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[Q] [HELP] Heat and signal problems on ZTE V970

Hi to all, I'm writing here because I had my first problems with my v970 (with etotalk rom). This evening I checked my mobile and I found that none of the sim was active (I was not in airplane mode) and I could not activate them, as if they were not in their slots. Meanwhile the upper part of the device began to heat up, so I tought it could be an antenna/receiver problem. I almost forgot to say that I installed Truecaller (deleting Contapps) and updated facebook and few others apps less than one hour before the event, but I already uninstalled them to exclude some of the possible causes. I'll gladly listen to any advice. Thank's in advance. GL

Restart, and see if it continues.

Already tried a lot of times, with or without sim cards. I also noticed an abnormal use of battery.

When did the problem start? What did you do before it started? Does your cellphone always have no signal, or does it come & go (sometimes SIM works, sometimes it doesn't)? Have you checked your APN settings?

post-mortem said:
When did the problem start? What did you do before it started? Does your cellphone always have no signal, or does it come & go (sometimes SIM works, sometimes it doesn't)? Have you checked your APN settings?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The problem started yesterday and I never experimented It till now. As I Said, before I encountered It, I updated some apps from the market and I changed the default caller manager (should I call It in this way?) with Truecaller. I also deleted my sim contacts
. I can't check apn because there are no apns to check (Android shows me the voice "mobile networks" but I can't select it
Update: I tried to restore the original rom, but the problem persists. I also made a check with the recovery, and it shows me that the device cannot detect sim cards. I begin to think that it's an hardware problem (ouch). Am I right?

What did you do in recovery that checks SIM cards? Are you talking about CWM recovery?

post-mortem said:
What did you do in recovery that checks SIM cards? Are you talking about CWM recovery?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, it's the faulty recovery that etotalk sent me with the phone. I would like to install the cwm and flash another rom, but I'll leave that as the last option

If the recovery they sent you is faulty, then what good is it? If there's a custom recovery available for your phone, you might as well go with it, not that it'll solve anything by itself.
You might try inserting some kind of shim along with the SIM card to see if the extra pressure help make contact with the leads. Careful, of course, that whatever you stick in there doesn't stay behind.

post-mortem said:
If the recovery they sent you is faulty, then what good is it? If there's a custom recovery available for your phone, you might as well go with it, not that it'll solve anything by itself.
You might try inserting some kind of shim along with the SIM card to see if the extra pressure help make contact with the leads. Careful, of course, that whatever you stick in there doesn't stay behind.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I know about the recovery, but I was trying to don't invalidate the warranty (as if I'll ever use it...). Now I'm charging the phone, it's already the third time today...

Aw, heck. If you've got warranty, just send it in.

post-mortem said:
Aw, heck. If you've got warranty, just send it in.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, I've got warranty, but sending it in China will cost me almost as much as buying a new one

Ok, I flashed a recovery and a custom rom, but nothing happened.The signal is still absent and the antenna heats up the same way as before. I tried to enter engineer mode and it shows me messages as "com.android.internal.telephony.CommandExcepti on: RADIO_NOT_AVAILABLE", "3G off. Cannot set", ecc... It also shows me "invalid IMEI" if I try to look at it and I cannot change it back with the AT +EGMR command (it says "Radio on" and "SIM State: ABSENT", altough the SIM card is in its slot).

I think you have to crack the case.

ArcheoGian said:
Ok, I flashed a recovery and a custom rom, but nothing happened.The signal is still absent and the antenna heats up the same way as before. I tried to enter engineer mode and it shows me messages as "com.android.internal.telephony.CommandExcepti on: RADIO_NOT_AVAILABLE", "3G off. Cannot set", ecc... It also shows me "invalid IMEI" if I try to look at it and I cannot change it back with the AT +EGMR command (it says "Radio on" and "SIM State: ABSENT", altough the SIM card is in its slot).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmmm... if your phone is reporting invalid IMEI numbers then I would try first to get that working as it should. Read this tutorial and re-write your IMEI numbers.
Then I would try the latest stock ROM, which is available on ZTE support website. Here is the direct link to the ROM.
If your phone still doesn't work after that, then I'm afraid you have a hardware problem.

I have had the telephone for more than one month with no problem. Trying every ROM made by Bruno with no problem at all with signal, but...
About 4 days ago, I started suffering exactly the same problems stated by ArcheoGian. I have tried everything (installing older Roms, rebooting, changing SIMs from 1 to 2, etc.) but unfortunately with no success. I just have to try to install the original ROM, but I supose it will be the same.
Afer a few reboots, I can make the telephone to search for a network, it founds it, it connects, it transfers data, I can make calls, but ramdomly (can be after 30 seconds, 30 minutes or maximum one hour) it disconnects and the red X of death (Xbox 360 times ) appears on top of the screen.
I can try to go and return from airplane mode, or search for networks that it won't re-connect.
I fear it can become a typical problem for this phone.
I am "delighted" to send it back to China and wait for two months to get it back (after explaining it to the seller and so on). Fingers crossed

@prinxo: did you buy it from eto...k? (I don't know if I can write the entire name of the seller)
Update: I tried everything it was told me (except to crack the case, at least not yet...), my last hope is to manually insert the IMEIs inside the data folder. There's just one problem: none of the methods suggested in the link posted by bcgngm works on my phone, so I need to generate the IMEIs whit my pc (I couldn't open the exe with windows 7, I'll try with win xp in a while, otherwise I have to ask someone to create it for me).

ArcheoGian said:
@prinxo: did you buy it from eto...k? (I don't know if I can write the entire name of the seller)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I bought it from another seller at Aliexpress.
As I thought: I tried to re-install an original ROM, and everything remains the same. I thought I was successfull but after one hour the phone disconnected itself from the network. After that moment, I need about 3 re-boots to get signal again and it lasts for just a few minutes.
At this point, I would disregard a software problem.
Happy happy to have to send it back to China.

ArcheoGian said:
Update: I tried everything it was told me (except to crack the case, at least not yet...), my last hope is to manually insert the IMEIs inside the data folder. There's just one problem: none of the methods suggested in the link posted by bcgngm works on my phone, so I need to generate the IMEIs whit my pc (I couldn't open the exe with windows 7, I'll try with win xp in a while, otherwise I have to ask someone to create it for me).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Why do you say it is not working? My preferred method is to use the adb commands (and for that you have to install Android SDK). Don't forget that when you type the commands there is no output message on the screen. The phone has to be restarted so that changes take effect.

bgcngm said:
Why do you say it is not working? My preferred method is to use the adb commands (and for that you have to install Android SDK). Don't forget that when you type the commands there is no output message on the screen. The phone has to be restarted so that changes take effect.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The third and the fourth ones are the only methods to restore IMEI I didn't try, just because I never used sdk and adb (and I'm not sure to be able to use them). I followed the others options (I also created the IMEI file with the russian program), but it continues to show me the "invalid IMEI" message. Can you help me, maybe showing me a good walkthrough?

This ADB Tutorial looks easy to follow. Check it out!

[Q/A][Discussion] NEC Terrain general discussion

Hello!
This is a discussion thread for NEC Terrain.
The hardcore steps, which are bootloader unlock, rooting and even repartitioning have found their solutions and can be found in:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2515602 for the discussion
https://github.com/x29a/nec_terrain_root for an apk which opens for you an ability to have the system area of the phone writeable
https://github.com/alex-kas/nec_terrain for the last ideas on how recovery and boot images should be and a list of stock apps to disable with explanations
So, all questions regarding all the above should be asked in that thread as they are off-topic here.
Currently we have to use this device with its stock components. You are welcome to contribute with workaround related to known oddities here.
Note that many questions were already asked in the above mentioned thread and some of them have answers. However, since that thread is supposed to for the rooting/unlocking, it is more than logic to separate the topics and discuss the end-user phone features here.
If you have a serious idea towards a new custom ROM then you should go here
http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/software-hacking/rom-nec-terrain-custom-rom-t3162061
That thread is dedicated for the developers of a new csutom ROM for NEC Terrain
Thanks for understanding the thread aim and welcome!

First exploration
You can find apps which can be disabled with some explanation why in
https://github.com/alex-kas/nec_terrain/tree/master/system
The speciall account should be paid to the following issues:
Why stock Contacts and Phone must not be disabled
Why apps with provider in their name should treated carefully
Current impossibility to activate a soft keyboard (if you need chinese, for example).
The latter question of a soft-keyboard for this phone has been asked before in
http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=2806270
and has no answer. There is further discussion on this in my github (see above)
On more oddity which at least my phone has: when I travers to
Settings->wrieless & networks->more...->Mobile networks
I see as the last option "network operators". This option i constantly greyed out. It is useful in roaming as often different orpeators have different prices. Also, near the borders of a country som eforeignn operators can be captured. This is bad. Anyone with ideas on this?

i was wondering if someone with a fully functional Terrain upload their /system/app folder and its contents, I've seemed to remove an essential app somewhere and now I can't do phone calls or terrain hotspot.

Daxiongmao87 said:
i was wondering if someone with a fully functional Terrain upload their /system/app folder and its contents, I've seemed to remove an essential app somewhere and now I can't do phone calls or terrain hotspot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can do this tomorrow. I am able to phone call, hotspot, etc. I've noticed that with me, sometimes the phone UI won't show up when someone calls me so I cannot answer the phone... If this happens, just do a Wipe Data on the phone apk and reboot.
Sent from my LG-D415 using XDA Forums

@jasonmerc much appreciated! My backup phone just isn't cutting it for me!

Daxiongmao87 said:
@jasonmerc much appreciated! My backup phone just isn't cutting it for me!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No problem man . Just curious, what is your backup phone?
Sent from my LG-D415 using XDA

My nieces phone for her upcoming birthday. The excuse I'm making to myself is that I'm "test driving" it. It's called the Xperia Tipo, she's only 9 and would be using it at more or less a little toy; no SIM card. I have better ones actually, HTC One and a Moto X (2013), the latter being my favorite phone without a hardware keyboard.

I'm wondering about 2 questions, guys:
1. @Daxiongmao87, what is the hotspot you are talking about?
2. @jasonmerc, can you provide to me the list of your apps, enabled and disabled? Or, if you just uninstalled them (so no disabled) then only enabled.
I want to see the list given in adb shell by
pm list packages -e -f [for ENabled with file-names]
pm list packages -d -f [for DISabled with file-names]
I'm curious about this can/cannot do phone calls. I had established some dependence but you have said you CAN do calls with attsettingsprovider disabled and even see contacts. Very strange to me and I want to find the truth I.e. Can I or not eventually get rid of stock contacts at all.
Thanks in advance.

@alex-kas hotspot meaning wireless tethering. There's a system app with the package name containing hotspot. I believe jasonmerc already provided me with that earlier along with the phone apk, but ultimately did not help fix my issue. My symptom for the two issues are as follows:
Wifi Hotspot (Tethering)
-Under the Tethering & portable hotspot menu, toggling Portable Wi-Fi hotspot reveals a subtext that reads "Failed to set transmit power"
Phone Calls
-My phone no longer notifies me whether or not I have a SIM card. No icon or any indicator at all. My signal icon always shows zero bars. attempting to make a phone causes Contacts to crash ("Unfortunately, Contact has stopped.") and haults the phone call process.
I hope this information helps a little bit. More than likely i'm missing a vital app that I carelessly removed upon tinkering.

Daxiongmao87 said:
@alex-kas hotspot meaning wireless tethering. There's a system app with the package name containing hotspot. I believe jasonmerc already provided me with that earlier along with the phone apk, but ultimately did not help fix my issue. My symptom for the two issues are as follows:
Wifi Hotspot (Tethering)
-Under the Tethering & portable hotspot menu, toggling Portable Wi-Fi hotspot reveals a subtext that reads "Failed to set transmit power"
Phone Calls
-My phone no longer notifies me whether or not I have a SIM card. No icon or any indicator at all. My signal icon always shows zero bars. attempting to make a phone causes Contacts to crash ("Unfortunately, Contact has stopped.") and haults the phone call process.
I hope this information helps a little bit. More than likely i'm missing a vital app that I carelessly removed upon tinkering.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you read my github?
https://github.com/alex-kas/nec_terrain/tree/master/system
If not, try to see there. I spent quite a time and I'm sure my phone IS working in both aspects you mention. Pay attention to: contacts, phone, attsettingsprovider and installation of "dw contacts". All of that is by purpose. Perhaps, my phone would not work w/o "dw contacts" but I just learned that a replacement (which joins phone app and contacts app, which are disintegrated once you remove attsettingsprovider) MUST be.
You will find there files: lists of enabled and disabled programs. Compare with yours. In adb shell:
pm list packages -d [gives disabled packages] -s [if only system]
pm list packages -e [gives enabled packages, all, system and 3-rd party] -s [if only system]
My lists contain ONLY system apps. 'system' are those who reside in /system/apk OR in /data but are upgrades to initial system apps. Hope this helps. If you have put there superuser - it is system now, for example.
I can also imagine that moving some app to sdcard makes the system buggy. I had no full skype autostart then it was moved.
hotspot in the name does NOTHING with tethering.

@alex-kas you should have a full list of apps I have installed already, I PM'd you a list a while back. About to do the /system/app dump, most likely I'll package it as a zip or 7z file and upload and share from Google Drive.
Also as a little update, I mentioned the GPL stuff in my ATT thread. Waiting for a response
Sent from my LG-D415 using XDA

Here's the contents of my /system/app folder. Apparently I don't have ATTSettingsProvider.apk, BUT I still have ATTSettingsProvider.odex if that makes a difference.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0BxupjEjigG4taFZhWXl3RjVULTA/view?usp=sharing

alex-kas said:
Have you read my github?
https://github.com/alex-kas/nec_terrain/tree/master/system
If not, try to see there. I spent quite a time and I'm sure my phone IS working in both aspects you mention. Pay attention to: contacts, phone, attsettingsprovider and installation of "dw contacts". All of that is by purpose. Perhaps, my phone would not work w/o "dw contacts" but I just learned that a replacement (which joins phone app and contacts app, which are disintegrated once you remove attsettingsprovider) MUST be.
You will find there files: lists of enabled and disabled programs. Compare with yours. In adb shell:
pm list packages -d [gives disabled packages] -s [if only system]
pm list packages -e [gives enabled packages, all, system and 3-rd party] -s [if only system]
My lists contain ONLY system apps. 'system' are those who reside in /system/apk OR in /data but are upgrades to initial system apps. Hope this helps. If you have put there superuser - it is system now, for example.
I can also imagine that moving some app to sdcard makes the system buggy. I had no full skype autostart then it was moved.
hotspot in the name does NOTHING with tethering.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://pastebin.com/1yRtvVhz
Thank you for your assist!!
And @jasonmerc thanks a bunch!! Giving it a shot now
EDIT: back online with wifi tethering and cell network thanks again guys
Edit 2: By the way, has anyone experienced unexpected reboots during high RAM usage? Games for example?
Sent from my NEC-NE-201A1A using XDA Free mobile app

@alex-kas after successfully applying your custom recovery and resizing my partitions i seemed to have lost my boot animation and sound. It just shows a black screen. Is this intended? Perhaps with the new build.prop?

Yeap, i disabled bootanimation. It seems to increase the boottime even more.
Sent on the go

Yes, I've experienced reboots when doing multiple things. For me it's usually just watching a video or something... Perhaps it overheats and that's what causes the reboot. On average my Terrain's CPU is somewhere in the 120°F range, and if I use it it can go up to 145°F at times. It will sometimes even get so hot that I get a notification stating the device is too hot to continue charging, and I need to try charging again in a few minutes. Is this normal?
Sent from my LG-D415 using XDA

jasonmerc said:
Yes, I've experienced reboots when doing multiple things. For me it's usually just watching a video or something... Perhaps it overheats and that's what causes the reboot. On average my Terrain's CPU is somewhere in the 120°F range, and if I use it it can go up to 145°F at times. It will sometimes even get so hot that I get a notification stating the device is too hot to continue charging, and I need to try charging again in a few minutes. Is this normal?
Sent from my LG-D415 using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm I thought I replied to this. I experience overheats as well, but mostly when using maps. However, I haven't been able to see a correlation between reboots and overheating. I have a feeling that when available memory gets too low the system becomes unstable and inevitably reboots. With the new partition size I was able to install hearthstone without any need for apps like Link2SD, but upon loading all of its assets to start an actual game session it reboots every single time. When not attempting to play that game, during times where the phone feels sluggish or unresponsive, it often follows with a reboot.

Daxiongmao87 said:
Hmm I thought I replied to this. I experience overheats as well, but mostly when using maps. However, I haven't been able to see a correlation between reboots and overheating. I have a feeling that when available memory gets too low the system becomes unstable and inevitably reboots. With the new partition size I was able to install hearthstone without any need for apps like Link2SD, but upon loading all of its assets to start an actual game session it reboots every single time. When not attempting to play that game, during times where the phone feels sluggish or unresponsive, it often follows with a reboot.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is exactly what I have denoted as the kernel bug, see
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=61915007&postcount=293
In addition to the info there: reboots happen if several not so big files (say, 50MiB each) are read in a row, not just a single file of > 500MiB. Loading a large set of game assets just confirms this.
I traced this bug and the point is that its origin is a mystery to me. It is in a part which I would never imagine was changed from the linux source. Just no need for this.
In short, the ext2,3,4 driver, reading data, then caches them (linux always caches, all it reads, as much as possible). At some point the cache request to allocate the memory just ignores the negative answer (i.e. no memory), it just does not check this answer at all and caches to NULL, i.e. start of the memory, where the memory map is. As it is the kernel, it has right to write there, writes, kernel panics - reboot.
How come? I have no idea. This code was already working in about 2005 ... and bug-free in about 2008 ...

@alex-kas you get what you pay for I guess...
Sent from my LG-D415 using XDA

jasonmerc said:
@alex-kas you get what you pay for I guess...
Sent from my LG-D415 using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What exactly you mean? The phone is not that cheap. If new. Especially from att.

ADB won't stay enabled

Hey guys,
First off: I searched. Nothing on this specific issue.
My issue: I try to enable USB debugging on my OPO, it works for a few seconds (maybe 4s), then it gets automatically disabled. The notification shows up for about 4s and then disappears, when I go back to the developer menu its disabled.
My OPO: 64GB, 12.0-YNG1TAS2I3, Unlocked, Rooted.
If anyone needs any more info I'll gladly provide it.
Quick video of the issue:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Je4M0Q9cOM

manichon said:
Hey guys,
First off: I searched. Nothing on this specific issue.
My issue: I try to enable USB debugging on my OPO, it works for a few seconds (maybe 4s), then it gets automatically disabled. The notification shows up for about 4s and then disappears, when I go back to the developer menu its disabled.
My OPO: 64GB, 12.0-YNG1TAS2I3, Unlocked, Rooted.
If anyone needs any more info I'll gladly provide it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you manage to come up with a solution? I'm having the same problem.
I had this problem on my Moto G (1st gen) and now on my Xperia Z3 Compact and the exact same thing was happening, which makes me think it could be an app or something affecting it (I just restored nearly everything from Titanium Backup).
Is your ADB working in recovery mode? Mine is so therefore it isn't a computer issue

Ok, turns out I accidentally fixed it somehow so I'm posting here incase anyone else encounters the same issues.
I was having issues with Tasker, TitaniumBackup and ADB and I think it was all inter-related. I re-installed Tasker because tasks weren't automatically triggering. After a couple of reboots due to things being odd, everything started working again. I also ran some TB backups before checking if ADB was working but I'm not sure if that affected it.
TLDR; uninstall Tasker (and maybe disable some device admins?)

Yah, it was an app. Cerberus.

New OTA Android update, good or malware?

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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Doesn't work for me:
pm uninstall --user 0 com.jrdcom.filemanager
Error: java.lang.SecurityException: Package null does not belong to 10096

Card sim randomly not found

Hi everyone,
I've installed Havoc OS GSI on my mobile phone (a Blackview BV6800 Pro) and the OS is wonderful. However randomly my card sim isn't recognized anymore. It displays that "no card sim is found". I joined some screenshots.
I notice that it occurs mostly when I want to call someone, write a SMS or when I go to a place where there is not a lot of network (but not everytime in these all cases). I also notice that this bug never occurs during a call!
To solve my problem I need to reboot my phone. If I use my phone a lot I need to reboot a lot and at contrary I don't need to reboot a lot if I sued only a little the phone to call or send SMS.
I see that some people changed their build.prop but I never found these files I don't think I've this kind of settings.
Thank you in advance for your help!

micka31000 said:
Hi everyone,
I've installed Havoc OS GSI on my mobile phone (a Blackview BV6800 Pro) and the OS is wonderful. However randomly my card sim isn't recognized anymore. It displays that "no card sim is found". I joined some screenshots.
I notice that it occurs mostly when I want to call someone, write a SMS or when I go to a place where there is not a lot of network (but not everytime in these all cases). I also notice that this bug never occurs during a call!
To solve my problem I need to reboot my phone. If I use my phone a lot I need to reboot a lot and at contrary I don't need to reboot a lot if I sued only a little the phone to call or send SMS.
I see that some people changed their build.prop but I never found these files I don't think I've this kind of settings.
Thank you in advance for your help!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have a build.prop, all android does. It is in the system partition, you will need a file manager app that has a root explorer in order to access and modify the build.prop.

Maybe it's not implied by the build.prop. How can I test that? Is there any log stored somewhere?