A buggy Samsung smart home update broke old Galaxy S10 phones, but there’s a fix

A Samsung smart home software update released this week put some users' Galaxy S10 and Note 10 (including e, Lite, Plus, and 5G versions) and A90 and M51 smartphones in an infinite boot loop, rendering their devices useless. After some sleuthing, Reddit users narrowed it down to a Samsung SmartThings framework app update that was automatically applied to the devices.

According to posts on Reddit, Samsung replaced the buggy update with a new version that won't brick the five-year-old devices. (The Galaxy S10 series was released in 2019.) Still, some users recommend staying cautious and turning off auto-updates anyway.

Samsung service centers in Korea reportedly have a fix for the problem that avoids a factory reset and the associated data loss, and users have confirmed that it works. Otherwise, users must factory restore their phones to make it work again and lose anything that is not backed up.

Android Police noted that Samsung had recently pulled a different update that caused camera issues on the Galaxy S23 Ultra. The SmartThings app issue comes as Samsung held its developer-focused SDC24 event yesterday, announcing new smart home features such as a smart door key for Galaxy devices.