Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus, S21 Ultra & S21 video freezing while audio keeps playing after recent update allegedly known issue

The Samsung Galaxy S21 series is having some problems while playing videos in many applications.

According to reports, the issue reached the Samsung Galaxy S21 Plus, S21 Ultra and S21 with a recent update, and it produces that video playback freezes through many multimedia apps.

Users of the aforementioned devices report that they are suffering from annoying video freezing on apps such as YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13).

The issue would even affect video calling apps like zoom and others.

This is the latest Samsung software update, ever since I downloaded this last one, videos from all sources (IG, Snap, Youtube) will play for a few seconds, then the video freezing while the audio continues. I will have to reload the video to get a full playthrough.

This is legit the first issue I’ve ever had with an update from either Samsung, and it’s garbage.
Source

My Galaxy S21 video freeze and audio continues on most all apps and browser! There are so many complaints about this, it would seem something can be done about a Flagship phone that cost me about $1,400 US. This is so aggravating having to restart almost all videos.
Source

It should be noted that the problem affects the image in the videos. Meanwhile, the audio playback on videos continues.

The issues would have started from the most recent stable update. This update would have started shipping on October 16, so the bug would have been around for a month.

Is anyone else having this issue? (UPDATE: This Is A Samsung Update 10/16/2021) Not Tmobile
Source

In addition, although many reports are from T-Mobile users, the update has its origin in Samsung and not in the carrier.

A user reports having contacted Samsung, describing all the problems suffered and the methods tried to solve them. Support would have responded that they would send new updates on the matter soon.

A few days later, the user would have been contacted back. Samsung’s support reportedly replied as follows:

‘There was change in HAL to stop the threads internally in HAL during pause as there is no pause command to HAL Problem Countermeasure : Issue is fixed in the next version’
Source

So, the solution to the bug would arrive in the next stable update.

Having said the above, Samsung could have solved the problem in Android 12 beta, according to some reports:

This gives more credibility to the alleged response from Samsung support. So, joining the One UI 4 beta program might help you solve the problem.

This is all that is currently known about the situation. If there is any new development in this regard, we will update this article.

To finish, you can take a look at the issue/bug tracker dedicated to the Galaxy S21, S21 Plus and S21 Ultra.
PiunikaWeb started as purely an investigative tech journalism website with main focus on ‘breaking’ or ‘exclusive’ news. In no time, our stories got picked up by the likes of Forbes, Foxnews, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, Engadget, The Verge, Macrumors, and many others. Want to know more about us? Head here.