Just days after releasing Android Oreo update for its Galaxy S8, S8+ devices, Samsung quietly halted the firmware update without any reason or explanation. Samsung has now revealed the reason as to why it immediately pulled the update. Apparently, the software was causing some handsets to randomly reboot. The South Korean phone maker said the problem affects both the Galaxy S8 and S8+ “in a limited number of cases”, but it was clear enough to stop the update.
“Following a limited number of cases where Galaxy S8 and S8+ devices have rebooted unexpectedly with the Android 8.0 Oreo, we have temporarily stopped the rollout of the update,” Samsung told SamMobile. “We are investigating the issue internally to ensure that the impact to the affected devices is minimised and the rollout of the update can resume as quickly as possible.”
If you have already downloaded and installed the Oreo update, you can keep using the software. This means a number of Galaxy S8 users will be stuck on the buggy Android release. In case your phone has downloaded the update, but you haven’t “installed” it yet, you need not worry. The updates files will be deleted automatically from your phone.
Samsung is already working on a new update, but the company gave no estimates as to when the update process will resume. The move is disappointing for many Galaxy S8 owners who have been waiting for the update for quite some time now.
Samsung had initially started its Oreo beta program for the Galaxy S8 and S8+ back in November. It is surprising that this would happen even after months of beta testing. Still, the impact should be somewhat limited since Samsung hadn’t started to distribute the Oreo update worldwide. It had started to appear on phones in India and a few European and Middle Eastern countries only.
The reports come with over a few days before Samsung announces its next-generation Galaxy S9 flagship. The S9 is expected to ship with Android 8.0 Oreo out-of-the-box, meaning the devices will be rocking the software before the last year’s S8 devices.
