quote:

Originally posted by Greymann:
As for your contacts being lost.
After the hard reset and data wiped, then when you log on to google your contacts will be restored.
But you'll lose old messages, and maybe some pictures.

That's encouraging, for the contacts are the thing I'd miss most.
Most of the pics are on the SD card instead of internal memory, and I do have a periodic backup of the texts (most of which I wouldn't suffer much for not having).

Kevin's right: it's an old phone. But it has been solid for its time (up until now) and served well. I do need to upgrade sometime soon. The immediate goal, though, is to get back in business.

The blue LED went out sometime overnight. I'm going to leave it alone for a couple more hours, thinking that'll finish draining the battery, and then attempt again to revive it.

To verify that your contacts are available on Google, login to GMail thru a browser, click on the Google Apps menu in the upper right corner of the page and select Contacts to see if the ones there are the ones you expect to have on your phone.

I kept my S5 for almost seven years. IIRC, it was the last Galaxy model which had an easily removable battery, and there were a few occasions when taking out the battery was the remedy for issues.

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
I kept my S5 for almost seven years. IIRC, it was the last Galaxy model which had an easily removable battery, and there were a few occasions when taking out the battery was the remedy for issues.

Posting from my S5 now. I bought mine about the same time you got yours.

The removable battery was an important thing to me, still is. I have replaced it a couple of times, and just keep moving on. I think you are correct though, the S5 was the last model with a user serviceable battery.

Probably some time in the future, I will need to replace this phone though. Already, some apps won't work because the phone is too old .

Good luck OP in getting your phone working. Wish I had more info for you than what you have already received.

re: " It has a mind of its own. It changes settings at will. "

at times my 20 month old S21 seems the same.
It has long had shadowy changes in various settings, which I've attributed to the 'security updates' and my ponderously slow expanding understanding/use of previously unneeded/avoided features.

I've recently fired Verizon after 22 years and gone to metro T Mobile. Still a few new glitches, new frustrating stuff I'm learning to manage via settings.

I don't have any backups as none of my saved stuff except a few photos are that important.

I rode my old flip phones to the point of molecular failure. I tried a couple iPhones which proved to be incompatible with my cognitive adaptive capacity.

There may be a newer model android waiting for me soon. My retirement time is too demanding to waste.

Time for an upgrade VT.
I had the S7 also and now have the 10. It's going on 3 years now and still works great.

quote:

Originally posted by cjevans:
- Press and hold the Power key.
- Samsung Galaxy S7 logo appears, release the Power key and then immediately hold the volume down key.
- Continue holding the Volume Down key until it finishes its rebooting.
- When “Safe mode” appears on the screen immediately release the Volume Down key.

?

Missed it by that much.

Got a full battery discharge overnight, plugged it in this morning and gave the above a shot. Got the Galaxy logo, then the Samsung logo, used the password input, and then got the "padlock and swirlies." Then the black-screen-blue-indicator bit again. Can't do a thing with it in its current state.

Waiting for the battery to die again....

I do have a second-hand S7 showing up tomorrow thanks to a great "sparkie" I know. The easy part will be moving the SD and SIM cards over. Getting the usual apps reinstalled and rebuilding contacts will be the the tougher part.

No luck on the "Google has my contacts" thing so far. Is that something that happens automatically, or is it something that people can opt out of? I can picture my stubborn old self saying at some point, "heck, no, I don't want Google storing all my contact info! Evil behemoth!" and opting out. I've got one other possibility for a Google account to try... will give that a shot this evening.

Once I'm back up and functional, I'll look into newer phones (S20, I think).

I used Samsung Smart Switch to easily transfer all my stuff from an S6 to an S32 earlier this year. It might work for you with a USB cord to your computer, since you have another Samsung coming.

https://www.samsung.com/us/apps/smart-switch/

quote:

Originally posted by NK402:
1. My brother has had a succession of I phones, the latest being the 13. He says each one is worse than the previous one.

With all due respect: A rather meaningless statement w/o knowing what he means by that.

My wife and I have been through two iPhones, each. I'm still on my first iPad. She's on her second.

No serious complaints, so far.

quote:

Originally posted by NK402:
2. I have a Samsung S9+. It is the Chucky of cellphones. It has a mind of its own. It changes settings at will. Turns Airplane Mode on and off. Same with Bluetooth.The other day, it placed an embarrassing text on Facebook. Just put a new battery in it and it's still draining too rapidly.

I suspect your phone is 0wn3d, my man.

Factory reset, restore everything from scratch, and cross your fingers.

Going forward: Be more careful of the apps you install, the emails and text messages you open, and the sites you visit with that thing.

Wow, I thought a moment ago that I'd hit the jackpot.

A week ago, I copied a bunch of files from the phone to the PC -- everything I could copy, because I knew I didn't have a solid backup.

Surfing that folder this evening, I found Galaxy_S7\Android\data. In that folder is another folder called com.samsung.android.contact. Bingo! Woohoo!

Not so. The folder is empty.

That might not have even held what I was looking for -- I know Jack about the Android file system -- but it was exciting for just a moment....

quote:

Originally posted by vthoky:
Wow, I thought a moment ago that I'd hit the jackpot.

A week ago, I copied a bunch of files from the phone to the PC -- everything I could copy, because I knew I didn't have a solid backup.

Surfing that folder this evening, I found Galaxy_S7\Android\data. In that folder is another folder called com.samsung.android.contact. Bingo! Woohoo!

Not so. The folder is empty.

That might not have even held what I was looking for -- I know Jack about the Android file system -- but it was exciting for just a moment....

If you know your Samsung account login info, some of that you can can access here:
support.samsungcloud.com

quote:

Originally posted by MrToad:
If you know your Samsung account login info, some of that you can can access here:
support.samsungcloud.com

Finally got logged in... empty. Sheesh.

quote:

Originally posted by vthoky:
No luck on the "Google has my contacts" thing so far. Is that something that happens automatically, or is it something that people can opt out of? I can picture my stubborn old self saying at some point, "heck, no, I don't want Google storing all my contact info! Evil behemoth!" and opting out. I've got one other possibility for a Google account to try... will give that a shot this evening.

I believe you can store your contacts to the phone's local storage or to Google in the older phones. I recall losing some of my contacts that way (stored only on the phone). Just checked my S21 and it shows contacts can be "linked" to both.

If you have Gmail, on the right side of the screen, there's a button for "Contacts". When I click that, all my phone contacts (shared w/ Google) show up.

I am not a phone wizard and don't want to be. A couple of years ago I went to upgrade and was prepared to spend a weekend loading all my contacts to the new Samsung by hand. I had activated the google backup, and the tech at the store had my new Samsung loaded with all of my contacts and apps transferred in less than 10 minutes. I don't like being dependent on Google, but if you need a new phone, you can be up and running nearly instantly if you have the backup turned on. Contacts, pictures, apps, all there.

Well, y'all, this has been a learning experience.

Lesson 1: back the darned thing up more frequently.
Lesson 2: the "brick moment" can come at any time. (My old S7 reached full failure mode yesterday afternoon -- no screen, no sound, no indicators.)
Lesson 3: once in a while, a fella's got to just pony up and upgrade.

My favorite "sparkie" gave me his S7 and I figured, "Swap the SIM card and I'm off to the races, right?" Wrong. A few calls and a lot of time spent with my provider yielded that third lesson. The S7 is right on that fuzzy edge of "still cooperates with the network" and "not gonna do it." We got it to the point that I can send/receive texts, but I can't make or receive a call. So after some wrangling last evening, I placed the order for a new phone. It should be here Monday. I'm admitting defeat -- there's no salvaging the old S7, nor getting full use of the newer S7.

Fortunately, a lot of my personal contacts are also listed in my work phone. I can spend a while manually copying those, I suppose. Still, a number of contacts will be lost altogether, and I'm going to spend a while explaining to people that I've lost their phone numbers. First world problems, right?

Any...luck?

quote:

Originally posted by ibanda:

I am not a phone wizard and don't want to be. A couple of years ago I went to upgrade and was prepared to spend a weekend loading all my contacts to the new Samsung by hand. I had activated the google backup, and the tech at the store had my new Samsung loaded with all of my contacts and apps transferred in less than 10 minutes. I don't like being dependent on Google, but if you need a new phone, you can be up and running nearly instantly if you have the backup turned on. Contacts, pictures, apps, all there.

Even simpler with iPhone. I really liked my iPhone X. The battery decided to expand, pushed the display up. Battery replacement at The Apple Store would have been $69, but the display was damaged and would have to be replaced too, for a total cost of $348 (plus 7% sales tax). At that point, it made more sense to buy an Apple re-furb iPhone 11 for $494.

The older phone still worked, but it was clear that its life expectancy was very short. Got the new phone, set-up offered transfer of contents from old phone to new. Basically, just acknowledge "go ahead and do it" and put both phones down on a table next to each other. Go get a sandwich. Transfer takes place by magic and the new phone is ready to go.

quote:

Originally posted by vthoky:
Fortunately, a lot of my personal contacts are also listed in my work phone. I can spend a while manually copying those, I suppose.

You will need to Google the exact steps. But if you have a gmail account, or you set one up, you can sync your iPhone contacts to your gmail account. Then you log into you gmail account on your new Samsung phone and sync your contacts from your gmail account to your new Samsung phone.

If you have been downloading and updating apps from the Google Play Store, then you have a gmail account.

Edit: Here are the instructions:

How to transfer contacts from iPhone to Android using your Google account:

quote:

Originally posted by parabellum:
Any...luck?

No, sir. The old S7 went "full brick" yesterday. It's toast. I have a new Galaxy on the way.

The work phone is an iPhone... I get plenty of the dark side having to deal with that abomination.

quote:

Originally posted by Broadside:
if you have a gmail account, or you set one up, you can sync your iPhone contacts to your gmail account. Then you log into you gmail account on your new Samsung phone and sync your contacts from your gmail account to your new Samsung

Thank you, Broadside. I'll jump into that as soon as the new phone arrives.

quote:

Originally posted by Paten:
You have to add a line for the $800 off deal. $400 off for an eligible trade in, not just anything. At least on T-Mobile at this time. To take advantage of 5G though, you'd need a new phone. You can buy an entry level 5G android phone for about $200.

Samsung also has some fairly insane trade in values on their website. They’re also offering a discount to move up to a higher storage amount as well.