Galaxy S3 shutting off randomly

[David M Diller]

I recently got a Samsung Galaxy S3 about two weeks ago.

I have been using it with absolutely no problems up until Monday night.

For some reason, every night my GS3 will actually shut itself off at some point in the evening. I have it charging at night, and sometimes it shuts off before it's completely charged, other times after - there's no consistency. This has caused me to be late to work, miss picking up people that I'm carpooling with, etc. - it's caused a pretty big impact to my life for being something so trivial.

Has anybody experienced the same issue or have any ideas on what it possibly could be? As best I can tell, everything is normal. I didn't change anything between Sunday and Monday - and on Sunday everything was working fine. I woke up Monday to an alarm bright and early with no problems...since then, I've had nothing but issues.

I have one battery saver app installed but disabled the power saving options for Nighttime, so it shouldn't be of any impact.

any help anybody can provide would be really appreciated. I'm worried that without the alarm the Galaxy S3 will literally ruin my working career when I'm traveling (aside from setting the alarm in hotel rooms or asking for a wake-up call).

[David M Diller]

Update: Just sitting here, watching Dexter on DVD, and my phone turned off while being charged at about 40%. I haven't touched my phone in about an hour.

[nekkidtruth]

There are any number of things that can cause this. First thing I would recommend doing is a full factory reset of the phone. If you have anything you need, back them up to your computer. This way you can completely reset the phone and clear the internal storage as well. Once you've done that, if you're still having issues with it turning off I would return it for a new one.

Defective batteries, defective hardware (including the charger), horribly written software/apps can all cause this issue. If you have a lot of apps, I would recommend adding them one by one and waiting a bit between to see if any of them might be causing the issue.

[shakey]

I just had my galaxy s3 turn itself off during the night... I think. It had to boot back up, with the logos and all... but its weird.

Luckily I woke up an hour before the alarm on it was supposed to go off. I tried to wake the phone to check the time, and noticed it was completly off.

I'm not sure if this is due to some random crash or app, though I haven't downloaded anything new in months. I could have very well accidentally turned it off when setting it down as well.

What I find odd is, I made it from 9am to 12am and only lost 25% of my battery. It was at 75% when I went to sleep. When I turned my phone on after finding out it had somehow turned itself off, the battery was at 52%. It less than 7 hours, it had somehow drained another 25% almost. Also, it says that my phone has been on "battery" for 12 hours and some minutes... even after only turning it on a few hours ago.

The only things that show for battery use is : Screen 40%, Media Server 15%, Andriod OS 10% , Android System 8%, device Idle 8%, Cell Standby 7% and Music Player 6%.

I think if my issue was caused by anything, it was the Media Server. I have no clue though what would have used it? Does youtube videos count as that? I read that playing music does... but then why would music player show up on the list when a percentage that is much lower?

So many questions... Hopefully I'll figure the answers out soon enough.

[+Advancer Subscriber²]

My S3 turned itself off also, and it wasn't until I formated my external SD card, the problem stopped. So, if you're using an external SD card, try without it for a few days to see if the same happens.

[shakey]

My S3 turned itself off also, and it wasn't until I formated my external SD card, the problem stopped. So, if you're using an external SD card, try without it for a few days to see if the same happens.

I'll give that a try if this happens again. I don't even use the External Card, though it is in. Haven't ran out of room on the phone yet :p

[Androidslave]

Myself and the wife both have S3's bought on the same day and both shutting down randomly. Hers worse than mine.

I don't think I can bother returnin mine to 3 mobile because I let it fall some months ago and if has a broken screen which will be used as a bs excuse as to why it's faulty.