Rebooting issues on MM - caused by themes?

[deerokus]

This is a weird one. After the Marshmallow update from my network (Three in the UK) i noticed that the themes had gone a bit wonky. Colours and icons from one theme, fonts from another, and even the settings menu from yet another. Changing themes didn't resolve this, it simply changed the 'mixture'. Sometimes the phone would soft reboot when changing the theme which seemed to be causing some sort of self-perpetuating glitch.

Today it got more serious, as I realised certain actions would cause the phone to lock up and soft reboots, and I suspect this is caused by the theme 'glitch'. These actions include going to the theme store (no problem there, I won't use this feature ever again ), hitting the 'recent apps' key and, most awkwardly, using power button to bring up the power menu! It's fine if I don't do any of those things, but of course I can't turn the phone off to go into recovery mode. I tried factory resetting from the settings menu but it rebooted during that and didn't actually factory reset anything (except the time). Once the battery runs out I assume I will be able to do this stuff properly, at least. Force rebooting didn't solve the problem in any case.

It's a bit odd! Is there some way I can clear the themes from the storage through the file system? Or would that make matters worse? Or is this a symptom a phone which is just borked in some way?

 

[B. Diddy]

Welcome to Android Central! Try wiping the cache partition: https://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-21095

 

[deerokus]

Thanks! Yeah, will definitely try that once I can actually turn the thing off, right now I can reboot or force reboot but not turn it fully off

Edit, alright, think I may have solved the problem by changing the system font. Must have been a dodgy font in a theme? I'm not even touching the theme store any more!

 

[B. Diddy]

If you ever have trouble shutting the phone down, try pressing and holding Power and Vol Down together for about 15-20 seconds.

 

[solomonvictor88]

I am kind off having the same issue with regards to themes, post the update of Marshmallow... It's likely to be a bug that Samsung had failed to notice during their quality control checks.... when contacted Samsung support team, they suggested that the files are likely to be corrupted or missed during the WiFi download, which I am not will to buy has an excuse because every file that's been downloaded be hashed and compared with the original hash value before the installation as a preventive mechanism. I was curious with the Marshmallow update before, but certainly now this seems to be a biggest nightmare... I have tried almost everything and there seems to be no solution...

1. Wipe cache partition
2. Cleared the app data for themes app and com services related to themes
3. Uninstalled all themes
4. Tried running smart manager for clearing all the temp files and cache content

 

[Payam_Fz]

Had same issue here
SOLVED: First you have to reboot your phone into "safe mode". As you can't turn your device off, hold vol down + power button until "samsung galaxy s6" logo comes up (you'll see Samsung Animated logo first, continue holding the buttons) after that release the power button quickly (now just holding vol down button)
Now your device starts on safe mode (there will be a note on the left bottom corner of the screen)
Now go to Themes and delete your recently applied theme
You can now power off your device and run in recovery mode to wipe cache partition.
Done

 

[CarrieM198]

Had same issue here
SOLVED: First you have to reboot your phone into "safe mode". As you can't turn your device off, hold vol down + power button until "samsung galaxy s6" logo comes up (you'll see Samsung Animated logo first, continue holding the buttons) after that release the power button quickly (now just holding vol down button)
Now your device starts on safe mode (there will be a note on the left bottom corner of the screen)
Now go to Themes and delete your recently applied theme
You can now power off your device and run in recovery mode to wipe cache partition.
Done

I'm having the exact same problem as the original post except no matter how I try it will not completely shut down. I've tried letting the battery died, only restarts over and over no matter how dead. Restarts every time I hold the power button and try to open theme app, and won't even let me do a factory reset through the settings, only restarts. So what the hell am I suppose to do if It won't reset? Won't turn off? I have no way to do the Volume up/home/power button option whiles the phone is off cause it literally refuses to shut down.