Having some trouble with my Galaxy S4

[chugs]

I've been searching the net but haven't quite found any exact answer for my current situation.

I have a G4 and Verizon is the carrier.

I took an update Wednesday morning.

My once awesome, best phone I've ever owned, phone, is now a buggy piece of garbage that I've come to hate in the past day.

Random reboots and lockups. When a text or email notification comes in phone restarts or locks up.

I noticed my SD card was nearly full (I don't recall that before). So I cleaned it up hoping that would help but it really hasn't.

Doesn't make sense anyway. Before update=great phone. After update= garbage. It's got to be tied to the update.

Anyone else have this problem? Any ideas on what I should be looking at or trying?

I see a common question when people are having trouble is "is your phone rooted?" I don't know.... but I've never done anything out of the ordinary to it if that helps.

Thanks in advance for any help or thoughts you can provide.

 

[z96Cobra]

About the only thing you can do is a "Factory Data Reset". This will take your phone back to stock & erase all of your info/apps etc. You'll need to re-enter all of your info but your apps should automatically reinstall if you selected to have Google backup your info.

 

[dezymond]

I'd actually try a FDR to see if that helps your issue. Sometimes after an OTA a phone can go crazy, but usually a FDR remedies it.

 

[Rmedy21]

Yes this happened to me two weeks ago. I spent two hours with the Verizon customer service rep. You have to get a phone replacement. There is nothing you can do about it there is a glitch in the software. Once I received my new phone everything worked fine.

 

[bbtkd]

Amazing how offhandedly folks suggest an FDR, like a help desk suggesting "just re-install windows". Either can cause permanently lost data (unsynced data such as password vaults or documents) for the unprepared, or at best hours or days of recovery of aftermarket app data, and getting your settings right. I've lost track of how many folks have done an FDR, lost data, and it turned out the FDR was unnecessary because their problem was an errant app. This case may warrant an FDR, but don't jump to that without trying a battery pull, and ensuring you can recover your data. Log onto Google from your PC to verify that your calendar and contacts have been syncing. If you are a techie you would want to download a few apps such as OS Monitor and SystemPanel Lite which can show you if you have a runaway process, something eating up resources, or any number of issues you can track down in the system logs. In the end, you may need to do an FDR but don't jump into that blindly.

You are not rooted unless someone intentionally did it. If you didn't, and nobody "helped you", then you're not.

 

[Malkavian]

I have to agree with bbtkd, it might not need a FDR. I had a similar problem with random restarts before and after the update. I started checking some of recently installed apps. I uninstalled a lock screen widget that I was using to quickly lock the screen. Surprisingly, I have haven't had a random restart since then, knock on wood. I'm not saying that this is your solution, but look at some of the apps your running and ask yourself, "Do I really use this app?"

 

[chugs]

Thanks for all the responses. I'm going to start by checking apps and processes and doing a more detailed (long and tedious) troubleshoot.

I can't believe it's a bad phone. Makes no sense. Phone was great until update. Seems that points to a software issue.

If I do have to take it down and do this FDR about the only thing I'd lose is Angry Birds levels and as a grown man, I should be able to get over that ;-)

 

[chugs]

Sorry to ramble on but phone was acting better today after battery pull but still not perfect like before.

Here is an example, pretty typical of what has been happening: I hit my email icon, no problem. deleted some junk mail, no problem. opened an email I was interested in and selected the option for 'view images' within the email. Something I've done 100's of times before. This time, lock up and auto restart.

I mean, what is the tie-in between that action and the auto-reboot?

 

[Rmedy21]

Hey chugs I had the same problem but I just got a replacement phone. Each time I would open something the phone froze and restarted

 

[chugs]

But I'm confused. If I get a new phone, migrate all my same stuff to the new phone then do the update, what would stop this from happening again?

 

[Rmedy21]

It maybe something wrong internally with the phone. When I got my replacement phone I migrated everything over to the new phone. I also updated and the phone is running smoothly. Like I said just two weeks ago I had the same issue I tried everything from rebooting to factory reset and nothing worked.

 

[bbtkd]

But I'm confused. If I get a new phone, migrate all my same stuff to the new phone then do the update, what would stop this from happening again?

Starting to look like corruption, which would be fixed By an FDR after you ensure you preserve data. This would probably fix it, but if you're planning an FDR you may as well get a warranty replacement since you have to reload anyway. You would probably get a refurb, which will look new. It will have a slim chance of having a problem they did not catch in testing, though less of a chance than an issue with a new phone since refurbs get more testing.

 

[Rmedy21]

Bbtdk what is FDR?

 

[jstafford1]

Bbtdk what is FDR?

Factory Data Reset...

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

 

[bbtkd]

Bbtdk what is FDR?

Factory Data Reset, aka hard reset. Sets it back to a copy of the firmware stored on the device, which will cause all data to be lost. It will clear up corruption issues, though you must ensure you confirm your Google data has been successfully syncing, and that any other valuable data is backed up somehow.