Samsung has halted the ongoing Android 8.0 Oreo rollout for the Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus following reports that the update caused unexplained reboots on some devices.
The South Korean device maker confirmed its decision to stop the deployment of firmware G950/G955-FXXU1CRAP that will bump the unlocked Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus models from Android Nougat to Oreo. The company said "a limited number," of affected handsets started rebooting upon installation of the new OS, SamMobile said in an exclusive report.
"We have temporarily stopped the rollout of the update. We are investigating the issue internally to ensure that the impact to the affected devices is minimized," Samsung said in a statement.
It remains unclear when Samsung will resume the Oreo update rollout for its 2017 flagship phones, but the same report indicated that work is now underway to fix the problem. A new firmware version is likely to come out soon but the exact timing of the re-issue was not provided by Samsung as of writing.
Limited Impact So Far
Prior to the rollout, Samsung subjected its version of Android Oreo to rigorous months of beta testing and when the release decision was finally made, the company made sure that it will be in phased mode. Initially, select countries in Europe and the Middle East, including India, were selected as early recipients of the firmware.
It now appears that Samsung made a strategic move. Likely, the company had anticipated for issues to emerge and with the limited release strategy, only a handful of Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus were eventually affected by the mysterious rebooting.
Likewise, the company made the right call of immediately pulling out the problematic firmware from its update servers, which preempted what could turn out as another worldwide crisis for the Korean tech company.
What To Do Now
It will be mostly a waiting game for now. It is wise, however, for owners of the Galaxy S8 to refrain from installing the update in case they already downloaded it. As a precautionary measure, Samsung will automatically delete the file on identified devices and will be replaced once the error-free OS version is ready to resume its global rollout.
As for some users who were quick to install Android Oreo, Samsung has maintained that the rebooting issue was not widespread and that only a few units were affected. For the most part, the Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus already running the new OS will function as they were before the firmware was unleashed.
