Samsung Galaxy S4: Problems, Questions, Solutions, Workarounds [Part 1]

The Samsung Galaxy S4 is one of the most powerful and popular mobile devices to date with millions of users around the globe. However, it is not free of problems and errors. Since there were already millions of people who have tested it, many flaws have been discovered; some are software-related while others were caused by hardware malfunction.

In this post, I will try to answer some of the questions or problems our readers sent us. And we will do this as often as we can since we’ve already received thousands of emails in our mailbag. For those who may have some questions as well, feel free to email us  and I may be able to answer those question in my next posts.

Q1: My Samsung Galaxy S4 does not want to switch on after it froze. The battery picture comes on and off continually and or the Galaxy S4 comes on and off continually? — Natie

A: Sounds like a battery problem to me. First, try to remove the battery, place it back and turn the phone on. If it comes on, observe if the problem happens again but if it doesn’t, plug in the charger to make sure there’s enough power to turn it on. Either way, if the problem persists, you should buy a new battery.

Answer from our reader:I have a Galaxy S4 and I also had the Q1 problem; Q1: My Samsung Galaxy S4 does not want to switch on after it froze. I find that this was because I was using a generic USB charging unit. My the one suplied with the cellphone.Soon as  I connected the real deal . It charged up as it should. So the rule is, use genuine parts. Cheers. — Tony

Q2: Recently I took my phone to a tech guy (with a business out if his house) to replace my S4 glass.  A couple of days later I have started to get issues that I didn’t have before. At that point I thought I should have put a security code on it. Now is there anything that I can do about it. Is there anyway I can check if he did anything to my phone? If you can help me in anyway I would appreciate it. Thanks. — Christy

A: First, I don’t have any idea what those new issues are but if it concerns the security of you personal data, then I suggest you do a factory reset on your phone. You see, anyone who could have access to your phone may be able to install apps that they could configure to feed them with any kind of information. I mean it happens all the time. One way to get rid of those apps or any codes would be to do a master reset so third-party apps would be deleted and default apps would be brought to their normal settings. However, you need to backup all your important data before doing that. Putting a security code on your phone is also a great idea.

Q3: My phone sometimes fails to connect to my home WIFI network. (1) Phone is turned off most every night. When turned on in the AM it has never failed to connect to WIFI. (2) However if I leave the house especially when I connect to another WIFI network while away, the phone MAY fail to connect with home network unless I reenter my home network password. Since the password is stored in the phone why does this happen? Any help is appreciated. Thank You. — Bob

A: The Auto Connect option may have been ticked off that’s why the phone asks for your credentials even if the network it’s trying to connect to has already been saved. The option can be found under the Wi-Fi Advanced settings; you just have to tick the Auto Connect checkbox. I have actually posted an article last year addressing this very same issue: Galaxy S4 Asks For WiFi Password Every Time, WiFi Turns Itself Off Automatically.

Q4: Hi, my name is Jay and I was wondering if you guys know when would Samsung galaxy S4 AT&T version would get the Android 4.4 KitKat update because I don’t like 4.3 on S4. Thanks. — Jay

A: For people outside of Samsung or AT&T, we really can’t be sure when the Android 4.4 KitKat update for AT&T Galaxy S4 would be rolled out. But just the 1st of this month, there have already been rumors that AT&T is now working closely with Samsung to be able to release the update within the first quarter of this year. In fact, we posted a news story about the leaked KitKat test firmware. But we just can’t be sure when the date will be.

Q5: Hello, I have an issue with the lock screen widget on my Galaxy S4 i9505. The music widget appears on the lock screen only when the swipe lock is enabled and not with any other security options. Whereas in my friend’s s4 the music widget appears on pattern, pin and all other types of locks. Hoping for an early response. Thank you! God Bless! — Safwan

A: I’m not sure if you’re trying to make the music widget available even if not playing music on those screens. But try this: change your security option to either pattern or PIN. Once you’ve done that, play a track and wait for the phone to lock. Now, you could see that the music widget is there. That’s the normal operation; the widget will only appear if you’re playing music when the phone locks.

Q6: Hi. I just took a Southwest flight which offered free Direct TV through my S4.  I could not get my phone to open up this service.  Have you heard of anyone with this issue or a way to resolve it.  No one else around me had any issues with their phones or tablets playing the Direct TV. Thanks. — Jerry

A: This is one of the most common problems when trying to stream videos from the Galaxy S4 to an IP-capable TV. Go to Menu > Network > AllShare Settings > Screen Mirroring. Once you chose that option, the TV screen would turn blue (it happens to almost every Direct TV) and would say it’s ready to sync. When the message displays, that’s the time you turn screen mirroring on your phone. If you’re still having problems, try downloading Flipps HD from the Play Store, it could help. Or, you can buy AllShare Cast Dongle, which receives data from your phone and stream them through HDMI port.

Q7: Hi. Ever since I got my Samsung s4 since last year I thought after every update I can finally activate my multi widget in order to change the lock screen. However as you can see in the email pictures,  until version 4.3 I still don’t have the multi widget button. Any idea what is going on? Thank you. — Jessica

A: There are carriers that disabled this feature by default but I’m just not sure which one. But I want you to try going to Settings > My Device > Home Screen mode, and choose Standard mode. This will actually allow apps and widgets on the lock screen. On the clock area, swipe to the right to display the plus (+) button. To give you more information about this issue.

Q8: Is it possible to get a fake Samsung Galaxy S4 from a carrier i.e. AT&T? — Richard

A: Nope, it’s not possible. As you may have noticed, each carrier has different models and some even have slight modifications on the hardware or physical appearance of the phone. It is certain carriers as big as AT&T on get genuine products from manufacturers and there are a lot of reasons why. One of which is the possible loss of customers. But to spot a fake Galaxy S4 from a genuine unit, you need to read this post: How to Distinguish a Fake Galaxy S4.

Q9: I have had my Galaxy S4 for over a year and have been very happy.  A couple of weeks ago every time I tried using anything related to the phone (contacts, groups, Favorites or even logs) it started freezing up, after what seemed like an eternity I would get a pop up saying it failed. I have enabled the developer mode and removed the windows animations and animator duration scale (didn’t make much difference), then I pressed the home button and cleared all active apps and programs that were running (that made a huge difference) but I am not happy that this problem arose to begin with.  I would like you opinion, do you think it might have been an app that I downloaded??  If so how do I figure out which one did it? — Marie

A: Yes, there is a possibility that a third-party app is causing the problem. To confirm this, you need to boot to safe mode leaving only default apps and services to run. If the problem was solved or if the phone runs normally when you do this, recall which apps you recently installed and try disabling them first. However, if the phone still freezes randomly even when in safe mode, you have no other option but to backup all your important data and do a factory reset. Here is a list of posts dealing with this problem:

• How to Fix Samsung Galaxy S4 Intermittently Not Responding or Frozen
• Samsung Galaxy S4 Freezing Issue
• Samsung Galaxy S4 Randomly Freezes / Becomes Unresponsive [Troubleshooting Guide]

Q10: I have Samsung Galaxy S4 which has Wi-Fi connectivity issues after I upgraded to android 4.3. The error states that “network disabled because internet connection is slow” there was never a problem on android 4.2 and on the same connection other devices run fine…any solutions? — Chanpreet

A: Actually, it is more of a mobile data network problem than Wi-Fi. To solve this problem, just untick the Auto Network Switch option in Wi-Fi settings. When that option is enabled and both mobile data and Wi-Fi are on, you’re giving the right to decide which connection is better and connect to it without your permission. When mobile data is extremely slow, that’s when the error message comes up.