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A new update has reportedly bricked older Samsung Galaxy models, according to reports from owners.
Samsung users on Reddit and X (formerly Twitter) have suggested that a recent update has caused the Galaxy S10, Galaxy Note 10, Galaxy S10e to begin bootlooping. Android Authority reports the Galaxy M51 may also be affected.
According to X user negativeonehero, a tech news aggregator who rejects the title “tipster”, the issue seems to be caused by an update to Samsung’s SmartThings smart-home connection service and is affecting phones running Android 12 or lower.
Thankfully, owners of Samsung’s newer phones – such as the Galaxy S24, S24 Plus, S24 Ultra, and any other units running newer versions of Android – seem to be in the clear.
A thread by user rthompsonv on the r/samsunggalaxy subreddit detailing the issues has garnered more than 300 responses in less than 24 hours – many of them corroborating complaints of a forced update and subsequent bricking.
“I work at a cell phone store and I’ve had 5+ people come in with S10s in boot loop today – we haven’t even been open for an hour yet,” replied user MightyJoeTYoung.
For those not familiar, bootlooping refers to an uncontrollable cycle of restarts. It’s a known symptom of data corruption, operating system failure, or hardware breakdown, so the worry from Samsung owners about this latest bug is more than understandable.
Other users have shared concerns to X, where at the time of writing a search for “Samsung S10” returns a long list of user complaints.
User themboderg complained about their Galaxy S10 and received a response from Samsung Australia suggesting they book in at a Samsung service center. themboderg’s subsequent response implies that they were advised to factory reset their device.
Luckily, it looks like a fix is on the way – Samsung hasn’t made any announcements, but negativeonehero has noticed an incoming patch to Samsung SmartThings Framework, which may be intended to fix the bootlooping.
Of course, it’s not clear whether those with phones stuck in a bootloop will be able to access the update, given that their handset may have been rendered unusable.
Some social media users report that a factory reset of the affected device fixes the issue, but we’d advise Galaxy users to wait for an official announcement from Samsung before doing this and permanently erasing their data.
Until then, be sure to keep up with our Samsung phones coverage for the latest updates.