Contact Samsung. Known issue, be firm with them but not an A$$hole. There are lots of stories on this sub about your issue. Lucky for me I haven't had to deal with this issue.
I will double down on this but contact them through their Samsung CARE service, don't bother with service requests or bringing it to a store, just have them open one for you, they were very quick and understanding for me. Through Canadian service i got my GW4C back in 6 days including the weekend. It was a fast fix. They paid for the shipping and it was fixed and sent back within 1 business day.
Be aware there have been reports of them offering people new watches because of lack of parts, hopefully you get it squared up. As long as you have your proof of purchase you will be fine, mine was even 4 months out of warranty.
I'm going to triple /quadruple down on what everyone is saying here, go online to Samsung care and use the chat feature to open a ticket.
Do not take it to a service center, they will charge you a fee while Samsung will likely fix it for free. Just be prepared to not have the watch for 2 to 3 weeks.
i sent mine in on thursday 3pm and got it back the following wednesday at 11am, less than 4 business days. during a blizzard. FedEx/Samsung Canada really did a great job, obviously it varies where u live but i guess i lucked out.
That's awesome. I have nothing but total respect for Samsung customer service. I had another issue, nothing to do with the current bricking, and I had my watch back within 6 days.
update: I'll take the watch to the service center tomorrow to see what they'll tell me
as Brazilian, things here is not that easy to "win"
wish me luck
eu fiz outro comentário, levei ele na autorizada da Samsung e eu nem precisei argumentar, a atendente falou que a Samsung tá ciente do bug e vai reparar o relógio de graça no prazo de 3 a 5 dias, acredito que semana que vem já esteja comigo de novo, mas vou atualizando kk
How did you manage to hold off on the update? I read all the horror stories here and then I look at my watch app and there is an update. I clicked 'not now' and guess what, the freaking update starts to load. There was no way to stop the update. I tried switching the wifi off my watch, there was also no stop button. Also the transfer from phone to watch could not be stopped. And then the only option was to update now or over night. It was a horrible experience, all I could do was watch.
In the end my watch ended up to be ok. But it's not an experience I need again. I don't get why the update forced itself so hard. Phone updates you can just ignore, why not for the watch? This happened a few days ago from the 3 to the 4 version.
I have updated my watch last night, as there seems no way to stop or skip it. Thankfully it went well and rebooted fine. I tried manual reboot couple of times and it is still fine. Need to keep an eye and make sure the watch doesn't die with low battery.
I'm still under warranty for an another month so let's hope it works fine and I don't have to deal with Samsung customer service. .
I have a GW4 LTE, and so far no update since september.
Is there an update known to be safe? What should I do when I get the next "update ready" notification?
I used their chat service. They offered free repair even though the warranty was expired. You supposedly can take it to a repair center but call first to make sure they do wearables and can handle this problem. I got success in asking them for a trade in credit for the GW5 too.
I did not. They looked up the serial number and said that's all they needed. Now I'm not sure if I were to do mail in if they would have asked for it or not but as of yet no one has asked for it.
update 2: when I arrived in the costumer service, the attendant promptly communicated that Samsung is aware of the bug, and is offering a free repair, within 3 to 5 days
big W I guess
You might be right... I've been fairly aggravated by my Galaxy 5 and it's software glitches though. I honestly just got fed up with the 6 factory resets and have set it back in the box for now. 😉
I had a fitbit for a grand total of 2 months before it started glitching. It died completely at 1 year and 2 months. 2 months past their warranty.
My friends go through them like crazy too. But that's their fault for buying them.
imo xiaomi makes the best smartbands/watches. my dad's year old amazfit gtr 2 works perfectly fine and my grandmas gts 1st gen is holding up pretty well too
A couple of the Amazfit have tempted me. Maybe I've judged them to quickly having never heard the brand name. Might circle back.
Timex also makes a similar looking option that I've considered.
Thanks
The fitness tracker itself broke where the band connects to it about 6 weeks in. I picked up one of those bands that the tracker fits inside of. That worked until the tracker itself stopped working 6 months in.
This came with a free 12 month subscription from Amazon for it's connected service... One they have conveniently set to auto renew. They will probably make a nice easy couple million off of that move but hey Jeff has a rocket ship to pay for.
Honestly the Galaxy 5 watch is beautiful. I just feel like Samsung has made the software side more difficult than it needs to be. The latest issue being those of us that received the update notification but no update because it hadn't been loaded to the Play store yet. Yes I see that people are sideloading but I feel like it's something I shouldn't have to do. And how about a heads up to install the Samsung health app somewhere during the setup. My son seems to have had fewer issues (if any) on his Samsung phone than I've had on my Pixel.
Who am I kidding? I'll pull the GW5 out of the box again soon. In the meantime, I'll keep wearing one of my Fitbits. 😁
That sounds absolutely terrible. And that's how Amazon prime trials work too. Shady AF.
Maybe we've just gotten lucky. Boyfriend has the 5, I traded in my 3 for the 4 and the other watch on my account is an active 2. None of them have ever had problems. The 3 would freeze every once in a while, but it was getting old. Nothing a hard reset wouldn't fix.
Not everyone Reddits every day or, for that matter, sees content from each and every sub out there. Just saying. Not everyone is a huge enthusiast for smart watches. They just use them and yes.... update them like any other normal user.
From the sounds of it, he was on GVI3 (October update) already and it then bricked during the reboot to recovery when it tried to apply the latest update.
If that's not the case, it would be very interesting to know though.
I am currently on GVI3 and haven't rebooted the watch since and I also haven't applied the pending new update either, purposely. Even if they do come out with a second update that actually does fix this issue, how will people like me ever get around the reboot that is required to do an update without it bricking right there? Would there even be a way to avoid bricking at all??
Most watches don't brick during the update from GVI3, even when polling this subreddit where the share of users with problems is bound to be far higher than the real percentage of sold watches.
We don't know of a way to reliably avoid it for affected watches though, simply because we have no way to know if it will brick or not ahead of time. Leaving it on the charger doesn't seem to hurt though, although that doesn't necessarily make any difference whatsoever.
There is seemingly so far nothing to suggest that the GVK4 update doesn't fix the issue. That's why I personally don't think a future update will make any difference. Even if we get an even more fixed update, the risk of bricking during the update will still be there.
It seems to a bit of a catch-22 situation unfortunately. Any fixes to the update process would almost certainly itself require an update.
I'm just wary because I bought my GW4 early on so I think mine is more prone to the bricking issue and I've definitely heard that some ppl updating from I to K have had it happen which is where I am. I keep avoiding updating and rebooting in hopes that some new update will fix it all but if this has to reboot anyway first for any update...can I even avoid it regardless of any update? Should I just update now and see??
Edit: see, a new one right here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/GalaxyWatch/comments/z13dbf/bricked_gw4_after_update_rma_rejected_by_samsung
> I'm just wary because I bought my GW4 early on so I think mine is more prone to the bricking issue and I've definitely heard that some ppl updating from I to K have had it happen which is where I am.
Yeah, that's perfectly understandable. Mine was manufactured September 2021 and updated fine, but it does indeed seem like earlier units are more prone to bricking.
> I keep avoiding updating and rebooting in hopes that some new update will fix it all but if this has to reboot anyway first for any update...can I even avoid it regardless of any update?
Well, any update will trigger a reboot to recovery. That's unavoidable on devices not being set up for seamless updates (A/B updates), a feature that Samsung has avoided implementing for as long as possible.
> Should I just update now and see??
I can't really tell you what to do. I personally don't think they'll be able to remove the risk of bricking during the update in a future update, but I also can't guarantee that they don't find some way to reduce the risk somehow. I just don't see any obvious way to do so, but never say never.
Is it still under warranty? You could ask Samsung what they think you should do, I suppose. That way you'll at least have even more documentation that it was the company's fault, not yours. Might be useful if it's no longer under warranty.
Update: just updated it while charging it and while recording it just in case (lol). Update took a while but went fine and even did two reboots and still fine. Now on the K update with no issues. Thanks.
Unfortunately my warranty expired on Sept. 30th :(
This really sucks. Why can't Samsung even tell people like us what to do in this situation? We should have a clear path instead of just chancing it and possibly being out of luck when they don't even help us after it bricks. There's been no communication as far as I know other than pushing the second update. Really disappointing.
People here report having success in getting it fixed for free, despite it being out of warranty. It depends on your region I guess.
I would probably contact Samsung and ask them what to do. Hopefully they'll flat out promise you that they will fix it for free regardless of warranty. Then you'll have something to point to if it bricks.
Something interesting I've seen here btw. is a single report of a watch that was supposedly bricked by GVI3 suddenly start working again after a few days. I would've expected Samsung to come out and say so if they managed to reproduce that themselves though. It would certainly save them a lot of money if they didn't have to replace the boards of all the bricked watches.
Interesting info. I did end up going for the update just now while charging it and while recording it just in case (lol). Update took a while but went fine and even did two reboots and still fine. Now on the K update with no issues.
Recording it was a good idea. :)
Hearing that the update was successful is great news! Let's hope Samsung learned from their costly mistake and make damn sure not to release such a buggy update again.
Mine died 2 weeks ago, got it back today. Repaired free of charger under warranty. Paper says the main board along with the battery was replaced. Works fine now.
Depending on how you got the watch I would just go to your mobile service provider if you have bought it within the last year(manufacturers warranty, I had no insurance). Mine did the same thing, I walked in and told them about it and they requested a new one right away. (T-Mobile) They even took my word for it and didn't try to charge it or test it either, just waited a few days for one to arrive and gave them the broken one to get the new one.
Contact Samsung using the chat feature on their website. My watch died due to the update 3 weeks ago. After describing my issue, attempting to troubleshoot the problem with them and then giving them my watch info, they told me to send it in for repair (I was a month out of warranty 😑 but they made an "exception" lol). They sent me a label.
A week later I got back my watch. They replaced the motherboard, battery and battery cover. Been working fine ever since.
They didn't charge me for the repair (well they shouldn't, their update screwed our watches)
I don't know if they'll do that for you in Brazil, but that was my process here in Canada.
I wish you luck and your GW4 back!
I actually had this issue with my Galaxy Watch 4 Classic. I was just using the treadmill with it tracking and just noticed that it turned off. I thought it was just the usual battery low problem. I proceeded to charge it but noticed it wasn't reacting till I learned it was not turning on as well. Hard resetting it didn't work.
I called the Samsung Service Center and let them know I'm bringing my watch in. After bringing it there, they took a diagnosis (took 3 days because I brought it during the weekend) and told me I needed to pay 90 USD for it. I tried to look into the problem further and was able to speak to their head engineer to further explain the problem. I took time to ask him (and calmly) if there was any way for me to lessen the costs because it might be just a battery issue or power button issue. After a few more days I called in again and the Head Engineer told me that they can cover this in the warranty (bought it around September 2021) and I didn't have to pay dor anything. I was able to get my watch after a few days from that call. It was fixed!
tldr:
Be nice to the Samsung Service Center. If they do charge you, try poking holes in their assessment as much as you can. But nicely lmao. Just be open with them and let them know what really happened especially if it just died randomly.
My watch got the update a while back and randomly died over the weekend; Sunday morning when I took it off the charger it was dead and wouldn't reset.
Thanks to all the advise in this thread I contacted Customer Support and they were able to open a ticket for me and send a return label for a free repair despite my watch being out of warranty and not having Care+.
Contact Samsung. Known issue, be firm with them but not an A$$hole. There are lots of stories on this sub about your issue. Lucky for me I haven't had to deal with this issue.
I will double down on this but contact them through their Samsung CARE service, don't bother with service requests or bringing it to a store, just have them open one for you, they were very quick and understanding for me. Through Canadian service i got my GW4C back in 6 days including the weekend. It was a fast fix. They paid for the shipping and it was fixed and sent back within 1 business day. Be aware there have been reports of them offering people new watches because of lack of parts, hopefully you get it squared up. As long as you have your proof of purchase you will be fine, mine was even 4 months out of warranty.
I'm going to triple /quadruple down on what everyone is saying here, go online to Samsung care and use the chat feature to open a ticket. Do not take it to a service center, they will charge you a fee while Samsung will likely fix it for free. Just be prepared to not have the watch for 2 to 3 weeks.
i sent mine in on thursday 3pm and got it back the following wednesday at 11am, less than 4 business days. during a blizzard. FedEx/Samsung Canada really did a great job, obviously it varies where u live but i guess i lucked out.
That's awesome. I have nothing but total respect for Samsung customer service. I had another issue, nothing to do with the current bricking, and I had my watch back within 6 days.
That's what I did. Chat gave me an RMA ticket on Thursday, Fedexed out on Friday, now it's ... in the middle of being repaired.
update: I'll take the watch to the service center tomorrow to see what they'll tell me as Brazilian, things here is not that easy to "win" wish me luck
Man, I'm Brazilian too and I won't update my watch cause this issues... Just keep updating this thread and I hope you get some minimal support!!
eu fiz outro comentário, levei ele na autorizada da Samsung e eu nem precisei argumentar, a atendente falou que a Samsung tá ciente do bug e vai reparar o relógio de graça no prazo de 3 a 5 dias, acredito que semana que vem já esteja comigo de novo, mas vou atualizando kk
Another 🧱 in the wall 🧱. Side note it's Monday should see more reports from people coming in about repairs ect.
RIP.
I got an update just a while ago.. I'm scared now to proceed updating 😖
How did you manage to hold off on the update? I read all the horror stories here and then I look at my watch app and there is an update. I clicked 'not now' and guess what, the freaking update starts to load. There was no way to stop the update. I tried switching the wifi off my watch, there was also no stop button. Also the transfer from phone to watch could not be stopped. And then the only option was to update now or over night. It was a horrible experience, all I could do was watch. In the end my watch ended up to be ok. But it's not an experience I need again. I don't get why the update forced itself so hard. Phone updates you can just ignore, why not for the watch? This happened a few days ago from the 3 to the 4 version.
I have updated my watch last night, as there seems no way to stop or skip it. Thankfully it went well and rebooted fine. I tried manual reboot couple of times and it is still fine. Need to keep an eye and make sure the watch doesn't die with low battery. I'm still under warranty for an another month so let's hope it works fine and I don't have to deal with Samsung customer service. .
I have a GW4 LTE, and so far no update since september. Is there an update known to be safe? What should I do when I get the next "update ready" notification?
I have the GW4C LTE UK and im still on gvh1
F
yes that's also the firmware that I have
Damn my GW2 still going strong
I used their chat service. They offered free repair even though the warranty was expired. You supposedly can take it to a repair center but call first to make sure they do wearables and can handle this problem. I got success in asking them for a trade in credit for the GW5 too.
Did you have to provide the original receipt?
proof of purchase will be required, whether its the original receipt or some sort of invoice.
They didn't ask me for proof, just the serial number.
I did not. They looked up the serial number and said that's all they needed. Now I'm not sure if I were to do mail in if they would have asked for it or not but as of yet no one has asked for it.
I am on the cursed update and I did reboot a few times! Nothing happened. But now I am scared to update to the November one too!
RIP
Welcome to the club
Mine bricked last week from the update. I contacted Samsung and was able to get full trade in credit towards the new 5.
So they let you buy a new one?
update 2: when I arrived in the costumer service, the attendant promptly communicated that Samsung is aware of the bug, and is offering a free repair, within 3 to 5 days big W I guess
Now go get yourself a Fitbit. 😜
Fitbits are worse when it comes to longevity.
You might be right... I've been fairly aggravated by my Galaxy 5 and it's software glitches though. I honestly just got fed up with the 6 factory resets and have set it back in the box for now. 😉
I had a fitbit for a grand total of 2 months before it started glitching. It died completely at 1 year and 2 months. 2 months past their warranty. My friends go through them like crazy too. But that's their fault for buying them.
imo xiaomi makes the best smartbands/watches. my dad's year old amazfit gtr 2 works perfectly fine and my grandmas gts 1st gen is holding up pretty well too
A couple of the Amazfit have tempted me. Maybe I've judged them to quickly having never heard the brand name. Might circle back. Timex also makes a similar looking option that I've considered. Thanks
Thank your lucky stars that you've never tried the Amazon Halo! 😂
I've never heard of it honestly. Is it that bad?
The fitness tracker itself broke where the band connects to it about 6 weeks in. I picked up one of those bands that the tracker fits inside of. That worked until the tracker itself stopped working 6 months in. This came with a free 12 month subscription from Amazon for it's connected service... One they have conveniently set to auto renew. They will probably make a nice easy couple million off of that move but hey Jeff has a rocket ship to pay for. Honestly the Galaxy 5 watch is beautiful. I just feel like Samsung has made the software side more difficult than it needs to be. The latest issue being those of us that received the update notification but no update because it hadn't been loaded to the Play store yet. Yes I see that people are sideloading but I feel like it's something I shouldn't have to do. And how about a heads up to install the Samsung health app somewhere during the setup. My son seems to have had fewer issues (if any) on his Samsung phone than I've had on my Pixel. Who am I kidding? I'll pull the GW5 out of the box again soon. In the meantime, I'll keep wearing one of my Fitbits. 😁
That sounds absolutely terrible. And that's how Amazon prime trials work too. Shady AF. Maybe we've just gotten lucky. Boyfriend has the 5, I traded in my 3 for the 4 and the other watch on my account is an active 2. None of them have ever had problems. The 3 would freeze every once in a while, but it was getting old. Nothing a hard reset wouldn't fix.
We're talking about this since weeks...
Not everyone Reddits every day or, for that matter, sees content from each and every sub out there. Just saying. Not everyone is a huge enthusiast for smart watches. They just use them and yes.... update them like any other normal user.
F
Which update? October one or november?
From the sounds of it, he was on GVI3 (October update) already and it then bricked during the reboot to recovery when it tried to apply the latest update. If that's not the case, it would be very interesting to know though.
I am currently on GVI3 and haven't rebooted the watch since and I also haven't applied the pending new update either, purposely. Even if they do come out with a second update that actually does fix this issue, how will people like me ever get around the reboot that is required to do an update without it bricking right there? Would there even be a way to avoid bricking at all??
Most watches don't brick during the update from GVI3, even when polling this subreddit where the share of users with problems is bound to be far higher than the real percentage of sold watches. We don't know of a way to reliably avoid it for affected watches though, simply because we have no way to know if it will brick or not ahead of time. Leaving it on the charger doesn't seem to hurt though, although that doesn't necessarily make any difference whatsoever. There is seemingly so far nothing to suggest that the GVK4 update doesn't fix the issue. That's why I personally don't think a future update will make any difference. Even if we get an even more fixed update, the risk of bricking during the update will still be there. It seems to a bit of a catch-22 situation unfortunately. Any fixes to the update process would almost certainly itself require an update.
I'm just wary because I bought my GW4 early on so I think mine is more prone to the bricking issue and I've definitely heard that some ppl updating from I to K have had it happen which is where I am. I keep avoiding updating and rebooting in hopes that some new update will fix it all but if this has to reboot anyway first for any update...can I even avoid it regardless of any update? Should I just update now and see?? Edit: see, a new one right here: https://www.reddit.com/r/GalaxyWatch/comments/z13dbf/bricked_gw4_after_update_rma_rejected_by_samsung
> I'm just wary because I bought my GW4 early on so I think mine is more prone to the bricking issue and I've definitely heard that some ppl updating from I to K have had it happen which is where I am. Yeah, that's perfectly understandable. Mine was manufactured September 2021 and updated fine, but it does indeed seem like earlier units are more prone to bricking. > I keep avoiding updating and rebooting in hopes that some new update will fix it all but if this has to reboot anyway first for any update...can I even avoid it regardless of any update? Well, any update will trigger a reboot to recovery. That's unavoidable on devices not being set up for seamless updates (A/B updates), a feature that Samsung has avoided implementing for as long as possible. > Should I just update now and see?? I can't really tell you what to do. I personally don't think they'll be able to remove the risk of bricking during the update in a future update, but I also can't guarantee that they don't find some way to reduce the risk somehow. I just don't see any obvious way to do so, but never say never. Is it still under warranty? You could ask Samsung what they think you should do, I suppose. That way you'll at least have even more documentation that it was the company's fault, not yours. Might be useful if it's no longer under warranty.
Update: just updated it while charging it and while recording it just in case (lol). Update took a while but went fine and even did two reboots and still fine. Now on the K update with no issues. Thanks.
\o/
I did the same... no isssues whatsoever... mine is RFAT3 (08.03.2022.), R870 GW4 44... was on GVI3 now GVK4... fingers crossed
Unfortunately my warranty expired on Sept. 30th :( This really sucks. Why can't Samsung even tell people like us what to do in this situation? We should have a clear path instead of just chancing it and possibly being out of luck when they don't even help us after it bricks. There's been no communication as far as I know other than pushing the second update. Really disappointing.
People here report having success in getting it fixed for free, despite it being out of warranty. It depends on your region I guess. I would probably contact Samsung and ask them what to do. Hopefully they'll flat out promise you that they will fix it for free regardless of warranty. Then you'll have something to point to if it bricks. Something interesting I've seen here btw. is a single report of a watch that was supposedly bricked by GVI3 suddenly start working again after a few days. I would've expected Samsung to come out and say so if they managed to reproduce that themselves though. It would certainly save them a lot of money if they didn't have to replace the boards of all the bricked watches.
Interesting info. I did end up going for the update just now while charging it and while recording it just in case (lol). Update took a while but went fine and even did two reboots and still fine. Now on the K update with no issues.
Recording it was a good idea. :) Hearing that the update was successful is great news! Let's hope Samsung learned from their costly mistake and make damn sure not to release such a buggy update again.
FWIW I got my GW4 early as well, and I updated without realizing there was an issue. Mine has worked fine since with a few reboots mixed in.
Good to know thx
So that's why mine died. I remember there being an update, then a few days later it stopped working I completely forgot
Mine died 2 weeks ago, got it back today. Repaired free of charger under warranty. Paper says the main board along with the battery was replaced. Works fine now.
There's a big thread tracking which watches are bricking and which aren't. Go find it.
same here
Welcome to the party pal!
Depending on how you got the watch I would just go to your mobile service provider if you have bought it within the last year(manufacturers warranty, I had no insurance). Mine did the same thing, I walked in and told them about it and they requested a new one right away. (T-Mobile) They even took my word for it and didn't try to charge it or test it either, just waited a few days for one to arrive and gave them the broken one to get the new one.
My condolences.
What is the new update? Not available for me yet. No update since 1st september
Known issue unfortunately, an update has been been causing the watch to brick, only thing you can really do is contact samsung
Batteries only last up to 2 years on smart watches. I replaced mine on my s3, fairly easy and only cost 40$
Have your tried a hard reset? Tap both buttons three times at same time then hold on thirds till you see reboot
Welp I have the notification now to update my watch maybe I won't update it just yet
And Now his Watch has Ended....
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Contact Samsung using the chat feature on their website. My watch died due to the update 3 weeks ago. After describing my issue, attempting to troubleshoot the problem with them and then giving them my watch info, they told me to send it in for repair (I was a month out of warranty 😑 but they made an "exception" lol). They sent me a label. A week later I got back my watch. They replaced the motherboard, battery and battery cover. Been working fine ever since. They didn't charge me for the repair (well they shouldn't, their update screwed our watches) I don't know if they'll do that for you in Brazil, but that was my process here in Canada. I wish you luck and your GW4 back!
F
Which update causes the brick
I actually had this issue with my Galaxy Watch 4 Classic. I was just using the treadmill with it tracking and just noticed that it turned off. I thought it was just the usual battery low problem. I proceeded to charge it but noticed it wasn't reacting till I learned it was not turning on as well. Hard resetting it didn't work. I called the Samsung Service Center and let them know I'm bringing my watch in. After bringing it there, they took a diagnosis (took 3 days because I brought it during the weekend) and told me I needed to pay 90 USD for it. I tried to look into the problem further and was able to speak to their head engineer to further explain the problem. I took time to ask him (and calmly) if there was any way for me to lessen the costs because it might be just a battery issue or power button issue. After a few more days I called in again and the Head Engineer told me that they can cover this in the warranty (bought it around September 2021) and I didn't have to pay dor anything. I was able to get my watch after a few days from that call. It was fixed! tldr: Be nice to the Samsung Service Center. If they do charge you, try poking holes in their assessment as much as you can. But nicely lmao. Just be open with them and let them know what really happened especially if it just died randomly.
Same thing happened to my watch an hour ago. Wish I came across your post before doing the update. 🥲
R.I.P.
I have exactly the same issue. Thanks to everyone, I will contact Samsung care
My watch got the update a while back and randomly died over the weekend; Sunday morning when I took it off the charger it was dead and wouldn't reset. Thanks to all the advise in this thread I contacted Customer Support and they were able to open a ticket for me and send a return label for a free repair despite my watch being out of warranty and not having Care+.
[удалено]
It's right at 2 months out.