Related
Well, I've gotten my tablet for 5 days now and have been playing with it a lot, tried all the different ROMS, anyways, upon receiving the tablet, pretty much nothing worked, e-mail app wont launch at all, a lot of the stuff in the settings crashed when I try to change them, just figured something out today after going back to stock rom, I formatted the internal storage and did a factory reset. Upon startup, I notice that it went through a TnT wizzard which I never got when I first received the tablet, and e-mail and all other apps are now working, and no more FC (still crappy, but atleast it works). I really think this is the problem viewsonic has, the devices didn't come factory reset, or atleast mine didn't anyone else's tablet didn't run the setup wizzard when you first received it, or is it just me? Because I really think they would have a lot less returns if all tablets came and started the setup wizzard on boot up as mine didn't have any problems at all after the reset/format. I tried the 3361 update and wow, its actually decent now, VS is definitely listening to the community when they added the ability to use the regular launcher.
Original Rom
Where can I get the Original Rom?
da-slicksta said:
Where can I get the Original Rom?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
FAQs are your friend
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=842899
For the latest version of the stock fw, check out the thread whose title ends with 3316. The first post has a link to it, and if you read through the thread you'll find posts with instructions on how to load it with or w/o clockwork mod.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=879534
For the original fw, check in the dev forum, there should be a thread with instructions on how to revert to stock fw.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=861950
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=842000
Mine did not perform setup wizard as the manual said it would on first boot. As others have reported, about 20+ FC on first boot. I will try the factory reset to see if that helps like it did for you.
UnRoot
Do we need to unroot to get OTAs
eviltuna said:
I formatted the internal storage and did a factory reset. Upon startup, I notice that it went through a TnT wizzard which I never got when I first received the tablet, and e-mail and all other apps are now working, and no more FC (still crappy, but atleast it works). I really think this is the problem viewsonic has, the devices didn't come factory reset, or atleast mine didn't anyone else's tablet didn't run the setup wizzard when you first received it, or is it just me? Because I really think they would have a lot less returns if all tablets came and started the setup wizzard on boot up as mine didn't have any problems at all after the reset/format.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I returned my first GTab to Sears I did a factory reset. When the person at the store opened the the box and turned it on it didn't go to the wizard. I believe that the power button can activate during shipping and after a certain amount of time it skips the wizard and then shuts off. VS should put a piece of paper inside the box with instructions on doing a factory reset FIRST. This could solve a ton of problems for new customers
There's a new one out - just see the vanilla ROM's section in the faq, in my sig. I'm going to post a link to the new ROM, shortly.
roebeet said:
There's a new one out - just see the vanilla ROM's section in the faq, in my sig. I'm going to post a link to the new ROM, shortly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I already gave them links to the FAQ, new stock fw, and two threads for flashing original stock fw...
To get the setup Wizzard you must first Format you Internal Storage (Settings -> Storage), then do a factory reset (Security -> Reset to Factory). Once you do this the gTablet will shut itself down, then when you start it up you will get the wizzard, just doing a factory reset alone will not do this, you must format the storage + factory reset. Anyways, all the FC I had prior to doing this are now gone, I really think that after doing Quality control at the factory, they never did these steps and so the tablet comes borked with bad softare which can easily be fixed with this 30 second format/reset.
Just picked up the Viewsonic G Tablet. Got it back to my office, charged it, powered it on and the first thing i see is force close...wtf!
I am new to all of this so any suggestions need to be rather detailed.
Thanks
uncledavek said:
Just picked up the Viewsonic G Tablet. Got it back to my office, charged it, powered it on and the first thing i see is force close...wtf!
I am new to all of this so any suggestions need to be rather detailed.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you can get to the factory reset in the settings menu that would the first thing to do. And then check for an update. Make sure you set the wifi to not turn off and I would keep the screen from shutting off while downloading the update. Check in settings "about Device". If your not 3389 or higher then you need to update
I had this problem back in November when I first got my tab. Even though nothing seemed to work right, I was able to connect it to my desktop and push across clockworkmod v .08 and a custom rom. So, I never used the original rom more than 10 minutes.
If you can't get it connected while booted in original rom, then Bekit's NVFLash full restore procedure works really well. Just follow the steps carefully and it's a quick and painless factory reset to a known working rom.
These things are virtually unbrickable (is that a word?).
uncledavek said:
Just picked up the Viewsonic G Tablet. Got it back to my office, charged it, powered it on and the first thing i see is force close...wtf!
I am new to all of this so any suggestions need to be rather detailed.
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
badfrog is correct. If you factory reset the device it should be fine from there - then you set up your wifi and get the update.
Go into your app drawer and choose Settings. I don't remember if you can do it from the menu button as I'm on a different launcher.
Inside Settings go to Security and select Factory Data Reset. Do this, the unit will reboot and come back up at which point you'll be asked to set it up. It may take some time. Set your Date and Time correctly and set up your Wifi and such.
Once that's done you'll likely get a prompt to update very soon after Wifi connects. DO NOT DO IT, yet.
Within Settings, go into Display and set the Display Timeout to Never.
This ensures that the tablet doesn't sleep or turn off your wifi while it's downloading the update. It's not likely to happen but if your connection is on the slow side and the timeout is set too low, it can mess things up.
Once you've done that, proceed to let the tablet update itself. Again, it may take a bit of time.
Once it's done, make sure you take not of what you have. You'll find this information under Settings in the About section. The last version I got was 3389 - but something newer MAY be there for you. If you get anything less than 3389 then you will have to wait until you get another notification for an update. I don't remember how they work - but I THINK you should get the newest one there.
Once you've confirmed you're on the most current build, It may not be absolutely necessary to do it, but I would factory reset again just to clear the 'gunk' of the older TnT out in case there is actually any.
When I got mine and powered it on the 1st time, I got a bunch of FCs. I powered off and then on, and no more FCs, and it was fine after that. I think I posted asking about that, and someone (roebeet, I think) said it was a known problem. I don't remember the TNT version, but it was the one before 3389, or one before the one before 3389.
Jim
It is a known problem, especially with the older firmware. Sometimes the FC's are so bad that you can't even get into the settings to do a data wipe.
I've actually called CS about this, as an example of why they need an offline updater of some kind to get around issues like these. Suggestion: if you don't want to install clockworkmod, at least try to update the firmware to the latest and greatest, via one of the newer stock ROMs we're retrieved:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=842000
That might get you enough access to get into the Settings menu and do the factory restore.
The 4.0.4 OTA update was waiting for me when I woke up this morning. I started the install but when it went to reboot it hung up with a picture of the Android man on his back with a red error/warning triangle.
I haven't done anything with it, hoping someone might be able to help me out.
The phone is rooted but running 4.0.2 stock rom. the battery was a little low when i started the install, but i plugged it in before starting.
Thanks in advance for help,
jvoosh
the reason is that your phone is rooted ,so ... if you want OTA ,you had better unroot you rom or ruu
so can I hard reset the phone (pull the battery) without screwing anything up and then figure out how to unroot the phone?
thanks for your help,
j
Ditto
I'm in exactly the same boat, and hope someone answers this before I try a battery pull.
EDIT: I read around and found some people describing our situation, and mentioning that they did battery pulls to no avail. So I did, and nothing broke. However, the update didn't go through, and now I'm trying to figure out why this happened.
Same issue
I'm having the same issue. Phone got the IMM76k update, and after downloaded, was prompted to restart and install. So i did, gets through part of the install, and then goes to the android man on his back with a red exclamation mark. Have tried multiple times, all to no avail. Now, when I click check for update, it says system up to date, but still on 4.0.2.
Non-rooted, bootloader unlocked...anyone have any luck fixing this?
After downloading update, get Android man on back with red exclamation point
I'm having some difficulty getting the update to install, along the lines of some of the comments posted before mine:
I was able to force download the OTA update (IMM76K) according to the instructions on this original post. (It took a few tries, but eventually worked.)
I select the "Restart & Install" option (which is the only option available to me), and it restarts.
I get the relatively familiar Android man with his blue-green glowing polyhedron wireframe guts spinning, and a progress bar beneath him. After getting through what looks like about 20%, it slows down significantly, and I get the Android man on his back with a red exclamation point above him where the polyhedron used to be. I don't recall seeing any specific error message any of the three times that I tried this. (The first time, I did a battery pull; the second and third times, I just waited, and it eventually restarted on its own.) Needless to say, I'm still on 4.0.2.
I'm afraid I'm not very familiar with different version names and so forth (e.g,. I don't know what yakju is), but this was a phone that Verizon sent me in December 2011 here in the US.
Here's the information from my "About phone" page:
Model number: Galaxy Nexus
Android version: 4.0.2
Baseband version: I515.09 V.EK05 / I515.EK02
Kernel version: 3.0.8-gaaa2611 [email protected] #1
Build number: ICL53F
When I first got the phone, I immediately unlocked the bootloader and rooted it. I did NOT install a custom recovery, nor did I install any custom ROM.
It sounds like there might be some kind of validation error, but I do not recall doing anything that would make my OS non-stock, except perhaps side-loading Google Wallet, but since that doesn't even require root, I can't imagine that it would have any effect. My Superuser app shows only the following apps to have ever used root permissions: BusyBox Free, Secure Settings, Superuser, Terminal Emulator, and Titanium Backup. I've only used BusyBox and Secure Settings with Tasker to automate certain tasks, but nothing crazy! Mostly, I just need root for Titanium Backup. (I cannot recall exactly what I restored from my stock Gingerbread Droid X, but I was very careful to only restore apps and their corresponding app data--and I avoided restoring any Google-provided apps.) Even my tethering is done through an app not requiring root (SVTP).
Any advice (not requiring that I do a factory reset or flash a custom recovery or ROM) would be greatly appreciated! I'd also like to hear about people who have similar circumstances, but didn't have problems updating (so that I can rule out various factors).
Thank you in advance!
same exact issue here.
A "solution", albeit less than ideal
The OTA update eventually came to my phone naturally, and it still didn't work. (No surprise there.)
I called up Verizon tech support, and they had me do the Google Services Framework workaround to try to force the update again. Of course, it didn't work.
They said "We're going to need you to reset your device." (i.e., to factory default).
I told them that was wholly unacceptable, since I want to make sure that all my settings are preserved. (I'm kind of obsessive compulsive about things being set the way I like them, and Titanium Backup, as great a program as it is, has sometimes caused some trouble for me when restoring system settings, and especially since I'd be doing a restore after upgrading the OS, I was nervous about that option.)
Verizon got Samsung on the phone. They had no advice except "We're going to need you to reset your device." Both the Verizon rep and I told him that wasn't acceptable.
So Verizon's "solution" was to send me a new device, allow me five days to get everything transferred over, and then have me return the old device.
Up side: In case there was something wrong with my hardware or something else got messed up, I get a new device that I can get set up with the exact same settings as the old one.
Down side: The "new device" is refurbished, so there could potentially be some kind of baggage.
The "new device" came with 4.0.2. I booted it up without the SIM card, skipped all the logging in to Google, and immediately started going through the steps to unlock the bootloader and root the device. (I used the Galaxy Nexus Root Toolkit, which worked like a charm on a 64-bit Windows 7 machine I had lying around.) After unlocking and rooting, I logged into the device with my Google credentials and let it restore my settings and apps that I had downloaded from Google Play.
Then, it notified me that the 4.0.4 (IMM76K) update was available, so I installed that, and it worked without a problem.
Then, I installed the SIM card and got the new device activated through Verizon's website for activation.
Then, with both devices side by side, I went through every phone setting and made sure it's what I wanted, I made sure every app was installed (and if it was a non-Google Play app, I restored it through Titanium Backup), and I restored data for apps that don't store their data in the cloud (e.g., various games) through Titanium Backup. (I made a backup of my old device with Titanium Backup and transferred it over to the new device after getting the new one up and running.)
Everything seems to be working just fine, and the "new device" runs a bit faster and smoother than the old device, and that's with both devices rebooting and then going through the exact same "click paths", side by side.
So it's a bit of a hassle, but everyone who has a Galaxy Nexus should still be under warranty, so if you're polite with your Verizon tech support representative, they may be willing to help you out.
Verizon can sometimes be infuriating with their update release schedule and keeping their customers informed, but they sure do a good job accommodating their customers in other ways.
I realize this isn't really a "solution" to the Android man on his back problem, but this seemed to be the path of least resistance for me, and I'm pretty happy with the outcome so far. (It's been less than 24 hours since I got the "new device" set up!)
Other things I realized I should have tried (and still may, before I wipe my phone and send it back):
- uninstalling BusyBox (through the app itself, since it makes modifications to the system) and Secure Settings
- unrooting
Good luck!
My friend who has a nexus has his bootloader unlocked and CWM on it. He got the OTA today on his way into work and like you guys, he has a broken android when he boots up. We can get into CMW but we are unable to mount his internal SD storage onto our computer and he has no ROM zips on his phone. Any advice as to how to get his phone up and running?
Will wiping the system/data fix it? Is there a way to get a ROM like AOKP onto the device outside of CWM?
Edit: After several reboots it decided to just boot into the stock ROM. Really strange. Anyhow, flashed AOKP and all is well now.
I have a Pixel and recently received the 7.1.1 OTA update. This morning my phone restarted and failed to boot properly. It does boot, and I get to the home screen where all apps seem to be functional. But there are several problems, including 1) I can't turn on cellular data, 2) the home button and the task switcher button do not work. Also, when I press the back, home or task switcher buttons, I get vibration feedback which is not how I had the phone set. Another odd thing is that when I check settings, it shows that the phone is on Android version 7.1 It is as if the phone tried to revert back to 7.1, but did not do so fully. Another anomaly is that when I got to the Play Store, all my apps appear as if they are not updated, even though I just installed available updates yesterday.
When I go to System Update, it shows a 261.9 MB update available to download. I assume that's 7.1.1 OTA update. I could try downloading and re-installing it, but before doing so, I wanted to see if anyone thinks that could cause more problems. Or, does anyone have another suggested step I could take. I would like to avoid a factory reset, if possible. Hopefully, there's another simple, quick solution.
Most likely it is easily fixable by just flashing the full stock 7.1.1 image from Google. Unfortunately it will wipe your device, but it is basically a surefire way to fix whatever went wrong.
It sounds like what happened is the OTA failed somewhere, bad download etc. As the pixel has the dual partitions if an OTA fails it will revert back to the last known working system. As @renegadeone8 mentioned, flashing the full 7.1.1 zip should cure your issues. You will have to unlock the bootloader to do so. (No a bad idea anyway imho Incase you have errors)
No harm in trying the OTA again. If it fails you won't be any further behind than you are now.
I'm having very similar issues, I also have no notifications and cannot pull down the full drop down menu or turn my data back on.
Thanks, k.s.deviate. I wish I had read your response earlier. It probably would have been good for me to at least try re-installing 7.1.1 again. However, I read from users on a different forum that they had experienced odd behavior very similar to what I experienced. In their case they didn't realize, at first, that the problem was associated with the 7.1.1 update. So, they re-installed it. Unfortunately, they had the same problems re-occur. For them the only solution was a factory reset and then not downloading 7.1.1 again.
That's what I've done. Everything is working great now. Android shows the 7.1.1 update available. Based on your assessment, I'm partially tempted to try installing it again. However, if it does end up with problems again, like it did the first time, I don't feel like I have the time to go through the whole factory re-install process again. So, I'm just going to stick with 7.1 for now and wait until either 1) I feel I have more time or 2) Google releases another update (7.1.2 ?) that might fix this problem. Thanks, again, though for your feedback.
exactly same here, so bad download could be ruled out. Also I've seen discussion on reddit and google forum, but unfortunely no solution was presented
As I am sure all Alcatel Idol 3 owners noticed by now, Alcatel have, over the last year or so, released on Google Play "updates" for most of their builtin software - the launcher, file manager, radio player, photo gallery, calendar and more - with what is, if I can be blunt - malware, updates whose only intention is to show you ads and notifications (whereas the original applications, obviously, did not have ads) which you have no way of disabling, and who knows what else.
I avoided this crap by "uninstalling" the updated applications and getting back the preinstalled versions.
BUT, today I started getting on all my Alcatel Idol phones (I have 3 of them!), OTA Android update. And I'm worried what would happen if I click it. Will I get the "updated" (malicious) versions of all the builtin applications with no way to revert them?
Does anyone have an experience with the new OTA update that came out yesterday? Can you tell me if after the update, the "joy launcher", "file manager", etc., are decent versions or the crappy versions which show ads?
P.S. Alcatel, you guys are idiots. I love your phones, and in the past bought 5 of them, but I'll *never* buy another phone from you because of this malware issue.
i have been wondering the same thing, i was scared to even touch the notification to see if it is a large upgrade or just 1 or 2 megabytes, in case touching it forces me to download it. please note, i have no idea if the OTA is any good, but i'm going to continue this post to vent about alcatel idol 3.
i was a bit annoyed with the last system upgrade, which started flashing the screen on and off periodically when any notifications were left active... for me, i always leave some notifications going, so that i don't forget about them or just want to leave them up even if i never take any action with them...
so i'm sure this takes a toll on my battery, since the screen will be flashing on and off for a few minutes before it stops.
i was shocked when a few months ago (or even a year?) apps started sending ads to the notification bar, from reading some posts i figured out you not only had to stop auto-updates in the play store, but also go into the updates app and disable them there. i didn't even know ads on a stock system were a thing, until i saw my dad's BLU $50 phone and realized that's how they make a decent phone $50.
since my idol 3 4.7" was relatively cheap at $180, i could see how they might need to put ads, but if i got a brand new alcatel phone at over $400, i'd be even more furious, do they put ads on their brand new phones?
i see a lot of cheap phones on amazon now listed having versions with "lockscreen offers and ads" including idol 5s
as long as the ads aren't malicious, and if you can just block notifications in android (i dunno if they somehow disable that) then it's sort of worth saving the money
anyway, i've had my idol 3 4.7" for just about 2 years, it's still fine, but i guess i'm starting to think about getting something else. i'd love to get another small phone, right before this i had an xperia z1 compact which i loved but the the battery started failing and bloating after less than a year and a half, so i'm kind of thinking i should never spend over $200 for a phone again (that one was $350)
my android history has been
nexus one $529
galaxy nexus $435.50
xperia z1 compact $350
idol 3 4.7" $180
i've been looking at nokia's new androids lately, or some kind of honor maybe
but my idol 3 4.7" is still working fine pretty much
i just remembered one other thing i hated about the marshmallow updated, which is the adopted SD card storage...
from what i understand if your phone dies, everything that was on the SD card can never be read again, because it works only when plugged into your phone. i mean i guess that's good for security, but it should be optional. it'd be nice to just be able to take that SD card to a new phone and just have everything that was there on it again.
i just noticed someone's post about "semi-adopted" SD card, which i guess means making 2 partitions, which kinda makes sense, but it would be nice if android offered that as a preset option. i had just gotten an SD card a few weeks before the marshmallow update came out and moving apps to SD for apps that supported it, worked fine.
anyway, i don't think and kinda hope no one read this, i'm not sure why i wrote this
I know that feeling, bros
Actually, I managed to uninstall built-in apps using adb shell, which was described in the discussion about Debloater (the app itself did not work after Marshmallow update):
Code:
pm uninstall --user 0 com.package.name
(this uninstalls system apps for the current user, so that they cannot be launched, do not notify about their updates in Google Play, and this works without root)
nyh said:
BUT, today I started getting on all my Alcatel Idol phones (I have 3 of them!), OTA Android update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dear nyh, what is your region and phone model (like, 6045K or 6039Y or with other letter in the end)? Here in Belarus (Eastern Europe), my 6045Y does not notify of any update (current system version 6.0.1-010 20).
Mankann said:
Dear nyh, what is your region and phone model (like, 6045K or 6039Y or with other letter in the end)? Here in Belarus (Eastern Europe), my 6045Y does not notify of any update (current system version 6.0.1-010 20).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the 4.7" model 6039S, and three more phones of the 5.5" model, I don't remember now their model number.
What I'm running now appears to be Android 6.0.1 build number "1BGD-UED2". I don't know how this relates to your number. I noticed the "update" program tells me the new version is "0100020" which is suspiciously close to the number you said, maybe it's the same. With your version, does "uninstalling" the "Joy Launcher" (and other) applications to get back to the preinstalled one, gets you a decent version, or one with ads?
nyh said:
I noticed the "update" program tells me the new version is "0100020" which is suspiciously close to the number you said, maybe it's the same. With your version, does "uninstalling" the "Joy Launcher" (and other) applications to get back to the preinstalled one, gets you a decent version, or one with ads?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, I understand now. It seems that your phone wants to update to the version that removes fastboot commands (so I suggest you triple-think and triple-check before upgrading).
"Uninstalling" system apps does not revert them to preinstalled versions, it makes them completely unavailable until hard reset (they are only listed in Settings labeled with "Disabled for current user" and cannot be run). If you decide to do this, you should first install some alternative apps (like Nova Launcher, Google Calendar etc), or else you won't be able to boot and use your phone.
I have the Idol 3 5.5 6045l(USA) Android 6.0.1 Build number 7VGE-UEE1.
I am reluctant to install the OTA I have pending:
______________________________
System update available
010 01 (471.5 MB)
New in this version
Version 7VGS-UES6 includes a security update that fixes Android major security flaw.
Update info:
- Netflix service
- Gameloft games
- UE improvements& bug fixes
______________________________
I am baffled that Alcatel would include Netflix & Gameloft with a major security fix.
After the adware riddled system app updates(that I've reverted to original) I will wait for more information before updating.
I love my phone and was considering buying a back-up or an Idol 4s especially as it seems that the front-facing speakers have been dropped from Alcatel's 2018 lineup.
But the bond of trust concerning system & app updates has been broken.
[Not sure whether one will be able to revert adware riddled system apps after the update]
That's real bad
Maybe this "security update" is resolving BlueBorne vulnerability (actually I wrote Alcatel about this, and they told me not to have bluetooth on all the time, wait patiently and install an antivirus which of course I did not do). But Netflix or Gameloft as system (priv-)apps is a no way (I struggled with TWO hidden Facebook services preinstalled on my phone until I found a method to "remove" them, which I described above).
If such an update comes to me (it may take days, weeks or months before it reaches all regions), and if no one installs it, I will do it and report here
I was stupid and sleepy and didn't fully check the update notes in depth when I saw it pop-up yesterday, I figured the majority of it was for security and maybe a couple of quality of life improvements like a new lock screen, even the entry about the Netflix app just sounded to me like they were fixing a problem people might have been having with it. suddenly I have and Netflix app I didn't want, a news app, some sort of Alcatel store front and two space wasting games (or at least one game and some gameloft "50 free games thing I have no use for).
I got rid of the apps that could be insta-deleted, and the netflix app can at least be disabled, but the filemanager is by far the worse offender. It's "boost" download and obnoxious UI, not to mention it clutters my notifications and lock screen. I've managed to quiet it down by canceling its access and whatever permissions I could. The fact that it restarts itself after a few seconds is just as irritating even before the reports that it actually may make my phone operate worse. I haven't experienced anything yet aside from the Google Play store crashing once while trying to figure out how to get rid of the update, but that was shortly after doing the factory reset and it's only been a day.
Whats mroe annoying is this now part of their most recent update on Idol 3. It's now impossible to revert or kill this as it's all baked in, not even factory reset will remove it. The new file manager app restarts at every turn, even after Force stop and will not allow you to disable it, and it seems to resist methods of hiding it from the user. I'm still seeking ways of getting rid of it that dont require rooting my phone but at this point it seems like the only possible answer, which is a shame because I was fine not rooting android, this was a really nice phone until they ruined it with this garbage. I know I'm pretty much screwed because My computer doesn't always seem to respond properly to Android stuff for some reason so any attempt to root will probably result in me bricking the thing, and even if I could root I'm not certain I'm comfortable with my phone being that open with other applications like this roaming around not to mention the questions of whether any of my desired apps will respond poorly to my doing it. But I wanted to at least add my voice to the rest that are complaining about this and telling Alcatel this is the last product of their's I'll ever own.
@PN04
Thank you for your very detailed report. Sorry to hear of the predicament you are now in. It goes without saying that I - thanks to you - will not be updating.
PN04 said:
I got rid of the apps that could be insta-deleted, and the netflix app can at least be disabled, but the filemanager is by far the worse offender. It's "boost" download and obnoxious UI, not to mention it clutters my notifications and lock screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
have you held down on a notification and hit the (i) and then block notifications?
does it somehow disregard that? that was a new feature added in marshmallow
zxcvb2 said:
have you held down on a notification and hit the (i) and then block notifications?
does it somehow disregard that? that was a new feature added in marshmallow
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have, it takes you to the app notification section where you can reduce it's priority, stop it from peeking and "hide sensitive content" (not sure what that last one means but I turned them all off anyway). As far as I can tell it's teeth are pulled as long as I don't actually start the app or give it any permissions when it asks, but the fact that constantly force stopping it only gets rid of the menu bar on my lock screen for a few seconds and that little stupid broom icon is constantly showing in my bar at the top means it's still an ugly scar on an otherwise nice phone. also App memory usage claims it's used 27 mb in the last 3 hours and I havent' even touched it.
I'll probably be studying up on rooting this weekend.
ichmoimeyo said:
@PN04
Thank you for your very detailed report. Sorry to hear of the predicament you are now in. It goes without saying that I - thanks to you - will not be updating.
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Click to collapse
Same here, no update for me either thanks to PN04's findings. I have managed to silence the Update app by uninstalling updates on the app and then turning off auto update and notifications. So far so good, no nagging messages about the update. Considering my latest security patch is from Nov 2016, I was not expecting to get any more anyway.
Shame on you Alcatel for ruining an otherwise perfect phone! Maybe i can get one more year on this one. The Xperia XZ1 Compact is looking more and more attractive, apart from the price (native Wifi calling, VoLTE and band 12 on TMO US, stuff that this phone didn't have and start to become more important for me).
Glad it helped. I guess I can take some measure of comfort in that at least.
The result of the upgrade.
nyh said:
Does anyone have an experience with the new OTA update that came out yesterday? Can you tell me if after the update, the "joy launcher", "file manager", etc., are decent versions or the crappy versions which show ads?
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So, I was surprised nobody came up to talk about their experience with the upgrade, so I took a risk and updated two of my Alcatel Idol 3 phones (mine and my son's) to the new update. Like in the old movie, I have good news, bad news, and ugly news:
The bad news was that the application content of the update was just as lousy as I feared it would be. It has the evil file manager and a bunch of other crap applications which spew notifications all the time, spontaneously install applications you never wanted to install, and so on. The strangest thing is that the update claims to add Netflix support, but actually uninstalled the Netflix app that I already had installed, which was very annoying (I had to re-install Netflix, re-download my downloads, and tell Netflix that I don't have the "old" device any more so it will let me download on the "new" one).
Also, the last on the bad list: after using the new system for two days, I haven't found a single thing to be better than the old system. This update doesn't upgrade Android - it's still exactly the same release 6.0.1 as it was before. The "patch level" is listed as November 2017, so maybe it has some security improvements, but I can't really tell.
The good news is that with some considerable effort, I was able to get rid of all of the crap (at least, everything I found so far). There is a new application called "Apps" which installs random crap. You can't uninstall it, but you can "disable" it and it never runs again. The evil file manager you can't uninstall (or disable), but its menu has an option to not send notifications, and then it doesn't. Then I went to the list of applications and uninstalled (luckily, that's possible) a bunch of games and other crap that Alcatel installed for me. If Alcatel had a better track record, I might actually enjoy trying out the new games they installed for me, but as it stands, I was worried about what might happen if I run them - I prefered to uninstall them. Anyway, after doing all that (sorry I don't have more detailed instructions), I am running with the updated Android for two days, and I haven't seen another ad, unexplained notification, or unsolicited application being installed. Hallelujah!
The ugly news is that after two days, I'm starting to worry that this version is less stable than the previous one. In two days I had to reboot my phone at least three times, once it hung during taking a video, once when Netflix suddenly couldn't find my downloaded content, and once when another app suddenly couldn't use the SD card (and a reboot solved these problems). I can't say I never had to reboot my phone, but this seems to be more frequent than I used to do it. I'm not sure this a real new problem or just a string of bad luck - only time will tell.
Mankann said:
Ah, I understand now. It seems that your phone wants to update to the version that removes fastboot commands (so I suggest you triple-think and triple-check before upgrading).
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What is "fastboot commands", and why should I be worried if they are removed?
Mankann said:
"Uninstalling" system apps does not revert them to preinstalled versions, it makes them completely unavailable until hard reset (they are only listed in Settings labeled with "Disabled for current user" and cannot be run). If you decide to do this, you should first install some alternative apps (like Nova Launcher, Google Calendar etc), or else you won't be able to boot and use your phone.
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This is not my experience... In the Google Play app. For most applications, "Uninstall" lets you really uninstall an app. But for built-in applications, when you "Uninstall" it asks you if you really want to revert to the pre-installed version, and that is actually what happens. This is why I did on my Alcatel Idol 3 for a year before this latest update. In application tray, when you long-press an application, it lets you "uninstall" regular applications, but for built-in application, the uninstall operation is simply missing. I never found any way to do what you describe - "disable for current user". Somebody above suggested this can be done through adb, but I never saw a way to do this in Alcatel's normal UI.
I wrote above my experience from the upgrade, which you can read, but I have two small comments about your experience:
PN04 said:
I got rid of the apps that could be insta-deleted, and the netflix app can at least be disabled,
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It's hilarious (or more accurately, sad) how people who already had Netflix installed (like me), their installation got deleted - but for people who never had Netflix, it got installed and made unremovable. Great job Alcatel!
PN04 said:
but the filemanager is by far the worse offender. It's "boost" download and obnoxious UI, not to mention it clutters my notifications and lock screen. I've managed to quiet it down by canceling its access and whatever permissions I could. The fact that it restarts itself after a few seconds is just as irritating even before the reports that it actually may make my phone operate worse.
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What I did to solve this was to reduce its permissions and more importantly, go into the file manager, go into its "settings", and ask it to stop its notifications. Luckily, it worked, and I never heard from the filemanager again. I don't know if it continues to do evil stuff in the background. It appears it is still running (my app info tells me it has used memory in the last 3 hours), but using "0%" CPU.
PN04 said:
this was a really nice phone until they ruined it with this garbage.
I wanted to at least add my voice to the rest that are complaining about this and telling Alcatel this is the last product of their's I'll ever own.
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Yes, I wonder if someone in TCL lost their marbles with these adware updates... As I said, I bought *five* of these phones - for me, my wife (two phones), mother-in-law and son, and I would have continued to recommend their phones if it weren't for the tricks they started to pull off last year.
nyh said:
What is "fastboot commands", and why should I be worried if they are removed?
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One of the Alcatel's OTA updates (IIRC, it was from Lollipop to Marshmallow) removed the ability to send fastboot commands to the phone, so that it became very hard to unlock bootloader and install root or custom ROMs. Actually it was already discussed here many times.
nyh said:
Somebody above suggested this can be done through adb, but I never saw a way to do this in Alcatel's normal UI.
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You can either use adb shell or you can use shell directly on your phone via apps such as Terminal Emulator (Google Play, F-Droid). Of course you cannot do this within "normal" GUI, because it is designed not-to-be-able-to-break-things
I work from home/am self employed so most of the time so my phone doesn't get outside except for a few occasions a week otherwise it's usually connected to the home wifi so that I don't waste data. But this weekend I had to run a few errands and in a single hour outing using mobile data, I force quit the file manager maybe 26 times as opposed to 5 - 8 times just connected to wifi so I feel like it's constantly trying to ping servers unless you restrict it to mobile data. I also noticed that number dropped by half to maybe 3 or 4 times in the house when I had a few apps like AIMP or one of the games I do play on it to pass time idling in the background. As I said before I did cancel every permission I could find for it and it still manages to crawl out of the grave every so often but maybe those apps had a high enough priority level so having them active an in memory pushes it down the list.... Literally while typing this just now I was charging the phone and got the signal that the battery was full, woke it up to check if file Manager was running, saw nothing on the lock screen, unplugged it and File manager popped up again.
This update is a cancer. I haven't had to restart yet, but I've definitely noticed a few more app crashes. The loss of Fastboot might explain why my first attempt to hide the offenders with ADB failed. after installing every thing , switching to developer mode and connecting it to my computer the phone just refused to show up in the program (again, this might still be a computer issue because I've had trouble with minor developer tools in the past). I may not be an Android developer like some people on this side but feel like I fiollowed the instructions correctly. I get the feeling this is bad news. We might not be able to even get a different rom installed on it at this point.
Is it possible someone has an older version of the firmware that can be reinstalled over top of this some how? ugh, I really can't afford to have to buy a new phone right now.
PN04 said:
This update is a cancer
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I agree. People, please try to avoid this update. If you can find a way to stop the "update" process from notifying you, great, if you don't, learn to leave with them - it's better than doing the update.
After another day experience with this update, I figured out that:
1. The "Google Play Services" processes takes 30% of the CPU all the time, and causes my battery to run out after 6 or so hours. This was not the case before the update. I can't figure out what is calling the "Google Play Services". I see the evil "File Manager" running, but it's not taking up CPU, and nothing else takes CPU except the "Google Play Services".
2. Every once in a while - several times each day (!) - something "hangs" in the OS, and applications start to hang: sometimes they can't start, sometimes they can't read their data (!?), sometimes they can't connect to the network (!?), and other bizarre phenomena. Rebooting the phone solves the problem, and I've been doing this several times each day now. Before that I rarely had to reboot the phone (maybe once a week).
Avoid this update. Like the plague. Shame on Alcatel / TCL.
Mankann said:
Code:
pm uninstall --user 0 com.package.name
(this uninstalls system apps for the current user, so that they cannot be launched, do not notify about their updates in Google Play, and this works without root)
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Doesn't work for me:
pm uninstall --user 0 com.jrdcom.filemanager
Error: java.lang.SecurityException: Package null does not belong to 10096