A warning to Galaxy Note 8 owners: don’t let your phone’s battery die, or it might not come back. A number of customers on Samsung’s support forums say they've been left with bricked devices that cannot be recharged after running the battery on their phones down to zero percent.
“Just bought a brand new Galaxy Note 8 from my Verizon retailer two months ago,” one customer posted on Thursday. “Last night I let the battery die completely, and figured I'd just charge it later.”
“I figured since it was dead completely, it would just take a few minutes to power up,” the user added. “It never did.”
To be fair to Samsung, it's not clear if this is a widespread issue or one that involves just a handful of incidents. But it does seem to be a trending phenomenon among Note 8 owners. One of the first users to complain about the phablet refusing to power back on after running its battery dry posted about the issue in October, 20 days into owning his Note 8. Similar reports appear to have ramped up over the past month.
Another customer uploaded a video to YouTube, sharing his experience with his Sprint model. The user attempted to recharge his phone after the battery fully drained, and initially saw a charging icon on the screen. This icon later disappeared, along with the LED indicator that typically lights up when the Note 8 is plugged in. After an hour connected to the adapter, the device never charged, though the user reported that he occasionally sees a faint white line briefly appear across the middle of the display when attempting to power the phone back on.
MORE: Galaxy Note 8: First Features to Enable and Disable
Samsung’s support team has instructed some users to press certain button combinations to hard reset their devices, to no avail. In the meantime, customers have been forced to return their phones for replacements, though it’s unknown if these units are also subject to the same flaw.
With estimated service times lasting multiple weeks in some cases, a group of users on the Android Central forums have attempted to resolve the issue themselves, with varying levels of success. Some tried “stack charging” their phones, by repeatedly plugging and unplugging the adapter until they saw signs of life. Others ditched Samsung’s included fast charging adapter in favor of an alternative USB Type-C charger running at a lower voltage, which occasionally did the trick. And others still cracked open their phones for emergency surgery – though that’s something we’d strongly advise against.
We reached out to Samsung for comment, and will update this report as soon as we hear back. According to Android Authority, the company is aware of the issue, and community moderators have responded swiftly to affected members.
The Galaxy Note line is no stranger to battery issues, of course, with overheating batteries forcing Samsung to recall the Note 7 back in 2016. This problem doesn't appear to be as severe, but we'll keep an eye on it to see if more incidents occur and how Samsung responds.
