Various Lumia phones receiving hotfix for random reboots across Europe, India and Asia

Kareem Anderson

Image Credit: WinBeta

Many current Lumia owners are looking toward the horizon for the famed flagship successor to the aging crop of devices out now. The wait is expected to be a few months long, and Windows 10 Mobile enthusiasts shouldn’t expect to hear much until then. Microsoft claims to be working on an impressive smartphone in their labs. However, support for devices out now, should not go unattended. Over the past few months, customer support pages for Lumia devices have been sprinkled with complaints about devices suffering from ‘random reboots.’

“Experiencing random reboots on Lumia 640 dual sim. Factory reset has not fixed the problem.”

“Hi everyone,

I would like to share this problem I’m having with my Lumia 800, and possibly see if someone has a solution to it.

After buying this phone from Orange in France a few days ago, it has been making random reboots 10 to 15 times a day.  It could be when I’m writing an SMS or using any app at any time, the phone just suddenly goes “au revoir” and reboots! Sometimes it does it twice or 3 times successively!

Hard resetting the phone so far hasn’t done any good…

Is there any solution for this and is Nokia aware of the problem?! I really love my Lumia, but I’m thinking of returning it and choosing another phone now…”

While the reboot incident appears to be widespread among various Lumia models, customer support personnel as well fellow Lumia users have all chipped in advice for fixing the issues. Their advice ranges from swapping sim cards to flushing through several manual reboot cycles. Typically, the results all end the same; nothing seems to work.

Image Credit: WinBeta

While the root of the issue hasn’t been made clear by Microsoft, the Lumia team has been working on a fix. Over the past couple of weeks, frustrated Lumia ‘rebooters’ have been reporting on receiving a ‘critical update’ notice on their devices. Once installed, the critical update addresses the random reboot issues. The update is rolling out in waves and landing in various areas on numerous devices, based on reports. Following the customer support forums over at Nokia Discussions, it looks like the 520, 525, 620, 920, 1320, 930 and Lumia 1520 are among the eligible devices to receive the ‘hotfix’. According to the Microsoft Community page, “If you get a critical or important update notification on your phone, we’re letting you know that there’s an important update that will fix a particular problem. We recommend that you install any critical updates immediately.” Here’s how a critical update works:

  • If you manually check for updates, you’ll be prompted at regular intervals to download the update.
  • Once the update is ready to install, you’ll be prompted at regular intervals to install the update.
  • For mandatory updates, if you’ve postponed the update, it will automatically install in three days.  

As for which areas are currently receiving the fix, Lumia users should check with their local carrier or head over to the Microsoft Community page for Windows Phone. Thus far, the current update list areas include, India, Europe, and parts of Asia.

Even though this isn’t a feature rich update or carrying underlying development code, this new hotfix should help Lumia users enjoy their current handset that much more.