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[Q] Is it bad to turn screen on and off? How long will the SDD last?

Got my first smartphone--Samsung Galaxy S4. I'm not new to these kinds of mobiles devices and I am actually pretty tech savvy (college student), but given this is my first smartphone, I have some questions:
1. Is it bad for the screen to turn it on and off frequently? I find myself doing that because the timeout is set at 30 seconds (which I know I can change) and I like to multitask. I'd assume turning on and off a computer monitor at frequent rates would be detrimental to the hardware, so would doing the same to a smartphone be bad? I intend on using this device for maybe 5 years...
2. How long are SSD in smartphones expected to last? They and tear and have a finite amount of read/write, so reformating the phone on a frequent basis is bad in this regard. So is constantly transferring music and videos back and forth. Is the SSD designed to last way beyond the intended life of the device for the average user? I am definitely going to be doing a ton of my phone and treating it more like a laptop...
Thanks!

mindstormer said:
Got my first smartphone--Samsung Galaxy S4. I'm not new to these kinds of mobiles devices and I am actually pretty tech savvy (college student), but given this is my first smartphone, I have some questions:
1. Is it bad for the screen to turn it on and off frequently? I find myself doing that because the timeout is set at 30 seconds (which I know I can change) and I like to multitask. I'd assume turning on and off a computer monitor at frequent rates would be detrimental to the hardware, so would doing the same to a smartphone be bad? I intend on using this device for maybe 5 years...
2. How long are SSD in smartphones expected to last? They and tear and have a finite amount of read/write, so reformating the phone on a frequent basis is bad in this regard. So is constantly transferring music and videos back and forth. Is the SSD designed to last way beyond the intended life of the device for the average user? I am definitely going to be doing a ton of my phone and treating it more like a laptop...
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1. not sure how the hardware will react to a repeated turning on and off of the screen but I am pretty sure you'll encounter some hardware failure before you'll wear the screen out (cracked screens, buttons breaking, sand in the mic...) five years is a long time (five years ago the G1 was launched :highfive: mine still works -with a cracked screen- but last time I turned it on I wanted to kill it because of all the things I was missing from JB. And not to mention that I wanted to kill myself for it being so slow)
To be honest, how many people do you see still using an original iphone or g1? Granted at the moment devices seem pretty ok to endure the ravages of time (keep them away from toddlers though)
2. on SSD life expectancy I would guess they also would survive five years as I am still using my first sd card I bought (which I used mainly as swap partition and apps2sd). An interesting read: http://maxschireson.com/2011/04/21/debunking-ssd-lifespan-and-random-write-performance-concerns/

Quick and nice response, thanks for your input. Interesting article!

[Q] Why is Android losing microsd/removable battery on new phones?

I have noticed a trend of newer phones foregoing the option of the user changing the battery or having a microSD slot. Is there still a need/want for these to be on phones? My thought is that this is what android is all about, giving the user options on their phone. MicroSD used to be the main reason that people went from iPhone to Android. I don't know about you but I don't like this trend with manufacturers. I hope they listen to the ones left that still want this. What do you think? Are these features still relevant? Do you only buy phones with these features and wish they wouldn't do away with it?

mikeboucher21 said:
I have noticed a trend of newer phones foregoing the option of the user changing the battery or having a microSD slot. Is there still a need/want for these to be on phones? My thought is that this is what android is all about, giving the user options on their phone. MicroSD used to be the main reason that people went from iPhone to Android. I don't know about you but I don't like this trend with manufacturers. I hope they listen to the ones left that still want this. What do you think? Are these features still relevant? Do you only buy phones with these features and wish they wouldn't do away with it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That is two questions.
Batteries are quickly getting to the point where they don't need changing. Sure, there are the extreme users who carry spares, but the vast majority of people will never remove or replace their battery ever. By simply foregoing a removable battery entirely, you can make phones slimmer, and ironically, pack more capacity in the same space - since you aren't having to waste space on the plastic casing, pins, etc. (or not, as in the case of the HTC One) However, as a "normal" user, I have a pile of old phones that still worked fine when they retired - with their original batteries.
Now, as to the SD card question. That is a bit more interesting. A bit part of it, IMO, is the fact that Google is really pushing their cloud services - for music, videos, backups, etc. They give you about 15GB (or just a bit shy of a mid-sized SD card) out of the chute, but even if you don't upgrade, they would prefer you to use that instead of a SD card. Why? Because using cloud storage means that you are connected to Google servers, and having your usage monitored by Google services.
Even if they don't show you ads via this route, Google isn't just an advertising company, they are also a data aggregation company (in support of advertising). They want people to be tied as intimately to their services as possible for both reasons, because it allows them to charge advertisers more. I really believe this is why Nexus devices don't have SD cards at all, and I won't be surprised if Google pushes OEMs to stop supplying them at some point, as an external SD card lets you bypass all of that.
Note, Apple is likewise pushing cloud services, and Microsoft has started in as well. All of these companies want your phone to be a network terminal, not a computer. Network terminals are completely dependent on the network, and more likely to keep you in their ecosystem.

agree with the second floor

jshamlet said:
That is two questions.
Batteries are quickly getting to the point where they don't need changing. Sure, there are the extreme users who carry spares, but the vast majority of people will never remove or replace their battery ever. By simply foregoing a removable battery entirely, you can make phones slimmer, and ironically, pack more capacity in the same space - since you aren't having to waste space on the plastic casing, pins, etc. (or not, as in the case of the HTC One) However, as a "normal" user, I have a pile of old phones that still worked fine when they retired - with their original batteries.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Batteries still wear out though. After ~500 cycles, a lithium based battery (Li-ion, Li-Po) loses upwards of 20% its original capacity. If you're a heavy user, 500 cycles can happen within a year, definitely within 2 years. And yes, spares are always good. You never know what might happen.
Now, as to the SD card question. That is a bit more interesting. A bit part of it, IMO, is the fact that Google is really pushing their cloud services - for music, videos, backups, etc. They give you about 15GB (or just a bit shy of a mid-sized SD card) out of the chute, but even if you don't upgrade, they would prefer you to use that instead of a SD card. Why? Because using cloud storage means that you are connected to Google servers, and having your usage monitored by Google services.
Even if they don't show you ads via this route, Google isn't just an advertising company, they are also a data aggregation company (in support of advertising). They want people to be tied as intimately to their services as possible for both reasons, because it allows them to charge advertisers more. I really believe this is why Nexus devices don't have SD cards at all, and I won't be surprised if Google pushes OEMs to stop supplying them at some point, as an external SD card lets you bypass all of that.
Note, Apple is likewise pushing cloud services, and Microsoft has started in as well. All of these companies want your phone to be a network terminal, not a computer. Network terminals are completely dependent on the network, and more likely to keep you in their ecosystem.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not that at all. It's security. If you have a proper lock on your phone (PIN/password/pattern), nobody can access what's on your phone. No data, no personal information, no nude selfies, etc. But if you store "sensitive" stuff on your microSD card, anybody can get that. That's why with 4.4 KitKat, moving things to external SD became so much more difficult, or even impossible without root.

Planterz said:
Batteries still wear out though. After ~500 cycles, a lithium based battery (Li-ion, Li-Po) loses upwards of 20% its original capacity. If you're a heavy user, 500 cycles can happen within a year, definitely within 2 years. And yes, spares are always good. You never know what might happen.
Yes, and I wasn't thrilled that the M8 requires massive disassembly to get to the battery. I never said I *liked* it, just that it hasn't been as big a deal lately.
It's not that at all. It's security. If you have a proper lock on your phone (PIN/password/pattern), nobody can access what's on your phone. No data, no personal information, no nude selfies, etc. But if you store "sensitive" stuff on your microSD card, anybody can get that. That's why with 4.4 KitKat, moving things to external SD became so much more difficult, or even impossible without root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
KitKat's external SD security isn't totally absurd. Apps can only read/write data in folders they create, so it means you need root to use a file system explorer. I'm still not sure how they worked out special cases, like both the camera and gallery being able to access the same folder on an external SD card, so there are exceptions. Depending on how that exception works, it's possible that this hole still exists, but that's pure speculation.
However, the issue of removable storage has been around forever, and while it is a valid concern, I kind of doubt that was the driving force. The new restrictions really didn't start to come out until after Google started pushing Drive as a serious storage option for phones and tablets, so I still suspect it is more a case of nudging people onto the cloud than security. I could see "happy synergy" at best, but if it were really about security, I would expect Nexus devices to have about 2-3x the storage they presently offer to make up for it.
However, I'll admit that I'm suspicious of these drives to "put it on the cloud", and I wouldn't put it past Apple, Google, or any other company, to make "security decisions" that tend to nudge you towards those offerings. As such, I'll leave the possibility that user security really was a factor in pushing away from external SD storage.

i don't have a really brand phone and i liked the possibility to move apps to the SD card.
now i'm on 4.4.4 and i can't install too many apps 'cause i can't move them.
that's something that really bothers me as i can't afford a new phone.
in the sametime, even if you have a cloud based storge, you can't move apps overthere: that means that, with pictures resolution getting bigger (and so the file size), once you have a little bit of those + some mp3 + a video or 2, you will soon finish the default space.
(the thing is also that in Italy we don't get many Gb per day/month so most of the guys i know, don't use mp3 from the cloud but they prefer to keep the file with them)

Planterz said:
It's not that at all. It's security. If you have a proper lock on your phone (PIN/password/pattern), nobody can access what's on your phone. No data, no personal information, no nude selfies, etc. But if you store "sensitive" stuff on your microSD card, anybody can get that. That's why with 4.4 KitKat, moving things to external SD became so much more difficult, or even impossible without root.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am surprised, dismayed and disappointed to see this on an android developer forum. Perhaps you think the rest of us are mad - but the truth is that Apple, Microsoft and Google all have back doors into their operating systems. Apple and Microsoft are both America-based, and we all know what their privacy (non-privacy) is like. (or do we?) Google, since being bought from its original owner, has become part of the mega-corp flock. Google logs just about everything, and is also based in America. In fact, Google is the new Facebook of privacy violation. (Heard of a unique advertising ID?)
In fact, the governments of various countries employ hackers to come up with exploits of mobile phones. There are also zero-day exploits built in at government behest. This was shown in the leaked papers (I forget whether it was Snowden's lot or Assange's lot.)
If you have sensitive information, the only reliable way to store it securely is on a device which does not have any physical capability to connect to an external network wirelessly, and do not connect it to any external network physically.
This is why all big corp. and govt. research / secret systems are on a disconnected network. As in, they are physically connected within the building, but the building does not have external network communications.
Removable batteries are being taken off the market because they power the tracking capabilities of the device - even when you turn it off. If you didn't want your phone to track you, you used to be able to take out the battery. Now, if the battery is not removable, you have to leave your phone behind if you don't want to be tracked or potentially let others listen in on a sensitive conversation.

am i the only one noticing sudden performance decrease in phones?

usually happens after warranty expires or a new device comes out ?
i noticed it on my last 3 samsung galaxy phones.
havent had any other brand or series phones so i cant speak for them

so after about a year and a half my phone.s performance has been slowly decreasing despite my best efforts to keep it clean and organized and doing all the tricks to make it faster.
at the moment it is almost unusable . phone is now a little over 2 years old and is constantly freezing.
I have never dropped it and it was in the case since day one.
I keep same apps on it for 2 years and always to cache cleans and uninstall unused apps
also keep the internal memory under 50% yet none of that seems to help
it just keeps slowing down for some reason
anyone can explain what is goin on?
my laptop doesn't seem to lose any speed with age

fuzzysig said:
so after about a year and a half my phone.s performance has been slowly decreasing despite my best efforts to keep it clean and organized and doing all the tricks to make it faster.
at the moment it is almost unusable . phone is now a little over 2 years old and is constantly freezing.
I have never dropped it and it was in the case since day one.
I keep same apps on it for 2 years and always to cache cleans and uninstall unused apps
also keep the internal memory under 50% yet none of that seems to help
it just keeps slowing down for some reason
anyone can explain what is goin on?
my laptop doesn't seem to lose any speed with age
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Phones use solid state storage, solid state storage decreases efficiency over time, they just break down the more that you install/uninstall/write/delete stuff to/from storage. With the way phones work, it is constantly reading/writing/dumping stuff to/from the cache partition(which is where everything that is loaded runs from and stores live data), this constant activity breaks down the efficiency of the cache partition, which cause lag during usage because it can't read to/from cache as efficiently as when it was new.
Also, as phones advance in hardware capability, certain apps(especially Google Play Services) are updated to the point that they require more from the hardware, older hardware can't run it/them as efficiently. Also, some older phones can't install some of the newer/more updated versions of apps, this leaves them using older versions which somewhere along the line are no longer supported, causing performance issues, especially a reduction in battery life and RAM speeds.
Laptops and PC are effected the same way, some older hardware can't install the newer versions of operating systems, or they can install the OS but certain parts of the software might have issues with certain pieces of older hardware and drivers, it just takes way longer with PC than it does with phones. Usually, the older systems are way past their prime before becomes an issue because users get new systems before they get that old, so they never see the performance issues that older hardware has with newer software.
Sent from my LGL84VL using Tapatalk

Question 2+ Week impressions

Sooo. I have had this phone from T-Mobile for the past few weeks and have a few hot takes on it.
For starters I wanted to return it almost 2 days in after figuring out about the performance this device had. But was promised an update and 2 weeks later it was delivered.
So these hot takes are going to be after the update.
1. So far almost no stutter I've found has been fixed. Home stutter, app stutter all still here.
2. WE SHOULD HAVE TO OPTIMIZE SH*T ON A 1300 DEVICE. The fact that some answers you get here are "did you follow the optimaztion guide?" I shouldn't have to touch anything! Do you think the average consumer is gonna go through the hoops of 3 factory resets, a firmware flash, and praying to whatever God to get sub par performance?
3. The camera lag is rediculous.
I went to AEW (wrestling show) and couldn't even pull my camera up up fast enough to get any good shots!. And not to mention the shutter lag waiting for the image to capture! Also 4k60 recording in a timely manner? Laughable. I have never had this many issues with a Samsung device in the first few weeks as I've had with this one.
4. Signal drops consistently. (Doesn't really bother me because I use wifi calling)
5. Battery has gotten better since the update so no issues there.
6. Snapchat lag in camera ui.
7. Ram management is a joke. Even with ram plus.
8. Display is beautiful but dims to high heaven in gaming.
9. Abysmal update times compared to exynos.
10. Zoom is awesome.
I'm sure there are more but geesh.
Adding a photo for AEW fans lol

Try clearing the system cache.
All Samsung's need to be optimized and I'm not talking about enabling power management. It tends to do the opposite and will likely cause erratic behavior.
What's going on with the ram?
Wonder if scoped storage is helping to screw it up? It uses extra cpu cycles not sure if it impacts ram usage though. I deliberately avoided Android 11 and 12 because of it... no regrets.

blackhawk said:
Try clearing the system cache.
All Samsung's need to be optimized and I'm not talking about enabling power management. It tends to do the opposite and will likely cause erratic behavior.
What's going on with the ram?
Wonder if scoped storage is helping to screw it up? It uses extra cpu cycles not sure if it impacts ram usage though. I deliberately avoided Android 11 and 12 because of it... no regrets.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just seems like only 4 apps at a time can stay in memory anything after that is reloaded.

joemossjr said:
Just seems like only 4 apps at a time can stay in memory anything after that is reloaded.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you change that in Developer options?
Standard limit... or did they change the "standard"?
Lol, I close out apps constantly especially Brave browser which always runs in the background otherwise.

joemossjr said:
Sooo. I have had this phone from T-Mobile for the past few weeks and have a few hot takes on it.
For starters I wanted to return it almost 2 days in after figuring out about the performance this device had. But was promised an update and 2 weeks later it was delivered.
So these hot takes are going to be after the update.
1. So far almost no stutter I've found has been fixed. Home stutter, app stutter all still here.
2. WE SHOULD HAVE TO OPTIMIZE SH*T ON A 1300 DEVICE. The fact that some answers you get here are "did you follow the optimaztion guide?" I shouldn't have to touch anything! Do you think the average consumer is gonna go through the hoops of 3 factory resets, a firmware flash, and praying to whatever God to get sub par performance?
3. The camera lag is rediculous.
I went to AEW (wrestling show) and couldn't even pull my camera up up fast enough to get any good shots!. And not to mention the shutter lag waiting for the image to capture! Also 4k60 recording in a timely manner? Laughable. I have never had this many issues with a Samsung device in the first few weeks as I've had with this one.
4. Signal drops consistently. (Doesn't really bother me because I use wifi calling)
5. Battery has gotten better since the update so no issues there.
6. Snapchat lag in camera ui.
7. Ram management is a joke. Even with ram plus.
8. Display is beautiful but dims to high heaven in gaming.
9. Abysmal update times compared to exynos.
10. Zoom is awesome.
I'm sure there are more but geesh.
Adding a photo for AEW fans lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exynos i think?

joemossjr said:
Sooo. I have had this phone from T-Mobile for the past few weeks and have a few hot takes on it.
For starters I wanted to return it almost 2 days in after figuring out about the performance this device had. But was promised an update and 2 weeks later it was delivered.
So these hot takes are going to be after the update.
1. So far almost no stutter I've found has been fixed. Home stutter, app stutter all still here.
2. WE SHOULD HAVE TO OPTIMIZE SH*T ON A 1300 DEVICE. The fact that some answers you get here are "did you follow the optimaztion guide?" I shouldn't have to touch anything! Do you think the average consumer is gonna go through the hoops of 3 factory resets, a firmware flash, and praying to whatever God to get sub par performance?
3. The camera lag is rediculous.
I went to AEW (wrestling show) and couldn't even pull my camera up up fast enough to get any good shots!. And not to mention the shutter lag waiting for the image to capture! Also 4k60 recording in a timely manner? Laughable. I have never had this many issues with a Samsung device in the first few weeks as I've had with this one.
4. Signal drops consistently. (Doesn't really bother me because I use wifi calling)
5. Battery has gotten better since the update so no issues there.
6. Snapchat lag in camera ui.
7. Ram management is a joke. Even with ram plus.
8. Display is beautiful but dims to high heaven in gaming.
9. Abysmal update times compared to exynos.
10. Zoom is awesome.
I'm sure there are more but geesh.
Adding a photo for AEW fans lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think people need to accept that Android is essentially malware and was designed by a company to continuously extract as much information on you as possible behind the scenes. I would estimate at least 90% of all Android apps participate in this game to gain your info for profit. People wonder why phones are sluggish with all this activity happening in the background. This is the cost for all of us users to get an OS and application environment for free.
So the fact that each of us needs to fine tune, debloat, optimize, etc on any new phone to reign in the OS and apps to get acceptable performance is not something new. It really is a journey to research and get any phone working smoothly as each one of us has different use cases.
PS - my new S22 Ultra (SD/T-Mobile) is fast as lightning and I'm very happy with it.

This has been the worst new phone transition I've ever had. From trying to order to Samsung stretching the truth about the specs, to configuring every app from scratch. To multiple Factory Resets just to solve something buggy. To Google apps not performing the same.
I expected the major debloat and privacy settings. I did not expect T-Mo to install Facebook 4 times nor that it would take 6 phone calls to unlock a phone I paid for fully.
I am happy with the performance, screen, and the camera is beyond words. Hoping I am about done configuring and side loading. adb is your friend.

So far, the S22 Ultra feels like the Note20 Ultra with faster data speeds, better battery life, and slightly better camera. There is nothing earth shattering but overall seems a bit better. My only complaints are the weaker vibrate motor and lack of microSD card support.
I had a chance to test the S21 Ultra against the S22 Ultra and found the S21 Ultra to have slightly better speakers, stronger vibration motor, slightly better battery life and it's nice that it comes with up to 16 GB RAM. It's easier to hold as well, but the screen aspect ratio is less practical in many cases. It also gets warmer than the S22 Ultra.
For everything that improves with these iterative upgrades, there are a few steps back. If you're happy with your Note20 Ultra or S21 Ultra, I'd say there's no rush to upgrade unless you get an amazing deal.

joemossjr said:
Sooo. I have had this phone from T-Mobile for the past few weeks and have a few hot takes on it.
For starters I wanted to return it almost 2 days in after figuring out about the performance this device had. But was promised an update and 2 weeks later it was delivered.
So these hot takes are going to be after the update.
1. So far almost no stutter I've found has been fixed. Home stutter, app stutter all still here.
2. WE SHOULD HAVE TO OPTIMIZE SH*T ON A 1300 DEVICE. The fact that some answers you get here are "did you follow the optimaztion guide?" I shouldn't have to touch anything! Do you think the average consumer is gonna go through the hoops of 3 factory resets, a firmware flash, and praying to whatever God to get sub par performance?
3. The camera lag is rediculous.
I went to AEW (wrestling show) and couldn't even pull my camera up up fast enough to get any good shots!. And not to mention the shutter lag waiting for the image to capture! Also 4k60 recording in a timely manner? Laughable. I have never had this many issues with a Samsung device in the first few weeks as I've had with this one.
4. Signal drops consistently. (Doesn't really bother me because I use wifi calling)
5. Battery has gotten better since the update so no issues there.
6. Snapchat lag in camera ui.
7. Ram management is a joke. Even with ram plus.
8. Display is beautiful but dims to high heaven in gaming.
9. Abysmal update times compared to exynos.
10. Zoom is awesome.
I'm sure there are more but geesh.
Adding a photo for AEW fans lol
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not seeing any of the lag with shutter you talking about. With or without the flash and 4k 60fps video recording works fine too even in the dark. As for the Ram+ I got mine set at 8gb and I can open and run 12 apps without any problem whatsoever. Never had any problems with T-Mobile signal. Maybe you should try a fresh install? I havent really had any issues since day one other than battery life sucks. I didn't do a fresh install either. I just used Samsung Smartwatch to setup the phone exactly like my S20U which I traded for the Unlocked 512gb using a prepaid T-Mobile plan so no T-mobile software or bloat on here.

Rubby1025 said:
I think people need to accept that Android is essentially malware and was designed by a company to continuously extract as much information on you as possible behind the scenes. I would estimate at least 90% of all Android apps participate in this game to gain your info for profit. People wonder why phones are sluggish with all this activity happening in the background. This is the cost for all of us users to get an OS and application environment for free.
So the fact that each of us needs to fine tune, debloat, optimize, etc on any new phone to reign in the OS and apps to get acceptable performance is not something new. It really is a journey to research and get any phone working smoothly as each one of us has different use cases.
PS - my new S22 Ultra (SD/T-Mobile) is fast as lightning and I'm very happy with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry. No. This ain't it cheif. People make the same argument for TVs (that if they were to make "dummy" TVs without Android it would be a $5K set... um $5K TVs exist and still have the spyware). The gaslighting by manufacturers is real.
Also 2~5K sets then did indeed exist, and for the sake of argument I'm not gonna talk inflation cause it really didn't change /that/ much aside from all mfr's getting greedy since covid. 2010's "smart" TVs didn't exist and the "smart" features were only on more expensive sets, as well as being more useless than today.
I paid for the hardware. But it's a "license to use" argument is the same bull that the pro-copyright NES crowd uses... sheesh

Paul_Deemer said:
Not seeing any of the lag with shutter you talking about. With or without the flash and 4k 60fps video recording works fine too even in the dark. As for the Ram+ I got mine set at 8gb and I can open and run 12 apps without any problem whatsoever. Never had any problems with T-Mobile signal. Maybe you should try a fresh install? I havent really had any issues since day one other than battery life sucks. I didn't do a fresh install either. I just used Samsung Smartwatch to setup the phone exactly like my S20U which I traded for the Unlocked 512gb using a prepaid T-Mobile plan so no T-mobile software or bloat on here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Something is wrong if you're getting bad battery life. It's because you didn't do a fresh install, try factory resetting and it'll be way better.
S22 Ultra 5G US AT&T locked Snapdragon 512gb AVC8 flashed U1 firmware

Kris_b1104 said:
Something is wrong if you're getting bad battery life. It's because you didn't do a fresh install, try factory resetting and it'll be way better.
S22 Ultra 5G US AT&T locked Snapdragon 512gb AVC8 flashed U1 firmware
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Factory reset guarantees nothing. Best to find the root cause to avoid a recurrence. Since each load is unique to the user, unique issues can and do evolve.
Use factory reset for: major upgrades, if you used SmartSwitch (don't make the same mistake twice), malware or if a buggy 3rd party app that altered hidden user settings you can't undo.

blackhawk said:
Factory reset guarantees nothing. Best to find the root cause to avoid a recurrence. Since each load is unique to the user, unique issues can and do evolve.
Use factory reset for: major upgrades, if you used SmartSwitch (don't make the same mistake twice), malware or if a buggy 3rd party app that altered hidden user settings you can't undo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's a last resort but if has to be done then that's what you gotta do. It's the endgame. If it don't work after that your screwed.

Paul_Deemer said:
It's a last resort but if has to be done then that's what you gotta do. It's the endgame. If it don't work after that your screwed.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you inadvertently add the app(s) or setting(s) that caused it, you just shot yourself in the foot, again.
Never use SmartSwitch if the first load went bad using it, do a clean load instead.
Tracking down the cause can be time consuming but it's a lesson learned and time saved in the future; a reload is very time consuming. I reserve it for primarily boot loops and persistent malware.
My current load has been saved from a factory reset a couple of times, still fast, stable and fulfilling its mission. It will be 2 yo this June.
Some those fixes seemed impossible at first but all were done within the confines of a stock Android without using adb edits, etc.

blackhawk said:
If you inadvertently add the app(s) or setting(s) that caused it, you just shot yourself in the foot, again.
Never use SmartSwitch if the first load went bad using it, do a clean load instead.
Tracking down the cause can be time consuming but it's a lesson learned and time saved in the future; a reload is very time consuming. I reserve it for primarily boot loops and persistent malware.
My current load has been saved from a factory reset a couple of times, still fast, stable and fulfilling its mission. It will be 2 yo this June.
Some those fixes seemed impossible at first but all were done within the confines of a stock Android without using adb edits, etc.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well I haven't had a single issue with mine even using smart switch but others heve. Guess I am just one of the lucky ones.

Paul_Deemer said:
Well I haven't had a single issue with mine even using smart switch but others heve. Guess I am just one of the lucky ones.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's a good thing
It's completely unpredictable. I've used SmartSwitch without issues. I don't trust it at all though... I remember Kies
It may have screwed up the load on my newest N10+, still troubleshooting it. It developed a... lag No big deal.
Almost all issues can be resolved by simply "playing" with it, Adroids wuv attention.

My phone slows down

Hi guys.
It's been approximately 6 years since i bought this old beast. this is the first phone in my life that didn't torture me with freezes or lags after using it for some time thanks to its powerful hardware.
but now this beast is not agile like how it used to be, sometimes it freezes and does things with too much latency, as far as i remember, there were about 2 or 3 times that my phone froze too hard that i needed to do force shut down and almost all of them happened not more than 2 years ago. when i bought my PC 2 years ago, i started flashing different custom and official roms so many times now my phone runs LineageOS 18.1 currently.
I'm curious to know what caused my phone to slow down.
since i flash my phone sometimes and do full wipe each time before doing it, i think the problem is not software-related.
I've did some searches in google and found out that it can't be the CPU and it seems true because sometimes i'm playing some music while browsing in chrome and switching between apps, the phone lags even freezes but the music keeps playing without any stutter. I've read that memory chips can get worn over time so i'm guessing the problem is caused by one or both of these two:
1.eMMC chip
2.RAM chip
what is your comment? are these two the source of the problem? can the eMMC chip get replaced in this phone?

Have you updated or upgraded it, you know the destroyer of worlds stuff?
Phones don't slow down for no reason.
If nothing else changed and it's running atypically after a factory reset, the firmware may have been corrupted, reflash same version.
Pre Pie OS's are suspectable to that nasty class of rootkits that can worm out of the user partition. Again reflash it.
Battery, when was it last replaced? If the battery can't sink peak current demands it will cause all manner of trouble. Replace every 1 to 2 years on a heavily used device, routine maintenance.
It's possible there's been a subtle hardware failure maybe the ram or a microscopic transistor or two in the chipset. Cracked solder joint; BGA chipsets are especially vulnerable to this. A ribbon connector connection is intermittent.

TheShadowOfAGhost20 said:
Hi guys.
It's been approximately 6 years since i bought this old beast. this is the first phone in my life that didn't torture me with freezes or lags after using it for some time thanks to its powerful hardware.
but now this beast is not agile like how it used to be, sometimes it freezes and does things with too much latency, as far as i remember, there were about 2 or 3 times that my phone froze too hard that i needed to do force shut down and almost all of them happened not more than 2 years ago. when i bought my PC 2 years ago, i started flashing different custom and official roms so many times now my phone runs LineageOS 18.1 currently.
I'm curious to know what caused my phone to slow down.
since i flash my phone sometimes and do full wipe each time before doing it, i think the problem is not software-related.
I've did some searches in google and found out that it can't be the CPU and it seems true because sometimes i'm playing some music while browsing in chrome and switching between apps, the phone lags even freezes but the music keeps playing without any stutter. I've read that memory chips can get worn over time so i'm guessing the problem is caused by one or both of these two:
1.eMMC chip
2.RAM chip
what is your comment? are these two the source of the problem? can the eMMC chip get replaced in this phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You should be able to look at the memory each app is using. Chrome is known for being a memory hog. Your phone has 3 GB of Ram. Back 6 years ago that would be OK, today 6GB is even on the low side.

RF Junkey said:
You should be able to look at the memory each app is using. Chrome is known for being a memory hog. Your phone has 3 GB of Ram. Back 6 years ago that would be OK, today 6GB is even on the low side.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True, limited running apps. Some new phones are shipping now with 6 or 8gb of ram; not enough. 12 or16gb be better.

@blackhawk | @RF Junkey
Thank you guys for your answers
blackhawk said:
you know the destroyer of worlds stuff?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haven't understood this, do you mean the bad policies from companies such as slowing down their phones by updates to force users to buy their new phones?
blackhawk said:
Battery, when was it last replaced?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
sometime between 1 and 2 years ago. i don't see any problem that relates to battery like random reboots etc. but could they affect performance without random reboots or boot problems?
blackhawk said:
It's possible there's been a subtle hardware failure maybe the ram or a microscopic transistor or two in the chipset. Cracked solder joint; BGA chipsets are especially vulnerable to this. A ribbon connector connection is intermittent.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
well, last time i remember i dropped the phone was about 2 years ago. one of the annoying problems of my phone is it's front and back panels start getting detached, i got used to it, there is much dust inside the phone, the camera quality has been reduced because of it.
this phone played a gaming PC's role when i didn't have a PC (sometimes i held my phone in front of my fan to stop CPU throttling because of heat).
i too think there might be possible failures.
RF Junkey said:
Your phone has 3 GB of Ram. Back 6 years ago that would be OK, today 6GB is even on the low side.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You're right, but i've experienced problems which were caused by low RAMs. the apps crash when there is no space available in RAM, i had this problem with all other phones. but in this phone i haven't seen such problem(because of RAM) so far even once!

Rule #1, if a OS is fast, stable and fulfilling its mission, let it be.
Upgrades, destroyer of worlds
Pre Android 9 have some very serious rootkit vulnerabilities. Android 9 is fairly secure and best left be especially on an older phone.
On my N10+'s I don't do upgrades or updates. Running on Android 9 and 10.

blackhawk said:
Rule #1, if a OS is fast, stable and fulfilling its mission, let it be.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sometimes i think about it, Android 6 is not that old. apps still support it. but i don't know why the hell i'm attracted to custom ROMs i can't stop thinking about them...
blackhawk said:
Upgrades, destroyer of worlds
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
hahaha got it. yeah i saw so many bad things by newer Androids. Most important of all of them are ridiculous restrictions.
one of the many reasons i believe in Android and HATE IOS is the freedom of Android but Google is screwing up so bad, making Android as disgusting as IOS.

TheShadowOfAGhost20 said:
Sometimes i think about it, Android 6 is not that old. apps still support it. but i don't know why the hell i'm attracted to custom ROMs i can't stop thinking about them...
hahaha got it. yeah i saw so many bad things by newer Androids. Most important of all of them are ridiculous restrictions.
one of the many reasons i believe in Android and HATE IOS is the freedom of Android but Google is screwing up so bad, making Android as disgusting as IOS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Pre Android 9 OS are suspectable to those nasty rootkits that can worm out of the user partition.
A reflash maybe needed to purge it. Security though is largely controlled by the user; no saving dumb bunnies... not even Android 12.
I went from Kitkat to Pie, yeah a little future shock there
Pie runs very well but that's on a N10+ with 12gb of ram. Nominally it uses 5-5.7gb of ram, so on an phone with less ram than that it may impact performance.
Pie has some annoying data app limitations but is reasonably secure, fast, stable and no scoped storage.
I have a second N10+ that's running on Android 10 (it shipped like that) Scoped storage appears to not be fully active. It has close to 100 new Samsung system apps to make it look and function like the Pie load. If that gives you an idea of how badly Google Android is boning developers. Otherwise it's stats are about the same as are appearance and functionality.
Old apps like the 6yo free version of WP Office will run fine in it. However Karma Firewall losses it's valuable logging feature in 10 That seems to be the worst of it.
Android 11 and especially 12 are hogs on the N10+. Scoped storage is fully active along with the endless "do you really want to" permissions.
Might as well have a bloody Apple as use 11 or 12. Functionality and usability take a nose dive along with battery life. Gookill strikes again...
Be warned.
As a result I will remain on Android 9 and 10.
Between Samsung's and Google Android's ball dropping fest I blew off the N20U, S21U and the latest S22U for another N10+, no regrets.
So yeah, you gotta do what works best for you.
I use whatever comes in handy