Issues after Lollipop - Settings and apps

[amazondrone]

My S4 updated to Lollipop, and while I have some minor gripes (lack of color customization most notably), there are two things that are real issues for me.

First, the left button (on the bottom next to the home button) doesn't pop up a menu for Settings any more - the only thing is does is give me choices about wallpapers, widgets and home screen settings - things I very rarely access. I don't know why they made those so easy to get to, whereas setting is something I use all the time. The only way I can access all the phone's Settings now seems to be through an "app" icon on the home screen. Yuck. Is this what they meant to do?

My second issue is even more important to me - I had my Apps set to be shown in an alphabetical list. I can alphabetize the apps, but I can only seem to have them in squares all over the screen instead of a vertical list I can scroll up or down. Have I missed a way to get that setting back?:-\

 

[B. Diddy]

One workaround for the easy access to the Settings button would be to use Power Toggles, which allows you to create a toggle bar in the Notification Panel. You can include shortcuts to any app in the toggle bar, including the Settings. So then it's pretty easy to swipe down no matter where you are in the phone and tap Settings--that's how I have my Nexus 5 and 7 set up, since they also don't have a Settings option preset anywhere.

 

[Javier P]

You can have an alphabetical list of apps using a custom launcher such as Nova. Also you can change the background color of your app manager.