Related
Introduction:
So there has been a lot of bugs & glitches coming out as we get to use the phone more and more and they just seemed to be all over the forum and the forum is looking very unorganized.
Request: Can any of our G2x forum Mod's made this a sticky?
Here is the list of bugs and glitches that i have compiled from the whole forum:
**Added 04/23/2011**
Media Scanner bug
After leaving a 4G area phone will say that is connected to 4G but in reality there is no data and will not change to 3G/2G
When pressing home button or just navigating the home screens, screen flashes/flickers (Happened to me too)
Kinetic scrolling could be improved and the screen shakes when holding a position with your finger:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1044179 and http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1046473
No System UI sounds nor a System Volume setting
Bleeding LCD mostly 2 upper corners
Overheating when playing games, tethering, HDMI mirroing.
WiFi not connecting with some routers. Seems to happen with Dual band routers
WiFi Profiles keeps getting disabled
Phone connected to UMTS but displaying 4G notification icon
4G turning on when WiFi is supposely "On"
4G disconnects too much and randomly switching between Edge/3G/4G in same area with 4G
4G is not as fast as other phones with same hardware http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1043716
Battery draining fast possibly due to this connection glitches
Freezes and Reboots
Connecting Headphones, or any Input will make Mic mute. When connected to car input, caller can the other person but person called can't hear caller.
Music turns off when opening camera
Phone screen brightness gets really dark when opening camera and auto-brightness is enabled
GPS works but sometimes slow to lock (Work around: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1009529&highlight=gps Thanks Mitta from LG 2X forums for getting a working fix and to the many other work around offered)
Cannot adjust brightness or Screen timeout settings anywhere only with market apps
Email signature keeps changing to default even after modifying it or removing it.
Bluetooth stops working after using WiFi or Wireless tethering
Audio would randomly stop working after having it plugged in to a TV via HDMI cable.
Lock screen sound won't work
SD card not been able to be mount
I know there is a Poll with an "Issue Summary" but it is lacking a list of bugs and glitches in the Original Post.
Anyways, So this thread is really to compile a list of the known bugs and glitches to make it easier for the Devs to determine what they should be looking at to fix and for everyone to look for known issues and make the G2x Forums neater.
I strongly believe that this forums are visited by manufacturers and by phone companies, almost 99% sure about this. So let's make the issues known to get them working on hardware optimizations and software.
Here is the link to the Issue Summary Poll: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1043500&page=10
I read all 10 pages and could say that the most common issues posted in that thread are reboots and freezes.
I will be updating this post as bugs and glitches comes out.
Please post your glitches if they are not mention in this thread. so that I can add those
Thanks for posting. Good work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
tenbeau said:
Thanks for posting. Good work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For a better G2x!
I have had the phone since release day on the 20th and have had none of these problems *knocks on wood* although I did come across something really weird. I had the phone in my pocket and I don't know if I accidentally turned it on or whatever but I took it out of my pocket at one point and it was kind of hot on the back. When I hit the power button I got nothing so I had to battery pull and then power it on and that worked. When it booted the battery was under 5% (battery was over 50% when I initially put it in my pocket which was only about an hour or so when I noticed it was off and felt hot). So I plugged it in charged it back to 100% and have been fine since that. Has anyone else had this happen to them?
Nice work on getting this thread started. Is there any way you can also put links to the threads that these issues are talked about? I would be great to be able to read the thread easily if you have that issue with your phone. May help the devs find things easier too!
I am having an issue with my screen. if I am on a web page that is not designed for mobile phones and I push my finger on the screen and don't move it all, the screen will shake endlessly until I remove my finger. It will also do it if I hold when flipping between home screens. Does anyone else have this issue?
Please forgive my ignorance if these aren’t really bugs or are simply repeats of the above, but I discovered two new items with both my wife and my G2x’s that I’d like some feedback on.
I had zero data in WI tonight where T-mobile shows as having data coverage. The phone display shows that I am connected to AT&T for voice with a GPRS signal. Additionally, neither navigation or Google maps give me my location when both of these features had worked when I had data.
I’d be interested in learning if these items are actually bugs of if they are simply related to the available networks and G2x hardware. If bugs, does it sound like they could be fixed through a software update?
Thanks in advance.
I have 2 more bugs to add. Both of them being pretty damn major.
1. Once you leave a 4G tower it will not downgrade to 3G or Edge for data but voice will still work. The 4G icon is still there but you will have no data connection. In order to get your data working again you have to manually disable then re-enable it through network settings.
2. After removing the device from my pocket, it is in car mode. (Had to freeze the app so it stopped)
One other minor bug people are experiencing is upon awaking the device it will flash your home screen before your lock screen.
I can't see myself keeping this device after the sensation comes out. In my opinion, the G2x is possibly the buggiest device I have ever had and was not ready for launch. I will keep exchanging my G2x until I get one that works 100%.
By the way, I had to freeze "My Account" app and "Wifi Calling" because they were accessing data constantly.
Kinetic scrolling could be improved and the screen shakes when holding a position with your finger:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1044179
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1046473
Some are reporting slower data speeds than normal:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1043716
http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2011/04/20/review-t-mobile-g2x-optimus-2x/
No System UI sounds nor a System Volume setting.
OP Updated!
Xeyro said:
Please forgive my ignorance if these aren’t really bugs or are simply repeats of the above, but I discovered two new items with both my wife and my G2x’s that I’d like some feedback on.
I had zero data in WI tonight where T-mobile shows as having data coverage. The phone display shows that I am connected to AT&T for voice with a GPRS signal. Additionally, neither navigation or Google maps give me my location when both of these features had worked when I had data.
I’d be interested in learning if these items are actually bugs of if they are simply related to the available networks and G2x hardware. If bugs, does it sound like they could be fixed through a software update?
Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for posting Xeyro, few questions for you,
Did you had a T-Mobile phone before and did you used in this area?
Was it 4G? If yes, where you able to connect fine to the network?
If your answers are yes then your G2x should be connecting just fine as well if not then there is a glitch/bug with the phone. Try rebooting to see if that helps.
Xeyro said:
I had zero data in WI tonight where T-mobile shows as having data coverage.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Figured it out; user error. Apparently there's a check-box in the wireless and network settings to allow data roaming. Apparently this box is unchecked by default, and checking the box has restored data connection to the phone.
Thanks for the response Moshe.
Looks like we were posting at about the same time, but I figured out my error. The phones are set by default to not allow data roaming, and you have to manually make the change in the settings. Everything seems to be working as expected at this point.
Xeyro said:
Figured it out; user error. Apparently there's a check-box in the wireless and network settings to allow data roaming. Apparently this box is unchecked by default, and checking the box has restored data connection to the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I understood your problem correctly, that is no fix at all. Data roaming is turned off by default because data roaming charges are massive. The reason it started 'working' is because you allowed the phone to roam data over the AT&T network instead of connecting to tmobile towers. Watch out because your next bill is going to be a whopper.
dasbin said:
If I understood your problem correctly, that is no fix at all. Data roaming is turned off by default because data roaming charges are massive. The reason it started 'working' is because you allowed the phone to roam data over the AT&T network instead of connecting to tmobile towers. Watch out because your next bill is going to be a whopper.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the heads up dasbin. I decided to give T-Mobile a call to make sure I wasn't being charged an arm and a leg and this is what I learned.
The T-mobile coverage in this area is actually provided through 3rd party networks, so while the maps show data coverage, it may not be T-mobile directly providing the data. Therefore, the option to roam data needs to be turned on. T-mobile only charges for international data roaming, so there are no extra fees as this is how the network is designed to work.
I think then the "bug" isn't as much of a bug as an understanding that the phone is not configured by default to allow non T-mobile data networks. I wonder how often this has caused some of the dropping of data that others have experienced?
I only have the bleeding issue and reboot issues. If I exchange, it could be a lot worse.. decisions decisions..
You should include the Media Scanner bug.
If I put any substantial amount of media (more than 3mp3s) on my sd card, media scanner glitches and never finishes scanning, making camera, music, video, gallery, etc unusable.
I've seen at least one other poster with this issue.
ericc191 said:
I only have the bleeding issue and reboot issues. If I exchange, it could be a lot worse.. decisions decisions..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yea, same here, and when I have some free time I want to look at the kernal source, I'm thinking the frezzing/rebooting is caused by it, its acting the same as my mt4g did using custom kernals until those were fixed, so I think once we can get some custom kernals out we'll be good to go on that issue.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA Premium App
OP Updated with the Media Scanner bug and some other ones
dasbin said:
If I understood your problem correctly, that is no fix at all. Data roaming is turned off by default because data roaming charges are massive. The reason it started 'working' is because you allowed the phone to roam data over the AT&T network instead of connecting to tmobile towers. Watch out because your next bill is going to be a whopper.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
T-Mobile only charges for international roaming.
Hello everyone, first off introductions out of the way.
Former iPhone 2g, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, Droid 1, Nexus one, iPhone 4, Atrix 4G owner.
Now i've got the G2x.
Let me first get the scenario out of the way before I go on my Epic rant, in case those of you don't want to read my rant.
Went to bed last night, with Wifi TURNED ON, plugged into the charger.
Woke up this morning woke up the phone, looked at the top and the wifi icon was missing and 4G icon was missing just bars and that's it.
I turned off Wifi with the Widget, then turned it back on and all of a sudden a bunch of stuff POPPED as the Wifi icon came back.
I had 2 missed phone calls, 3 text messages and tons of Emails both IMAP and Gmail waiting for me.
So wait a second..I didn't even have a data connection???
Actually you know what.. as i've been writing this, i don't even feel like going on a rant.. it's just not worth wasting my breath.
So tell me people, what type of Epic fix and tweaks Do i have to make to my phone in order to be able to fix this BASIC function not working properly.
What is this i'm hearing about a Wifi sleep policy? and Why can't I have a data connection if things go "sour" with the software not working properly.?
Go to settings, wireless and network settings> wifi settings, hit menu> advanced> turn wifi sleep policy to never. It seems u may have the policy so wifi disables when the screen is off. Also make sure u have mobile data enabled
My phone still does odd things now and then.
But my wife's has data issues. We will be replacing hers.
Sent from my LG-P999 using XDA Premium App
xdmds said:
Go to settings, wireless and network settings> wifi settings, hit menu> advanced> turn wifi sleep policy to never. It seems u may have the policy so wifi disables when the screen is off. Also make sure u have mobile data enabled
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How do you make it so "Mobile Data" is enabled? where is that setting at.
Go to settings > wireless and network settings > mobile networks > check the data enabled box.
It's already checked for me.
That still doesn't explain why the data is turning off when my Wifi goes haywire.
does this have something to do with the Wifi calling app? I have that Disabled as well, but that still doesn't mean there's a bug out there somewhere that's still disabling my data.
A rant over this seems like overkill if this is the only example of this for you. Sometimes stuff like this happens and the data connection may drop out. Has it happened again? If have not had any connection issues at all on my G2x so it is not a phone problem. Could be any number of setting or network issues, or just a one time glitch.
xdmds said:
Go to settings, wireless and network settings> wifi settings, hit menu> advanced> turn wifi sleep policy to never. It seems u may have the policy so wifi disables when the screen is off. Also make sure u have mobile data enabled
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! I had no idea that such a setting existed... I get almost no signal in my apartment, and am heavily dependent on Wi-Fi, so I was losing all data every night until I changed this.
The OP is right - if the phone can't do the basics it's pretty much useless no matter how fast the processor is. In his situation, when Wi-Fi dropped, the phone should have failed over to 2/3/4G. To have a slew of calls, e-mails, and texts not make it through means the phone was off the network entirely.
We're all big boys and girls and know that no electronic device is perfect. The G2X is just plain erratic. The problems are intermittent, not consistently repeatable, and can screw up using the phone for basic communication in the process.
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are a mess - especially the way they interact with the 2/3/4G and the different apps loaded and pre-loaded on the phone.
Here's my list of issues:
1) Wi-Fi loses signal even though the task bar indicator shows full strength.
2) Apps turn on 2/3/4G even when Wi-Fi is enabled.
3) Wi-Fi Calling enables itself randomly shutting down all other data. If item 1 occurs the outcome is what happened to the OP - the phone's off the network.
4) The task indicator's always showing 4G whether it's connected at 4G or not and the signal strength shown isn't accurate - sometimes it's optimistic sometimes it's pessimistic.
5) The Bluetooth profile appears and disappears randomly and doesn't show at all if Bluetooth is turned off.
6) Wi-Fi won't connect to anything less than a strong signal but will hold the connection if it weakens. If you try to connect to a weak signal it disables the profile of the device it's trying to connect to.
If you look at the post count of the people that are having connectivity issues they're fairly senior members and have owned a lot of high-end phones. I've played around with two demo units at two different T-Mobile stores and most of what I've detailed above is repeatable. If you aren't a heavy Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or outside connectivity user and/or don't depend on your phone's reliability for business some or all of this may not matter to you or you may not experience it. But, choose to accept it or not, this phone (and not my particular unit) has some serious stability problems.
I like the phone and I'm sure that because of the severity and quantity of the problems that there will be an update soon. That's the reason I'm keeping it. If I had to venture a guess, I'd say that T-Mobile needed something newsworthy to show they're still viable as a stand-alone entity after the AT&T acquisition was announced. They rushed this phone to market to generate buzz and it shows.
I've had no issues with this device but my post count is pretty low
jlevy73 said:
I've had no issues with this device but my post count is pretty low
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Out of curiosity, how do you use your phone? Are you using Exchange push? Wi-Fi calling to make and receive calls from foreign counties? Responding to Twitter and Facebook posts on behalf of a 10K person company? Connecting to a Cisco Bluetooth conferencing speaker system to hold multi-party conference calls? Do you average 8GB of data (not songs and movies) a month? Is your average monthly bill over $300?
I don't mean to be *****y, but after playing with three random samples of this phone I find it hard to believe that there could possibly be a perfect specimen out there as the majority of this is caused by software and we're all using the exact same ROM.
Your radio must have failed completely since voice calls and SMS don't require a data connection to Tx or Rx. I seem to have no problem connecting to weak WiFi signals. I never leave WiFi enabled unless I'm browsing or downloading so I can't speak on the long-term effects of staying connected to an AP for any length of time.
These seem like software issues to me so I wouldn't worry about it too much. There will be an official update soon and probably a good amount of roms to come. For now, I suggest toggling WiFi on only while actively using data.
BarryH_GEG said:
Out of curiosity, how do you use your phone? Are you using Exchange push? Wi-Fi calling to make and receive calls from foreign counties? Responding to Twitter and Facebook posts on behalf of a 10K person company? Connecting to a Cisco Bluetooth conferencing speaker system to hold multi-party conference calls? Do you average 8GB of data (not songs and movies) a month? Is your average monthly bill over $300?
I don't mean to be *****y, but after playing with three random samples of this phone I find it hard to believe that there could possibly be a perfect specimen out there as the majority of this is caused by software and we're all using the exact same ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you need all this from a phone, you should not be an early adopter.
BarryH_GEG said:
Out of curiosity, how do you use your phone? Are you using Exchange push? Wi-Fi calling to make and receive calls from foreign counties? Responding to Twitter and Facebook posts on behalf of a 10K person company? Connecting to a Cisco Bluetooth conferencing speaker system to hold multi-party conference calls? Do you average 8GB of data (not songs and movies) a month? Is your average monthly bill over $300?
I don't mean to be *****y, but after playing with three random samples of this phone I find it hard to believe that there could possibly be a perfect specimen out there as the majority of this is caused by software and we're all using the exact same ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm a business owner so I push my device pretty hard. Exchange push, plus multiple other push accounts through K-9. Wifi calling placed and received from China, although I prefer normal network for that. I definitely pushing at least 5gb/month and my monthly bill is atrocious.
Out of curiosity, how do you use your phone? Are you using Exchange push? Wi-Fi calling to make and receive calls from foreign counties? Responding to Twitter and Facebook posts on behalf of a 10K person company? Connecting to a Cisco Bluetooth conferencing speaker system to hold multi-party conference calls? Do you average 8GB of data (not songs and movies) a month? Is your average monthly bill over $300?
I don't mean to be *****y, but after playing with three random samples of this phone I find it hard to believe that there could possibly be a perfect specimen out there as the majority of this is caused by software and we're all using the exact same ROM.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know why you'd be using a just-released phone with such a laundry-list of business requirements, either.
Yea the lovely iphone couldn't do MMS or exchange for 3 years. They still don't have a native Facebook app.
Anyway, I replied to this thread before but it was lost to the server being funny.
But what happened is quite logical and working properly. WiFi calling and WiFi Sleep policy are both set a default setting which saves the most battery. Using them both in tandem would require set and testing, which obviously wasn't done.
So really you can not blame the phone for the WiFi shutting down after X period of inactivity and WiFi Calling going stale.
I average about 6-7mb a month of pure data (I don't download anything on my phone except a rare occasion) in addition to what I use on WiFi. It is working great for me. Sure I'm not tethering a Cisco Bluetooth Speaker, but whatever.
I've used WiFi Calling on my Nexus One and it seems much more stable then I'm used to. WiFi calling is not a cellular repeater and depending on traffic may impede performance.
I do suspect there are odd/missing bluetooth profiles though. But lucky for us the kernel was already released so it will get fixed by the great developers here if not by Tmobile/LG themselves.
Irishdoom said:
I don't know why you'd be using a just-released phone with such a laundry-list of business requirements, either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Adequately tested, there should be no problem. The G2X is considered an "Enterprise Class" device which means it's recommended for National and Multi-National accounts. I had one of the first HD2's and G2's and didn't use them any differently and had no problems with core functionality. There's a big difference between quirky behavior and not being able to function as a phone which was the complaint posted by the OP.
player911 said:
I've used WiFi Calling on my Nexus One and it seems much more stable then I'm used to. WiFi calling is not a cellular repeater and depending on traffic may impede performance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wi-Fi Calling is terrific and a feature that sets T-Mobile apart. I used it heavily on my G2 and it was pretty reliable. There is no setting to make it default to "on" yet out of the box it enabled itself and it's randomly enabled itself a couple of times when the phone's been up for hours. It hard-locks the 2/3/4G data signal to off so if the phone's drops Wi-Fi it's basically off the network. The app's supposed to revert to 2/3/4G in the absence of a Wi-Fi signal when you have the setting checked as "Wi-Fi Preferred" which it only does randomly.
So, if in the middle of the night, Wi-Fi Calling enabled itself on the OP's phone and then lost the Wi-Fi signal it was basically off the network. I've seen Wi-Fi Calling enable itself on my phone and the two in the store. I'm assuming it's the same version of the app that's on the G2 so, again, there's something flaky with LG's implementation of Wi-Fi, the 2/3/4G radio, or both.
I'm only belaboring this because of people saying "it's your phone" or "it's got to be hardware." This phone has issues with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth that need to be corrected.
jlevy73 said:
I've had no issues with this device but my post count is pretty low
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
same thing here
Hardcore business users need a blackberry... Especially if they value their privacy, trade secrets, or if they handle government related information.
Sent from my LG-P999
I want to create an "un-steal-able" phone.
Of course this is impossible, but I want to make it as difficult as possible for thieves to get away with it, and as easy as possible for me to find it.
Assumptions:
Phone has available call and text messaging service.
Phone has internet capabilities and "permanent" Internet access. (We will consider 2G, 3G, or 4G cellular access with a data plan to be permanent. Depending on an open WiFi network to be available at all times is unreliable).
Phone is on and has some charge in its battery. (If the phone is off, we can't do anything).
Phone has an accurate GPS receiver.
Requirements:
Software that relays GPS coordinates via an Internet connection. As a backup for when there is no cellular data signal, software that relay GPS coordinates via SMS
Software cannot be disabled or removed without authentication.
GPS on phone cannot be turned off without authentication (alternative: remote activation of GPS receiver via Internet or SMS)
Cellular data and/or WiFi cannot be turned off without authentication (alternative: remote activation of cellular data via SMS)
Where GPS signal can be used for macro location (within 10 to 30 meters), there must be some method of micro location (within a few feet).
Phone cannot be powered off via any button press, on-screen menu, or removal of battery
Phone cannot be wiped by on-screen menu or by computer cable connection
Now I have approached this solution from two starting points: the iPhone running iOS, or an Android-based smartphone. Both have different advantages and technical details. Let's look at how we can meet each of these requirements one by one.
iOS solution:
Unfortunately, if your iPhone is not jailbroken, your choices are not so great. But FindMyiPhone does do the basic job of relaying GPS coordinates. For a jailbroken iPhone, iCaughtu seems to be the best of the bunch from the research I have done and gives you a bunch of cool anti-theft features.
and
Using the options under Settings -> General -> Restrictions, you can disallow users from deleting apps AND from turning off location services. Of course, you can accomplish something similar by simple setting a password to access your phone. Unfortunately I haven't yet seen any program that allows you to remotely activate the GPS receiver on an iPhone.
Unfortunately I don't think there is anyway to prevent a thief from disabling your cellular connection other than setting a password on the whole phone. This has its advantages and disadvantages.* Similarly, I don't see any way to remotely activate the Cellular Data on an iPhone via SMS.
This is where things start to get more complex and we need to start thinking of actually modding the phone. So far the best RF tracking solution I have found (in terms of size, cost, and effectiveness) is a cheap chinese-made product that I picked up in Asia and cannot find a link to. This one is very similar http://www.amazon.com/Loc8tor-LTD-Loc8torLite-LOC8TOR-Lite/dp/B0012GMDC4/ but the reviews are meh. It is RF-based but does not really give any directional information. Once you are close to the RF transmitter (using the GPS coordinates), you can use the RF receiver to basically play a little game of hot and cold and walk in different directions all while watching if the signal gets stronger or weaker. I've done two real world field test with the similar device and was able to successfully find a purposely concealed bag in a slum twice.
But how do we get this into the phone? If you disassemble the transmitter, it is a very small circuit board, but most phones these days are already packed to the brim. Additionally, these units need power, so you would need to solder it into the phone's power system.
For the iPhone, concerns about a battery-based shutdown are reduced by its "sealed" battery compartment. Of course, with the right tools, someone can get to the battery. But this is not likely to happen quickly and will likely occur in a specific home or shop, from which we can get coordinate data. We only need to delay the thieves long enough to track them. The bad news is that preventing an iPhone from being shutdown via button press is much more difficult. Even with a lockscreen password, anyone can turn off an iPhone with a long power/sleep button press. I found a mod on Cydia that required a password before any shutdown, but it seemed it was only compatible with iOS 5 and I am running iOS 6.
This is the most challenging problem, as the most common method for any experienced phone thief to avoid detection is simply to power off the phone (or disable internet/3G) and as quickly as possible get to a computer and perform a complete wipe using any number of computer programs. A password on the phone can prevent access to the menu options for resetting factory default, but very little can prevent a thief from physically connecting the phone to a computer and wiping it.
Again I turn to physical modding. Would it be possible to modify the iPhone connector in such a way that the pins for power and charging would still work, but the pins for a data connection would require a specially modified cable to conect to the computer? Once my phone is through its initial setup and/or, most anything I need to do as far as data can be accomplished via WiFi. If needed, I would keep my special data cable at my home only and never take it out. But losing the ability to charge from any iPhone cable would be too debilitating to daily usage.
So I ask the experts: how can I improve on or solve these ideas? Is there software out there that I don't know about, either on the App Store or the Cydia Store? Are there ways to remotely control the iPhone's wireless and GPS functions via text? There should be. Any ideas on incorporating a tiny RF transmitter into the iPhone? Is there any way to prevent an iPhone from being shut down via the sleep button? Is there anyway to sabotage the lightning connector in an intelligent way to prevent a computer-based wipe?
*Advantages and Disadvantage of a phone-wide password. Honestly, I would rather not have a lockscreen password on my phone. I'm not a privacy freak and I don't care if a thief sees my pictures of e-mails or Facebook. If my phone is stolen, I'm hoping it is stolen by an idiot and that they WON'T try to wipe the phone. None of my solutions are foolproof. Everything in here is about delaying the thief long enough to track them. If an idiot steals a phone without a password, he MIGHT just use it as is. But if an idiot steals a phone and can't doing ANYTHING with it, he is going to take it to someone who will be smart enough to wipe it MUCH SOONER. Of course, the disadvantage is a loss of privacy, but iCaughtu has a cool solution for that too.
Android solution:
Android phones are much easier to root, and software solutions exist that will work reasonably well even for nonrooted phones. The best software I have seen is Avast! Anti-theft (part of Mobile Security), AndroidLost, and Cerebrus. All of these can report GPS coordinates, and with Avast! at least, you can also see coordinate history online and actually follow the path of your phone through the minutes, hours, and/or days. AndroidLost can report GPS coordinates online OR via SMS!
,
and
Avast! cannot be removed without a pin code. It can also prevent the user from during off Cellular Data and GPS. AndroidLost can be used to activate WiFi, Cellular Data and/or GPS via internet command OR via SMS. There are a ton of other internet-based and SMS commands in AndroidLost as well. Even without an active lockscreen password, a thief would be powerless to disable communication between the tracking software and you. In this department, Android truly outshines the iOS solution.
Getting an RF tracker into an Android-based phone has the same challenges as an iPhone.
I haven't found ANY glimmer of hope for a mode to disable shutdown via a long-button-press on Android. At least I found one mod for iPhone, even if it was the wrong iOS version. This is a huge gap in the goal of building an "unstealable" phone for both operating systems. As for the battery: Android phones come in many flavors. Many have removable batteries, so if you want to make life more difficult for thieves you'll have to limit yourself to a phone with a "sealed" battery compartment such as the HTC One.
A computer-based wipe via USB cable presents the same challenges as an iPhone EXCEPT that we're dealing with a more standard interface so that MIGHT make modding an easier task. Is there any way to make the microUSB jack more "proprietary" so that any normal USB cable can charge it but only a specially one can transmit data?
There is one other detailed I am interested in, but which is, I believe, currently impossible since it would require modifications to the lowest level of the phone's software, and that would be an auto-on feature. If the phone's battery dies for any reason (or any other shutdown that is not user-initiated), I would love for the phone to automatically power back on whenever it receives a new power source (either being plugged into the wall or getting a fresh battery).
Why am I so interested in doing this? I live in a third-world country and I travel to many other third-world countries. For 3 years, I guess I had good luck, but in the past year I have had three phones and a laptop stolen from me on the street and I have been punched in the face. Several of my friends have also had phones stolen during that time, and one friend was even kidnapped and robbed. Maybe crime is getting worse or maybe it is just coincidence. I have tried to be more careful each time, but one should not live life in fear or blame ones carelessness alone. It is time to fight back. Money, time, memories, self-respect, and peace of mind have been taken away from me and from people I care about. These thieves bear the real responsibility for these crimes. And the police and government here is largely unwilling, incapable, uncaring, and/or corrupt. Maybe I can help others as well.
Thanks for your suggestions and input.
Your thoughts are well expressed.
Hopefully something is coming fast to consumers.:good:
OK, so I know M7 isn't the latest CM build, but it's the latest one without issues with GPS, so that's what I'm on since I use GPS a lot.
So last week I replaced my home router. This of course means reconfiguring all the wifi devices around the house, including my wifi thermostat. The unique thing about the thermostat is that to configure it, you connect a laptop/phone/tablet to the thermostat's ad-hoc wifi network, tell it which infrastructure ssid to connect to, verify a pin from the thermostat's screen (so nobody can hijack your t-stat from outside the house), and that's it.
thing is, when you use Cyanogenmod (at least on the relay) to connect to an adhoc network, it breaks wifi. what happens is you can't connect to any other wifi networks, and can't even scan to see available networks till you reboot. sometimes it doesn't work even after a reboot. strangely, the tethering/hotspot still works fine. you just can't connect the phone to a hotspot whether it's at home or work or anywhere.
i'd been having other issues and general slowness with the phone, so i decided to backup a few apps with TiBu and do a factory reset. that worked... till i tried connecting to the thermostat again, and it broke wifi completely this time.
solution? go to /data/misc/wifi/ and rename wpa_supplicant.conf to wpa_supplicant.conf.old (or whatever, as long as it's a different name) and reboot. the system will automatically create a new conf file. boom - wifi fixed.
obviously this requires root, but that's not an issue in CM. I doubt it matters, but i used ES file explorer since it's got a good root filesystem browser and mounting / or system as RW is a simple matter of a checkbox in the settings.
when i compared the newly created wpa_supplicant.conf with the one i'd renamed (.old) the only real difference i could see was the saved networks at the bottom. so you might be able to get away with simply deleting the offending network={ blah blah } section instead of completely renaming the conf file. the advantage here would be if you have a bunch of saved networks that you don't want to get rid of, it will keep those saved networks. the conf file is a plaintext file so it's easy enough to understand what you're looking at, and modify appropriately.
MODS: I apologize if this is in the wrong forum. I figured since it probably only applies to CM, I should post it in the dev forum rather than the general one. If it needs to be moved, I don't be offended.
Gibson99 said:
OK, so I know M7 isn't the latest CM build, but it's the latest one without issues with GPS, so that's what I'm on since I use GPS a lot.
So last week I replaced my home router. This of course means reconfiguring all the wifi devices around the house, including my wifi thermostat. The unique thing about the thermostat is that to configure it, you connect a laptop/phone/tablet to the thermostat's ad-hoc wifi network, tell it which infrastructure ssid to connect to, verify a pin from the thermostat's screen (so nobody can hijack your t-stat from outside the house), and that's it.
thing is, when you use Cyanogenmod (at least on the relay) to connect to an adhoc network, it breaks wifi. what happens is you can't connect to any other wifi networks, and can't even scan to see available networks till you reboot. sometimes it doesn't work even after a reboot. strangely, the tethering/hotspot still works fine. you just can't connect the phone to a hotspot whether it's at home or work or anywhere.
i'd been having other issues and general slowness with the phone, so i decided to backup a few apps with TiBu and do a factory reset. that worked... till i tried connecting to the thermostat again, and it broke wifi completely this time.
solution? go to /data/misc/wifi/ and rename wpa_supplicant.conf to wpa_supplicant.conf.old (or whatever, as long as it's a different name) and reboot. the system will automatically create a new conf file. boom - wifi fixed.
obviously this requires root, but that's not an issue in CM. I doubt it matters, but i used ES file explorer since it's got a good root filesystem browser and mounting / or system as RW is a simple matter of a checkbox in the settings.
when i compared the newly created wpa_supplicant.conf with the one i'd renamed (.old) the only real difference i could see was the saved networks at the bottom. so you might be able to get away with simply deleting the offending network={ blah blah } section instead of completely renaming the conf file. the advantage here would be if you have a bunch of saved networks that you don't want to get rid of, it will keep those saved networks. the conf file is a plaintext file so it's easy enough to understand what you're looking at, and modify appropriately.
MODS: I apologize if this is in the wrong forum. I figured since it probably only applies to CM, I should post it in the dev forum rather than the general one. If it needs to be moved, I don't be offended.
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It does belong in q&a...but my lollipop validus has working gps
REV3NT3CH said:
It does belong in q&a...but my lollipop validus has working gps
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As does FatToad. However, I do know that the privacy bit in the GPS can be flipped with the drivers we're using in FT. There's an old thread with a post from nard about how to fix that.
Magamo said:
As does FatToad. However, I do know that the privacy bit in the GPS can be flipped with the drivers we're using in FT. There's an old thread with a post from nard about how to fix that.
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Do you understand more about this "privacy bit", what call in the API flips it, or can give me any other pointers about it? The poster previous to you indicates that GPS works with M7. I thought I had it working with M8, but can't really guarantee that, any more. The post from nard was quite an onerous process, including what looked like reflashing the baseband.
It seems to me that if we really understood this problem, the fix would be quite simple, and could be done by a root-access app. I've done more digging, and see that it seems to be common to many models of Samsung Galaxy phones, and some of the fixes involve doing potentially horrible things to the NVRAM. (like clearing it completely - what could possibly go wrong?)
It seems that the GPS is done in the baseband processor, along with the other radio stuff, but so far I haven't been able to find it. The transceiver chip is just a transceiver, no baseband processor. It looks like the baseband processor might be on the Snapdragon main processor chip, though they don't enumerate it well. In addition they mention a "gpsOne engine" without describing exactly what it is.
I'm still relatively ignorant about Android, a year after getting one. (not enough time) I'm better versed on hardware, but this problem seems to be in the cracks between.
Come to think of it, a simple question... Is there documentation on the communications between Android and the baseband processor?
Gibson99 said:
OK, so I know M7 isn't the latest CM build, but it's the latest one without issues with GPS, so that's what I'm on since I use GPS a lot.
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I just took my wife's phone outside and tested it. GPS works on M8 from last summer, as does wifi. AFAIK the only thing that doesn't work on M8 is the video camera. (Stills on the camera work.)
This was an older phone than mine, purchased after mine. With mine I didn't need the radio or bootloader updates, my wife's did. I bought the phone for her, used it briefly with my PureTalkUSA SIM card to make sure it was really unlocked. Then I put CM11 on it.
phred14 said:
I just took my wife's phone outside and tested it. GPS works on M8 from last summer, as does wifi. AFAIK the only thing that doesn't work on M8 is the video camera. (Stills on the camera work.)
This was an older phone than mine, purchased after mine. With mine I didn't need the radio or bootloader updates, my wife's did. I bought the phone for her, used it briefly with my PureTalkUSA SIM card to make sure it was really unlocked. Then I put CM11 on it.
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no idea how old mine actually is; i bought it "like new" from a tmobile reseller here in town and i actually use tmobile for service.
right now i'm on fattoad and once i stepped down my paranoia (i turned on privacy guard for everything including all system apps. hint: don't do that ) it seems good so far. nova launcher has an issue with flickering or disappearing icons, and everything is huge (i need to adjust the dpi) but so far no issues with gps or wifi (though i havent needed to connect to an adhoc network yet).
Do be careful with Privacy Guard. I didn't mention, but although Privacy Guard out of the box tends to make it so that most system apps are unable to be tuned, TeamApexQ likes the option of being able to tune everything in that regard, so we removed the safeguard. (For example, when PG was first ported to CM12, you could tune the settings of the 'Settings' app. Then at our next internal testing build, it was suddenly coming up empty, because CM made a change to exclude tuning for it. We restored full capability because we liked it. But that does mean you can more easily 'shoot yourself in the foot'.
Magamo said:
Do be careful with Privacy Guard. I didn't mention, but although Privacy Guard out of the box tends to make it so that most system apps are unable to be tuned, TeamApexQ likes the option of being able to tune everything in that regard, so we removed the safeguard. (For example, when PG was first ported to CM12, you could tune the settings of the 'Settings' app. Then at our next internal testing build, it was suddenly coming up empty, because CM made a change to exclude tuning for it. We restored full capability because we liked it. But that does mean you can more easily 'shoot yourself in the foot'.
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I've recently begun to wonder if Privacy Guard might be partially responsible for reduced battery life. I'm under the impression that it lies to apps, providing false information when they have insufficient authority for the real information. Some of those permissions in Privacy Guard are to turn radios on and off. If an app thinks it's turned a radio on, and is trying to communicate based on faked (Really, it's going to look like a failure, at this point.) returns, it may spend more time continuing to try instead of just staying asleep. My battery life comes an goes, but I've noticed that on a "bad day" there are quite a few wakeups in the middle of nowhen, when the phone was sitting there in airplane mode with all radios off.
Of course I may be all wet on this - radio control may be one area where it can say, "You're in Airplane Mode, no program can turn the radio on."
good theory, and like you said, it depends on the app and how pg implements each block.
personally i'm having great battery life in L. i have a 5000mah battery, but usually by this point in the day i'm at about 60%. right now i'm still at 83%. i like how it projects your estimated remaining battery time. first time i looked at the battery chart, i lol'd - it was projecting 4.5 days before it died. i can probably get 2 no sweat even with regular usage, but i'd have to turn off sync and really cut back to make it 4 days.
I've had very good results with some simple rules with Privacy Guard. Generally the only thing I've turned off is the ability for Google Play Services and the Google App (Google Now) to wake up my device and to keep it awake. With those turned off, my battery life has gotten to be pretty damned nice... Though it makes Google Play Services FC once maybe every 24 hours. It restarts just fine, no harm no foul.
My battery life seems to be "bimodal". It either barely makes it 24 hours - basically needs recharging every night, or it lasts on the order of three or four days on a charge.
It seems to be somehow wifi-related, if I were guessing, and in an odd way. If wifi is largely off, but occasionally on, the battery life seems shorter. After wifi has been left off for "a while" (quantity not yet determined) it seems to go into long-battery-life mode. If I keep wifi largely on, and occasionally off (basically between known/trusted wifi places) the battery life comes out somewhere in between, consistent with wifi itself taking some power.
It's been really tough to detect any sort of pattern, but this is the best I've been able to come up with so far. I haven't done rigorous testing, or at least attempts at rigor so far have yielded inconsistent results. I've looked at what the Settings->Battery has available for power diagnostics, and one thing I noted was a lot of spurious wakeups when all radios were turned off. That's what led me to tentatively finger Privacy Guard.
I just saw the setting to show "built-in" apps on PG. I see two different entries for google.services and google.services.framework. The former has scads of wakeups - thanks for the tip. The latter has many, but a much smaller number. Did you block wakeups for both? I presume "built-in" are also "system" that others have said shouldn't be bulk-denied in PG. Are there guidelines anywhere about which are OK, which are useful, etc? (Like this case, and perhaps battery life.)
phred14 said:
My battery life seems to be "bimodal". It either barely makes it 24 hours - basically needs recharging every night, or it lasts on the order of three or four days on a charge.
It seems to be somehow wifi-related, if I were guessing, and in an odd way. If wifi is largely off, but occasionally on, the battery life seems shorter. After wifi has been left off for "a while" (quantity not yet determined) it seems to go into long-battery-life mode. If I keep wifi largely on, and occasionally off (basically between known/trusted wifi places) the battery life comes out somewhere in between, consistent with wifi itself taking some power.
It's been really tough to detect any sort of pattern, but this is the best I've been able to come up with so far. I haven't done rigorous testing, or at least attempts at rigor so far have yielded inconsistent results. I've looked at what the Settings->Battery has available for power diagnostics, and one thing I noted was a lot of spurious wakeups when all radios were turned off. That's what led me to tentatively finger Privacy Guard.
I just saw the setting to show "built-in" apps on PG. I see two different entries for google.services and google.services.framework. The former has scads of wakeups - thanks for the tip. The latter has many, but a much smaller number. Did you block wakeups for both? I presume "built-in" are also "system" that others have said shouldn't be bulk-denied in PG. Are there guidelines anywhere about which are OK, which are useful, etc? (Like this case, and perhaps battery life.)
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It's difficult to give tips for this, because everyones' usage is different. Get 'WakeLock Detector' and keep an eye on that when your power drain seems more intense. Disable things that make sense to disable based on that.
I know this isn't really the topic, but just because you get a new router doesn't mean you have to reconfigure everything. Why couldn't you just configure the new router with the SSID and password from the old one?
slartibartfast42 said:
I know this isn't really the topic, but just because you get a new router doesn't mean you have to reconfigure everything. Why couldn't you just configure the new router with the SSID and password from the old one?
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believe me, i tried that. it's stupidly tedious to enter a long keyphrase via the remote control on our tivos and only slightly less tedious on the roku (its remote is much more responsive). laptops and phones aren't as bad since they have keyboards. apparently the devices are smart enough to notice a different MAC behind the BSSID. which if you think about it, is actually a GOOD thing in terms of security, since it makes spoofing a little more difficult. granted, you'd also have to know the wpa key to successfully spoof, but it's a simple check to implement for security's sake, and i'm glad they did.
by the way, do you like fjords?
Magamo said:
It's difficult to give tips for this, because everyones' usage is different. Get 'WakeLock Detector' and keep an eye on that when your power drain seems more intense. Disable things that make sense to disable based on that.
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"Wakelock Detector" has certainly been enlightening. "Google Fit", which makes sense, once you think about it. But the other aspect that was even more important, I just happened to see when one of the other forums popped up on some sort of search result or other.
You have to boot your Android device on battery. If the kernel starts up on charger, it never gets into the deepest power-saving states. When I first started using Wakelock Detector, my phone showed up as being awake something like 97% of the time. Google Fit was the biggest user, but not that big. After seeing that advice I've been careful to boot on battery, and now most of the time is spent asleep. Google Fit still uses wakes as much, but when it's not, the phone is really sleeping. My normal battery life has moved out to two or three days, sometimes into a fourth. As long as I consider Google Fit worth having around, this battery life is good enough for me - there is always a decent window to recharge.
phred14 said:
You have to boot your Android device on battery. If the kernel starts up on charger, it never gets into the deepest power-saving states.
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So much for that theory. A day or two back, after good battery life since this post, I noticed it draining faster. Today I looked, and sure enough, it's not going into deep sleep. I tried rebooting with all four states of wifi and cell service, and nothing has gotten deep sleep back. I think I'm going to try charging tonight, booting while charging, then rebooting after disconnecting. It would be good to have an exact and repeatable set of circumstances that cause both good and bad battery life.
use many $40-60 phones as remote security devices for properties. I connect them to a security camera, via WiFi hotspot. I got really into Sony Xperia M2, and a Z1, all 4g/LTE. I had them on Three PAYG. Funny thing happened. Three went down all over the place, engineering works. Total mobile disconnect. Network came back online. Mobile phone connection did not. I had to travel to each property to restart each phone. The phones wouldn't even ring on incoming call. Total pain.
Question: is it only some brands of phone that fall to reconnect on network reappearance, and need a restart? Is it the network causing it? Do you know a decent second hand LTE alternative to the Xperia Z1? Thanks!
Neil McCauley said:
use many $40-60 phones as remote security devices for properties. I connect them to a security camera, via WiFi hotspot. I got really into Sony Xperia M2, and a Z1, all 4g/LTE. I had them on Three PAYG. Funny thing happened. Three went down all over the place, engineering works. Total mobile disconnect. Network came back online. Mobile phone connection did not. I had to travel to each property to restart each phone. The phones wouldn't even ring on incoming call. Total pain.
Question: is it only some brands of phone that fall to reconnect on network reappearance, and need a restart? Is it the network causing it? Do you know a decent second hand LTE alternative to the Xperia Z1? Thanks!
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All mobile devices can have this behaviour, the longer they are on, the more cached data gets confused due to loading, dumping and reloading cached data as the device switches from one activity to another, rebooting clears the mess and allows it to function normally. Even computers have this issue the longer they are on and running, eventually, something gets buggy.
Droidriven said:
All mobile devices can have this behaviour, the longer they are on, the more cached data gets confused due to loading, dumping and reloading cached data as the device switches from one activity to another, rebooting clears the mess and allows it to function normally. Even computers have this issue the longer they are on and running, eventually, something gets buggy.
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Hey thanks a lot for your help, did not consider that. I wonder if mobile routers avoid this.
Neil McCauley said:
Hey thanks a lot for your help, did not consider that. I wonder if mobile routers avoid this.
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No because it doesn't do anything to change the activity that goes on within the device itself. Managing this issue must be done by the user when necessary, it is inevitable, no matter what you do. You're attempting to fight a losing battle, choose a different battle.