Samsung’s latest flagship, the Galaxy S7, is every bit as beautiful as its predecessor, and it improves on the S6 in many ways. The Galaxy S7 is fast, powerful, and waterproof — but it’s not fault-free. Related : 10 cases and covers to protect your shiny, new Galaxy S7 We’ve been lurking in forums, scouring comment sections, and generally digging around to uncover the most commonly reported Galaxy S7 problems. There’s no need to struggle in isolation when we have a host of-suggested fixes that will help you to get your S7 back on track. Problem: Wi-Fi won’t connect or keeps disconnecting We often see Wi-Fi problems cropping up with new phones. There are plenty-of potential reasons why your S7 refuses to connect to Wi-Fi, or drops the connection intermittently. Workarounds : Some people have found that their Wi-Fi connection problem is actually related to the Bluetooth function on the S7. Try pulling down the notification shade and toggle Bluetooth off. Does Wi-Fi work better now? It may also be worth switching to a 5GHz Wi-Fi connection, if you have the option, because the Bluetooth problem only impacts 2.4GHz. Potential solutions : Turn it off and on again. Try switching off your S7 by holding the Power button down and choosing Power off . You should also turn the router off and back on again. Pull down the notification shade and tap and hold on Wi-Fi or go to Settings > Wi-Fi . Find the problematic network, and tap and hold on it, then select Forget network . Turn Wi-Fi off and on again, and try setting up the connection afresh. You could also try resetting all your network settings. You will need to set these up again for every network you connect to. Go to Settings > Backup and reset > Reset network settings > Reset Settings . Take a look in Settings > Wi-Fi and tap More -in the upper-right corner, then tap on Smart network switch , and make sure that it’s off. If your problem is with disconnecting, go to Settings > Wi-Fi > More , and make sure that Keep Wi-Fi on during sleep is set to Always . It’s worth trying a wipe of the cache partition. Turn the S7 off by holding the Power button and selecting Power off . Hold the Power , Volume up , and Home buttons together. When you see the Samsung logo, you can let go of Power , but wait until you see the Android logo to release the other two. You should see the recovery menu. Use Volume down to highlight wipe cache partition and then Power to select it. Once it’s done, press Power -and-select reboot system now . Take a look on the website for your router manufacturer to see if there are any available firmware updates. You may be trying to use a crowded channel. The free Wifi Analyzer app helps you to check how crowded the channels are. Refer to your router manufacturer or ISP for instructions on changing channels. Make sure that you aren’t using MAC filtering on your router. If you are, then turn it off, or add your S7’s MAC address. You can find it in Settings > About device > Status , listed under Wi-Fi Mac address . Your last resort is to try a factory reset. Back up anything important, and go to Settings > Backup and reset > Factory data reset > Reset device . Glitch: Camera failed A few people have been having trouble with the S7 camera. They’ll open up the camera app to find that it stays black and then crashes with the error message “Warning, Camera failed.” Luckily, it should be easy to fix. Workaround : A simple restart can temporarily fix the problem. Hold down Power and select Restart . Potential solutions : Go to Settings > Applications > Application manager and find the Camera app, then tap Force stop . Now, tap on Storage > Clear cache and Clear data . It might be a bug with Smart stay that’s causing this issue. Try going to Settings > Display and turn off- Smart stay. If that didn’t work, then try wiping the cache partition. Turn the S7 off by holding the Power button and selecting Power off . Hold the Power , Volume up , and Home buttons together. When you see the Samsung logo, you can let go of Power , but wait until you see the Android logo to release the other two. You should see the recovery menu. Use Volume down to highlight wipe cache partition and then Power to select it. Once it’s done, press Power -and select reboot system now . If you’re still getting the error message, then try going to Settings > Backup and reset > Reset settings . You will have set up network connections and other settings again after doing this, but it may bring your camera back. Issue: Slow to wake We’ve seen a few reports of people complaining that the Galaxy S7 is a bit slow when it comes to-waking up. Sometimes there’s a delay when pressing the Power or Home button before the screen comes to life. It’s a powerful phone, so it should be snappy. Workaround : Try restarting your phone. Hold down the Power button and select- Restart . The issue should be gone, but it may return. Potential solutions : Try turning your S7 off and removing your MicroSD card. Does your S7 wake faster without it? Many people have found that the MicroSD card they’re using seems to be impacting the wake time. It’s not clear why this is the case, but it may be because the card isn’t genuine. You can use an app called SD Insight to check whether your MicroSD card is legitimate. It may be worth backing up the contents of the MicroSD card on your computer and wiping it, then trying it in your S7 again. Some people report success after a factory reset of the S7. Back up everything on the phone and remove your MicroSD card, and then go to Settings > Backup and reset > Factory data reset . Bug: Power and Volume down buttons not working Some S7 owners have encountered a frightening bug where the Power and Volume down buttons seem to stop working. Pressing Power has no effect and pressing Volume down no longer turns the volume down. Workaround : Even though they don’t seem to be working, try holding Power and Volume down together for several seconds and your S7 should restart. The buttons should be working again now, but the problem might come back. Potential solutions : This seems to be a software problem, because the two buttons that appear to be broken are actually still working, otherwise the restart wouldn’t work. There’s a chance that a third-party app is causing the problem. You could try uninstalling apps and testing, or go straight for a factory reset, avoid restoring a backup, and install selectively as you watch out for a recurrence. The latter is a big hassle if the issue isn’t frequent, though. Keep an eye out for an update under Settings > About device > Software update . Problem: Rapid battery drain So far we’ve found that the S7 has better battery life than the S6 did, but some new S7 owners are not impressed. Keep-in mind that the first couple of days with a new phone the battery will drain fast because it’s downloading and installing apps, and you’re probably using it a lot. If you find that the battery continues to drain rapidly after the first few days, then you may have a problem. Workarounds : The obvious place to start is to turn features off. Pull down the notification shade and turn off anything you don’t need. Go to Settings > Display and turn Always on display Reduce your screen brightness, and go to Settings > Display > Screen timeout and turn it down as low as you can stand. Use the power saving modes in Settings > Battery . Reduce background data usage for apps via Settings > Data usage > Background data . Potential solutions : If your battery is draining fast, and it’s happening while you’re not even using the S7, there’s a chance that a rogue app is to blame. Take a look for potential culprits in Settings > Battery > Battery usage . If something is guzzling too much juice, make sure it’s up to date or consider uninstalling it and replacing it with something else. It’s worth trying a wipe of the cache partition. Turn the S7 off by holding the Power button and selecting Power off . Hold the Power , Volume up , and Home buttons together. When you see the Samsung logo you can let go of Power , but wait until you see the Android logo to release the other two. You should see the recovery menu. Use Volume down to highlight wipe cache partition and then Power to select it. Once it’s done, press Power -and-select reboot system now . You may have to set up a few things again, but resetting settings is a good thing to try before you resort to a full factory reset. You can do it via Settings > Backup and reset > Reset settings . If nothing has fixed your S7 battery drain, then back up everything on the phone and remove your MicroSD card. Then, go to Settings > Backup and reset > Factory data reset . After the reset be careful about what you install and watch out for a recurrence of the battery drain.



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