My Samsung Note 8 started automatically upgrading Android and is frozen. What do I do?

[Android Central Question]

My wife's Samsung Note 8 started automatically upgrading Android and has been at "Optimizing app 124 of 124" for the last approximately 5 hours.
She can not restart or even shut the phone down.
Help!

 

[Rukbat]

There's one thing to try before getting help - hold the power switch in (15-30 seconds) until the phone restarts. It will show "Optimizing app 124 of 124" but that might kick it and get it going again. (It may take a few minutes to optimize, but not 15 minutes.)

If that doesn't get it going, bring it to your carrier and ask for help. (They might reflash the update - or the whole ROM might have to be flashed, so I hope your wife keeps her phone backed up.)