What to do when the 360 misbehaves

[crxssi]

Here is a procedure to try when you are having problems with your 360 such as:

1) Poor battery life (unless your device is new, remember that it can take a number of charge/discharge cycles for new batteries to reach their ultimate capacity) (A normal battery should last at least 24 hours per charge with light use, often much longer).
2) Lag (strange pauses that don't seem normal)
3) Mysterious behavior (like crashing, freezing/locking up, flickering screen)
4) Missing notifications
5) Inability to maintain consistent connection to the phone

Before trying this procedure, of course try rebooting the watch and/or phone, since that requires far less effort and can often fix minor issues. (You can also stop after step 1 and see if there is any difference before continuing).

1) Uninstall any and all Wear watch apps you installed from the phone (but do NOT uninstall Android Wear, itself) THEN
2) Wipe the cache for the Android Wear app on the phone (settings-> apps-> Android Wear-> Force Stop, then Clear Data, then Clear Cache) THEN
3) Remove Android Wear from your phone completely THEN
4) Factory wipe the watch (on the 360, Settings-> Reset Device) THEN
5) Reload Wear on the phone THEN
6) Pair the two THEN
7) Try it completely stock this way for days and see how it goes. Do not change any Wear settings or install any watch apps or faces during your test period.

If your problem was only battery life and the above did not fix it, then try turning off the "tilt to wake" function which can only be accessed from your phone under settings while in the Wear app. If this does fix your problem, then you might be accidentally waking the watch constantly with certain movements and you should just leave tilt to wake off (you then wake the watch by touching the screen or pressing the button).

Otherwise, if your problems persist, the above are the most drastic "cure all" so you might have a hardware issue and your only recourse is warranty/replace. If it passes the tests OK over the next days, then carefully add single apps or settings changes, one or few at a time, to see what happens over additional days, so you can narrow it down what you did that caused the original issue.

I will continue update this first post with additional steps or modifications as we learn more.

 

[Golfdriver97]

I take it between each step, see if the issue is fixed? (Not trying to be rude, more to clarify)

 

[dungoyle]

crxssi, I just wanted to take a moment to say that I (and I am sure the community in general) appreciate your participation in the forum. Your posts are consistently informative, helpful, and non-derisive. Your pro-active posting of this information reminded me of that, and I thought it was worth mentioning publicly.

 

[crxssi]

I take it between each step, see if the issue is fixed? (Not trying to be rude, more to clarify)

It is certainly possible to check after step 1, but I figured that most people would have tried things like removing apps, rebooting, reinstalling Wear, and such (although I just updated it to include that info). I think one of the key things is wiping the cache and settings for Wear before uninstalling it. It seems some sub-systems like Wear can leave junk behind from previous updates. I ran across this completely by chance when experimenting. Since there is nothing much to lose with a factory reset on a watch (unlike a phone or tablet) I just figured it would be easier to say "do all this and then see if you are OK now". I would not recommend stopping after step 2 or beyond, since that is all order specific and plays on each other to get things back to as normal and fresh as possible.

I added some additional info and clarifications now, too. It will be nice to have something to point people to if they seem to be having major issues and say "try this before returning the watch or giving up".

 

[crxssi]

crxssi, I just wanted to take a moment to say that I (and I am sure the community in general) appreciate your participation in the forum. Your posts are consistently informative, helpful, and non-derisive. Your pro-active posting of this information reminded me of that, and I thought it was worth mentioning publicly.

<blush> thanks. Forums, in general, have been extremely helpful to me- motorcycles, cars, TiVo, Linux, phones, photography, cats, tablets, watches, etc. I try to give back as much as possible as a "thanks" and to hopefully inspire other people to share info, too. It is amazing how much better users can support each other sometimes, compared to the manufacturers.

 

[Robin Hebert]

Here is a procedure to try when you are having problems with your 360 such as:

1) Poor battery life (unless your device is new, remember that it can take a number of charge/discharge cycles for new batteries to reach their ultimate capacity)
2) Lag (strange pauses that don't seem normal)
3) Mysterious behavior
4) Missing notifications
5) Inability to maintain connection to phone

Before trying this, of course try rebooting the watch, since that requires far less effort and can often fix minor issues. (You can also stop after step 1 and see if there is any difference before continuing).

1) Uninstall any and all Wear watch apps you installed from the phone (but do NOT uninstall Android Wear, itself) THEN
2) Wipe the cache for the Android Wear app on the phone (settings-> apps-> Android Wear-> Force Stop, then Clear Data, then Clear Cache) THEN
3) Remove Android Wear from your phone completely THEN
4) Factory wipe the watch (on the 360, Settings-> Reset Device) THEN
5) Reload Wear on the phone THEN
6) Pair the two THEN
7) Try it completely stock this way for days and see how it goes. Do not change any Wear settings or install any watch apps or faces during your test period.

This seems to be the most drastic "cure all" and if it doesn't help, you might have a hardware issue. If it passes, then carefully add single apps or settings changes, one or few at a time, to see what happens over additional days, so you can narrow it down.

I will update this first post with additional steps or modifications as we learn more.

Wow thanks. I think sometimes the watch faces act up if they aren't quite compatible.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[crxssi]

Wow thanks. I think sometimes the watch faces act up if they aren't quite compatible.

In Android (and especially Android Wear) it can be very tricky at times to tell if there is some type of app problem, service problem, settings problem, OS/Update problem, or even hardware problem. So things have to be taken systematically, which is sometimes slow and painful.

 

[ETPhoneHomeT]

It is amazing how much better users can support each other sometimes, compared to the manufacturers.

Amen to that! I rarely use manufacturer customer support for operational issues as it's pretty obvious they're just following a script and usually don't have a clue about real troubleshooting of a problem. User forums provide a wealth of information on troubleshooting, device features and operations. In these days of tech, you pretty much have to live with a device to know how to use it properly.

 

[Iron Adventurevich]

thanks that was helpful

 

[gadgetgirl3]

Very helpful! Just got the Nexus 6, and while my watch played well with my Nexus 5, I was having problems keeping the watch connected to the N6. It finally wouldn't connect at all even after several reboots of phone and watch. I had bookmarked this thread "just in case". Glad I did! So far, so good after completing all the steps!

Sent from my Nexus 6 using Tapatalk

 

[IAmSixNine]

Good Info.
I found that for me disabling the step meter and disabling the heart rate monitor gave me best battery life.
Also before anybody buys a watch face, read the reviews, i found a few that had many complaints about compatibility (round vs square face) and some that claim horrible battery drain. IF many people complain of the same thing its probably a not so wise app to use.. just yet.

 

[Floridadomer]

Good Info.
I found that for me disabling the step meter and disabling the heart rate monitor gave me best battery life.
Also before anybody buys a watch face, read the reviews, i found a few that had many complaints about compatibility (round vs square face) and some that claim horrible battery drain. IF many people complain of the same thing its probably a not so wise app to use.. just yet.

Is turning off the notifications on the step meter and heart rate monitor the same as disabling it? If not, can you please tell me how to do this?

 

[IAmSixNine]

Same thing.
I tap the screen, start it taking my heart rate, then slide left, disabled all the stuff. So no step, no heart rate, turn history off..