Is my G3 a dud? Some beginner questions

[allisonm95]

Hi all,

I just made the switch to Android, going from an iPhone 5 to an LG G3. The phone's been great so far, but I've been noticing a few issues and I'm not sure if they're a cause for concern...

• Lag: there's definitely a little bit of lag on my G3. It mostly happens when I'm switching between apps.
• Lock Screen: sometimes my tap-to-wake feature doesn't respond at all, and other times when I go to view the lock screen, my homescreen will come up then quickly fix itself back to the lock screen.
• Keyboard troubles: I'm using Textra as my default sms app. The keyboard does not always pop up right away and every so often, I will get a message saying "Unfortunately, LG Keyboard has stopped". This happens across the board, not just in Textra. I only got the phone this past Monday, so this one in particular is worrying me.
• Contacts won't sync: ever since I transferred my contacts from iCloud to Google, it is no longer syncing. I've merged contacts and added a few new ones, and I don't want to lose these changes.

I bought my G3 on Verizon wireless, and the bloatware is constantly using up my ram (2gb is used almost all of the time), but I'm still getting used to Android overall so I'm not entirely sure which of these I can disable. I've already disabled the amazon app as well as it's music app, as they were draining my battery life when I wasn't even signed in.

I'm still within the 14-day trial window so I was thinking of going back and swapping my phone for a new one, but I wanted to get a few opinions first. Here's my questions:
Has anyone else experienced lag on the G3? I've heard a mix of responses already, but the majority of users seem to have little to no lag.

• What's going on with my lock screen?
• I have no idea what to do about the keyboard. Maybe I could download a different type?
• I'm assuming that the contacts issue is a problem with my Google account and not the G3, but do you know of any ways to fix this? I've saved all new contacts to my account, and not the phone's memory.
• For those of you on Verizon, what apps are okay for me to disable?
• And finally, should I just exchange my G3 for a new one?

Once I figure out the issue with my contacts, I will do a factory reset and see if that makes any difference. I know I'm asking a ton of questions, but I appreciate any help I can get.

Thank you! Let me know if you need me to clarify on anything.

 

[Rukbat]

Lag: there's definitely a little bit of lag on my G3. It mostly happens when I'm switching between apps.

Turn screen animation completely off. But under the right (wrong?) conditions, any computer will have some lag doing something. (Firefox, running on a fast i5, with 8GB of RAM, sometimes hangs for a few seconds. And I've seen the same effect on an AS-400, not exactly a little cellphone. [it's a mid-range computer, if you're not familiar with the name - much more powerful than a desktop, but not yet a mainframe].)

Lock Screen: sometimes my tap-to-wake feature doesn't respond at all, and other times when I go to view the lock screen, my homescreen will come up then quickly fix itself back to the lock screen.

Could be a problem with the phone. Bring it to Verizon (but their virtually non-existent tech support is one reason I won't use them).

I bought my G3 on Verizon wireless, and the bloatware is constantly using up my ram (2gb is used almost all of the time)

Read Multitasking the Android Way - this is Android, not iOS or Windows. You want as much RAM in use as possible. Unused RAM is wasted RAM. (The article was written by one of the people who wrote Android, so she knows how it should work better than any of us do.)

they were draining my battery life when I wasn't even signed in.

An app that's running uses battery even if you're not signed in. Either kill the app or use Greenify to hibernate apps that don't have to be able to run on their own (like email, phone, timers, etc.)

Has anyone else experienced lag on the G3? I've heard a mix of responses already

Any computer will show some lag under certain conditions - see above.

I'm assuming that the contacts issue is a problem with my Google account and not the G3, but do you know of any ways to fix this? I've saved all new contacts to my account, and not the phone's memory.

Make sure you have phone sync enabled in your Google account in Accounts (in the phone.)

 

[allisonm95]

Thank you!! As for contacts, it's definitely enabled. But when I go to sync it, it'll say "Sync is currently experiencing problems. It will be back shortly"

 

[belodion]

^^^Mine often says that, but fixes itself in its own good time.

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[Rayfire]

Thank you!! As for contacts, it's definitely enabled. But when I go to sync it, it'll say "Sync is currently experiencing problems. It will be back shortly"

I've had that problem before since I also came from iOS but it keeps showing an error when I try to sync with Google. I had to download Contacts Sync Fix and it has fixed the problem and continuously synced normally.

 

[allisonm95]

Just tried Contacts Sync Fix and it didn't work for me. I'm thinking about removing my account entirely then re-adding it, but will I lose all of my text messages by doing this?

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[Rayfire]

Just tried Contacts Sync Fix and it didn't work for me. I'm thinking about removing my account entirely then re-adding it, but will I lose all of my text messages by doing this?

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You mean removing your Google account? The text messages should be saved in your internal memory so it shouldn't be affected. Quick question do you have your emergency contacts setup in the contacts tab of the phone/dialer app?

 

[allisonm95]

You mean removing your Google account? The text messages should be saved in your internal memory so it shouldn't be affected. Quick question do you have your emergency contacts setup in the contacts tab of the phone/dialer app?

Yep that's the one, and no I don't! I'm using Textra as my default messaging app btw, I doubt it would be causing any issues but I'm noting it just in case

 

[Rayfire]

Yep that's the one, and no I don't! I'm using Textra as my default messaging app btw, I doubt it would be causing any issues but I'm noting it just in case

The emergency contacts have been causing my syncing an issue so I'd recommend not using it from the contacts app.

 

[allisonm95]

The emergency contacts have been causing my syncing an issue so I'd recommend not using it from the contacts app.

Thanks for the heads up! The emergency contacts just recently came up with errors via Contact Sync Fix, despite never using it at all

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[MikeLip]

G3 is a bit laggy, even just scrolling apps. I got some of that fixed with APEX launcher (normally I use Nova, but for whatever reason it's unstable on the G3). Oddly, the Droid Turbo isn't laggy despite having the same density display. But the Turbo panel isn't as nice. So there's a conundrum for you. I can't tell you what to do there

 

[illdini]

Have you applied the system & app updates? That may resolve some of the issues you're having.

As far as your contacts go, try exporting them to a vcf file from your old phone and/or Google Contacts, then importing them to your G3 phone.

 

[MikeLip]

Have you applied the system & app updates? That may resolve some of the issues you're having.

As far as your contacts go, try exporting them to a vcf file from your old phone and/or Google Contacts, then importing them to your G3 phone.

Google freaks me out, but keeping my contacts on Google makes it really easy to switch phones. You just set up for gmail on your phone and tell it to sync contacts with Google. DON'T, if you have Verizon, use both Verizon cloud contact backup AND Google. You end up with duplicates. Ask me how I know that

 

[allisonm95]

Have you applied the system & app updates? That may resolve some of the issues you're having.

As far as your contacts go, try exporting them to a vcf file from your old phone and/or Google Contacts, then importing them to your G3 phone.

I just recently updated to the most recent software Verizon put out (for Advanced calling and a few fixes) and I must say, the phone has gotten noticeably better in terms of lag. I'm not sure if this is because of the update or just the phone warming up (it's only a week old, and I've had some friends tell me that their Androids run better as time goes on), but the phone is now responding exactly how I would expect. I'm still having trouble with the keyboard, so I might just swap it out for Swiftkey or Google Keyboard.

As for contacts, I'll have to try that! That's what I did after ditching my iPhone, but I've added a couple contacts and made some tweaks to them since then, so I'll try repeating the process.

Sidenote: the battery life is phenomenal! Compared to what I previously had at least, but I'm just happy that my phone can last me all day without ever having to reach for the charger

 

[allisonm95]

Google freaks me out, but keeping my contacts on Google makes it really easy to switch phones. You just set up for gmail on your phone and tell it to sync contacts with Google. DON'T, if you have Verizon, use both Verizon cloud contact backup AND Google. You end up with duplicates. Ask me how I know that

I do have Verizon! So I guess that means that it's safe for me to disable the cloud app? Maybe that's causing the issue...?

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[MikeLip]

I do have Verizon! So I guess that means that it's safe for me to disable the cloud app? Maybe that's causing the issue...?

Posted via the Android Central App

If you're not using it, sure. I always disable it. But I doubt that's causing the problem since I disabled it and everything else I could think of on the G3 and it still stuttered. Put Nova launcher on it and see if that helps. It's free.

 

[allisonm95]

If you're not using it, sure. I always disable it. But I doubt that's causing the problem since I disabled it and everything else I could think of on the G3 and it still stuttered. Put Nova launcher on it and see if that helps. It's free.

I think I will try Nova launcher at some point, but since there's much less lag on the phone lately, I'll just stick with the stock launcher for now (although I am noticing that my widgets are 'redrawing' themselves, which is an issue many people are having according to another thread).

I'm still not having any luck getting my contacts to sync with gmail, any help with this is greatly appreciated!

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[meyerweb#CB]

G3 is a bit laggy, even just scrolling apps. I got some of that fixed with APEX launcher (normally I use Nova, but for whatever reason it's unstable on the G3). Oddly, the Droid Turbo isn't laggy despite having the same density display. But the Turbo panel isn't as nice. So there's a conundrum for you. I can't tell you what to do there

You might want to retry Nova with a clean install. It runs perfectly on my G3.

 

[meyerweb#CB]

I'm still not having any luck getting my contacts to sync with gmail, any help with this is greatly appreciated!

I don't know what you've already tried, so if this is repetitive accept my apologies:

First, make sure you're saving your contacts to Google, and not just on the phone. In the contacts app, open some of your contacts, and see if Accounts shows the Google "G", or the outline of a phone. If it's not the "G", it's saved only on your phone, and won't sync. When you create a new contact, the very top of the contact page is a drop down where you can select Phone, Google, or any other accounts you have defined.

I don't know of any way to change this setting for existing contacts, so if you have some that are saved to the phone you'll need to re-enter them as Google contacts, and delete the old ones, I think.

If they are saved as Google contacts, and still not syncing, check this:


Go into the phone's Settings, and scroll down to Accounts& Sync.Make sure Auto-sync data is checked.

Tap on the Google row.

Tap on your gmail address.

Make sure Contacts is checked (and anything else is checked or unchecked appropriately). If it is checked, uncheck, and then recheck, it. You should see a spinning arrow next to the check box showing it is syncing.

 

[allisonm95]

I don't know what you've already tried, so if this is repetitive accept my apologies:

First, make sure you're saving your contacts to Google, and not just on the phone. In the contacts app, open some of your contacts, and see if Accounts shows the Google "G", or the outline of a phone. If it's not the "G", it's saved only on your phone, and won't sync. When you create a new contact, the very top of the contact page is a drop down where you can select Phone, Google, or any other accounts you have defined.

I don't know of any way to change this setting for existing contacts, so if you have some that are saved to the phone you'll need to re-enter them as Google contacts, and delete the old ones, I think.

If they are saved as Google contacts, and still not syncing, check this:


Go into the phone's Settings, and scroll down to Accounts& Sync.Make sure Auto-sync data is checked.

Tap on the Google row.

Tap on your gmail address.

Make sure Contacts is checked (and anything else is checked or unchecked appropriately). If it is checked, uncheck, and then recheck, it. You should see a spinning arrow next to the check box showing it is syncing.

Thank you!! I was already doing this, so I ended up removing and re-adding my account and now its syncing fine.

Another update: Lately, I've been having trouble sending texts to a few contacts (both iPhone and android users). I went to Verizon tonight and the worker and I ended up blaming textra for the issues (he switched me back to stock and all my texts sent normally when we tested it). It's too bad because I was really enjoying Textra.
Has anyone else experienced problems like this?

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