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
Hello guys, my fingerprint reader is not always working as it is intended. If it is working unlocking my phone isn't a problem, it is as fast as it should be. Also guestures on the fingerprint reader are working fine - then sometimes the fingerprint reader doesn't recognize that I put a finger on it. No vibration and no unlocked phone (obiviously) and I have to enter my pin to enter my phone.
Reboot doesn't resolve this issue, as it comes back a few minutes after restart. Phone is about a month old and on the latest Emui firmware. Any suggestions beside full wipe and returning to service center?
Thanks in advance!
The weird thing is that it doesn't even vibrate as to show that it didn't recognized the fingerprint, but it just doesn't show signs of life... And neither a reboot solve the issue instantaneously? So strange. Tell me something more, did you updated OTA, or with Firmware Finder? You have something like Greenify installes? Other?
RedSkull23 said:
The weird thing is that it doesn't even vibrate as to show that it didn't recognized the fingerprint, but it just doesn't show signs of life... And neither a reboot solve the issue instantaneously? So strange. Tell me something more, did you updated OTA, or with Firmware Finder? You have something like Greenify installes? Other?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No a reboot doesn't change anything - there is no app installed for battery optimization or a taskkiller or something similar. I've got the phone a month ago, everything else works flawless. I did the first update to android 7 via sd card and received another ota update some days ago. Every update was an official update from Huwaei/Honor, i have a c432 BLN-L21 device with no carrier lock or branding. Build: BLN-L21C432B365, Security patches from 1st August.
Just checked my build, man, and... we're exactly on the same, identical build. I only have to download the update and apply it because I'm still on B360, thing that I'll do probably tomorrow (even if I'd like to download the full package of 2,45GB and not only the upgrade of 547M, I'd like to keep the package for future eventualities since that Huawei removed firmwares from their site). Don't know if the first update via SD card could be responsible somehow or not of this, you remember if the update made by SD was the correct version of firmware that was matching with your initial build?
Does it happen mostly after you take out your phone from pocket and try to unlock with FP? Or some other behaviour while unlocking normally
shashank1320 said:
Does it happen mostly after you take out your phone from pocket and try to unlock with FP? Or some other behaviour while unlocking normally
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It makes no difference if I take it out of the pocket or it is just lying around before trying to unlock it. No other faulty behaviour beside the unlocking problem.
@RedSkull23 I'm pretty sure I had the right firmware and that it was matching the product exactly.
gent0r said:
@RedSkull23 I'm pretty sure I had the right firmware and that it was matching the product exactly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well this tightens the circle of possible causes of this, did your phone ever dropped? I'm starting to think at an hardware problem now...
Try performing a hard factory reset but wipe the Cache Partition first. Be sure to back up all your data before you do this. That should help with any software conflicts.
RedSkull23 said:
Well this tightens the circle of possible causes of this, did your phone ever dropped? I'm starting to think at an hardware problem now...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Seems more of a hardware issue or may be a factory reset can help him here
Even I had the same problem. So the solution is to delete your previous finger print and than enable a new one. Hope this helps....
Hi,i'm new on huawei. I need help to test the upgrade Oreo on a Mate 9. But i read that method needs Unlock bootloader actually or pay a lot funkyhuawei for credits. And other thread doesn't seems very simple to understand. The mate 9 in question is c432 european variant. I need this upgrade because on the latest upgrades:battery is horrible for 4000 mah (needs 2 charge on a day often ), sometimes phone remains with black screen and doesn't start (it needs forced reset), ui crash sometimes crash randomly, speakerphone sometimes breaks mic (and sometimes not), bluetooth sometimes on car doesn't work on mediaplayer and notifications sometimes arrive a lot later (i disable autoclose for all apps) . I tried a reset from recovery but it doesn't change a thing. What should i do? Oreo can fix those things? Because is a shame that a high end(and overvalueted in my opinion) phone have this horrible problems. Thank you and sorry for noob questions.
djgigi94 said:
Hi,i'm new on huawei. I need help to test the upgrade Oreo on a Mate 9. But i read that method needs Unlock bootloader actually or pay a lot funkyhuawei for credits. And other thread doesn't seems very simple to understand. The mate 9 in question is c432 european variant. I need this upgrade because on the latest upgrades:battery is horrible for 4000 mah (needs 2 charge on a day often ), sometimes phone remains with black screen and doesn't start (it needs forced reset), ui crash sometimes crash randomly, speakerphone sometimes breaks mic (and sometimes not), bluetooth sometimes on car doesn't work on mediaplayer and notifications sometimes arrive a lot later (i disable autoclose for all apps) . I tried a reset from recovery but it doesn't change a thing. What should i do? Oreo can fix those things? Because is a shame that a high end(and overvalueted in my opinion) phone have this horrible problems. Thank you and sorry for noob questions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm not sure if Oreo will fix all your problems, but only way to install it is: apply to beta and get in (not sure if it's still open), use HWOTA which requires bootloader unlocked or funkyhuawei. Those are your options, or wait for release of course.
ante0 said:
I'm not sure if Oreo will fix all your problems, but only way to install it is: apply to beta and get in (not sure if it's still open), use HWOTA which requires bootloader unlocked or funkyhuawei. Those are your options, or wait for release of course.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I try some weeks ago on beta ,but they cancelled the subscribe after almost 3 weeks who i send the request. This is really sad. Funky huawei doesn't need unlock bootloader ?but i read that you must pay to do something(and it is a shame..fw upgrade with money?it is android?)A hint to solve problems? It isn't mine(but of my GF) but i try everything .Sometimes phone, when it recieve calls doesn't ring or ring only last 5 seconds. All of those problems are a shame for a high end phone with high price.
djgigi94 said:
Hi,i'm new on huawei. I need help to test the upgrade Oreo on a Mate 9. But i read that method needs Unlock bootloader actually or pay a lot funkyhuawei for credits. And other thread doesn't seems very simple to understand. The mate 9 in question is c432 european variant. I need this upgrade because on the latest upgrades:battery is horrible for 4000 mah (needs 2 charge on a day often ), sometimes phone remains with black screen and doesn't start (it needs forced reset), ui crash sometimes crash randomly, speakerphone sometimes breaks mic (and sometimes not), bluetooth sometimes on car doesn't work on mediaplayer and notifications sometimes arrive a lot later (i disable autoclose for all apps) . I tried a reset from recovery but it doesn't change a thing. What should i do? Oreo can fix those things? Because is a shame that a high end(and overvalueted in my opinion) phone have this horrible problems. Thank you and sorry for noob questions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oreo will not help with your issues.
Try another factory reset, DON'T install any apps and see if it keeps happening. If it does, send your Mate to a repair centre. Might be a defective device (rare, but happens).
robogo1982 said:
Oreo will not help with your issues.
Try another factory reset, DON'T install any apps and see if it keeps happening. If it does, send your Mate to a repair centre. Might be a defective device (rare, but happens).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh well. I must try it by myself, but I think is almost impossible because it is of my gf and I must convince her to try to do a little change to try it. Thanks for reply I wait another answer. I try 4 resets. But same problems.
i use a new C432 (B197) No sync; no W-Lan; 2G; no BT; No NFC; 130 apk’s installed and have 0.2%/h battery drain- = ~5%/24! This is only 30% of my older LG G5.
If it is not possible to solve this problem with a factory reset, return it to the store you have buy it. If this is not possible, everything else will have a high risk to get a paper weight!
(After my own experiences, i would try to flash the full stock rom image xx29c432b198. But i can not recommand this way to somebody else, if he do non know more about this procedure)
non-toxic said:
i use a new C432 (B197) No sync; no W-Lan; 2G; no BT; No NFC; 130 apk’s installed and have 0.2%/h battery drain- = ~5%/24! This is only 30% of my older LG G5.
If it is not possible to solve this problem with a factory reset, return it to the store you have buy it. If this is not possible, everything else will have a high risk to get a paper weight!
(After my own experiences, i would try to flash the full stock rom image xx29c432b198. But i can not recommand this way to somebody else, if he do non know more about this procedure)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is older almost one hear this phone. I think is hw problem. But real strange. Probably motherboard problem. Or i don't know. The mate 9 in question have b197 too actually
djgigi94 said:
Hi,i'm new on huawei. I need help to test the upgrade Oreo on a Mate 9. But i read that method needs Unlock bootloader actually or pay a lot funkyhuawei for credits. And other thread doesn't seems very simple to understand. The mate 9 in question is c432 european variant. I need this upgrade because on the latest upgrades:battery is horrible for 4000 mah (needs 2 charge on a day often ), sometimes phone remains with black screen and doesn't start (it needs forced reset), ui crash sometimes crash randomly, speakerphone sometimes breaks mic (and sometimes not), bluetooth sometimes on car doesn't work on mediaplayer and notifications sometimes arrive a lot later (i disable autoclose for all apps) . I tried a reset from recovery but it doesn't change a thing. What should i do? Oreo can fix those things? Because is a shame that a high end(and overvalueted in my opinion) phone have this horrible problems. Thank you and sorry for noob questions.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can download the beta oreo for your mate 9 from the following website:
http://pro-teammt.ru/firmware-database/?firmware_model=MHA-L29&firmware_page=0
Extract the update.app from the zip file. Create a folder "dload" on your sdcard. Turn off the phone and press power+volume up+volume down at the same time for the software to be updated even with locked bootloader. I do not think your phone's problem will be solved just by the software update. However you can always try to update your phone to oreo.
[email protected] said:
You can download the beta oreo for your mate 9 from the following website:
http://pro-teammt.ru/firmware-database/?firmware_model=MHA-L29&firmware_page=0
Extract the update.app from the zip file. Create a folder "dload" on your sdcard. Turn off the phone and press power+volume up+volume down at the same time for the software to be updated even with locked bootloader. I do not think your phone's problem will be solved just by the software update. However you can always try to update your phone to oreo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No you can't. dload only works with "offline" firmware (https://forum.xda-developers.com/mate-9/development/rom-service-roms-t3693545).
Did you buy it new ? How old is it ? is it for your region ? Why have you not contacted Huawei ?
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.
Click to expand...
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?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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