S10e bricked after updating the AR Emoji Sticker app from the Galaxy Store

[Itiel]

Hi all,

My S10e (SM-G970F, up to date OS and apps) got bricked today the moment I updated AR Emoji Sticker from the Galaxy Store. It didn't happen a day or an hour after the update -- it literally happened while the update was underway, I watched it happen in front of my eyes.

By "bricked" I mean the phone is bootlooping. Hard reset (maybe dozens of times), wiping cache partition, disconnecting and reconnecting the battery, replacing the battery -- all of it doesn't work.

Samsung Kies doesn't recognize the phone while in Download Mode (although it does recognize something is being connected).

The only thing I haven't tried is to factory reset but I'm trying to avoid that as much as possible.

Few important notes:

1. I'm aware that in October 2024 there was a VERY similar issue but that was when the SmartThings Framework app got updated:

https://eu.community.samsung.com/t5/other-galaxy-s-series/smart-things-update-caused-boot-loop-issue...

https://www.androidcentral.com/phones/galaxy-s10-phones-smartthings-update-boot-loop

This makes me wonder if this could be similar to that.

2. The AR Emoji Sticker app is not auto-updatable, you have to update it manually. I did it as I'm an update freak, and it came back to bite me. This makes me fear that this could be a widespread issue, but almost no one will encounter this as the user has to search for the app and update it, and it even doesn't (and never) appear in the Updates section in the Galaxy Store app.

3. I rarely do this manual update process for Samsung apps from the Galaxy Store, and don't remember when was the last time I updated this app (but I did it numerous times already in the past), so I don't know how long this update was pending.

4. I've contacted Samsung phone tech support and was directed to a service center. Spoke with a rep from a Samsung service center and asked to service the phone with the details mentioned here, and asked to diagnose but WITHOUT wiping the phone. I was told this is not a human decision but this is something that could be done automatically via the center's diagnostic utilities. Not sure how true that is but I didn't want to risk it so I didn't leave it there to be serviced.

Please, is there anything else I can try?

Since this could be an actual issue that not many (if any) user may encounter (see #2 above), local Samsung phone and service centers can't help me as this isn't officially acknowledged by Samsung. Is there any way an official Samsung rep could comment on this, and maybe confirm this by doing the same update on a similar phone, or something?

Thank you

[userDohzkjaiqY]

Instead of going into download mode put the phone in safe mode and uninstall updates on AR emoji

[Itiel]

@userDohzkjaiqY Thanks for replying. I forgot to mention that, entering safe mode doesn't work as well.

Followed this official How To:

https://www.samsung.com/uk/support/mobile-devices/how-to-start-my-galaxy-device-in-safe-mode/

My volume down press is being ignored- I see "SAMSUNG Galaxy S10e Secured by Knox", then I see just "SAMSUNG" (in the whole screen just this text), then it reboots. Doesn't matter in which stage I hit to volume down- nothing different happens.

(btw I know for a fact the volume down button works)

[meself]

I think they referred to the diagnostic test the Samsung rep mentioned

[J_Pereira]

Hi, I found this because the exact same thing happened to me yesterday on my S10 Plus with the AR Emoji Sticker app installation. I booted the phone into recovery mode and tried wiping the cache partition which didn't work. The only thing that worked for me was factory resetting the phone, which was a huge pain in the **bleep**, especially because I ran out of OneDrive space so not all my photos were backed up and able to be restored to Gallery (luckily most were in Google Photos).

Also, if safe mode isn't working when you hold down the volume down button, try plugging your phone into a pc with the USB-C cable. For some reason mine wouldn't load the recovery menu until I did that.

Luckily my phone is now working again and most of my settings were backed up. Just be aware if you do factory reset, I ran into the following issues:

- Voice Recordings restored from Samsung Cloud couldn't be restored to the Voice Recorder app, they were just saved as M4A files in internal storage. So I am not able to open them in Voice Recorder or see my bookmarks in the recordings anymore.

- It seems like the UI is not exactly the same as it was before I factory reset, for example I can't change the clock font like I used to be able to. Not a big deal, but annoying.

- Apparently my Microsoft authenticator app was not set to back up automatically, so I had to set up each account from scratch that I had set up with the authenticator app. Luckily I was still signed into these on my laptop, so I was able to change the MFA settings from there, but it could be an issue if you have an authenticator app.

Basically as long as you were backing your phone up to your Samsung account and/or Google account, most information won't be lost after a factory reset. Sorry I don't have a better solution for you.

[Itiel]

@J_Pereira Thank you so much for the reply!

It's reassuring to know this happened to someone else, I almost started to believe maybe this was a coincidence and the phone bricked for a unrelated hardware reason or whatever.

As for plugging the phone with a USB-C, yes, I had the same experience and had to connect it to enter recovery mode. However I'm not sure if you mean you also couldn't enter Safe Mode or not?

Regarding the the UI being different than before, make sure to update all apps from the Galaxy Store (well maybe other than AR Emoji Stickers lol), including all the OneUI-related ones. I remember S10e when it first launched had less features than it has now, after having all updates installed.

Now that I see my issue was not a one-off, I would like to bring this to one of the admins' attention here, to hopefully investigate this from the official Samsung guys, as again I really wish to avoid having to wipe the phone. @SamsungRei sorry to ping you specifically but I don't know who else to turn to; is it possible for you to do something on your end, and have someone official from Samsung verify this is indeed an issue, and perhaps offer a solution that doesn't involve wiping the phone?

Thank you!

[J_Pereira]

It's definitely not just you! I was relieved to see that this was the cause for it because I was also unsure if it was a coincidence.

I mixed up Safe Mode and Recovery mode when I read your post, I'm not sure how to enter Safe Mode if it's not recognizing the volume down button (and I didn't think to try Safe Mode before I factory reset mine).

And thanks for the suggestion about updating apps from the Galaxy Store to try to update the UI. I'll give that a shot, avoiding the AR Emoji Stickers and SmartThings.

Hopefully someone from Samsung chimes in on this or at least becomes aware of this issue and implements a fix.

[J_Pereira]

Just wanted to add that I found this Reddit thread from when the SmartThings update bricked a bunch of phones, and some people are saying that taking their phone to a repair place they were able to flash the phone and fix it with no data loss:

https://www.reddit.com/r/samsunggalaxy/comments/1fueq0i/s10_standard_plus_e_boot_loop/

Not sure if this is helpful, but it looks like there is hope at least.

[Itiel]

There is hope, but probably only for ones that can go to a Samsung official store -- I don't have one in my region 😞

Thanks for the link though, this is very reassuring!

[Jrrrr]

100% same thing happened to my S10 yesterday afternoon…. So it’s not only s10e

was playing with AR stickers during daughter’s bday, I believe camera app prompted for an update so… “why not, it’s an official Samsung app” was my reasoning. Seconds after clicking to update I ended up in a boot loop. Hours of researching, failed tries etc everything is as you described

- 2 alternating screens (plain “Samsung” and the one with Knox)

- I’m able to enter Recovery mode only with usb data plugged in, was trying to look at some logs but it’s overwhelming 

- I’m not able to enter Safe mode

oh and there’s this camera shutter sound I can hear while in a boot loop

the phone gets hot while in the boot loop but from recovery mode I can turn it off (I believe regular power button wouldn’t turn it off when I tried last night)