Galaxy S6 USB port working intermittently, other charging power issues

For those who are regulars in our site, this post may appear educational rather than a source of technical knowledge on how to fix power- and charging-related issues on a #GalaxyS6. Well, educating Android users is exactly our objective every time we publish a post like this one. Android power issues, particularly devices that won’t power on, are caused by faulty hardware and no software troubleshooting can fix them. Hardware problems are best done by people who do them for a living rather than by “enlightened” Android users.

These are specific topics discussed in this post:

1. Galaxy S6 USB port working intermittently
2. Galaxy S6 won’t power on
3. Galaxy S6 stops working after flashing
4. Galaxy S6 charging port overheats when charging
5. Galaxy S6 won’t turn on after an auto-update
6. Can files from a Galaxy S6 that won’t turn be recovered?

If you are looking for solutions to your own #Android issue, you can contact us by using the link provided at the bottom of this page.

PROBLEM #1: GALAXY S6 USB PORT WORKING INTERMITTENTLY

Sometime over the past month, my USB port started responding intermittently. Have no idea what gets it in this ‘bad’ state as I’ve done nothing out of the ordinary. One day it will work, the other it won’t. I’ve ruled out cord and charge — tried brand new (came with phone) and cord works just fine on another (older) Galaxy device. This is not related to just charging, when it’s in this broken state, there is no USB recognized by my PC. The phone is only 3 months old, so yes, I can get it covered under warranty. Just frustrating as when it works, it works fine. Wondering if it’s related to the recent 5.1.1 upgrade in early Dec? 

Prior to this (or some other event), I used to use my USB interface daily for file transfers. Now I have to rely on slower Bluetooth file transfers. Charging always works wirelessly, and when the USB port works for PC interfacing, so does charging. Of course, when I stopped into a VZW store, all was working. Came home and still worked over the past weekend. Magically, not working again.  I’ve booted into safe mode when it’s in this state and it’s still bad.  Since you can’t pull the battery on the S6, I powered down for a good hour and powered up — still no good.  Even tried wiping system cache – no joy.  Only thing I have not tried is a factory reset as I don’t want to have to push my apps back and rearrange my home pages again. But if it comes down to getting it covered, I’m sure that will have to be done first — but given the intermittent aspect, who’s to say it won’t fail; even if it does work after a factory reset? Just very odd given how I’ve never had an issue for the first 2 months of ownership. Gremlins? — Rob

Solution: Hi Rob. An Android device’s USB port like the one on your S6 is managed by your phone’s operating system. How it functions (either in USB Accessory Mode or USB Host Mode) is also governed by the operating system. Switching between these functions happens in the background, usually, flawlessly. Sometimes, the switch does not go as intended though due to  a number of reasons including bad third party apps, corrupted operating system, and bad hardware, to mention a few. This is the reason why the port may appear “dead”. Presuming there’s no hardware issue involved (since the phone is only three months old), the reason for your trouble should only be coming from the phone’s OS. We recommend that you go ahead with factory reset if you have the time to fix the issue. If the problem returns after a factory reset, you can assume that a hardware problem may be causing it. In that case, you’ll be better off getting the phone replaced.

For reference, here are the steps on how to perform a factory reset on an S6:

• Turn off your Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge.
• Press and hold the Volume Up, Home and Power keys together.
• When the device powers on and displays ‘Power on logo’, release all keys and the Android icon will appear on the screen.
• Wait until the Android Recovery Screen appears after about 30 seconds.
• Using the Volume Down key, highlight the option, ‘wipe data/factory reset’ and press the Power key to select it.
• Press the Volume Down button again until the option ‘Yes — delete all user data’ is highlighted and then press the Power key to select it.
• After the reset is complete, highlight ‘Reboot system now’ and hit the Power key to restart the phone.

PROBLEM #2: GALAXY S6 WON’T POWER ON

My phone was working completely fine, perhaps getting a bit hot, especially whilst charging but nothing to worry me. I was driving with my music playing one day, the phone had around 70% charge and just switched off, no shut down procedure, just went black. I tried charging it, nothing happens. I’ve held down the power button for longer than 5 minutes, tried all the reset combinations… Nothing. i’m worried that either the battery or the motherboard has gone bad. Thanks very much! — Cal

Solution: Hi Cal. If the phone no longer shows signs of booting up even when connected to a charger, the best thing that you can do is to have a professional check the hardware status. There’s just nothing that you can do on your end at this time, unless you have electronics knowledge and wants to diagnose the issue yourself. If the phone is still under warranty, make sure to bring it to a Samsung store for repair or replacement.

If you want to bring it to Samsung or your wireless carrier store, do not attempt to open the phone yourself as this might void the warranty!

PROBLEM #3: GALAXY S6 STOPS WORKING AFTER FLASHING

Just so you know: I’m a beginner to Android. I tried to flash a ROM for the first time, actually, second time. First time i flashed a rom it worked normally, second time i did it i was stuck in a boot loop. i still sort of am. I tried to do a factory reset and everything, it’s still in a bootloop.

Somewhere i had read that if i pressed the volume down button with the power and home button (the button on the bottom) if i pressed those at the same time for like 10 seconds something would pop up, and i could just press cancel (restart the phone). I did that, but then it said something about Smart Switch. i then downloaded smart switch to use that, but it says that my device isn’t supported. As I’m writing this i tried to go back to recovery mode (the volume down button with the power and home button), but know it doesn’t start at all, it’s all black. — Emre

Solution: Hi Emre. There are only two effective ways to fix bootloop issue. One is by booting the phone in recovery mode (Volume Up, Home and Power keys) and doing a factory reset. The other method is by booting in Download (Odin) mode (Power, Volume Down, and Home keys) and flashing a stock ROM. Both of these methods require the phone to turn on. If your device no longer powers on at this time, try to charge it for at least 30 minutes before attempting any of the  said methods. Otherwise, have the phone checked for hardware issue.

PROBLEM #4: GALAXY S6 CHARGING PORT OVERHEATS WHEN CHARGING

When charger is plugged in, it shows that battery indicator is charging but actually it is not charging. Instead of increases %, it decreases. While charging charger port is heating like heater even when I’m not using any apps and the phone.

I paid $670 for this poor device I ever used. Why Samsung built this low quality phone and cheating people?  I’m worried with this phone. Please tell me how can I get rid of this trouble. Main problem is charging. Charger is okay. telling device is charging but after sometime when I looked for it nothing is happening . — Dinesh

Solution: Hi Dinesh. If the charging port gets abnormally hot during charging sessions, that’s indicative of a hardware trouble. The phone is basically “leaking” and does not provide enough power to the battery. Your best course of action right now is to have the phone checked by Samsung. If don’t want to risk voiding the warranty, we suggest that you leave the phone as is and bring it to the relevant party so it can be repaired or replaced.

PROBLEM #5: GALAXY S6 WON’T TURN ON AFTER AN AUTO-UPDATE

I have unlocked my home screen to check my weather on the widget that was running on the background when all on a sudden I get reports on my screen showing multiple apps such as Google Maps, YouTube, Google Search Box, Crunchy Roll, the Touch Wiz and other apps crashing. I turn my phone up to restart it in hopes of fixing the issue, and still see multiple apps crashing. Then it turns off by itself. I press the power button to turn it on and then it shows, “Android Upgrading”, then a sentence showing “Optimizing 0 out of 14 apps” show up and when it does finally show up, I have seen that whatever has happened has deleted all of the apps that I used to have on my phone and everything was on default settings. Then it turns off by itself and won’t turn on at all. Can you please help me? — Ibtida

Solution: Hi Ibtida. Looks like your phone attempted to auto-update itself but failed. Most of the time, auto-update cases work fine even if the installation of the new firmware fail. The phone simply boots back to its previous state and work normally again. Obviously, yours is totally the opposite experience. The only explanation that we can think of is that the update may have messed up with the boot up process. If you cannot boot the phone normally, consider booting it in recovery mode so that you can clear the cache partition and restart the phone normally. To do that, just follow these steps:

• Turn off the device.
• Press and hold the following three buttons at the same time: Volume Up key, Home key, and Power key.
• When the phone vibrates, release the Power key but continue to press and hold the Volume Up key and the Home key.
• When the Android System Recovery screen appears, release the Volume Up and Home keys.
• Press the Volume Down key to highlight ‘wipe cache partition.’
• Press the Power key to select.
• When the wipe cache partition is complete, ‘Reboot system now’ is highlighted.
• Press the Power key to restart the device.

If wiping the cache partition won’t help in booting the phone normally again, or if you encounter a bootloop issue (wherein the phone simply keeps on restarting in over and over), try to do a factory reset (steps provided above).

PROBLEM #6: CAN FILES FROM A GALAXY S6 THAT WON’T TURN BE RECOVERED?

The phone was working fine, minus a battery that was quickly depleted and not enough free memory to update the operating system.

I noticed that the side button was no longer turning off the screen. After that, all I could get was an occasional vibrate when I try to power the phone back on. I tried several combinations of soft /hard resets using the side button, the home screen button, and the up and down volume buttons. My phone has valuable photos and videos, as well as contacts, that cannot be recovered. Please help!! — Richard

Solution: Hi Richard. As much as we would like to help you, it appears that your phone has a hardware issue. We don’t usually provide hardware troubleshooting and diagnostics as they require certain knowledge and skills in a user. Attempting to fix an Android hardware issue is also a risky proposition and doesn’t guarantee a resolution. Just like what we told others above, we recommend that you let a professional handle the issue. Better still, try bringing it to a Samsung store so they can decide if they can power on the phone and/or recover your files.

There’s a big chance that Samsung may not be able to recover the files for you and may decide to simply replace or repair the phone. Either of these procedures require that they wipe the memory so if your photos, videos, or contacts were not backed up in any other device or cloud, they are good as gone.

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ENGAGE WITH US

If you are one of the users who encounters a problem with your device, let us know. We offer solutions for Android-related problems for free so if you have an issue with your Android device, simply fill in the short questionnaire in this link and we will try to publish our answers in the next posts. We cannot guarantee a quick response so if your issue is time sensitive, please find another way to resolve your problem. 

When describing your issue, please be as detailed as possible so we can easily pinpoint a relevant solution. If you can, kindly include the exact error messages you are getting to give us an idea where to start. If you have already tried some troubleshooting steps before emailing us, make sure to mention them so we can skip them in our answers.

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Having problems with your phone that won’t turn on?

We can help you troubleshoot. We already published troubleshooting guides for the following devices:

• http://pinkberrylicious.blogspot.com /2016/03/how-to-fix-samsung-galaxy-s2-that-wont.html" style="border: 0px; color: #27c4ff; font-size: 17.6px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.3s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Samsung Galaxy S2
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• http://pinkberrylicious.blogspot.com /2016/03/how-to-fix-samsung-galaxy-s4-that-wont.html" style="border: 0px; color: #27c4ff; font-size: 17.6px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.3s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Samsung Galaxy S4
• http://pinkberrylicious.blogspot.com /2016/03/how-to-fix-samsung-galaxy-s5-that-wont.html" style="border: 0px; color: #27c4ff; font-size: 17.6px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.3s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Samsung Galaxy S5,  http://pinkberrylicious.blogspot.com /2016/03/samsung-galaxy-s5-wont-turn-on-or-boot.html" style="border: 0px; color: #27c4ff; font-size: 17.6px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.3s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Android Lollipop edition
• http://pinkberrylicious.blogspot.com /2016/03/how-to-fix-samsung-galaxy-s6-that-keeps.html" style="border: 0px; color: #27c4ff; font-size: 17.6px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.3s; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Samsung Galaxy S6
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• http://pinkberrylicious.blogspot.com /2016/03/how-to-troubleshoot-samsung-galaxy-s7.html" style="color: black; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Samsung Galaxy S7
• http://pinkberrylicious.blogspot.com /2016/03/how-to-fix-samsung-galaxy-s7-edge-that.html" style="color: black; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank">Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge
• http://pinkberrylicious.blogspot.com /2016/03/how-to-fix-samsung-galaxy-note-2-that.html" style="border: 0px; color: #27c4ff; font-size: 17.6px; font-weight: 700; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; transition: 0.3s; vertical-align: baseline;">Samsung Galaxy Note 2
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