We’ve already covered hundreds of Samsung Galaxy S3 problems before but we still have thousands of readers emailing us regarding the issues they are currently experiencing with their phone. With millions of users around the world, the Galaxy S3 is one of the phones that often being reported to have some issues.
In this post, we will answer some of the questions from our readers. We will also provide some resolutions to solve them as well as workarounds in case there are no fixes available for some issues. But please note these solutions are just recommendations. Thus, you may or may not follow them if you think they can’t help solve some problems.
We are also calling experts out there or users who may already have experienced these problems to provide us some insights and perhaps resolutions to the problems we will present here. Feel free to email us at mailbag@thedroidguy.com for your questions, suggestions, recommendations and solutions. Rest assured you emails will be read by our team.
Galaxy S3 Text Messages Disappearing
Problem: Hey Droid Guy, I’m a Galaxy S3 user and one of the most annoying problems I’ve encountered with my phone was that my text messages often disappear without apparent reason. I know you might say I deleted them but I haven’t. One instant, the phone notified me that a text message arrived but when I open the Messaging app, there’s nothing there even my old messages. I rebooted the phone, the messages reappeared. Apparently, it’s not a mismanagement problem but an issue with either the phone’s hardware or software. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks.
Solution: One of our readers who have encountered this problem before emailed us and told us about the procedures he did before to remedy it. According to him, it can be fixed by simply clearing the RAM. This is how to do it:
Close messaging app.
Press the Home button to return to the home screen.
Press and hold the Home button until recently used apps appear.
Tap the RAM tab.
Tap Clear RAM button.
Reboot the phone.
Launch messaging app and messages would appear.
Random Overheating
Problem: Guys, I just want to ask if you’ve come across a Galaxy S3 problem which the phone overheats randomly. I mean, it happens almost every day but I don’t know how it happens because there were instances when the phone overheated while not being used. There were also times when it overheated while I was playing a game, browsing the web or just checking emails. Is there a way to stop this?
Solution: Overheating is a broad problem. It can be caused by a software glitch, a hardware issue and/or over usage. Well, the first thing you should look into is the battery of the phone since it is the power source (heat source as well). If you don’t have a spare battery but know someone who may also have a Galaxy S3, perhaps you could exchange battery for a day and see if your device still overheats. Secondly, try to use the phone’s power-saving features for a couple of days to see if it still overheats. If it won’t, you may have to adjust the screen brightness, close some really heavy apps as they may overwork the CPU that also emits heat and refrain from using the phone while it is being charged.
Screenshot Issue
Problem: I am using Galaxy S3. I used to take screen shots by swiping across the screen. But now I am unable to do so. I can take screen shots only by pressing the joy stick & power on off button simultaneously. Could you please tell me as to why I am not able to take screen shots by swiping across the screen now? Thanks.
Solution: Apparently, it is just a minor issue. I think the settings have just been messed up, which could have disabled the “Palm swipe to capture” option under Motion Settings. You need to check on this;
From the Home screen, tap the Menu key.
Tap Settings.
Choose Motion.
Enable Motion Activation if it was disabled.
Scroll to and check “Palm swipe to capture” option.
Now, try to take a screenshot to see if it works.
Don’t you know there is another way to take a screenshot on Galaxy S3?
Press and hold the Power and Home button together.
A window will pop up and you would be able to choose Screenshot option.
Galaxy S3 Battery Problem
Problem: Hi, I am facing an unusual problem with my Samsung galaxy s3 mobile’s battery. During daytime when I frequently use my phone on a 3G network my battery drains a good amount of charge. But that’s ok. But when I go to sleep at night switching off the data connection and most other things and only mute mode and power saving mode on, I really can’t understand why without even using my phone it drains a lot of battery. On an average it drains lot as 35-40% of my battery in just 6-7 hours though nobody is using it. Can this issue be solved? Does any other Samsung Galaxy S3 owner has faced such an issue? Thanking you in advance droid guys!
Solution: Turning off just the data network wouldn’t do much if other connectivity features like WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, S-Beam, and NFC were enabled. It is always recommended to turn these features off when the phone is not in use. Aside from that, apps also drain battery faster than you think, although not all. In the case of Galaxy S3, there were a lot of reports suggesting that both the Gallery (especially if you have a lot of photos in your phone) and Maps do drain battery faster than other apps.
At night, take a little time closing recently used apps in your phone. Press and hold the Home button while on the home screen to display a list of recently used apps. Swipe each one to either side to close them. Or you can go to Settings => Applications Manager => All tab and find both Gallery and Maps apps to force close them. Game apps that require bigger storage may also eat up your battery faster so it’s better to close them, too.
S3 Freezes, Play Store Not Working
Problem: I recently bought a Samsung Galaxy S3… about 6 weeks ago. Initially it worked absolutely fine but since last week I’m encountering problems.
The phone just hangs. It doesn’t respond to touch or any soft key or anything for a while. Then it displays one of the following two things in a dialog box like thing.
“Unfortunately, the process com.google.gapps has stopped.”
“Unfortunately, google play store has stopped working.”
These dialog boxes either stay on the screen for a fraction of a second, or they stay till I tap Ok. Around a second after that, the phone does all the actions I was trying to make it do when I was tapping the screen or pressing buttons and it wasn’t responding (used to… now I just wait for the dialog box after the first touch that it doesn’t respond to). Then it works normally for some time that can range between a couple of seconds to like 20 minutes. Then the same thing happens.
This used to happen more when I was using google Chrome or it was running in the background… so I disabled the app and use the browser that came with the phone. Now it happens less frequently but the problem remains.
The RAM usage is usually around 600 out of the available 832 MB… even if there are no active apps. If I clear it, it goes down to like 550 ish for a while. And I’ve only used 4.79 of the available 11.35 GB of the internal storage. I also have an SD card. The problem remains even if I take out the SD card.
Oh and google play store really doesn’t work at all. So I can’t download apps.
I’m looking forward to any solution you can come up with… and if you want any more details please let me know.
Solution: It’s a pretty common issue for both the Galaxy S3 and the new Galaxy S4. Fortunately, it is not a serious problem, although you would have to do a troubleshooting procedure or two for it to be fixed. So, the first solution would be to remove the Google account you setup with your phone and set it up again. The second would be to clear both cache and data of Google Chrome.
Re-setup Google Account
From the Home screen, tap the Menu key.
Tap Settings and scroll to Accounts & Sync.
Choose the primary account and tap Remove Account button.
Reboot the phone.
Go back to Accounts & Sync and tap Add Account.
Enter your credentials and turn on syncs.
This may solve the problem but if it doesn’t, try the following procedure.
Clearing Cache and Data
Tap the Menu key from the home screen and choose Settings.
Choose Applications Manager from the list of options.
Swipe to choose All tab.
Scroll to and tap Chrome.
Tap Clear Cache button, then Clear Data.
Go back to the list of apps and find Google Framework Services.
Tap both Clear Cache and Clear Data buttons.
Reboot the phone and check if it still freezes and displays the same error messages.
We will be covering a lot of questions from our readers so stay tuned. You may want to subscribe to our feed so updates will be delivered to your inbox.
Email Us Problems
If you have encountered or currently experiencing problems with your phone and don’t know how to fix it, tell us about the problem in detail as we may just be able to help you. Send your concerns to mailbag@thedroidguy.com and we will spend time reading your problem and researching about the possible solutions.
The post Galaxy S3 Problems: text messages disappear, can’t take screenshot, random overheating, etc appeared first on The Droid Guy.