Samsung Galaxy S3 Problems

threein99

Slattsy wrote: »

Fatherhood.

Do your children email you when they want something ?

Slattsy

threein99 wrote: »

Do your children email you when they want something ?

Yup. I've ensured they're very advanced for their ages. My son of 4 weeks simply uses Google voice and calls out Dadda to reach me.
I'm quite proud.

kingtiger

threein99 wrote: »

I don't know any job that's 24/7

you obviously don't work in IT :pac:

so what about messaging clients like WhatsApp?

threein99

kingtiger wrote: »

you obviously don't work in IT :pac:

so what about messaging clients like WhatsApp?

I know quite a few who do

Lulala

duploelabs wrote: »

This as well since upgrading to JB, also where I work has dodgy data coverage and everytime I leave coverage I have to restart my phone to regain mobile data. On 3 network, anyone else have this issue?

god's toy wrote: »

i think loads of people have this data prob. funny thing is for me at least its only in dublin as in wicklow its fine....

Hi there, I too have this problem - it's driving me demented. I don't know WHEN I'm not connected to the data network - until I try to access something needing data network. A re-start also re-connects me but who wants to be doing that every time?

After 4 years on iPhone, I'm a newbie (2 weeks) user/owner of the Samsung Galaxy S3 (and first time using any Android phone) and am on the Three network. Trying to keep an open mind, but problems like this, and the woeful battery life are seriously impacting my impression of this phone. I would be surprised however, if the data network issue is not network/Three related.

Has anyone found a fix for this?

Cheers.
Now I'm off to try to find out how to backup my phone, sync my contacts like I could on iTunes with iPhone....

P.S. Does anyone else find it freaky the permissions that various Apps are granted to items on your phone? I'm sure the Apps on iPhone had the same permissions, but maybe not flagged as openly as they are when downloading/updating from the Play Store.

threein99

Lulala wrote: »

Hi there, I too have this problem - it's driving me demented. I don't know WHEN I'm not connected to the data network - until I try to access something needing data network. A re-start also re-connects me but who wants to be doing that every time?

After 4 years on iPhone, I'm a newbie (2 weeks) user/owner of the Samsung Galaxy S3 (and first time using any Android phone) and am on the Three network. Trying to keep an open mind, but problems like this, and the woeful battery life are seriously impacting my impression of this phone. I would be surprised however, if the data network issue is not network/Three related.

Has anyone found a fix for this?

Cheers.
Now I'm off to try to find out how to backup my phone, sync my contacts like I could on iTunes with iPhone....

P.S. Does anyone else find it freaky the permissions that various Apps are granted to items on your phone? I'm sure the Apps on iPhone had the same permissions, but maybe not flagged as openly as they are when downloading/updating from the Play Store.

Use Kies for that

Lulala

Cheers threein99 - I'll give that a go for backup/sync etc.

Anybody else have any fixes for the datanetwork dropping / requiring a re-start?

god's toy

Lulala wrote: »

Cheers threein99 - I'll give that a go for backup/sync etc.

Anybody else have any fixes for the data network dropping / requiring a re-start?

Your on the 3 network I take it?

If so, It's a bug in the update, Three are working with Samsung to see where the error is coming from.

A faster way of sorting it for some people is to turn Data mode off then back on or put the phone into airplane mode and back out... or both!

more info at the three forum.

Lulala

god's toy wrote: »

Your on the 3 network I take it?

If so, It's a bug in the update, Three are working with Samsung to see where the error is coming from.

A faster way of sorting it for some people is to turn Data mode off then back on or put the phone into airplane mode and back out... or both!

more info at the three forum.

Thanks a mill for that - much appreciated. Yes - i'm on the 3 network. It's a relief to know it's neither me or some setting I have wrong.

Patsy fyre

Just noticed that the Jelly Bean update took driving mode from the notification bar.

It was quite handy I thought, not sure why it was removed

Lulala

Patsy fyre wrote: »

Just noticed that the Jelly Bean update took driving mode from the notification bar.

It was quite handy I thought, not sure why it was removed

I agree Patsy. As a user who has only ever experienced Jelly Bean, I never had ICS, but it looked useful to have the Driving Mode feature accessible in the notification bar (although from the reviews I've read about this feature, it doesn't sound that good).

You are probably aware of it, but just in case you aren't, the feature is still accessible - just not on the notification bar. You can turn it on/off (and adjust its settings) through Settings/Language and input/Text-to-speech output (slightly more long-winded than it being on the notification bar).

Shades799

threein99 wrote: »

Use Kies for that

I moved from the iPhone to the Galaxy S3 and I dropped my new S3 in water, backed it up and got a new replacement from the insurance company.

But when I went to restore my phone it was NOTHING like an iTunes restore, ringtones, settings etc... aren't restored and worse of all, none of my apps.

Apparently this is just how the restore in Kies works??

Shades799

killbillvol2 wrote: »

What's the point of having a smart phone with no data?

I've said this before earlier on in this thread I completely agree. Not saying anyone here is an S3 fanboi but if Apple suggested such a thing the android fans would hammer them for it.

My phone got wet and was replaced and as I've said above I just restored my phone and it was pointless, messages, contacts and logs etc... I would have been just as well off restoring from Google account.

Anyways I just updated my phone and I'm wondering should I do a reset now before I start trying to get my phone back to the way I want it. I'm struggling to see why I should because doesn't a factory reset restore the phone back to the way it came out of the factory, requiring me to do the update all over again?

@killbillvol2 Try installing Llama, see below post I made earlier on Llama. Settings I made with this really helped my battery
One app I really love is Llama and it does something that really made me want to move from the restrictive iOS. You can set profiles by time (or location using phone masts which doesn't drain battery any more than normal usage). So I have my phone setup to be on my quiet profile in work and loud outside of work. Also, it allows you to set events, so, if my battery goes below X, Turn off WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, brightness, Mobile Data etc automatically. Fantastic!

kenyard

Shades799 wrote: »

I moved from the iPhone to the Galaxy S3 and I dropped my new S3 in water, backed it up and got a new replacement from the insurance company.

But when I went to restore my phone it was NOTHING like an iTunes restore, ringtones, settings etc... aren't restored and worse of all, none of my apps.

Apparently this is just how the restore in Kies works??

kies is samsungs software. there are apps for proper backups like titanium backup which does everything. ofc the filesize then is pretty huge.
i hafnt used kies much. anyone who has been a longterm samsung user says there are much better options out there.
its what android is about. they let users of devices do stuff for the phones etc, moreso than apple who lock it down.
in a few ways like this when you didnt know what to do, its bad. but for longterm users its great. like if you want to do anythign with the phone you can.
you could put windows on it if you wanted +had the skills. and linux works. within a few weeks of it coming out someone had ubuntu running on it, quite well
anyways not getting into the pros and cons, kies should have your numbers and stuff.
you need other stuff for apps etc..or just redownload them
the play store has a list of your previously downloaded apps

Shades799

kenyard wrote: »

its what android is about. they let users of devices do stuff for the phones etc, moreso than apple who lock it down.

Agreed, and that's why I LOVE Llama and why it confirmed that I had made the right choice, looking at Titanium now but too late for me now unfortunatly

I think the point is that it's not a matter of which is best phone, it's a matter of which is the best phone for each user.

Any advice on whether I should do a factory update after doing my JB update?

kenyard

factory reset you mean?
EDIT: also it only wipes apps and data, not the OS. so no you will still be on jellybean, just all apps, data, contacts etc will be lost.
its only necessary if you encounter issues with stuff. there shouldnt be any problems though some people have experienced them.
there is an easier resolution in terms of keeping data which is find the problem program and wipe just thats programs data. e.g media player gave me issues but that was caus i tried the custom roms first.
batterylife is slightly lower on jellybean imo btw. just expect maybe ~10-15% less usage time.
i dunno why
EDIT: it is much snappier though. you think it cant be with what u have, but it is.

as for future backups. i would either recommend titanium (generally around 700mb), or a full phone backup with clockwork mod (does everything, so i have one which is ~4gb from ages ago)

threein99

Shades799 wrote: »

I've said this before earlier on in this thread I completely agree. Not saying anyone here is an S3 fanboi but if Apple suggested such a thing the android fans would hammer them for it.

My phone got wet and was replaced and as I've said above I just restored my phone and it was pointless, messages, contacts and logs etc... I would have been just as well off restoring from Google account.

Anyways I just updated my phone and I'm wondering should I do a reset now before I start trying to get my phone back to the way I want it. I'm struggling to see why I should because doesn't a factory reset restore the phone back to the way it came out of the factory, requiring me to do the update all over again?

@killbillvol2 Try installing Llama, see below post I made earlier on Llama. Settings I made with this really helped my battery
One app I really love is Llama and it does something that really made me want to move from the restrictive iOS. You can set profiles by time (or location using phone masts which doesn't drain battery any more than normal usage). So I have my phone setup to be on my quiet profile in work and loud outside of work. Also, it allows you to set events, so, if my battery goes below X, Turn off WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, brightness, Mobile Data etc automatically. Fantastic!

I have just used Kies to back up my numbers, the lists of apps you had will be somewhere in your play store account you can just re-download them

killbillvol2

Shades799 wrote: »

@killbillvol2 Try installing Llama, see below post I made earlier on Llama. Settings I made with this really helped my battery
One app I really love is Llama and it does something that really made me want to move from the restrictive iOS. You can set profiles by time (or location using phone masts which doesn't drain battery any more than normal usage). So I have my phone setup to be on my quiet profile in work and loud outside of work. Also, it allows you to set events, so, if my battery goes below X, Turn off WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, brightness, Mobile Data etc automatically. Fantastic!

I don't have any issue with battery life. I leave everything running on my phone and charge it if I need to. I've tried llama and uninstalled it. I don't need profiles.

kenyard

threein99 wrote: »

I have just used Kies to back up my numbers, the lists of apps you had will be somewhere in your play store account you can just re-download them

only issue is your saved games will be lost when relying on this. whereas with titanium or clockwork you can usualyl backup your app data

killbillvol2

threein99 wrote: »

I have just used Kies to back up my numbers, the lists of apps you had will be somewhere in your play store account you can just re-download them

kenyard wrote: »

only issue is your saved games will be lost when relying on this. whereas with titanium or clockwork you can usualyl backup your app data

The easiest way to back up your contacts is to your gmail account. No messing with Kies and they're restored as soon as you log in to your google account.

+1 for Titanium - all your app data is restored if you want it.

Shades799

So after going through my phone and reinstalling all my apps and setting up everything the way I had it (took about 3 hours) I'm now in full swing with Jelly Bean (4.1.1).

Have to say I'm having none of the problems other people may be having. Seems faster to me, batter life seems better and all in all it's been a welcome upgrade.

Two problems I'm wondering if anyone else has though.
1) Does Music Hub start automatically for people everytime they restart and then tell you it's not available in your country. I know I can't get it off the phone without rooting but surely I can stop it from starting up?

2) I had to upgrade my Kies firmware to allow it to work with JB and now I can't seem to get access to my backup that I took before the upgrade. (Want to pull back songs) anyone have this problem?

naif

I'm hoping that somebody might be able to help me. I bought a Galaxy S3 on Saturday (from vodafone) and while I like the phone and all it offers I am shocked by the meagre battery life. Mine drains by about 6% an hour when in sleep mode (and I should point out I haven't installed one app since purchasing it).
Having read through this thread it seems that some people are getting much longer out of their batteries, even with modest use. So I have two questions (I am not a techie person so my knowledge of these things is very basic):

1. what settings (specifically, please) would people recommend to gain the maximum life from the battery (without having to disable all the functions that make the phone special)?

2. I saw during my web browsing where someone recommended going to Settings > Data Usage > Options > Restrict Background Data to save battery life. I did this for a trial yesterday and it seemed to bring about a dramatic improvement (1-2% battery drainage per hour in sleep mode) but I wonder by selecting Restrict Background Data to what extent am I limiting the phone's functionality? Or is it no big deal?

I would greatly appreciate any feedback. Thanks.

Patsy fyre

Is the gs3 your first smart phone? Biggest drawback of these phones is the battery.
Simple things can be done to increase the battery life.
Keep the brightness turned down to the lowest setting. Turn off sync, wifi, mobile data gps, bluetooth when not using them. Also use the power saving feature.

What version of Android is the phone running?

naif

It's my first smartphone alright but I was prepared for the fact that it would require more frequent charging than my old Nokia. My OH has had an iPhone 4 for some time and, while she has to charge every day, it would only lose max. 2% per hour when in sleep mode.
I have done a lot of the things you've mentioned to limit drainage (turn off GPS, WiFi) but they didn't seem to make an appreciable difference.
Do you think it's normal for the S3 to lose ~5% an hour when in sleep mode?
As I mentioned, I switched the Settings to Restrict Background Data for a trial and it seemed to make a big difference; but I wasn't sure that if by doing this I was disabling some of the phone's features. Any idea?
As to the OS I don't know (and I don't have the phone with me now to check).

sham69

naif wrote: »

I'm hoping that somebody might be able to help me. I bought a Galaxy S3 on Saturday (from vodafone) and while I like the phone and all it offers I am shocked by the meagre battery life. Mine drains by about 6% an hour when in sleep mode (and I should point out I haven't installed one app since purchasing it).
Having read through this thread it seems that some people are getting much longer out of their batteries, even with modest use. So I have two questions (I am not a techie person so my knowledge of these things is very basic):

1. what settings (specifically, please) would people recommend to gain the maximum life from the battery (without having to disable all the functions that make the phone special)?

2. I saw during my web browsing where someone recommended going to Settings > Data Usage > Options > Restrict Background Data to save battery life. I did this for a trial yesterday and it seemed to bring about a dramatic improvement (1-2% battery drainage per hour in sleep mode) but I wonder by selecting Restrict Background Data to what extent am I limiting the phone's functionality? Or is it no big deal?

I would greatly appreciate any feedback. Thanks.

I was having the same issues.
I have found 2 things that have really helped.

1. Google now: I turned this off.
From the home screen press the option button and then search, then press option again and settings, swipe google now to off.

2. Maps: go to the maps app, click on option button, settings, location and settings and untick report from this device.

This has made a huge difference to my phone.
I have also disabled apps and services that i don't use, power saving on, auto brightness etc.
Hope this helps.
Sham.

naif

Thanks for the suggestions there Sham. I will try them out. Can I just ask - in your experience with the S3 what sort of battery drainage would it be reasonable to expect when in sleep mode? As I've said, mine seems to go at a rate of 5 or 6% per hour.

sham69

well , prior to making these changes my phone was at about 75% at 9pm.
I got to bed around 9.30 (early start) and get up about 6:30am.
The phone would be at around 35% or so , and thats in standby with me not using it all night.
I knew there was something wrong so had to make some changes.
It doesnt seem to affect everybody so I am wondering if its a battery issue.
It did seem a lot better on ICS before the jelly bean update.
Hope it works out for you.
Let me know how you get on.
Cheers.
Sham.

naif

@sham Thanks again, I'll let you know if it makes a difference.

wreckless

there is a quick close all running applications button too. press and hold the home button, choose the round button on the left and ram manager. click clear memory.this will close a lot of applications running in the background.

another way to really terminate an app is in the app manager in settings. slide right to "all". click the app e.g maps. and force stop. the phone will not wake this app unless you open it or another app is linked to it opens it. these all run very much in the background and if not needed, then close them.

hope this helps a bit

Lulala

naif wrote: »

1. what settings (specifically, please) would people recommend to gain the maximum life from the battery (without having to disable all the functions that make the phone special)?

2. I saw during my web browsing where someone recommended going to Settings > Data Usage > Options > Restrict Background Data to save battery life. I did this for a trial yesterday and it seemed to bring about a dramatic improvement (1-2% battery drainage per hour in sleep mode) but I wonder by selecting Restrict Background Data to what extent am I limiting the phone's functionality? Or is it no big deal?

I would greatly appreciate any feedback. Thanks.

Naif, I too am a recent convert to this phone (after 4 years on iPhone). I was initially shocked at the brutal battery life. However, I have found that changing a few settings is now giving me satisfactory battery life - at least comfortably making it to the end of the day (with very little usage granted) with about 40/50% battery remaining before charging up overnight.

I ticked each of the boxes in the "Power Saving" settings - except for the "Background colour" box as for me personally, I didn't like the way that impacted on the display when ticked.

I also turned off all three options in Settings/Location Services. I do sometimes need to turn these on when I need them - but am always prompted by the phone to turn a particular location services option to "on" when the phone/app needs to use it for the particular function I want to use. That minor inconvenience is worth it for me, rather than have it constantly running in the background, eating your battery. This option may not be to everybody's liking, but unless you specifically need map/location-type services, it doesn't need to be turned on.

I had tried selecting the "restrict background data" option, but soon un-checked that after I found that the phone needed it more times than I had imagined. I honestly can't remember what occasions those were, but I know I decided against it as a battery-saving exercise. (I've now selected it again just to see/remind myself why I decided against it before - so I'll update this if I am reminded of the reason for turning off this feature).

I also have Sync and bluetooth off and haven't needed them yet (after two weeks).

Turn WiFi off during sleep (except when plugged in): Settings/WiFi/(Menu)Advanced/Keep WiFi on during Sleep "Only when plugged in".

I am also in the habit of ending all aplications regularly but I do know that some long-time Android users don't see this as beneficial. To do that, you long-push the home button, then tap on the pie-chart looking symbol (apologies if I am offending anyone by improper button/icon names!), and choose to end all or individual applications that are running. Again, I am certainly open to correction on this practice, but when combined with the obove suggestions, along with Sham69's suggestion of turning off the display auto-brightness and using the lowest setting you are comfortable with, I'm getting a much-improved battery performance from the phone.

I haven't logged the % per hour for battery loss regularly, but I can say that the phone is now off charge for 8.5 hours and has 69% battery remaining. I have had it off and on quite a bit today - mostly for email-checking, a few calls and texts, and brief internet browsing - no heavy usage such as games - but definitely couldn't be considered to be in sleep mode either.

One other thing, and you're possibly already aware of this: If you go to Settings/Battery, you can see which functions/apps are draining your battery the most. That may help you find the biggest offender. If "gpsd" is one of the top items (like maybe just below "screen"), there's a settings change that can help knock that off. Just let me know and I can post the details that I found when searching on this topic.

I think that's all the measures I took, and with the exception of the afore-mentioned location services needing to be switched on every now and again to use certain functions, I haven't found that these settings have disabled any of the phone's features relevant to me.

Best of luck with it!