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My Photon has been acting up today. It has frozen on a black screen four or five times, requiring a battery pull each time. Also a couple of random restarts. The same thing happened once yesterday, but it has come back with a vengeance today.
Anyone else experiencing this? Bad phone? Not rooted, updated prl/profile, etc. Been on the road, so no chance to try the MR, so I don't know if that would solve anything or not.
I'm a Sprint Launch Ambassador supporting the Photon. I have seen reboots on my own device but it was due to a 3rd party live wallpaper I had downloaded and was running. When I removed it, the device was stable again. Does your device do this in a factory reset state with nothing installed 3rd party app wise and no SD card?
never had that type of issue with mine
mattvalenz said:
I'm a Sprint Launch Ambassador supporting the Photon. I have seen reboots on my own device but it was due to a 3rd party live wallpaper I had downloaded and was running. When I removed it, the device was stable again. Does your device do this in a factory reset state with nothing installed 3rd party app wise and no SD card?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Matt - thanks for your quick response.
I am not running third party or live wallpapers. Just a pretty static experience.
I have installed quite a few apps, of course, but I haven't had the time, at the moment, to do a factory reset (and frankly, doing a factory reset is a pain, and I'd rather not have to do it). My installed program list is also pretty standard (Google apps, Facebook, Pandora, Angry Birds).
I do, however, have a SD card mounted, which I actually considered might be the problem. Is there any clue about why this might be causing the problem?
Interestingly, it hasn't happened in the past few hours.
Are there any reports of specific applications that are causing issues, or reports that this is a widespread problem? I could forgive it a bit more if it restarted more than hard crashed, but the lockups with no warning on my primary business phone are rather problematic.
Also, any word you might be able to give on updates that might come out in the next week or two?
My main concern is just that I don't have a bad piece of hardware. I love the phone - as something to make phone calls, it's one of the best pieces of hardware I've ever had. If it's an issue where I need to switch the phone out for a different one, I'm fine with doing that, but I'd like to know before the warranty runs out.
Me too
I just want to chime in and report that I have seen some random black screen lockups on my new Photon. It usually requires battery removal to fix, but once while I was trying to pry the back cover off (it's a very stubborn cover), the phone came back to life.
No SD card, stock wallpaper.
Google voice
Skype
Twitter
Google +
Swiftkey X
Lastpass
Locked up after five minutes off the charger this morning. For what it's worth, the phone seems to get very warm when it is locked, possibly indicating a high power/processor usage.
I don't know if others have experienced this as well.
Random lock twice today when I went to answer the phone..and one time at 6 AM it was my 84 year old mother who had fallen.
I saw the #, grabbed my wife's EPIC and called my mom.
This is not a good thing on a 2 day old phone.
Apply the leaked Maintenance Release. There's a thread in the Dev sub-forum.
Beknatok said:
Apply the leaked Maintenance Release. There's a thread in the Dev sub-forum.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you know if this actually solves the lockup issues?
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.
Hi to all friendly forum people!
Since several weeks now, I've been experiencing this unfortunate "media" battery drain. From the google and XDA search results I found out that others have experienced it as well but the solution offered didn't help me. One "fix" suggested to wipe the memory card to see if this fixes the issue (I thought this really might be the core problem since I had that notification center message about the isyncr scanner running on the background). So I backed up my SD card contents and did a format. Unfortunately this wasn't helpful. I left the card blank and uninstalled isyncr, restarted the phone but the media drains continues its course.
Does anyone have a solution that doesn't involve factory reset.
Here, check these pictures out: (since I don't have enough posts, here is the link in this format: goo. gl / PVXGU
Thank you very much for your input! :good:
P.S. Another thing I witnessed several times now is that *some* times the charging of the phone takes about 4 hours (2x more than normal) and I've seen the phone in the last 2 months to just power off itself without any pressing of the power button or lack of battery. Still no sudden death, but I find it odd and unacceptable for smartphone of this class.
hope u have upgraded to the latest firmware. all these issues are of old firmwares. the new ones are very stable.
provide info on your firmware,kernel, etc. so that senior members can help u better.
lefttobleed said:
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh, sorry! I'm on Jelly bean 4.1.2
Kernel: 3.0.31-699321 [email protected]#1 SMP PREEMPT Thu Dec 13 19:25:10 KST 2012
Baseband version: I9300XXELL4
I had a similar issue before and the only thing that fixed it was factory reset. I hope this time it won't be necessary to come to this...
Questions go in the QA section, not general
I have seen the media scanner go mad a few times on my SG3, go to app manager and force stop media storage, clear data and then reboot the phone.
Even after doing this the scanner will still run for 30 odd minutes after each boot. An app called rescan media root can be used to temporarily disable the scanner.
Try 'Rescan Media' app from Playstore. It stops the media scanning process from running amok.
Fail...
I decided to report on my results after the factory reset I did with the hope to fix the problem.
It's actually very disappointing to see that even after the factory reset, format of the SD Card and taking out the card altogether the problem wasn't fixed in either of the attempts.
So, I did the factory reset, went through the activation process, installed all my apps again and then used TitaniumBackup to restore the data of all those apps. Then after the phone's battery was exhausted, I charged it fully to initiate the test and see if the issue is still present. Unfortunately the "Media" process is once again the top battery hogger and is the main reason behind the accelerated drain I witness on my Galaxy s3. Another thing I witness is that randomly, out of the blue I see in the notification bar that my SD card has been unexpectedly removed and then that it's ready for access again. All in all, I can access the card's contents but this notification is suspicious and probably part of the problem, but I'm almost sure that the card itself isn't the faulty one. I purchased it from reputable source and the brand is trustworthy in my opinion. The problem has to be in the phone itself.
Another thing is that after the factory reset I didn't let the phone run without any apps or restoring the app's data. Maybe I should have, since some those app's data could be in the core of this issue and TitaniumBackup might have brought it to its previous state, but I forgot to and wanted to access some of my apps' contents prior to the FactoryReset.
All in all, this problem proved to be very irritating, time consuming and unacceptable in my opinion. Maybe I should contact Samsung or the retailer that sold me the phone since it's still warranty covered, but I guess I will end up selling it and purchasing something else, probably a Nexus 4 or an iPhone (despite all the ridicule circulating about it, being a toy with limited capabilities bla bla bla... From the feedback of numerous people I know, owning iOS devises I don't know one that had issues with them that caused them that much wasted time and energy)
So that's all I had to say. I wish luck to anyone else experiencing the same problem and take care!
Some of my suggestions here might help.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2060852
Media Scanner Fix?
Sent from my SGS3 using Tapatalk
ROM Sotmax Ultimate V13
Kernel Yank555.lu-V3.1
Rosenthal said:
my SD card has been unexpectedly removed and then that it's ready for access again. All in all, I can access the card's contents but this notification is suspicious and probably part of the problem, but I'm almost sure that the card itself isn't the faulty one. I purchased it from reputable source and the brand is trustworthy in my opinion. The problem has to be in the phone itself.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
While you are sure that the card itself isn't faulty I would be highly suspicious of it being the root of the problem. Media scanner naturally scans the card and if it's faulty then naturally it would loop. I had the same issue an solved it by purchasing a new SD (admittedly my original one was quite old)
tqgia2 said:
While you are sure that the card itself isn't faulty I would be highly suspicious of it being the root of the problem. Media scanner naturally scans the card and if it's faulty then naturally it would loop. I had the same issue an solved it by purchasing a new SD (admittedly my original one was quite old)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I took out the card altogether and did a full battery cycle. The problem persisted.
@corrsea
Thank you! i will look into that and see if something works.
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Friendly Neighborhood Moderator
Had the same issue with my S3.
Turned out that the SD card was dying (the card brand is Team Group), this caused it to be unmounted by itself and then mounted again (sometimes showing notification “sd card removed unexpectedly”), hence triggering the “Media” scanning process and significantly draining the battery.
I created an application to monitor how many times the SD card was removed, and turned out to be unmounted every ~3 mins!!!
I then bought a new Transcend 32GB Class 10 card (made in Korea), and until now, this never happens, no reports from the application whatsoever, and no media process eating my battery.
I just published this app in the play store now, this is the link:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sdcardmonitor
just large # of files
Symptoms: Battery runs down very quickly, phone heats up, battery use shows Media using 80-90% or more. New 32GB memory card, 20GB used containing 120,000 files. No auto unmount/mount noticed.
Solution: Unmount memory card when not in use, must be done after each restart as well.
I have to report the "Media Battery Drain" also.
I'm on the latest Italian H3G Firmware (JB 4.1.2 JZO54K.I9300XXELLA).
I had an important drain sometimes, the last time it happened the battery was drained from 100% to 8% in 4 hours. This is not normal, in my opinion.
The problem come out after I mounted a Sandisk Class10 microSD... so viewing that, apparently, there is no correlation between the brand of the sd card and the issue, because a lot of people is experiencing issues with various brands.
I formatted the SD card, after a backup, but the problem is present even if the micro SD is empty...
Probably the solution that fits well for me is switching to Cyanogenmod 10.1 ( a friend of mine is using that rom without issues).
I'll search a solution too...
_____EDIT_____
I forget to report that my phone becomes hot during the battery draining, approximately in direction of the microSD position.
Fixed!
I fixed the problem uninstalling Google Play Music and the updates of "Music Hub" by Samsung.
Before doing this I tried to fix the issue placing .nomedia files into media folders, but that didn't work for me.
My battery lasts more or less one day against the 4 hours when the "media drain issue" was present.
I hope it could be helpful for others!
My solutions.
1. format sd card.
2. uninstall facebook app...
I've had same problem however after removing facebook app everything turned out to be fine.
You don't have to reset anything. Just format sdcard(internal and external) and remove facebook app.
Rosenthal said:
I decided to report on my results after the factory reset I did with the hope to fix the problem.
It's actually very disappointing to see that even after the factory reset, format of the SD Card and taking out the card altogether the problem wasn't fixed in either of the attempts.
So, I did the factory reset, went through the activation process, installed all my apps again and then used TitaniumBackup to restore the data of all those apps. Then after the phone's battery was exhausted, I charged it fully to initiate the test and see if the issue is still present. Unfortunately the "Media" process is once again the top battery hogger and is the main reason behind the accelerated drain I witness on my Galaxy s3. Another thing I witness is that randomly, out of the blue I see in the notification bar that my SD card has been unexpectedly removed and then that it's ready for access again. All in all, I can access the card's contents but this notification is suspicious and probably part of the problem, but I'm almost sure that the card itself isn't the faulty one. I purchased it from reputable source and the brand is trustworthy in my opinion. The problem has to be in the phone itself.
Another thing is that after the factory reset I didn't let the phone run without any apps or restoring the app's data. Maybe I should have, since some those app's data could be in the core of this issue and TitaniumBackup might have brought it to its previous state, but I forgot to and wanted to access some of my apps' contents prior to the FactoryReset.
All in all, this problem proved to be very irritating, time consuming and unacceptable in my opinion. Maybe I should contact Samsung or the retailer that sold me the phone since it's still warranty covered, but I guess I will end up selling it and purchasing something else, probably a Nexus 4 or an iPhone (despite all the ridicule circulating about it, being a toy with limited capabilities bla bla bla... From the feedback of numerous people I know, owning iOS devises I don't know one that had issues with them that caused them that much wasted time and energy)
So that's all I had to say. I wish luck to anyone else experiencing the same problem and take care!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same, exact issue. I'm researching a solution now.
SOLVED: by rm'ing directory with thousands of files
SOLVED (for me). Same issue. It lasted for months. I bought new SD cards twice. Finally solved it by identifying a directory on /mnt/sdcard (i.e. /storage/sdcard0, i.e. the internal storage) with thousands of files, from a buggy beta version of a todo-list app. I removed the app, rm -rf'ed the directory, ... and the phone is now back to normal! Multi-day battery life!
TL;DR look for directories with thousands of files.
Totally disappointed
Rosenthal said:
I decided to report on my results after the factory reset I did with the hope to fix the problem.
It's actually very disappointing to see that even after the factory reset, format of the SD Card and taking out the card altogether the problem wasn't fixed in either of the attempts.
So, I did the factory reset, went through the activation process, installed all my apps again and then used TitaniumBackup to restore the data of all those apps. Then after the phone's battery was exhausted, I charged it fully to initiate the test and see if the issue is still present. Unfortunately the "Media" process is once again the top battery hogger and is the main reason behind the accelerated drain I witness on my Galaxy s3. Another thing I witness is that randomly, out of the blue I see in the notification bar that my SD card has been unexpectedly removed and then that it's ready for access again. All in all, I can access the card's contents but this notification is suspicious and probably part of the problem, but I'm almost sure that the card itself isn't the faulty one. I purchased it from reputable source and the brand is trustworthy in my opinion. The problem has to be in the phone itself.
Another thing is that after the factory reset I didn't let the phone run without any apps or restoring the app's data. Maybe I should have, since some those app's data could be in the core of this issue and TitaniumBackup might have brought it to its previous state, but I forgot to and wanted to access some of my apps' contents prior to the FactoryReset.
All in all, this problem proved to be very irritating, time consuming and unacceptable in my opinion. Maybe I should contact Samsung or the retailer that sold me the phone since it's still warranty covered, but I guess I will end up selling it and purchasing something else, probably a Nexus 4 or an iPhone (despite all the ridicule circulating about it, being a toy with limited capabilities bla bla bla... From the feedback of numerous people I know, owning iOS devises I don't know one that had issues with them that caused them that much wasted time and energy)
So that's all I had to say. I wish luck to anyone else experiencing the same problem and take care!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree, I wouldn't recommend Samsung phones to anyone by now. I'm also thinking of moving to iOS. At this point I don't care about customization, or anything, I just want a phone that doesn't lag or has this annoyances.
Past 3 or 4 months my VS996 has been freezing or locking up randomly.
When this happens, the phone is not in use . It's asleep in my pocket, or on my desk, or on my night stand. I have to hold volume button and power to restart it. When it comes back up, everything looks fine.
I have done a factory reset, tried uninstalling apps, and most recently got the phone replaced under LGs 2 year promise warranty. One week in and the replacement phone has started freezing just like the old phone.
My wife has the exact same phone and runs many of the same apps with no issues. My phone is stock android, not rooted and no mods. This is frustrating and I don't know what to try in order to troubleshoot.
Is there an app commonly known to have issues on the V30 (such as nova launcher)? Or is there a logging app i could install to capture info about why it crashed/locked up?
urushiol said:
Past 3 or 4 months my VS996 has been freezing or locking up randomly.
When this happens, the phone is not in use . It's asleep in my pocket, or on my desk, or on my night stand. I have to hold volume button and power to restart it. When it comes back up, everything looks fine.
I have done a factory reset, tried uninstalling apps, and most recently got the phone replaced under LGs 2 year promise warranty. One week in and the replacement phone has started freezing just like the old phone.
My wife has the exact same phone and runs many of the same apps with no issues. My phone is stock android, not rooted and no mods. This is frustrating and I don't know what to try in order to troubleshoot.
Is there an app commonly known to have issues on the V30 (such as nova launcher)? Or is there a logging app i could install to capture info about why it crashed/locked up?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, Nova launcher works great.
The fact that your replacement phone is now acting the same way is a clue. The problem is probably going to be a "rouge" app that is receiving/sending ads in the background. Just the other day was another report of almost 250 apps found in Google Play store with ad malware, all from Cooltek. A few months ago similar situation with hundreds of other apps -- where in the background ads and videos were being played (user never saw them, but the process was running), so the companies would get advertising money.
It's going to be an app you have that your wife doesn't.
Had a friend who kept complaining to me her V30+ "Thumbnail Gallery" app (or some such silly name) kept closing and her phone was acting weird. I asked why she was even using that app. She said that's how viewed her pictures. I said no, a gallery app comes with the phone. She couldn't even remember where it came from. She said maybe a friend told her to install it. I told her to uninstall it NOW. I need to see what else crap she has installed... because she's always complaining about her phone. None of the other friends/family complain about their V30 and mine runs smooth as does my wife's. So, I know my friend's phone must have more ad malware apps on it.
ChazzMatt said:
No, Nova launcher works great.
The fact that your replacement phone is now acting the same way is a clue. The problem is probably going to be a "rouge" app that is receiving/sending ads in the background. Just the other day was another report of almost 250 apps found in Google Play store with ad malware, all from Cooltek. A few months ago similar situation with hundreds of other apps -- where in the background ads and videos were being played (user never saw them, but the process was running), so the companies would get advertising money.
It's going to be an app you have that your wife doesn't.
Had a friend who kept complaining to me her V30+ "Thumbnail Gallery" app (or some such silly name) kept closing and her phone was acting weird. I asked why she was even using that app. She said that's how viewed her pictures. I said no, a gallery app comes with the phone. She couldn't even remember where it came from. She said maybe a friend told her to install it. I told her to uninstall it NOW. I need to see what else crap she has installed... because she's always complaining about her phone. None of the other friends/family complain about their V30 and mine runs smooth as does my wife's. So, I know my friend's phone must have more ad malware apps on it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I was pretty bummed when my replacement started because I knew it meant i was going to be sleuthing through apps trying to find the culprit.
I am usually pretty good about recognizing shady apps. That's why i was hoping maybe there was an app just known to have this kind of issue with the V30.
Also, I have been trusting google play protect to alert me of any suspicious apps. Is it safe to say there could be a malicious app installed, but that play protect might not find it?
urushiol said:
Yeah, I was pretty bummed when my replacement started because I knew it meant i was going to be sleuthing through apps trying to find the culprit.
I am usually pretty good about recognizing shady apps. That's why i was hoping maybe there was an app just known to have this kind of issue with the V30.
Also, I have been trusting google play protect to alert me of any suspicious apps. Is it safe to say there could be a malicious app installed, but that play protect might not find it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, google "cooltek ad malware" for most recent news.
There were many other apps discovered a few months ago, where the users never saw the millions of clicks on ads that were being generated. They were just running in the background.
https://techcrunch.com/2019/03/13/new-android-adware-google-play/
I'd suggest starting with only the apps you and your wife both have. You could use Titanium Backup to freeze the others, for example, or just uninstall them. While you're there look for odd looking apps - some apps will install companion bits which is where the malware resides, for example. Then, stay that way for a while and see how it goes... if it solves the issue, you know it's one of those apps.
Depending on how many unique apps you have, you can add them one at a time or a few at a time, then let it run that way for a while, etc. Repeat until you find the app or apps that cause the issue.
In the first step, if you can't figure out which apps are good/bad, you could simply factory-reset the phone and then add ONLY the matching apps, then work forward from there...
Hello urushiol, I have the same problem as you
I've bought off ebay a LG V30+ H930DS 128go to replace my laggy LG G5 at a pretty good price (150€). The back cover was crack, so I replaced it with a 10€ one from aliexpress.
Unfortunately the phone randomly freeze, like once every day or two making it horrible to use it as an alarm for work, and using it. When it happens, power button doesn't do anything, I need to do the Volume - min + power button to restart the phone.
When my phone was in the pocket, the screen is black (I thought it was shutdown) but then it happens when my phone was on my desk, and saw that always on display was working but phone isn't waking up with power button (then I knew it just freezes).
Battery health is good according to battery apps, already tried factory reset, I use the same apps as on my G5.
I'm not sure if it's a hardware problem or software, if I have the same problem as you, it must be software then.
Weirdly enough, my phone hasn't freeze since four days, i don't know why. (I use device uptime to see).
But even it it looks like it doesn't freeze much right now, I totally do not trust this phone as an alarm for work so I think I'm going to change the phone for something else. I had the G3 and G5 and I never had issue with them freezing.
lgg3owner said:
Unfortunately the phone randomly freeze, like once every day or two making it horrible to use it as an alarm for work, and using it. When it happens, power button doesn't do anything, I need to do the Volume - min + power button to restart the phone.
When my phone was in the pocket, the screen is black (I thought it was shutdown) but then it happens when my phone was on my desk, and saw that always on display was working but phone isn't waking up with power button (then I knew it just freezes).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is extremely similar to my issues. I have started using a tablet instead for my alarm. I have nearly been late for work several times due to it locking up in the night.
I think i may have found the app that was causing my issue at least. 5 days without a lockup now. Carrier services. I had installed this app knowing that RCS roll out was on the horizon, and i wanted to be ready. If anyone else has this app installed on Verizon with no issue I think i just got lucky with not having a lockup and it might lockup any day now. We'll see. I'll keep testing.
urushiol said:
This is extremely similar to my issues. I have started using a tablet instead for my alarm. I have nearly been late for work several times due to it locking up in the night.
I think i may have found the app that was causing my issue at least. 5 days without a lockup now. Carrier services. I had installed this app knowing that RCS roll out was on the horizon, and i wanted to be ready. If anyone else has this app installed on Verizon with no issue I think i just got lucky with not having a lockup and it might lockup any day now. We'll see. I'll keep testing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It has been 15 days without freezing for me.
I have a "no carrier" phone so no Verizon app or other carrier related things.
Do you have OnOff app ? (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onoffapp.app)
I've uninstalled this app (and maybe one or two others) and it seems like since then I don't have freeze anymore.
lgg3owner said:
It has been 15 days without freezing for me.
I have a "no carrier" phone so no Verizon app or other carrier related things.
Do you have OnOff app ? (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.onoffapp.app)
I've uninstalled this app (and maybe one or two others) and it seems like since then I don't have freeze anymore.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.ims&hl=en_US
Carrier services is mostly used by people who aren't on verizon, because unless you have a Pixel, verizon hasn't supported it. Hopefully this is changing soon so I installed it a bit early. Hoping this was my issue. I haven't heard of OnOff before.
All other apps i had were from major companies. Accept this one, a game:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.h8games.helixjump
I also removed it, but did have one lockup after removing it and before removing carrier services.
urushiol said:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.ims&hl=en_US
Carrier services is mostly used by people who aren't on verizon, because unless you have a Pixel, verizon hasn't supported it. Hopefully this is changing soon so I installed it a bit early. Hoping this was my issue. I haven't heard of OnOff before.
All other apps i had were from major companies. Accept this one, a game:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.h8games.helixjump
I also removed it, but did have one lockup after removing it and before removing carrier services.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok I didn't know, I'm not from USA. I don't have RCS installed and don't have this game neither.
I have the LG-H930DS Rev.1.1 with Android 8.0 April 2019 security patch - V22j-HKG-XX. Everything is stock on mine, stock launcher, no root etc...
Now I just have a jack problem, where I hear only from one ear depending of how the jack cable is twisted, I will try to change it without breaking the back cover.
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!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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!