What is crashing/restarting my phone, sometimes in an infinite loop?

[AC Question]

I need help! For the last month or two, my phone will randomly crash and reboot, but the worst part is that the reboot will be stuck in a loop and the phone will be completely unusable. The only thing that breaks this and stops the loop is to plug it in. The battery has been as high as 89% and as low as 15% when this happens, so I can't attribute it to that. Most times after I plug it in, the battery % remains where it was and the phone is usable again. However, yesterday, I was at 77% battery, the loop happened, I plugged it in, and the battery was at 0%.

At first, I thought this was an issue w/ the Facebook app (referenced in this forum in Jan), but it happens even when Facebook has not been opened, is not running in the background, and after the cache is cleared. The reboot cycle is kicked off (so far) in the following scenarios: Taking a photo (both with the camera app, and within a text), sending my Lyft or Uber status to someone while the Lyft/Uber app is open, clicking the text app to send a message, placing a call). It seems to happen most when I'm trying to multi-task, but not always.

Here are my guesses:
- RAM issue
- OS no longer supports my phone (Samsung Note 4)
- Virus or bugs introduced

It seemed to happen around the time of the last software update, which didn't seem to update smoothly. I also haven't downloaded any new apps in the last 2 mos.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

 

[belodion]

A bad battery perhaps?

 

[mmkf]

A bad battery perhaps?

I thought so too. I bought a new one and it hasn't made a difference.

Any other thoughts?

 

[belodion]

SD card trouble? Also, have you tried Safe Mode?

 

[mmkf]

No SD card to cause issues, but I hadn't thought about trying Safe Mode. I'll give that a go.

Any idea what the cause might be? My colleague has the same issue (different model of Samsung phone, but his only restarts once without the loop). Is anyone else having this problem?

I'll try Safe Mode and report back...

 

[mmkf]

Just following up. Since this isn't a consistent problem (the rebooting happens sporadically), I can't pinpoint which app, if any, is causing the issue. I've been using my phone regularly for the last 3 days with no issue (yet), which is normal, until I starts the reboot loop again.

Has anyone else experienced this issue? Again, I have a Samsung Note 4 and I'm wondering if it's due to discontinued support for my phone model, or an issue with the last OS update?

 

[AXEL314]

Have you tried booting into Recovery Mode and clearing cache that way? I've haven't experienced what you are going through, but every time my phone updates (monthly security patch) I usually do a cache clear in Recovery Mode. I'm currently on Marshmallow.

 

[mmkf]

Have you tried booting into Recovery Mode and clearing cache that way? I've haven't experienced what you are going through, but every time my phone updates (monthly security patch) I usually do a cache clear in Recovery Mode. I'm currently on Marshmallow.

Thanks! I'll try that

 

[timstrike]

Mine wont boot unless power suppy is pluged in started as soon as phone did a samsung update!

 

[timstrike]

It samsung forceing us to buy newer phone?

 

[timstrike]

After considering to trash phone I put phone in powersaving mode and now it will bootup without power cord
if someone finds the sulution to these message me

 

[natehoy]

One of the first things you tried was a replacement battery. May I ask where you got the battery and about how much it cost? The only thing worse than a good battery that is wearing out is a battery that starts out bad - and there are a lot of junk/fake Note 4 batteries out there that are not up to snuff.

Anker makes a great (and generally less spendy than Samsung) battery for the Note 4. I've also heard very good things about PowerBear.

If you are anywhere in Maine, I'd be happy to loan you one of my now-aging but still decent Ankers for a day so you can make sure it's not the battery.

 

[natehoy]

Mine wont boot unless power suppy is pluged in started as soon as phone did a samsung update!

Part of the problem with updates is that applying them is very intensive. My phone always gets hot doing them, which means a lot of battery power is being drawn.

It is possible (though obviously I cannot be sure) that the overheating or heavy drain from the update was the straw that broke the camel's back for your battery.

 

[daehttub01]

not sure which carrier you are on but the last few Sprint Note 4 firmware updates required a battery pull and wipe cache partition. The update from Lollipop to Marshmallow required a factory reset for me so if you didn't do that yet I would strongly recommend it. It's a real pain but I find is a good thing to do. Kind of like burning the carbon out of your car engine to get it running at peak performance. On another note (no pun intended) any Note 4 battery bought on Amazon is a fake. Especially if it is anything under $30. Samsung.com is out of stock so I had to pay $64 on the referred site samsungparts.com . A genuine battery blows the doors off all clone batteries. Anker though is the best of the clones since they stand behind their product and have great customer service. Good luck.

 

[yukimi_san]

I posted this on another thread - re-posting here as well.

There are many many people having the same issue with this phone-me included. This is the workaround that finally seems to be working for me for the last 2 days:

1) Install wake lock - powermanager from the play store (read the reviews-many others having the same issue).
2) Open wake lock and select partial_wake_lock by clicking on it.
3) While the app is open, press and hold down the recent apps button to get to the options menu.
4) Check autostart on boot.

Not sure how long this workaround will work-but I am happy so far...