Droid 4: ICS = screwed up

[wsalopek]

I hear you guys...yes, factory resets are sometimes the only solution, and even a good idea from time to time...I don't know about you, but I can't even count the number of times, esp back in the "old days" of Windoze, that I reformatted my hard drive and reinstalled the operating system to fix a problem.  But that was also back before I had kids, and was able to stay up til 3am fixing the computer.

Still, I think Verizon could have put out some kind of warning out about the ICS upgrade...to expect some issues, etc (after all, the phone was basically unusable for several hours)...and I still think that marking the thread "answered" after someone suggests "hard reset"  isn't right, as many MANY threads could be "answered" that way.

Anyway...

My phone is OK now (apparently...keeping a close eye on it of course)...took about 12-15 hours for it to "normalize" after the ICS update...battery drain is back to normal, battery temp is back to normal...phone is running smoothly. 

I did make a couple changes...one was to force 3G using "LTE ON/OFF" from the Google Play Store ("4G toggle" does not work with ICS)...the other thing I did was to stop "Tasker" from running.  Of course 3G instead of 4G does save battery.  But I doubt that stopping Tasker had anything to do with fixing the phone, but I just thought I'd mention everything I did, just in case it helps someone.

[demmo86rt]

I have a feeling tasker may have had a lot to do with it, with how tied in to the system that app can be. Clearing cache and data on the app may have worked and, if you use that app, you should try reinstalling it. The changes between Gingerbread and ICS may have been enough to cause your phone to not react well to that app.

[21stNow]

So if you had started a thread that asked how to get work email on your phone and someone suggested Touchdown, would you not mark that as a solution?  What if I think that you should use the stock email app?

My point is that the person who started the thread has every right to mark the post that solved his or her problem as the solution.  This is no guarantee that it will work for anyone else, but it did work for the person who asked the question. 

[greytdoghome]

I absolutely hate the upgrade and wish I had never done it. Now reading the comments on here at least I know I am not alone. I had a Blackberry and moved up to a Droid 4 and have had nothing but problems since day 1! Constantly dumps random contacts, freezes up, crappy battery life and that was BEFORE the update was done! Now I can barely watch a streaming video because it overheats, it will randomly drop email uploads (I have yet to get all of my emails and facebook to work properly since the update has been installed) and it is just overall turned into a very expensive piece of junk! I have 22 months before I can upgrade my phone again and it is going to be a long and painful 22 months! At the end of the day I will have to be forced to do another update on this phone. I am going to try the factory setting reset and see if that improves anything, but I hate that I even have to be bothered to do that because one should not have to deal with the garbage that this update has created. I hate the color scheme of the keyboard on Swype and text messaging...it is horrible on the eyes (esp. if you already have vision problems and are prone to migraines). Epic FAIL VZW! Now I am stuck with the POS! Oh and for those saying basically that we are whining and should wait to see what happens over the course of a couple of days...maybe VZW should take that advice when I decide to switch to a new carrier after 15 years of loyal patronage. When I pay for something I expect it to work properly and updates should make it work BETTER and not WORSE! If you managed to get the update and things went well for you...consider your self lucky.

[wsalopek]

I spoke too soon.

While yes, the phone is usable and battery drain is normal, the phone is still about 1/2 the speed it was before (it's been about 4 days now since I did the "upgrade")...lots of lag and herky-jerky-ness...ringtones are trucated...all kinds of weird stuff.  Wish I had never done the ICS "upgrade".

As far as who has a right to mark the thread answered...yes, of course the person who asked the question can mark it answered...I was talking in general...that a hard reset, while it IS an alternative to get your phone working, is not a "solution", IMHO.

To consider a hard reset a solution is one step away from saying "get a new phone" is a solution.  I mean c'mon, how do any of us feel when we might call Verizon with an Android problem, and they suggest hard reset as the answer.  That's not "tech support".

Anyway, we all have our opinions.

[wsalopek]

The phone is now working normally, butl I had to do the hard reset to make that happen.  I have installed ALL my old apps, including tasker, etc, so apparently none of that was the problem...the ENTIRE problem had to do with the ICS update itself.

Good grief.

Also, I can't say for sure what the reason is, but a couple of the programs for which I used their own ackup settings (Go SMS, Go Launcher, Pure Calendar Widget, Folder Organizer and others), were not able to find those backups after I reinstalled the programs.  This could have been because internal storage was erased, but last time I did a hard reset using this same backup method, those programs WERE able to find the backed up settings.

I also used "My Backup Pro", which has always worked well.

But...

I have lost a solid day over this ICS upgrade...24 hours of hands on work...more really (not to mention the day that my phone was unusable/slow/dying battery the day of the upgrade)...researching the issues, trying different options, and then finally several hours on the hard reset and getting the phone back to where it was before...and I still have a ways to go.

What a mess...what a HUGE mess.

I love Verizon, and stick with them for yes, the network, and also their customer support...we all pay extra for that as Verizon is the most expensive carrier...we deserve to have a higher level of service.  This ICS "upgrade" is a MAJOR screw up.

Now my wife's phone is bugging her several times per day to do the upgrade...I have told her to keep saying NO...but of course that's gonna get old real quick.

Anyone know how to disable/supress the dialog box that keeps asking is the user wants to do the upgrade?

Thanks...

[stef7]

To keep a phone working well, a Hard Reset seems like a poor option.

However, when going to a new version of an operating system? To me, it seems quite reasonable. Perhaps not necessary for a patch (a minor), but a major... I'm expecting it. Now if they would only serve up some ice cream to my phone.

[baltouser]

Did the hard reset resolve the battery problem?  The upgrade was just forced upon me, and I am having major battery problems.  The phone died while plugged in to the USB port of my computer charging.  I then used a wall charger, and the battery drained and the phone died while I was using the phone!  Really?  Yes, really. So, how can you charge the thing if a USB port and wall charger are not sufficient?  To charge it, I turned the phone off and plugged in a wall charger, but I can NOT do this several times a day.  Even at night, turning off my phone is very risky for me.  I hope there is a solution.

If a hard reset fixes this, I will be forced to do it.  But, I will do the hard reset kicking and screaming the whole time.  After a hard reset, setting up the phone takes me about 3-4 hours. 

I am as shocked as anyone about this.  As others have stated, I am not impressed with ICS and certainly the tradeoff to get it is not worth it. 

[wsalopek]

For me, most of the battery problem went away after about a day...can't imagine what was going on in the phone to change the battery drain over a period of 24 hours.

But...the phone was still much slower than before the "upgrade"...so, yes, kicking and screaming, I did a hard reset...but the phone is STILL slower than it was before ICS...a bit better than before the hard reset, but still a LOT slower than before the "upgrade".

Such a sad situation.

For me, I am considering using one of the alternative ROM's...in other words, replacing ICS completely.

Of course the downside to that is warranty issues, etc.

It's just sickening that an "upgrade" would make what was a very good experience with my Droid 4 (quick, etc), awful, just as it was with my Droid 2...slow...laggy, etc.

[ronzos]

hay vzw

     as you can see we want are gingerbread back

the forced update we dont want

you took a great phone droid4 shipped with gingerbread from the factory and destroyed it with ics

we demand the ability to rollback to gingerbread after the forced ics update

we want the phone we payed for.

between Verizon Motorola and Google  no one will restore are phone to how we got them from the factory !!!

fyi you are all in violation of the android license agreement by restricting up to ics

perhaps your legal dept.might want to view the android and Apache licenses.

http://www.apache.org/licenses/

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also  read this

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one last thing to read

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Android_(operating_system)

Android is a Linux-based operating system designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. Initially developed by Android, Inc., which Google backed financially and later purchased in 2005,^[9] Android was unveiled in 2007 along with the founding of the Open Handset Alliance: a consortium of hardware,software, and telecommunication companies devoted to advancing open standards for mobile devices.^[10] The first Android-powered phone was sold in October 2008.^[11]

Android is open source and Google releases the code under the Apache License.^[12] This open source code and permissive licensing allows the software to be freely modified and distributed by device manufacturers, wireless carriers and enthusiast developers. Additionally, Android has a large community of developers writing applications ("apps") that extend the functionality of devices, written primarily in a customized version of the Javaprogramming language.^[13] In October 2012, there were approximately 700,000 apps available for Android, and the estimated number of applications downloaded from Google Play, Android's primary app store, was 25 billion.^[14][15]

These factors have allowed Android to become the world's most widely used smartphone platform,^[16] overtaking Symbian in the fourth quarter of 2010,^[17] and the software of choice for technology companies who require a low-cost, customizable, lightweight operating system for high tech devices without developing one from scratch.^[18] As a result, despite being primarily designed for phones and tablets, it has seen additional applications ontelevisions, games consoles and other electronics. Android's open nature has further encouraged a large community of developers and enthusiasts to use the open source code as a foundation for community-driven projects, which add new features for advanced users^[19] or bring Android to devices which were officially released running other operating systems.

Android had a worldwide smartphone market share of 75% during the third quarter of 2012,^[20] with 500 million devices activated in total and 1.3 million activations per day.^[21][22] The operating system's success has made it a target for patent litigation as part of the so-called "smartphone wars" between technology companies.

you have no right to block us from running the operating system of are choice and should not block up from upgrading /downgrading 

you need to unlock are phone and  give us back our gingerbread that is 100 sound  no bugs  error free and that was shipped from the factory with

Motorola good job and excellent quality on building a great piece of hardware

Google  good job complying with the license and open source code

Verizon what the heck are you thinking, oh ya the all might buck