New to HTC and considering M8

[joshy1980]

I've been an Android user for the last 5 years or so. I've rooted every Android I've owned. First I had a Droid 2, then Droid Bionic and now I made the choice to go with the S5. As others have mentioned, "Samsung Galaxy" is synonymous with "Android" right now, and I appear to have been duped. Being that I'm a Verizon user there's no root at the moment, with no ETA. Since I have the option of taking my phone back and exchanging it, and the more homework I do on the M8 the more I'm considering the switch. The M8 seems to do better in benchmarks, perform better overall, and generally is just a more pleasant experience for users. Not to mention that root may not be available for the S5 until after I can't return the phone. For me, root is a required component for me to keep a phone. Being able to backup and restore with Titanium Backup makes all the difference in my opinion. I'd probably keep my S5 if root were out right now just because i'm too lazy to exchange it. But thinking ahead long-term the M8 seems like a more solid choice.

So, with that in mind I'm considering the switch. Now my questions:

1. The M8 is rootable, but it doesn't appear to have an unlocked bootloader. Is this true? Some people say it is, some say it isn't, and I can't figure out what is right from what is wrong. I don't generally flash custom ROMs anyway, just curious.
2. Is HTC pretty good about doing updates? How long do they usually go with doing updates? My Droid Bionic was a total f'in nightmare. For those that don't know, when the Droid Bionic was sold ICS was about 2 months from being released. The phone was sold as "ICS Ready". It had a bonafide sticker on the box and everything! Promises galore, but the update didn't actually roll out for 10 months after ICS came out. In those 10 months Motorola rolled out 3 updates for Gingerbread and apparently didn't even *start* work on ICS until 5 months after ICS came out. Total BS and I'll never let Motorola do that to me again. I am determined to make sure I never end up in a situation were the company that handles my updates won't turn and run away from me like that after I give them my money. To make things worse, you couldn't use real ICS ROMS to get by until the official ICS version was released because of driver problems. /sigh
3. Anyone used an M8 and a S5? What did you think of them? (Edit: Oops.. said G5 and I meant S5).
4. So far there's all these mixed rumors that if you root the G5 it'll trip "KNOX"(some kind of warranty/security system) and you'll never be able to update the phone with OTA updates again. I realize that rooting may void your warranty and that rooting can damage the phone if you don't know what you are doing. Any potential pitfalls I should be concerned with by rooting an HTC phone above the normal "rooting isn't for your grandma" type of thing? Can I expect future updates to actually be installable?

I have no friends that use HTC so I can't ask them these kinds of questions.

Thanks!

 

[jd914]

1 the developer edition comes with the bootloader unlocked. I personally don't see why you would need to flash a custom rom it's perfect as is but that's my opinion.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[Jesus Janica]

Go for the HTC one m8 you wont regret it,HTC sense is so good I haven't bothered with rooting or anything like that

Posted via Android Central App

 

[ugxvibe]

1. The M8 is rootable, but it doesn't appear to have an unlocked bootloader. Is this true? Some people say it is, some say it isn't, and I can't figure out what is right from what is wrong. I don't generally flash custom ROMs anyway, just curious.
2. Is HTC pretty good about doing updates? How long do they usually go with doing updates?
3. Anyone used an M8 and a G5? What did you think of them?
4. So far there's all these mixed rumors that if you root the G5 it'll trip "KNOX"(some kind of warranty/security system) and you'll never be able to update the phone with OTA updates again. I realize that rooting may void your warranty and that rooting can damage the phone if you don't know what you are doing. Any potential pitfalls I should be concerned with by rooting an HTC phone above the normal "rooting isn't for your grandma" type of thing? Can I expect future updates to actually be installable?

1. You can root and/or have s-off right now. If you do not have Verizon, HTCdev - Unlock Bootloader can unlock the bootloader. They really cater to people like you and I that like to tinker with phones. The fellas over at XDA have achieved S-Off on the M8 (All carriers).

2. HTC is pretty good with updates, its the carriers that muff things up. HTC even has a website dedicated to letting you know the status of updates for current models. HTC Software Updates | HTC United States

3. No clue.. never touched an S5

4. The devs at XDA will disassemble any OTA's and provide flashable versions of the latest updates without fear of losing root/S-off.

 

[mhunter6378]

How to Root the HTC One M8 (All-in-One Toolkit Method) - YouTube

All in one toolkit for all variants

 

[kbp08tls]

I've been an Android user for the last 5 years or so. I've rooted every Android I've owned. First I had a Droid 2, then Droid Bionic and now I made the choice to go with the S5. As others have mentioned, "Samsung Galaxy" is synonymous with "Android" right now, and I appear to have been duped. Being that I'm a Verizon user there's no root at the moment, with no ETA. Since I have the option of taking my phone back and exchanging it, and the more homework I do on the M8 the more I'm considering the switch. The M8 seems to do better in benchmarks, perform better overall, and generally is just a more pleasant experience for users. Not to mention that root may not be available for the S5 until after I can't return the phone. For me, root is a required component for me to keep a phone. Being able to backup and restore with Titanium Backup makes all the difference in my opinion. I'd probably keep my S5 if root were out right now just because i'm too lazy to exchange it. But thinking ahead long-term the M8 seems like a more solid choice.

So, with that in mind I'm considering the switch. Now my questions:

1. The M8 is rootable, but it doesn't appear to have an unlocked bootloader. Is this true? Some people say it is, some say it isn't, and I can't figure out what is right from what is wrong. I don't generally flash custom ROMs anyway, just curious.
2. Is HTC pretty good about doing updates? How long do they usually go with doing updates? My Droid Bionic was a total f'in nightmare. For those that don't know, when the Droid Bionic was sold ICS was about 2 months from being released. The phone was sold as "ICS Ready". It had a bonafide sticker on the box and everything! Promises galore, but the update didn't actually roll out for 10 months after ICS came out. In those 10 months Motorola rolled out 3 updates for Gingerbread and apparently didn't even *start* work on ICS until 5 months after ICS came out. Total BS and I'll never let Motorola do that to me again. I am determined to make sure I never end up in a situation were the company that handles my updates won't turn and run away from me like that after I give them my money. To make things worse, you couldn't use real ICS ROMS to get by until the official ICS version was released because of driver problems. /sigh
3. Anyone used an M8 and a S5? What did you think of them? (Edit: Oops.. said G5 and I meant S5).
4. So far there's all these mixed rumors that if you root the G5 it'll trip "KNOX"(some kind of warranty/security system) and you'll never be able to update the phone with OTA updates again. I realize that rooting may void your warranty and that rooting can damage the phone if you don't know what you are doing. Any potential pitfalls I should be concerned with by rooting an HTC phone above the normal "rooting isn't for your grandma" type of thing? Can I expect future updates to actually be installable?

I have no friends that use HTC so I can't ask them these kinds of questions.

Thanks!

I'm on Sprint, and came from an HTC EVO 4GLTE to the M8.
1. To get root, you first have to unlock the bootloader at HTCDev. So by definition, the bootloader is unlockable. This will then allow you to install a custom recovery and the SU binary. Boot up, install SuperSU, Titanium Backup, and whatever else you need, and you're good to go.
You can flash ROMs at this point - BUT, HTC has security in place that locks the partitions where the kernel and firmware reside. To be able to flash custom kernels, you have to get s-off. There is an exploit that currently works for s-off, but it doesn't seem to work consistently for everyone's phones. It worked for me - I was rooted and s-off within hours of getting my M8. If you're not s-off, you can only flash stock-based ROMs that are compatible with the stock kernel. AOSP ROMs will not work unless you're s-off.
Getting root and s-off is fairly simple (there are detailed instructions), at least for the Sprint version. I couldn't speak to the Verizon version.
2. I think HTC has turned a corner on the update process. They have been very transparent as of late and have stated their commitment to keeping their phones up-to-date for 2 years. Time will tell, but I'm optimisitic.
3. The extent of my experience with the GS5 is about 30 minutes in Best Buy. That's all it took to realize that it wasn't the phone for me.
4. It was my experience with the EVO that you could return to stock to take OTAs then re-root.
Or you could wait a few hours and a stock rooted ROM would be posted to flash. S-off is important here to be able to get updated kernels and/or firmware.

 

[raichur0xx0rz]

So, with that in mind I'm considering the switch. Now my questions:

1) The bootloader is unlocked in the process of obtaining S-OFF, which then allows for a permanent root. You first get temp root, then run the S-OFF script, then flash Superuser. I don't think bootloader unlock is necessary with S-OFF, but regardless, it's good. And the first OTA going out now, as far as early reports go, hasn't patched the exploit yet.

2) I think all OEMs are doing updates very well now, including HTC. But of course, we'll have to see how Verizon handles things. Verizon's M7 last year was the first with 4.2.2, though, and the Moto X on Verizon was the first variant to get 4.4, so things look good.

3) Eh, can't comment, but people seem to say regardless of the processor bump in the S5, the response time (i.e. Home button and such) can be slightly sluggish.

4) Samsung's stuff seems to be getting increasingly locked down, even the S3 on Jelly Bean. As far as I know there aren't any tripped security measures similar to Knox, or even Motorola's flags, once rooted. You may see the typical *** TAMPERED *** thing but if you return to factory stock, updates should be fine, even if it requires you to sideload the OTA.

 

[joshy1980]

So based on my searching today, S-OFF may or may not be available for Version. (Eh, don't really care *too* much about that.)

Root is very possible. (I do care about this!)

Turns out there's no M8s near me. So I'll be taking a trip to go back to my old phone while I wait for an M8 to come in the mail at the store.

Thanks everyone for the feedback. I can't wait to get my M8!

 

[joshy1980]

I got my M8 yesterday. I haven't even had the phone 6 hours and I noticed that the phone won't remember my wifi password. Turns out.. the M8 has a fatal flaw in its software. It won't save any wifi password longer than 9 characters. What a damn joke. For a guy that loves IT stuff I'm convinced that cell phones are the bane of existence for any definition of "hi-tech".

This is disgraceful. Wednesday I'll be heading back to Verizon, and they will give me satisfaction... this is just unacceptable. Especially since I had to give up my unlimited data plan for this. Now I can't use my wifi and I don't have an unlimited data plan. Sounds like a sure way to get extra fees from heavy data users.

Anyone remember the phone that had a half baked ICS update that only supported WEP? Then the manufactuer said they weren't going to fix it since the phone had reached EOL. This sounds just like that.. all over again. Makes me want to throw this phone at the wall right now.

 

[ugxvibe]

I have a 14 character password with WPA2. No problems here...

Sent from my HTC6525LVW using Tapatalk

 

[joshy1980]

Mine is about 45 chars and all I have to do is disconnect from my wifi either by going out of range or by turning the wifi off and on and it won't reconnect.

The kicker is that after I type in the password it says "saved" for a second or two before actually authenticating. I've even checked to make sure I actually am connecting to my wifi, and it is definitely connecting. Some people have said 9 chars, others have given different lengths. But several people in different forums have complained about this problem.

Mine is a WPA2 PSK design.

Edit: I just tried "adding" my network to the list even though it is detected. It connected right away, but as soon as I cycled the wifi off and on it was done for.

FAIL.

 

[joshy1980]

Here's just a few people that are claiming the same problem:

http://forums.androidcentral.com/ht...ne-m8-wifi-connection-issues.html#post3581829

http://forums.androidcentral.com/htc-one-m8/374771-htc-one-m8-wifi-password-not-saving.html

A user at the bottom if this post mentions it must be 9 chars or less.. http://www.droid-life.com/2014/03/2...-bought-the-htc-one-m8-tell-us-your-thoughts/

 

[Lodingi]

I got my M8 yesterday. I haven't even had the phone 6 hours and I noticed that the phone won't remember my wifi password. Turns out.. the M8 has a fatal flaw in its software. It won't save any wifi password longer than 9 characters. What a damn joke. For a guy that loves IT stuff I'm convinced that cell phones are the bane of existence for any definition of "hi-tech".

This is disgraceful. Wednesday I'll be heading back to Verizon, and they will give me satisfaction... this is just unacceptable. Especially since I had to give up my unlimited data plan for this. Now I can't use my wifi and I don't have an unlimited data plan. Sounds like a sure way to get extra fees from heavy data users.

Anyone remember the phone that had a half baked ICS update that only supported WEP? Then the manufactuer said they weren't going to fix it since the phone had reached EOL. This sounds just like that.. all over again. Makes me want to throw this phone at the wall right now.

Not true. I too have a long wifi password. My Verizon M8 has no issues connecting.

 

[joshy1980]

Well, later I'll pull out my old router and do various password lengths to prove or disprove this. But, considering multiple people are complaining about this, and considering my password is 53 characters and I can cycle the wifi off and on and lose the wifi password I'm not thrilled the least bit.
I haven't even installed any additional software yet, rooted the phone or anything that I could remotely blame for this snafu.

 

[robbski300]

Well, later I'll pull out my old router and do various password lengths to prove or disprove this. But, considering multiple people are complaining about this, and considering my password is 53 characters and I can cycle the wifi off and on and lose the wifi password I'm not thrilled the least bit.
I haven't even installed any additional software yet, rooted the phone or anything that I could remotely blame for this snafu.

53 character password?! Holy crap. Do you keep nuclear weapons secrets in your smart phone, or WHAT?!

 

[joshy1980]

Ok.. so since I can't sleep because I've got another hour drive coming up to go get this thing switched out I decided to figure out how many characters it takes to go bonkers. It turns out that at 45 characters the password works. At 46, it acts like it will save, but then doesn't.

The behavior actually changes too. When the password is saved and I turn on my wifi there is a 3-4 second delay between when the switch comes on and when the first scan completes. During those few seconds it lists my WIFI SSID as if its cached. But, when the password isn't saved it doesn't appear until the scan completes. It's so consistent that when I flip the wifi off and on I can tell before the scan completes if it will connect or not based on this behavior.

What is stranger is that the 44th, 45th and 46th character are all numbers. No special characters in any of those places. As a programmer in a previous life I can appreciate that sometimes special characters can add some confusion to the mix if the programmer is sloppy. But clearly I've ruled out that possibility.

Since I have plenty of devices that are wifi-based changing my wifi password to be just 45 characters is a non starter. It would literally take me several hours to reconfigure every device. Yeah.. I'm pretty connected.

I'm partially tempted to make the password short, root the phone and go looking through it's sql database for the password and then artificially lengthen it appropriately, change the password on my hotspot to be correct and cross my fingers. But, I haven't rooted the phone and I'm not sure if there are any traps related to returning this phone after it's been rooted. I'll be out for blood if I end up in a situation where I can't return the phone but can't use it on my wifi.

I've had the phone for 14 hours and I've already used 200MB despite not using it for much of anything except a few app updates. I haven't even installed any new software or done any bloatware removal, etc. As a disabled vet I spend most of my time at home(or at a friends house) on a very good wifi signal. Literally, I've just used in the last 14 hours more data than I've used the rest of 2014 combined. What's crappier is that my friend's networks have longer passwords than mine!

 

[joshy1980]

53 character password?! Holy crap. Do you keep nuclear weapons secrets in your smart phone, or WHAT?!

Funny you say that. I don't, but I used to work in nuclear power. How funny!

 

[joshy1980]

Here's a test anyone can do.. if someone would do this and report back if it happens for you or not I'd appreciate it.

1. "Add a network" Make up an SSID(I did "test").
2. Put in a 45 character password. I did 1234567890... so it was easy to count.
3. Now shut off your wifi and turn it back on. You should see "test" pop up as a saved SSID.
4. Now edit the password and make it 46 characters.
5. Cycle your wifi off and on and see if it still lists "test".

My guess is it doesn't.

 

[Skyway]

Here's a test anyone can do.. if someone would do this and report back if it happens for you or not I'd appreciate it.

1. "Add a network" Make up an SSID(I did "test").
2. Put in a 45 character password. I did 1234567890... so it was easy to count.
3. Now shut off your wifi and turn it back on. You should see "test" pop up as a saved SSID.
4. Now edit the password and make it 46 characters.
5. Cycle your wifi off and on and see if it still lists "test".

My guess is it doesn't.

Mine worked just fine, I did exactly as you said and "test" showed up no problem. I'm on AT&T though, so I don't know if that makes any difference.

I just edited the network from a 46 character password to a 52 character password and it worked with no problems. I cycled Wi-Fi on and off about 25 times and each time "test" showed up just fine


Posted via Android Central App

 

[pootyash]

Funny you say that. I don't, but I used to work in nuclear power. How funny!

It's pronounced nu-cu-lar.

Posted via Android Central App