Highlights
- Understand the concept of a bricked phone and its types: soft brick vs. hard brick.
- Explore common causes that lead to your phone becoming bricked.
- Learn practical steps to take if your phone gets bricked and how to prevent it.
Smartphones are more than just gadgets. They’re a way of being in touch with the world, either through personal relationships or working duties; otherwise, they’re a source of entertainment that helps us unwind. In that situation, whenever your phone stops working abruptly, it becomes a mini-crisis.
Panic strikes because one may realize that sometimes a software update can make your priceless possession a useless brick. The bad news? It doesn’t have to be the end of the world. Sure, it is unusual for updates to turn out to be lethal for your phones, but that hasn’t stopped it from happening.
Remember the frenzy with the Samsung SmartThings app update that bricked older Galaxy phones? You’d understand that this is a pretty serious situation.
How and Why Does Your Phone Get Bricked?
So what exactly does someone mean when they say that their phone is “bricked”? What triggers this? Most importantly, how does a person avoid getting into this sort of trouble in the first place? Let’s discuss this along with some other questions.
What Does a Bricked Phone Mean?
Talking of a bricked phone is saying that your device no longer functions and has become like a brick. You can experience this in the most unbelievable ways, like the phone just gets stuck in boot loops, freezes on startup, or won’t even turn on at all.
Bricking can happen in any smartphone, be it an iPhone, Android, or some other brand. The process can be frustrating and confusing, but finding out the different kinds of bricking may de-mystify this dilemma.
There are two primary categories of bricking.
Soft Brick
In simple terms, a soft-bricked phone gets stuck in a recovery loop or fails to move past the recovery screen. This is most of the time caused by software-related errors, such as bad update errors, glitches related to running on custom software, or even failures of installation. Good news? Well, most of the time, soft-bricked phones can recover their previous state if you know what to do.
Hard Brick
In contrast, a hard-bricked phone just does not respond at all. That is, one does not get any sign of life even after trying out the power button. Mostly, the cause of hard bricking is serious software malfunctions or hardware failures. Recovery options are restricted. In most cases, you have to seek professional help or change your phone at your worst.
How to Brick Phones?
In most cases, software problems cause bricking. They may seem minor but can lead to grave repercussions. Understanding common causes will enable you to avoid this disturbing fate.
Updates
The main cause of bricking is upgrades. Upgrades are not to improve performance as well as for security. However, sometimes they just don’t work. Any upgrading being done by third parties besides the manufacturer will cause problems. You can easily get bricked while trying beta versions of a given operating system because it will have bugs that may make your gadget get bricked. This could become a big risk if you are using custom ROMs or beta software.
Custom Software
Many tech-savvy users enjoy the notion of customizing the device by rooting their phones or installing custom ROMs. While this might bring on board some features that might be unique or will run their devices more smoothly, it has threats. It may brick your phone unintentionally when you do not follow the installation instructions precisely or in case the software is not suitable for the device.
Malware
In the virtual world, the threat of malware never goes away. It can infect your phone, and completely impair your gadget or even brick it all together. There are quit several ways by which malware spreads itself through phishing scams, applications, and even through unsecured networks. Control your downloading applications and websites for the safekeeping of your device.
Hardware Damage
Lastly, physical damage to your phone could brick your phone too. Falling your phone, getting it wet, or even other forms of physicadamagees can cause internal component failurer your serious problemsSignificantnt damage can hard-brick your phone.
What to Do If Your Phone is Bricked?
So, this means that your phone is bricked. Don’t freak out. Don’t think about heading to the store to buy a new one. Here are some steps that you might be able to undertake to salvage your device.
Check Online
Begin by searching the Internet forums and community groups to see if other people are experiencing the same problem. Sometimes you will find users who have encountered the same problem and found a solution or a workaround that might help you. Resources like Reddit or certain tech forums can be helpful in this regard.
Contact Customer Service
If you suspect that the problem is software trouble, do not hesitate to bring your phone’s manufacturer. Chances are that the customer representatives are very apt at solving common issues and may have a definite remedy for your particular problem. This might save you a whole lot of time and frustration.
Try Recovery Mode
Most smartphones carry a recovery mode where you can perform a list of operations even in case the device isn’t functioning properly. Accessing this mode depends on the device, but generally, some button combinations have to be held down during a phone reboot. Within recovery mode, you can hard reset your phone, wipe the cache partition, or even factory reset it.
A factory reset is the ultimate option in which all your data will be erased, but it is very much useful in solving major software issues. Just do not forget back up any kind of important informatiobeforeto it. If nothing works out, then consider the services of professional repairers or in worst-case scenarios, replace your device.
Wrapping It All
It is scary to brick your phone, but crucial calmness and information help make it easier. Knowing what bricking means along with the common reasons that lead to bricking will put you into steps on how to avoid having this problem in your device. Take extra care about installing software on your phone and always back up important data on your device.
If you encounter a difficult spot, there are things you can do to try a recovery before deciding to buy a new device. There is a little bit of patience and know-how needed to navigate the bricking dilemma more smoothly.
