There was a fair bit of skepticism about the phablet form factor until Samsung scored a hit with the original Note. The third in the series is bigger than ever, boasting a whopping 5.7-inch display and flagship specs to match. Our Samsung Galaxy Note 3 review found little to complain about, but out in the wild every device has its issues, even a superphone. We’ve gathered together the Galaxy Note 3 problems that have been popping up online the most, and we offer up some potential solutions and advice for sufferers.
Updated on 11-11-2014 by Simon Hill: Reformatted and added problems related to charging, disappearing photos, and phantom notifications.
A lot of Galaxy Note 3 owners have run into problems charging the Note 3 up. They’ll plug it in and the Note 3 will either fail to charge up at all, or it will charge very slowly. Some people have found that it charges intermittently while plugged in. There are a few obvious places to start:
There have been a lot of complaints from people struggling to find their photos on the Note 3. They are taking photos and then going to review them in the gallery or photos app and finding that they’re gone, or that they’re not in the expected folder.
Some people have been getting phantom notification sounds or vibrations on their Note 3 and when they check to see what it is there’s nothing in the notification shade. There are a lot of possible culprits here so we’ll run through some of the main ones.
A number of owners have complained about fluctuating signal strength, even when the Note 3 isn’t moving. There are also reports about calls that drop a few seconds or so after connecting, or calls that fail after apparently good signal strength drops to zero on placing a call. If you find this is happening to you and you’re able to make calls without problems using a different phone in the same area, then here are some ideas.
Apparently there’s a known issue for Note 3 owners on AT&T whereby the GPS struggles to establish a fix or it frequently cuts out. Sometimes it drops for a short time and returns, at other times it seems to go missing for prolonged periods. This might not be confined to AT&T as there have been a few recent reports from other countries, but AT&T did acknowledge the problem and claim it was working on a fix.
A lot of people have encountered issues with the Note 3 battery draining rapidly and unexpectedly. You should check out the steps for the overheating problem below, as this is likely caused by the same things. You can also check out our smartphone battery saving tips for general advice. But there is another potential fix.
If you’ve been manually refreshing your email inboxes in order to get fresh email then you’re not alone. Quite a few people have not been getting email alerts or fresh mail when it comes in even with push set to automatic. You can try a few things:
A number of Galaxy Note 3 owners have reported random restarts where the device just reboots unexpectedly. Some unfortunate people have encountered a boot loop where the phone just continually reboots. It’s not entirely clear what is causing this. It could be something to do with apps trying to update, or it could be related to there being too many apps or services trying to start up.
It seems likely to be a software glitch of some kind and you would expect Samsung to release a patch to fix it, but there’s no telling how long that might take. In the meantime you could take your Galaxy Note 3 back to the retailer and ask for a replacement. Some people report the same issue with the replacement; others have suggested that their replacement model works perfectly.
There are others things to try.
Samsung has applied a region lock on the Galaxy Note 3, which means that if you put a SIM card from a different region into it, the device will lock up. This is probably to try and curb people importing phones from different regions, but it’s an obvious pain for frequent travelers. If you have a rooted device then there’s an app that can help you. If not, then we suggest complaining to Samsung customer support.
A number of people have encountered a pop-up message on the Note 3 with the header “Prevention information.” It goes on to say “An application has been forced to stop for an unauthorized attempt to access system in your device. It may be safe to delete an application obtained from an unauthorized route. Check now?” and there’s an option to “not show for 30 days.” You can cancel out or click OK, which takes you to your list of apps. Some people report getting this message without installing any apps from unknown sources and it seems to be some kind of bug or false positive rather than an actual issue with an unsafe app.
Some Note 3 owners are having trouble connecting to Wi-Fi networks, finding that the Wi-Fi is very slow, or that the device keeps dropping the connection. There are a ton of potential reasons for this and consequently there are a ton of potential fixes. Here’s what you can try:
Some people with stability issues have been able to get solid Wi-Fi connections simply by making sure that mobile data is switched off. Just drag down the notification shade and toggle Mobile data off.
Samsung has packed a lot of technology into a relatively svelte body in the Galaxy Note 3 and that means it’s going to generate heat. All smartphones will heat up when you play an FPS for two hours straight, but if your Note 3 is getting uncomfortably hot during normal or light usage, or it’s having a noticeable impact on performance, then you might have a real issue. Heat can also lead to rapid battery discharge. There are a few things you can try to fix the problem.
A number of people have encountered this problem. The message “Index Service has stopped” pops up frequently on the screen. Some users report they can click it away and continue using the Note 3, while others are suffering freezes and having to reboot the phone. It is related to files that the phone is attempting to index and generally happens when you insert a big MicroSD card with lots of photos or PDFs files on it. It could be a single corrupt file that’s causing the issue. If you can find the individual file responsible then it’s just a case of removing it and you won’t get the message again, but that can be like finding a needle in a haystack.
That’s all the Galaxy Note 3 problems and fixes we have for now, but we will add new issues as and when they arise. If you have a different problem, or a solution that worked for you, please post a comment and share it.
Updated on 5-5-2014 by Simon Hill: Added problems related to dropped calls, unreliable GPS, battery drain, and email not syncing.
Article originally published 11/22/2013.
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