N4 crashes/reboots almost daily

[minnemike]

So.... have e confirmed that the jellybean update is what is causing this or a rogue app?

I haven't updated to 4.2.1 on my phone yet. I guess I plan to just wait it out until confirmation of no more reboots! My phone is mission critical for business.

 

[Citizen Coyote]

So.... have e confirmed that the jellybean update is what is causing this or a rogue app?

I haven't updated to 4.2.1 on my phone yet. I guess I plan to just wait it out until confirmation of no more reboots! My phone is mission critical for business.

Heh, I haven't updated to 4.2.1 yet either. It feels very strange to not update a stock Android device, since that's one of the reasons I bought one!

 

[minnemike]

Yeah - no kidding. But on the positive side, whenever they do in fact have an update for the update, it will most likely be ready to install out of the gate on our N4s - so there is that.

 

[gone down south]

I haven't had a single crash or reboot, fwiw.

 

[gtg465x]

I got a couple random reboots on 4.2.0, and then the frequency increased to about every other day with 4.2.1. Then I performed a factory reset, and haven't had a reboot since (and it's been nearly a week). Still on 4.2.1.

 

[jpprice]

So.... have e confirmed that the jellybean update is what is causing this or a rogue app?

I haven't updated to 4.2.1 on my phone yet. I guess I plan to just wait it out until confirmation of no more reboots! My phone is mission critical for business.

From what I have read its a little of both. The bug itself seems to be a OS level bug that has to do with Google Location services and apps that use that service such as weather apps, etc. People have found success by turning Google Location services off. I know that I had HD Widgets installed and was getting reboots on a daily basis on my Nexus 7.

 

[guinnkevinr]

I use beautiful widgets on mine and it's set to auto update. I've noticed that the past two days BW has auto updated and right after completion of the update, my phone automatically reboots. Not sure if that could be the issue or not. Just giving my experience.

 

[NoahJohnson]

I have major random reboot issues. Happens upwards of 10 times a day. I have tried everything including removing all 3rd party apps, factory resetting, turning off location services but nothing seems to stop the reboots. I am awaiting my replacement unit and I hope the issue will not continue. It is really affecting my ability to use the phone.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD

 

[cynicist]

I have the latest updates installed, a good number of third party apps, no widgets, and I'm not having any issues with random reboots or lockups.

 

[reduxdj]

This is happening to me constantly, it reboots comes on for second, reboots, reboots, reboots, reboots, shuts off, reboots and reboots, all in an 30 minute period

- - - Updated - - -

This is happening to me constantly, it reboots comes on for second, reboots, reboots, reboots, reboots, shuts off, reboots and reboots, all in an 30 minute period

 

[cyclejim]

I had the reboots and the unresponsive sleep/on/off button, but a factory data reset fixed it.

 

[Tall Mike 2145]

Okay, so Google has admitted that it is an OS-level bug. So, here is a thought that I have about this. As near as I can track, instances of my phone locking up seem to be generally related to switching back and forth between wireless and cellular data situations. In my case, I think the exacerbating app is Talkatone. What I have done today is to experiment with this is to be very careful not to leave my phone in a situation where it is switching back and forth between Wireless and cell data. Not enough time has lapsed for me to know whether this is correct, but it's what I am trying, and when enough time has passed, I will post my results.

 

[planoman]

Okay, so Google has admitted that it is an OS-level bug. So, here is a thought that I have about this. As near as I can track, instances of my phone locking up seem to be generally related to switching back and forth between wireless and cellular data situations. In my case, I think the exacerbating app is Talkatone. What I have done today is to experiment with this is to be very careful not to leave my phone in a situation where it is switching back and forth between Wireless and cell data. Not enough time has lapsed for me to know whether this is correct, but it's what I am trying, and when enough time has passed, I will post my results.

Disable talkatone to see if that helps.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Android Central Forums

 

[greydarrah]

Okay, so Google has admitted that it is an OS-level bug. So, here is a thought that I have about this. As near as I can track, instances of my phone locking up seem to be generally related to switching back and forth between wireless and cellular data situations. In my case, I think the exacerbating app is Talkatone. What I have done today is to experiment with this is to be very careful not to leave my phone in a situation where it is switching back and forth between Wireless and cell data. Not enough time has lapsed for me to know whether this is correct, but it's what I am trying, and when enough time has passed, I will post my results.

I'm shocked and amazed...someone is trying to figure out what kind of personal setup on their own phone might be causing a problem instead of exchanging it for a new one! Clearly, there is at least one person with a functioning brain. Congrats on tracking this down to a point of reasonable suspicion. I don't have these lockups/reboots, but I'm interested in how your experiment goes. As a side note, I'm using GrooveIP with none of these problems. It might be worth a try for you.

 

[grayfox99]

I had this exact same issue it happened almost exclusively at night, and I was nearly late for work three times in a row. The one thing I noticed was that the LED was still blinking showing I had a message, but the power button wouldn't respond I usually had to power button+volume, or just hold the power button. Because the notification light was still blinking but the rest was unresponsive I figured it was my light flow app, so I got rid of that and I haven't had it freeze up the last three nights.

 

[Tall Mike 2145]

thank you for the compliment, greydarrah. I can remember there being, a number of years ago, an issue on some phones where if the user were to keep switching back and forth between wireless and cell data, it could cause a total data lockup on the phone. No, obviously, this is a completely different sort of situation, but that little fact kept nagging me in the back of my head.

if this is even remotely possibly the case, what I think is happening is that I am either passing through or I am in a particular spot in which there is either a dropout in cell signal strength or a dropout in wireless signal strength and this forces the phone to try to switch from one to the other. And, if you have Apps which are basically riding the phone's ass trying to run constantly, maybe that makes the situation even worse.

Ultimately of course I really *don't* know what is going on, and I may be completely wrong on all points. But, I am one of those people who likes to follow Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's advice:

Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.

 

[Tall Mike 2145]

Well, I have the 4.2.2 update on now but not enough time has lapsed to figure it out.

Part of the issue I was encountering (I think) was also being influenced by something else. I keep my phone in my pants pocket, screen facing inward. It was stored in only one of two conditions: between my body and my wallet for extra protection, or just in the pocket without my wallet on top of it. Nothing whatsoever special about the wallet.

Anyhow, I would sometimes find the phone was turned back on (screen turned on) when it was in my pocket, even though I can be absolutely certain the power button itself was NEVER touched by anything. So, for whatever reason, it would come on. Then, it would start going through different things (clock widget, maybe some app on the home screen, maybe the app launcher, maybe settings) and I'm thinking that it kept being forced effectively to change settings or just have various unintended activities performed on it. In fact, on one occasion, the phone had gotten uncomfortably hot and when I yanked it out of my pocket, it had already locked up by that point, and so I had to force-cycle it.

Anyhow, I now store my phone differently, and so that issue no longer takes place.

Again, if I see any real results or anything worth reporting, I'll mention it either here or in some other appropriate thread.

 

[vlmagee]

Well, I am 2/3 the way down the road with this problem. I just submitted a request for a replacement phone this morning. But I don't think it is phone hardware, and expect the replacement to have the same issues. One theory I saw somewhere was that it is related to the phone switching between the mobile network and WIFI, and back again. My freezes come mainly overnight, but when they happen during the day it seems to be on days when our (Comcast) internet connection is having issues. Food for thought for anyone else who is having problems. We may play with turning off WiFi, although that will slow it down. But, if the problem goes away, at least I can tell Google what it is. And hope that they fix it.

The phone is useless unless this can be fixed. I don't know when it has frozen, and I miss business calls. Not everyone leaves a message.

This is very disappointing. (For the record, the only apps I have ever installed are Twitter, Facebook and two different versions of Flash (and yes, I know it isn't "supported" but I have to use it to verify website operation on the mobile device). I use nothing else except for mail, and use the Chrome browser).

EDIT (3/10/13): Well, it isn't clear that anybody is reading this thread; too bad. I got my replacement phone 3 or 4 days ago. Set it up with everything but the SIMM card, operating smoothly via WIFI, while my original phone - with the SIMM card - was still operating. When it (the original phone) failed on Friday, we moved the SIMM card. The original phone has failed twice since then; the replacement has not failed. We are sending back the original phone tomorrow. WORD TO THE WISE: IF YOU GET A NEXUS 4 WITH THIS PROBLEM, GIVE IT TWO CHANCES AND THEN CALL FOR A REPLACEMENT. THIS PROBLEM IS HARDWARE NOT SOFTWARE.