I think my phone is frozen...

[EmmaWK]

I went to sleep and I think I failed to exit one of my apps (one that might have kept the screen on, but I'm not sure). Now the screen is black, but I can see the notification light flashing. I've tried plugging it in and pressing the power button and the volume buttons at the same time, but I can't get the phone to reboot. What should I do?

My phone is running Jelly Bean and it's not rooted.

[Ads]

[paul_gyver]

Pull battery for a few minutes then reboot. It should recover from whatever caused the freeze but if it doesn't we can try a few more things.

[EmmaWK]

Thanks; wow, that was super fast! I wasn't sure if I could do that with this phone.

It's turned back on now and seems to be functioning normally. Two questions: Is it harmful to pull the battery? And how can I find out what exactly was causing the issue?

[rayhodge02]

No it isn't harmful I pull my battery in emergencies boot loop frozen phone things like that..unsure what the cause was

Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk 2

[paul_gyver]

Thanks; wow, that was super fast! I wasn't sure if I could do that with this phone.

It's turned back on now and seems to be functioning normally. Two questions: Is it harmful to pull the battery? And how can I find out what exactly was causing the issue?

As Ray stated it's ok to pull battery in emergency but I wouldn't make it a daily routine. As far as what was causing your issue it could be so many things but more than likely it could have been one of your apps not playing nice. Have you recently installed any new apps or had an update for an app? If it happens again you can boot into safe mode and that would boot up without any downloaded apps. Keep an eye on it but I wouldn't worry too much.

[EmmaWK]

Thanks. I didn't have any idea about safe mode but it makes sense to have such a feature. As for apps, I install so many and have them automatically update, so it's hard for me to tell. I'm hoping this doesn't happen again!

[thephantom]

Regarding the auto update for apps, may I suggest having only the Google ones do that? Just this year there have been several updates for the OS that some devs might not be able to catch up as fast. You'll still get the notification should there be an update so you don't lose out on anything. At least you can see the comments first prior to making your app update so you can decide to hold back and see. It's hard to be a guinea pig if ever.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2

[EmmaWK]

Thanks for the tip! That's a great suggestion.