Can anyone help me with some Note 2 woes?

[futhashi]

note 2 woes: Android 4.4.2?? remembering wifi key, GPS/no data/wifi, battery

HI,


I have a few issues I am hoping someone can help me

with. First though as I have been looking around for help

online, I have noticed any directions have been different

on my phone even though it is help for my phone I am

looking at. I think it is because my phone has been

upgraded to android 4.4.2. and most instructions are for

older versions.


I have a Note 2 , Model # SGH-T889V, Android version

4.4.2


1. Does this Android version mean the software(firmware?)

is KitKat??


2. Every time I take my battery out, I lose my wifi

network key and have to keep entering it to connect. I

took it to a shop (Cell Doctor, Calgary, Alberta) where I

have some repair warranty and they did not know if this

was normal. they gave me a 1-800 number for Samsung and

sent me looking for a payphone, though I was already

certain it was normal like a computer and that was

confirmed by a friendlier Samsung rep. I went back and

educated the two youngin techs at CellDoctor and one took

the phone and frigged with a setting and that worked for

a while. They said all I had to do was click the

"remember keyword" setting where I inserted the wifi

network key. I can't find that anywhere.


Can anybody direct me to that setting on my version

4.4.2?? Please.


3. I have also been told that I cannot use the GPS

navigator, giving me directions unless I have a data plan

or wifi. When I am driving I have neither. I set the

destination when I do have wifi at home and it gives me

really good voice commands until I arrive but changing a

destination again with no wifi does not work. It gives me

an error of no wifi connection. A stand alone GPS you buy

for a car, has no wifi or data plan and it works with 12

volts and a GPS signal. Should not my phone act the

same???


4. My battery worked really, really good. I started using

APPs such as battery doctor and battery drain and now

when I use this battery, it makes the phone reset, go

through booting, over and over and over again. A new

battery I just bought works well. It seems these things

are really fragile compared to a laptop. Should I be

really carful about which APPs I play with??


This is my first smart phone and it has been really,

really frustrating to say the least.


I hope someone can help me out with these issues.

I look forward to your help,


Antonio

 

[Rukbat]

Re: note 2 woes: Android 4.4.2?? remembering wifi key, GPS/no data/wifi, battery

1. Does this Android version mean the software(firmware?) is KitKat??

Yes. 4.4.anything is KitKat (4.4.2, 4.4.4)

2. Every time I take my battery out, I lose my wifi network key and have to keep entering it to connect. I took it to a shop (Cell Doctor, Calgary, Alberta) where I have some repair warranty and they did not know if this was normal. they gave me a 1-800 number for Samsung and
sent me looking for a payphone, though I was already certain it was normal like a computer and that was confirmed by a friendlier Samsung rep. I went back and educated the two youngin techs at CellDoctor and one took the phone and frigged with a setting and that worked for a while. They said all I had to do was click the "remember keyword" setting where I inserted the wifi network key. I can't find that anywhere.

Ask them (or, better yet, ask at a shop that actually knows about cellphones - when I had my stores, an answer to a customer that was so wrong would have resulted in not even waving goodbye to the departing ex-employee) to reflash the 4.4.2 update. Forgetting wifi connections is all too common (it should be "never") with 4.3 and 4.4.2 updates. (The method Android uses to send updates over the air just begs for errors. We did better back in 1988. Forth made doing it right trivial back in the 70s.)

3. I have also been told that I cannot use the GPS navigator, giving me directions unless I have a data plan or wifi. When I am driving I have neither. I set the destination when I do have wifi at home and it gives me really good voice commands until I arrive but changing a destination again with no wifi does not work. It gives me an error of no wifi connection. A stand alone GPS you buy for a car, has no wifi or data plan and it works with 12 volts and a GPS signal. Should not my phone act the same???

No. The stand-alone GPS has a map in it to translate a street address to lat/lon (latitude/longitude) coordinates - which is what GPS uses. Your phone doesn't (although you can download maps so you don't need a data connection, but the phone memory isn't large enough to hold a whole country at once, the way a stand-alone GPS is.) Once you set the GPS to go to an address, it's calculating the route to that lat/lon. When you tell it to go to another address it has to get online to ask its server (Google Maps, Mapquest, etc.) for the lat/lon of that address. (See View maps offline to download an area map to the phone.)

4. My battery worked really, really good. I started using APPs such as battery doctor and battery drain and now when I use this battery, it makes the phone reset, go through booting, over and over and over again. A new battery I just bought works well. It seems these things are really fragile compared to a laptop. Should I be really careful about which APPs I play with??

Be careful WHERE you get your apps. Play Store and Amazon's App Store are safe. Others may be, but it's safer to not use them. Don't use apps to "fix" the battery (or RAM). If you want to save battery, run Wakelock Detector. (If the phone isn't rooted - you probably didn't root it - read Wakelock with non-rooted KitKat.) That will tell you what's keeping your phone awake. When you look at Settings/General/Battery, and press the graph, the Awake line at the bottom should be almost all black when you weren't using the phone. Blue indicates that something woke it up, using battery. Wakelock Detector will show you what.

Then, if things are waking the phone when they shouldn't be (alarms will and should be, email and messaging apps will and should be - all these things work without your telling them to run), run Greenify to make sure things like games, browsers, etc., don't run by themselves.

 

[futhashi]

Re: note 2 woes: Android 4.4.2?? remembering wifi key, GPS/no data/wifi, battery

Thanks for your great response.

As for loosing the wifi keyword every time I took the battery out, it does not happen anymore after I stood watching buddy frig with some settings, make me feel like a dunce and sending me on my way. Looks like I will never know what he did, and I guess probably don't need to know, though I was indeed curious.

I have since found out that Google Maps will let you download a map to internal memory but without a wifi or data plan connection will only allow you to look at it zooming in and out. It will not allow you to search for a location or navigate turn by turn. It does have on of the easiest user interfaces. Best intuitive interface I have seen, just not working how I would have liked

I have also found a quagmire of sites touting the thrill of free offline nav apps using OSM, Open Street Maps, similar to Open Office, updated regularly by the users and public. There seems to be a lot of them. I lost this entire post because I included a couple links here to some sites, and was surprised I lost the whole post because I was not supposed to use links....guess I should have read the fine print!! Writing this again in "word" now, just in case.

I googled “free android offline gps” or any such thing will get you lots of sites reviewing countless of these apps. I think I have now tried them all and have yet to find one that works even though the reviews are ravenous in favour or their abilities. Most I can't get past their unfriendly user interface and when I do I can't get them to work without that dreaded connection.

One such app is “Navfree”. I have read countless good reviews but after downloading their maps, and searching for an address with wifi off, I get “can't find internet server”. I turn it on and redo the search, it comes up with the whole address for me to select, I can do that over and over with the same results. Memories of Google Maps......

Anyway I am not sure why I am having sooooo much problem when there are sooooo many droids out there that say this thing exists. I have talked to a couple people that are adamant that it is not possible....sounding more like a conspiracy as I go on....eh wot!!

Guess I will keep trying until I find out for sure and maybe someone will chime in with a name of an app and offer up some help to get me started and put an end to this conspiracy theory.

Thanks again for your help!!
Antonio