A few days ago, Samsung started the long-awaited rollout of One UI 6.1 for the Galaxy S22 series (including the S22, S22+, and S22 Ultra), alongside the S21 series and the Z Flip 4, Flip 3, Fold 4, and Fold 3.
Earlier, we reported on this major development and the changes you can expect on your eligible device after the update, which includes the introduction of Galaxy AI features for the Galaxy S22 series, Fold 4, Flip 4, and Fold 3.
However, we now have disappointing news since it seems that Samsung has halted the rollout of One UI 6.1 for the S22 series due to alleged boot issues.
According to the report (via Samsung Community), it seems that some units of the Galaxy S22 series (encompassing the S22, S22+, and S22 Ultra) no longer boot after installing the One UI 6.1. Others may reach the lockscreen but cannot unlock the phone.
Furthermore, in some cases, the situation becomes so bad that a motherboard replacement from an authorized Samsung repair center may be required. In contrast, in many other cases, it gets resolved by a forced factory reset.
This issue is said not to be widespread, judging from the lower number of user complaints in the Korean Samsung Community (the only market where One UI 6.1 for the Galaxy S22 series has been released so far). Still, it apparently became a big enough issue for Samsung, leading to the reported halting of the One UI 6.1 update rollout until further notice.
I feel that such botched update rollouts are a major reason why Samsung’s long update policy has shaky foundations. A while ago, there was an increasing spike of display green line issues on the Galaxy S21 FE purportedly happening after updates, and now it’s the issue with the Galaxy S22 series.
Samsung is working on fixing this major issue before restarting the One UI 6.1 rollout for the Galaxy S22 series.
In the meantime, it will be wise for users to keep data backups before installing any major updates on their Samsung devices (in case the device needs a factory reset to fix issues after the update).
