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4.4.4 update issues - Bluetooth, Location, and more

Man, updated to 4.4.4 a couple days ago and problems are coming down like crazy. Verizon, either get me back on the previous version or fix this crap. I have so many unusable items.

Bluetooth connection issues all over the place. After the update both of my cars will not pair, my Asus Zenwatch is having pairing issues, Bluetooth randomly disconnects from everything all the time. And that is on a good day. On a bad day like today, I can't get my watch to pair at all. Never once had an issue before the update. Had to remove and then re connect all my bluetooth connections and sometimes still need to reboot the phone to get it to connect.

Location is a mess. First of all I have to turn on Location in order to do anything. My apps will not sync unless the full blown location is on which never used to be the case. I get messages each time I turn on location that I have to dismiss (no option to turn this off). One I turn on location (I have to use at least this or non of my apps like Weather will work), if I want to use the battery saving option (using towers and wifi...no gps), it now shows my location from my notification as on. This means when I want to use GPS (mandatory for navigation), I can no longer just tap the Location icon from the notification bar. I have to long press to enter the location settings, navigate to mode, and change the mode to GPS. What the heck is up with this and why is it so broken. I used to have the battery saving cell triangulation on by default so my weather and other apps could get approx locations and then when I needed GPS, just pulled down my notification bar and hit Location. No issues, no warnings to dismiss, but you screwed this up.

I'm getting frequent app crashes as well. My live wallpaper now randomly cuts out and I have to restart the phone to get it back.

I'd say I have to restart my phone 4 times a day now because it is the only way to get rid of the bluetooth and app crashes although nothing solves the location issues. Basically you have to keep full GPS on all the time to not have all the warnings. Although then I get the "searching for location" notification all the time when I go indoors and the phone can't find my GPS.

Absolutely horrible issues and these are just the items that I can confirm are update related and repetitive. Not to mention this was supposted to help network signal which it has absolutely not. I still see 1X all the time in my office when I pull the phone out of my pocket. When I restart the phone, it will usually connect to LTE but it is as if Verizon kicks me off LTE randomly until I restart.

I'm about 1 week away from taking my 5 phones to another company. I'm paying a premium for crap service, horrible data caps, and waiting additional time for updates that still kill my device. At least if you are going to take the extra time before releasing bug fix updates, FIX THE BUGS!!!!!!!!!!

Comments

Verizon_Support

@danwatson,

I understand how you feel. Updates are meant to enhance your phone, not cause you headaches. I definitely don't want to lose you.

You mentioned all these issues started after the recent software update. In many cases it is necessary to perform a hard reset after major software updates. Have you done a hard reset http://vz.to/137qg1u since the update? make sure you do not auto restore your 3rd party apps. You want to test the phone without the apps before you start redownloading the apps.

JohnB_VZW

Follow us on Twitter @VZWSupport

danwatson

Well, before beginning a hard reset, I would love someone to be able to answer me if these are genuine issues introduced with the new software or something gone wrong. I should be able to get an answer on the location issue at bare minimum. Did this update change how location reporting works? It seems the location button in the notification panel no longer simply toggles GPS like it used to but somehow turns on/off all location reporting for the entire device. Thus just tapping on it to turn it on pops up the "Location Consent Agreement" page (every time by the way...you would think it would remember my preference) and forces me to go to the Location settings page to set my desired location settings (high accuracy GPS or low power mobile network approximation). If at any point I turn this off, all location reporting is disabled and the phone thinks I'm in another state. Thus I either have to keep the high accuracy (but battery killing) GPS on all the time which is even worse since I can't get a GPS signal at my work locaion, or I have to enter the Location settings page and change my location mode to GPS every time I want to navigate or find a more accurate location on a map (such as searching for a local business).

You should be able to answer me that question.

YayNote

I can't speak to your service issues as I never experienced those on any build Verizon has released..But the 'location bug' actually isn't a bug. It looks like Verizon intentionally changed the way location reporting works. on 4.4.2 I had it set to battery saver in location settings..and in the drop down menu location was reported as off-on would be displayed in the settings menu but tapping location in the drop down menu would turn it on & activate high accuracy. Was pretty nifty.

Now location on/off is literally on or off. You can set it to battery saver etc but if you want to start navigation you'll have to change it to high accuracy. Like you, mine is set to battery saver unless I'm driving now. My phone doesn't report me as in another state though?? At the worst it's a town off sometimes.

I use Bluetooth daily. Works fine. All this said, I updated then immediately did a factory reset.

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