It may be a few years old now, but the Samsung Galaxy S8 is still an excellent smartphone — and it’s also still fairly expensive, meaning you have every right to expect it to work properly out of the box. Sadly, however, technical hitches are a reality for every device. We’ve been listening to user feedback and we’ve put together a list of common Galaxy S8 problems, with advice on how to work around or fix them.
One problem you definitely don’t want to have, though, is a dent in the frame or a crack in that gorgeous, curved screen. That’s why investing in one of the best Galaxy S8 cases or S8 Plus cases is a smart move.
A recent issue — which affected many Samsung Galaxy users, not just those with an S8 or S8 Plus — caused many apps such as online banking and social media apps to crash or forcibly close. If you’re experiencing this with your phone, you may have tried restarting your phone to no avail. Luckily, Samsung discovered that the issue was due to Android System Webview and released a fix.
Some Samsung S8 and S8 Plus users have reported issues with the camera app displaying a “Warning, Camera failure” or “Unfortunately, Camera has stopped” message, before it closes. This is a problem that has affected other Android phones too. If you see the “Warning, Camera failure” message, this could indicate an issue with the hardware of your phone affecting the sensor, while the latter message may be limited to the camera app itself.
You’ll first need to determine whether this is just an issue with the Camera app, or whether it’s a hardware problem. You can do this by resetting the camera app and clearing its cache and data.
If you’re still experiencing issues, the next potential fix is to try rebooting your phone in Safe Mode. This will let you know if a third-party app is the culprit. Here’s how to do this:
There’s a big thread at the Android Central forum about people being unable to find images that they downloaded to their Galaxy S8 from the Google app.
We’ve seen threads about people getting a “moisture in charging port” message that won’t go away on their S8 and S8 Plus at the XDA Developers forum and Samsung’s support forum. This is a safety measure that’s designed to prevent any risk of shock or damage to the phone when the charging port is wet, but it seems that it can get incorrectly stuck on.
A few people have found that the app icon badges indicating a new message or another notification in an app have stopped working for them. There’s a thread in the Android Central forum about it. Luckily, the fix should be fairly easy.
Quite a few S8 owners have been complaining about poor battery life in the XDA Developers forum. There are a few different things you can try to alleviate this issue.
All of Samsung’s devices — including the Galaxy S8 — come with a custom user interface on top of Android. There have been some reports that even when running on powerful S8 hardware, the UI can occasionally produce some lag, especially when using the home launcher. If you’ve been experiencing issues such as these on your device, Samsung has delivered a fix that might do the trick.
We have seen several reports from S8 and S8 Plus owners suffering from a random reboot problem. There are a number of threads on the XDA Developers forum and the Android Central forum centered around this problem. For many people, the S8 or S8 Plus is restarting itself seemingly at random. This can be infrequent or it can happen multiple times a day. There are a few things worth trying to see if you can solve this problem.
Quite a few people have run into wireless charging issues with their Galaxy S8 or S8 Plus, as discussed in the XDA Developers forum. Some are getting a message about wireless charging being paused, some can’t get the fast charging to work, some are finding that the phone gets very hot, and others are having trouble getting wireless charging working at all.
There were some reports, initially from South Korea, about the S8 and S8 Plus having red-tinted displays. It seems to be a problem for a lot of people in this long thread at XDA Developers forum. Some have faint red at the edges, others report a pink tinge on everything white. It may be more noticeable if you view the screen at an angle.
Several users have faced issues getting their Wi-Fi to work for their S8 or S8 Plus devices on certain networks. (You can check out some of their reports on threads with XDA Developers and Android Central.) They say their device may connect initially and appears to function at an average speed for a bit. Then, the Wi-Fi either disconnects or slows down significantly, without explanation.
If you’ve struggled to get the edges to light up on your S8 or S8 Plus, you’re not the only one. Several users have reported that they’ve looked for notifications to help light up the edge, but with no success, on a thread with XDA Developers. Some device owners say that their edge lighting doesn’t work at all, others say it lights up when they flip their S8 face down, and some say it lights up when their device is face up or down.
This issue has been prevalent among users, and it’s understandably frustrating. Just check out some of the discussions on the threads at Android Central and XDA Developers to get an idea. Users report that when they download apps from Google Play, the progress bar will show the app has downloaded to 100% but will never install on their phone.
Unfortunately, if the steps above don’t prove successful, your remaining option is to reset your device to factory settings. We recommend using this option as a last resort to fix the issue. If you do find yourself having to reboot your S8 or S8 Plus, check out the following steps:
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Samsung’s scandal over its Game Optimizing Service, or GOS, has returned with a bill attached. South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has tentatively fined the company 20.1 billion won, or about $15.1 million, over gaming claims made for the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S22, and Tab S8.
The regulator says Samsung promoted the devices as gaming powerhouses without disclosing that GOS placed preset CPU and GPU limits on certain demanding games. Samsung disputes that conclusion, calling GOS a legitimate way to manage heat.
Apple's next cheaper iPhone could get a brand-new processor while keeping its most stubborn display compromise. Digital Chat Station tips the iPhone 18e for a 2027 release with a 2nm A20 chip and a 6.12-inch OLED screen still limited to 60Hz.
The rumored camera setup includes a single 48MP rear camera and a possible 24MP selfie camera. There's new hardware to consider, but buyers hoping Apple would extend that upgrade generosity to smoother scrolling could be disappointed.