• Owners of older Samsung smartphones are claiming a newly released framework update is making their devices inaccessible.
• Once installed automatically, the phones are trapped in a bootloop with only a factory reset seemingly helps.
• Smartphones in the Galaxy S10 and Note 10 series are particularly affected, but it seems any device older than four years may be affected too.

Users of older Samsung smartphones, specifically models like the Galaxy S10 and Galaxy Note 10, both released in the before times of 2019 say that they aren’t able to access or do anything with their devices after installing a new update from the manufacturer.

A number of threads on Reddit have emerged in recent days, first picked up on by Android Authority, claiming that a recent Samsung SmartThings Framework app update has left a number of devices in the S10 and Note 10 series inaccessible to users, keeping them stuck in a bootloop – never exiting startup – after the update is installed.

According to a thread on r/ Android, commented on by a large number of people, claims that these are the models affected:

• S10 Lite,
• S10e,
• S10,
• S10+,
• S10 5G,
• Note 10,
• Note 10+,
• and the Note 10+ 5G.

It is presumed that the Note 10 Lite is affected as well, along with other Samsung smartphones, like the Galaxy M51, released in 2020.

Users are saying that they have been caught completely unaware by the issue. As their devices automatically install the framework update in the backend leaving them shocked when they suddenly become unusable.

The community at /r Android suggests that if you have an older Samsung smartphone, especially in the S10 and Note 10 series, you should head into the Galaxy Store settings and disable to Auto Update Apps feature, setting it to “Never.”

While it is not confirmed that it is the SmartThings framework update that is causing the problem, users are attributing the issue to the update due to its launch proximity to the bootloop problems. The update shipped on 2nd October 2024.

SmartThings itself is Samsung’s smart home UI framework for controlling smart home devices, such as lights, TVs, speakers and other appliances. In the requirements of the app, Samsung suggests that “Some mobile devices may not be supported.”

Right now users can only disable the auto update feature to protect their devices. Once the update has been installed and your device has been bricked, it seems only a hard factory reset will give you access again.

This of course means you may lose important data if you have not run a back-up recently.

The Reddit thread does say that the update has been replaced with a new one, but since we have not seen any official communication about the problem being fixed, or even if the problem was the SmartThings update from Samsung, we suggest users remain wary if they have a Samsung device older than four years.

[Image – Photo by Rodion Kutsaiev on Unsplash]