It happened to my roommate about a month ago, and it hit me yesterday as my phone lay idle on my desk. (Both VZW)

It is clear that LG has a procedure for handling this very issue, yet they are failing to warn their customers about the problem. Thousands of phones are potentially bound to fail. Rather than taking preventative action and announcing the problem so that customers have time to back up their data, they take the passive role and swap out devices whenever one dies. This behavior may have legal recourse. Make sure you have nightly backups running of all critical data.

Let me be clear: if you purchased an LG G4 before September/October, IT MAY DIE ON YOU. Don't let it be a surprise to you. This issue has affected all major US carriers (T-Mobile, Sprint, AT&T, Verizon). My hardware Revision is v1.0, and so was my roommate's.

I wanted so badly to love this phone...

Edit: I was most definitely wrong in initially stating that your phone WILL die; however, my warning still stands. Don't think it can't happen to you, unless you have a newer hardware revision.

Edit 2: I am uploading a video of the boot loop.

Edit 3: https://youtu.be/9Flg3nZr6nU

Edit 4: /u/KidFenrik has provided a link to some official information from sprint

Edit 5: Sign the petition to get this fixed here! (I didn't make this petition, but thank you to the person that did!): https://www.change.org/p/lg-mobile-launch-a-replacement-program-for-defective-lg-g4s#petition-letter

Edit 6: We made the news!: http://www.androidauthority.com/lg-g4-bootloop-petition-669421/

Edit 7: Here is a temporary solution that will allow you to turn on the phone and retrieve your data: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=65919400&postcount=707

Going through LG warranty services online, I sent my boot loop error having g4 to lg. They required a proof purchase so i sent a print out of swappa purchase and PayPal transaction. Used the date of purchase on swappa as the date of purchase on the LG website. I wasn't sure if they would accept it but they did. They even turned it around the same day they received it. Replaced the flash memory.

I was expecting to have a $300 coaster. But LG did the right thing. Thanks LG.

Well, it finally happened. I bought my phone last September, and it's been perfectly fine. Now picture this:

You're dressed up in a nice suit, on your way to an important job interview. You're headed to an office an hour and a half from home. With all the traffic, you're going to be cutting it pretty close.

But no big deal, you have your trusty android phone. Google maps will reroute you around the traffic.

You can't remember the name of the person you're interviewing with, or the name of the person you were supposed to ask for at the desk. But that's no big deal. You've got all that in an email on your phone.

What if your phone dies? No way. You've got a spare battery. What if you drop it? No worries. You have a heavy-duty case.

So now you're an hour from home, and you're starting to hit traffic. You look up to see if your phone is rerouting you. It isn't. It's rebooting.

No big deal. Phones reboot sometimes.

Wait. Wait. It's rebooting again. Could this be the notorious boot loop problem? Now? Right now? No. No. It couldn't be. That would be comically bad timing.

So you pull the battery and restart.

Boot loop.

So you go into the special boot mode and select Safe Boot.

Boot loop.

You try again. Clear the cache?

Boot loop.

Oh my god. It's happened. This is the boot loop they all warned you about.

No map. You don't even know the address of this place you were headed to. You don't know their phone number, or the name of the person you were supposed to ask for at the desk. You can't call my wife to get her to check it out on her computer.

You pull over to a gas station, like a peasant. Prepaid phones? They don't sell them. They have prepaid calling cards... but... there is no payphone in sight... or you know... anywhere in the country.

You buy a paper road map, like you're some sort of time traveler from the 80s. People look at you like you're demented, as you try to figure out where the heck you were going.

You end up getting on the highway and driving in thick traffic. No alternate routes for you, you poor, pathetic idiot.

You get to the office just in time. When you get to the security desk, you have to explain that in an office of a couple hundred people you're here to see someone named Robert... uh... "S- something?"... And you're supposed to ask for uh.... "Adele? Maybe?".

The security guard shakes his head at you. Why even bother showing up for the interview, he wonders. You're clearly too stupid to work here.

My T-Mobile H811, manufactured on May 28, 2015, succumbed to the dreaded boot loop this morning; T-Mobile is overnighting a replacement to me.

FYI, I may have had a warning of sorts: starting a few days ago, whenever I rebooted via software, the reboot wouldn't finish - it would just stay on the initial LG screen. I had to pull and replace the battery to restart.

Background: I've been having a specific kind of boot loop, where the phone shuts down by itself and gets stuck on the LG logo with 'Android' below it. No flashing LED like a normal boot; won't even respond to holding down the power key. It takes a battery pull to get the phone to shut off, but attempting to turn it back on just leads to the same boot loop again.

Phone was essentially a brick at that point. XDA users who've experienced the same symptom report that there's currently no known software/ADB fix. Couple times, I got 'lucky' and the phone managed to get to the home screen. First time I took the chance to reboot to 'Safe Mode' to see if it was an app causing it. Nope, boot loop after a few mins. Second time I rushed to factory reset (I had backups of my stuff) in anticipation of turning the phone in for repair. The reset worked, I was hopeful, and while I was going through the setup wizard--boot loop.

No choice, I took the phone in to LG for walk-in repair, and they handed it back to me after 3 hours. No more boot loop. No fees since it was still under warranty. Repair statement cited the "PCB motherboard" replacement, which many posters here and in XDA are mentioning as an early manufacturing issue with the G4.

Kudos to LG for helping me out, and I hope this helps others.

TL,DR; Boot loop, can't find a fix? Just take it to LG for repair.

*Phone model: H818P, SEA, completely stock, unrooted

I've decided to use a google form for this purpose, as I can limit the responses to 1 per google account. It is not a surefire way prevent trolls, but hopefully it will help maintain some data integrity. The link to the form is below this paragraph.

 

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1OF3C6Yaeu0q3lMvShzFudsxAz4cE1lDpJBZPoxbkEsw/viewform?usp=send_form

Here is a direct link to the results. - NOTE: No correlative data, see excel sheet for raw data that you can play with

Here are the results in excel format

 

Never heard of the boot loop problem? Here is some more information:

• Supposedly official recall from Sprint

• My original post about this issue and the cross-post comments in /r/android

• An assortment of posts from /r/lgg4 about this issue

 

Edit: I have added a direct link to the excel document with your responses. I'm trying to figure out out to display it in a more meaningful format, but it might take me a little while. If anyone has some suggestions, feel free to post them below and I'll update the sheet.

Edit 2: We now have a small sample to go from. Of the 48 people that have responded, 16 have had the boot loop issue. With those 16 devices, the only affected serial numbers appear to start with 505 and 506 (The others have not reported any problems thus far). We have data suggesting that phones manufactured through 7/15/2015 have failed, with the vast majority being those manufactured in May. Someone claims to have had a 1.1 device fail, but this data point looks unreliable seeing as the manufacture date listed for this is 4/20/2015. If it truly were a 1.1 device, it would have been created in August/September. More analysis to come later.

It seems that every G4 manufactured before a certain date is susceptible to the boot loop issue (not exactly sure when the date is for fixed phones). I would hate to go past the warranty date and have the boot loop pop up with no recourse. Has this defect been reported in the media?

The reason I'm asking is because it's being posted about daily in this sub. Bootloops with the LG G4 is major issue, no doubt about it. The thing is, it's not being talked about properly. When someone posts about their boot looped G4, they almost never mention when their phone was manufactured.

I messaged 4 redditors yesterday and they all came back telling me that their phones were manufactured within the date that the G4 bootloop issue seems to be present, with serial numbers coinciding with the affected period as well.

Can we have a sticky that basically makes it understandable to anyone here who gets hit with the boot loop issue to not just post about their experience but to also put in vital information such as the first 3 digits of their serial number and manufacturing date? It would be very important especially for people who get hit with the boot loop outside of the usual parameters (manufactured between May and October, 505-509 - I'm not actually 100% sure this is the time period or serial numbers affected)

This would definitely help future buyers who are thinking of getting this phone to stay the hell away from affected period / serial numbers.

Edit: I guess I should have added that the model number and hardware version is also quite critical to the whole equation..

Edit 2: I'd like to remind everyone who HAS an affected serial number, HW number and manufacture date and has NOT had a boot loop issue yet to not baby their phones in the hopes that it does not boot loop; it's a device it should be serving you, not you serving it. Use your phones as if there's nothing going on with it. You want the phone to stand normal wear and tear. Just keep your data backed up if you value it. You essentially want to make sure that your phone will withstand anything you throw at it, and be able to stay boot loop free until you get rid of it or it breaks under warranty.

This morning my phone just crashed and has been stuck in a boot loop. I've factory reset it, but nothing has worked. I have the international version that I didn't buy from my carrier and I don't have a warranty from a carrier. Halp plox

Edit: I didn't purchase the phone through a carrier, but its the real deal from lg and all

I've been doing way too much reading on the dreaded boot loop issue, and I've found that it is mostly international and US phones. Has anyone with the Canadian model run into this issue before? If so, when was your device built?

For some background, this is the only thread I found with a "definitive" claim that the issue was "fixed in September".

http://forum.xda-developers.com/sprint-g4/general/lg-sprint-admit-hardware-issue-t3215396

Boot Loops

Hey guys, just curious if anyone had this happen to them recently or after getting their phone. I picked up my phone on day 1 it was released and had no issues whatsoever until last night. I was looking at Reddit on my phone last night and it randomly rebooted. I was thinking "Ok...that was interesting. Oh well, I'll wait for it to come back up." After about 3 minutes I checked my phone and saw that it was doing a boot loop from the LG screen to the Sprint screen then back again. I then took out the battery from the phone for a minute, put it back in, then it was stuck just at the LG Life is Good screen. After several restart attempts and taking out and putting back in the battery, it finally went past the start screen and went to the Optimizing Apps screen.

Was this due to the latest Sprint update? I updated a few days ago. Also, for future reference if it is stuck like that again, do I need to take it into Sprint?

Edit (11/13/2015) - Hey guys, just wanted to update this. Thought I did this earlier, my bad :/ So I'm on my third, that's right, THIRD, G4. Both of my previous phones had a bug or something that Sprint did not want to tell me. But for the past few months my current G4 is working just fine. If you guys continue to have issues, please take it to your carrier and see about getting it replaced.

Just got my replacement device from AT&T, it's another HW 1.0 and a 505 serial number. Took about 6 months on my 506 serial before the boot loop, should I be worried on my new phone?

Hey guys,

I've decide to try out a flagship mobile so LG g4 seems to satisfy all my requirements, but i have seen many threads about the dreaded boot loop problem. So to all people who bought the phone recently have you faced this problem? also to the early adopters have the fixed the issue with software patches? or does it still exist

Summary: LG G4 randomly crashed and got stuck in boot loop. The phone will not do a factory reset, enter safe mode, or do anything else.

I am kind of a technology noob, so my LG G4 isn't rooted, and the only third party apps I have on it are Ad Block and an app that lets me get onto my school's wifi. So I was fairly pissed off when, while trying to compose a text, my phone randomly crashed and entered the boot loop.

When I tell it to boot up in safe mode, it just goes back into the normal boot loop. When I cleared the cache, it just went back into the boot loop. When I went to do a factory reset, it lagged for a minute and went back into the loop. What can I do that doesn't involve mailing my phone back to LG? Also, please either give or link to very clear instructions, as I am an idiot and will mess it up.

My phone started a boot loop two nights ago, and I haven't been able to fix it yet. Sometimes it will turn on for maybe a minute or two, and then it will turn right back off again. Is there a way I can use the flash tool or some other type of software to fix it, and not lose my data?

I can get it to go into download mode, but after that, I don't really know what to do. I have the flashtool installed and the drivers and I have a puerto rican .kdz file because there aren't any other ones for the h810. Someone help please.

Hello All,

My wife's phone recently failed and started to boot loop randomly as many other users have had the same problem. In her case she did not have things stored on the cloud. I was able to save her data (contacts / custom ui / family photos / family videos / etc).

After first reading other people's problems with the boot loop and their attempts to solve. I was able to start the phone and had it run long enough and stable enough to transfer data to SD card / USB jump drive via trial by error method until I had a set of procedures that would get me enough stable run time to save everything.

DO THIS AT YOUR OWN PERIL AND RISK.

1) Phone off.
2) Remove back cover (no back cover for the entire process).
3) Remove battery.
4) Remove sim card (no sim card for the entire process).
5) Insert a blank SD card with more than enough space to save everything you want ~32gb.
6) Plug in charge cable without the battery (use a older charge able non-fast charging non-lg - plain plain plain charger - ensures nothing gets hot).
7) Wait for charge indicator to start up on the phone a question mark battery logo meaning the battery is missing (the phone is essentially in a mode of charging while powered off).
8) Insert the battery.
9) Press the power button as if normally starting the phone.
10.1) LG boot logo should show up (if it does not boot loop, in other words if it seems like it is stuck on the LG boot logo, wait wait wait... up to 5-10 minutes eventually it will boot fully).
10.2) LG boot logo should show up (if it boot loops quickly, in other words if it seems like it is rapidly cycling through boot loops, do not wait... remove the battery and wait for the ? logo to show up indicating that the battery is missing, then place the battery back in and it will bring you back to step 6).
11) You got a full boot and are able to access your phone.
12) Immediately set phone to airplane mode (no wifi / no Bluetooth / no cell / no signals of any kind) then if it boot loops your airplane mode will be set for the next time you cycle through a boot loop).
13) Start transferring (during this time there will be many many many boot loops and SOME files will be corrupted lost about 100 photos but saved about 900, if it boot loops you are essentially starting back at step 6).

Using this procedure I was able to save the important files (photos/videos/documents) and save her nova launcher ui settings. Then set her up on our old Galaxy S4, reinstalled all her apps, inserted the SD card with all the saved files, imported the nova launcher backup file, and essentially cloned her phone. Everything else (other accounts, etc) is just a typical re-login.

Hope this helps other LG G4 users...

Good luck... ♥ -- Archangel Dam

==Update== Stable for 11 hrs 44 mins when set to airplane mode / no sim / auto brightness / no micro sdxc / no back cover / using non-lg non-fast charger / with all non-essential apps off.

So I'm in the us for about a week and I need to buy a phone but I'm between two. Moro x pure 16gb or lg G4 but now as I read all of the reports of the boot loop I'm getting scared as if it happens to me I can't send it to lg as I'm in another country. So my question is how much of the g4 users experience the boot loop and if I'm buying the international variant from best buy can i have the boot loop? Thanks Please Reply

So yesterday during school my phone ran across the recent boot loop issue. So today me and my mother who pays for the phone through AT&T Next. We recently got the phone pre-September so it was bound to have the hardware defect, so we go to the ATT store and talk to the customer service and explain what had happened. They explained we had no insurance on the phone and there was nothing they could do because they think I dropped it and broke it due to a very small dent on an edge and small crack in the camera, but it was the boot loop issue that LG even recognized themselves. So he recommended to try another store nearby tomorrow and see if they can loan us a phone and send it in to see what LG can do. Now my mom is currently upset and feels like we lost about $500 ( whats left to pay on AT&T Next ) and is mad with me/the whole situation. What is the best thing I can do now if AT&T can do nothing with the phone, if I send it into LG myself will they repair it even with the small issues that didn't cause the boot loop? Help please. Thank you

So my G4 has received the dreaded boot loop. Amazon have awesomely let me return the device tomorrow, but I'm unsure how to factory reset the device and concerned about my data still being on the phone. I've tried holding power and vol.down but the recovery options never appear and the phone just restarts and boot loops.

How can I wipe the device? Would really appreciate any help!

It seems like me and many others are experiencing the inconvenience of having this issue. Has anyone else sent their phone in? I sent mine in today...anyone know how long it will take to get it back? Did they figure out the problem?

Two weeks ago my G4 got the dreaded boot loop error.

Only having the phone for about 8 month I took it back to the store I bought it from to be told they wouldn't be able to do anything with it and I'll have to get in touch with LG to be sent off for repair.

Contacted them the same day to be told that it's not a known issue but they'll get in touch to let me know what's happening. 2 weeks and several emails and talks to online support and I'm no further forward. Last email I got was last Wednesday and was told someone would be in touch shortly. They won't even answer my emails anymore.

Has anyone else had similar issues with support? I read online that they put a statement out about the boot loop and we're offering free repairs.

I got my G4 in October. Never had any issues with it, up until New Year's Eve when it started bootlooping after a low battery shutdown. It would get to an "Android is optimizing apps" screen after several minutes but just reboot after that. I did a factory reset by powering it on with the power+volume down key, and that fixed it until today, when it suddenly shut down and started boot looping as I was using it. I did another factory reset and it's installing my apps again now, but I don't want to have to keep factory resetting it every week.

Also, ever since updating to Marshmellow (I'm on V20A now) I noticed that on rare occasions, the phone would reboot if I connected to a new Wi-Fi network, but only if it was the first connection.

I've read some of the other posts on this issue, as far as I can tell it happens if you have a G4 with hardware revision 1.0 or a serial number starting with 505. However, mine is 1.1 with serial 508.

Is this the same issue that also causing all the other boot loops? Has there been any solution to this or should I just contact LG if it happens again?

I have the H815 Pre-release variant of the phone and I picked it up today and turned it on from sleep and everything froze. It wouldn't turn off via the power button so I removed the battery. From here, the Phone has been stuck in a Boot Loop with the LG Life's Good screen just fading in and out over and over again. I also cant access the recovery mode via Power button and volume down. Anybody know how to fix this?