power to restart it. When it comes back up, everything looks fine.
I have done a factory reset, tried uninstalling apps, and most recently got the phone replaced under LGs 2 year promise warranty. One week in and the replacement phone has started freezing just like the old phone.
My wife has the exact same phone and runs many of the same apps with no issues. My phone is stock android, not rooted and no mods. This is frustrating and I don't know what to try in order to troubleshoot.
Is there an app commonly known to have issues on the V30 (such as nova launcher)? Or is there a logging app i could install to capture info about why it crashed/locked up?
urushiol said:
Past 3 or 4 months my VS996 has been freezing or locking up randomly.
When this happens, the phone is not in use . It's asleep in my pocket, or on my desk, or on my night stand. I have to hold volume button and power to restart it. When it comes back up, everything looks fine.
I have done a factory reset, tried uninstalling apps, and most recently got the phone replaced under LGs 2 year promise warranty. One week in and the replacement phone has started freezing just like the old phone.
My wife has the exact same phone and runs many of the same apps with no issues. My phone is stock android, not rooted and no mods. This is frustrating and I don't know what to try in order to troubleshoot.
Is there an app commonly known to have issues on the V30 (such as nova launcher)? Or is there a logging app i could install to capture info about why it crashed/locked up?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, Nova launcher works great.
The fact that your replacement phone is now acting the same way is a clue. The problem is probably going to be a "rouge" app that is receiving/sending ads in the background. Just the other day was another report of almost 250 apps found in Google Play store with ad malware, all from Cooltek. A few months ago similar situation with hundreds of other apps -- where in the background ads and videos were being played (user never saw them, but the process was running), so the companies would get advertising money.
It's going to be an app you have that your wife doesn't.
Had a friend who kept complaining to me her V30+ "Thumbnail Gallery" app (or some such silly name) kept closing and her phone was acting weird. I asked why she was even using that app. She said that's how viewed her pictures. I said no, a gallery app comes with the phone. She couldn't even remember where it came from. She said maybe a friend told her to install it. I told her to uninstall it NOW. I need to see what else crap she has installed... because she's always complaining about her phone. None of the other friends/family complain about their V30 and mine runs smooth as does my wife's. So, I know my friend's phone must have more ad malware apps on it.
ChazzMatt said:
No, Nova launcher works great.
The fact that your replacement phone is now acting the same way is a clue. The problem is probably going to be a "rouge" app that is receiving/sending ads in the background. Just the other day was another report of almost 250 apps found in Google Play store with ad malware, all from Cooltek. A few months ago similar situation with hundreds of other apps -- where in the background ads and videos were being played (user never saw them, but the process was running), so the companies would get advertising money.
It's going to be an app you have that your wife doesn't.
Had a friend who kept complaining to me her V30+ "Thumbnail Gallery" app (or some such silly name) kept closing and her phone was acting weird. I asked why she was even using that app. She said that's how viewed her pictures. I said no, a gallery app comes with the phone. She couldn't even remember where it came from. She said maybe a friend told her to install it. I told her to uninstall it NOW. I need to see what else crap she has installed... because she's always complaining about her phone. None of the other friends/family complain about their V30 and mine runs smooth as does my wife's. So, I know my friend's phone must have more ad malware apps on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I was pretty bummed when my replacement started because I knew it meant i was going to be sleuthing through apps trying to find the culprit.
I am usually pretty good about recognizing shady apps. That's why i was hoping maybe there was an app just known to have this kind of issue with the V30.
Also, I have been trusting google play protect to alert me of any suspicious apps. Is it safe to say there could be a malicious app installed, but that play protect might not find it?
urushiol said:
Yeah, I was pretty bummed when my replacement started because I knew it meant i was going to be sleuthing through apps trying to find the culprit.
I am usually pretty good about recognizing shady apps. That's why i was hoping maybe there was an app just known to have this kind of issue with the V30.
Also, I have been trusting google play protect to alert me of any suspicious apps. Is it safe to say there could be a malicious app installed, but that play protect might not find it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, google "cooltek ad malware" for most recent news.
There were many other apps discovered a few months ago, where the users never saw the millions of clicks on ads that were being generated. They were just running in the background.
https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/13/new-android-adware-google-play/
I'd suggest starting with only the apps you and your wife both have. You could use Titanium Backup to freeze the others, for example, or just uninstall them. While you're there look for odd looking apps - some apps will install companion bits which is where the malware resides, for example. Then, stay that way for a while and see how it goes... if it solves the issue, you know it's one of those apps.
Depending on how many unique apps you have, you can add them one at a time or a few at a time, then let it run that way for a while, etc. Repeat until you find the app or apps that cause the issue.
In the first step, if you can't figure out which apps are good/bad, you could simply factory-reset the phone and then add ONLY the matching apps, then work forward from there...
Hello urushiol, I have the same problem as you
I've bought off ebay a LG V30+ H930DS 128go to replace my laggy LG G5 at a pretty good price (150€). The back cover was crack, so I replaced it with a 10€ one from aliexpress.
Unfortunately the phone randomly freeze, like once every day or two making it horrible to use it as an alarm for work, and using it. When it happens, power button doesn't do anything, I need to do the Volume - min + power button to restart the phone.
When my phone was in the pocket, the screen is black (I thought it was shutdown) but then it happens when my phone was on my desk, and saw that always on display was working but phone isn't waking up with power button (then I knew it just freezes).
Battery health is good according to battery apps, already tried factory reset, I use the same apps as on my G5.
I'm not sure if it's a hardware problem or software, if I have the same problem as you, it must be software then.
Weirdly enough, my phone hasn't freeze since four days, i don't know why. (I use device uptime to see).
But even it it looks like it doesn't freeze much right now, I totally do not trust this phone as an alarm for work so I think I'm going to change the phone for something else. I had the G3 and G5 and I never had issue with them freezing.
lgg3owner said:
Unfortunately the phone randomly freeze, like once every day or two making it horrible to use it as an alarm for work, and using it. When it happens, power button doesn't do anything, I need to do the Volume - min + power button to restart the phone.
When my phone was in the pocket, the screen is black (I thought it was shutdown) but then it happens when my phone was on my desk, and saw that always on display was working but phone isn't waking up with power button (then I knew it just freezes).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is extremely similar to my issues. I have started using a tablet instead for my alarm. I have nearly been late for work several times due to it locking up in the night.
I think i may have found the app that was causing my issue at least. 5 days without a lockup now. Carrier services. I had installed this app knowing that RCS roll out was on the horizon, and i wanted to be ready. If anyone else has this app installed on Verizon with no issue I think i just got lucky with not having a lockup and it might lockup any day now. We'll see. I'll keep testing.
urushiol said:
This is extremely similar to my issues. I have started using a tablet instead for my alarm. I have nearly been late for work several times due to it locking up in the night.
I think i may have found the app that was causing my issue at least. 5 days without a lockup now. Carrier services. I had installed this app knowing that RCS roll out was on the horizon, and i wanted to be ready. If anyone else has this app installed on Verizon with no issue I think i just got lucky with not having a lockup and it might lockup any day now. We'll see. I'll keep testing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It has been 15 days without freezing for me.
I have a "no carrier" phone so no Verizon app or other carrier related things.
Do you have OnOff app ? (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onoffapp.app)
I've uninstalled this app (and maybe one or two others) and it seems like since then I don't have freeze anymore.
lgg3owner said:
It has been 15 days without freezing for me.
I have a "no carrier" phone so no Verizon app or other carrier related things.
Do you have OnOff app ? (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onoffapp.app)
I've uninstalled this app (and maybe one or two others) and it seems like since then I don't have freeze anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.ims&hl=en_US
Carrier services is mostly used by people who aren't on verizon, because unless you have a Pixel, verizon hasn't supported it. Hopefully this is changing soon so I installed it a bit early. Hoping this was my issue. I haven't heard of OnOff before.
All other apps i had were from major companies. Accept this one, a game:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.h8games.helixjump
I also removed it, but did have one lockup after removing it and before removing carrier services.
urushiol said:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.ims&hl=en_US
Carrier services is mostly used by people who aren't on verizon, because unless you have a Pixel, verizon hasn't supported it. Hopefully this is changing soon so I installed it a bit early. Hoping this was my issue. I haven't heard of OnOff before.
All other apps i had were from major companies. Accept this one, a game:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.h8games.helixjump
I also removed it, but did have one lockup after removing it and before removing carrier services.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok I didn't know, I'm not from USA. I don't have RCS installed and don't have this game neither.
I have the LG-H930DS Rev.1.1 with Android 8.0 April 2019 security patch - V22j-HKG-XX. Everything is stock on mine, stock launcher, no root etc...
Now I just have a jack problem, where I hear only from one ear depending of how the jack cable is twisted, I will try to change it without breaking the back cover.

Question Shutting down every time screen turns off

Hi all,
Received my 1 iii yesterday, spent several hours setting it up, tweaking, testing, transferring files--and love it. Been an LG V-series user for the last six years, but with LG bowing out and having moved toward radiused corners, rounded glass, notches, etc. anyway--I'm very glad Sony is still out there making sane, non-compromised phones with basic features like microSD, no hole punch, and headphone jacks that are now treated as "niche" or "enthusiast".
BUT, unfortunately, having a very odd problem, and can't find any examples of anyone else having the issue... but it basically makes the phone unusable.
Literally any time the screen turns off--whether via pressing the power button, or via an inactiivty screen time out--the phone either shuts down, or restarts.
I've done a factory reset several times, tested it with fully restored apps/settings/personal data/etc., and totally un-restored, makes no difference--the issue always happens. So it's not the fault of any setting I altered, app I installed or disabled, etc.
I remember the first time I booted up the phone--but none of the factory reset times since then--that it said something about some setting being on to prevent battery wear from the phone being accidentally turned on during shipping. So maybe there's some bizarre setting somewhere that auto-shuts-down the phone when the screen turns off? Otherwise I'm at a total loss...
Thanks in advance for any help!!
Here is one of two reviews from Amazon about this phone:
"Got in the infinity reboot issue right out of the box...a $1200+ phone, very disappointed .
Got it today on the release. Then start setup and update. Not even until all set up finished, it restarted first time. Then again in just about 15mins. Overall been through restart 12 times. Try hard reset and all other methods, not helping. Return....."
So, unless you are the one who left this review...you are not alone! This type of stuff makes me so disappointed!
Sounds like the reviewer on Amazon was having a different problem. Mine stays on perfectly fine as long as one is interacting with it--only shuts down/restarts if the screen turns off.
Given the variety of software states in which the problem occurs--vlank setup, full set-up, safe mode--seems like a rare hardware issue. As long as it can be replaced with a correctly functioning unit quickly, it's still the phone I want...
If not, I guess I ride out my LG V50 till it dies, and then quit using smart phones...
Having to ship it in for warranty repair. Seems like almost certainly a hardware problem--sounds like I "won" the lemon lottery. A bummer, but not an indictment of the phone generally.
But I'm still really digging the phone--when it works. Did a video A/B with my LG V50, and while it didn't strike me as miles better--it definitely was when full-screen. Not having to look at rounded corners and a notch is worth a lot to me. With font and display set to smallest settings, *love* the look and roominess of the screen.
I agree with not wanting notches, or punch holes...this is why I am interested in this phone...PLUS I truly miss having a notification LED. However, so far the reviews from end users/owners...not the "pro" reviewers on YouTube..is leaning towards the negative! My last three phones have been from OnePlus. Currently on the 8T. I know many have started to slam OnePlus for their practice of late patches and higher prices...but I have not had even ONE problem with any of the OnePlus phones I've had! They just work. I've had the 6, 7-Pro, and now the 8T. There's nothing out there that even interests me any longer that doesn't overheat, or freeze, or have unnecessary dedicated assistant buttons??? Disgusted with them all. I just might have to take a harder look at Apple!!!!
Outside of what appears to be a truly random and uncommon hardware issue that's affecting mine per this thread--I actually really loved the 1 mk iii so far.
I haven't had overheating issues, camera seemed excellent, loved the hardware build quality, *LOVE* having a proper screen again (including no notches, aspect ratio, and tons of room w/ fonts and appearance set to smallest). I will never buy a phone that doesn't have microSD support, and access on this phone is awesome (no tool needed).
I wouldn't be too quick to write it off--especially not for the likes of Apple, who provide a hugely compromised, feature-removing, closed-ecosystem product at an inflated price for what you get.
Keep in mind--it's the internet, so you're going to far disproportionatly have people needing to discuss problems. Folks for whom nothing goes wrong--for any product--won't tend to seek out places like this to say so. So I wouldn't let a really small sample of issues unduly color your view...
Hi I have the exact same issue. Received mine on the 24th and transferred everything over from Oppo find X2 pro. Thought it was me at first when trying to wake but it rebooted. All fine until used in car QI base. After 20 minute drive picked it up and tried to wake only for the same thing to happen. Did this several times yesterday and this morning both on and off charge and while cool to touch. Very disappointing as expected more for something that cost nearly £1200! Like the phone a lot and prefer it over the Oppo but cannot find a way around this. A new 256k micro SD card also being used so have tried without this, without the EE sim and factory reset but still it happens. It's unusable as is so will have to be replaced, unless any suggestions?
Have had a few good Android phones from Huawei P20 pro, Mate 20X to current Oppo in recent times but never had an issue like this.
Having to swap back to the Oppo is very time consuming and exasperating!
Shame as this is a stunningly good phone.
Mikehbw said:
Hi I have the exact same issue. Received mine on the 24th and transferred everything over from Oppo find X2 pro. Thought it was me at first when trying to wake but it rebooted. All fine until used in car QI base. After 20 minute drive picked it up and tried to wake only for the same thing to happen. Did this several times yesterday and this morning both on and off charge and while cool to touch. Very disappointing as expected more for something that cost nearly £1200! Like the phone a lot and prefer it over the Oppo but cannot find a way around this. A new 256k micro SD card also being used so have tried without this, without the EE sim and factory reset but still it happens. It's unusable as is so will have to be replaced, unless any suggestions?
Have had a few good Android phones from Huawei P20 pro, Mate 20X to current Oppo in recent times but never had an issue like this.
Having to swap back to the Oppo is very time consuming and exasperating!
Shame as this is a stunningly good phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Forgot to say there are others on here with similar issue, under random reboot thread.
After sending in for "repair" and receiving it back with no improvement (but "repaired"), Sony has finally agreed I'm due a replacement unit. Have shipped my first unit off, due to arrive to them next Wednesday. Will hopefully receive a properly-functioning replacement soon thereafter... Agree that, if the phone didn't have this bizarre issue, it would be great--very close to what I want in a phone (versus the myriad options out there that don't offer what I want, and insist on absurd design choices I detest).
So, we'll see. Certainly frustrating to have an issue like this on a phone that costs more than plenty of computers...
(To be clear, I had the issue literally every time, from the beginning, regardless of what I had/hadn't set up, installed, sim card/no sim card, micro SD/no micro SD, etc.).
I have Xperia™1 III but the phone is really stable for me, no random reboot. I have only heating issue. Xperia™ XZ2 Premium hasn't heat like this phone. My phone is Hong Kong device
Most likely not what caused your issue...but...it is NOT a good idea to allow any backup to install all your previous apps from an "old" phone to a new one. I know it can be a major pain and very time consuming to install everything from scratch when setting up a new phone...however...when you allow a backup to flow freely onto a new phone you are allowing all the junk to come back also! It's up to you, but I always install everything from scratch and it may not be related but...I have owned many, many phones and NEVER had all the problems that so many have all across the board. Am I just lucky, or is it because I have so much experience with computers and know how to set things up properly? YMMV
jaseman said:
Most likely not what caused your issue...but...it is NOT a good idea to allow any backup to install all your previous apps from an "old" phone to a new one. I know it can be a major pain and very time consuming to install everything from scratch when setting up a new phone...however...when you allow a backup to flow freely onto a new phone you are allowing all the junk to come back also! It's up to you, but I always install everything from scratch and it may not be related but...I have owned many, many phones and NEVER had all the problems that so many have all across the board. Am I just lucky, or is it because I have so much experience with computers and know how to set things up properly? YMMV
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you have been lucky
Like you I have never had a problem and been in IT since the early 80's but this isn't something that's has been moved over. Sadly, the phone behaves the same wether out of the box or fully migrated. In the PC world I saw something similar with overheating and poorly cooled AMD processors in the 90's and am wondering if this is a heat related component batch issue?
Sony need to get a grip on this sharpish or they will be looking at refunds, which is never good.
The reboots are caused by the fingerprint reader. My new phone would bootloop while fast charging if my one and only configuration after a factory reset was setting a fingerprint.
DO NOT SEND IT IN FOR A WARRANTY REPAIR - - IT WILL GET WORSE
Get a refund.
First, Sony sent it to SBE with FedEx Ground, which currently takes about 2 weeks.
Second, SBE returned it bricked and voided my warranty. They said I flashed it but I had sent it in new and unmodified. I didn't even think they returned my own phone back because it had a UK/EU label and destroyed firmware. Sony Support would no longer help me because I was no longer a customer. SBE insisted I was a firmware flasher that deserved nothing. I ran EMMA and it showed my phone IMEI, locked bootloader, and stock firmware.
I finally found somebody on Sony Support who would give me an RMA. Maybe it was their mistake, but I wasted no time shipping it back. I'm doing a credit card charge reversal if I get any more crap from Sony/SBE.
I have spoken to Sony UK tech support and they have confirmed there is a reboot issue with some1iii's. Apparently, second line technical support have identified the issue (software) and there will be a revision released to cure this. When pressed, they couldn't give me a date for this and were a little vague. I was advised to return to my supplier for a refund.
Not good on a phone costing £1200 and surprised they haven't got their act together more quickly. They seem to be struggling getting phones shipped presently and my supplier has confirmed a 14 day wait if I want to re-order. I don't know if this is just poor advanced planning by Sony UK or if this is a Sony global problem trying to get hold of the components for manufacture.
Despite all the issues, this phone still ticks all the boxes for me so have decided to wait for the dust to settle!
Good to know there's some awareness now on Sony's part of this issue, and a plan yo resolve it via software (?). If the second unit I get has the same issue, I guess I'll wait a bit for that aoftware resolution--but deeply hoping I won't have the issue again.
I will say, I believe I tested not registering any fingerprints on at least one of the numerous factory resets I tried, and I believe the issue still occurred--had seen threads of similar issues stemming from the fingerprint reader on other manufacturer's phones, so tried to rule it out...
The original phone I got back from SBE wasn't bricked, it just wasn't in any way improved. Fortunately Sony didn't make any weird claims that I'd done anything wrong (I wouldn't know how to mess with "rooting" or whatever--no interest/need to). It was delivered to Sonyin San Diego by FedEx today--so hoping my replacement unit ships in the next day or two...
Mikehbw said:
Despite all the issues, this phone still ticks all the boxes for me so have decided to wait for the dust to settle!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. With LG gone, I really want the Xperia 1 iii to pan out--only phone that has microSD, no notches/currves/radiused corners, a hogh-res screen, and a headphone jack. If I can't get one to work properly, I'll probably just buy another LG V50, second-hand.

S21 crashing/rebooting 1-2 times/day. Any tips on troubleshooting?

I have as SM-G991U (256 GB S21 US version, stock everything but using Nova Launcher) that is randomly freezing/crashing then rebooting on me 1-2 times/day. Does android have any kind of crash log I could look at to try and figure out what's causing the problem? On the samsung forums, their support reps suggest running in Safe Mode, which I have, but it's not very useful because I can't reproduce the problem on demand and it usually happens 1-2/day, but sometimes less, so unless I just ran in safe mode all the time, that wouldn't tell me much. Plus, it would only tell me it's an issue caused by one of a hundred or so apps which, again, is not helpful.
So I'm hoping there is a crash log or something somewhere because I have no idea what triggers the crashes. The other night, it was sitting on a wireless charger, the screen wasn't on, then all the sudden it rebooted. It's not specific to any app or anything I'm doing. If there are no crash logs (which would be frustrating and disappointing), any other troubleshooting ideas are welcome!
Look for a memory leak. Typically a poorly written 3rd party apk.
Try clearing system cache.
Make sure auto restart isn't enabled...
dougleto said:
I have as SM-G991U (256 GB S21 US version, stock everything but using Nova Launcher) that is randomly freezing/crashing then rebooting on me 1-2 times/day. Does android have any kind of crash log I could look at to try and figure out what's causing the problem? On the samsung forums, their support reps suggest running in Safe Mode, which I have, but it's not very useful because I can't reproduce the problem on demand and it usually happens 1-2/day, but sometimes less, so unless I just ran in safe mode all the time, that wouldn't tell me much. Plus, it would only tell me it's an issue caused by one of a hundred or so apps which, again, is not helpful.
So I'm hoping there is a crash log or something somewhere because I have no idea what triggers the crashes. The other night, it was sitting on a wireless charger, the screen wasn't on, then all the sudden it rebooted. It's not specific to any app or anything I'm doing. If there are no crash logs (which would be frustrating and disappointing), any other troubleshooting ideas are welcome!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi mate
For logs info check here and here
You can always flash firmware , using home_csc , to avoid factory reset the phone , if the problem is system related it will help
If is app related
Try booting in safe mode to see if problem goes away...
MAX 404 said:
Hi mate
For logs info check here and here
You can always flash firmware , using home_csc , to avoid factory reset the phone , if the problem is system related it will help
If is app related
Try booting in safe mode to see if problem goes away...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! I'll definitely try these out. I tried safe mode, the trouble is it's not really great as a diagnostic because the phone will go from 4-24 hrs between resets during normal operation, and since a phone in safe mode isn't terribly useful, it's hard to keep it in safe mode for long enough to see if that fixed the issue, if that makes sense. And then, if it did fix the issue, it just narrows it down to 1 out of a hundred apps! But maybe I'm missing something. Is there additional information I can find if I run in safe mode that would help suss out the problem?
blackhawk said:
Look for a memory leak. Typically a poorly written 3rd party apk.
Try clearing system cache.
Make sure auto restart isn't enabled...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! I know how to clear cache but not how to check for memory leaks. Do you have a tool you'd recommend to do that? And I had never heard of auto restart before, so thanks for that. I confirmed that it is NOT enabled (that would have been a face palm moment!).
dougleto said:
Thanks! I'll definitely try these out. I tried safe mode, the trouble is it's not really great as a diagnostic because the phone will go from 4-24 hrs between resets during normal operation, and since a phone in safe mode isn't terribly useful, it's hard to keep it in safe mode for long enough to see if that fixed the issue, if that makes sense. And then, if it did fix the issue, it just narrows it down to 1 out of a hundred apps! But maybe I'm missing something. Is there additional information I can find if I run in safe mode that would help suss out the problem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is not easy , you just need to be methodic
See if you can find anything useful in the logs first
Reflash firmware , use home-csc , see if it help
Have you notice if the phone fails under any specific circumstances?
If that does not help and if you can really relate the problem with any specific app you may try to freeze or uninstall suspicious app and let it run for a day , Package disabler app is a good option , it is easy to enable or disable app but is not free, you could try this one , is a debloater tool , it allow you to disable app... may be easy that having to uninstall / install by hand
I'm also having the same problem. Had the phone since June, it didn't start to occur until late August, which leads me to suspect it is an update related issue.
GillBates21 said:
I'm also having the same problem. Had the phone since June, it didn't start to occur until late August, which leads me to suspect it is an update related issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm glad you posted today, I've been meaning to post again here because I tried troubleshooting and am still having issues. In fact, it crashed twice today when I was trying to send a text message.
I installed one of the log applications (can't remember which one at the moment) but it wasn't really helpful. They didn't seem to catch any information related to a crash even though they were logging data at least twice when it crashed.
Then I tried reflashing using home-csc using ODIN and that ended up soft-bricking my phone (and yes, I followed all the instructions and used home-csc) so I had to reflash everything and do a full factory reset. That seemed to help, reducing the crashes from once/day to once/2-3 days for a few weeks, but now it's back to ~once a day (sometimes more, sometimes less).
So if anyone has any other idea, I'm all ears. When I was reflashing and stuff, I noticed in the recovery mode (or whatever it's called) options that you can look at logs. Does anyone know if one of those logs would have crash-related data or any other ideas of what to try? This is incredibly frustrating, especially that it's persisting after a factory reset. Argh!
dougleto said:
I'm glad you posted today, I've been meaning to post again here because I tried troubleshooting and am still having issues. In fact, it crashed twice today when I was trying to send a text message.
I installed one of the log applications (can't remember which one at the moment) but it wasn't really helpful. They didn't seem to catch any information related to a crash even though they were logging data at least twice when it crashed.
Then I tried reflashing using home-csc using ODIN and that ended up soft-bricking my phone (and yes, I followed all the instructions and used home-csc) so I had to reflash everything and do a full factory reset. That seemed to help, reducing the crashes from once/day to once/2-3 days for a few weeks, but now it's back to ~once a day (sometimes more, sometimes less).
So if anyone has any other idea, I'm all ears. When I was reflashing and stuff, I noticed in the recovery mode (or whatever it's called) options that you can look at logs. Does anyone know if one of those logs would have crash-related data or any other ideas of what to try? This is incredibly frustrating, especially that it's persisting after a factory reset. Argh!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So what I tried to do is roll back all the default google app updates. Ex: Android system webview, Google app itself, etc etc. I factory reset it without backing up any apps (but pictures and messages etc), It was working for a few days and then it happened again. Which further reinforces my thinking that my problem is software based.
GillBates21 said:
So what I tried to do is roll back all the default google app updates. Ex: Android system webview, Google app itself, etc etc. I factory reset it without backing up any apps (but pictures and messages etc), It was working for a few days and then it happened again. Which further reinforces my thinking that my problem is software based.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I'm curious why you think that means it's a software issue. If this isn't a widespread issue with the S21 and after we've both done a factory reset and still have the issue, that makes me think it could be a hardware issue. Of course, there could be some software incompatibility with an app that most people don't have installed or a bluetooth connection or something, which is why I really want to find a useful crash log (and find it rather absurb how hard it is to find a useful crash log on android, come on guys, it's a mature OS, some kind of crash log seems pretty basic!), because otherwise, it could be a ton of issues and I can't reproduce it. Ugh.
The reason is that the "few days" after the reset and restoring pictures, messages (but not apps) from backup, where there were no crashes at all (where previously it would happen at least 2 times per day).
GillBates21 said:
The reason is that the "few days" after the reset and restoring pictures, messages (but not apps) from backup, where there were no crashes at all (where previously it would happen at least 2 times per day).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got it, that makes sense. I'm on t-mobile and just got an update this morning. We'll see if that improves anything because my device restarted 4 times yesterday
I havent had a crash like this since i disabled chrome and other google stuff, and downgrading google apps lol.
GillBates21 said:
I havent had a crash like this since i disabled chrome and other google stuff, and downgrading google apps lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How did you disable chrome and what other google stuff did you disable? (There's obviously quite a lot of google services that can't be disabled)
After the most recent monthly update, my phone has gone from rebooting multiple times/day to once every 2-3 days, which is more manageable but still super annoying. It is incredibly frustrating to me that there are no good tools to troubleshoot a crash (at least that I've ben able to find). Honestly, it's driven me to consider an iPhone for the first time in my life .
My trouble is back... I will be scheduling a fix with samsung soon so I can RMA it
Check the below link. This seems to be a hardware problem which got solved after Samsung replaced the motherboard.
Samsung Restart problem
So I bought this phone for my wife. Since I received the phone, after a day the phone started crashing whatever app she was on and then take you back to lock screen without having to go through a full restart process but it was definitely a restart as you would need to enter your pin again as opposed to fingerprints.
Since it was within 15 days of purchase I returned and reordered another one from Samsung, and to my surprise exact same issue. What are the odds of having two brand new phones having exact same issues.
This leads me to believe it must be a software issue. I just received this 2nd new phone last Friday.
Yeah, I think what I was experiencing was a hardware issue (it definitely went through the full restart process, not what is described in the previous post). And from the link posted by sandystays above, it looks pretty common. I contacted Samsung support and was not impressed at all. They walked me through a number of troubleshooting steps that weren't helpful then had me take my phone to UBreakIFix. I did, they ran a diagnostic and their tools couldn't find anything wrong so they said Samsung should replace it.
Contacted Samsung, told them I had taken it in. They said I needed to take it to a technician (again, right after telling them I just had). They then said, oh, you'll have to mail it to us and you'll get your phone back in 7-10 business days. Their suggestion for what to do for a phone in the meantime? Buy a prepaid phone then return it when I get my phone back (which a) is unethical and b) wouldn't work anyways since they're locked). Ridiculous. They also admitted that this is a very common problem, so I asked why they just won't send me a replacement device if it's so common to which they had no real answer, just "that's our policy".
Eventually, I contacted T-mobile (my carrier) and was very pleasantly surprised. After me telling them the issue and the steps I'd taken to troubleshoot it, they sent me a replacement phone (recertified, but still) that arrived in 2 days. WAAAYYYY better than Samsung. The entire process made me a bit jealous of my wife's iPhone. If she had had a similar issue, we could have taken it to an apple store and not had the whole "our policy is that you have no phone for 7-10 business days" nonsense from Samsung AND the backup and restore process is still way better on iPhones than on any android I've ever owned. How there is no easy and reliable backup/restore mechanism on android after so long is beyond me.
Bottome line: if you have a similar issue, it's very likely a hardware problem (my replacement phone has been fine for 3 days now). And avoid Samsung support if you can!
dougleto said:
Yeah, I think what I was experiencing was a hardware issue (it definitely went through the full restart process, not what is described in the previous post). And from the link posted by sandystays above, it looks pretty common. I contacted Samsung support and was not impressed at all. They walked me through a number of troubleshooting steps that weren't helpful then had me take my phone to UBreakIFix. I did, they ran a diagnostic and their tools couldn't find anything wrong so they said Samsung should replace it.
Contacted Samsung, told them I had taken it in. They said I needed to take it to a technician (again, right after telling them I just had). They then said, oh, you'll have to mail it to us and you'll get your phone back in 7-10 business days. Their suggestion for what to do for a phone in the meantime? Buy a prepaid phone then return it when I get my phone back (which a) is unethical and b) wouldn't work anyways since they're locked). Ridiculous. They also admitted that this is a very common problem, so I asked why they just won't send me a replacement device if it's so common to which they had no real answer, just "that's our policy".
Eventually, I contacted T-mobile (my carrier) and was very pleasantly surprised. After me telling them the issue and the steps I'd taken to troubleshoot it, they sent me a replacement phone (recertified, but still) that arrived in 2 days. WAAAYYYY better than Samsung. The entire process made me a bit jealous of my wife's iPhone. If she had had a similar issue, we could have taken it to an apple store and not had the whole "our policy is that you have no phone for 7-10 business days" nonsense from Samsung AND the backup and restore process is still way better on iPhones than on any android I've ever owned. How there is no easy and reliable backup/restore mechanism on android after so long is beyond me.
Bottome line: if you have a similar issue, it's very likely a hardware problem (my replacement phone has been fine for 3 days now). And avoid Samsung support if you can!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
On the second phone I still have the 2wk window to return. I am contemplating if I should just return altogether. I had bought an s21 Ultra as well and that seem to be working OK.
Two s21+ phones with same issue, what are the odds of hardware problem? But what if it is the entire batch that is bad.
isiddiqi said:
On the second phone I still have the 2wk window to return. I am contemplating if I should just return altogether. I had bought an s21 Ultra as well and that seem to be working OK.
Two s21+ phones with same issue, what are the odds of hardware problem? But what if it is the entire batch that is bad.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Your issue sounds different to me. Mine definitely fully rebooted, I have no idea what is going on with yours, it sounds like your crashes are locking the phone or something, that could definitely be software. Good luck!

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