I Hate My Lollipop.

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DravidDavid

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#181152 4-Oct-2015 20:37

This crazy update has done my head in.

Ever since I updated, the battery on my S4 GT-i9505 has only lasted half of what it used to unless I consistently have it in "Power Save" and some of the special functions, like smart stay, Hands-free are playing up.

It lags like crazy sometimes and is slow to wake up. Samsung automagically reinstalls applications that I deliberately uninstalled and disabled by re-enabling them, reinstalling them and spamming all the notifications for chat-on updates that I never wanted in the first place. I miss calls regularly that don't even come in, regardless of whether or not I'm in a good reception area. Texts can take an age to come through (I'm on 2degrees) and my phone is randomly restarting and even just out-right crashing to the point where I have to turn it on again.

I recently sent it away for warranty repair after the phone burnt it's SIM reader and took my SIM card with it! I thought this was time to start fresh. I purchased a brand new SIM, Samsung replaced the mainboard and returned the phone. Most of the problems remained however.
I've been told the only way to get a good experience on these phones is rooting them. Is it really as risky as they say it is? Samsung says that it will overwork internals and lower battery life running your phone as a super user. Is this true, or designed to deter people from taking away the apps they so desperately force on you?

The perks I've heard about via rooting is the ability to actually take control of your phone, run stock android (which I hear is preferred) and install anti-theft apps at a level where a factory reset does not actually get rid of them.

Has anyone had a similar experience on 2degrees to me and solved the issue simply by switching carrier? From what I understand, it's practically the same network, right?

I'm going to look up some tutorials on rooting and best practices. Any input from you guys is appreciated.

My next phone will probably be a Nexus. I wish I just got that in the first place!

/rant.

mudguard

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#1399839 4-Oct-2015 20:53

Funny you should say that, on two occasions I've had my S4 run it's battery down very quickly. I was playing golf, 80% when I got out of the car, Data on, no wifi, bluetooth or location. I had a look through nine holes (2 hours later) and it was down to 40% so I switched power saving on. Nothing open at all, then on the 16th hole (so perhaps an hour and a half later) it was down below 5% and very dim (I'm pretty sure it does this below 5%) then off by the time I'd finished.

Then it did it again about 2 days ago. Wandered round to the supermarket listening to google music (music on the SD card, not streaming) 30% to 5% in about 45 minutes. Again virtually all of the normal power users off. I didn't really think it was Lollipop, but it could be related, I think I installed the update whenever Vodafone pushed it out, perhaps a month or two ago?

nitrotech

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#1399840 4-Oct-2015 20:53

Sounds a bit odd but the Nexus 5 has an awful battery life in 5.1 (although the nexus is known for poor battery life)

If you install a custom recovery and then a custom rom you don't necessarily need to root it.

My sons s4 is running crDroid at the moment with slim gapps seems to be pretty good so far and a good way to get rid of the Samsung bloat.

timmmay

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#1399851 4-Oct-2015 21:03

Same phone, rooted, running WanamLite on 4.4.2. I was considering upgrading but the phone works great, battery life is great, so I've left it alone.

DravidDavid

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#1399852 4-Oct-2015 21:04

mudguard: Funny you should say that, on two occasions I've had my S4 run it's battery down very quickly. I was playing golf, 80% when I got out of the car, Data on, no wifi, bluetooth or location. I had a look through nine holes (2 hours later) and it was down to 40% so I switched power saving on. Nothing open at all, then on the 16th hole (so perhaps an hour and a half later) it was down below 5% and very dim (I'm pretty sure it does this below 5%) then off by the time I'd finished.

Then it did it again about 2 days ago. Wandered round to the supermarket listening to google music (music on the SD card, not streaming) 30% to 5% in about 45 minutes. Again virtually all of the normal power users off. I didn't really think it was Lollipop, but it could be related, I think I installed the update whenever Vodafone pushed it out, perhaps a month or two ago?

This is exactly what I am experiencing. The funny thing is, it might only happen 2 days out of the week. Some days I will not use my phone at all with all services off with the exception of WiFi and I'll be on 40% half way through the day. Some days with exactly the same services enabled and use patterns, I'll have a clean 85 to 95% battery left.

With Kitkat, I almost always had 60 to 70% battery left at the end of each day. Now it's dead before I get home most days.

nitrotech: Sounds a bit odd but the Nexus 5 has an awful battery life in 5.1 (although the nexus is known for poor battery life)

If you install a custom recovery and then a custom rom you don't necessarily need to root it.

My sons s4 is running crDroid at the moment with slim gapps seems to be pretty good so far and a good way to get rid of the Samsung bloat.

I was reading that, but it's the bloatware that ticks me off the most. I know my Samsung has a good battery life. I feel as if useless crap installed against my will is chewing away at it which affects the way I use my phone. I broke down the other day in a loan car given to me by my mechanic and my phone was on 2%. This was my breaking point. If it was an actual emergency I'd be stuffed.

I now keep my Nokia brick phone in my car and will be checking it weekly to make sure it's still on full charge.

I will look up crDroid and gapps and see if I can get my battery life back :)

timmmay: Same phone, rooted, running WanamLite on 4.4.2. I was considering upgrading but the phone works great, battery life is great, so I've left it alone.

I'll look this up too. Do you have any problems with Play Store and other apps? Or is it all relatively the same?

allan

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#1399883 4-Oct-2015 22:04

You're not running Outlook for Android are you. Just discovered it was running my Galaxy A5 flat in no time - around 4 hours. It won't let me uninstall it, but removing the accounts has stopped the battery drain.

DravidDavid

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#1399891 4-Oct-2015 22:38

allan: You're not running Outlook for Android are you. Just discovered it was running my Galaxy A5 flat in no time - around 4 hours. It won't let me uninstall it, but removing the accounts has stopped the battery drain.

Not here. I'm not even syncing with the GMail and Yahoo app. That's another thing that is playing up though. After the update, I only seem to be getting email notifications every now and then, instead of all the time, like before.

I factory reset my phone before sending it in to Samsung and reset it again when I received it back. I have basically got nothing on it. Just basic apps like Torque for OBDII, Facebook, TradeMe and Spotify.

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sbiddle

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#1399959 5-Oct-2015 08:21

Is your phone a 2d model? What is fast dormancy set to?

BinaryLimited

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#1399968 5-Oct-2015 09:07

DravidDavid: This crazy update has done my head in.

Ever since I updated, the battery on my S4 GT-i9505 has only lasted half of what it used to unless I consistently have it in "Power Save" and some of the special functions, like smart stay, Hands-free are playing up.

It lags like crazy sometimes and is slow to wake up. Samsung automagically reinstalls applications that I deliberately uninstalled and disabled by re-enabling them, reinstalling them and spamming all the notifications for chat-on updates that I never wanted in the first place. I miss calls regularly that don't even come in, regardless of whether or not I'm in a good reception area. Texts can take an age to come through (I'm on 2degrees) and my phone is randomly restarting and even just out-right crashing to the point where I have to turn it on again.

I recently sent it away for warranty repair after the phone burnt it's SIM reader and took my SIM card with it! I thought this was time to start fresh. I purchased a brand new SIM, Samsung replaced the mainboard and returned the phone. Most of the problems remained however.
I've been told the only way to get a good experience on these phones is rooting them. Is it really as risky as they say it is? Samsung says that it will overwork internals and lower battery life running your phone as a super user. Is this true, or designed to deter people from taking away the apps they so desperately force on you?

The perks I've heard about via rooting is the ability to actually take control of your phone, run stock android (which I hear is preferred) and install anti-theft apps at a level where a factory reset does not actually get rid of them.

Has anyone had a similar experience on 2degrees to me and solved the issue simply by switching carrier? From what I understand, it's practically the same network, right?

I'm going to look up some tutorials on rooting and best practices. Any input from you guys is appreciated.

My next phone will probably be a Nexus. I wish I just got that in the first place!

/rant.

For the battery issue, try cyanogenmod CM12.1 ....see if that helps

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DravidDavid

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#1399970 5-Oct-2015 09:09

sbiddle:

Is your phone a 2d model? What is fast dormancy set to?

I didn't buy from 2degrees. I purchased it retail via Noel Lemming.

I've never heard of fast dormancy, but a quick search tells me it has something to do with mobile networks and I have no idea how to check or disable mine. I can't even find any instructions on how to check my particular phone. Is it a setting I should even be accessing?

timmmay

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#1399985 5-Oct-2015 09:34

Reply to your question, it works just like a stock one. Wanamlite is based on Touchwiz so there aren't many differences, just getting rid of crap. Play store works, everything works.

DravidDavid

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#1399986 5-Oct-2015 09:35

timmmay: Reply to your question, it works just like a stock one. Wanamlite is based on Touchwiz so there aren't many differences, just getting rid of crap. Play store works, everything works.

Awesome! I'm tempted to give it a shot! :)

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sbiddle

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#1399988 5-Oct-2015 09:43

DravidDavid:
sbiddle: Is your phone a 2d model? What is fast dormancy set to?

I didn't buy from 2degrees. I purchased it retail via Noel Lemming.

I've never heard of fast dormancy, but a quick search tells me it has something to do with mobile networks and I have no idea how to check or disable mine. I can't even find any instructions on how to check my particular phone. Is it a setting I should even be accessing?

Incorrectly configured fast dormancy can affect battery life significantly, but it's unlikely to be your root cause.

Unique settings like this are one of the reasons why operators still customise phones.

DravidDavid

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#1400000 5-Oct-2015 09:44

sbiddle:
DravidDavid:
sbiddle: Is your phone a 2d model? What is fast dormancy set to?

I didn't buy from 2degrees. I purchased it retail via Noel Lemming.

I've never heard of fast dormancy, but a quick search tells me it has something to do with mobile networks and I have no idea how to check or disable mine. I can't even find any instructions on how to check my particular phone. Is it a setting I should even be accessing?

Incorrectly configured fast dormancy can affect battery life significantly, but it's unlikely to be your root cause.

Unique settings like this are one of the reasons why operators still customise phones.

I've just been reading 2degrees do not support it and that Vodafone are likely the only company that do. Is this still true now? It appears switching it on or off isn't as easy as ticking a box in the mobile networks settings page. I wonder, if my call/text issue is related to my phone going dormant or something.