Hello community,
I'm listing the problems I have faced/ still facing with the Samsung Galaxy Watch4. If you have a solution, please comment. If you have other watch problems, please mention them with solution, if available.
Much of the problems below started AFTER doing a factory reset.
1. If I make a call from the watch, the contact picture doesn't show up in the background. I don't think it was like this before doing a factory reset.
2. If I get a call on the watch, the contact picture is very blurry. This is after a factory reset. Before the reset, it was fine.
3. Galaxy Wear app on my phone frequently fails to sync watch's battery info on the app. Same is true of Smart Things app. I have noted some of my observations and potential solution here and here. But other things are mostly fine on the app.
4. Although this happened only a couple of times, it is still worth mentioning: organizing the apps inside the Apps section in Galaxy Wear app did not sync the changes to the App Drawer on the watch. All changes done simply vanished, and I had to redo everything again.
5. There is no built-in way to backup the watch faces downloaded from the Galaxy Store or Google Play Store. And without root, Android (including WearOS) doesn't support backing up app data. This is just very pathetic.
The watch faces (only the APKs, not the app data) can be manually backed up using a file manager app. But it must be sideloaded using ADB, something most users wouldn't be comfortable with.
Limitations/ Drawback
1. One can't unpair a watch without having to do a factory reset to pair again.
2. One should not delete the app data for Galaxy Watch4 Manager app on the phone. If you do, you'll have to factory reset the watch to pair it again with the phone.
3. One should not delete the app data for Google Play Services app on the phone. If you do, you'll have to factory reset the watch to pair it again with the phone.
4. Watch Faces (with very few exceptions) don't come up with import/ export of configurations. If a watch face is uninstalled, it must be setup all over again.
RELATED POSTS
You'll find more info and related links here:
Wear OS - Facts
Hello community! In this post, I am giving you info on some aspects of Wear OS, which you may or may not know. All the details presented are based on my experience with Samsung Galaxy Watch4 (WiFi model), running on Wear OS 3.x. So they may not...
forum.xda-developers.com
To unpair a network reset would do it...
Try clearing the system cache for any type of glitch.
blackhawk said:
To unpair a network reset would do it...
Try clearing the system cache for any type of glitch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I meant if you unpair the watch from the Bluetooth devices section or do a network reset on the phone, you'll have to factory reset the watch to pair it again.
Clearing system cache didn't help with any of the problems reported above.
I think this battery related problem is caused by apps on the watch that need a companion app on the phone. I'm not sure about it yet.
TheMystic said:
I meant if you unpair the watch from the Bluetooth devices section or do a network reset on the phone, you'll have to factory reset the watch to pair it again.
Clearing system cache didn't help with any of the problems reported above.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's very odd. It sounds like a default setting has been changed somehow. Lol, a factory reset is not a viable option. You're missing something.
Maybe a third party app.
Does Wearables have all it's many needed permissions?
Disable all global power management... destroyer of worlds.
Play with it, Android's wuv attention
blackhawk said:
That's very odd. It sounds like a default setting has been changed somehow. Lol, a factory reset is not a viable option. You're missing something.
Maybe a third party app.
Does Wearables have all it's many needed permissions?
Disable all global power management... destroyer of worlds.
Play with it, Android's wuv attention
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Someone said it is for security purposes, although it wasn't immediately clear how. Since it is designed to be that way, there should be good reasons for it, even if I haven't figured that out yet. It is not a permissions issue or optimization issue.
I have quite a few (about 30) watch faces, and the thought of factory reset scares me away. So I am careful about how I play with it.
TheMystic said:
Someone said it is for security purposes, although it wasn't immediately clear how. Since it is designed to be that way, there should be good reasons for it, even if I haven't figured that out yet. It is not a permissions issue or optimization issue.
I have quite a few (about 30) watch faces, and the thought of factory reset scares me away. So I am careful about how I play with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe uninstalling/reinstalling Wearables rather a reset. Sounds like another Samsung bug.
Lol, this N10+'s load is over 2 yo now. Androids should rarely need to be factory reset. One reason I like them so. Also why I avoid upgrades and updates once I have a fast, stable load.
TheMystic said:
Someone said it is for security purposes, although it wasn't immediately clear how. Since it is designed to be that way, there should be good reasons for it, even if I haven't figured that out yet. It is not a permissions issue or optimization issue.
I have quite a few (about 30) watch faces, and the thought of factory reset scares me away. So I am careful about how I play with it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If you have a Samsung account you can actually back up your watch and all its data just like a phone and when you set up the watch again you can choose to recover from the backup. Its in your watch settings on the wear app.
blackhawk said:
Maybe uninstalling/reinstalling Wearables rather a reset. Sounds like another Samsung bug.
Lol, this N10+'s load is over 2 yo now. Androids should rarely need to be factory reset. One reason I like them so. Also why I avoid upgrades and updates once I have a fast, stable load.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Galaxy Watch4 Manager app stores the pairing key. If you uninstall it or delete its app data, you'll have to factory reset the watch to pair with your phone (or any device) again.
D0PEY said:
If you have a Samsung account you can actually back up your watch and all its data just like a phone and when you set up the watch again you can choose to recover from the backup. Its in your watch settings on the wear app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That backup is a useless thing. It only backups up your Quick Settings layout and a handful of System Settings. It doesn't backup any of the downloaded watch faces. And it doesn't backup watch configurations either.
TheMystic said:
That backup is a useless thing. It only backups up your Quick Settings layout and a handful of System Settings. It doesn't backup any of the downloaded watch faces. And it doesn't backup watch configurations either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, that's bad design. I thought it did a full backup, must've imagined that. My apologies.
Seems like the faces and their data are stored in the apps themselves. I was checking on that the other day and I would download 10 faces and go check the info under storage for the app and it would keep getting bigger in size. So, my question is how do you back up the app but not have it backup the apk instead. I can't even locate the physical app anywhere on the phone to try and back it up. Are the super top secret hidden or something? I'm stock android and have no way to root my phone. Has to be a way to at least do that right? Anyone?
jimweda said:
Seems like the faces and their data are stored in the apps themselves. I was checking on that the other day and I would download 10 faces and go check the info under storage for the app and it would keep getting bigger in size. So, my question is how do you back up the app but not have it backup the apk instead. I can't even locate the physical app anywhere on the phone to try and back it up. Are the super top secret hidden or something? I'm stock android and have no way to root my phone. Has to be a way to at least do that right? Anyone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
See if SmartSwitch can back it up. Do Not use SmartSwitch to backup critical data though. It can be used to back Homepage and apps as well. Otherwise you will need to reload them.
There maybe a way using adb.
Always redundantly backup critical data including contacts to at least two hdds (copy/paste folders) that are physically and electronically isolated from each other and the PC. Otherwise you will likely lose the data eventually.
blackhawk said:
See if SmartSwitch can back it up. Do Not use SmartSwitch to backup critical data though. It can be used to back Homepage and apps as well. Otherwise you will need to reload them.
There maybe a way using adb.
Always redundantly backup critical data including contacts to at least two hdds (copy/paste folders) that are physically and electronically isolated from each other and the PC. Otherwise you will likely lose the data eventually.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'll give it a shot. I have a small raid set up that I use only for my phone well, because it is small and not useful for much else. Thanks.
jimweda said:
I'll give it a shot. I have a small raid set up that I use only for my phone well, because it is small and not useful for much else. Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would use multiple hdds that are isolated from each other so a near lightning strike, fire, trojan, whatever can't wipe out all the copies at once.
Related
Since upgrading to lollipop I'd noticed a couple of small niggles with me Galaxy S5. As I've not had to rebuild my phone since purchasing it, I decided a factory reset wouldn't do any harm. Since resetting, Google play services keeps waking my GPS and searching for my location, this happens every few minutes unless I turn the GPS off. I've got all the usual Google stalking features turned off (Google now, location history, location reporting) but I've still got the same issue. I've even reset again and unticked the box to restore my user data... But still Google want to know where I am.
Any ideas how to resolve this one? It's a pain if I have to keep turning my GPS off when I'm not using it, especially when I had no issue prior to factory resetting.
clattewell said:
Since upgrading to lollipop I'd noticed a couple of small niggles with me Galaxy S5. As I've not had to rebuild my phone since purchasing it, I decided a factory reset wouldn't do any harm. Since resetting, Google play services keeps waking my GPS and searching for my location, this happens every few minutes unless I turn the GPS off. I've got all the usual Google stalking features turned off (Google now, location history, location reporting) but I've still got the same issue. I've even reset again and unticked the box to restore my user data... But still Google want to know where I am.
Any ideas how to resolve this one? It's a pain if I have to keep turning my GPS off when I'm not using it, especially when I had no issue prior to factory resetting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's more likely one or several of the myriad of apps/services on your phone. Do you have a weather app on your phone? Well, how's it going to know how the weather is, if it doesn't know where you are? Facebook by default wants to know where you are so when you post or send a message, it tells everybody where you are. Even apps like music streamers want to know where you are so they can tell you where you were when you heard something. Lots of apps that you wouldn't expect to use GPS in fact do. The vast majority of this data collection is completely innocuous and harmless, but you always have the option to disallow it. Or not use the app(s) as well; remember, it was you that granted the app GPS permissions when you installed it.
Planterz said:
It's more likely one or several of the myriad of apps/services on your phone. Do you have a weather app on your phone? Well, how's it going to know how the weather is, if it doesn't know where you are? Facebook by default wants to know where you are so when you post or send a message, it tells everybody where you are. Even apps like music streamers want to know where you are so they can tell you where you were when you heard something. Lots of apps that you wouldn't expect to use GPS in fact do. The vast majority of this data collection is completely innocuous and harmless, but you always have the option to disallow it. Or not use the app(s) as well; remember, it was you that granted the app GPS permissions when you installed it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for your suggestion, I don't think it is another app though. Prior to resetting my phone the 2nd and 3rd time I uninstalled any suspect apps one by one to see which one was the culprit. In the end I just went through the entire apps list and uninstalled/disabled everything I could, it made the phone really unstable and practically unusable but still didn't stop Google Play Services using my GPS every few minutes.
Any other ideas?
clattewell said:
Thanks for your suggestion, I don't think it is another app though. Prior to resetting my phone the 2nd and 3rd time I uninstalled any suspect apps one by one to see which one was the culprit. In the end I just went through the entire apps list and uninstalled/disabled everything I could, it made the phone really unstable and practically unusable but still didn't stop Google Play Services using my GPS every few minutes.
Any other ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try this:
http://androidforums.com/threads/is-there-an-app-to-track-which-app-uses-gps.732746/
how about "Android Device Manager " .. is that disabled?
There are a lot of guides about how to fix this. It isn't always the same service that is an issue...but you can try and disable some of the ones that are known to be problematic. For example see post #3 in this thread: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2785128
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Premium 4 mobile app
Hi everyone,
At a bit of a loss here. My gf has a nexus 5 running android 6 and she keeps getting loud adverts playing when her phone is sleeping.
It is intermittent, no set pattern and as soon as the power button is pressed there is no trace of anything.
I have googled excessively and can find no one else who has experienced it.
I have removed lots of her apps that could be suspect but today it happened and I heard it with my own ears. They appear to be targeted ads as it played an audio ad for a national car chip repair service.
Any help or advice welcomed.
Thinking of doing a factory reset of the phone.....
hawkyhawk1404 said:
Hi everyone,
At a bit of a loss here. My gf has a nexus 5 running android 6 and she keeps getting loud adverts playing when her phone is sleeping.
It is intermittent, no set pattern and as soon as the power button is pressed there is no trace of anything.
I have googled excessively and can find no one else who has experienced it.
I have removed lots of her apps that could be suspect but today it happened and I heard it with my own ears. They appear to be targeted ads as it played an audio ad for a national car chip repair service.
Any help or advice welcomed.
Thinking of doing a factory reset of the phone.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One way to find out which app is causing this is to go to Settings->Apps->Running and see what all apps are listed here.
Try looking uninstalling the user apps listed here one by one and check if the problem is fixed.
Normally it has to be a Game app or sth. like that.
Cheers.
dagger said:
One way to find out which app is causing this is to go to Settings->Apps->Running and see what all apps are listed here.
Try looking uninstalling the user apps listed here one by one and check if the problem is fixed.
Normally it has to be a Game app or sth. like that.
Cheers.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried doing that, and nothing obvious was running. The only thing it claimed was running was Android Web View - which would make sense, the ads are probably javascript and HTML5 audio elements., but I could not see what was invoking the web view to open.
I did run a malware scan using malwarebytes for andorid and it ALWAYS crashed when scanning chrome, even after I cleared the chrome cache and data. Which made me suspect chrome was infact infected.
On a more depressing note, I did end up factory reseting the phone, and did a clean install, and installed her "vital" apps (to make sure it did not restore a "bad" application) and my gf has just alerted me to the fact it has begun speaking to her again! Arrghh.
I would of thought a factory reset would have removed all traces of this thing.
Would it be worth doing (the rather drastic) full factory reset, using the google provided factory images and ADB/Fastboot?
hawkyhawk1404 said:
I tried doing that, and nothing obvious was running. The only thing it claimed was running was Android Web View - which would make sense, the ads are probably javascript and HTML5 audio elements., but I could not see what was invoking the web view to open.
I did run a malware scan using malwarebytes for andorid and it ALWAYS crashed when scanning chrome, even after I cleared the chrome cache and data. Which made me suspect chrome was infact infected.
On a more depressing note, I did end up factory reseting the phone, and did a clean install, and installed her "vital" apps (to make sure it did not restore a "bad" application) and my gf has just alerted me to the fact it has begun speaking to her again! Arrghh.
I would of thought a factory reset would have removed all traces of this thing.
Would it be worth doing (the rather drastic) full factory reset, using the google provided factory images and ADB/Fastboot?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just out of curiosity, does this music play while there is an incoming notification?
dagger said:
Just out of curiosity, does this music play while there is an incoming notification?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The odd thing is there is NO notification at all. You can just hear the advert, and once the screen comes on, there is no sign of it ever happening!
No notifications, no open applications in the app draw. Very annoying!
hawkyhawk1404 said:
The odd thing is there is NO notification at all. You can just hear the advert, and once the screen comes on, there is no sign of it ever happening!
No notifications, no open applications in the app draw. Very annoying!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well,that's strange.
Only thing that is left to try is a full reset, as I guess the media is stored somewhere in the internal storage and is played by some adware.
Just back up only the essential folders ( like DCIM,Music,etc.) and nothing more from your internal storage prior to a full reset.
That should solve the problem.
Cheers.
Does anybody else have a problem with the screen timeout settings? It seems to remain the same 10-15 seconds no matter what I put it on. Even if I set it to 10 minutes
Good for your battery life! ?
Are you talking about the lock screen or the normal display after you unlock it. There is no way to change the timeout of the lock screen.
I get that too. It times out no matter what time I set it!
This is driving me crazy!!
joshlee80 said:
I get that too. It times out no matter what time I set it!
This is driving me crazy!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Might have something to do with face recognition. (Smart Stay) try messing with those settings too. I receive mine today so ill look into it too.
I'm having the same issue. Spent all night messing with every setting to no avail. Incredibly frustrating.
think its about smart stay, or did you use any battery saver that comes with the phone?
Does the same thing with smart stay on or off (unless you're staring right at the screen in good lighting), no battery saving modes used. On the phone with Samsung right now
[email protected] said:
Does the same thing with smart stay on or off (unless you're staring right at the screen in good lighting), no battery saving modes used. On the phone with Samsung right now
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Please let me know? I would like to find out what Samsung says!
They used smart tutor to access my phone and looked at all the settings. Said they would call me back when they have a solution. Didn't ever verbally confirm it as an issue, not holding out much hope
[email protected] said:
They used smart tutor to access my phone and looked at all the settings. Said they would call me back when they have a solution. Didn't ever verbally confirm it as an issue, not holding out much hope
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
just for your info, I did spoke to Samsung as well and I reset the phone as they told me to. They are thinking there is something contradiction between your old backup data and current. It actaully fixed the issue but now I found a dead pixel.... shoot. Now I will have to go to T-mobile for the replacement phone. Hope they accept it.
So did they just have you do a factory reset? Sorry to hear about the dead pixel what a bummer. Anything you could tell me about what they had you do would be much appreciated.
Thanks!
I'm glad its not just me, I'm going to factory reset to see what happens. I've been using a Stay Alive app in the meantime
Installed the T-Mobile software update, made no difference. So far the only thing that seems to work for me is a factory reset and to set it up as a new device; restoring any devices through Google seems to result in the same issue. Restoring data from devices linked to Samsung account (which I have to if I log into Samsung account while setting up for some reason) doesn't seem to matter one way or the other.
Mine is working for now going to start installing my apps and hope it continues to do so
[email protected] said:
Installed the T-Mobile software update, made no difference. So far the only thing that seems to work for me is a factory reset and to set it up as a new device; restoring any devices through Google seems to result in the same issue. Restoring data from devices linked to Samsung account (which I have to if I log into Samsung account while setting up for some reason) doesn't seem to matter one way or the other.
Mine is working for now going to start installing my apps and hope it continues to do so
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, Thanks for the info. So which one did have an impact? Google backup or Samsung Cloud? I only restored phone number and picture from google and didn't even try Samsung cloud.
joshlee80 said:
Hi, Thanks for the info. So which one did have an impact? Google backup or Samsung Cloud? I only restored phone number and picture from google and didn't even try Samsung cloud.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Samsung cloud seems to have no effect. Restoring app data (can add Google accounts etc. just do not restore data from any other devices when prompted) from any devices linked to my Google account causes the issue eveytime. Set up as a new device and manually selected apps to install from my list of apps in play store and all is well.
Hope this helps
[email protected] said:
Samsung cloud seems to have no effect. Restoring app data (can add Google accounts etc. just do not restore data from any other devices when prompted) from any devices linked to my Google account causes the issue eveytime. Set up as a new device and manually selected apps to install from my list of apps in play store and all is well.
Hope this helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks a lot! it helps! I am getting a warranty exchange for the dead pixel. You cannot get this exchange from Samsung directly but from the service provider.
[email protected] said:
Samsung cloud seems to have no effect. Restoring app data (can add Google accounts etc. just do not restore data from any other devices when prompted) from any devices linked to my Google account causes the issue eveytime. Set up as a new device and manually selected apps to install from my list of apps in play store and all is well.
Hope this helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you so much, so much help. It worked
I find even playing games my phone goes onto lock mode if I'm not touching screen.
Annoying.
Ok, so first post here, and I see from some others that I’m not alone with a few of the glitchy aspects of the software: like the moody wake-up wrist flick thing. After trying all resets etc., I backed up my Gear Sport, went and exchanged it for a new one, and now would like to restore that old backup to the new watch.
Yet, I get stuck on a frozen restore screen that simply tells me that it’s lookijg for backup data and that it may take awhile.... after quite the awhile, nada. Am I missing something? Can that old backup not port to a new watch? I mean it’s not the end of the world, as I cane reinstall the apps and such, but one would think that data would be portable and not tethered to a serial number or something .... right?
Right?
Thanks everyone.
Did you use the setting on the watch that asks if you are connecting to a new phone or did you just disconnect and try to pair? If the former it should find your back up in the cloud. I have found that if I force stop the gear app and clear cache the back up/restore feature would work for me
I've been getting a toast message stating all apps associated with hotspot feature have been blocked, turned off, or are not installed. This started after the most recent update.
Prior to the update, hotspot worked and I've never used a third party app to turn it on. I simply went into the settings and enabled it.
How can I see a full list of services/apps I may have disabled? I also have a VPN running.
Or is there a logcat app I can use to see what's happening? Not rooted here.
On a Samsung S20 5G and not all owners are seeing this issue. So maybe it's a user error.
Thanks for the help.
Depends how you disabled them.
It's easy if you used a package disabler.
I guess adb would work but no clue how to view that. Keep a log of what you disable with adb...
Usually takes a factory reset or two to get things right
@Pinalp84
to list all disabled apps you run
Code:
adb devices
adb shell pm list packages -d
It's not rooted. If I did disable them, I'm sure it wasn't through adb. So most likely through whatever method available via only the phone.
Okay, enabled all packages. Restarted. Still the same issue. So sick of Samsung.
Pinalp84 said:
Okay, enabled all packages. Restarted. Still the same issue. So sick of Samsung.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You need to optimize it.
If you did any major firmware updates and didn't do a factory reset, do so now.
If you used SmartSwitch to transfer settings from another OS or device, factory reset.
Clear system cache, system logs and apk caches (data as needed); this is routine maintenance and generally all that's needed once optimized.
Do not use 3rd party launchers or power management especially 3rd party power management apps. Find the what's causing the issues and deal with those apks/services directly. Each user and configuration is unique and so are the solutions.
It's a fast, very stable, strong running device once optimized... play with it.
Never used SmartSwitch. Just did a factory reset. Still the same issue...
Pinalp84 said:
Never used SmartSwitch. Just did a factory reset. Still the same issue...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try in safe mode. In settings do a "tethering" search. Double check all settings...
If it's through a carrier... renew the pass code.
SmartSwitch may be ok if same device and OS... just make sure it's not your primary backup.
My theme, icons, homescreen are pretty elaborate so next reload I'll test it for just that.
If it pukes I'll just factory reset again, no big deal.
blackhawk said:
Try in safe mode. In settings do a "tethering" search. Double check all settings...
If it's through a carrier... renew the pass code.
SmartSwitch may be ok if same device and OS... just make sure it's not your primary backup.
My theme, icons, homescreen are pretty elaborate so next reload I'll test it for just that.
If it pukes I'll just factory reset again, no big deal.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Are you on a S20 5G?
Pinalp84 said:
Are you on a S20 5G?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No.
Cross search devices/OS versions for solutions and workarounds. Most issues have been around for years...
Everytime you update you expose yourself to new and potentially unknown firmware malfunctions that many times vastly outweigh any benefits.
Google is not conservative but you can be...
There are no solutions for this issue as of now. I've seen a few people online with the same issue and none of them have found a solution even after calling Samsung support. This issue surfaced after the most recent android update.
Pinalp84 said:
There are no solutions for this issue as of now. I've seen a few people online with the same issue and none of them have found a solution even after calling Samsung support. This issue surfaced after the most recent android update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Samsung tech support is next to useless.
The US tech side is better, SK and Philippines are worthless.
Check -all- related settings and permissions.
The update may have toggled a critical buried setting. It wouldn't be the first time
Many times you need to track the issue down yourself. Try different search words and look at all similar issues regardless of the OS version and device.
What are you trying to tetheri to?