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Droid Bionic has numerous issues after Jelly Bean update - Help

Sparks1971

I have a Bionic that I've had for 2 years. After the jelly bean update it is basically worthless. Specific problems:

1) Signal is worse than ever. For example I just tried to call Verizon for help direct and the call connected then immediately dropped. So I tried to chat them directly but their chat line is busy - try again later. I do live out in the country so our signal has never been great here BUT we could usually manage to get through a call if we are standing right next to our wireless extender, now that is impossible even standing right next to the extender. AND even when we are in town where our signal USED to be perfect, after Jelly Bean we can't keep calls connected even in town and the phone seems to switch between types of cell signal which may or may not be why we can't keep a call connected.

2) The dialer chops push button tones in half, so I can no longer use the phone to call any number that uses a voice prompt menu LIKE VERIZON customer support line uses.

3) Stock browser and certain apps do not auto-space after words and instead just type one long run-on word when using swype.

4) When tapping certain apps to launch them other random apps will open that are in no way physically near to or related to the app selected.

5) Some error keeps popping up several times a day, it pops and disappears quickly and randomly so it's been hard to get the full text but it is something to the effect of a gulf gui exception wifi something.

6) The prompts to open a file with this app vs another app just once or always does not work and retain what you tell it to use always.

7) When clicking an app or widget it doesn't always respond in any way.

8) If it does respond there is a VERY long delay when trying to launch any apps or dialer etc

9) When trying to dial people the phone doesn't respond, You can try to dial again and it won't respond, and so on until all the sudden you have three or more connected calls to the same person. Typically a reboot will fix this but is not at all an acceptable solution.

10) If and when a call connects and drops you can't call the person back because the phone won't respond. Typically a reboot will fix this but it is ridiculous to have to reboot your phone after every call that drops.

This is not just affecting me, my husband and my son who are both on the same model phone droid and are having the exact same issues. I did go to our local Verizon store to try to upgrade to the Samsung Galaxy S4 because I read that the Galaxy line usually pulls a better signal than some of the other phones models (on the same level as an iPhone), and I'm assuming something "created" with the Jelly Bean O/S in mind would work better with it, but I was told A) they did not have any in the store and didn't have any ordered to come in until the 26th and if we upgrade at the discounted price (we are due for our new every two discount) we would lose the unlimited data that we were grandfathered in with. So we either have to pay full price to keep the unlimited data or we pay a discounted price of 200.00 and lose the unlimited data. Also ridiculous as this phones probably cost around 30.00 to actually produce no matter how fancy they are Verizon you are still making a profit on them at the discounted price. This is not a good way to treat your long time customers. Our reward for staying with Verizon over the past 10 + years is that we pay more for new phones (even with the discount) and lose our unlimited data.

I tried to connect to Verizon by phone for support (but ironically and INFURIATINGLY) the touch tones do not work to allow me to get through the voice prompts and when I hold on the line hoping it will put me through to a human it doesn't maintain signal long enough for me to speak to someone. I started out as a Verizon customer over 10 years ago. I talked my husband off of Sprit and my son off of T mobile in favor of Verizon and we all three now have a completely useless phone and thus far have been treated poorly by Verizon. I cannot tell you how disappointed I am. Verizon used to have the best customer service hands down, no other cell phone provider even came close. I'm a customer support center manager and if my customer support team service sunk to this level of profit over customer satisfaction I would be fired and replaced immediately.

Is there a fix for what is broken -- OTHER than factory reset the phone which is not an acceptable answer to me.

Does Verizon have plans to actively continue to improve the signal quality in suburb and rural areas or do they just adopt an "target areas with the most customers and let the rest suffer" attitude? We've been promised for 3 years that more towers were coming to our area and so far nothing.

Does Verizon stand by the poor treatment of long time customers?

Comments

tikibar1

A few things you can try ... turn off the phone, remove the SIM card, wait a few minutes, then reinsert the SIM card and re-boot the phone. Maybe a fresh connection to the network will improve the signal/call quality.

Do a system cache clear; it won't delete your data:

Power down phone

Hold volume up/down & power simultaneously until you see the Boot Mode Selection Menu

Use volume down to navigate to 'Recovery', use volume up to select

You should see screen with triangle and exclamation point next to an Android

Press volume up/down simultaneously to go into system recovery

Use volume rocker to navigate to 'wipe cache' and use power button to select

Once finished, use volume rocker to navigate to 'reboot system now' and use power button to select

If all else fails, back everything up, remove the SD card to be on the safe side, and factory reset the phone. No, it's not a preferred option, but sometimes that is what it takes to 'clear out the cobwebs' after an operating system update.

Verizon_Support

I know that having issues with your phone is no fun Sparks1971. A software update is suppose to help the phone and not hinder it. If your having signal issues, please let us know the location and zipcode? We can review the area for any known issues and file a trouble-ticket.Try power cycling periodically. To help with applications not loading, text errors, freezing, and minor errors, try clearing the cache periodically, removing problematic applications, deleting old/long text threads. If you continue to have issue, a factory reset does help after major updates. You may have applications that are not compatible with your new software. Also new functionalities may be working to help your phone but may be using previous functionalities that may be causing issues.

Additionally, upgrading is always a great way to get an awesome new phone but I understand your concern with the fee. This fee has a lot of benefits. It covers device set up, wireless workshops, online support, store support, and more. Its a one time fee and covers so much. Also, we no longer offer unlimited because our technology is evolving and so is our network. We want to ensure everyone is enjoying blazing fast speeds so our plans do have to change to keep up with the high demand for our awesome network. You can use our trade in program for extra money towards your new phone. Here are details http://bit.ly/GGnDDC . You can also take a look at our device payment plan http://tiny.cc/q12hxw . These are two great options.

The new plans are awesome and may actually save you money. I recommend performing a pricing plan analysis to find the best plan for your needs so that you can get your upgrade discount. Here are the plans http://bit.ly/xdDajD .

I hope all this information is helpful and I look forward to hearing from you.

KinquanaH_VZW

Follow us on Twitter at @vzwsupport

accohen

i can personally attest to all of these issues also happening with my droid bionic after receiving the jelly bean update. google now is great and the chrome browser is an improvement over the original but the bionic hardware simply does not have the processing power necessary to support them. i am not one to believe in conspiracy theories but i cant believe that any engineer would approve this build unless he was specfically instructed to make bionics inoperable so as to motivate their owners to upgrade (and give up their unlimited data plans!).

Pleggett

My droid is stuck on emergency contact screen..I don't have a clue how this happened. Is it the update?

vmaxbill

Get on a land line, Call Verizon Tech Support. Insist on level 2 Tech Support.

Do a Factory Reset with the Tech. The Tech will give you an app to download that allows him/her to control your phone

and they will do the Factory Reset. You will LOSE NOTHING. You will have to rebuild your home pages ( big deal ) and if you have non play store apps you will re-download them. You will not lose your paid apps.

I have had my Bionic for 2 years and went thru ice cream and now jellybean and had some similar issues you describe, all

is well after the Factory Reset. The Bionic won't run like an 8 core processor phone, because it only has 2 cores.

I too was looking at the Galaxy 4, but I'm sticking with my Bionic after the Reset.

Good Luck

robbem

Nonsense. It's dual core is plenty to run Jelly Bean.

robbem

Name me one, ONE, phone on the market as of the time you responded or as of my response that has 8 cores. ONE. There are none. They will be coming, after all Android is getting as inefficient and bloated as to demand all this processing power but there are as yet none available. There will be some next year, and Android is gonna need them at this rate.

BTW, you don't need a tech to do a factory reset.

rustyoldjeep

(Removed) poor signal on 4g really no 4g is a better way to say it.

(Removed) poor battery life went from 24hrs + to 8hr if u r lucky

Verizon want u to upgrade because u have unlimited data and wants u under a new 2yr contract.

Says your phone is the problem. No was better on GB os than this useless jb update they gave us

They screwed it up they need to fix it. I have factory reset twice. Two new sim cards call level two tech at Verizon said my radio was bad. Bull. The 3g works OK its just the 4g

Anyone know how to fix this crap? Please help

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tlc808

^^^This^^^

My Bionic is a company issued device, and we have a grandfathered "unlimited data" plan. I'm the one and only IT person and a devoted Google/Android user. However, I'm really agnostic when it comes to anything technical, which has me looking elsewhere for a phone. I'm seriously looking at Blackberry. I'm also 100% convinced that Verizon takes forever in issuing new OS updates just to frustrate users into upgrading. Prove me wrong VW, I dare you.

ebayphonedude

HI Sparks1971. If you havent found a fix, I may be able to help. I am a bit of a Droid Bionic fan. I have now owned and used as a daily driver 5 bionics and in all have owned 9. I buy, repair, and sell bionics, well did until he average price of one in near mint condition on ebay dropped to about $50-75. (Yep, really, you can get one that won't have issues that cheap if you were otherwise happy with it.). The questions to ask any seller are (copy/paste it to the message box on ebay) :

1) Does this phone have a clean/clear ESN/Serial number and is it read for me to activate on my verizon account? 2) has the phone been exposed to water? 3) are there any imperfections in the display? Eg.- dead pixles, bright spots,etc. 4) are there any imperfections in the glass? Scratches, scuffs, discoloring? 5) do all phone features/functions work?

s work properly? (Speakers, bluetooth, wifi, 3g, 4g data). 6) what HW version is the phone? on the main sticker underneath the battery, it is printed in capital letters. Thanks in advance!
The reality is many sellers will not know or answer many of these. But, whatever they do, is contractual and binding and will help you to get one. My main deal breakers are esn, water, and dead pixels, display issues. If you want another bionic, this is the way to go. And switching them is as simple as powering down both phones, and putting your sim card and sd card in the new phone.
Speaking of contractual and binding, if you are still on contract at all, depending on what country you are in, the law may mandate that Verizon must replace your device free of charge. You cannot access the service you are bound to pay for, nor the services you are being billed for, and requiring you to sign another contract or pay anything additional to access said services would be illegal in some countries.

As far as repairing your Bionic, as it is, FOR FREE, I have had only 1 bionic with data problems that a complete factory reset done with a computer did not fix. The symptoms sound similar to what you have described, though. I called that radio problem the triangle of death. Data would connect at boot, then the triangle in the status bar. If this describes what you are seeing, the phone (radio specifically) is shot and NOTHING will fix it. If this is not exactly what you are seeing, the way to eliminate the possibility of it being software will require a couple of hours of your time, a little bit of reading for detail, and a bit of patience. It is referred to in slang as FXZ'ing. It is done using Motorola's own factory software ,RSD lite 5.8 coupled with the appropriate FXZ file (factory image, erases all data and changes) for Motorola Targa XT875 (bionic's proper name). For jb you would need 98.72.22. Google it all. Look for Obsidian and SamuriHL and Sam's tool House Of Moto. (Two people who know LOTS and are extremely helpful. ). Now you will find *other* things you can do to make your Bionic operate like a totally different (and better) phone once you get data working or get a new Bionic, but since we're here, I will leave that reading up to you.

This line will probably get edited, but in all honesty, mods, this does ZERO harm to anyone's phone, their access, the network, etc. 1) Open your phone dialer as you would if making a call. 2) dial *#*#4636#*#* 3) a menu will appear allowing you to ping Google's server, change network type, and turn the LTE radio on or off. Press EVDO/CDMA/LTE for the network type. (it should already be on that, it won't hurt anything to press it again.) You can try turning the radio off, then back on after a few seconds, but likely, it will not change much of anything. As I said, nothing in this menu can harm anything as it will reset on a reboot to whatever the default settings are. If you doubt me, try from any Moto Droid before you delete useful information.
Now, as you can see, the Bionic may be able to be fixed and if not, it can inexpensively be replaced. This brings us to a couple of points that I felt compelled to make from the onset of reading all of these replies. First, and foremost, the Bionic runs like a hot knife through butter when set up right after a clean installation of JB regardless of HW version, processor revision, etc. Once we start bogging system resources with apps that update chronically or run in the background chronically, the phone slows down. Take a bunch of pictures or videos and fill up your internal memory, and the phone will slow down. The gallery feature always loads your pics and vids and for whatever reason, i have discovered when most of my files and media are on my 32 gb class 10 sd card (subtle suggestion), the phone runs far better. Mind you this has been tested and proven over and over again on multiple Bionics. If you never reboot the phone, this phenomenon gets worse. As was suggested, clearing your cache does worlds of good for your handset. Rebooting clears (to an extent) running processes on the phone. There are multiple task killers/memory cleaners/cache cleaners out there, and although JB software is SUPPOSED to not require anything like that. But clearing your cache should happen at least once every couple of weeks.
Another point is the suggestion to wipe all your data and reset the phone. This is actually the best advice anyone here gave you. If you do not have the Triangle of Death in your status bar, I am almost certain this will fix your phone. If your download of JB was bad or corrupted or if for whatever reason the installation was bad, nothing will fix it but this. I agree that it is not ideal to lose your data, but there isn't much you cannot back up using a computer. AND if you are willing to read, SamuariHL's House Of Moto can reset your phone WITHOUT ERASING your data. As far as the claims that "verizon [is slow to update/bugfix, releases bad software, etc..] it is a load of poo. Verizon has little to do with how the software itself operates or is written. In fact, the only bad thing you can factually say about VZW and the software itself is that bloatware (pre-installed, crappy, un-installable apps you do not need, nor want) is selected and added to the builds. This is literally the only hand they have. They can make it take a while by not approving the software (as happened with JB if you are a phone news junkie like me) but ultimately Motorola Mobility aka GOOGLE is not going to release sub-par software and hurt their brand/ Google Experience to make Verizon happy. Google has quite a bit more muscle in that scenario, so it makes zero sense. As far as Verizon wanting you to buy a new phone and sign off of unlimited data, of course that is exactly what they want; They want to retain the customer above all, and then they want to limit their resource usage so they can claim the best network. if everyone uses boat loads of data all the time, the network speed for everyone, collectively will suffer. The laws surrounding Block C and the usage limitations of such are still up in the air, considering the "no limitation of usage" clause of that free tv wavelength that became VZW 4G LTE, so I won't say that is the proper argument. I will say, however, you always have a choice. You can buy a phone from VZW off contract. You can buy one from a friend. You can buy one off of Ebay. Ultimately, until all of us that have unlimited data are forced to change providers, the choice is pay a premium for data on a nice, shiny, new phone or rock an older phone with great data. The reps in the store are pretty much in it to sell you a phone, that is how they make their money, after all. (Rooting discussion removed) But sometimes that is the fix to get the phone of your dreams out of a phone designed in 2010 four years later. Make no mistake, Verizon is a large corporation out to make money, but their service is the best I have tried and their exclusive contract with Motorola for the Droid line of phones keeps me as a customer. I pay double what my friends do because of the coverage and network superiority. Aside from the data usage, I have zero complaints about Verizon or their service and will continue to be a customer as long as my unlimited data is intact. Don't feel like you have to give in. Get a Razr Maxx HD or a Moto X (the latter if you don't care about an sd card slot). Keep rocking unlimited. (email address removed) if you need more help. take care.

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Tidbits

Sorry to say... It's up to the manufacturer to issue updates. It's been proven multiple times to this fact even manufacturers contradict what they tell you. No one listens.

Anyway there are no more updates for the bionic. Motorola ALREADY said this...

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