Nougat update broke my S7 edge. Is there a way to roll back?

I just updated my S7 Edge to Nougat. After the update, my phone has been constantly crashing, rebooting, etc. Never had these issues on Marshmallow. The phone will reboot while sitting on the table doing nothing. Also, certain apps will crash or stop working, randomly. They are different apps all the time.

Things I tried:

Factory reset
Clearing cache
deleting old apps that haven't had recent updates

Nothing has worked.

Thanks,

Rob

Accepted answers

PSUHammer

Marcus,

The Verizon rep I called had me perform a repair via plugging it into my PC and using the software utility. This would apparently do a fresh install of Nougat without the apps. The issue is the update failed. After that, the rep agreed to replace the phone.

So, I should have a new one today. Will install Nougat fresh without an app restore...then test again.

All comments

PSUHammer

Some followup. I have tried Safe mode and the app crashes seem to have lightened. But, it still randomly reboots. What a disaster!

PSUHammer

Apparently I now have to get my phone replaced. Great.

kincaed

This may or may not have any impact on your situation but in the past I've run into issues when there have been major Android updates (ie Android 4 to 5, Android 5 to 6, etc). I didn't this time, thankfully. In the past when I did suffer major problems it almost always turned out to be related to a third-party app that didn't function properly.

With the above being said, in the past when I did suffer major problems it almost always turned out to be related to a third-party app that didn't function properly. I'd wind up with crashes, reboots, the phone getting very hot, the battery draining quickly, etc. If I did a factory reset everything would be fine until my apps were reinstalled. I then had to weed through all the apps I had installed to locate the problem app or in some cases multiple apps. I've had some apps in the past that fully claimed to support the newer major Android versions but they either didn't or there was a major bug because it wouldn't work properly even after a reset and clean install.

Long story short, is your problem happening on a clean fresh install of Nougat (ie factory reset) or is it after you're reset and then added back all your apps? That could make a difference and it's always possible that that is the actual problem. Of course I am mere speculating and sharing my prior experiences with issues related to major updates and I could be entirely wrong in your case. Just food for thought!

PS: I'm not saying there isn't an issue with the Nougat update and/or your phone! Just providing some input. :smileyhappy: Your mileage may vary.

jrh4054

Unfortunately, you may have to wait until VZW sends an updated Nougat version that fixes a number of problems S7 users are having.

Verizon_Support

PSUHammer, we never want you to have issues after a software update. You should be enjoying your phone more now. Kincaed asked great questions and I agree. You did a factory reset. Did you try using the phone while it was sill blank to see if the same issues occurred? Ac corrupted application or file could easily be the culprit.

Why were you told the phone needs to be replaced?

MarcusS_VZW

If my response answered your question please click the ?Correct Answer? button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!

PSUHammer

Marcus,

So, I should have a new one today. Will install Nougat fresh without an app restore...then test again.

Verizon_Support

We appreciate the update, PSUHammer. We’re glad to hear that the phone is being replaced and I assure you we want nothing more than to see a reliable phone in your hands.

Please keep us up to speed with the performance of the replacement phone and we will be available to assist with any other questions or concerns you may have. I hope you have a great day and I want to thank you for being the best part of Verizon.

SteveR_VZW

If my response answered your question please click the ?Correct Answer? button under my response. This ensures others can benefit from our conversation. Thanks in advance for your help with this!

kathy65793

How is the new phone working?

PSUHammer

The new phone is working great. It updated to Nougat with no issues and restored all my apps and not one crash. Not sure what the deal was.

kincaed

Sometimes I wonder if there are inherent design flaws/weaknesses in a product that may only be made noticeable under certain specific conditions. For instance, due to the very nature of their size cellphones can generate heat when they are functioning at high performance levels and is not good thing with respect to eletronics and processing. During the update process especially the larger major updates for Android the process involved is more lengthy and my experience is all my cellphones get more noticeably warm if not hot. Hypothetically, there could have been hardware/build flaw, not the best connection, maybe not the best glued-down connection, etc, that when exposed to higher levels of heat resulted in the problem suddenly manifesting in a failure. In other words, previously everything was fine but the higher temp conditions resulting from the update caused the problem in a perfect storm.

Again, my statements are mere a hypothesis and actually pertains to ALL brands of cellphones and not just Samsung or the Samsung Galaxy S7. This could happen to any manufacturer.

PSUHammer

True. That may be what happened. After a week, my new phone is still going strong with 7.0 installed. Not one reboot or app crash.

It appears the device swap solved the problem.