[Dark_Knight2]

ATTENTION: SAMSUNG AND SPRINT HAVE PULLED THE OTA DUE TO ALL THE ISSUES USERS ARE EXPERIENCING WITH THE OTA UPDATE. THIS IS AS OF JULY 19, 2012.

Ok a ton of issues are being reported by people who updated from EL29 to FF18. This Noob guide will answer all those nasty questions have.

What if im having a ton of issues? This update sucks. Why did samsung allow this horrible update?

First Off...
Do a factory reset...

Second...
This update is amazing. Users need to get it thru there heads that this is a huge MAJOR update for this phone. App data from gingerbread is the cause for ff18 instability.

What will a factory reset fix???
Horrible Battery Life
Crappy WiFi Performance
Random Reboots
Poor Radio Performance
App InCompatibilty
Lagginess
DID I MENTION POOR BATTERY LIFE?
DID I MENTION CRAPPY WIFI?

But wont a factory reset delete all my user data?

YES YOU WILL LOSE ALL USER DATA. THIS NEEDS TO HAPPEN INORDER FOR THESE RANDOM ISSUES TO BE FIXED. BASICALLY ITS LIKE A BAND AID....JUST PULL IT OFF FAST

If Im not rooted how can I backup my apps and app data?

USE AN APP IN GOOGLE PLAY CALLED "MYBACKUP" AND ONLY BACK UP YOUR APPS.

DO NOT DO NOT DO NOT BACKUP APP DATA. APP DATA FROM EL29 INTERFEARS WITH FF18 STABILITY.

Why didnt Samsung/Sprint make the update.zip wipe my user data?

THIS IS BECAUSE USERS DONT LIKE SUPRISES. SAMSUNG KNOWS THIS. DO A MANUAL WIPE.

What About the eMMC Lockup Bug?

I HAVE DID 13 FACTORY RESETS ON THE OTA FF18. MY PHONE IS STILL ALIVE. IF THIS DOES HAPPEN THEN YOU WILL GET A WARRANTY REPLACEMENT FROM SAMSUNG.

After I did the factory reset i am still having issues with the update, what am I doing wrong? HELP?

First check you apps. Alot of apps ARE NOT Ics compatible yet. Second remove any and all weird and off the wall apps you DLed. Once you do that go into "Settings" app and go to "Applications" and disable ALL the apps and widgets you do not use. Disable and force close each app of choice then after your done reboot.
Next go into the "Settings" app again and go to "Developer Options"
Check box for "Force 2D hardware acceleration in apps" then turn off all screen animations. Then scroll to the bottom and press "Number of processes allowed" and press "Only One Process allowed". Once you do all that reboot again. If you truely follow this to the letter you WILL NOT HAVE ANY ISSUES.

How do I do a factory a reset?

GO INTO SETTINGS...
PRIVACY...
FACTORY RESET...
THIS PROCESS CAN TAKE UP TO 3 MINUTES DEPENDING ON AMOUNT OF APPS AND APP DATA.

[schnoid]

Thanks for the info. I thought one of the new features of ICS is that it backs up apps/app data to the cloud? Basically the only things I really care about that aren't already backed up to the cloud is SMS messages and game progress. Any tips?

[JohnC#AC]

Although factory resets will clear some issues / problems people are having, there are other problems that a factory reset will not fix due to incompatibilities with some 3rd party applications. There are also changes in the way the software functons including new features that have been added and some legacy functions that have been removed.

Users need to be aware that with this major upgrade come major changes in the way this phone operates, some good, some not so good.

[Dark_Knight2]

Although factory resets will clear some issues / problems people are having, there are other problems that a factory reset will not fix due to incompatibilities with some 3rd party applications. There are also changes in the way the software functons including new features that have been added and some legacy functions that have been removed.

Users need to be aware that with this major upgrade come major changes in the way this phone operates, some good, some not so good.

Exactly. This was a tremendious upgrade over Gingerbread. Apps are different. Ics was the best update to date.

Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2

[Dark_Knight2]

Bump it up for all the noobz

[boriqua2000]

What is a noob?

[Dark_Knight2]

What is a noob?

Its a boob :-P

[taylormah]

So mybackup would backup just the apk files for the apps? I dont care about the in-app settings and data, I can always set those up after the update, but I want to save the progress of my games. Is there any solution just for this sake? I am on non-rooted stock device/rom.

[packhntr]

This may be a dumb question, but in ICS, where did they move the factory reset to? I knew where it was in Gingerbread....

Nevermind.....If I'd bothered to finish reading everything I would have seen it.....

[locationman52]

Dark_Knight2,

I'm about to do a factory reset. When you say "do not back up app data" does this include call logs and sms? If so, I'll do it but it sucks! Also, can you back up the data (using mybackup pro) but not restore it at first? Then, restore each at a time to see if it effects performance? Or is the act of simply backing them up using mybackup cause the problem?

Thanks in advance if you're able to shed some light on this...

Clint

[Dark_Knight2]

This may be a dumb question, but in ICS, where did they move the factory reset to? I knew where it was in Gingerbread....

Nevermind.....If I'd bothered to finish reading everything I would have seen it.....

I was very through in my OP.

[FrostyGTA]

Dark, I was doing the reset by holding the volume button and power button...is this the same reset as going through ICS privacy menu? I'm still getting an insane amount Android OS battery usage. If this isn't the same thing then I'll do it your way.

[Dark_Knight2]

Dark, I was doing the reset by holding the volume button and power button...is this the same reset as going through ICS privacy menu? I'm still getting an insane amount Android OS battery usage. If this isn't the same thing then I'll do it your way.

Do it either thru stock recovery or thru the settings app. Either way you are getting the same desired affect

What Android OS Drain??? :P

[FrostyGTA]

4hr 9m on battery at 75%. Sent a few texts and went to two web pages, rest is idle time in an "OK" reception area. Android OS is at 67% of the battery usage...I've done a factory reset twice. Can it be a rogue program/app?

[Dark_Knight2]

4hr 9m on battery at 75%. Sent a few texts and went to two web pages, rest is idle time in an "OK" reception area. Android OS is at 67% of the battery usage...I've done a factory reset twice. Can it be a rogue program/app?

Do you have any off the wall apps downloaded. I only stick to trusted apps from well know devs or corporations.

[davis.rob]

I must admit I was a little leery of such a one-size-fits-all fix, but I bit the bullet and did the factory reset yesterday and it seems to have really helped. Battery life is pretty much back to normal and the audio/bluetooth glitching I was hearing is mostly gone (but not 100%). Much better anyway.

[Dark_Knight2]

I must admit I was a little leery of such a one-size-fits-all fix, but I bit the bullet and did the factory reset yesterday and it seems to have really helped. Battery life is pretty much back to normal and the audio/bluetooth glitching I was hearing is mostly gone (but not 100%). Much better anyway.

Lol. Ya but in this case it has helped 99.9% of users.

[FrostyGTA]

I have no wallpaper apps, I have the GoDev weather widget and NovaLauncher. Some other apps are the yahoo mail and messenger programs, SportsTap, a Flashlight, Facebook, Voxer and a poker program.

[Dark_Knight2]

I have no wallpaper apps, I have the GoDev weather widget and NovaLauncher. Some other apps are the yahoo mail and messenger programs, SportsTap, a Flashlight, Facebook, Voxer and a poker program.

Yahoo and facebook are cpu eaters. Remove those and you will see how much android os goes down.

[FrostyGTA]

OK, cool, didn't know that. Thanks

[LS14EVR]

I've done all as suggested and I'm sorry but the ICS sucks a$$ right now. I'm not happy. My GPS is still a pile of garbage, and bluetooth is terrible as well. Facebook and certain apps are only hogs if you don't set them up correctly. I turn off all notifications so it's not checking with it every 5 min. SO that is not an issue. It appears that the weather.com app is checking my location every 5 sec and trying to use the GPS without success. Think I will ditch it for now, but the app is way better than stupid accuweather.

[Dark_Knight2]

I've done all as suggested and I'm sorry but the ICS sucks a$$ right now. I'm not happy. My GPS is still a pile of garbage, and bluetooth is terrible as well. Facebook and certain apps are only hogs if you don't set them up correctly. I turn off all notifications so it's not checking with it every 5 min. SO that is not an issue. It appears that the weather.com app is checking my location every 5 sec and trying to use the GPS without success. Think I will ditch it for now, but the app is way better than stupid accuweather.

I am enjoying ICS FF18 :thumbup::beer:

[fcjr77]

I did a factory reset, but have a question, why does my Battery information show Android OS and Android system listed? One is using 16% and the other 9%. Is that normal?

[uch34]

i have some thoughts on what happened. I've explained some in more detail than needed for expert users since many ordinary people are looking for solutions to this issue.

1. When Sprint sent the OTA upgrade to ICS, the process did not clear the dalvik cache. This is the place where applications are compiled as a one time event. If the process had cleared the dalvik cache the reboot would have taken a lot longer than it did after the update. I believe the lagginess, the rapidly discharging battery, the nonfunctioning buttons etc are caused by the fact that executables compiled for Android 2.3.6 are now running in a ICS environment.

2. All the other "solutions" mentioned in many other threads "turning wifi on/off, uninstalling apps, removing widgets, charging battery" are all red herrings

3. Doing a factory reset of your phone clears and rebuilds the dalvik cache. I believe this recompiles the internal apps and processes into versions compatilble with the ICS update. Therefore this seems to solve the problem

4. There are two ways to clear the dalvik cache a) do a "factory reset" to the phone b) root the phone and clear the dalvik cache. Since the b) probably means reinstalling everything anyway, you are better off doing a) because doing b) for many non android expert people will result in a bricked phone

5. Corollary of 4 is that you are going to spend 6-8 hours reconfiguring your phone to the way it was, probably losing some data along the way

6. Sprint is solely responsible for not including clearing the dalvik cache and forcing a recompilation and repopulation of the dalvik cache as part of the OTA process.

7. I believe that this bug is going to affect everyone who updates to ICS until Sprint includes the processes I have mentioned in 6.

8. As for the people who have already been affected (which is everyone who updated), I hope Sprint pushes out a second update that clears the dalvik cache.

I am very disappointed that whoever was in charge of the ICS update @Sprint seems to not have done even basic beta testing.

[niegowsj]

I haven't received the update yet but am preparing but am new to android (I had webos for a couple years). If I do the reset but do the mybackup first what do I lose? Someone asked about game progress or old texts or pictures/music.

Thanks