"Finalizing Android update" on every startup

[sfeinbe]

I live in the United States, in Michigan. I recently bought a Sprint Note 4 without a SIM card as I intend to use it only as a wifi connected device at most. Recently it auto-updated to Android 6.0.1 (I turned off auto updates) via my wifi network.

Now every time I turn it on, within a few minutes, a message pops up that says "Finalizing Android update. Please wait..."

If I'm not wifi connected, it will stay on that message screen till I press "Cancel."

If I am connected, it will move on the the next screen that says, "ATTENTION Android update successful." I then press "OK" to make it go away.

See attachments.

I was wondering if I can stop these screens from appearing. They aren't causing a problem (at least none that I've noticed), but they are annoying. Does anyone have a suggestion?

Note that I wiped the cache, but did not perform a factory reset as I already changed a number of settings to my liking. I also haven't activated the phone, nor do I intend to do so.

 

[nahoku]

Did you wipe the cache partition in recovery? Normally, OS updates store themselves in the cache partition, so if you wiped it (in recovery), it should have cleared any remnants. There's nothing much else to recommend except a factory reset. I know it's a hassle, but that might be the only thing to fix it... if in fact it "will" fix it... that, I don't know. Beyond that, have you attempted to start the phone in Safe mode to see if it still does it?

 

[sfeinbe]

Yes, I wiped the cache partition in recovery. After seeing your suggestion regarding Safe Mode, I tried that. The messages still came up. I may have to perform a factory reset. I'm still going to see if I can avoid that...somehow, but it doesn't look good. At least I have nothing of value on the device as yet.

 

[nahoku]

You say you turned off auto-update. Did you interrupt any of the updates? What I'm thinking is... I'm wondering if the phone "thinks" an update didn't finish, so it keeps trying to finish it every time. You might try having the phone check for updates again. If there are updates, then you may as well let it update and perhaps it'll clear these messages. Or, if you check for updates and there are none, then the phone may perhaps clear a flag that there are no updates and also clear these messages. Just reaching here, but might be worth a try.

 

[sfeinbe]

Thanks for the suggestions. No, I was careful not to interrupt any updates. Yes, I did have the phone check for updates again.

However, I do agree that the phone "thinks" the update didn't finish. Question is, how do I tell the phone it did finish?

 

[nahoku]

Question is, how do I tell the phone it did finish?

I really have no idea. Hopefully a factory reset will do it, but before the factory reset, be sure to wipe the cache partition first so there's no data on the partition the phone can pull data from.

 

[sfeinbe]

I bought the phone used. If I perform a reset will I have to input account info related to the last person who owned and used it on Sprint or is it much simpler than that?

 

[nahoku]

I bought the phone used. If I perform a reset will I have to input account info related to the last person who owned and used it on Sprint or is it much simpler than that?

That's a very good question! I didn't know it was a previously owned phone. Do you know if the person you bought it from registered the phone with a Samsung or Google account? I'm not really sure if Google can lock the phone, but for sure Samsung can. Also, check your Security settings to see if "Reactivation lock" is checked. If it is and there's a Samsung account registered to the phone, you may need to enter the password of the last user with the factory reset. Even though I did register my Note 4 with Samsung, I never have the Reactivation lock checked.

Can you contact the person you bought the phone from and verify if the phone was ever registered with an account... Samsung, or other?

By the way, you mentioned that you don't have any plans to use the phone as a phone, but if you have any data on the phone, a factory reset will wipe it, so make sure you back up first. Why can't things just be easy, huh!

 

[sfeinbe]

No google account as it wanted mine. I put mine in, then removed it later. As for the "Reactivation Lock," it's unchecked, grayed out. I know he had a boost mobile account, but that it was ended in May, I think. It has no SIM card. When I started the phone at the time of purchase, it forced me to go past several screens, but never asked for account info of any kind.

I don't have any data on the phone yet. Think it's safe to reset?

Yea, why can't things be easy? Actually I know why. These devices would be considered the stuff of science fiction just a few decades ago. They make an Apple ][ plus look like an ape's toy. But it comes with a price. The price is complication, myriads of settings, and an open invitation to all kinds of malware.

As someone very familiar with computers, the concepts here don't frighten me, just annoy me. I've dived in and probably learned more about it in the last few days than most ordinary users would for as long as they own these things. Even if I had no problems, I'd probably change many of the settings to suit my purposes. That alone would allow me to learn a great deal about the hardware and OS.

Now I even have another issue. When I connect it to my computer it shows as a camera. One of the solutions I've seen suggests getting a Samsung OEM cable. I sent for one. Already tried the USB driver, to no avail. Got an error message with it as you can see. I've seen other suggestions, but I'll wait for the cable first.

I can access files on it as a camera, but I'd like a more elegant connection. One that makes it more like a storage drive that can be removed with the USB disconnect icon in XP (yes, I still use XP, but I can use all versions of Windows just fine. Just prefer XP. And there's no security issues for me. I have simple solutions that work very well.)

Thanks for the time you've spent helping me! I appreciate it no matter the outcome. At least my problems are relatively minor at the moment.

 

[nahoku]

No google account as it wanted mine. I put mine in, then removed it later. As for the "Reactivation Lock," it's unchecked, grayed out. I know he had a boost mobile account, but that it was ended in May, I think. It has no SIM card. When I started the phone at the time of purchase, it forced me to go past several screens, but never asked for account info of any kind.

I don't have any data on the phone yet. Think it's safe to reset?

When you first started the phone, do you think what you went through was the initial setup? If you did, then the former user probably did a factory reset before he sold the phone to you. I guess the important thing is if you can contact the seller in case a factory reset locks you out. I can't advise you what to do at this point because the ramifications can be daunting if you get locked out. This has to be your decision.


LOL! Reading the rest of your post though makes me think I'm conversing with myself! I build and support computers (locally in Hawaii) and have been working with them since Machine language in the early 1980's, although I've worked with antiquated systems in the early 1970's with huge 3ft x 3ft magnetic strip cards and IBM keypunch machines. Yes, that dates me, but oh well! Hey, I'm young for my age! LOL!

I too run WinXP by choice. To me it's the last true Windows OS that afforded power users to easily delve into the system without having to always go into the registry like all other Windows OS' that followed on. Even Win7 is a joke with how MS messed up Explorer.

The thing about connecting the Note 4 to XP is that you need certain things installed...

1) Windows Installer 3.1
2) Net Framework 3.5 SP1
3) Windows Media Player 11 or at least the WMP distribution files (wmfdist11)... this is needed because XP detects phones as media devices
4) Samsung USB drivers... I use version 1.5.49.0
5) Microsoft_User-Mode_Driver_Framework_Install-v1.0-WinXP

Shown below is my own rather hasty notes to myself, so if you have problems following along just post back...

Check Windows installer version... if not at least 3.1, install it

Install Net framework 3.5, wmfdist11, Samsung drivers, and MS User-mode driver.

Enable Developer Mode on phone and enable USB Debugging... might not need this

Connect phone

Change phone USB from Installer to MTP mode... pull down Notification shade to do this
Open My Computer to see if phone is present (blue phone identified as N910V) Since your phone is Sprint, your model number should show up

If not, open Device Manager, check to see if phone has been detected but has a yellow "?"
Click on phone and update driver by pointing to Samsung USB drivers in C:\Program Files... use 25_escape folder for driver source

In Device Manager, if Portable device shows square blue Samsung device, uninstall it
disconnect phone
enable USB Debugging on phone
reconnect phone and again switch to MTP mode

If still not automatically detected, check Device manager and update driver again from C:\Program Files Samsung USB drivers... use 25_escape folder for driver source

Phone should show up after this, and should allow you to see two folders when clicked on... Card and Phone.

Disable SAMSUNG Mobile Connectivity Services once everything is running fine... it doesn't need to run.

As I said, this was a hasty note to myself, so it may run short on instructions. Also note that you don't need a Samsung OEM cable as long as the one you have has data lines and is not just a charging cable. Let me know if this works for you or if you can't locate any of the drivers required. I'll help you search.

 

[sfeinbe]

Thanks for your time and efforts! As an experiment, I installed it into my flawed (doesn't update) Windows 7 sp1 partition. The phone was recognized as a Note 4, but two drivers weren't installed (according to device manager) properly: a CDC driver and one for the phone. It essentially was the same as the XP problem in that it can't be disconnected via software first, as can any USB drive. Since I can't update 7 (I'm working on that also and have a solution that will take time), I'm going back to XP to work through your suggestions.

I guess I'm lucky not to have much worse issues. However, I don't like being a novice. I'm usually the go-to person for computer help and advice. At least you're in my age group (65), if not older, so you know what I mean.

 

[sfeinbe]

The attached pictures show that it was successful...but I still can't remove it as I would any other USB drive connected to XP via the built-in USB device eject/removal program.

 

[nahoku]

Windows sees phones as media devices, not mass storage like in the old days. Even though you can transfer files between the phone and the PC, it doesn't act like a typical USB device, ie flash drive, or external hard drive, and therefore there will be no safe eject for the phone... with or without an SD card in the phone. I just noticed you don't have an SD card installed as only the Phone folder shows up. For media devices, its normal that Windows treats it the way it does and not have a safe eject... its not needed.

As for Windows 7, it should already have the User-Mode driver. You will still need to install the Samsung drivers and make sure at least WMP11 is installed and not disabled, along with Windows installer and Net Framework. I can't recall if all the things are already there in Win 7, but its still all needed. It should work as it does in XP. I'm a little confused by your second to the last post as I can't tell if you got it to work in both XP and Win7.

 

[sfeinbe]

I want to thank you again for your time and exacting info!

I understand now that XP now recognizes the phone properly. I really just needed to install media player 11 in addition to everything I did earlier. I never bothered with a media player update before; don't use it.

As for 7, it did recognize the phone as a phone, but with the two issues I mentioned in device manager. Until I fix 7, I won't bother attempting to go any further with those issues.

As for the memory card, no, I don't have one in the phone yet. I figured that's what you meant in your explanation when you wrote "Phone should show up after this, and should allow you to see two folders when clicked on... Card and Phone."

I may have to bite the bullet and perform a factory reset. I'm just very reluctant to do so and I always consider something like that an inelegant last resort. Alternatively, I could just live with the messages for now.

I can easily understand how the average user can get into serious trouble with these things if all they do is play with apps and never get below that level.

 

[nahoku]

I want to thank you again for your time and exacting info!

I understand now that XP now recognizes the phone properly. I really just needed to install media player 11 in addition to everything I did earlier. I never bothered with a media player update before; don't use it.

As for 7, it did recognize the phone as a phone, but with the two issues I mentioned in device manager. Until I fix 7, I won't bother attempting to go any further with those issues.

As for the memory card, no, I don't have one in the phone yet. I figured that's what you meant in your explanation when you wrote "Phone should show up after this, and should allow you to see two folders when clicked on... Card and Phone."

I may have to bite the bullet and perform a factory reset. I'm just very reluctant to do so and I always consider something like that an inelegant last resort. Alternatively, I could just live with the messages for now.

I can easily understand how the average user can get into serious trouble with these things if all they do is play with apps and never get below that level.

You're very welcome. I'm just glad you got the connection part sorted. You must have had the User Mode update installed if all you needed was WMP. I also don't use WMP... very poor media player in my opinion.

Yes, you might have to bite the bullet on the factory reset... for sure it's a last resort. I can't imagine what's causing the issue though... very strange.

I actually find Android very user unfriendly, mostly because there's not much control over it without root. At least with PC's if there's something you don't want to run, you can actually make it not run. On Android, even if you force stop an app, many times it'll just start up on it's own, regardless of what "you" want. It's gotten better over the years, but very far from ideal. I agree that unless you delve more into Android, you short yourself from learning about it. Most all questions on this forum are from people who never even read their manual. Oh well, that's how it is!

Let us know if you one day decide to brave the factory reset and if it cured the problem with these messages. Good luck!

 

[sfeinbe]

I performed the factory reset. The phone isn't locked into an account fortunately. But the messages still remain. They even came up during the reset.

 

[sfeinbe]

I was wondering nahoku about rolling back the phone to stock Android 4.4x, unlock it with SSU, then upgrade back to 6.x, if that would solve both the Sprint lock issue and the messages I've been receiving on startup?

 

[nahoku]

I was wondering nahoku about rolling back the phone to stock Android 4.4x, unlock it with SSU, then upgrade back to 6.x, if that would solve both the Sprint lock issue and the messages I've been receiving on startup?

I have no idea if it's worth it, not to mention the risk, to go through the trouble of downgrading and then upgrading again if in fact the bootloader is locked and you have to root the phone to accomplish it. It might be better if you just took your phone to Sprint (its still their phone) or BestBuy, and just have them reflash MM for you. I'm sure once they see these messages, they won't deny something is going on with it and accommodate your request. If they (Sprint) reflashes it and can't fix the problem, perhaps they'll replace the phone for you... you just never know. I've heard instances where the carrier will replace a phone... even out of warranty.

Sprint lock issue

What Sprint lock issue? Are you talking about the bootloader?

 

[sfeinbe]

Reflashing MM at a Sprint store is a good idea. Sprint phones can't be unlocked to be used on other carriers and Sprint won't do it. I've found two methods, however. One involves paying idonapps.com and the other I found in this thread Sprint Samsung Unlocker - Unlock any Sprint … | Sprint Samsung Galaxy S 5.

I figured if I unlock it, I can use it with any carrier (if I decide to use it as a phone) and then upgrade it back to MM, solving my other issue.

 

[nahoku]

Ok, now I understand what you meant by "Sprint unlock issue". Are you certain the phone can't be unlocked. According to Sprint, it can be unlocked under conditions outlined in "Unlocking for Domestic Usage". I'm on Verizon, so I really know nothing about Sprint phones. If you take the phone into a Sprint store for a reflash, perhaps you can query them about it then.

I guess you could pay someone to unlock your phone, but it might not be unnecessary if Sprint will unlock it for you, probably for free. Also, the XDA thread you linked has this in the first paragraph...

Keep in mind that this will not work for USA carriers.

I'm not really sure if what the OP meant is actually "USA carriers", or "USA phones"... I didn't bother to read that long multi-paged thread. Since you're in Michigan though, I'm assuming the phone was probably purchased in the USA, and any carrier you use will be USA based, so the method used in the thread won't apply.

I honestly think you should just visit a Sprint store to see if they can reflash the phone for you. They'll certainly see something is wrong with it while you're there. I'm hoping they'll just replace the phone for you as even a factory reset didn't clear those messages. At the same time, ask about their unlocking policy.