How can I prevent the Galaxy S5 from updating via OTA?

[deadpenguins]

My girlfriend got the gs5 on VZW a few months ago, and has enjoyed it a lot. When I heard about the nightmares of lollipop (especially on VZW) I told her to avoid the update. Now, she's telling me that she was just forced to pick a time today for her to update, and at 5 pm tonight it will do it. Is there anything she can do to stop this update? I told her to check in about phone but she said nothing relevant is there. How can they force you into an update that breaks your phone? This is ridiculous. Any help is appreciated!

 

[B. Diddy]

The only way that I'm aware of is to root the phone and then disable the system app that is responsible for system updates (but I can't tell you which app that is specifically).

It's true that being forced to install a system update that is buggy is pretty silly. But keep in mind that you're only hearing from the people who are having problems, and not from the majority of people who aren't. If the bugs were common enough, Verizon would pull the update (which they've done in the past). Requiring updates is also an important way to address the whole fragmentation issue.

If you go through with the update, then do a cache partition wipe immediately afterwards, which can sometimes help with various issues: http://support.t-mobile.com/docs/DOC-10404. Some would even go as far as doing a full factory reset after the update, then setting the phone back up.

 

[deadpenguins]

Yea, that's unfortunately what I've been hearing too. I used to be into the whole rooting scene, but it's been a while, and I know my gf is not interested in going that route. Well, fingers crossed!

 

[Tritonemusic]

FWIW, my brother and I are on Verizon, and the Lollipop update has been quite good. Neither of us have had any of the major problems I've read about on this forum. However, both of us did a full factory reset, and I wonder if that has a lot to do with it.

P.S. I've been using Nova Launcher Prime and he's been using stock TouchWiz.

 

[DaVeNuE]

I don't have knowledge of Verizon pulling an upgrade, although my knowledge is based om my limited experiences, Ultimately they make their customers suffer until a future update can correct the problems. This is what happened back when Ginberbread 3.2 was released... people who had been very happy with their Droids for over 6 months suddenly hated their phone experience. That's when I learned how to root a phone...up until then, things were great with the Droids.

I am now in the process of rooting a Verizon S5 because of the reported Lollipop problems. And though you mention that those who aren't having problems aren't being heard, I can assure there are many, many people who are experiencing the same problems and aren't complaining and/or don't know about these forums. I personally wouldn't chance upgrading to Lollipop if one still has the that choice. I would wait until the problems are gone. When they are gone, you'll hear about it on this forum, xda and others...

 

[Rebelvis]

I've been declining the update for weeks. The little pop-up comes up and asks if I want to update and I click "Install later." It then lets you pick a time to install and I selected 1 am when I know the phone won't be on. Also, there is a little tick box where you can tell it to install automatically or not. Obviously, I'm not going to let it install automatically; now or later.

If your gf is careful and doesn't click "install now," she can decline the update indefinitely or at least until Verizon releases a stable, functioning release. That's my plan anyway.

My girlfriend got the gs5 on VZW a few months ago, and has enjoyed it a lot. When I heard about the nightmares of lollipop (especially on VZW) I told her to avoid the update. Now, she's telling me that she was just forced to pick a time today for her to update, and at 5 pm tonight it will do it. Is there anything she can do to stop this update? I told her to check in about phone but she said nothing relevant is there. How can they force you into an update that breaks your phone? This is ridiculous. Any help is appreciated!

 

[DaVeNuE]

That little pop-up can pop-up every time your screen comes on - everyday...talk about a royal pain in the a$$.... and at some point the OTA can be forced on on you whether you manually install it or not. If you're able to, I would merely root your phone and stop any and all firmware updates that way. Then you can also get rid of bloatware/junk on your phone that you don't need.