My Samsung Galaxy S8 is turning itself off every two minutes unless a game app is running

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Android Central Question

For the last month, my Samsung Galaxy S8 had started having intermittent issues where it would turn itself off. It would sometimes randomly turn itself off a few times in a row, and then seem fine for a while and then eventually do it again.

Yesterday it happened again but didn't stop after a few times. It turned itself off approximately every two minutes. Sometimes it would run a bit longer, but usually just two minutes. It's still happening today.

Weirdly, I eventually noticed that it would not turn itself off while Pokemon Go was running. After my phone turned itself off about ten times, I was playing Pokemon Go for about 40 minutes without any issues. After I closed the app, my phone turned itself off within a few seconds. I tried this a few more times with the same results. It continued to turn itself off every two minutes unless the game was running.

I wondered if there was a problem with the app running in the background, so I turned off background data for the game, but the problem persisted. I uninstalled the game, and the problem persisted.

I tried running other games. The other games also prevented the phone from shutting itself off (but only games with animated graphics). Youtube also prevents it, both the app and in a browser.

Other notes:

-running Android 9

-bought "mint" in November, not under warranty

-The battery is at the same percentage when the phone starts back up as it was when it died the last time. It is draining at a normal pace.

-I tried wiping the cache partition and it didn't help.

-It still happens in safe mode.

-It turns itself off while I'm browsing the internet, using Google maps navigation, playing local videos on the phone storage, using Twitter and most other non-intensive apps, charging, not charging, and even when the screen is off and the phone isn't being used at all. This usually happens every two minutes.

-It does not turn itself off when running a game with animated graphics, or playing youtube videos, or (so far) when making a call. It also doesn't turn off when a game is running but there is nothing moving on the screen (example: when an ad plays in the game and then stops and the screen is still, but the game launcher "drag lock icon to unlock" comes up and the phone does not shut down).

-when I use the pop-up panel while gaming (in advanced game features), if the pop-up window is selected, the phone turns off. If I use the pop-up panel for two seconds and then quickly re-select the game window, it doesn't turn off. I'd have to keep re-selecting the game window every few seconds to avoid shutdown.

-My screen timeout was set to two minutes, and I switched it to five minutes just in case that was related, but the phone still shuts off after two minutes unless I open a game.

-I have not yet tried a factory reset because I don't have a data backup yet.

Please let me know if you have any ideas on how to fix this.

If all else fails, I'd also be open to creative ideas of how to force the phone to keep running by keeping a small popup of a game or something over my main screen, at least for a month or so until I can get a new phone. This might help me back up my data as well.

Thanks.
 

VidJunky

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Wow. This is kind of the opposite of what one might expect... A device that shuts down if it's not being used. Since this is also happening in Safe Mode it's most likely not app related and since it requires a high level of RAM usage to stay running there's not much to keep it going. I guess the first thing I would try would be to turn off optimization for all apps. I believe you can do this by going to Settings>Device Care/Status>Memory>Select apps to exclude and just exclude them all. While you're in that area, back out to the main Device Care/Status screen, in the upper right use the 3 dots to select Advanced and turn off Auto Optimization and Auto Restart... It doesn't sound like either one of these but I've never heard of anything like so I'm really guessing trying to think of anything that might be related.

Speaking of optimization, do you have any optimizers running on the device? Memory savers, data savers, spyware, malware or antivirus? Before the other two I would turn all of that off, honestly I me myself would uninstall all of that, restart the device and see if that makes a difference.
 

firstunicorn7

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Hi OP here, thanks for responding. to answer your questions:

Yes it fully powers off. The battery is the original as far as I know, but it is not removable in this model. VidJunky, I'll try your suggestions and report back later.
 

B. Diddy

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Since it's completely powering off, I'd be concerned about a battery problem, or a loose power connection somewhere on the motherboard. Does the phone get really warm when it shuts down?
 

mustang7757

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Hi OP here, thanks for responding. to answer your questions:

Yes it fully powers off. The battery is the original as far as I know, but it is not removable in this model. VidJunky, I'll try your suggestions and report back later.
Hi welcome!

I think you battery starting go on you , watch out for back panel swelling as it did on my s8+ it lifted it a little
 

VidJunky

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Hey firstunicorn7 thanks for joining.

While I agree with my friends here that a bad battery will cause random and sometimes abrupt shutdowns, from all of the times I've been in discussions about that, it seems that it happens more often when the device is taxed and not when it's at rest. It would seem that the high energy output pushes it over the tipping point of what it needs and what it can put out and the device shuts down. Also you mentioned that this happens even when plugged in, and most people report that they can only keep the device on if it's plugged in. Batteries are easy to test though. I'm surprised B. Diddy didn't mention the battery test app he likes, sorry I can't remember the name, but most carrier service centers will check the battery for you for free. I'm not 100% on if youbreakifix provides this service, mustang7757 always recommends them, but they do Samsung repair work and can probably do that check as well. For that matter they might be familiar with this type of issue and may be able to help you more than here in the forum. I've just honestly never heard of this problem, and I doubt the carrier service center will be much help beyond testing the battery. They have niche things they're good at but most of their advice and training seem to come from a Google search more than knowledge or experience. LOL.

Hey let us know what you find.
 

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