S voice not finding contacts on S6

[hillyw]

Please help - since a new update my s voice wouldn't work in turned off mode - last night it said it had been updated, so now it works from turned off but can't find any of my contacts. I am reluctant to wipe phone and start again as best friend passed away suddenly a few weeks ago and I don't want to lose any of her messages. My camera fails every day and google now won't work if I use microphone - says it's not connected to wifi but it is ...... fed up with this phone - only got it in Feb and it was great until update

 

[VidJunky]

Ok one thing at a time. First your contacts were they Google contacts or stored on the phone? I can't explain why but with Google contacts they sometimes take awhile to resync with the device. It could be that they only sync, at midnight let's say, and until that schedule is meet you might have some or none. It could also be that s voice, which I'm not familiar with, doesn't have the necessary permissions to access your contacts and simply isn't alerting you to this need. This is simple enough tho to fix. Go to settings, app manager, s voice, permissions and be sure all the required permissions are checked. I would do the same for Google voice search. It may have lost permission to use Wi-Fi and simply isn't informing you of this need. As for the camera, big updates sometimes come with bugs, and this may be one. You can attempt to start fresh by the same procedure as before but instead of going to permissions go to storage. Clear the cache and data for the camera. Hopefully that straightens it out, although I will say that many times, with older OS updates, Android has responded better from simply doing a factory reset. With updates they attempt to patch the new items so that a reset isn't necessary but this doesn't always go well. I think different purple have different issues because everyone uses their devices differently. So heavy texters may see different issues than a gamer and so on. By factory resetting the device it loads the OS from the updated image instead of patching. It give the user a cleaner install and tends to get rid of bugs but everyone hates to reset. Anyway there are several ways to save and restore SMS. Your carrier may offer options and there are any number of apps on the PS to do this. Plus when you upgrade devices with out some kind of back up you'd lose these messages anyway so it would pay to error on the safe side and just back them up now. SMS backup is one that I like because you can send the messages to a cloud server, like Google Drive or Dropbox. If you loved your phone before hopefully some of these tips will help you love it again.

 

[hillyw]

Hi - thank you so much for replying. The contacts are phone contacts ... I should be able to say 'hi galaxy' when phone is locked and ask it to text/call someone in my contacts list but it keeps saying contact not found. Have worked out I can do this in google voice, but not from lock screen - not a problem, just annoying when it did work before. As regards the google now with the wifi - I can type into google search and it will do what it should, but asking it to by using 'hey google' is when it says 'not connected to wifi' - odd really. As regards the camera, I had looked it up and did as you said and cleared cache and data and I then have to restart phone. It will then work for most of the day, but the next day it says the same and it has the same amount of cache and data as it had previously (if that makes sense). Just miffed that I updated it - if it wasn't broke I shouldn't have fixed it maybe :'(

Much appreciate you taking the time to answer my questions - thank you

 

[VidJunky]

Ok so did you check the permissions for the s voice app? You didn't really say. Phone contacts or not it may still need permission to access them. As for Google Now if you go in and check the settings, under voice if you go to the settings from the app or if like me you have a Google heading under your settings, it's under Services> Search & Now> Voice> OK Google detection, there are settings for From Any Screen. If selected you can also choose to make it a Trusted Voice. This setting will, or should, allow you to unlock the device from the security lock screen. The from any screen setting will allow you to unlock the device from the swipe to unlock screen only. You may have to install Commander to take full advantage of its features. But Google Now is powerful and useful if you don't mind talking to your phone. Speaking of did you check its permissions? Even tho I've selected to use local voice recognition o find that it still sends my voice commands out to the translator occasionally before returning results. In order to send those packages out it obviously must have connectivity which means permission to access the microphone, and permission to connect to the internet, and one of those may need turned on. I'm miffed on the camera thing, unless it's a bug from the update. Maybe others will chime in with better ideas.

 

[hillyw]

Sorry but I hadn't seen your reply - thought I'd get emails for answers but didn't and couldn't find how to access my question until now - can tell how good I am with phone too :-\

The OK Google says I can access from on screen or when charging - no choice for lock screen. The S Voice used to work fine - I can still do reminders etc but when it comes to mentioning a contact it just says 'contact not found' - there is no option to let it access my contacts as such, but as it worked before the update, something has gone awry I am thinking. The camera is just a pain the neck - sometimes it works but most times it doesn't without me re-starting - as I said, I cleared cache and data and it will work for a while and then go back to amount of data it had previously. Just get fed up with phones when all is okay until updates and then everything goes potty :'( Thanks again for your help.

 

[hillyw]

Forgot to mention - when I switch phone off and back on again to make camera work, a message pops up on screen every time to say 'failed to download multimedia attachment' - could that have something to do with camera not working but don't know what it refers to or how to delete the supposed attachment.

 

[VidJunky]

Unfortunately it sounds like it's time to backup and start fresh. I'd be willing to bet that all this clears up with a reset. Best wishes

 

[hillyw]

Thank you - think you're right ........ will give it a go and let you know - thanks again