RANT: A Cautionary Tale of the Galaxy S5 (and future Samsung phones)

[Feldon]

With the AT&T and Verizon models, I recommend a FULL WIPE+FACTORY DATA RESET as per #2.3, #2.4 and #2.5 of S5 Lollipop Update Problems - Dummies Guide, after first backing up as much as you can as per #2.1 of the guide. Whilst this may seem a lot of work, it has cured a lot of issues with the 5.0 and 5.1.1 updates.

By the way the Reviews page of Helium is full of people who were unable to restore their backup after a factory reset.

 

[ironass]

By the way the Reviews page of Helium is full of people who were unable to restore their backup after a factory reset.

Not had a problem with Helium - App Sync and Backup personally and neither have the vast majority of users in the Play Store judging by the number of 5* ratings. However, as I state in that guide....

"(Personally, I believe in the belt and braces method and use at least 2 or more backup methods)"

 

[Feldon]

I backed up using:

• Samsung Smart Switch
• Google (syncing everything it will sync)
• Import/Export Contacts to .vcf
• SMS Backup and Restore
• Moved all my photos, videos, ringtones, etc. to my PC -- will pick and choose which ones I want stored on the phone

I did a factory reset and wiped the SD card after confirming there was nothing I needed on it. I then upgraded to 5.1.1 and then put in my Google credentials. It's amazing how little it restores!

Next up was Samsung Smart Switch. It restored the Apps and my Call Log, however it did not restore the Home screen(s) or Contact Favorites. Fortunately I took notes of how my Homescreens were arranged.

Samsung Smart Switch's backup of Messages was incomplete so I am running SMS Backup and Restore. It's been restoring 14k messages for about an hour now. It keeps pausing when the phone goes to sleep so I've got to increase the sleep time to 10 minutes or so.

I'm trying out Nova Launcher. Pretty awesome so far once I got the settings dialed in the way I want.

 

[ironass]

You are not the first person to be surprised what a FULL WIPE+FACTORY DATA RESET can do for your phone! All credit to you for giving it a go.

+1 for Nova Launcher and Textra. You could also try replacing your email apps with Email Type Mail - Free App and your Gallery with QuickPic Gallery

 

[Tritonemusic]

Nova Launcher Prime is on sale for $0.99 right now (it's usually $5).

 

[Feldon]

Tritonemusic, that's awesome. Buying it now!


Now if I could just get the dueling messenger processes to sort themselves out.

Samsung has been running an "Updating messages" process for the last 6 hours.
SMS Backup and Restore has been trying to restore my messages from a device backup for about 5 hours.

The only fix I've found to stop the "Updating messages" is to delete /sdcard/_SamsungBnR_/MGD/SMSBulk.bin and restart.

 

[Feldon]

So far phone seems to be doing quite well. Will smoke test it for a few days and come back with the results. Thank you for the advice provided by ironass, itguyjax8430, and Tritonemusic.

 

[Tadrift]

I am glad the Reset + Wipe helped you. Maybe it will work better now, maybe it will get bogged down again.

If it doesn't, I wouldn't recommend the Nexus 6P to you. It is a great phone for a lot of people, but it is on the bleeding edge of updates that Google expects users to have patience, expect minor glitches, and have above average tech knowledge to work through some of them. I just don't think you are that person. You want things to work like the should out of the box (and that is ok) and Nexus's are seemingly always getting better with updates.

I think an unlocked device is the way to go for you, there just isn't one I can think of that would meet your demands.

 

[Aquila]

If it doesn't, I wouldn't recommend the Nexus 6P to you. It is a great phone for a lot of people, but it is on the bleeding edge of updates that Google expects users to have patience, expect minor glitches, and have above average tech knowledge to work through some of them. I just don't think you are that person. You want things to work like the should out of the box (and that is ok) and Nexus's are seemingly always getting better with updates.

I'm sure there are some, but I'm not aware of any usability bugs on the Nexus 6P. That might have been true with older Nexus devices. But even if there are some, it's still going to be the most user friendly and cleanest software available for Android. Is there another device that you think works better out of the box? Most of the issues the OP had were caused by Samsung things, carrier issues or unnatural software. Those are all things that don't exist on Nexus.

 

[Tadrift]

I'm sure there are some, but I'm not aware of any usability bugs on the Nexus 6P. That might have been true with older Nexus devices. But even if there are some, it's still going to be the most user friendly and cleanest software available for Android. Is there another device that you think works better out of the box? Most of the issues the OP had were caused by Samsung things, carrier issues or unnatural software. Those are all things that don't exist on Nexus.

You are right about the Samsung issues. I just think some of the bugs in the 6P would drive this guy crazy. To many of us, we just either live with them or try to work around them. And Google is good at fixing them. Google will give you good direction, but they aren't a hand holding manufacturer in the customer service dept that some might expect/demand. This Nexus is clearly one of the best ever out of the box. I just going from what I read from the OP and the rant, when eventually a Reset+wipe seemed to fix, and would have been one the first things I did before going on a rant. He demands a lot from his phone mfg. Not meant to be disrespectful, just my observation.

 

[jemalone]

I'm storing my Photos on the SD card and have not problem at all with them over there. As I take new pictures they are saved tot he SD card leaving room on the Phone storage for other things. I also store my music on the SD card for the same reason.