ok, so my phone has had problems since day 1. In fact, I ultimately had my first phone replaced after it turned off and refused to turn back on (black screen with some debug info only). In any event, replacing the phone fixed some of the issues, but not all. Here is a list of some of the problems I have encountered, what I have done to address some of them, and others that I have not yet been able to diagnose.
1) Battery drains far too quickly (6 hours for a brand new phone before it is shutting off) and the only process listed in the battery usage monitor is "Android OS". Pretty vague if you ask me since it doesn't actually mention the specific service or process using the battery. I've tried multiple utilities as suggested by various threads on here to identify the source, but Android OS is the only thing that shows up anywhere. Ultimately after lots of searching, I found only 2 threads of users with similar problems with other Android phones (not motorola) that seemed to indicate the yahoo mail app was causing the problem. I removed the app, and sure enough that addressed the issue and now my battery is lasting much longer.
2) Battery drains far too quickly due to "Android OS". This is still sometimes a problem even after removing the yahoo mail app! I seem to have narrowed down the scenario that causes this problem to actually using the phone as a phone (go figure). If I make a call (even for 1 or 2 minutes) my phone will still show at least 90% battery remaining (usually 100% for short calls), but after a few hours, the battery will be significantly degraded and "Android OS" will be at the top of the list. In order to get the phone back to functioning normally in these cases, I have to reboot. That seems to work so far, but it is rather annoying that I cannot use my "phone" as a phone without having to reboot each time or risk draining the battery.
3) Mail sync suddenly got all screwed up and started syncing/deleting/re-syncing/re-deleting/etc... over and over again. (No changes at all were done to the phone, no new apps were installed, no settings change... absolutely nothing for the week leading up to this problem) My phone was getting extremely hot, and rebooting did not work. Removing the 2 accounts I have synced seemed to work, but putting them back immediately resulted in the same problem. Ultimately here is how I "fixed" the problem. First, I removed both accounts and rebooted the phone. Then I added one account, let it sync (which worked fine), rebooted the phone again and waited about 10 minutes before adding the second account. At that point everything seemed to be back to normal and the syncing problem went away.
4) Random Reboots. So this seems to be a problem with other Android devices as well, so at least I'm not on my own here. Basically once every few days my phone will simply reboot. This has happened while it is sitting idle on the desk next to me for hours, or sometimes when I push the button to unlock the phone... totally random, and no indication as to what causes it.
5) Picture messages sometimes won't send. I have had this happen to me twice now. Basically I will compose a picture message, click "send", wait for a minute before receiving an error message that there is no network coverage available and the send fails. This will happen regardless of the number of bars and whether on 3G or not. I can still make phone calls and send normal text messages without any problems. The ONLY way I have been able to "fix" this problem is to call the verizon programming number and re-program the phone. Then everything works normally again. I never had this problem with any other phone I have ever owned, so I can only assume it is specifically related to Android somehow.
6) Random freezes. Three times in the past month I have had my phone freeze while I was in the middle of typing a text message, or switching between programs. The phone froze so badly that waiting didn't help, pushing any physical buttons on the phone did nothing, nor did pushing any of the soft buttons... the only way I was able to regain control of my phone in these circumstances was to pull the battery.
For everyone's information, the phone is running Android OS 2.2, I do not have any task killers or any monitoring apps installed, I have all syncing for non-essential programs turned off (no weatherbug updates, no facebook updates, no updates for ANY apps whatsoever that I have control over.) I also have very few apps installed above and beyond the garbage that came pre-packaged on the phone that I am unable to uninstall.
1) Battery drains far too quickly (6 hours for a brand new phone before it is shutting off) and the only process listed in the battery usage monitor is "Android OS". Pretty vague if you ask me since it doesn't actually mention the specific service or process using the battery. I've tried multiple utilities as suggested by various threads on here to identify the source, but Android OS is the only thing that shows up anywhere. Ultimately after lots of searching, I found only 2 threads of users with similar problems with other Android phones (not motorola) that seemed to indicate the yahoo mail app was causing the problem. I removed the app, and sure enough that addressed the issue and now my battery is lasting much longer.
2) Battery drains far too quickly due to "Android OS". This is still sometimes a problem even after removing the yahoo mail app! I seem to have narrowed down the scenario that causes this problem to actually using the phone as a phone (go figure). If I make a call (even for 1 or 2 minutes) my phone will still show at least 90% battery remaining (usually 100% for short calls), but after a few hours, the battery will be significantly degraded and "Android OS" will be at the top of the list. In order to get the phone back to functioning normally in these cases, I have to reboot. That seems to work so far, but it is rather annoying that I cannot use my "phone" as a phone without having to reboot each time or risk draining the battery.
3) Mail sync suddenly got all screwed up and started syncing/deleting/re-syncing/re-deleting/etc... over and over again. (No changes at all were done to the phone, no new apps were installed, no settings change... absolutely nothing for the week leading up to this problem) My phone was getting extremely hot, and rebooting did not work. Removing the 2 accounts I have synced seemed to work, but putting them back immediately resulted in the same problem. Ultimately here is how I "fixed" the problem. First, I removed both accounts and rebooted the phone. Then I added one account, let it sync (which worked fine), rebooted the phone again and waited about 10 minutes before adding the second account. At that point everything seemed to be back to normal and the syncing problem went away.
4) Random Reboots. So this seems to be a problem with other Android devices as well, so at least I'm not on my own here. Basically once every few days my phone will simply reboot. This has happened while it is sitting idle on the desk next to me for hours, or sometimes when I push the button to unlock the phone... totally random, and no indication as to what causes it.
5) Picture messages sometimes won't send. I have had this happen to me twice now. Basically I will compose a picture message, click "send", wait for a minute before receiving an error message that there is no network coverage available and the send fails. This will happen regardless of the number of bars and whether on 3G or not. I can still make phone calls and send normal text messages without any problems. The ONLY way I have been able to "fix" this problem is to call the verizon programming number and re-program the phone. Then everything works normally again. I never had this problem with any other phone I have ever owned, so I can only assume it is specifically related to Android somehow.
6) Random freezes. Three times in the past month I have had my phone freeze while I was in the middle of typing a text message, or switching between programs. The phone froze so badly that waiting didn't help, pushing any physical buttons on the phone did nothing, nor did pushing any of the soft buttons... the only way I was able to regain control of my phone in these circumstances was to pull the battery.
For everyone's information, the phone is running Android OS 2.2, I do not have any task killers or any monitoring apps installed, I have all syncing for non-essential programs turned off (no weatherbug updates, no facebook updates, no updates for ANY apps whatsoever that I have control over.) I also have very few apps installed above and beyond the garbage that came pre-packaged on the phone that I am unable to uninstall.