Users of Android-based Samsung phones may be forced to perform factory resets due to copy-paste bug.
Samsung devices running TouchWiz and Android 3.0 or higher have a fatal clipboard bug that can completely brick up the device, making it permanently unusable until a hard reset is issued.
Whenever a user tries to copy something, the following error occurs in the system ClipboardManager class: java.lang.NullPointerException at android.content.ClipboardManager. setPrimaryClip(ClipboardManager.java:146)
The fault seems to lie within the Samsung software and there has been a number of complaints onSamsung’s forum going as far back as October.
It is reported that the Jelly Bean 4.1.2 update will fix the problem, unfortunately it is not yet available for all devices.
If you do end up with a bricked phone, hard-reset.com has a detailed list of hard resets for Samsung devices.