Odd experience after underwater use.

[Bkr11]

I took some pics of the kids in our swimming pool yesterday and it seemed to work pretty well. The camera was never more than a foot below the surface. A few hours after getting out of the pool I plugged in the charger and the phone started freaking out on me. I rebooted it and it rebooted into a safe mode (said safe in bottom left corner IIRC), so I rebooted again. Next time things came up all of my customizations to the homescreen/theme were gone, I had to reauthorize the facebook app, but certain other apps (i.e. Gmail and my corporate email app) were fine.

Phone seems to be working fine and I installed Nova Launcher (to hopefully prevent losing my layout in the future), but just through I'd share this with the forum. If anybody has any ideas for restoring the layout I had yesterday afternoon I'd love them, though it's not a major deal.

Thanks

 

[muggy]

Not sure if this even remotely has anything to do with it, but isn't there a feature to separate work and play through KNOX? Is it possible you got to the other mode through all of this?

 

[Phoneguy108]

Sorry to hear you are having issues.

I personally won't take my phone in the water after reading about your experience.

 

[Bkr11]

Sorry to hear you are having issues.

I personally won't take my phone in the water after reading about your experience.

Fwiw it has been working fine today. Couldn't figure out the knox thing to see if that played a role.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[emad1995]

When ever your device boots into safe mode it shows the apps that were pre installed on your device, anything extra is removed. Thus includes the way you later out your 3rd party apps on the honescreen. When you restart normally it doesn't restore your previous layout. I learned that the hard way by going into safe mode myself x.x

Posted with my shiny s6

 

[Bkr11]

When ever your device boots into safe mode it shows the apps that were pre installed on your device, anything extra is removed. Thus includes the way you later out your 3rd party apps on the honescreen. When you restart normally it doesn't restore your previous layout. I learned that the hard way by going into safe mode myself x.x

Posted with my shiny s6

Good information and thanks. I'll stop looking for solutions and be more cautious about purposefully taking the phone in the water. I've accidentally jumped in my pool at least 2x with my phones in my pocket, so the "waterproof" nature of the Active, even with some potential bugs, is still well worth it for me.

 

[Gaius Baltar]

My Active just went haywire for 15 minutes after its first swimming pool adventure. Wasn't more than a foot underwater for a total of a minute. Left it on side of pool and:

-screen went blank except for small flickering "X's" in the bottom corners.

-an endless partial audio Loop of a female audio voice prompting me as if I was in some sort of initialization sequence.

(Edit 2: it was the Gear VR setup. Regular S6 and Edge owners have also reported Gear VR setup opening at random and freezing the phone for 10 minutes. So I can't presume this was caused just by water immersion]

-I couldn't remember the Soft Reset sequence so I put it in bag of rice, then 10 minutes later the audio Loop stopped and phone was acting normal.

-except I got visual prompt "the Power sharing cable has been installed. Power will continue to be discharged even if no receiving device is connected" I have no idea what this is.

My phone had a Bodyguardz screen protector installed. I wonder if the water droplets kept causing screen inputs, causing the haywire?

In any case, I'm a swimmer. So much for the primary reason I bought this phone.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Steve H Gotha]

I have used mine a few times under water and the only thing I noticed was the speaker seemed to be affected, I only noticed when I put a call on speaker and realized the volume level was all the way up and yet I could barely hear anything. The following morning it was back to normal, so I am thinking water just needed to evaporate. As for the under water experience, that and the bigger battery are the reason I left the S6 for the active, and I have been able to take some great underwater pics and video of my 6 year old swimming.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[pattyD19]

My s6 has become unstable after coming out of the water as well. Did you get any resolution to this?

 

[Grismac]

I tried to use mine underwater last week and take pictures in Aqua mode, but never could get it to work. Some sort of Samsung Gear notice kept popping up. It never went more than 1.5 feet underwater and was only wet for about 5 mins. It went kind of haywire, but eventually settled down. However, now the USB port will not work at all, meaning that it will not charge and will not connect to a computer. USB is completely dead. the only way to charge is wirelessly. Other than that, the phone works fine. Does anyone think there is any recourse for repair or replacement with either Samsung, Best Buy (where purchased), or AT&T? I bought this phone specifically because of it's water resistant specs touted by both AT&T and Samsung. Having a Aqua Mode on the camera clearly indicates that the phone was intended for short term underwater use.

 

[mj0528]

If this is what is to be expected, I'm gonna have to take it back.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

 

[cajun456]

I have the S6 Active and it did some of the same things after going in the water with it. It showed dock connected, low audio after being in the water, usb cable not working (although, mine would charge, but not transfer data), and after a full day since getting wet, it went into the "VR mode". I switched back to my S5 Active and the the S6 will be going back to AT&T next week.

 

[Grismac]

I chatted with Samsung tonight and am sending it to the warranty service center to have it evaluated. they'll determine if it's covered under warranty for repair. I was very clear about what happened, so I'll keep my fingers crossed.

 

[De Venton]

Removing the port covers was a grave mistake.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[mj0528]

Well... At least it has a big battery

Sigh..

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G890A using Tapatalk

 

[mj0528]

So if there is water damage with the rating of ip68, what will be our recourse? I assume they will owe us new phones.

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[cajun456]

Putting it in water is one of the features, so if that feature breaks the phone, they should have to replace it.

 

[pjniez]

I have the S5 Active (which has a USB port cover) and the only issue I had with water was that the phone would cycle through headphones connected and disconnected repeatedly until I shook the water out of the headphone jack. I recently bought a little silicone plug for the headphone jack. The plug is to keep dust and dirt out of the headphone jack and doesn't claim to be waterproof in any way. So I don't expect it to keep the headphone jack completely dry and just keeps the bulk of the water out. Since having this plug installed, I've been in the water twice with the phone and the headphones connected/disconnected cycle hasn't happened yet. So I guess it is working...

I am mentioning this because when I was shopping for the headphone jack plug, I also came across micro USB plugs. I wonder if you S6 Active owners tried covering the USB port with one of these, if it would it keep the USB port from getting saturated and prevent the phone from freaking out?

The plugs are cheap. I got mine from cellphonecases.com. The headphones plug was $1.99, came with a free stylus, and free shipping! Here is a link to the plug I bought:
http://www.cellphonecases.com/Apple-Headphone-Plug.html#.VaEnk_lViko

Does anyone that has had this problem want to buy one of these USB port jacks and see if it solves the problem and report back?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G870A using Tapatalk

 

[Gaius Baltar]

^^ I could see trying the Micro-USB plugs prior to my pool times. But with my luck I'd probably end up bending the port pin.

(I need a few more posts before posting a video link of my 3rd post-swim malfunction.) Gear VR Setup going crazy, erroneous "Charger Connected" notifications, and then crazy flickering after a Soft Reset. Will edit for you tube link here soon. ===> watch?v=df9ZKdHulSs

I've also had incorrect "Dock Connected" and "Power Sharing" mode enabled notifications, so I'm presuming that it is the Micro-USB port "shorting" out, rather than the headphone jack. But regular S6 and S6 Edge owners have reported the Gear VR insanity happening, too.

Also, while underwater, and even in Aqua Mode, the camera often tries to Pinch Zoom unless I'm in a front-facing Selfie mode. I'd like to be able to deactivate the Zoom function. I do have a Bodyguard screen protector, so I wonder if that somehow impacts the screen's resistance to underwater inputs. I think the pinch zoom night occur when you first immerse the phone, and the screen confuses the submersion with a wiping motion as it transitions from air to water.

 

[Steve Netzel]

As you can probably assume from my picture, I took my S6 Active under water and had a bad response, too. It was only a foot or so under and I went under 3 times to get a few underwater selfie pics. It was fine for about 5 minutes. Then the speaker got real quiet and distorted. About 1/2 hour later it started freaking out, turning the screen off and on, then 1/2 the screen was blank. I couldn't even get the screen on long enough to try to reboot it. THEN it was just a black screen and it kept beeping. I had only had it for a week and had just committed to paying $700 to AT&T for the thing. I literally thought I was going to puke. Luckily after about 2 hours it started acting normal again. It didn't "fast charge" for a couple charges but now is all fine. I will NOT be taking it under water again and am really disappointed because living in South Florida, I spend a lot of time at the pool and was really excited about the possibilities of having fun with it in the pool with my kids, too.