S6 (Verizon) Problems. Do I need to Factory Reset?

[Jeff Rueckgauer]

A couple of weeks ago, phone was sitting on my desk all day. Out of nowhere it started flashing a message that an unauthorized charger was detected and charging had been disabled. (It wasn't physically connected to anything.)

Plugged it into the charger (original Samsung). Would beep, say it was charging, then phone would power off. The charging display came on saying it was like 47% or so. Left it sit. Reached 100%. Turned it on. After the Verizon screen finished it started chirping like it was being connected to the charger. When the unlock screen appeared it powered off. Repeated this a few times. Then it wouldn't come on at all. Made me suspect the battery was being wonky, possibly warning it was on the edge of doom (I've had phone since 2016). Plugged it in and left it alone for a few hours. Lo and behold, it was more or less back to itself.

Since then I'm having weird momentary "screen flashes" of the screen going all white happen. Too fast to see anything other than the white flash as the screen returns to normal. Almost like a sreenshot but nothing showing up in the gallery. Phone has been sluggish at times but usage isn't reporting anything unusual with cpu usage. Randomly trying to restart or power off it has been making me enter the unlock PIN. And, it also refuses to recognize any charger other than the Samsung one for it. (Major problem if out and about because it won't charge in the car, on computer, or using a friend's non-Samsung charger.

I think it's telling me factory reset may be in order. However, I want to make certain that if I do, I won't lose the Android update currently on the phone because it is the last one Verizon made available last June (no more from Samsung so no more from VZ). If it restores it to the condition when I activated it, am I guaranteed to be able to have the OS update to the final version without having to jump through hoops?

If not, what are my options to keep this phone going? I don't want to root it because I use Samsung Pay and Google Pay regularly and I see lots of comments about them not working if rooted.

 

[Rukbat]

1. Factory resets remove anything you've added to the phone, they don't change the version or update you're on.

2. As I Said, though, anything you've added - aps, pictures, documents, texts - all gone.

3. It sounds more like the battery than something that needs a reset, but since it "saw" a charger when none was plugged in, I'd use canned air first to blow out the charging port. Then if the nonsense continues, see what having a new battery put in will cost - it might pay to upgrade to a newer phone.

 

[Jeff Rueckgauer]

1. Factory resets remove anything you've added to the phone, they don't change the version or update you're on.
...
3. It sounds more like the battery than something that needs a reset, but since it "saw" a charger when none was plugged in, I'd use canned air first to blow out the charging port. Then if the nonsense continues, see what having a new battery put in will cost - it might pay to upgrade to a newer phone.

First thing I did was try cleaning out the contacts.

I wasn't sure about the OS update being blown away. I would think not but I had a Samsung tablet from 2012 that I had to reset. It did revert the OS to the OOB and I had to reapply the update. (And that wound up bricking it and reflashing woudln't work.)

Yeah, I know it's time to upgrade but I'm waiting for the X to drop and push down the prices on the 8 or 9 a bit more. No point in locking in for 2 years at a higher price before.