Officia Jelly Bean Update Notice-At&t Samsung Galaxy Note SGH-I717

ebulldog

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Re: How to do the 4.1.2 Jelly Bean update without a hitch

Gregg all that you have written here IMO is ridiculous. NO WHERE on any update site does it say to do any of these step. Nothing in Kies, nothing on AT&T website, nothing on Samsung.
How is the world is an average, at best, cell phone user supposed to know or even follow those steps. If an update is released and the steps you have listed are how you are supposed to do an update, no one would ever attempt it. That being said, there is a flaw or error, take your pick, in this update for the Note. I have been emailing an AT&T rep back and forth and they are aware of the issues with this update and are 'working' on it. After having dealt with AT&T for 10 plus years, I know what this means. We will just have to deal with the phone as is and thats about it.
You obviously know way more that the average user on how to do an update. If an update is that complicated than all updates should be done at a service center as you state so these carriers do not have a lot of pI$$ed off customers. Just my 2 cents on this update cr@p.
 

KSoD

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Re: How to do the 4.1.2 Jelly Bean update without a hitch

There is only 6 steps at best for the update.

1. Load Kies
2. Update Kies
3. Remove SD Card
4. Put phone in download mode
5. Tools>Firmware Upgrade and initialization
6. Type in Model and Serial as seen on the back under Battery

All done. Phone will now update to the latest software released by AT&T. Nothing additional, nothing to do with any AT&T Reps, centers or anything. I have flashed so many custom ROMS on my device long before this update was released. I was still able to do these 6 simple steps to get back on Stock within 10 minutes and be fully up to date. All the rest is un-needed and un-necessary.
 

ebulldog

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Re: How to do the 4.1.2 Jelly Bean update without a hitch

I agree for most part KSOD, the issues are way to many with this update. 1st Kies is horrible, updated, removed, re-install whatever it still sucks.
No where does it tell you to remove the SD card, took a chance and it updated. My point is if the update has or had this many issues why even release it!!
I would rather have waited another month than have to deal with the phone in the current JB state. The update took a great phone and made it horrible.
If there is a way to COMPLETELY take it back to ice cream i would do it now!!.
 

DesElms

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Re: How to do the 4.1.2 Jelly Bean update without a hitch

Gregg all that you have written here IMO is ridiculous. NO WHERE on any update site does it say to do any of these step. Nothing in Kies, nothing on AT&T website, nothing on Samsung.

That notwithstanding, those who don't end-up posting in places like this that their updates went badly, that their phones are slow, or that, ridiculously, they need to "stabilize" for a few days. Those who, on the other hand, do what I prescribe end-up coming to places like this and thanking me for it. You, like everyone else here, are free to follow the advice or not. My pushing forty years of IT experience says you should, but please do whatever you wish.

How is the world is an average, at best, cell phone user supposed to know or even follow those steps. If an update is released and the steps you have listed are how you are supposed to do an update, no one would ever attempt it.

First of all, it's nowhere near as complicated as you seem to have erected in your mind. Perhaps you're simply overwhelmed by all the words I used to describe it, so that no detail would be spared. However, in the end, the advice is as simple as that one must do a GSM reset immediately before performing the steps which Samsun prescribes using KIES, etc. It's really as simple as that.

However, if that's all I told everyone, here, then I'd be getting complaints about lost data, since people would have performed the GSM reset without first having backed-up.

And if I had told them to first backup without having first told them to make sure they had the latest USB drivers from Samsun on their Windows PC, then I'd be having people tell me, here, that they couldn't achieve the backup.

And if I let them use KIES to make the update, without having them first remove all old copies of KIES (such as KIES mini, from having updated earlier Galaxy-class phones they may have owned before they owned their Note), then they'd be coming here and telling me that the KIES they downloaded to update their Note wouldn't behave properly; or that the update froze halfway through... which is exactly what my experience has shown me happens; and the reason is always multiple old, conflicting copies of KIES.

And if I didn't tell them to reboot the Windows PC between certain steps, knowing that only rebooting will clear from RAM old things which we don't want present when we finally get to the part where the phone is plugged-in to the computer, then people would be, once again, coming here and telling me that something failed...

...and speaking of plugging-in to the computer: If I didn't tell them to use the USB cable that came with the phone, and not some aftermarket USB cable the pin-out of which is unknown, and so may or may not work, then people would be coming back here and telling me of yet another failure.

So, precisely where in the process would you have preferred that I begin... hmm? Hmm?

Apparently you'd have preferred that I give the absolutely minimal bit of information because, of course, that's what couldn't-be-bothered-with-the-technical-details consumers like you prefer; but the problem with that is that I'm a better steward of my own time than that. I don't have time to troubleshoot everyone's failures on account of their not having followed every last detailed step. I've done this before. I know how these things go. What I wrote I wrote to avoid those problems. Getting to my age, with my four decades of experience, imbues me with a certain amount of wisdom from which you're free to either benefit or not, at your option, and to your peril. Either way, I could not care one whit what you think about it. Not one.

I'm sorry -- though far from surprised -- to learn that you have no more respect for my precious time than to suggest that I spend it all here dealing with people who run into problems because I left something out. Couldn't-be-bothered-with-the-technical-details end users like, apparently, you, are always the ones who give all-about-the-details people like me the most problems in life; who suck-up all our time and energy like ungrateful parasites, and who are the most impatient with the unavoidable technical details of using complex devices like Windows PCs and Android phones. Such as you should be using iOS devices like the Mac and the iPhone where a "close is good enough" mentality is actually rewarded.

That being said, there is a flaw or error, take your pick, in this update for the Note. I have been emailing an AT&T rep back and forth and they are aware of the issues with this update and are 'working' on it. After having dealt with AT&T for 10 plus years, I know what this means. We will just have to deal with the phone as is and thats about it.

I'll better be able to assess that once I've received my Note on, likely, Thursday or Friday of this week; and have performed this update. The AT&T website says that the phone ships with Jelly Bean already on it; but the AT&T supervisor who cut me the unusual deal insisted that it comes with 2.3 Gingerbread on it. Obviously, if it's the former, then I won't be performing the update, myself (though I've done it on four Samsung Galaxy-class phones before). But if it's the latter, then, yes, I'll be doing the Jelly Bean update on my new Note this weekend. At that point, because I followed my own steps, here, I'll be able to assess, with some degree of accuracy, if there's any "flaw or error ... in this update for the Note," as you put it. Given your disdain for doing what positively needs to be done in order to ensure a flawless update, I'm dubious about your ability to determine if there's an "error or flaw." You won't mind if I rely on my 40 years of experience, and not the likely inaccurate assessment borne out of your consumer-oriented, shot-from-the-hip, anhors-technological-details, close-is-good-enough world view, will you?

What's curiously ironic, I should point out, though, is that at the beginning of your post, you're telling me how my steps are ridiculous because neither Samsung nor AT&T prescribes them; yet you're willing to ascribe fundamental error to AT&T and/or Sumsung by accusing either or both of them of releasing "a flaw or error, take your pick, in this update for the Note." You trust them not to mislead you in their described update steps, yet they're apparently capable of sufficient error to release a bad update. If you had more experience across more phones, you'd realize that errant updates are par for the course with both Samsung and AT&T. The 2.3.6 Gingerbread update for the Samsung Infuse 4G (SGH-i997) was delayed by something like a year; then released; then immediately retracted to fix two immediately-noticed, then then three more not-so-immediately-noticed bugs; then finally released again... and even then it still wasn't quite right (but was at least "close enough for government work," as they say). The Samsung Captivate (SGH-i897) 2.3.6 Gingerbread update was an even larger debacle before it was finally right.

Yet in such as those capable of such debacle, you put sufficient faith to chastise me because I prescribe steps which they didn't prescribe... steps which any seasoned tech who read them would say are sound. Again, the iOS world is calling your name.

You obviously know way more that the average user on how to do an update.

See, that's where you're making the mistake of underestimation. I know way more than most people on the planet about things far, far, far more technical than just updating an Android phone. And I get paid around $250 per hour for it. My contribution to this thread was a gift of that kind of world-class expertise, into the horses mouth of which you have had the temerity to look.

That's nothing new, though. An early mentor in my life, Ed Walsh, godresthissoul, used to make me give him a dollar whenever I'd ask him for advice. We'd meet at the Big Wheel restaurant for lunch arranged at my request so we could talk about something, and he'd interrupt me as I began telling him of my problem and ask me for a dollar. The first time he did it I asked why, and he replied, "You want my advice about something, right?" To which I replied, "yes." And to which he then responded, "Well, free advice is worth exactly what one pays for it. Yes, it's only a dollar, but by paying a symbolic amount for my advice, you're at least theoretically more likely to listen and take it seriously."

He was right. In life, whenever I'm billing at $250 per hour, your likes tend to shut the hell up and bygod listen. When you're not, you shoot from the hip with such as what you've here written. I see it all the time.

If an update is that complicated...

They're not that complicated. It only seems complicated to what-should-probably-be-iOS-users, like you.

...than all updates should be done at a service center as you state so these carriers do not have a lot of pI$$ed off customers. Just my 2 cents on this update cr@p.

These carriers do have a lot of pissed-off customers! Have you not been reading all the forum threads and comments beneath blogs out there? What rock have you been living under? Again, the clueless iOS world beckons you.

And I'll leave your characterizing all this as "update cra@p" to self-evidently guide the reader as to what value should be assigned to your opinion. Res ipsa loquitur.
 

footballboy

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This update eats battery up...not only that. My phone is now soooooo slow I want to scream. Can I revert to previous version or does anyone have advice? My phone is stock not rooted and everything updated via Kies....but it is not good for me at all :(
I highly recommand you to do a factory reset even though it takes time to back up your data. You gonna see the difference, much more smoother
:) don't know how the battery dies so soon, but the factory reset really helps.
 

DesElms

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Re: How to do the 4.1.2 Jelly Bean update without a hitch

There is only 6 steps at best for the update.

1. Load Kies
2. Update Kies
3. Remove SD Card
4. Put phone in download mode
5. Tools>Firmware Upgrade and initialization
6. Type in Model and Serial as seen on the back under Battery

All done. Phone will now update to the latest software released by AT&T. Nothing additional, nothing to do with any AT&T Reps, centers or anything. I have flashed so many custom ROMS on my device long before this update was released. I was still able to do these 6 simple steps to get back on Stock within 10 minutes and be fully up to date. All the rest is un-needed and un-necessary.

I'm sorry. That's just wrong...

...as evidenced by literally thousands who've done it that way on many Galaxy-class phones, and who then end-up in places like this complaining about inordinate slowness, boot-looping, crases, incompatibilities, and the list just goes on and on.

Moreover, that you've "flashed so many custom ROMS" makes you the least capable of giving reliable advice to normal, everyday users who just want it to work. Those who root Android phones, and who then flash custom ROMS, routinely lead ordinary, non-technical end users down the primrose path, as we see in the xda-developers forum every single day. What your likes always leave out of your simple lists are the tweaks and steps and remedial procedures that you instinctively do as such as your six steps, above, fail or stumble.

I'm sorry, but I stand by what I've herein written.
 

DesElms

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I highly recommand you to do a factory reset even though it takes time to back up your data. You gonna see the difference, much more smoother :) don't know how the battery dies so soon, but the factory reset really helps.

A factory reset after the OS update probably has little utility...

...though, that said, as long as it's done immediately after the OS update, so that nothing has yet had a chance to be re-installed onto the phone (which, if it had, would be lost), then it certainly couldn't hurt anything. I suppose it could even help...

...though, the truth is that powering-down a phone, then removing the battery for a few minutes, and then powering it up again can probably do about as much immediately-post-OS-update good as anything else. What matters with these phones, often, is how they're shut down. If, for example, a phone freezes or for some other reasons requires that the battery be removed for a moment in order to reset it, then the very first thing that one should do after it reboots fully (and that's the operative word; be patient and let it fully reboot) is turn around and do a proper full shutdown again. If one does that, then when it next reboots, it really will be back to normal.

A factory reset -- but, more than that, a factory reset of the most severe "GSM reset" type -- immediately (and that's the operative word) before doing an OS update using KIES is the key to said OS update actually working properly. Another reset after... hmmm... I dunno. It's not really necessary, but, again, if it's done immediatelly after the OS update, before anything gets put back on the phone (so that nothing'll be lost), then what the heck... certainly couldn't hurt.

Regardless, to ensure a good OS update, the KIES version for, in this case, the Note, that's on the Windows PC, needs to be the only one there (all previous versions need to be thoroughly uninstalled/removed using something like REVO uninstaller so that all traces of all previous KIES installations on the Windows PC are actually forcibly removed... some of which removal, because the files involved are system locked at the time of uninstallation, may only finally be deleted upon Windows PC reboot, hence at least part of the reason I prescribe it); and the Samsung drivers for the Note also need to be there (though some KIES versions include those); and the cable used to connect the phone to the PC needs to have the proper pin-out... which may only be positively ensured by using the one that came with the phone; but which may likely be ensured if the USB cable at least has the "Samsung" brand name on it, and is made for Galaxy-family phones... hence the reason I prescribed that, too!

There really is a method to my madness, despite some probably-should-be-iPhone-users' around here calling it "ridiculous."

If a GSM reset was not done prior to the OS update, then that's another matter, altogether. In that case, if the OS update didn't go precisely correctly (which is difficult to determine, especially if KIES claims it did), then what's on the phone ends-up being a weird hybrid of files from both the new OS-updated-to version, as well as the immediately-previous updated-from version. Those who complain that their post-OS-update phones are squirrely and slow usually have that situation... caused, ultimately, by that they didn't do a GSM reset to put their phones back to the way they came from the factory before performing the OS update. I repeat: The Samsung and AT&T engineers did all OS update testing using only phones in fresh-out-of-the-box, factory state. I've done such testing for a living in my life. I know what I'm talking about. They must have a known, predictable and repeatable starting point; and they cannot possibly know the state of all users' phones out there. Various apps sometimes screw around with OS files and settings. In order to properly test OS updates, engineers always, always, always begin at a repeatable, predictable place...

...and when it comes to Samsung phone OS updates, they always begin with an older-OS-version phone exactly as it comes from the factory.

Only a GSM reset, prior to OS update, will put a phone back to pristine out-of-the-box, fresh-from-the-factory state. Period. However, if the phone now has the hybrid files from two OS versions on it (because the update via KIES didn't go quite right), then it will never be right, even after GSM (or any other kind of factory) resetting it. And that's because at that point, the GSM reset simply puts it back to the state of having both old OS, and new OS files on it, which won't work; which makes the phone a dog, or makes it boot loop, or makes in squirrely, or can even brick it.

At that point, only a trip to the AT&T Device Support Center will, ultimately, fix that problem.

Trust me on all this, everyone. I know of what I speak... er... I mean... write. Only following my herein earlier posted steps will ensure a clean OS update. Yes, failure to follow them, and updating anyway, may, indeed, still work! I concede that. However, more often than not, it will not. And the result, then, ends-up being people posting in places like this about slowness and other issues, as I'm seeing in this very thread. That's why I posted the solution, here... to try and put an end to that around here; to try to show people how to avoid what some are now posting, here, that they're experiencing.

The Jelly Bean OS version is a good one... particularly nice for the Note. There is no reason, in the world, for anyone to be claiming otherwise because their Note is now slow, or has other issues. Only a botched OS update -- usually from not following such as my steps, here -- will cause that; and typically only a trip to the AT&T Device Support Center will fix a botched OS update. It's really as simple as that.

Yes, sometimes, even after a botched OS update, performing my steps, here, will seemingly vastly improve things. But, what may not be obvious, at that point, is that there may still be something wrong. I, myself, got fooled by that once; and I ended-up with a 2.3.6 Gingerbread Infuse 4G (SGH-i997) that seemed flawlessly, beautifully, speedily running under the updated-to Gingerbread OS...

...that is, until I installed a certain number of apps, and then, all of a sudden, it boot-looped endlessly. The minute I removed just one app, it stopped. And it didn't matter which app, so, then, that meant that no one app was causing it. I first thought it was a bad external SD card, but it always did it no matter what external card was in it. Finally, only going to the AT&T Device Center, pointing-out that I thought I had gotten a good Gingerbread update on it, but then describing the symptiom, fixed it. And what the tech did, simply, was restore the phone to 2.2 Froyo factory state, then run diags on it, and make sure it was in good shape. Then the tech did the 2.3.6 update himself, with the 32GB external SD card in it... exactly as I had done. However, when I got it home, and reinstalled all apps -- including a far greater number than the number that kept boot-looping the phone -- suddenly everything worked flawlessly. So, then, I didn't have as clean an OS update using KIES MINI on that phone as I thought.

You just would not believe how important is what I'm here describing. You just wouldn't.

Geez, this is so frustrating. I know what I'm talking about, here; and have proven that in other Galaxy-family phone model forums. [sigh] Every time I get a new phone model, and visit its forums, I have to prove it all over again.

As for the battery, it's very common for a new OS update to mess-up both how the battery performs, and at what level the phone reports the battery to be. Most of the time, when a new, immediately-post-OS-update phone suddenly seems to be using-up too much battery, it's actually not. All that's happening, usually, is that the OS update has screwed-up the phone's ability to determine true battery level for that particular battery.

Oh, don't get me wrong, the battery really could be getting inordinately used and drawn down; and, if so, then it's likely that the OS update didn't actually go well after all, and so something's draining the battery; and, usually, the only way to fix it is to assume that the OS update didn't go well, and that even factory resetting the phone, now, because of it, won't help. Yes, that's all possible. And, if so, then, again, only a trip to the AT&T Device Support Center will likely fix it.

However, more often than not, it's simply that the battery needs to be recalibrated under the newly-updated OS version. Simple as that. So, then, here's how to recalibrate a battery on a Galaxy-class/family model phone:

  1. Connect the phone to the charger with the phone powered on, and allow the phone to charge until it shows 100%.
  2. Disconnect the phone from the charger, and power it off.
  3. Reconnect the phone to the charger with the phone powered off, and allow the phone to charge until the battery indicator shows 100%.
  4. Disconnect the phone from the charger and power it on.
  5. Once the phone is powered completely on, power it off again and reconnect it to the charger until the battery indicator shows 100%.
  6. Disconnect the phone, power it on, and use it.

My personal recommendation is to do those steps, then use the phone normally for three days, then re-perform said steps. Repeat the recalibration for any given battery a minimum of four (4) times per year.

If you are constantly swapping batteries in and out of phones -- and especially if you don't perform proper shut-downs of the phone each time, before so doing -- then all bets are off. At that point, how the phone both uses batteries, and reports their levels, could be all over the map!

However, even once one has one's phone battery properly calibrated, there could still be an entire raft of reasons why the phone seems to use more battery after an OS update...

...chief among them that an OS update restores a phone to its old-battery-sucking ways. Phones, as shipped from the factory, are set to auto-sync everything in the background, constantly. They're set with their screens too bright. They're set with battery-sucking wallpapers. Etc.

All that stuff needs to be turned-off in order to eek the most battery life out of any phone... most off all a battery hog like the Note!

Some battery-saving tips:

They're lithium-ion batteries, and so should have no "memory" like an old nickel-cadmium. But I'll be darned if they don't, anyway, at least a little. Therefore, "exercising" the battery -- especially if it's brand new -- can actually work. It shouldn't, mind you, but I'll be darned if it doesn't, anyway. Live and learn, I always say. Many users report -- and I've seen it myself -- significant battery life improvements after 3 or so full charge-discharge cycles on a brand new battery. Be sure to "flex your battery's muscles" when you first get it and avoid partial charges or discharges. It might not help everyone, but it's helped enough to be worth a try...

...and don't forget to calibrate the battery the first time, then again three or so days later; and then again quarterly, ongoing, as described above. If you swap-out the battery a lot, then do a proper shut-down of the phone first. By soing doing, the phone may remember each battery's calibration, and will still accurately report battery levels.

Turn off "live" wallpapers. Although pretty and fun to show off the phone, "live" wallpapers run as active apps constantly in the background. The majority of users find a significant boost in runtime if they replace them with a static image; or, even better yet, with no wallpaper image at all. If battery life is more-important to you than visual eye-candy and bragging rights, then definitely at least turn off "live" wallpapers; and I, frankly, recommend using no wallpaper; just having a black background. There are even a few apps out there which provide a "blank" or "black" background; but be careful, because some of them simply display a black wallpaper, which actually uses almost the same amount of battery as if it were a static brightly-colored wallpaper. One must actually get no wallpaper -- at all -- to display; and on some phones, that requires an app. They're out there; just look for them on the Google Play Store; but, again, make sure that it's actually displaying no background wallpaper, and not simply a black one.

Screen brightness is the biggest single user of power; the brighter the screen, the more power the phone users. A Galaxy-family phone -- especially if it has a super AMOLED display, need not be turned very bright when indoors... typically only 15% to 25% brightness will do. Even outdoors, most days, as little as 75% brightness will be good enough (though if the sun's directly on the screen, 90% to 100% brightness may barely be enough). Keep the brightness of the screen as low as you can stand it. You won't believe how much battery it will save. Even the auto-brightness setting sometimes gooses it up too bright. If you can remember to keep it down to only what you need, it's better to manually adjust it for either indoors or outdoors. And there are some cool apps which put widgets on the home screen so that you can increase and decrease brightness, as needed, with just a press or two.

Speaking of home screen widgets: They suck battery life! I'm not talking about icons, here; I mean widgets. Be very, very careful about using them on the home screen. Use them very sparingly, because they're always alive and doing something, even if the screen's off and the phone's in your pocket.

Apps, too, are sometimes just plain battery-sucking... usually because they're poorly written. There's a very cool weather app out there, for example, which connects to the national system of home weather stations out there, and which even displays, on the phone screen, exactly like an LCD-panel home weather station wall display; and you can specify your neighborhood and it'll go out onto the home weather station system and find the home weather station nearest you and show you not just the weather, but the weather right in your neighborhood! Very cool...

...but very battery sucking, too. Ohmygod, I couldn't believe it. It was knocking my phone dead in half a day. I finally had to remove it. So be on the lookout for battery-sucking apps. Not all apps are friendly. Some want to constantly update in the background, even if they're seemingly off. Such as they can knock-flat a battery in no time.

Remember, also, about programmers (and these apps are all written by programmers): Many inflated ego programmers think that their apps are the only apps in the world; and so they have them constantly running, and turn-on all the apps' features by default (and often have no way of turning them off), and make them sync and run in the background, and make it hard to get to stop running and get out of memory, etc. Turn them off, regardless, if you can; and, frankly, any app maker who has so little regard for the user and so much regard for himself/herself, needs to have his/her app the heck off at least my phone! Do not tolerate badly-behaved programmers and their badly-behaved apps. Dump/uninstall 'em, and save battery!

And speaking of running in the background: Be sure to really and truly close an app when you're done with it. Unless it's an app which positively needs to run in the background all the time, so that it can notify you of somethingoranother (or whatever it is that you want it to do), then be sure to fully close it, and not leave it running, when you're done with it. Many people fail to fully close apps when they're done using them; and the usual culprit is that they don't "back out" of the app, using the "back" button at the very bottom of the screen (second button from the right) until they're finally dropped to the home screen. Instead, they use the "home" button (second from the left, at the bottom), which lets the phone multi-task and keeps the app that was home-buttoned out of running in the background as the user goes on and opens and uses other stuff. To see what all's running, long-press the "home" button to launch the pop-up which contains the "task manager" button, then press said button to enter the task manager (or you can go straight to it using the task manager button, which everyone -- at least those who listen to me -- should have on their home screen). Once in the task manager, you can see what you inadvertently left running by "home" buttoning out of apps instead of "back" buttoning out of them until you're finally dropped to the Home screen. Always "back" button out of stuff, to fully close it, unless you actually want whatever app to run in the background while you do other stuff. You would not believe how much battery life that simple habit will suddenly give you!

Also, regarding apps, just generally: As long as the app doesn't have a background service that's always running, even if the app's not actually either front-and-center on the screen, or is open in the background via multi-tasking as described in the immediately previous paragraph, then said app's presence on the phone, as long as it's not open, uses no battery at all, to speak of (obviously, displaying its icon uses some battery, but, otherwise, it uses none). However, some apps, even when they're not open or running in the background, nevertheless have background services running... each of which uses battery. One may put onto one's phone as many apps with no background services as one wants, and as long as there's room for them in mass storage (which can be greatly improved, by the way, by installing as many apps as will allow it out on the external SD card so that the internal storage is not clogged-up). However, one should limit the number of apps installed on one's phone which have background services running, even if they're not actually running in either the foreground or background. Such apps with background services will suck a battery dry; and so one should be careful how many of them one has installed on one's phone. The more apps with background services constantly running, the more battery will be used even when the phone's allegedly doing nothing, with a blanked screen, in your pocket.

Be careful how long you set the screen blanker/saver. Don't set the time so low that it harasses you by making you keep waking-up the screen during normal use; but don't set it out to too long, either. Or, of you do set it long, then have the self-discipline to manually turn off the screen before putting the phone away after use. I have my phone set to auto-screen-blank after 10 minutes, which seems like a lot. However, I have a little button down in the dock which, when pressed, fully blanks and shuts-off the screen, as happens after 10 minutes if I don't touch it. And I've become religious about remembering to press it when I'm done looking at the phone, and ready to put it back into its pouch. Yet when I really need the screen to stay on without harassing me, 10 minutes is, for me, at least, about right. I also use a custom screen locker app which I can set to its own blanking time of, in my phone's case, just 2 minutes. And that locker app also lets me put my screen-off-and-lock (that's the name of my button app which lets me turn off the screen) button on the screen locker, too, so that I can even blank/turn-off the screen from the locker screen, rather than letting it time-out (which timing-out, of course, uses-up battery). Yes, pressing the phone's hardware power button also achieves turning-off/on the screen, but it also wears-out the power button, in time... hence my reason for doing as much of it on the glass as I can. By doing what I do with the screen-off-and-lock button, I only even have to press the hardware power button to wake-up the screen to the screen locker app screen, from which I can blank it again using the button on the glass. That screen locker app even lets me do things like shake the phone to wake it up (which I have turned-off, but I'm just sayin' that it's also there to keep one from wearing-out the hardware power button all the time).

Stop all unnecessary background syncing. Most apps, despite what their makers claim, need only communicate with a server out there somewhere when they're open and up-front-and-center on the screen. When they're closed, most apps need do nothing... no syncing, no updating, no nothing. Even the Facebook app, for most users -- that is, the ones who don't need to instantly know about their friends' postings and messages -- need never sync in the background when it's not open. When so, turn it off. And go through all apps and turn-off their background operations, too. Allow to sync/run in the background only the apps which you absolutely need to so do. You wouldn't believe how much battery you save by turning off most syncing...

...speaking of which, if you don't turn it off, the Google system will try to sync with most Android phones every few seconds; and for most users, that's just not necessary. If you go into your phone's "Settings" area, then press "Accounts and Sync," you'll find that most phones come, by default, set to sync all the time... to "auto sync." The truth is, though, that "auto sync" in the phone's "accounts and sync" area in "settings" can be turned-off (unchecked) for most users. Only thhe "background data" needs to be able to sync, else the phone can't even tell when the Google Play Store app wants to update any of our apps. Down in the "Manage accounts" area in the phone's "accounts and sync" in its "settings" area, one should usually turn-off the syncing of individual Google apps and services such as GMAIL (unless, of course, one wants to know about every single email that comes in; I don't, but some do; so I keep mine turned-off). You would not BELIEVE how much battery (and processor cycles) are used-up by constant syncing. I've seen dog-slow phones suddenly become peppy by merely turning-off auto-syncing (or at least leaving on only the auto-syncing that's absolutely necessary). I don't, for example, want to be notified of any new emails. I get so many, each day, that the phone would be beeping every few seconds. Instead, if people need me right now, they know how to both call or text me. That's what those services are for, after all. Being notified in real time about each new email is a little OCD, as far as I'm concerned... but, hey, that's just me.

Turn off GPS, Bluetooth and even WIFI when not in-use. There's simply no need to have these draining the battery if you're not usiing them; and only people who are so over-the-top about things like someone always knowing where they are on a Google Map or something ever need such services always running. Moreover, simply pulling down on the notification shade makes turning-on/off these services trivially easy. Even turning off auto-screen-rotation, believe it or not, can save battery. I, personally, hate accidentally turning my phone a little bit too far sideways, and suddenly having it auto-switc to landscape mode. If I want landscape, I know how to get it (by turning-on screen rotation). All other times, I want portrait mode, and I want it to stay that way even if I accidentally turn the phone a little too far horizontally. Turning-off auto-screen rotation can eek the tinest bit of juice out of the battery because constantly monitoring the orientation sensor uses-up battery. So keep it off, and, believe it or not, you'll see improved battery life.

Speaking of juice, I could not more strongly recommend the use of the JUICE DEFENDER app... preferably the paid version, 'cause it's got way more cool features. There's also a free companion JUICE PLOTTER app that can help you see when are your heaviest battery usage periods, which can then help you figure out what apps and/or usage patterns are using so much battery. There are also apps out there which can help you spot battery-hogging apps and/or serivces and/or syncing in a heartbeat.

Keep spare batteries... and more than just one. Before the Note, with regular smartphones, maybe one spare was enough to make it through the day (although I, honestly, can make it through most days without a spare). But the Note's a battery eater, so having at least two fully-charged spares may become necessary for some Note users. Interim charging during the day, while at work, for example, using the USB port on one's computer, perhaps, may also be necessary. One should always have one's phone's USB cable -- and even one of those plug-into-the-wall-outlet-then-plug-the-USB-cable-into-it 120VAC chargers -- in one's briefcase (or at least in one's car's glovebox) at all times. And one should be careful about what kind of extra batteries one purchases. Be sure to spend the extra money on batteries actually made by Samsung; and don't be fooled by cheap knockoffs which bear the Samsung name, but are really just fakes. Cheap aftermarket batteries just won't feed the bulldog when it comes to Samsung smartphone and tablet devices. They just won't. Stay away from them.

And, of course, finally, turn-off the phone when it's not needed...

...which, for me, is never, so a part of me doesn't really even know why I'm suggesting this. Most people want their phones on all the time. Most just leave them on while they charge all night, on the nightstand, so they can answer or make an emergency call or something. Those who do, though, either need to have a phone where the "I'm finally fully charged" alert tone can be turned-off, else it wakes one up in the middle of the night. On phones too old to have such tone-off features, using a scripting app can sometimes achieve it. However, for those who don't need any of that, then turning-off the phone when not needed can be the biggest battery saver of all!

Those who think they can just have a laissez faire attitude toward, and approach to, their phones -- as most of those who decry all my update steps seem to have -- end-up missing-out on the benefits of all that such as being so anally-retentive as are these battery-saving tactics can provide. You simply would not believe how much battery you'll save if you employ as many of the foregoing tips as possible. You simply would not believe it...

...just exactly as the doubters, here, would simply not believe how smoothly and successfully would go their OS updates if they'd just listen to me, here.
 

ebulldog

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Re: How to do the 4.1.2 Jelly Bean update without a hitch

First off, your posts are clear that you love to hear yourself talk and you clearly have a high opinion of yourself. That being said a page worth of ramblings is way more than needs to be done to simply update a cell phone. The update should have been simple. I have updated many phones without this much hassle, so your assumption that I and others need to pay some ***** $250/hour to update a phone is insane and comical. We don't really need your lame life story on how much $ you CLAIM to make. Spare us that BS.
Why don't you just back out of this forum the same way you came in, with your head up your a$$. We on these and other forums don't need some 'know it all' to attempt to make us feel stupid about an update on our phone. Oh and by the way, I hope Ed Walsh, your mentor, is not resting peacefully. I will not respond to anymore of your ramblings.
Your 'steps' are ridiculous and I stand by what I've herein written.
 

Craig King

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Re: How to do the 4.1.2 Jelly Bean update without a hitch

DesElms

Here is my issue. I suspect that what you are saying is completely right, but for the majority of users probably not needed. There is no doubt that haveing the cleanest install possible is best, but depending on several factors could be completely useless and not needed.

Contrary to what you say I have seen this question put in front of a few developers discussing custom roms. They were well known Samsung Galaxy developers of custom roms. The roms they created or customized.(some where OEM roms with some cleanup done). There procedures were very straight forward. Simply put Flash custom rom and clear cache from recovery. That ofcourse is with Clockword Mod Recovery. Since a stock phone doesn't have Clockwork Mod Recovery we use Kies from Samsung.

I would suspect that in most cases people with problems would be fixed just by clearing cache from stock recovery and then if that doesn't resolve it doing a factory reset.

On top of that we have to understand that this phone is over a year old and unfortunately has the weekest processor of it's generation. The snapdragon S3 is just slow compared to the exynos 4412 and the TI counterparts. It is going to have issues keeping up.

The majority of users should be able to simply remove there SD Card, Plug in to their computer and then run the upgrade from KIES. If they have issues then doing a factory reset to bring the phone back to a good state.
 

DesElms

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Re: How to do the 4.1.2 Jelly Bean update without a hitch

I suspect that what you are saying is completely right, but for the majority of users probably not needed. There is no doubt that haveing the cleanest install possible is best, but depending on several factors could be completely useless and not needed.

I'm afraid I can't go along with that it's not needed for most users, but certainly some. No argument, here, on that. More in my next response.

Contrary to what you say I have seen this question put in front of a few developers discussing custom roms. They were well known Samsung Galaxy developers of custom roms. The roms they created or customized.(some where OEM roms with some cleanup done). There procedures were very straight forward. Simply put Flash custom rom and clear cache from recovery. That ofcourse is with Clockword Mod Recovery. Since a stock phone doesn't have Clockwork Mod Recovery we use Kies from Samsung. I would suspect that in most cases people with problems would be fixed just by clearing cache from stock recovery and then if that doesn't resolve it doing a factory reset.

This information, while useful to technogeeks, is nothing but confusing to normal, non-technical end users. When I decry those who root their phone and flash a ROM, I'm simply saying that while that's fine for those who are into that, it's downright irresponsible of them to mislead normal, everyday, non-technical users into thinking that rooting, and flashing 3rd party ROMs, is something they should ever try to do. I'm as technical as they come, and even I don't do it. You'll see, as you get old enough, that the allure of doing all that stuff, and whatever techno-sense of accomplishment it gives will, in time, become not all that attractive, anymore. As you get older, you'll begin to realize how short is life, and how valuable just having the phone work, and not having to mess with it, can be. Non-technical users just get led down the primrose path by rooting and ROM flashing, because they end-up with a phone that frequently has to be tweaked and messed-with. While those who like such things don't mind that, those who just want their phones to work are harmed by it. I get upset with those who advocate rooting and 3rd party ROM flashing because they don't stop to realize how profoundly harmful their rooting/modding/flashing advice can be to end-users who just want the phone to work as advertised. Of course there are really cool benefits of rooting and modding and flashing...

...but they're typically not sufficiently valuable and useful to steer a non-technical end-user down that road. It's just not worth it to them, they'll quickly discover. And when they do, they'll want their phone back to the way AT&T and Samsung, which can be a challenge at that point.

Androd Centeral is not xda-developers. Non-technical users come here, and need genuine help... without having to learn geekspeak, and without being misled about the alleged virtues of rooting and flashing. I'm fluent in geekspeak, but I make sure that I'm understood by anyone and everyone who reads my words. That's what supporting end-users for forty years will teach one is of paramount importance. I agree that many here do not need the handholding that I've here offered; but many do: Most, in fact, I'd venture. The problem is that many of those non-technical users become afraid to post because they're intimidated by the seeming technical expertise of those posting. I'm not intimidated by that, because half the time even those who think they're all technical still don't know what they're talking about. I see that a lot... including in this very thread.

I am unapologetic about what I've herein written, and how I've written it. If the information did not need to be known, then there wouldn't be so many people posting in this thread about the problems they're having.

On top of that we have to understand that this phone is over a year old...

Which impresses me not, and shouldn't impress you, either. One thing that getting old provides is perspective and context. During the 40 years that I've been doing this, market penetration was all that vendors of both hardware and software sought; and that was because so few in the world had high tech devices and software, and so there was plenty of market for everyone. During such times as those, the products don't need to be constantly updated/upgraded because most people still don't have the current or even older versions. And so things moved along at a pace that was acceptable to normal humans of normal financial means. A Harvard-Business-School-recommended typical five to ten percent annual revenue growth was possible, without everything having to be updated/upgraded so often, because there was just so much market out there to be penetrated.

But, today, that market is penetrated; yet the need to still satisfy stockholders with 5% to 10% annual growth remains. And so phone makers are trying to achieve that by releasing new models so fast that one can't even finish-out one's two-year AT&T contract without being made to feel that that which was brand, spankin' new at the beginning of said contract is outdated and "old-hat" before even a year of it has elapsed!

That's shameful... obscene... criminal, even, in my opinion. Shame on the lot of the industry for playing it that way; and on you and yours, to some degree (no personal offense intended, just tryin' to make a categorical point), for so buying-in that said industry can get away with -- nay, encouraged to do it -- it with impunity.

A phone that's only (and I stress that word) "over a year old," to use your words, is still a good phone. The only thing that screws with that is that as even faster phones come out more quickly than they would if the market weren't so fully penetrated that the only way their makers may have sufficient annual growth is to keep making their only-a-year-old (or less) stuff intentionally obsolete, app makers create code that will run on the newer and faster processors, but isn't sufficiently backward compatible to still run fast on the only-a-year-old-ones. That, too, is obscene.

...and unfortunately has the weekest processor of it's generation. The snapdragon S3 is just slow compared to the exynos 4412 and the TI counterparts. It is going to have issues keeping up.

This is an opinion which I venture you would not have if Samsung had not put the Exynos 4 Dual 45 nm (4210) chipset into the international N7000 version of the Note; and then removed and replaced it, at AT&T's request, with the Qualcomm MSM8660 Snapdragon 3 featuring a dual-core 1.5 GHz Scorpion CPU and an Adreno 220 GPU. Once a big V-8 engine block has been put into a given car, no more economical and reasonable V-6 will ever satisfy. If Samsung had just put the Snapdragon into the N7000, no one would be complaining. Some of "t is going to have issues keeping-up is just in some people's heads, then. The bottom line is that a 1.5GHz dual core processor, like what's in the Snapdragon, is plenty beefy for all current Android OS versions. All of them! No current Android OS version can overpower that processor and chipset. None of them!

More is not always better. Sometimes more is just more. And some people who don't know any better are both inordinately and inappropriately impressed by that. Don't be. The quad-core processor in the Note II remains a beast: An all-potential-and-no-useful-purpose, four-barrel V-8 behemoth on tiny Mustang chasis. Only the advanced multi-tasking and two-app viewing/using offered by the Note II even comes close to requiring that kind of power, and even then it's not really necessary; and no amount of wishing otherwise will change that. If it were, then having six apps simultaneously open and running (by exiting them using the "home" key instead of fully backing out of them with the "back" button) on an old 1GHz single-core A8 Samsung Captivate would bring it to a crawl. It does not. The Note II's quad-core processor and 2GB of RAM really is overkill. The just-announced "Galaxy Mega 6.3" with its 1.7 GHz dual core processor, and only 1.5 GB of RAM, is testament to that.

All that's happened, here, is that the device manufacturers have proffered that only the latest, greatest and fastest will do...

...and you bit. Think: Hook, line and sinker.

The majority of users should be able to simply remove there SD Card, Plug in to their computer and then run the upgrade from KIES.

I hope you meant, "remove their SD card, then plug-in their phone to their computer," because plugging in just the SD card to their computer won't feed the bulldog when it comes to OS updates/upgrades. As to the rest of what you wrote, after it, here are the facts, and they're indisputable...

If nothing the user has ever installed onto his/her phone since unboxing it from the factory has in any way altered the factory-installed OS, itself (which includes mere configuration settings); and if no part of the factory-installed OS has become corrupt in the meantime (which is statistically improbable), then, yes, just launching KIES on the Windows PC, and plugging the phone into it, then letting KIES update, will quite probably work. Or, if it doesn't really completely and pristinely work, then it will at least work well enough that the user's none the wiser.

However, neither of those two "ifs" are usually true. And so in order to ensure that the OS update/upgrade will positively (and that's the operative word, after all, because who, really, has the time in this busy life for anything less?) succeed, exactly as the Samsung and AT&T engineers planned, and saw in their testing, then the phone needs to be GSM reset to restore it to exactly the way it came from the factory, which is exactly the state of the phones on which the Samsung and AT&T engineers tested the OS update/upgrade. Doing anything less introduces unnecessary chance and risk into a situation where no such unpredictables need exist; and where a simple GSM reset will ensure that they don't.

Arguing against that simple, even-a-child-can-understand-it logic is just folly. Why I keep seeing normally intelligent and reasonable people nevertheless do it in places like this, I'll never know. All I know is that I keep seeing it, over and over; and so here I am, once again, explaining and explaining it until everyone (or at least those not too bull-headed) can finally get their stubborn minds wrapped around it.

Additionally, we know, for a fact, that if the Samsung Windows drivers aren't present on at least some Windows machines, then no phone connected to them, via USB, will actually be connected properly; and so, again, unnecessary and wholly avoidable chance and risk is introduced. Said drivers are either separately downloadable and installable, or are present in the KIES installer, depending on which version of KIES one is installing.

Additionally, we know, for a fact, that most KIES versions are intolerant of any previous KIES versions co-existing on any given machine; that all previous KIES versions need to not only be uninstalled, but to also have their both registry and file traces forcibly ripped-out of the machine by the likes of REVO uninstaller using its most rigorous uninstallation method; and even then some system-locked files must be set for deletion on next reboot in order for REVO to really and truly get them off the machine to the latest KIES version's satisfaction. We know this. It is indisputable fact.

Additionally, we know, for a fact, that if the USB cable used in the OS update/upgrade is not properly pinned-out, exactly as is the USB cable that comes with the phone, then the statistical likelihood that the OS update/upgrade will be successful goes precipitously down. Since many people have lost their original USB cable that came with the phone, and then replaced it with the cheapest aftermarket knock-off they could find on Amazon, the likelihood that they'll be trying the OS update/upgrade using an improperly-pinned-out cable is unnecessarily high... especially when simply buying a new Samsung brand USB cable intended for use on Galaxy-class/family phones, is so both easy and inexpensive.

We know those things, for a fact: an indisputable fact!

And so I am not out of line to point-out, here, that if one wants to somewhat-more-than-marginally improve the statistical probability of having a truly successful OS update/upgrade on one's Galaxy-class/family Android phone, then one must somewhat anally-retentively go through all of my steps, without missing a one. If they do, their copy of the updated/upgraded OS on their phone will be somewhat likely identical to what a tech at an AT&T Device Support Center could have achieved.

If they have issues then doing a factory reset to bring the phone back to a good state.

If they attempt an OS update/upgrade using KIES, and said update/upgrade completely (and I mean completely) fails (so that absolutely nothing of the new OS is present on the phone), then, yes, you're right. A simple factory reset will give a new starting point, and away the user can go. But just look at what you've written: A factory reset will fix the problem. My response to that is why introduce the possibility of a problem like that in the first place? Why not do the factory reset up-front, where it belongs, so that the phone is in a state that's identical to that on which the Samsung and AT&T engineers tested the OS update/upgrade in the first place? Not so doing, knowing the trials and tribulations it could head-off, is just stubborn for stubborn's sake!

But, if there's a problem mid-OS-upgrade/update, and said update/upgrade succeeds even only enough that the phone thinks that it's now using the new and updated OS, even if some of the old OS is still there, then all that doing a factory reset will do is set it back to that errantly hybridized OS version. In that case, only a trip to the AT&T Device Support Center will fix it, because the ROMs been only partially flashed, and so there's no longer a pristine OS of one version or the other on the phone to which to factory reset to! Why even risk that when all one has to do is do the factory reset immediately before doing the OS update/upgrade?

Again, stubborn, just for stubborn's sake. It's insensible. Please don't be insensible... it's unbecoming.

[sigh] Sometimes I feel like I'm in a time machine, because I already know how all this is all going to pan out. It's the same everwhere when I go through this. Eventually, someone will finally just follow my advice, as written, and they'll then come in here and tell me something like, "ohmygod, thank you! It worked exactly as you said it would!"

Or, even better, someone for whom the update/upgrade has already failed, leaving them with a dog-slow phone that's worse than it was before the OS update/upgrade, will take the phone to the AT&T Device Support Center and get it restored to factory state, but the center's manager will refuse to do the OS upgrade/update. And so s/he will then take the phone back home, dig-up his/her original Samsung USB cable, and uninstall all previous KIES versions using REVO (including rebooting) from his/her Windows machine. Then s/he'll follow the Samsung instructions exactly (which includes installing the new KIES), then connect the phone and performa a flawless OS update/upgrade...

...and then s/he'll come back here and tell me I was right, and that I saved his/her life, and s/he never should have doubed me, yadda, yadda, yadda.

Happens every time. We can call sit around hear and yank our respective tools arguing about it, or people can just shut their pie holes and do what I prescribe and end-up with pristine OS update/upgrades on their perfectly-fast-enough Samsung Galaxy Note devices, and be happy. Whether or not they actually needed to follow all my steps, depending on how goofed-up or not their updated-from OS version was before they performed the update/upgrade, is when you think about it, just academic.

Pilots understand all this, you know. Any pilot will tell you that s/he doesn't really need to do every last thing on the pre-flight check-list...

...but there's not a pilot alive who would ever skip one. Not one. Ever.

My steps are kinda' like that: You don't have to do 'em, but, like the pilot, you'd be an ***** not to! They're an homage to the indisputable fact about technology that there's usually one, and only one, truly "right" way to do something. Other ways exist, here; and, who knows, maybe some of them will work under just the right circumstances. My way, however, will positively work in all circumstances...

...er... well... except one... and I already mentioned it in an earlier posting, to wit: If the phone started-out from the factory as 2.3 Gingerbread; and then if it got OS updated/upgraded by the user to 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich; and then the user tried to upgrade it again, now, to 4.1 Jelly Bean...

...then... well... under those circumstances it's entirely possible that my steps, here, still won't work for the 4.1 Jelly Bean update. But that would only be because the earlier 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS update/upgrade didn't actually go as well as the user thought back then, such that doing the factory reset now doesn't really and truly return the phone to a pristine 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich state. So, again, it's about finding a starting point for the OS update/upgrade that's the exact same as where the Samsung and AT&T engineers started during their testing. A not-quite-done-properly 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS update/upgrade would not achieve that state; and so a trip, for that phone, to the AT&T Device Support Center for a proper return to factory state would likely be necessary. With any luck, as long as one's there, the tech will just go ahead and flash to 4.1.2 Jelly Bean, and get it overwith. That would be perfect!
 
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KSoD

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Jan 28, 2011
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Re: How to do the 4.1.2 Jelly Bean update without a hitch

I'm sorry. That's just wrong...

How so? As evident by the fact that people on this site have used this method as well as many others on XDA. I fail to see how the method is wrong when it works, even taking the phone from non-factory state back to out of box experience.

...as evidenced by literally thousands who've done it that way on many Galaxy-class phones, and who then end-up in places like this complaining about inordinate slowness, boot-looping, crases, incompatibilities, and the list just goes on and on.

The same people who complain about slowness are also the same people who do not understand that any update requires the system to settle. When an update is done of this kind the device must re-scan all your media which causes slow down. It must re-populate all of your pictures, music, notification and ringtones. All of which take time and yet again, cause the system to slow down. After the media scan is done and a couple of days of use have past, the system will stabilize and operate as it did before. It must reset the battery config as well as the rest of the system. So just cause people do not realize this and expect an update to be as fast as previously only show how these same users have no real idea what an update is or does. As evident by the posting complaints about it without first realizing the truth.

I have seen no evidence of this method causing boot loops. In fact I personally have used this method to fix boot loops. yet again showing how this is a sure fire method to fix issues and not create them.

Moreover, that you've "flashed so many custom ROMS" makes you the least capable of giving reliable advice to normal, everyday users who just want it to work. Those who root Android phones, and who then flash custom ROMS, routinely lead ordinary, non-technical end users down the primrose path, as we see in the xda-developers forum every single day. What your likes always leave out of your simple lists are the tweaks and steps and remedial procedures that you instinctively do as such as your six steps, above, fail or stumble.

So the fact that I know how to install custom Recovery, Root my device and use it how I please means I am not qualified to help a person perform an update that has done the same thing? I fail to see the logic in that remark. Does this also mean that cause I have 25+ years of PC use that it makes me to knowledgeable to help people fix PC problems? Something that I do everyday without fail. Helping people not only with all Android based devices but PC's. Helping people figure out where they went wrong and how to fix the issues is not what is needed to help a user? Yet again I fail to see how that translates to what your trying to pass off. I know how to give the information as needed for a person to do what is needed. Just cause I understand the device a bit more than they do doesn't mean that I don't know how to talk to an everyday, average user.

You have not even tried my process to know if it even works. To say that my steps above fail or stumble is inaccurate at best given the fact you have not tried it for yourself to know if what I say is true or not. The fact is to be able to go from a state where my warranty is void, running a custom ROM back to out of box experience is something that many people would love to know and to do. I could walk into an AT&T store and the rep there would never be able to know that my device ever had custom anything on it.

I'm sorry, but I stand by what I've herein written.

You can stand by what you say. But I also stand by what I say. The fact is that I have helped people not only here but on XDA and other Android based sites doing exactly what I have. Be they novice users who have just gotten the device to others that develop custom ROMs for it. You are the one who is judging a person just cause they posted a 6 step process that will do the same exact thing you said, not only faster but with the same results. All by themselves without input from anyone. Something that with a little time, some careful reading can help them learn and understand how to do an update to their device without calling or asking for help. It is nothing advanced, nothing that an everyday user with Kies installed on their PC cant figure out how to do with a Google search.

So say what you want about me, the fact is you know nothing about me or my knowledge, expertise or level of talking to any user. You read 1 post, jumped to your own personal conclusions about me and my method without any real proof that it doesn't work or that it will cause issues. don't judge people before you get to know them.
 

Craig King

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Re: How to do the 4.1.2 Jelly Bean update without a hitch

What is interesting about the direction this topic is that myself and KSod and a few others are having to defend ourselves and our knowledge from what i almost thinking is a troll. most of us have a significant number of posts here or in a few other threads where we have shown we help other forum members and this guy has 7 posts 6 of which are in this thread.

I can't say for sure that is true, but appears to look that way. I mean after all if this guy has been around since the captivate, which was my first android phone as well, why is he only starting to contribute now if he is such an expert.
 
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ebulldog

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Re: How to do the 4.1.2 Jelly Bean update without a hitch

I agree 100%. That's why I responded like I did. We are all on here looking for help and answers to questions about phone issues. Some people just have a way of being pompous and basically love hearing themselves yap. It really has no place on here. Hopefully he has left the 'building', so to speak.
 

DesElms

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Re: How to do the 4.1.2 Jelly Bean update without a hitch

How so? As evident by the fact that people on this site have used this method as well as many others on XDA. I fail to see how the method is wrong when it works, even taking the phone from non-factory state back to out of box experience.

Okay, I'll tell you exactly how so. You wrote:

There is only 6 steps at best for the update.

1. Load Kies

2. Update Kies
3. Remove SD Card
4. Put phone in download mode
5. Tools>Firmware Upgrade and initialization
6. Type in Model and Serial as seen on the back under Battery

All done.

Notwithstanding that it should have been "[t]here are only 6 steps...", I nevertheless wrote, in response, that said steps were (just categorically, I meant) wrong; and my reason was (and remains) because it's positively not right for everyone... with "everyone" being the operative word. There may, indeed, be only those six steps required for at least some users -- who knows, maybe even most -- but many others will end-up wishing they'd followed my steps. And so, then, it's just prima facie folly to suggest that those six steps are right for everyone, as you suggested. That was my point.

And the reason for that is my more overarching point that as long as there's a risk of failure which could have been avoided by simply following my steps, then said steps should always be followed; even if some of them may, for a given user's phone, in a given moment, not actually be necessary... just as a pilot checks-out more on a plane during pre-flight than he knows he really needs to, in order to be safe.

For some phones -- many, even, I dare say -- my steps would, indeed, be overkill; but for all phones, at least, they will nevertheless work. Your steps, on the other hand, will not... not, at least, for all phones. That was my point. I'm sorry you're so offended and upset that you cannot see that.

Of course, as I made crystal clear in my original (and I think at least one other, besides this one) post, here: If the user rooted his/her phone, and flashed a custom ROM, then all bets, regarding at least my steps, are off. I'm not addressing that kind of user, here. That's your kind of user. And if you had more carefully read my words, instead of rushing through them, and being so blindly angered by them that you just had to take me on, here, then you'd have noticed that. Careful, careful, careful, young man. And then you wonder why I have so little respect for your work.

And, by the way, don't be so impressed with everyone at XDA. Yes, there are some serious experts there -- really high-end, make-the-hair-stand-up-on-the-back-of-your-neck good -- but there are also people there, as there are here, clearly, who don't even know what they don't even know...

...and so insensibly assail those who do. Be careful not to be like them... er... oh... wait... I'm sorry: That ship has already sailed, I guess.

And one other thing, just for the record: The external SD card does not need to be removed for an OS update/upgrade... at least not if one does a GSM reset first, like my steps prescribe; but even if one doesn't , as it turns out. Again, with your witchcraft... yikes!


The same people who complain about slowness are also the same people who do not understand that any update requires the system to settle.

And that, right there, makes questionable, pretty much all else that you have to say. Really. It's just so facially outrageous that... well.. it's a wonder anyone reads any further. If you were in a lecture hall, and the person speaking about some scientific topic suddenly threw in that something or another about it is only true, or will only work, if one speaks an incantation over it while hopping around in circles on one foot wearing a pink boa and purple beads, you'd stand-up and leave. Insisting that a newly-OS-updated/upgraded phone needs "settling" or "stabilizing" time -- especially days worth of it -- is just... well... I can't even find the words for how outrageous it is. Witchcraft, witchcraft, witchcraft. Gimmee a feakin' break.

When an update is done of this kind the device must re-scan all your media which causes slow down. It must re-populate all of your pictures, music, notification and ringtones. All of which take time and yet again, cause the system to slow down. After the media scan is done and a couple of days of use have past, the system will stabilize and operate as it did before. It must reset the battery config as well as the rest of the system. So just cause people do not realize this and expect an update to be as fast as previously only show how these same users have no real idea what an update is or does. As evident by the posting complaints about it without first realizing the truth.

Oy. [sigh] Media scanning and all the rest that you mention takes seconds to minutes, then it's done. It either works, right away, or it doesn't. It doesn't, in any case, take days. It's not a new car engine which needs to be "broken in" (or a voodoo doll, that needs to "season," which I only mention because that seems to be the sort of thing you're into). If it doesn't work pretty much right away, then something's wrong. And no amount -- especially days worth -- of "settling" or "stabilizing" will fix it. Granted, if most of the 16GB of internal/pseudo-external storage is full of media, and if most of, say, a 32GB external card is similarly full, then, yes, media scanning could take several minutes; actually, a whole buncha' minutes, in fact. No argument, here. But not "days." Or even hours. C'mon.

Geez. [shakes head in disbelief]

As to battery: In my other posts, here (which, in your anger, you're clearly not reading), I've talked about the battery issue; and how a post-OS-update/upgrade battery recalibration may be necessary... is likely, in fact. The phone will not recalibrate the battery by itself. At best, it will average its readings, over time, to the point that they become within a barely acceptable range of accuracy (your observation of which, it now occurs to me, may be why you thought there was "stabilizing" going on), but the bottom line is that most batteries need to be recalibrated after an OS update/upgrade, if there's to be any prayer of both proper battery use, as well as accurate reporting by the phone of battery level. To that end, I provided, in another post (#47, I believe), the precise steps for doing that, to wit:

Recalibrating a Galaxy-class/family phone battery:


  1. Connect the phone to the charger with the phone powered on, and allow the phone to charge until it shows 100%.
  2. Disconnect the phone from the charger, and power it off.
  3. Reconnect the phone to the charger with the phone powered off, and allow the phone to charge until the battery indicator shows 100%.
  4. Disconnect the phone from the charger and power it on.
  5. Once the phone is powered completely on, power it off again and reconnect it to the charger until the battery indicator shows 100%.
  6. Disconnect the phone, power it on, and use it.

My personal recommendation is to do those steps, then use the phone normally for three days, then re-perform said steps. Repeat the steps, then, for any given battery a minimum of four (4) times per year.

If you are constantly swapping batteries in and out of phones -- and especially if you don't perform proper shut-downs of the phone each time, before so doing -- then all bets are off. At that point, how the phone both uses batteries, and reports their levels, could be all over the map!

However, even once one has one's phone battery properly calibrated, there could still be an entire raft of reasons why the phone seems to use more battery after an OS update...

...chief among them that an OS update restores a phone to its old-battery-sucking ways. Phones, as shipped from the factory, are set to auto-sync everything in the background, constantly. They're set with their screens too bright. They're set with battery-sucking wallpapers. Etc.

All that stuff needs to be turned-off in order to eek the most battery life out of any phone... most off all a battery hog like the Note!

That's what I wrote about batteries in post #47; here, and it's dead-on accurate (unlike your witchcraft). Either do it or don't, it matters not to me.

I also wrote, in that same post #47, under the heading "Some battery-saving tips:," a comprehensive list of things one may do to reduce battery usage. They, too, are all dead-on accurate; and if people will actually use them, and not count on the phone to "settle" or "stabilize," they, I promise, will experience greater battery life.

It might be worthy of note, at this point, that at least my stuff, around here, includes no witchcraft; and so for that reason, and because its prima facie helpfulness is recognizable to even an everyday, non-technical end-user (er... you know... other than you, apparently), I'll wager that readers who just want to be helped around here will get more from it than they've gotten from your witchcraft-laden stuff...

...and that, it seems, is what's so sticking in your craw. If so, then my simple advice to you is to just grow up, fortheloveofgod. Sheesh!

I have seen no evidence of this method causing boot loops. In fact I personally have used this method to fix boot loops. yet again showing how this is a sure fire method to fix issues and not create them.

I never wrote that it's the method which causes boot loops. You need to read more carefully; and, as long as I'm at it, you all need to read all of my postings, here, and take them as a whole, and get the complete picture, because one thing I'm beginning to notice, here, is that now I'm repeating, obviously because you're all so self-interested that you can't be bothered to read any posts other than either your own, or replies thereto. I'm providing a lot of useful information here -- every bit of it more useful than suggesting pure witchcraft with such ridiculous notions as it taking days for such things as "settling" or "stabilizing," whatever that even means -- and you, for one, are missing it because you can't get past being called on your nonsense by someone who actually knows what he's talking about. Take a giant step back and try to see the big picture, forgodsake. But back to my point...

What I said was that it's the failure to use my method -- chiefly the GSM reset immediately before performing the OS update/upgrade using KIES -- from the outset, which can result in a phone not being in the precise factory-new state used by Samsung and AT&T engineers during OS update/upgrade testing; and so, then, a statistically unacceptable probability of failure is introduced. My steps eliminate that probability of failure, even if, for a given users, some of said steps may not be necessary. If you had ever actually been paid, in life, to help people; and if you didn't want your time wasted, you'd understand this notion:

Better to perform steps to the completion of a task which will eliminate all possibilities of all manner of problems -- even those which may not actually exist for a given device on which said task is being performed -- than to take shortcuts from the outset and discover, upon only perceived completion, that there were problems, after all, which simply could have been eliminated by better and more all-inclusive procedure from said outset.

Anyone who has ever worked in an IT department understands this. They would also recognize, in you, the kind of end-user who just can't understand how IT works, or the importance and necessity of procedure, and the importance of avoiding that which is only anecdotal... or, worse, which is witchcraft.

Finally, if you were a more careful reader -- and more mature and experienced, too, I'll wager -- you would have understood that my boot loop story was but an example: Only one (1) possible outcome of failing to follow my steps. A broad generalization, then, such as you made, may simply not be inferred from it by a reasonable person. Of course, you're showing your reasonableness, here, to be in question, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised. Again: Careful reading, young man. Give it a try. It'll make you seem less foolishly youthful and arrogant.

So the fact that I know how to install custom Recovery, Root my device and use it how I please means I am not qualified to help a person perform an update that has done the same thing?

Oy. Again with the uncareful reading. A word of advice: When you're pissed-off at someone in a place like this, like you clearly are with me, force some calm on yourself, and slow down at least enough to really and truly comprehend, as you read your opponent's words, so that you don't fire back things which make you look foolish. Of course that ship, for you, in this case, has already sailed... but I'm just sayin'.

Anyway, that you know how to do all those things qualifies you, indeed, to help a person who has done those same things. In fact, I think one of my points, here, regarding my advice, is that if a person has rooted and generally just gone down that road, then as far as my advice is concerned, they're on their own; and so, then, such as yours is all with which they're left. I think I was pretty clear about that.

My overarching point, though (and you'd know this if you had been reading my other posts, here), is that people like you -- and those over at XDA -- need to realize that normal, everyday end-users generally don't want to become techno-geeks who get their rocks off on electronically (or physically, either) breaking-open the phone, and getting past restrictions imposed by Samsung and AT&T, and getting into the bowels of the thing, and making changes. So doing may make it so that cooler things may be done to and with the phone by your likes, but it also makes the phone entirely too high-maintenance for the likes of the typical, non-technical, everyday end user who just wants the damned thing to work! Rooting and flashing custom ROMs is not the road that such users should be taken down (hence my calling it the "primrose path")...

...and what you techno-geeks don't realize is that when normal, everyday end-users get into places like this and ask questions, they'll presume both that such as you know what they're talking about, and also have their best interests at heart, and next thing they know, they've done something to their phones, on such as your recommendation, which ultimately harms them. And by that, I mean true, objective, palpable and real-world harm. You guys, in your arrogance, just don't seem to realize that. You've lost your sense of what it's like to not be as technically hip as you've all become. And so you get into places like this and recklessly -- yes, that's the right word -- toss around solutions which no non-technical, everyday, end-user should ever even know about, much less try! You think that because you're all geeks, that everyone should both understand you, and do as you do. If you all had more experience with normal, everyday, non-technical end-users, you'd be more responsible!

And so, then, such as you become the last kind of person to whom such normal, everyday, non-technical users should ever listen. That was my point. It's not that you don't know what you're talking about when it comes to rooting and flashing custom ROMs. Rather, it's that that kind of expertise is useless -- nay, even objectively harmful -- to the non-technical, everyday end-user. And such as you should be more responsible, and better stewards of the knowledge; and should just help people who only want the OS update/upgrade on their non-rooted phones to work the first time...

...which my steps are guaranteed to accomplish. Your steps, yes, will work for at least some of them, no argument, here! But if their phones have become altered at the OS level -- which includes, in some cases, simply settings/configuration text files -- such that said phones' OS's are no longer precisely as they were shipped from the factory (which many poorly-written apps can cause); or if any of the OS files have become corrupted, then only my steps will ensure (and that's the operative word, "ensure") a successful OS update/upgrade the first time out.

That being the case, then why not just adopt my steps every time out so that whether or not there's a problem, the outcome will still always be the same? (a rhetorical question)

That's my whole point, here: That we should perform the steps that will ensure success regardless what the phone's been through.

Your way only works if the phone, in its weeks, months or years of use, somehow didn't get its OS fundamentally changed or damaged. However, the longer the phone's been in use, the lower the likelihood of that. After all, even if no app changed anything -- not even settings/configuration items -- at the OS level (which, of course, is ridiculous to assume), OS files can still become corrupted. File corruption must always be presumed, regardless the OS... be it Windows, iOS, Linux, Chrome, etc. Mass storage devices -- be they mechanical or solid state -- routinely corrupt files. Only someone who has fallen on his/her head too many times in life would argue with that.

And so, why in the world would anyone intentionally perform the OS update/upgrade steps that you've prescribed, knowing that so doing introduces an unacceptably-high risk of failure...

...when simply doing it my way (which way, more than anything else, simply prescribes performing a GSM reset before performing your steps) will ensure that the phone is first returned to the precise state that Samsung and AT&T engineers used when testing the very OS update/upgrade that one is attempting? (again, a rhetorical question)

I fail to see the logic in that remark.

Yet you see the logic of witchcraft like "settling" and "stabilizing." [sigh] Oy. [shakes head in disbelief]

Does this also mean that cause I have 25+ years of PC use that it makes me to knowledgeable to help people fix PC problems?

I'm sorry: Did you mean "...because I have 25+ years..."? Just checking. If you're going to contract, then please appropriately use an apostrophe, Mr. Close-is-good-enough. You're not a Mac user, by any chance, are you? (another rhetorical question)

And did you mean "...too knowledgeable..."? That one should be self-explanatory.

It's convoluted logic, in any case. It's not that you're so knowledgeable about Android phones which makes you unqualified to help people -- at least normal, everyday, non-technical people -- fix them. On the contrary, it's that that expertise has helped you to forget what it's like to be a normal, everyday, non-technical Android phone user... else you'd never prescribe leading them down the primrose path of rooting and custom ROM flashing.

As for how you help people with Windows PCs, I have to suspect that you've forgotten the same sort of thing with them, too. Moreover, no number of years of mere "use" of a PC qualifies anyone to fix anything, or to help anyone beyond really basic, "here, click on this instead" kinda' stuff.

Everyone thinks s/he's a damned expert... I've seen it my entire career; and have spent a good deal of it cleaning-up after them and their messes. When you've got pushing 40 years of not merely computer use, but ongoing formal training, certifications, and more time fixing computers, for a hefty fee, than actually using them, then maybe you can deign to match techno-wits with the likes of me. Until then, how 'bout you just show at least a little respect. I don't think that's asking too much. I've certainly paid, after all, my dues.

And I'm sorry -- no, really... I am -- that that so ticks you off, but have you and my other critics, here, even bothered to notice what you're all doing? And how insensibly ridiculous it is? Fortheloveofgod, all I did, here, was prescribe a method of OS updating/upgrading that will ensure success, regardless what's happened to the phone during its use; a method that I now realize maybe I should have added that I figured-out after watching so many people in other forums complain that their OS update/upgrade turned their phones into slow and/or error-prone dogs; or, worse, bricked them...

...and, even more importatnly, a method that I discussed on the phone two years ago... er... wait... lemmee think... yeah, right around two years ago... maybe a month or two, either way... with one of the AT&T engineers who works directly with the Samsung engineers in Japan, and who agreed with every last bit of my logic and procedure. Before that, I had run it past a Samsung second-tier support person, and got the same response. But, what I'm herein indenting (and even, what the heck, changing the color of) immediately below, to set it off from the rest of what I'm herein writing, is the really important part, for our purposes, here:

Perhaps I should also have added, here, that when I asked the AT&T guy why a GSM reset is not prescribed as part of an OS update/upgrade, he replied that they had talked about that, but decided that since it wipes the phone, and that end-users tend to be too stupid (his word, not mine) to know how to protect themselves (via backup) from the consequences of that, they'd just take their chances on that most users' phones have not had their OS's sufficiently goofed-up, through normal use (due to bad apps changing things they shouldn't, or OS file corruption) that the OS update/upgrade would fail. And for those for whom it does fail, there's always the AT&T Device Support Center.

Plus, he added, AT&T, at least (and he said he couldn't speak for Samsung, but he bet me a case o' Moosehead that if he got one of its engineers on the phone and asked him/her to comment, s/he'd agree) doesn't really want end-users to know how to do a GSM reset. I then asked him if he thought a plain, ol' reset, of the type that one may access from the phone's "settings" area would do as a pre-requisite to an OS update/upgrade, and he said unquestionably "no," at least for phones that actually need any kind of factory reset in order to increase the statistical likelihood of a successful OS update/upgrade. He said that for phones like that, only the GSM reset is sufficiently rigorous.

I then asked him if the kind of reset one may achieve by simultaneously holding-down the both power and volume-rocker buttons during boot-up would do, and he said that at least that one would be better; but that AT&T doesn't really want end-users to know about that, either. When I pointed-out that gabazillions of us already know about at least the power-button-volume-rocker method (and a lot also know about the GSM reset), he said he understood that, but that it comes down to a question of what AT&T's willing to support, and so, therefore, what it's willing to officially reveal, in writing, anywhere.

He confessed, then, that it was easier for AT&T to just hope that as many OS updates/upgrades as possible would go smoothly because, in the end, most phones wouldn't really need a factory reset; and to just refer those for whom the OS update/upgrade didn't go well, because the phone really should have been factory reset prior to said update/upgrade, to the AT&T Device Support Centers. That's why said centers don't like to do OS updates/upgrades for someone who walks in and says that s/he hasn't even tried it yet. Said centers only want to help those who tried, but ran into problems...

...just exactly as I explained in other posts, here.

Please... I beg of you (and especially ol' "ebulldog," here): Pause for a moment and fully grasp what he told me. That, in the end, is why AT&T and Samsung don't include any kind of factory reset in the OS update/upgrade instructions!

I'm sorry I didn't earlier share all that. Perhaps if I had, then you and others would have had more respect for my prescribed steps. There's always a method to my madness. People who know me and my work understand that.

For some reason, you seem to have so much invested in your steps being right that you refuse to see my AT&T-approved/endorsed (albeit entirely unofficially, and only verbally, during an informal phone call) logic; and so you assail me for it. You're so angry and caught-up in being right, seemingly at all costs, that you're not even carefully reading -- either that to which you're responding, or my other words around here, either -- and so you're just making yourself look even more foolish. Stop. Take a giant step back. Read everything I've written, and get the big picture!

Or... wait! Do you have a problem with someone prescribing steps that will more likely result in success? Do you actually want the OS updates/upgrades of non-technical end-users, who don't have your kind of expertise to get them out of trouble, to fail? Is that what's going on, here? Is your sense of self-worth, as a human being, so tied-up in your ability to seem like the almightly techno-geek expert to the lowly non-technical people that that's why you're arguing all this nonsense here? Please tell me that that's not it!

I prescribed steps that would keep non-technical end-users from having to come into places like this and complain that their OS updates/upgrades had failed, and that, as a consequence, their phones were worse. Had you and your likes not insensibly challenged those steps, just, it seems, for challenging's sake, I would never have posted another word, here (other than, of course, if someone asked me a question about them). And if they, who subsequently read this thread, would simply follow my steps, they will never have to come back here to it and, worse, make a posting asking for help which, in turn, results in them being told to engage in witchcraft by the likes of you.

End-users like you (and that's all you are, you know; you're just an end-user who dabbles in the bowels of things and thinks, therefore, he knows what he's talking about) are dangerous. And they can't stand -- seriously, it keeps them awake at night -- whenever someone who knows more than they do calls them on their foolishness... as you're so clearly illustrating. Such as you don't even know what you don't even know; and are loathe to defer to those, like me, who have forgotten more than you'll ever know. Such as you, then, are actually dangerous... perhaps to yourselves, but certainly to non-technical, everyday, end-users who just want their stuff to work, and who don't want to have to get mired down in the techno-geekiness of any of it.

Something that I do everyday without fail. Helping people not only with all Android based devices but PC's. Helping people figure out where they went wrong and how to fix the issues is not what is needed to help a user? Yet again I fail to see how that translates to what your trying to pass off. I know how to give the information as needed for a person to do what is needed. Just cause I understand the device a bit more than they do doesn't mean that I don't know how to talk to an everyday, average user.

Yeah... right. I'll tell ya' what, Sparky: Come to work for me for a week on real IT and telephony problems. I'll pay you triple-time for every hour of regular time, and sextouple time for every hour of overtime. If you're as good as you say (and you, me and God know you're not, but, what the heck, I'll play), then you can keep it. But if you get stumped as quickly as I suspect you will, then you have to give me back all but normal regular-time and normal overtime pay...

...and, you know what, you'll also have to buy my wife flowers, and apologize to her for wasting her husband's precious time. I may even make you apologize to a priest for engaging in witchcraft. [grin] (just kidding on that last one)

You have not even tried my process to know if it even works.

Of course I have... what's wrong with you?! I may have been born at night, but I wasn't born last night! What, exactly do you think I've been doing with my nearly 40 years in IT? Hmm? (yet another rhetorical question; and telling about you, it is, indeed,l that I have to keep labeling them so you won't be confused) C'mon! Get serious.

See, this is how I know that you're just a neophyte. People project onto others their own infirmities, and, in this case, bad habits...

...as you just did with your "[y]ou have not even tried my process to know if it even works." Maybe that's a mistake you'd make, but it's not one that I'd ever make. Not on a bet!

<parenthetical_aside>
Hmm. You know, Asian and Native American (and many other, actually) cultures may really be onto something, after all, with the whole "respect your elders" thing. But, alas, now I digress. Sorry.</parenthetical_aside>

You don't know me (thankgod, I'm now thinking). You don't know that I would never get into a forum like this -- even using a pseudonym (note that I use my own real name) -- and proffer something which I have not first both tested and proved. If I haven't, then I label it so, by surrounding it with phrases that make it clear that I'm speculating. There's even evidence of that very thing in other postings of mine in this very thread...

...er... oh... yeah... I forgot: You've not been reading those. Pity. You're the one who's looking dumb, here, because of it.

To say that my steps above fail or stumble is inaccurate at best given the fact you have not tried it for yourself to know if what I say is true or not.

[sigh] Ayai yai... yet more uncareful reading. It's a spectacle, I tell you. [downward looks, shaking head]

Forgetting rooting, for a moment: Your steps are fine for any phone which, miraculously, has somehow operated for however long it has operated without its OS files (including, in some cases, merely settings/configuration text files) becoming somehow altered from poorly-written apps messing with them, or damaged from good, old-fashioned file corruption.

What you're not getting -- in fact, what you seem to be intentionally and intransigently refusing to get, seemingly just for its sake -- is this:

If I could somehow know that those things didn't happen to a given phone, then I would happily just perform the OS update/upgrade, using KIES, without first GSM resetting, like you prescribe. But my time, at least, is more valuable than that. I don't have the time to troubleshoot the OS update/upgrade after it fails, somehow. I'd rather just perform the steps, from the outset, which will ensure that the OS update/upgrade succeeds, regardless what the phone's been through; and even if some of those steps turn-out to not actually be necessary for a given phone.​

What part of that rock-solidly-sound procedure, which any seasoned IT person would recognize as the only way to do it, can you not understand? (yet another rhetorical question)

Please get down off your high horse, and curb your anger at me which is clearly blinding you. Please. What it's doing to how you look, here, is now becoming hard to watch... even for your opponent (I, you see, do not engage in schadenfreude).

The fact is to be able to go from a state where my warranty is void, running a custom ROM back to out of box experience is something that many people would love to know and to do. I could walk into an AT&T store and the rep there would never be able to know that my device ever had custom anything on it.

Wh... wha... wait... what? Do my eyes deceive me? Did I just read you extoling the virtues of intentionally violating the phone's and AT&T's provision of service's "Terms of Service" (TOS) agreement, to which you agreed and, by said agreement, are legally bound; then restoring the phone to factory state just to fool AT&T about it? And, worse, your actually being proud of that?

Did I just read that, here? You you freakin' kiddin' me?

So, then, that's really what we're dealing with, here, isn't it: A hacker mentality, and bygod proud of it. Do I have that about right? (yet another rhetorical questions, since we all know the answer)

Of course, I've known that about you from the outset of our little exchange, here, hence the palpable disdain that you've sensed; however, I was just trying not to so directly call you on it. But, man-oh-man, have you ever you ever stepped in it, now! Yikes! (Okay, okay... maybe that was at least a little schadenfreudic. Ya' got me on that one.) [grin]

Two old friends of mine who used to be local county deputy prosecutors (one of whom is now a state assistant attorney general, and the other a deputy federal prosecutor), used to always say that if criminals weren't both so stupid and arrogant, law enforcement would not catch anywhere near as many as they do. Thanks for so cogently illustrating their point, here...

...not that I'm saying you're a criminal (though, as my next paragraph explains, maybe you are); but what I am saying is that those who break the rules often tend to stupidly get all proud of themselves about it, especially if they're hangin' with the wrong crowd the questionable values system of which reinforces it. And so they end-up not being able to keep shut their mouths, and they start to brag; or, worse, their sense of right and wrong becomes so skewed that they can no longer realize that they're proffering illegality, and so think nothing of it that they so do right out in the open, for all to see. If criminals couldn't be counted on to stupidly be that way, and do that kinda' stuff, is my friends' point, then law enforcement would catch only a fraction of those whom they actually catch. And so, your so deftly illustration that is that for which I was thanking you. Thank you!

Rooting a phone probably isn't a crime... though because it bears an FCC ID number, it may actually be; but it's most likely a mere civil matter between the user and AT&T, pursuant to the TOS. However, using a rooted phone, very strictly technically speaking, actualy is a crime... a federal one, as it turns out, because the airwaves are regulated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), and not just any device out there is allowed to use them. Change how the device works, and cause it to deviate from its FCC approvals, and, technically, the device is illegal to use on FCC-regulated airwaves. Of course, few, to my knowledge, have ever actually ever been prosecuted for such a thing (nor, I'm guessing, is it likely that one ever would, except in a situation where law enforcement needed a predicate offense to use to then get warrants for more serious things), but I'm just sayin'.

What it all says about you, though, my arrogant young friend, is no small thing. Integrity means doing the right thing even when no one's watching. You, sir, are clearly integrity-challenged. That, along with your inability to carefully read, and your being so blinded by your anger that you can't concede anything -- and your dabbling in witchcraft... let's not forget that -- tells both me and the reader, here, pretty much everything we all need to know about you. Sadly. Your transparency, too, has been hard for even your opponent to watch.

Credibility is important... in fact, it's kinda' almost all there is, in life. You've now lost yours... at least here. The reason you use a pseudonym, here, is now more understandable. I really, then, in any case, shouldn't even finish replying to your words, here; but, alas, the anally-retentive in me just can't leave it unfinished. So...

You can stand by what you say. But I also stand by what I say. The fact is that I have helped people not only here but on XDA and other Android based sites doing exactly what I have. Be they novice users who have just gotten the device to others that develop custom ROMs for it. You are the one who is judging a person just cause they posted a 6 step process that will do the same exact thing you said, not only faster but with the same results. All by themselves without input from anyone. Something that with a little time, some careful reading can help them learn and understand how to do an update to their device without calling or asking for help. It is nothing advanced, nothing that an everyday user with Kies installed on their PC cant figure out how to do with a Google search.

See... now this is just your anger talking: Your finally breaking down to a rambling rant, because you're just so pissed off. Again, some advice in your future debates: Stay calm, read carefully, make sure that you're actually responding to what was actually written (and/or what even the most rudimentary reading between its lines clearly evidences), and make sure you're bygod right. You seem to be employing none of those skills, here... to your peril.

So say what you want about me...

Er.. oh... wait... I'm sorry... um.... was I... I mean... was I supposed to have gotten your permission to do that? Oops. My bad.

...the fact is you know nothing about me or my knowledge, expertise or level of talking to any user.

Actually, yes I do. How do you think this game is played? You can't post that which told me everything I needed to know about your "knowledge, expertise or level of talking to any user," and then deprive me of actually benefitting from it. You proffered witchcraft, for godsake. Res ipsa loquitur.

And you insisted that your six steps work for everyone; that they're all that anyone could ever possibly need! That, even without my explaining why it's inaccurate, is just a prima facie ridiculous thing to write.

No... I'm sorry: I think you provided us all with pretty much everything we needed to know to be wary of you. And, again, you project onto others your inability to infer and intuit. Maybe with some years under your belt, you'll develop the skill.

Oh, yeah... and you've now also shown yourself to be dishonest, and integrity-challenged, to boot.

No surprise, there, I posit.

You read 1 post, jumped to your own personal conclusions about me and my method without any real proof that it doesn't work or that it will cause issues. don't judge people before you get to know them.

Yeah... right. You see, Sparky, one thing that getting old -- and not being asleep at the switch at any point along the way -- helps one to do in life is recognize crap comin' down the pike before it's even fully presented. Don't worry, you'll develop the skill, too, in time. Of course, if you don't actually develop better skills, become more introspective and self-examining, and develop a little integrity, just as a person, then you'll likely never recognize any of it as crap because you won't actually see it as crap... since, after all, that's pretty much all you offer. Integrity-challenged people are kinda' relegated to that in life, I've noticed. Pity.

It only took, then, one post... at least for me. I'm old and wise, remember. Been there. Done that. And all that kinda' stuff. I've been challenged, for pushing four decades -- longer, usually, than my challengers have even been alive -- both in forums like this where the bravdo of your likes is enhanced by pseudonymous anonymity, and in real life where the end-user knows just enough to get himself/herself in trouble, as you've herein done, and is too stupid to realize it (as I fear you've herein demonstrated that you are; but I'll leave that to the reader), and so thinks s/he can step-up and make a case.

Of course, in your case, the whole "settling" and "stabilizing" thing was a huge tip-off. Thanks for that help.

Then there's all else that you've herein written since your one post on which you so chastise me for judging, which pretty much proves-out all of said judgement. I, too, love being right. I just don't make it the entire point. Take a lesson.

Thanks, though, for all that help, too. Regarding it, though, a bit more advice, if you'll permit me (and, what the heck, even if you won't): Become familiar, in life, with the concept of falling on one's own sword. It will, with any luck, help you to avoid so thoroughly doing it again, as you've so thoroughly done it, here. The lessons just aboud, don't they?

Wise-up, young man. I've eaten your likes for breakfast since, I dare say, you were but a twinkle in your parents' eyes; and I had finally actually gotten good at it while you were still in diapers. And even if that's not technically accurate (because you're actually older than that), your behavior, here, nevertheless makes still relevant the salient point.

Hope that helps...

...though I'm obviously under no illusion that you'll actually think so. Nor, really, do I care.
 
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Jennifer Stough

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Re: How to do the 4.1.2 Jelly Bean update without a hitch

Alrighty, Y'all. Let's try to tone down on some of the hatefulness in this thread. There is no need for it.
 

DesElms

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Re: How to do the 4.1.2 Jelly Bean update without a hitch

What is interesting about the direction this topic is that myself and KSod and a few others are having to defend ourselves and our knowledge from what i almost thinking is a troll. most of us have a significant number of posts here or in a few other threads where we have shown we help other forum members and this guy has 7 posts 6 of which are in this thread.

Troll? Are you kiddin' me? How many trolls do you know who post using their real name and geographical location? Hmm?

Moreover, precisely what is trollish about my posts? Please read the whole of them, here, and glean from them, as a whole, the overarching point(s) I'm herein trying to make. Does any of that really sound trollish?

I mean, you do know what a troll actually is, right? You've been around forums long enough to know the true meaning? Or are you like those who don't really know what a degree/diploma mill is, and so they call any sub-standard school, or school they don't like, a degree or diploma mill?

A "troll" is a very serious thing to call someone; and in most forums -- certainly ones in which I've been an admin -- those who call one another a troll, without justification, get but one warning about it before they're banned. It's that serious.

So, given that; and given that all that's really going on around here, it seems, is that you just don't like my responses, let me ask you: Assuming you're white, do you call black people the "n" word when you don't like what they write or say? So serious is calling someone a troll who clearly isn't that the "n" word analogy is appropriate.


I can't say for sure that is true...

Yet here you are, saying it anyway. And that somehow seems responsible to you, does it?

...but appears to look that way.

Precisely how so, praytell? And before you answer, please bother to actually look-up what "troll" means -- and I mean its true meaning, and not the misuse of degree/diploma mill type meaning -- and then go read some other forums' policies regarding it. It's no small matter. You should be more careful about using the term.

I mean after all if this guy has been around since the captivate, which was my first android phone as well, why is he only starting to contribute now if he is such an expert.

You're under the impression that this is the only Android forum out there, are you? I'll tell you exactly what happened: I signed-up however long ago, and quickly discovered that every post needed to be moderated (or maybe it only does for newbies, for a while, 'til they're known, I dunno). All I know is that I found it so off-putting that I went and shared my wisdom, and offered my help, elsewhere. I only came back here, in this thread, because I was Googling the Jelly Bean update for the Note and found this thread. Then I spotted people, here, complaining of the very same things about which I've seen others complain with other Galaxy-class/family phones after an OS update/upgrade...

....and, knowing a thing or two about that problem, and how to avoid it, I offered the solution. Who knew that I'd run-up against people, here, with such a sense of ownership of the place, and, apparently, of the knowledge and wisdom, that I'd witness the kind of insensible resistance that I'm herein witnessing.

You understand, don't you, how ridiculous all this is, right? I mean, you guys are insensibly fighting a guy who's simply proffering a method of performing the OS update/upgrade which is designed to work, regardless what the phone's been through (assuming that one of the things through which it's been wasn't rooting and flashing a custom ROM). That's all I've done. And my method is based on no small amount of research and experimenting.

Moreover, I fully explained all that in my last response to you...

...and instead of addressing any of those specifics, you're simply offended, and want to lash out. You're a grown-up, right? Just checking.

Please read all of my posts, here... not just the ones which are in reply to you. See if, in the process, you can finally grasp both what I've actually tried to do here, and the both depth and breadth of the ridiculousness of all of your responses to it. There is a TON of good information from me, here, now; as well as more-than-adequate explanation for why -- and now, how, too -- I've herein written what I've herein written. No person who hasn't fallen on his/her head too many times in life could fail to understand what I'm doing, here. Most persons of both good will and faith, reading all this, would not understand why you're all resisting what's clearly good information which could ultimately be helpful to non-technical, normal, everyday end-users who just want their phones to work. They would also have a bit of trouble understanding why anyone here feels the need to "defend ourselves and our knowledge," as you put it.

Defend from what? From someone calling you on whatever parts of what you write which are clearly wrong? Isn't that what places like this are for? If you want to write whatever you want people to know, and don't want to have any of it challenged, then go start a blog, and turn-off reader comments! This is a forum, for theloveofgod! It's where exactly what we're doing, here, happens.

Please get a clue. And please, please, please, read my other posts and finally -- please let it be finally -- grasp the entirety of what I'm doing, here.

In the meantime, again, please be more careful with such harsh accusations as calling someone a troll. Nothing I've called anyone here comes even close to such awfulness as that. Nor is any of it against any TOS, or worthy of banning. Being a troll, though -- and by that I mean actually being one -- is. Please don't play so fast and loose with such severe terms.
 
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DesElms

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Re: How to do the 4.1.2 Jelly Bean update without a hitch

I agree 100%. That's why I responded like I did. We are all on here looking for help and answers to questions about phone issues. Some people just have a way of being pompous and basically love hearing themselves yap. It really has no place on here. Hopefully he has left the 'building', so to speak.

Oh, that's priceless, especially coming from a person whose opening volley with me was unnecessarily both aggressive and dismissive, seemingly just for its own sake. Nothing I wrote was aimed at or harmed you, yet you responded as if you had skin in the game. Then when I gave it back to you with actual wit and appropriate sarcasm, the best you could come-up with is "Why don't you just back out of this forum the same way you came in, with your head up your a$$."

Ooohh. Ouch.

Worse, though, was your wishing that the dead not rest in peace, just because you couldn't think of anything else to write, so you just lashed-out in any immature way that you could. How grown-up is that? And are you aware that in nearly every culture, such wishing -- in fact, in some cultures, even only discussing the dead -- is actually damnable. I'm not saying that I believe that, or, worse, that you should be damned. I just find it both interesting and telling, about you, and your both values and sense of propriety, that a remark so facially awful could ever be considered by anyone of reason to be either appropriate or acceptable under any circumstances. You're obviously very young and immature; and/or you're simply emboldened by your pseudonymous anonymity. You also seem to derive courage from others. Very telling, indeed.

Astonishing, though, was your clear and unambiguous inability to actually read and comprehend, as illustrated by your "
...so your assumption that I and others need to pay some ***** $250/hour to update a phone is insane and comical."

No one wrote or suggested anything even remotely like that! You can actually read, right? The OS update/upgrade -- even if one's attempt at it gets screwed-up, and is force to take the phone to an AT&T Device Support Center -- is free. And if I wanted anyone to pay me $250/hour to do it for them, why would I give the do-it-yourself steps in such detail?

Moreover, you, like some others, here, have clearly not read all of my posts, here. You're obviously so self-centered, and afraid to be wrong, that you're not reading the entirety of what I've written, here, which completely responds to every criticism, including your, "
NO WHERE on any update site does it say to do any of these step. Nothing in Kies, nothing on AT&T website, nothing on Samsung." It's all explained in my posts, here...

...which I already know you won't lower yourself to actually read. I understand, though. No one ever likes that sinking feeling of finally realizing they were wrong; or that they misjudged; or that they went over-the-top about something. By not actually reading all my postings, but commenting on them, anyway, you may spare yourself experiencing that sinking feeling...

...but you'll still come across looking really badly.
 

hockey930

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I think you have provided some valuable information at some point in this thread however I am not going to sit here and read through pages and pages of your rambling about how you know everything, go outside, get some exercise.
There are many IT professionals on this forum.
 

DesElms

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I think you have provided some valuable information at some point in this thread however I am not going to sit here and read through pages and pages of your rambling about how you know everything, go outside, get some exercise.

Anytime anyone says they didn't read all of something, it automatically removes their right to criticize it. Had those, here, not so callously and mean-spiritedly -- seemingly for its own sake -- taken such insensible and ridiculous issue with my original posting, and its intended-to-be-helpful steps, none of the rest of it would have been necessary.

Of course, if you had actually read it all, then you'd understand not only that, but also that I never claimed to know everything.

There are many IT professionals on this forum.

Too bad only one showed-up in this thread...

...until you, perhaps, since I don't know anything about your background; and so you, too, may be one, for all I know. If so, then please don't dishonor your profession by not reading everything before proffering an opinion.
 

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