**July 24th Update**
After a few months of living with these annoying device behaviors detailed in this thread, hearing the same issues from many other Samsung (and Pixel!) owners, I finally took a different approach.
I've considered exchanging my phone, but horrid experiences that T-Mo customers have had exchanging their phones, getting really funky devices in return for their pristine phones, really gave me pause. So did many posts of other Samsung owners that DID exchange, or DID sent their phones in for "repair" only to have the exact same problem surface within minutes, hours, or a day or two.
Well I exchanged mine a week ago and I am living in a blissful world of owning an N8 that works PERFECTLY!! Plus, maybe this is actually a new device, or it's a stellar refurb - but it's totally perfect. At one week now, I'll call this a "fix".
So, I needed to come back to post so that others that have these problems and have been on the fence like I was, might pull the trigger a little sooner than I did. Maybe they would get the same result. I sure hope so!
Thanks to everyone that contributed to this thread.
-bk
______________________________________________________
**July 10th Update**
All of the symptoms listed immediately below are still plaguing Samsung phones, and some other phones as well including the Pixel 2/XL. New reports continue on both the Samsung and Google product forums.
The "fix" for most of us as of now is to turn off Bluetooth and reboot - keeping BT turned off. Of course, BT is central to how many of us use our phones so this isn't an acceptable "fix". Some owners have had their phones repaired and replaced to no avail. It's a software thing.
This update is offered to assist people who are just discovering this issue on their phones, to make them aware of the BT toggle work-around and to inform them that while Google and Samsung are aware of this issue, there's no evidence that they are working to resolve it.
___________________________________________________________
Over a month ago I got an update to the Google app - things went to hell after that. Here's what I've seen...
- Applications download to 100% and stop. Sometimes the app will finish installing in 5-20 minutes, otherwise a reboot or restarting the Google Play Store app needs to be done to jump-start the install.
- App badges do not get refreshed - they show the wrong values.
- Can't send photos in MMS. I am using Textra, but the native app also can't send photos. If I use the "Legacy" MMS setting in Textra, I can get it to work.
- The "Download Updates Manually" function is non-responsive when tapped. It might respond in an hour or so.
- Third party alarm clock apps (e.g. Alarm Clock Xtreme, others) have delayed alarms, but the native Samsung alarm works.
- Uninstalling apps does not complete - it stays on the "Uninstalling" dialog. Need to reboot.
- Blue Light Filter no longer works to the sunset/sunrise setting.
I have tried every tip, including clearing cache, changing permissions, disabling the Google app, the Play Store app and many/many other "fixes". None have worked for more than a day. I had done factory resets 3 times, then I got the Oreo update, followed by 2 more factory resets in the following weeks. I run a minimal number of manually installed apps and I never restore data or settings after resetting - it's always done new for each reset.
Some things that appear to be related to this problem:
- Many of us are, or recently were, Beta testers for the Google app. I am no longer a beta tester, and I am running the latest version of the non-beta Google app.
- This set of problems can follow users even when they change phones.
- Google's ecosystem of apps (Google app, Play Store, etc.) appear to be involved
- Samsung phones are more often affected, although it could be b/c there's more of them
- The issue "sometimes" goes away entirely when not near home wifi networks, running 100% on LTE. But note: turning off wifi and running 100% on LTE at home DOES NOT fix the problem.
- Apps installed directly from Samsung install just fine
- When these issues have surfaced in the past 18 months, they tend to appear at the same time across the population of users, and go away around the same time.
To be clear, this is not only a Note 8 issue - phones across the board are affected - but I wanted to post here since it's such a good community.
Both Google and Samsung have reported that they are not the cause of these issues - pointing to each other as the cause.
-bk
After a few months of living with these annoying device behaviors detailed in this thread, hearing the same issues from many other Samsung (and Pixel!) owners, I finally took a different approach.
I've considered exchanging my phone, but horrid experiences that T-Mo customers have had exchanging their phones, getting really funky devices in return for their pristine phones, really gave me pause. So did many posts of other Samsung owners that DID exchange, or DID sent their phones in for "repair" only to have the exact same problem surface within minutes, hours, or a day or two.
Well I exchanged mine a week ago and I am living in a blissful world of owning an N8 that works PERFECTLY!! Plus, maybe this is actually a new device, or it's a stellar refurb - but it's totally perfect. At one week now, I'll call this a "fix".
So, I needed to come back to post so that others that have these problems and have been on the fence like I was, might pull the trigger a little sooner than I did. Maybe they would get the same result. I sure hope so!
Thanks to everyone that contributed to this thread.
-bk
______________________________________________________
**July 10th Update**
All of the symptoms listed immediately below are still plaguing Samsung phones, and some other phones as well including the Pixel 2/XL. New reports continue on both the Samsung and Google product forums.
The "fix" for most of us as of now is to turn off Bluetooth and reboot - keeping BT turned off. Of course, BT is central to how many of us use our phones so this isn't an acceptable "fix". Some owners have had their phones repaired and replaced to no avail. It's a software thing.
This update is offered to assist people who are just discovering this issue on their phones, to make them aware of the BT toggle work-around and to inform them that while Google and Samsung are aware of this issue, there's no evidence that they are working to resolve it.
___________________________________________________________
Over a month ago I got an update to the Google app - things went to hell after that. Here's what I've seen...
- Applications download to 100% and stop. Sometimes the app will finish installing in 5-20 minutes, otherwise a reboot or restarting the Google Play Store app needs to be done to jump-start the install.
- App badges do not get refreshed - they show the wrong values.
- Can't send photos in MMS. I am using Textra, but the native app also can't send photos. If I use the "Legacy" MMS setting in Textra, I can get it to work.
- The "Download Updates Manually" function is non-responsive when tapped. It might respond in an hour or so.
- Third party alarm clock apps (e.g. Alarm Clock Xtreme, others) have delayed alarms, but the native Samsung alarm works.
- Uninstalling apps does not complete - it stays on the "Uninstalling" dialog. Need to reboot.
- Blue Light Filter no longer works to the sunset/sunrise setting.
I have tried every tip, including clearing cache, changing permissions, disabling the Google app, the Play Store app and many/many other "fixes". None have worked for more than a day. I had done factory resets 3 times, then I got the Oreo update, followed by 2 more factory resets in the following weeks. I run a minimal number of manually installed apps and I never restore data or settings after resetting - it's always done new for each reset.
Some things that appear to be related to this problem:
- Many of us are, or recently were, Beta testers for the Google app. I am no longer a beta tester, and I am running the latest version of the non-beta Google app.
- This set of problems can follow users even when they change phones.
- Google's ecosystem of apps (Google app, Play Store, etc.) appear to be involved
- Samsung phones are more often affected, although it could be b/c there's more of them
- The issue "sometimes" goes away entirely when not near home wifi networks, running 100% on LTE. But note: turning off wifi and running 100% on LTE at home DOES NOT fix the problem.
- Apps installed directly from Samsung install just fine
- When these issues have surfaced in the past 18 months, they tend to appear at the same time across the population of users, and go away around the same time.
To be clear, this is not only a Note 8 issue - phones across the board are affected - but I wanted to post here since it's such a good community.
Both Google and Samsung have reported that they are not the cause of these issues - pointing to each other as the cause.
-bk
Last edited:
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