Fixing AT&Ts unwanted update

[1Achas]

I got a Software Update Available text a few times the past month for my Samsung Galaxy SII. After reading the horrendous reviews on the AT&T forums of it causing crashes, freezes, and general havoc, I did NOT want that 'update'. This morning, when I had some critical work to do and the battery was in the yellow zone, it gave me no choice...it installed itself.

Sho nuff, for the first time in over a year I've had this phone, it's wreaklng havoc. I fully charge the battery and three hours later - with no phone calls, no bluetooth, no WiFi, it won't turn on. Then I take the battery out for a minute and sometimes it'll come back on. Then two hours later it says "battery critically low..." This is absurd. We're forced by our own providers to install malevolent software?!

So I went to the AT&T store and one rep told me it's google's thing and to wait for the AT&T to put out the fix. Another rep told me a few seconds later that I can do a search for it and there's some kinda code like ##* or sumpthin to "force" it to install. Any clues about this here?

 

[binxiboo]

I have the same phone and the update destroyed it. I did a warranty exchange and also ended up getting the HTC one x. The warranty exchange has the old version 4.0.3. And works fine. I did see a code on the AT&T forums, but I just chose to do an exchange since it destroyed a seemingly decent device. Hope that helps!

Sent from my HTC One X using Android Central Forums

 

[natehoy]

The way I see it, you have three options:

1. Disable "SmartWiFi" which will reduce but not eliminate the occurrences of the "sleep of death"
2. Beg for an early upgrade and pick up a new phone that AT&T hasn't decided to ignore yet.
3. Put the phone in ODIN, load a ClockWorkMod recovery bootloader, then pick any one of a number of excellent aftermarket versions of Android that do not include AT&T bloatware.

Thanks to SuperNexus 2.0, my wife's AT&T Galaxy S2 is running Jelly Bean 4.2 and looks absolutely Nexus stock - no Samsung or AT&T software in sight. Looks a whole lot like my Nexus 7. Runs buttery-smooth. Battery life is great.

Warranty has been voided with extreme prejudice, but what's the point? AT&T wasn't willing to do anything to fix it anyway.