[Q] Battery drain issue - Sprint Samsung Galaxy Note 3

I can't believe that I'm posting a battery drain issue, but I'm new to Samsung and for the first time in years, I'm not rooted.
I've had my Note 3 for about 2-months. As a norm, I have no issue with the battery life that I get with this phone, being able to use it regularly throughout my long day, rarely ever needing to change it except overnight. However, on three occasions, a system app has appearantly hung up and drained the battery at an alarming rate, and at work around 1:00 or 2:00 PM, I'm getting a 15% battery warning instead of the usual 75% - 85% remaining.
Today it was the Gallery app. It was only used once late this morning when I made a screenshot, but discarded it. The previous time it was Maps, which I had not manually used, and the first time is was Google Search. All three different, the timing seemingly completely at random. I can determine no pattern to it..
Curious if anyone has observed similar behavior, and/or has any useful information on the topic that they might share.
Thank you for your time.

nYdGeo said:
I can't believe that I'm posting a battery drain issue, but I'm new to Samsung and for the first time in years, I'm not rooted.
I've had my Note 3 for about 2-months. As a norm, I have no issue with the battery life that I get with this phone, being able to use it regularly throughout my long day, rarely ever needing to change it except overnight. However, on three occasions, a system app has appearantly hung up and drained the battery at an alarming rate, and at work around 1:00 or 2:00 PM, I'm getting a 15% battery warning instead of the usual 75% - 85% remaining.
Today it was the Gallery app. It was only used once late this morning when I made a screenshot, but discarded it. The previous time it was Maps, which I had not manually used, and the first time is was Google Search. All three different, the timing seemingly completely at random. I can determine no pattern to it..
Curious if anyone has observed similar behavior, and/or has any useful information on the topic that they might share.
Thank you for your time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
U have location services on?
Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk

phyba said:
U have location services on?
Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. That service could indeed be tapped by all three of the applications that have been involved in these incidents. You thinking maybe its the location services that's tripping them up?

check out better battery stats it will show you what is running amuck.

jdelano said:
check out better battery stats it will show you what is running amuck.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I may do that in an attempt to learn more detail about the issue, but the culprit is clear. Since first noticing the Gallery eating things up days ago, the attached image shows what has become the norm. Rebooting, closing the Gallery and clearing cache, etc., nothing changes this. The Gallery app has gone crazy. May try resetting the phone over the weekend and see if that clears up whatever has caused this.
Oh, just noticed "Tag Buddy" is enabled in the Gallery app. Killed it so I can see what effect that may have.

nYdGeo said:
I may do that in an attempt to learn more detail about the issue, but the culprit is clear. Since first noticing the Gallery eating things up days ago, the attached image shows what has become the norm. Rebooting, closing the Gallery and clearing cache, etc., nothing changes this. The Gallery app has gone crazy. May try resetting the phone over the weekend and see if that clears up whatever has caused this.
Oh, just noticed "Tag Buddy" is enabled in the Gallery app. Killed it so I can see what effect that may have.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In addition to tag buddy, turn off Picasa in account settings for your linked Gmail address, and from gallery, see if Dropbox sync is on. If yes, kill it.
Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk

micmars said:
In addition to tag buddy, turn off Picasa in account settings for your linked Gmail address, and from gallery, see if Dropbox sync is on. If yes, kill it.
Sent from my SM-N900P using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the tips. I actually have all of them disabled. Didn't have time over the last few weeks to do so, but if I cna find the time I may try wiping the phone this weekend.

Well, yesterday I nuked the phone, factory reset. Went through the entire process to reset it up and guess what? The same frigging thing! I guess I'll nuke again today but no tlet any of the apps install. Just setup accounts, set my preferred configuration and see what happens. Then add apps back one at a time. Gonna take forever to get it back to where its useful on a dialy basis, but I cannot find any information anywhere regarding this issue. Wild to think of all the Note 3 users, I'm the only one experiencing this.
While I'm at it, my only other issue with this phone: anyone know of a setting somewhere to make the voice-to-text work well? I work for the federal government and speak clearly with decent annunciation, yet this device misunderstands worse than any device I've ever used. It gets things like not even close, and I'd love to find a way to make it work more accurately.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts or suggestions.

After reading a great number of posts all over the web, I resolved the issue. It was one of two things or both, or both and one caused the other. My micro SD card, taken from my old HTC Evo 4G LTE (Jewel),had been formatted using Ext4 which worked great, just as it had in my wife's identical phone. However, when I moved these cards to the new Note 3 phones, my phone seems to have had difficulty accessing some of the memory card. It cannot write to or delete from some locations. This may be why I found a folder of what appears to be pictures, but were somehow corrupted and could not be copied. There were scads of them so I've no idea how many images I've lost.
I copied everything that I could off onto my PC. Then I formatted the card from within the Note 3, probably crappy, old FAT, and finally copied what I needed back onto the card. The issue ceased immediately, so it was probably the Gallery app trying to identify/access those corrupted files, or something similar.
Live and learn, right?

Related

[Q] Gmail is stuck on "Disconnecting"- draining the battery

Hello all,
I have an HTC HD2 W6.5.
My email (gmail) send/receive status has been stuck on "disconnecting" for two days and I believe it is sucking my battery dry within 12 hours. I have taken the battery out, removed gmail from the phone and reinstalled it. The same problem occurs once it attempts to receive mail.
Possibly unrelated but happening since the email problem, the screen will not turn on right away when I hit the red disconnect button. I am missing phone calls because of this.
Any help would be much appreciated.
Thank you and all the best,
Jenna Ann
Jenna Ann,
My HD2 started behaving like that last Thursday early afternoon. Phone calls ignored/missed, battery drained, overheating... I deleted all gmail accounts from the phone and - voila! This problem is gone.
I believe Google guys modified their server side 2 days ago causing phones' problem.
Hi Jenna Ann,
I'm having the same issue. Running a system util prog called MemMaid and I can see the process (tmail.exe) is sucking huge amounts of CPU cycles. It's causing my phone to frequently lock-up, whereby only the hardware buttons light up - screen remains blank/black. No amount of soft resets has fixed the issue. I'm not convinced a hard-reset will cure my ills either but it will probably be my next move unless someone else has a better idea.
Watching the tmail.exe process eat up to 98% of the CPU also causes my HD2 to get extremely hot like yours. Once I've killed/terminated the process, HD2 begins to cool down and the idle process goe back to normal (99%). I should also add that I've had my phone for 11months now and have had no ongoing issues until now. I haven't installed any new apps either for quite some time. In fact, like you, everything was/has been running along smoothly without incident until a couple of days ago. Initially, my first thought was the battery but it's not the battery that gets hot so I thought my hardware had suddenly developed a fault.
I still have no idea. The comment about google changing something server side is interesting if for no other reason than the timing of it all. But when I do a soft reset, it is the AudioManager_Eng.exe process that hogs the CPU first. Killing that process then sets the tmail.exe process into high CPU utilization. Killing that process solves the problem temporarily but as I'm charging the battery whilst this is taking place (via PC), inevitably tmail.exe goes into CPU overdrive again after 10mins or so. I believe ActiveSync might be responsible in someway for that.
I also see my Hotmail account (also uses tmail.exe) also has trouble connecting/disconnecting when the process is in run away mode. It just hangs there, same as gmail, whilst this tmail.exe process gobbles up all of the CPU. So, not convinced deleting my Gmail account will solve the issue but might give it a shot. One would think if Google changed something then there'd be a hell of a lot of disgruntled people out there ... and maybe there is??
I'm really hoping there's a simple solution to this. At a minimum, hoping this is a software related issue and not hardware. Hope someone here at XDA can help.
Mick.
Thanks for the replies and ideas. I removed gmail again and shut every program down. I then reinstalled gmail through ActiveSync. So far the email server has not gotten stuck. We'll see about the screen freezing.
Take care,
Jenna Ann
detroitredwings said:
Jenna Ann,
My HD2 started behaving like that last Thursday early afternoon. Phone calls ignored/missed, battery drained, overheating... I deleted all gmail accounts from the phone and - voila! This problem is gone.
I believe Google guys modified their server side 2 days ago causing phones' problem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hello people
There has been some discusiion of this on the Dutty Rom development thread. It is certainly linked to Gmail.
Can ask what ROM you are running? Stock, Dutty, Energy etc as I don't seem to see much mention of the problem on other ROM development sites and wonder if it's linked to GMail and just a few cooked ROMs.
As detroitredwings said
Google have performed a server side update and tmobile US agree there is a problem - other reports says its only on imap and not on pop but I can't confirm or deny
haighpaul said:
Hello people
There has been some discusiion of this on the Dutty Rom development thread. It is certainly linked to Gmail.
Can ask what ROM you are running? Stock, Dutty, Energy etc as I don't seem to see much mention of the problem on other ROM development sites and wonder if it's linked to GMail and just a few cooked ROMs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've never done anything to my ROM but probably should. It's the standard issue that came installed in the phone.
ROM version: 2.13.531.1 (90963) WWE
Any suggestions about what to do with my ROM would be appreciated. I'm a completely noob and have looked through ROM flashing tutorials but still have no idea what to do.
I too began experiencing the same exact issue last Thursday night. Phone very hot and battery draining fast. Quite a feat since I have the large extended battery. I just set up my gmail for the pop3 server and then did send/recieve. tmail.exe went back to zero so it looks like this is the immediate solution. Thanks johnerz!
I also has this problem. I actually have both activesync and also pop3 and both of them are giving me issue. I hope gmail fix it soon.
Gmail drain
Yep- same problem for me as of two days ago.
Symptoms: phone overheating, battery discharging. Gmail constantly stuck in 'disconnect' and also cannot power on screen with quick touch to hardware 'on' button
HD2, ROM build 3.14.405.2
BIG PROBLEM needs to be escalated
Stupid me, I thought that it has sommething to do with my pouch and buyed a new one
Here we can see the Gmail known Issue: http://mail.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=known_issues.cs
Tréo500 said:
Stupid me, I thought that it has sommething to do with my pouch and buyed a new one
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Until I noticed the gmail connection issue, after my battery drained twice in the same day, I purchased a new battery thinking it was a battery issue.
crashes, weird behavior, battery drain, hot
I have the exact same issues: the hard keys frequently don't work, the phone crashes, calls get dropped and then an instant reboot, the battery gets hot and drains very quickly, gmail gets stuck in "Disconnecting."
I thought it was a problem with the battery pins causing a short, but they appear to be fine, at least to my eyes.
Interestingly, when the hard keys are not working, I can get it to respond by holding down the off key for a few seconds and then the home key.
I'm relieved to hear others are having the same issue. I was about to go out and buy a new battery as I'd read in another forum that a hot battery and wonky behavior was a sure sign of impending battery failure . . .
Update
Did as an earlier poster recommended, and reset Gmail a/c settings. All was well till earlier today, when the same problem occurred again. How depressing...
At least the problem is identifed
For what it's worth, I can confirm that this gmail issue is definitely what is causing the wonky behavior that we all seem to have experienced. When I shut down the email app, everything returns to normal.
Anyone have any information about the google team's efforts to fix the problem?
Google Forums thread
XDA Developers does not allow me to post an outside link, but if you search for tmail spike on Google and then go to the first link, then follow 'Another discussion' at the top of the forum page, you'll find over a hundred messages of complaint...
... and if anyone knows how to escalate problems with Google, please let us know here
hd2 user from Singapore. I guess this problem start a week ago. problem is CPU usage for Tmail.exe when high up to 98% then overheats and drain all the battery. its crazy!! 82% battery gone in 2hours or less!! can't use emails for now. this problem almost cause my either the battery or the phone to die, was charging till the notification light shows red and green non stop.
Confirming the issue
I have a stock T-Mobile HTC-HD2, and it's been acting exactly as described in this thread for the last few days.
Please post if you find a solution.
Thanks.
It's happening to both my HD2's. Started about 4 days ago with my wife's and 2 days ago with mine.
After a fresh flash this morning on mine, Gmail won't log end or stop the send/receive on either one of my accounts using IMAP. Frustrating.
haighpaul said:
Hello people
There has been some discusiion of this on the Dutty Rom development thread. It is certainly linked to Gmail.
Can ask what ROM you are running? Stock, Dutty, Energy etc as I don't seem to see much mention of the problem on other ROM development sites and wonder if it's linked to GMail and just a few cooked ROMs.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My ROM info is in my signature though based on what I am seeing in the Google forum it matters little.

Titans crash when storage is near capacity (VIDEO ADDED)

I've discovered a severe "bug" that is not an isolated issue. I am using the AT&T branded Titan, unlocked on Telus Mobility. Works like a charm however after replacing my Titan several times I've discovered there is a MAJOR reoccurring bug in the OS which causes the Titan to "crash" when the storage capacity has reached a certain amount. I have tested it on several replacement Titans. I have also encountered this crash more than 10 times and can reproduce it easily. Other users have also reported encountering the same crash upon testing.
When this "crash" takes place when you have filled your storage with media or apps beyond approx. 75% (this may now be inaccurate). Based on my testing the crash occurs sooner when the storage is filled higher. In some instances it occurred within 20 min or less of storage reaching over 90% capacity. In a few cases it crashed the next day. These crashed are not caused by anything specific but will occur randomly. I've witnessed the crash in 2 forms. One a UI glitch which I will explain in a moment. The other is simply the phone being stuck on the white HTC boot screen which can only be resolved with a hard reset. The other more common crash appears as a UI glitch at first and you can no longer launch any apps, any tiles or anything at all. You are forced to do a soft reset (which tricks you to think this fixes the odd UI glitch). Upon soft reset the phone will take much longer to reboot than normal. This is because it's actually entering the first time setup process! Your Windows Live Hotmail hub and account settings are magically and permanently removed as well as your Facebook settings. It is impossible to re-add these back and it will only give you repeated errors when trying to do so.
However, all your previous apps, media and some settings will be oddly retained.. for a temporary time until another crash forcing a hard reset. Before this occurs I recommend transferring any personal media off the phone to risk losing it. At this point a hard reset is the only way you can re-add your Windows Live Hotmail account and Facebook account. And of course this causes utter sadness since you lose all your settings, media, apps and any Xbox Live game progress (in my case A LOT of progress).
As mentioned this is not an isolated issue and needs to be addressed. I have decided to contact HTC directly about this in hopes for a resolution. Originally it was thought when you go over 75% capacity of storage this crash would occur however I discovered yesterday that this crash occurred for me with only 7Gb storage remaining BUT was stable for over a month before the crash occurred.
I really hope HTC or Microsoft address this issue. I have heard from Titan users in Europe this issue was resolved in an update. However this update is not available to North America.
I have uploaded a video of the UI glitch version of the crash here and what occurs: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2enkDBdixCc .
Oh man that would suck. Tomorrow I will fill my titan to the brim. Stay tuned
Sent from my PI39100 using Board Express
Filling my Titan up now, I'll let you know the result.
Filled to 557mb remaining. Filled with movies and TV shows. No panic attacks yet. I'll keep using as normal.
I have 1988mb remaining. Dint have much to fill but loaded with massive movies. So far no panic attacks. Using it as normal. Will give it a few hours or maybe even 24 hrs. Do you want me to do anything specific that will freeze it?
All apps launch fine from tiles as well as app list.
Sent from my TITAN X310e using Board Express
drupad2drupad said:
I have 1988mb remaining. Dint have much to fill but loaded with massive movies. So far no panic attacks. Using it as normal. Will give it a few hours or maybe even 24 hrs. Do you want me to do anything specific that will freeze it?
All apps launch fine from tiles as well as app list.
Sent from my TITAN X310e using Board Express
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Give it a day or so I'd say. The first Titan would crash almost immediately. First sign is when hubs would not open. On the current Titan I had it filled for about 2 days then it started giving Active X errors in Internet Explorer while streaming html 5 videos. I had a feeling it wasn't normal so I closed IE then the phone crashed and I couldn't open any hubs or apps.
Lets see what happens.. Could take a day or so with heavy use. Based on my tests sometimes even soft resets can initiate a crash.
Could it be...
I filled my Titan to less than 600 megs after I added all my music and apps from my Focus. From time to time when browsing the internet, the page will freeze then IE kicks my to the homescreen. When I reopen IE, it's has no history of the page I was just browsing. This has happened over twenty times in five days I've had my Titan.
Bug fixed with new release
I had the same problem but it has been solved with the last firmware realease.
cricri23 said:
I had the same problem but it has been solved with the last firmware realease.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's great news but on the ATT model I'm not finding any updates through Zune. I even tried forcing any updates but still nothing..
I noticed the same thing. I think it may actually be the app storage which you can change in the zune settings. I changed mine from 5 to 10% and so far so good. I wasn't that close to running out of room in my media storage.
@audichris9
Changing these values will not resolve the problem. If you record a big video on your device, you'll probably loose it. It append to me.
The only way is to wait the firmware release in your country.
i have been having the same problem.
i won my titan at a windows party, and now i have it unlocked to work on t-mobile. i thought it was because i unlocked it, it started freezing. but i hard reset, loaded it up, and then it froze again. im tired of having to redo the phone cus its like over 100 apps to redownload everytime plus music. also my google mail wont work so i guess i will be hard resetting one more time, and make sure i dont put as much **** on it. its got 7gb of storage still and your right no update for the US yet
The 2 Titans I have are also ones that were won from the MS promo parties. Not sure if that's related. So far this is the most stable its been, its been a week with no forced hard resets. But not sure how long I can go not adding media or recording videos.
I will say that it still hasn't been glitch free. Kik messenger crashes from time to time as went as internet explorer. But at least it hasn't froze or forced to hard reset again.
wow impressive but i agree its scary thinking if u add just one album the phone is ****ed. lately windows messenger goes out of sync and i cant facebook chat. very weird. i restarted the phone then it works. but when i go to settings and try and add it under accounts, it doesnt save. weird.i never had any problems with my hd7. now i get the phone of my dreams and it wants to be a ***** :X haha
pistol44 said:
I may have stumbled onto either a widespread issue with the Titan or just an issue with a small percentage.
I noticed another member mentioning their first Titan being a dud and crashing at 75% storage capacity. Funny enough I am also on my 2nd Titan and experienced similar problems both times.
Both become unstable only after I installed all my apps, games and media so essentially once it was fully loaded up. Then the phone would crash in some unusual and random way each time forcing me to perform a hard reset. Most commonly the hubs would cause a UI glitch not allowing any apps to be launch. I would be forced to soft reset where then it would take 4 times longer than normal to boot. Then I would be brought back to the Windows Phone first time setup but strangely all my apps and media would still be there except the ATT apps would be restored and some of the original settings would revert. As well you lose you hotmail setup and Facebook sync and neither can be restored without a hard reset so it's a catch 22.
I bought a second Titan thinking I had a lemon the first time but found the second one did the same thing to me once I followed the same routine. It's stable now only because I uploaded a bunch of media to the cloud this time and my storage is at 8.9gb remaining instead of the usual 2gb. I'm scared to transfer movies and other media on to it and fill it up.
Do you think it's an issue with all Titans when you fill it near capacity or is it possible I have 2 lemons? Wondering if anyone else has theirs over 75% capacity?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ran into this exact issue. Just not sure how close I was to capacity, but I would imagine it was definitely over 75%. Not cool...
Curious if MS knows about this issue.. Or if it's Titan specific. I guess in that case we'd need a fix from HTC.
Either way we need a fix for it from either one. We shouldn't have to avoid using storage on our phones forever.
Truth
Sent from my htc titan using Board Express
Fixed in v7.10 (7740)
This issue was fixed for me on v7.10 (7740), 2-3 weeks ago.
Did anybody else had this update ?
cricri23 said:
This issue was fixed for me on v7.10 (7740), 2-3 weeks ago.
Did anybody else had this update ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As far as I know this update is not available to the AT&T branded models.
man my titan crashed again today. i was on the phone and got off and the screen was frozen. now the phone wont turn back on wtf! my hd7 never gave me a single problem and now i get the flagship Titan, and i cant load it to the max, i cant use fb chat. **** is weak. i am in LOVE with windows phone but this has bummed me out. tired of hard resetting ahh just a little vent
Guys have you tried 7740 update? Or the HTC firmware/driver update with new drivers?

Alright consider me sold on unlocking

I just installed AndroWook rom. I didn't want to, not really. I was hoping to never have to unlock my prime. But then there was the thread about performance, and the other one about users not being able to unlock. How could I possibly walk away from that kind of a challenge? So I downloaded it just to see if it would work. And it did. So then I had to install TWRP, and then I had to install a rom.
So I installed AndroWook with Motley 3.0.5 and all the tweeks it had to offer.
I didn't wipe, I cleared cache and dalvik. I have nearly 2 years of screwing around on an HTC desire, so I felt comfortable with this level of deleting. Everything booted up properly, no apps were missing and everything (as of now) is working at least as well as before.
Then came the big test. The one that annoys me more then anything else. Copying a file from a USB thumb drive to internal memory. It usually takes 10 times as long as my windows PC does. So I plugged in the drive and copied a 250mb file. It took all of 20 seconds (I didn't really time, but it was MUCH faster). My jaw dropped.
I'm sold. ASUS has no clue what they're doing. This thing is great. I can copy files to the internal storage without staring at the percentage copying 10, then stoping, 12, stop, 15, stop, 20... This time it went smoothly from 0 to 100%.
If you haven't unlocked your device, you're missing out.
Appreciate the oppinion. Would like to hear more from your experiences with custom firmware as I'm also very unsatisfied with stock rom.
epology said:
Appreciate the oppinion. Would like to hear more from your experiences with custom firmware as I'm also very unsatisfied with stock rom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I've been up for about 2 hours now, and while I'm not sure if it 'feels' a lot of faster, but I haven't had screen tear issues. I'll keep running this rom for at least a week and I'll update if anything changes. If there's anything you'd like me to test (as long as it is free or I already have it) let me know!
Parastie, you sound just like me almost. I've been twitching at all these challenges being presented before me. Failed unlocks, failed roots, better performance. How I've managed to resist unlocking so far is beyond me. My poor desire s didn't last so long, its been flashed so many times I don't think it knows what kind of device it even is anymore.
So you say file transfer is slow on stock, eh? I must witness this. Might be the straw that breaks the camels back for me. The one last push to unlocking.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using xda app-developers app
Parastie said:
Then came the big test. The one that annoys me more then anything else. Copying a file from a USB thumb drive to internal memory. It usually takes 10 times as long as my windows PC does. So I plugged in the drive and copied a 250mb file. It took all of 20 seconds (I didn't really time, but it was MUCH faster). My jaw dropped.
I'm sold. ASUS has no clue what they're doing. This thing is great. I can copy files to the internal storage without staring at the percentage copying 10, then stoping, 12, stop, 15, stop, 20... This time it went smoothly from 0 to 100%.
If you haven't unlocked your device, you're missing out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Welcome to the club!
So when you say copying from thumb drive to internal memory, you mean via the usb port on the dock right? (must be because I can't think of how else you would be doing it.)
The reason I ask is, I've been unlocked for a while, but haven't done any thumb drive to internal memory copying since I unlocked. I also found this unbelievably slow when running stock though (and all the starting and stopping made me think WTF???)
Gotta try it out tonight.
seeknom said:
Welcome to the club!
So when you say copying from thumb drive to internal memory, you mean via the usb port on the dock right? (must be because I can't think of how else you would be doing it.)
The reason I ask is, I've been unlocked for a while, but haven't done any thumb drive to internal memory copying since I unlocked. I also found this unbelievably slow when running stock though (and all the starting and stopping made me think WTF???)
Gotta try it out tonight.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah the copying to internal memory was the most annoying. Slow as dirt, it makes putting HD movies on this thing impossible. I've only tried one file, but I'm going to try another large file when I get some time.
Also note, screen tearing still happens. I got it to stop by locking the screen for a few seconds, but that's still an issue.
Parastie, you sound just like me almost. I've been twitching at all these challenges being presented before me. Failed unlocks, failed roots, better performance. How I've managed to resist unlocking so far is beyond me. My poor desire s didn't last so long, its been flashed so many times I don't think it knows what kind of device it even is anymore.
So you say file transfer is slow on stock, eh? I must witness this. Might be the straw that breaks the camels back for me. The one last push to unlocking.
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using xda app-developers app
Anyone know if handwriting notetaking is better with any custom roms? My biggest problem with the prime has been how bad the digitizer seems to be (as in trying to draw a diagonal line the prime makes a crazy wavy line). Touchscreen tune helps but doesn't fully fix the problem.
Not sure if this is something a ROM can really fix or not.
It does help some, I can tell the difference in a well performing rom by using handwriting apps. The handwriting apps when a rom is slow or sluggish don't keep up, kind of like an underpowered android phone and keyboard lag. But when performing properly, the handwriting is more accurate and keeps up with the stylus or finger, in my experiences.
Without seeing your problem, I can't say if it's because of your software and/or configuration, or if it's some very strange hardware problem that software can't fix. But I can tell you that typically a tablets performance overall greatly affects how things react to the touch screen and how the graphics render.
Parastie said:
Well I've been up for about 2 hours now, and while I'm not sure if it 'feels' a lot of faster, but I haven't had screen tear issues. I'll keep running this rom for at least a week and I'll update if anything changes. If there's anything you'd like me to test (as long as it is free or I already have it) let me know!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you please either confirm or contradict one thing: I had a battery drain issue. For example before going to bed the tablet was docked and both batteries almost full, in the morning - dock battery flat, tablet - half empty. SystemPanel suggested it's a Facebook app and, miracle, as soon as I deleted the app I haven't seen leaks anymore.
This's a bit strange because this app has never caused drain issues before. Syncing and notifications were disabled.
Parastie said:
I'm sold. ASUS has no clue what they're doing. This thing is great. I can copy files to the internal storage without staring at the percentage copying 10, then stoping, 12, stop, 15, stop, 20... This time it went smoothly from 0 to 100%.
If you haven't unlocked your device, you're missing out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I won't defend asus as far a knowing what they are doing but I have never used a stock mobile device that could not be drastically improved by dedicated developers. The hardware companies are only focused on a product as long as it takes to hit a shelf and then by and large you are on your own. Thats why this is the best site on the internet for non sheep type people.
svladimir said:
Can you please either confirm or contradict one thing: I had a battery drain issue. For example before going to bed the tablet was docked and both batteries almost full, in the morning - dock battery flat, tablet - half empty. SystemPanel suggested it's a Facebook app and, miracle, as soon as I deleted the app I haven't seen leaks anymore.
This's a bit strange because this app has never caused drain issues before. Syncing and notifications were disabled.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This sounds like a text book app or widget problem and not a device problem.
svladimir said:
Can you please either confirm or contradict one thing: I had a battery drain issue. For example before going to bed the tablet was docked and both batteries almost full, in the morning - dock battery flat, tablet - half empty. SystemPanel suggested it's a Facebook app and, miracle, as soon as I deleted the app I haven't seen leaks anymore.
This's a bit strange because this app has never caused drain issues before. Syncing and notifications were disabled.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
if you want to keep the facebook app, try turning off wifi when you turn the tablet off before you go to bed. super easy with the dock and i've gotten in the habit of doing so myself. i see 1-2% battery drain on teh tablet overnight, and <1% on teh dock. you might also want to try setting wifi to not stay on during sleep by default in settings, but idk if a wakelock via facebook would fix this.
also, did you try clearing data and cache or restarting and it still did this? anyways, sorry to be so OT to the OP. PM me if you want to chat about this some more.
I also bit the bullet yesterday.
Unfortunately my experience was not so good...
1. Unlocked, installed TRWP, made backup (and titanium).
2. Wipe device.
3. Install Androwook.
4. Tried to restore Titanium backup on to find it will prompt you twice for every app (I was not going to do this for 150 odd apps).
5. Go back to recovery, wipe device, and restore backup (this 'only' took about 30 minutes...).
6. Reboot, took about 15 minutes to boot.
7. My home screen was messed up, none of my installed apps would run, only the apps included in ROM.
8. Go back to recovery, wipe again, and installed AndroWook again.
9. Spent the entire day downloading apps from the play store again.
During the last step, the poor tablet consistently froze and even had a random reboot. Play store ANR'd about 15 times...
Eventually had everything back installed, but all my 'user data' is lost (hopefully I can recover this with Titanium if needed).
To be honest. It does not really feel any different. No OOOOHH's and AAAAAHH's like everyone says.
So now I have 2 problems. A useless tablet and no bloody warranty.
To top this off, I discovered another dead pixel (white one, not so noticeable) yesterday.
leppie said:
4. Tried to restore Titanium backup on to find it will prompt you twice for every app (I was not going to do this for 150 odd apps).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The paid version of Titanium Backup allows for one-click batch restoring...
Parastie said:
Then came the big test. The one that annoys me more then anything else. Copying a file from a USB thumb drive to internal memory. It usually takes 10 times as long as my windows PC does. So I plugged in the drive and copied a 250mb file. It took all of 20 seconds (I didn't really time, but it was MUCH faster).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats the only thing which is bugging me on the stock rom. Can others confirm this major improvement? Can anyone say what is responsible for this I/O enhancement? Is it the ROM (IO schedulers) or is it Motleys kernel?
Stefan
Parastie said:
Yeah the copying to internal memory was the most annoying. Slow as dirt, it makes putting HD movies on this thing impossible. I've only tried one file, but I'm going to try another large file when I get some time.
Also note, screen tearing still happens. I got it to stop by locking the screen for a few seconds, but that's still an issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was on the fence about this issue too. Screen tearing & I/O performance was a big issue for me. Looks like it's device dependent, some users dont have it, some have it. Our device have this issue. ;(
B4 this I've read a few posts from other forumers claiming that tearing still happens on custom kernel & ROM.
MXR2 said:
I was on the fence about this issue too. Screen tearing & I/O performance was a big issue for me. Looks like it's device dependent, some users dont have it, some have it. Our device have this issue. ;(
B4 this I've read a few posts from other forumers claiming that tearing still happens on custom kernel & ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wouldn't be a surprise as they're based off the stock rom.
Sent from my Inspire 4G using xda premium
MXR2 said:
I was on the fence about this issue too. Screen tearing & I/O performance was a big issue for me. Looks like it's device dependent, some users dont have it, some have it. Our device have this issue. ;(
B4 this I've read a few posts from other forumers claiming that tearing still happens on custom kernel & ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well screen tearing still happens here. Of course, I did not do a full wipe and I'm running Wook which is based on stock. It is possible that AOKP or CM9 would not have this problem. I was going for what most people said was the fastest. As far as day-to-day use goes, after a full day I don't really see a huge difference. It was great before, and it still is.
BongoBong said:
Anyone know if handwriting notetaking is better with any custom roms? My biggest problem with the prime has been how bad the digitizer seems to be (as in trying to draw a diagonal line the prime makes a crazy wavy line). Touchscreen tune helps but doesn't fully fix the problem.
Not sure if this is something a ROM can really fix or not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I suspect JB ROMs will be better at this as it bumps-up the CPU speed for user interactions.

GPS turns on by itself after Android 4.4.4 update

Hi, I recently updated my phone to Android 4.4.4 and now I am having this issue: Every time the phone acquires a cell signal, GPS turns on about 10 seconds later and stays on for a long time. This happens even if the GPS and location services are turned off. As a result my battery drains in half the time that it used to. If I stop IQ Agent process, GPS icon immediately goes away until the next time phone reacquires the signal. This happens multiple times a day. I can easily reproduce the problem by toggling airplane mode. I don’t think it’s a conflict with any of the apps because the problem exists if I boot into safe mode. I called HTS but they never heard of it, said they will escalate the problem to the developers, but I don’t know if anything will be done. Does anyone else experiencing the same problem? My phone is not rooted and locked.
Thanks…
madelman99 said:
I called HTS but they never heard of it, said they will escalate the problem to the developers, but I don’t know if anything will be done.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That usually means nothing will be done.
I haven't heard of this. I typically recommend backing up your data, and doing a factory reset; as this often (although not always) clears up random bugs after an OTA. Smart of you to eliminate the possibility of 3rd party apps by trying Safe Mode. But there may still be some migrated user settings causing a conflict.
redpoint73 said:
That usually means nothing will be done.
I haven't heard of this. I typically recommend backing up your data, and doing a factory reset; as this often (although not always) clears up random bugs after an OTA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was hoping to figure this out without doing a factory reset. I know I am not the only one with this issue, I've seen others with the same problem on different forums...
redpoint73 said:
That usually means nothing will be done.
I haven't heard of this. I typically recommend backing up your data, and doing a factory reset; as this often (although not always) clears up random bugs after an OTA. Smart of you to eliminate the possibility of 3rd party apps by trying Safe Mode. But there may still be some migrated user settings causing a conflict.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some (including myself) have noted that this has something to do with carrier IQ services.
GPS
I just got off the phone with ATT just yesterday, and I can confirm they are aware of the issue. But seeing how Lollipop is just around the corner, you might want to wait a bit, unless of course you're in dire straits.
o0RaidR0o said:
I just got off the phone with ATT just yesterday, and I can confirm they are aware of the issue. But seeing how Lollipop is just around the corner, you might want to wait a bit, unless of course you're in dire straits.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The HTC tech also said that Lollipop will be out soon, in fact he said they are in stage 2 testing (whatever that means). I just hope that the problem will not migrate to Lollipop.
I'm having a similar issue with my phone. Been sitting on my desk trying to charge, but it can't because the GPS is sucking away the battery.
Others over at AndroidCentral are complaining about the same thing.
Unfortunately I'm new here, so I can't post a link, but you can search for android central 494182-massive-battery-drain-gps-constantly
Also on Android Central: 494174-how-do-i-stop-my-gps-icon-flashing-att-htc-one-m8
Douglas_D said:
I'm having a similar issue with my phone. Been sitting on my desk trying to charge, but it can't because the GPS is sucking away the battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can turn off the GPS by stopping IQ Agent Service. It should stay off until the cell data connection is lost.
I think everyone should call them so they know it is happening to a lot of people. Otherwise nothing will get done. I am surprised that there is not that much chatter out there. It was hard to even find forum discussions.
Funny I just posted the same question in the generic M8 Q and A section. I just noticed it too. My battery life has not been affected that I can see after going through the data. I've gone and disabled any app that uses the GPS service but it's still coming on so it's not an app or app update that I can tell. I guess I can wait until LP comes out.
So far so good since I've stopped IQ Agent Service. It hasn't popped back up and I've made 5 or 6 phone calls since then.
I think I solved it…
I think I solved it… I believe the app DriveMode was causing an issue. Here is what I think happened. When I got my phone a year ago, I immediately disabled few apps, DriveMode was one of them. I believe the recent update was designed to more closely interact with DriveMode and even though the app was disabled, it appeared that as soon as the phone acquired data connection, it tried to determine whether or not the user was moving. When I re-enabled the app, I disabled it internally (within the app) and I guess that told the OS not to bother determining if the user was moving anymore. Here are the steps: I re-enabled DriveMode, I then went to google play and updated it to the latest version, I opened the app and immediately noticed GPS icon turned on, the screen appeared telling me to enable GPS, I checked ignore check box and left the location service running in battery save mode. I closed the Drive mode app and left it along without disabling it. I did this yesterday and haven’t noticed GPS turning on even once since then.
I hope this helps everyone solve this annoying problem; please let me know if this works for anyone…
madelman99 said:
I think I solved it… I believe the app DriveMode was causing an issue. Here is what I think happened. When I got my phone a year ago, I immediately disabled few apps, DriveMode was one of them. I believe the recent update was designed to more closely interact with DriveMode and even though the app was disabled, it appeared that as soon as the phone acquired data connection, it tried to determine whether or not the user was moving. When I re-enabled the app, I disabled it internally (within the app) and I guess that told the OS not to bother determining if the user was moving anymore. Here are the steps: I re-enabled DriveMode, I then went to google play and updated it to the latest version, I opened the app and immediately noticed GPS icon turned on, the screen appeared telling me to enable GPS, I checked ignore check box and left the location service running in battery save mode. I closed the Drive mode app and left it along without disabling it. I did this yesterday and haven’t noticed GPS turning on even once since then.
I hope this helps everyone solve this annoying problem; please let me know if this works for anyone…
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I like this idea -
However, I was able to get rid of this issue by disabling the carrier IQ service. I did this using an application called Disable Service from the Google Play store.
Works like a charm, and has the added advantage of disabling the IQ service intrusion.
DanGeorges said:
However, I was able to get rid of this issue by disabling the carrier IQ service. I did this using an application called Disable Service from the Google Play store.
Works like a charm, and has the added advantage of disabling the IQ service intrusion.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately this only will work on rooted phones, mine is not.
madelman99 said:
Unfortunately this only will work on rooted phones, mine is not.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just want to throw my $0.02 in here....I'm having hte same issues noted in the thread, and it's murdering my battery life. I typically get 24-30 hours of battery life easily on this phone, but now if i dont spend all day killing IQ Agent, i get about 7. I can't root my M8 due to some work restrictions, so it's all manual IQ Agent task killing fo rme. although I was EXTREMELY active yesterday in killing the service ~30 times throughout the day yesterday, Android System (where IQ Agent lies) still managed to run 2hr 24 minutes of GPS on, according to two different battery/service monitoring apps. This, mind you, all occurred without my actual GPS toggle ever being switched on.
I'm waiting for a call back from HTC, and AT&T punted completely and denied any knowledge of why it would happen (although ironically offering to remote into my phone to "diagnose" the issue, which I could not do becuase I was in transit when I called and they required I remain stationary...)
I'm 100% convinced it's entirely due to the IQ Agent task, or another involuntary watchdog service trigging IQ agent. This task is started under at least two distinct condition, with no fail:
my phone goes between 4G and LTE (Subway, between towers/coverage zones, all flipping day long in my concrete-and-steel office building...)
I make or receive a phone call (can feel teh phone get hot in ~2 minutes while on the phone).
switching in or out of airplane mode (which is really an extension of #1).
I love my M8 like crazy, but I cannot wait until my next phone because I absolutely refuse to purchase anything associated with a cell carrier ever again. Fvck that.
Agreed...DriveMode part of the problem
madelman99 said:
I think I solved it… I believe the app DriveMode was causing an issue. Here is what I think happened. When I got my phone a year ago, I immediately disabled few apps, DriveMode was one of them. I believe the recent update was designed to more closely interact with DriveMode and even though the app was disabled, it appeared that as soon as the phone acquired data connection, it tried to determine whether or not the user was moving. When I re-enabled the app, I disabled it internally (within the app) and I guess that told the OS not to bother determining if the user was moving anymore. Here are the steps: I re-enabled DriveMode, I then went to google play and updated it to the latest version, I opened the app and immediately noticed GPS icon turned on, the screen appeared telling me to enable GPS, I checked ignore check box and left the location service running in battery save mode. I closed the Drive mode app and left it along without disabling it. I did this yesterday and haven’t noticed GPS turning on even once since then.
I hope this helps everyone solve this annoying problem; please let me know if this works for anyone…
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agreed. I mostly followed these steps by downloading the latest DriveMode, walking through DriveMode setup, then disabling DriveMode and then stopping the IQ Agent Service. SInce then, GPS has performed as it should, only on demand. I did notice that when switching from mobile to a wi-fi network that requires a sign in that the GPS fires up. But again, killing the service stops the random GPS after logging into the wi-fi. So overall, much better than the constant on/off, but still ATT needs to resolve this at some point.
Have a carrieriq blocked/inactive build in testing so we shall see if it is indeed the culprit by end of day.
I've been testing this build for a couple of days now, and so far the GPS has stayed off like a good little app should. It only turns on when I expect.
Update/Reply From AT&T as of 03/23
Finally!!! An admission from AT&T that they jacked up our phones with their software update back in January. It's only taken a month and a half, 4 calls to text support, 3 attempts to reach their urgent care department (by the way... they are completely incompetent. They call from an unknown number, I normally don't answer but I also couldn't answer anyway due to being at work. They leave a message requesting you call a number in KY and leave a message. Left a message on two different occasions and provided the days and hours they could reach me. Of course they call whenever they want and the process starts all over) in addition to all this, I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau that resulted in a call back from a corporate executive. Now the only problem is they don't have a solution for the issue yet and probably won't do anything with the Lollipop update that "SHOULD" be released within the next 15 days. No one should have to go through this but I honestly think everyone should file a BBB complaint just to show AT&T a lesson.
Rebel3085 said:
Finally!!! An admission from AT&T that they jacked up our phones with their software update back in January. It's only taken a month and a half, 4 calls to text support, 3 attempts to reach their urgent care department (by the way... they are completely incompetent. They call from an unknown number, I normally don't answer but I also couldn't answer anyway due to being at work. They leave a message requesting you call a number in KY and leave a message. Left a message on two different occasions and provided the days and hours they could reach me. Of course they call whenever they want and the process starts all over) in addition to all this, I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau that resulted in a call back from a corporate executive. Now the only problem is they don't have a solution for the issue yet and probably won't do anything with the Lollipop update that "SHOULD" be released within the next 15 days. No one should have to go through this but I honestly think everyone should file a BBB complaint just to show AT&T a lesson.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So - was it Carrier IQ? Did they say what was going on?
I know they said they don't have a solution, but it would be useful to know what is causing this. I found that disabling the carrier iq service does the trick, and WNC's ROM, which has it disabled by default, also does the trick.
Thanks for the update. My phone started doing the GPS thing a couple of weeks ago and my battery life has been shot.
The weirdest thing is that my issues only started 2 weeks ago, instead of when the update occurred in January, so ATT must be doing something weird on their network as well

S21 crashing/rebooting 1-2 times/day. Any tips on troubleshooting?

I have as SM-G991U (256 GB S21 US version, stock everything but using Nova Launcher) that is randomly freezing/crashing then rebooting on me 1-2 times/day. Does android have any kind of crash log I could look at to try and figure out what's causing the problem? On the samsung forums, their support reps suggest running in Safe Mode, which I have, but it's not very useful because I can't reproduce the problem on demand and it usually happens 1-2/day, but sometimes less, so unless I just ran in safe mode all the time, that wouldn't tell me much. Plus, it would only tell me it's an issue caused by one of a hundred or so apps which, again, is not helpful.
So I'm hoping there is a crash log or something somewhere because I have no idea what triggers the crashes. The other night, it was sitting on a wireless charger, the screen wasn't on, then all the sudden it rebooted. It's not specific to any app or anything I'm doing. If there are no crash logs (which would be frustrating and disappointing), any other troubleshooting ideas are welcome!
Look for a memory leak. Typically a poorly written 3rd party apk.
Try clearing system cache.
Make sure auto restart isn't enabled...
dougleto said:
I have as SM-G991U (256 GB S21 US version, stock everything but using Nova Launcher) that is randomly freezing/crashing then rebooting on me 1-2 times/day. Does android have any kind of crash log I could look at to try and figure out what's causing the problem? On the samsung forums, their support reps suggest running in Safe Mode, which I have, but it's not very useful because I can't reproduce the problem on demand and it usually happens 1-2/day, but sometimes less, so unless I just ran in safe mode all the time, that wouldn't tell me much. Plus, it would only tell me it's an issue caused by one of a hundred or so apps which, again, is not helpful.
So I'm hoping there is a crash log or something somewhere because I have no idea what triggers the crashes. The other night, it was sitting on a wireless charger, the screen wasn't on, then all the sudden it rebooted. It's not specific to any app or anything I'm doing. If there are no crash logs (which would be frustrating and disappointing), any other troubleshooting ideas are welcome!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi mate
For logs info check here and here
You can always flash firmware , using home_csc , to avoid factory reset the phone , if the problem is system related it will help
If is app related
Try booting in safe mode to see if problem goes away...
MAX 404 said:
Hi mate
For logs info check here and here
You can always flash firmware , using home_csc , to avoid factory reset the phone , if the problem is system related it will help
If is app related
Try booting in safe mode to see if problem goes away...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! I'll definitely try these out. I tried safe mode, the trouble is it's not really great as a diagnostic because the phone will go from 4-24 hrs between resets during normal operation, and since a phone in safe mode isn't terribly useful, it's hard to keep it in safe mode for long enough to see if that fixed the issue, if that makes sense. And then, if it did fix the issue, it just narrows it down to 1 out of a hundred apps! But maybe I'm missing something. Is there additional information I can find if I run in safe mode that would help suss out the problem?
blackhawk said:
Look for a memory leak. Typically a poorly written 3rd party apk.
Try clearing system cache.
Make sure auto restart isn't enabled...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! I know how to clear cache but not how to check for memory leaks. Do you have a tool you'd recommend to do that? And I had never heard of auto restart before, so thanks for that. I confirmed that it is NOT enabled (that would have been a face palm moment!).
dougleto said:
Thanks! I'll definitely try these out. I tried safe mode, the trouble is it's not really great as a diagnostic because the phone will go from 4-24 hrs between resets during normal operation, and since a phone in safe mode isn't terribly useful, it's hard to keep it in safe mode for long enough to see if that fixed the issue, if that makes sense. And then, if it did fix the issue, it just narrows it down to 1 out of a hundred apps! But maybe I'm missing something. Is there additional information I can find if I run in safe mode that would help suss out the problem?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is not easy , you just need to be methodic
See if you can find anything useful in the logs first
Reflash firmware , use home-csc , see if it help
Have you notice if the phone fails under any specific circumstances?
If that does not help and if you can really relate the problem with any specific app you may try to freeze or uninstall suspicious app and let it run for a day , Package disabler app is a good option , it is easy to enable or disable app but is not free, you could try this one , is a debloater tool , it allow you to disable app... may be easy that having to uninstall / install by hand
I'm also having the same problem. Had the phone since June, it didn't start to occur until late August, which leads me to suspect it is an update related issue.
GillBates21 said:
I'm also having the same problem. Had the phone since June, it didn't start to occur until late August, which leads me to suspect it is an update related issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm glad you posted today, I've been meaning to post again here because I tried troubleshooting and am still having issues. In fact, it crashed twice today when I was trying to send a text message.
I installed one of the log applications (can't remember which one at the moment) but it wasn't really helpful. They didn't seem to catch any information related to a crash even though they were logging data at least twice when it crashed.
Then I tried reflashing using home-csc using ODIN and that ended up soft-bricking my phone (and yes, I followed all the instructions and used home-csc) so I had to reflash everything and do a full factory reset. That seemed to help, reducing the crashes from once/day to once/2-3 days for a few weeks, but now it's back to ~once a day (sometimes more, sometimes less).
So if anyone has any other idea, I'm all ears. When I was reflashing and stuff, I noticed in the recovery mode (or whatever it's called) options that you can look at logs. Does anyone know if one of those logs would have crash-related data or any other ideas of what to try? This is incredibly frustrating, especially that it's persisting after a factory reset. Argh!
dougleto said:
I'm glad you posted today, I've been meaning to post again here because I tried troubleshooting and am still having issues. In fact, it crashed twice today when I was trying to send a text message.
I installed one of the log applications (can't remember which one at the moment) but it wasn't really helpful. They didn't seem to catch any information related to a crash even though they were logging data at least twice when it crashed.
Then I tried reflashing using home-csc using ODIN and that ended up soft-bricking my phone (and yes, I followed all the instructions and used home-csc) so I had to reflash everything and do a full factory reset. That seemed to help, reducing the crashes from once/day to once/2-3 days for a few weeks, but now it's back to ~once a day (sometimes more, sometimes less).
So if anyone has any other idea, I'm all ears. When I was reflashing and stuff, I noticed in the recovery mode (or whatever it's called) options that you can look at logs. Does anyone know if one of those logs would have crash-related data or any other ideas of what to try? This is incredibly frustrating, especially that it's persisting after a factory reset. Argh!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So what I tried to do is roll back all the default google app updates. Ex: Android system webview, Google app itself, etc etc. I factory reset it without backing up any apps (but pictures and messages etc), It was working for a few days and then it happened again. Which further reinforces my thinking that my problem is software based.
GillBates21 said:
So what I tried to do is roll back all the default google app updates. Ex: Android system webview, Google app itself, etc etc. I factory reset it without backing up any apps (but pictures and messages etc), It was working for a few days and then it happened again. Which further reinforces my thinking that my problem is software based.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So I'm curious why you think that means it's a software issue. If this isn't a widespread issue with the S21 and after we've both done a factory reset and still have the issue, that makes me think it could be a hardware issue. Of course, there could be some software incompatibility with an app that most people don't have installed or a bluetooth connection or something, which is why I really want to find a useful crash log (and find it rather absurb how hard it is to find a useful crash log on android, come on guys, it's a mature OS, some kind of crash log seems pretty basic!), because otherwise, it could be a ton of issues and I can't reproduce it. Ugh.
The reason is that the "few days" after the reset and restoring pictures, messages (but not apps) from backup, where there were no crashes at all (where previously it would happen at least 2 times per day).
GillBates21 said:
The reason is that the "few days" after the reset and restoring pictures, messages (but not apps) from backup, where there were no crashes at all (where previously it would happen at least 2 times per day).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Got it, that makes sense. I'm on t-mobile and just got an update this morning. We'll see if that improves anything because my device restarted 4 times yesterday
I havent had a crash like this since i disabled chrome and other google stuff, and downgrading google apps lol.
GillBates21 said:
I havent had a crash like this since i disabled chrome and other google stuff, and downgrading google apps lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How did you disable chrome and what other google stuff did you disable? (There's obviously quite a lot of google services that can't be disabled)
After the most recent monthly update, my phone has gone from rebooting multiple times/day to once every 2-3 days, which is more manageable but still super annoying. It is incredibly frustrating to me that there are no good tools to troubleshoot a crash (at least that I've ben able to find). Honestly, it's driven me to consider an iPhone for the first time in my life .
My trouble is back... I will be scheduling a fix with samsung soon so I can RMA it
Check the below link. This seems to be a hardware problem which got solved after Samsung replaced the motherboard.
Samsung Restart problem
So I bought this phone for my wife. Since I received the phone, after a day the phone started crashing whatever app she was on and then take you back to lock screen without having to go through a full restart process but it was definitely a restart as you would need to enter your pin again as opposed to fingerprints.
Since it was within 15 days of purchase I returned and reordered another one from Samsung, and to my surprise exact same issue. What are the odds of having two brand new phones having exact same issues.
This leads me to believe it must be a software issue. I just received this 2nd new phone last Friday.
Yeah, I think what I was experiencing was a hardware issue (it definitely went through the full restart process, not what is described in the previous post). And from the link posted by sandystays above, it looks pretty common. I contacted Samsung support and was not impressed at all. They walked me through a number of troubleshooting steps that weren't helpful then had me take my phone to UBreakIFix. I did, they ran a diagnostic and their tools couldn't find anything wrong so they said Samsung should replace it.
Contacted Samsung, told them I had taken it in. They said I needed to take it to a technician (again, right after telling them I just had). They then said, oh, you'll have to mail it to us and you'll get your phone back in 7-10 business days. Their suggestion for what to do for a phone in the meantime? Buy a prepaid phone then return it when I get my phone back (which a) is unethical and b) wouldn't work anyways since they're locked). Ridiculous. They also admitted that this is a very common problem, so I asked why they just won't send me a replacement device if it's so common to which they had no real answer, just "that's our policy".
Eventually, I contacted T-mobile (my carrier) and was very pleasantly surprised. After me telling them the issue and the steps I'd taken to troubleshoot it, they sent me a replacement phone (recertified, but still) that arrived in 2 days. WAAAYYYY better than Samsung. The entire process made me a bit jealous of my wife's iPhone. If she had had a similar issue, we could have taken it to an apple store and not had the whole "our policy is that you have no phone for 7-10 business days" nonsense from Samsung AND the backup and restore process is still way better on iPhones than on any android I've ever owned. How there is no easy and reliable backup/restore mechanism on android after so long is beyond me.
Bottome line: if you have a similar issue, it's very likely a hardware problem (my replacement phone has been fine for 3 days now). And avoid Samsung support if you can!
dougleto said:
Yeah, I think what I was experiencing was a hardware issue (it definitely went through the full restart process, not what is described in the previous post). And from the link posted by sandystays above, it looks pretty common. I contacted Samsung support and was not impressed at all. They walked me through a number of troubleshooting steps that weren't helpful then had me take my phone to UBreakIFix. I did, they ran a diagnostic and their tools couldn't find anything wrong so they said Samsung should replace it.
Contacted Samsung, told them I had taken it in. They said I needed to take it to a technician (again, right after telling them I just had). They then said, oh, you'll have to mail it to us and you'll get your phone back in 7-10 business days. Their suggestion for what to do for a phone in the meantime? Buy a prepaid phone then return it when I get my phone back (which a) is unethical and b) wouldn't work anyways since they're locked). Ridiculous. They also admitted that this is a very common problem, so I asked why they just won't send me a replacement device if it's so common to which they had no real answer, just "that's our policy".
Eventually, I contacted T-mobile (my carrier) and was very pleasantly surprised. After me telling them the issue and the steps I'd taken to troubleshoot it, they sent me a replacement phone (recertified, but still) that arrived in 2 days. WAAAYYYY better than Samsung. The entire process made me a bit jealous of my wife's iPhone. If she had had a similar issue, we could have taken it to an apple store and not had the whole "our policy is that you have no phone for 7-10 business days" nonsense from Samsung AND the backup and restore process is still way better on iPhones than on any android I've ever owned. How there is no easy and reliable backup/restore mechanism on android after so long is beyond me.
Bottome line: if you have a similar issue, it's very likely a hardware problem (my replacement phone has been fine for 3 days now). And avoid Samsung support if you can!
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On the second phone I still have the 2wk window to return. I am contemplating if I should just return altogether. I had bought an s21 Ultra as well and that seem to be working OK.
Two s21+ phones with same issue, what are the odds of hardware problem? But what if it is the entire batch that is bad.
isiddiqi said:
On the second phone I still have the 2wk window to return. I am contemplating if I should just return altogether. I had bought an s21 Ultra as well and that seem to be working OK.
Two s21+ phones with same issue, what are the odds of hardware problem? But what if it is the entire batch that is bad.
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Your issue sounds different to me. Mine definitely fully rebooted, I have no idea what is going on with yours, it sounds like your crashes are locking the phone or something, that could definitely be software. Good luck!

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