Issues experienced w/ the new Samsung Stratosphere II 2

[nyerinca]

I got my hands on the new Samsung Stratosphere 2 a week ago and have been generally happy. However, I do have a few nagging issues which I thought I'd post about to see if there is a setting I need to adjust, or in case Samsung/Verizon are reading and are looking for feedback.

1) I find that in certain circumstances, the device stops listening to the QWERTY keyboard commands. I might be typing an email in GMail or in Good, and then the system stops responding to key hits. But then I'll close the slider and type on the virtual keyboard and it will respond. I'll then open the slider again and it will sometimes start working again. A bit annoying.

2) I find that the system forgets that I have a microSD card inserted and I need to unmount and mount in order to access data (photos, song files, etc.) This happens several times per week.

3) Spell checker. I have no idea what settings I need to adjust under Language and Input to have the system give me spelling recommendations but to not auto correct words. It seems its all or nothing with the system. Either it will change a mispelled word to something of its choosing, or will give me no feedback whatsoever. Would be graet to see a suspected mispelled word underlined with options provided that I can select from or ignore.

Thanks,

 

[JoeFresco]

Have you tried a different virtual keyboard like Swiftkey?

 

[shmlss4gb]

I am having the spell check issue too. It's driving me insane, almost to the point of taking the phone back and exchanging if someone can't help get it to work. I cannot stand the predictive text option, it picks the craziest things and trying to fix them takes more time. All I want is a keyboard similar to what I had on Droid 3 - if a word is spelled wrong, it underlined it, you hit the word and suggestions come up. Also, I had the suggestions while typing before that you could click to save typing. I've tried every combo of settings for the stock keyboard and I cannot get it to do this.

I have also tried these keyboards and no luck: SwiftKey3 (paid version), Hacker's Keyboard, Ice Cream Sandwich free (because it said it had the underline misspellings, but it doesn't), Gingerbread keyboard.

I am going to try to go to a Verizon store to see if they can help. Does anyone know how to fix this? I really like the phone otherwise, and I really do not want to go back to POS Motorola's to keep the physical keyboard.

 

[Charlietinks]

The phone I have is a Samsung Android Galaxy Stratosphere II. I am having an issue with receiving text messages. Whenever i receive a text message, it makes a sound but it doesn't pop up on my lock screen. I need to know immediately when i receive a text message and i can never tell why my phone is beeping unless i search throughout my phone to see what the cause is. Does anybody know if there is a way to go on my phone and change this so that it can show a little bubble when a receive a text message and notify me instead of displaying nothing at all but a sound? My older sister has a the Samsung Android Galaxy Stratosphere (the older one) and her text messages were displayed on lock whenever she received them and hers is OLDER than mine. So could someone please respond to me asap? I really need to solve this issue. Thank you so much! Much Appreciated.

 

[shmlss4gb]

open your text messages. Then on your phone face click the ... icon (sorry, not sure what it's called). Then click settings. From there look for the notifications. Checkmark the first option (something like display notifications in status bar). With that checked the screen will light up and there will be a text bubble in the top and on your messaging icon it'll show how many unread texts you have.

 

[Charlietinks]

IT WORKED! thanks so much!

 

[Mastaking]

The Samsung Keyboard is terrible as far as predictive text goes. The options are to disable the predictive text or get a new keyboard. Swiftkey (as recommended above) is an excellent choice. My personal favorite however is called "Ice Cream Sandwich Keyboard". It is in the play store. The predictive text is amazing.

 

[Charlietinks]

what does the ice cream sandwich keyboard do differently, if you don't mind me asking. I may take interest in purchasing it.

 

[shmlss4gb]

Do you have the paid verison of the ICS keyboard? The free version does not do what I want. If you have the paid one, can you confirm that auto-correct can be turned off, but spell check on? What I want is like my old phone - type and if you misspell something, it underlines it. Touch the underlined word, and suggestions come up to pick from or ignore. Like what it shows here Android - Introducing Ice Cream Sandwich My old phone did this on both the stock messaging keyboard and if you were on Facebook, etc.

I do not want auto correct and I don't really care about text predict. I just want to be able to type and fix my errors myself, not have the stupid phone tell me what it thinks I'm trying to say (because there are times I'm spelling things correct but it's not in the dictionary and it refuses to let me keep my word without going out of that screen, into the personal dictionary and adding it - it should have an option like the screen shot shows to add to dictionary from the text message screen - but it's not working).

I'll gladly pay for the app if it allows me to configure it the way I want. But I don't want to pay for another one that is just going to get deleted because it's no better for me than the stock app.


Also - does anyone have this app that has our same phone? It looks like you have the S3, which doesn't have a physical keyboard. And some of the keyboards I downloaded do the underlining, but only on the touch screen, not the physical keyboard. Kind of defeats the point of buying the phone, which for me was for the physical keyboard.

Thanks!

 

[JoeFresco]

I just got a Strat2, and I found the keyboard software completely annoying so here's what I did:

First two steps are for QWERTY keyboard use (Languages and Inputs in settings)
1. Disabled predictive text in Samsung keyboard
2. Disabled auto caps in Samsung keyboard
3. Installed Jellybean keyboard from Google Play
4. Changed the default keyboard from Samsung to Jellybean

The Samsung keyboard is not optional since it interfaces with the QWERTY keyboard. So to separate my settings for QWERTY vs virtual, I installed the Jellybean keyboard. I prefer that over Swype or Swiftkey. Now I don't get any predictions or caps on QWERTY but I get it for virtual, which is what I wanted.

 

[mfadams04]

I have a samsung stratosphere 2. Last night I got a text message and the number 1 popped up on the text icon (indicating I had 1 message waiting), but now it won't go away. I deleted all my text messages just in case I missed reading one, but the number 1 is still there. And now when I receive more texts the number doesn't change - I had four messages waiting for me this afternoon after work, but the notification still said 1. It's like the text icon is stuck with the #1. I tried shutting the phone off and then starting it up again, and nothing in settings seems to work...any ideas? Thanks!

 

[Dave-in-Decatur]

I have a samsung stratosphere 2. Last night I got a text message and the number 1 popped up on the text icon (indicating I had 1 message waiting), but now it won't go away. I deleted all my text messages just in case I missed reading one, but the number 1 is still there. And now when I receive more texts the number doesn't change - I had four messages waiting for me this afternoon after work, but the notification still said 1. It's like the text icon is stuck with the #1. I tried shutting the phone off and then starting it up again, and nothing in settings seems to work...any ideas? Thanks!

With some caution, I'd suggest doing Home screen > Menu > Settings > Applications > Manage applications. Tap All, wait for the list to populate, then scroll down to the Messaging app, tap on it, and tap Clear data. (This is on a Strat I; what you see may differ somewhat.)

I'm not sure what all this deletes, but since you already tried deleting all your messages, you probably won't miss whatever this clears out. If the 1 is still there, restart the phone again and see if it's gone now. Not sure this will work, but it might be worth a shot. This might also delete whatever notification preferences and other settings you've made within the Messaging app, I don't know, so you should check and make sure those are intact.

 

[Betsy Jarvis]

I have my 2nd Samsung Stratosphere 2 and I really don't like this phone but I appreciate the suggestions above. While on a business trip 2 weeks ago both keyboards decided to stop working. As did the dialer. I could receive texts, emails and calls but could not make them. When I returned home i took it back to Best Buy and they sent it away and gave me a new "refurbished" phone which I also dislike. The keyboard is the worst. All you can do is turn off predictive text in which case you have no spell check at all. But what frustrates me even more is that when I start a text it doesn't capitalize the first letter all the time-just some of the time. Then when I hit delete it won't delete. I have to hit backspace first and then delete andit will delete. Then I press the shift and all the letters are capital. It is so infuriating for what's supposed to be an advanced system. I am going to try the Jellybean keyboard and see if some of these issues are resolved.
Also, i get repetitive notifications on emails. They come to me over and over and it drives me crazy! I will try the above suggestion.
I really can't wait to get a new phone but I have 1 1/2 more years of this awful phone!

 

[Trig2040]

I have a Stratosphere II and have not issues such as the ones posted above. i just recently got mine a few months and have been trying to get one for a while now. my issue is with incoming calls! when any and all calls show up as (this is just and example)"Incoming call from +43 55554444 Austria". so it takes the area code and adds the plus sign and space the 3rd number of the area code. so when people call me the area coda always shows up as +70 2,+41 4 ,+21 6,+80 1 not (702),(414),(216) or (801). so when i try to call the number back i get a recorded voice message saying i have no balance for the call or balance it too low, incorrect country code

 

[Lisa Rogers2]

I have a samsung stratosphere 2. Last night I got a text message and the number 1 popped up on the text icon (indicating I had 1 message waiting), but now it won't go away. I deleted all my text messages just in case I missed reading one, but the number 1 is still there. And now when I receive more texts the number doesn't change - I had four messages waiting for me this afternoon after work, but the notification still said 1. It's like the text icon is stuck with the #1. I tried shutting the phone off and then starting it up again, and nothing in settings seems to work...any ideas? Thanks!

My husband had the same problem. In settings (choose your Gear icon) scroll down and find Applications Manager. Scroll over to All to show all the applications on your phone. Scroll down to find Messaging. Do not clear the data but uncheck the box that says Display Notifications then click Force Stop. Restart the phone. Reverse the process so you recheck the box next to Display Notifications. Click the home button on the bottom of your phone. Now go into your text messages. You will see that your messages are still there and the icon for messages no longer has a number by it. Hope you have as good of results as we did.