HTC Thunderbolt shutting itself off?

[Ranger1744]

Has happened twice.  Both times over night when plugged into charger.  Any ideas?

[tiffydelane]

Mine has done that too everal times. During the day and overnight. I would also love to know why!

[Ranger1744]

From HTC:

Thank you for your email regarding your HTC Thunderbolt. We apologize for the issues you have experienced with the device powering off while attempting to charge. For this issue, our options are somewhat limited.

First, remove any third party applications that may be installed on the device to make sure they are not causing a software conflict. To do this, tap Menu on the Home screen>Settings>Applications>Manage Applications. Locate any third party programs you have installed, tap on the listing and select uninstall. Once this is done, or if you do not have any third party programs, perform a soft reset. This is done by powering the device off and removing the battery for approximately 5-10 seconds. After this, reinsert the battery and test operation.

If the device continues to shut off while charging, attempt a factory data reset on the phone. To do the hard reset, press Menu>Settings>SD & Phone Storage>Factory Data Reset. This will remove all data from the device and reload the current operating system. As such, you will want to back up any personal information remove the micro SD card, if present, prior to following the above steps. If needed, you can back up your contacts to the SD card by opening the people application and select Menu>Import/Export>Export to SD card. You should only need to select the Phone contacts as the Google and Exchange contacts should already be saved to their respective sources.

If the issue is still present, you may wish to contact our repair department. They can be reached at 1-800-229-1235, 8:30 am to 5 pm EST, Monday through Friday. Feel free to contact us again should you have any further questions. If you feel more comfortable discussing issues by phone, you can contact Technical Support at 1-866-449-8358, 6 am to 1 am EST, 7 days a week.

[pkwarren423]

Seems like an inappropriate response since this is such a widespread problem.  It has happened to me also but not when charging but when sitting on my kitchen table not plugged in.  

[ggmom]

Love the phone except for the fact that it shuts down at odd times. Also when it shuts down it will not charge, plugged in, nothing happens. Tried hard and soft reboot, no 3rd party apps. Had it 2 weeks, shut down 4 times. Not able to charge. Along with the battery problems it does not seem to be worth the hassle. Considering the cost, I am not a happy camper!

[BamaBulldog]

Today is Monday.  I got my new HTC Thunderbolt two days ago--Saturday.  It has spontaneously shut itself down at least 5-6 times on BOTH Saturday and Sunday.  The very first time I powered it on, I heard the cool "thundering" sound and saw the red thunderbolt.  However, since then, it does not make that sound when it powers back up anymore.  Also, I keep getting a message that there's no internet service...but I have WiFi in my home.  (My husband has the "new" iPhone 4, and his service is working fine.)

I'm very disappointed.  I waited a long time to go get a new phone, and I chose the Thunderbolt b/c of all the "rave" reviews.  Since I have 14 days to return it, I guess I'll be doing that this afternoon. 

[AZSALUKI]

bamabulldog.....fyi....if you do it today, you won't have to pay the $35 restock fee (no fee within 3 days).

[gina7289]

Mine reboots off and on. And when I'm charging it does shut off. I have the new update. After it does this then when I go into a Verizon app like NFL mobile I have to log in to my Verizon profile before I can use the app. Ugh.

[efd843]

I am on my fourth, yes fourth replacement HTC Thunderbolt in a week.  Mine keeps shutting off, internet is super slow and now the latest device also wont recognize my memory card.  Its not third party apps its obviously a software issue.  Totally ridiculous for the money I paid for this phone and the amount I pay for data usage.

[bpavlick]

Mine reboots more than shutting itself off completley... It has only shut completley off once. I have contacted many different people about the issue and all have different answers. This is what I found, my phone always reboots at work which is in a roaming 1X zone. Once it switches from 1X to 3G and vice versa, this is when it always reboots. Also the same issue from driving in many rural areas. Another issue is, on occasion, during the 3G to 4G switch, there is no web data. All applications (Google, Youtube, etc) show "No data connection". I can only get data if I do a manual resart of my phone. It looks like it is obviously a tower/software  issue, and not a hardware issue, which is somewhat of a relief to me because I went from the Incredible to the Thunderbolt and I love "Sense". I switched the phone out for a Samsung Charge and absolutley HATED IT!!! The phone SUCKS. Super laggy, Cheap feel to it  and it seems to have somewhat of the same isses when jumping from 3G to 4G. Needless to say I went back to my local Verizon dealer and got my Thunderbolt back. I talked with a "Higher Up" in my area and both Verizon and HTC are well aware of the issue and are dillegently working on it. So when you call Verizon to tell them about this same issue and they reply with, "I am sorry to hear about this problem" and "This is the first I heard of this issue" which is what these people are directed to say, you know that it is **bleep**..... I am just happy to know that the 2 are working together to get a fix because I love the HTC Bolt...

[jeffpc]

Exactly, we paid dearly for these phones, we paid a premium too, if amazon now sells for 130.00, I paid 250 here at verizon, and the phone has just too many bugs.  I really should be recalled, and replaced with something different.  I think if enough folks contacted those that care in our government maybe we can push for a recall. Sad.

[UserID]

My T'bolt also shuts down, it is usually on the charger when it happens.

[gina7289]

Mine when chargeing for awhile since it takes awhile to fully charge. Overnight it shuts off then when I get up its off but who knows if it shut off after or while its charging it.

[Ol_crazyfeet]

I have not had problems with my Bolt shutting off while charging.

Rather, it shuts off when not connected (over night). Even though the charge is 50% when I fire it back up.

Key common thread?

- It only does it at night

Do our Bolts update overnight? (then shutdown)

Do they shut down when no movement is sensed?

[NonaDee]

My Thunderbolt  reboots all by itself at any time it wants.  The other day I was talking on the phone when it rebooted.  Today it has rebooted 3 times when just sitting on the coffee table with a full charge.  I did buy the extended battery from HTC.com so I have no complaints about the batter life anymore....just the rebooting.  I love the phone but there is just too many bugs.  I agree they should recall and replace!!

[intensitytoo]

Just posting to say mine has started doing this too after 5 weeks of owning it.

It seems to only do it off the charger and at night. It is just random. Sometimes it goes 15 minutes then shuts down. Sometimes it's two hours.

Glad to know more people are having this issue.

[gina7289]

Mine does it off and on while charging. When I turn it on it loses 10 -15%

[MattP123614]

yep... mine has shut off regardless of wether it was plugged in or not, moving or not, roaming or not, moving from tower to tower in my car or next to me while i sleep...

lets see...

i replaced my old LG chocolate with the thunderbolt cause the battery was showing its age. figured it would be a good excuse to get with the times and pick up a SMART phone.

well this so called smart phone is kinda dumb.

first, i bought a new phone cause the battery on my previous one just wasnt lasting as long. the thunderbolt isnt much better, if better at all. sure it is doing a lot more, but it is also brand new. this brings me to my first instance of it turning off on its own.

it was fully charged when i went to bed sunday night and when i wake up 6 hours later, it was off, and apparently the battery was dead. it was not on charge and somehow drained from 6 hours of inactivity. no calls, no texts, no emails, no apps running in the background (just the default basic email updates, weather, etc). well, the next day i somehow managed to get over 12 hours out of it, including calls, IMs email etc.

so i change the update frequencies of everything and only leave AIM signed on when im not with the people i would like to IM. its a shame i have to set the update frequencies so far apart since getting instant updates was one of the benefits of a smart phone i was looking forward to. its also unfortunate i cant seem to uninstall the factory apps i'll never use, like news, stocks blockbuster, kindle... theyre just taking up space in the long list of apps, and possibly running in the background when i dont want.

i put the phone on charge last night before sleeping and this morning i wake up and it is off... again... at least this morning i had a full battery. i went for a drive and when i got home, the phone was off again!! i can rule out the lack of movement theory because it was in the pants pocket of my clutch leg while driving a bumpy stick shift car.

ive only had the phone a week and this is very disheartening. i love the features and apps, but this is UNACCEPTABLE! i am not the person who lives off of their phone so i am not constantly checking it for directions, missed calls, emails or messages, let alone to see if the phone is even on or working properly! i have plenty of people in my life who are elderly or have jobs with a higher risk of injury or death. if anything were to happen to them i would like to know in as little time as it takes to call me, not in however long it takes me to notice my "smart" phone turned off on its own, wait for it to reboot, see i have a few missed calls and voicemails...

the whole "restart your phone", "reset to factory settings" and "remove 3rd party apps" is all **bleep**. that just says, "oops, our bad, not sure why thats happening, good luck" while they scratch their heads to figure out what went wrong.

im actually kinda missing my old LG chocolate it was a nice reliable phone. and quite good looking and compact too...

[ywlam88]

I got my HTC Thunderbolt two weeks ago and it's been shutting off RANDOMLY at any given time.....

Like many others, I'm glad I'm NOT the ONLY one experiencing this....

The last time it happened was 2 hours ago... when I tried to text someone back and it blacked out on me before I even got to type anything.....

I wish I kept my droid X............ I am considering on going back to Verizon on Saturday if the problem is happeneing again to RETURN this POS.... it's a great phone especially when I'm running it on 3G instead of 4G cause it conserves the battery for me like my Droid X... but I'm getting annoyed of this shutting-off at random times... it's like you DON'T know what to expect........ jeebus

[Ann154]

@ywlam88
Verizon has a 14 return policy. If you return the Tbolt make sure you do it within that time period.

[donc13]

It IS a problem, but NOT every Thunderbolt has this issue.    Mine did.   It was 100% stock, not rooted or anything.   After the update, it started rebooting on its own.   I tried the remove battery trick, didn't help.   Removed new applications since the update, didn't help.    Did the factory data reset....and it's been perfect since relative to reboots.

I do still get the phone showing 4G service but no data connect, and no fall back to 3G until I get out of the 4G area.    I may have found a fix for that too...  Hasn't been long enought to really test this out...but using the suggested ##778 (EPST edit mode) and I set the Preferred Mode to CDMA HDR and the Preferred Mode (9k) to HDR LTE mode.    Prefered had been at CDMA and preferred 9K had been at LTE only.

For the rest of yesterday....that seem to help A LOT.    But once I left work, I'm out of the 4G area, so hard to tell if it really helped or if it was just a quirk.    3G is fine, as it always has been.