Samsung’s update locks up phones in a stark reminder of the importance of backing up your data

Samsung released a software update on October 2 that damaged some older Galaxy smartphones. Although Samsung paused further rollout of the update, those with damaged phones had minimal options.

On Wednesday, many people online started complaining that their Samsung phones were stuck in a boot loop (examples can be seen here, here and in more recent comments here).

A Samsung spokesperson confirmed to Ars Technica that an update to the Samsung SmartThings Framework app for managing smart devices caused the issues:

We are aware that a limited number of Galaxy smartphones running Android 12 reboot continuously when updating the SmartThings app to the latest version.

Samsung “immediately suspended the update” after learning of the issue and is “working to resolve it,” a company spokesman said. According to user reports available on the Internet, Samsung has released a new update that you can download without the risk of damaging your phone.

However, owners of older affected phones, namely Galaxy S10 series, Galaxy Note 10 series, Galaxy M51 and Galaxy A90, were unable to turn on their devices to roll back the update. Many users who have already manually or automatically installed the update are still dealing with corrupted devices.

A sharp reminder

Users of damaged Galaxy phones were initially faced with a difficult choice: give up the phone or perform a factory reset with data deletion.

Samsung’s statement to Ars advised customers to “contact Samsung Contact Center” for assistance, but it’s unclear whether there’s a solution that won’t wipe the phone.