Stock Galaxy Note 3 Phones Only: Any Regrets after Upgrading to KitKat, or are you glad you did?

[RHChan84]

OMG I did the system update today and it is terrible, to unlock my phone I have the slide and I have to do it like 3 times so that it will open, and when texting I can some times hear the letters being typed in but nothing shows so I have to push the home button and then go back in and start all over and still I will type and after like the 3rd word then everything types out fast but it has this irritating delay. Samsung really dropped the ball with this really upset with this.

A factory reset can help.

Sent from my Droid RAZR MAXX (tapatalk)

 

[Evilguppy]

I'm beginning to think that Kitkat was created to save Blackberry, because unless my phone starts working like before, that's exactly what I'm going to switch back to.

Posted via Android Central App

 

[DLCPhototography]

OP here. I went ahead and installed the OTA Update this morning. The process went smoothly - no error messages, no glitches apparent.

So far, everything seems perfectly fine. As others have reported, I really don't see much difference overall, but everything seemed perfectly smooth and responsive before hand, so I really wasn't expecting to see major improvements.

I got the Visual Voicemail Update notice, also not unexpected, but as I don't use it, I tried to simply Turn Off this app. I was able to do this on 4.3, but 4.4.2 doesn't give me the option. I let it do its thing, and then closed the request to accept Basic VVM, and hope it doesn't come back.

My biggest concern was battery consumption, but so far everything seems good. After the install, and some initial playing around with it to check things out, I was at 75% battery power. We then went out, went to a movie, did some other things, and with only minimal usage of the phone, but keeping Bluetooth on, all location and GPS services turned on as I usually do, about 5 hours later, the battery stayed there at 75%! I was actually worried the monitor had frozen, but after doing some other stuff, it started dropping down a little.

Hopefully I'll not run into problems, but time will tell. I am prepared to do a factory reset should glitches occur, but hopefully this will not be necessary.

Will re-post if things change, but wanted to report back.

 

[Kelly Kearns]

I installed flash after I initially got the phone and not all videos worked in the desktop versions of Youtube, MSN, etc. Also, desktop versions of facebook games (non-app). Flash videos in the browser did not work on my Razr HD either without Flash being installed. I'm interested in how yours works since many desktop specific videos/games require flash to play them; although flash hasn't been available in mobile browsers for quite sometime without the .apk installed from an SD card.

I like Nova Launcher because I can stuff my apps and documents into folders which I keep in my drawer, and I like to be able to hide apps so I never have to look at them again (i.e., bloatware which you don't have the option to uninstall from your phone - non-rooted). Also it gives me many options to customize the look of my system by designing it however I want. The UCW builder is AWESOME. I love to build my own widgets, etc., with links to whatever app I want them to open on touch.

I am surprised I did not think of turning off the scanning thing. I thought I had it set to automatically bump over to mobile data (I am still holding on tight to a grandfathered unlim. data plan). Mobile data was on, however I had not selected the advanced option of "auto network switch" which will make a difference I think. For some reason "always allow scanning" was selected so I deselected that as well so hopefully that will help to save battery life. Thanks for those tips.

As an amendment to my previous post, the S-note widget crashes every day, actually. It sits at "Loading..." and never does anything. Which is kind of a bummer because that's one of the awesome stock software features of the Note 3. I figure that will have an update which will sort itself out eventually. Hopefully...

My Firefox crashes a lot now too, and I am hoping that a fix must be on the way from mozilla for that.

No idea unless everything I'm running across to watch is in html5 or whatever it is and not flash.

Sent from my Awesome Note 3

 

[Kelly Kearns]

I've seen zero difference upgrading to the OTA KitKat. I know there are under the hood changes, but I don't much care about that right now. With the exception of my messaging app, all of my apps work just fine. My messaging app force closes every time I used it. I tried resetting the cache etc. to no avail. With the plethora of other messaging apps out there, finding a new one wasn't a big deal.

I don't like the white notification icons but I'll get used to them.

I did NOT reset my phone. This kept all the data intact.

I've rooted every phone I've had since my OG Droid 1. I burned ROMs incessantly. My Note 3 works so fine that I've yet to bother even researching it.

>> edit addition - I run Nova Launcher Pro.

If it is buggy, like the messaging app, nothing will help but a full reset.

You don't have to lose data with a reset.

Sent from my Awesome Note 3

 

[Kelly Kearns]

OMG I did the system update today and it is terrible, to unlock my phone I have the slide and I have to do it like 3 times so that it will open, and when texting I can some times hear the letters being typed in but nothing shows so I have to push the home button and then go back in and start all over and still I will type and like the 3rd word then everything types out fast but it has this irritating delay. Samsung really dropped the ball with this really upset with this.

Not a Samsung thing. You should always reset after an upgrade on any phone.

Sent from my Awesome Note 3

 

[babygirl0419]

If it is buggy, like the messaging app, nothing will help but a full reset.

You don't have to lose data with a reset.

Sent from my Awesome Note 3

In my case that didn't help. I did a reset 3 times. The last time I ended up disabling the app and getting a messaging app out of the play store

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

 

[Kelly Kearns]

In my case that didn't help. I did a reset 3 times. The last time I ended up disabling the app and getting a messaging app out of the play store

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

Did you do a cache wipe and reset from recovery mode? If you did, if that didn't work, did you call Samsung?

Sent from my Awesome Note 3

 

[babygirl0419]

Did you do a cache wipe and reset from recovery mode? If you did, if that didn't work, did you call Samsung?

Sent from my Awesome Note 3

Yes I wiped cache before and after the reset. But I'm fine...I really didn't use stock anyway its jus that when I had it enabled it was messing with the messaging processes period.

Sent from my SM-N900V using Tapatalk

 

[tomksae]

Yours is the first major negative experience so far in this thread.

Can you identify anything unusual in your situation, such as having previously rooted your device, flashed other ROM's, disabled or frozen a significant number of Verizon 'bloatware' or other system apps, 3rd Party Launcher or other system-wide apps, enabled unusual Developer settings, or anything that would make your device somewhat out of the 'mainstream'?

Thanks for your report.

Using Nova launcher and was formerly using cover. No rooted, rom'd or disabled/frozen any verizon bloatware. No developer settings or anything like that. Just a regular old note 3 with a couple of downloaded apps and some pics on the card. Constantly using over 2.4 GB of ram, and when I close apps, it clears out roughly 1 GB of ram, but quickly repopulates it.

Yesterday was especially bad, with the phone creating excess heat and essentially "locking up" and becoming extremely slow. I plugged it into a 12v charger in my truck while i was at an event last night. went out two hours later and the phone said it was too hot to charge. 85 degree ambient air temp and the phone was in the console. Not exactly a cool evening, but it wasnt in the sunlight or in a hot environment.

Something is running the phone like crazy and causing it to heat up considerably. Ill be slowly deleating apps to get to the bottom of this, with the final thing being a total factory reset.

 

[DLCPhototography]

Using Nova launcher and was formerly using cover. No rooted, rom'd or disabled/frozen any verizon bloatware. No developer settings or anything like that. Just a regular old note 3 with a couple of downloaded apps and some pics on the card. Constantly using over 2.4 GB of ram, and when I close apps, it clears out roughly 1 GB of ram, but quickly repopulates it.

Yesterday was especially bad, with the phone creating excess heat and essentially "locking up" and becoming extremely slow. I plugged it into a 12v charger in my truck while i was at an event last night. went out two hours later and the phone said it was too hot to charge. 85 degree ambient air temp and the phone was in the console. Not exactly a cool evening, but it wasnt in the sunlight or in a hot environment.

Something is running the phone like crazy and causing it to heat up considerably. Ill be slowly deleating apps to get to the bottom of this, with the final thing being a total factory reset.

Interesting. I would guess there is some misbehaving app, so hopefully you'll be able to get to the bottom of it.

Another way to proceed would be to do a factory reset, make sure everything is running right without anything installed, and then slowly reinstall your usual apps until the bad actor is identified.

Keep us posted.

 

[zgrrl80]

How to add Flash Player support on Moto X (especially after KitKat update)? - Moto X Phone Owners Community

Hopefully this is a fix for the broken flash!

 

[damoboss]

I have more complaints than Grahams Number so theoretically there isn't enough material in the universe for me to voice them. But the general lack of 'choice' since Jelly Bean is what gets me the most. Apple wants to be like us so let's be like Appe? Ridiculous.
Disappointed and angry. Really ruined a great OS.
Once Apple brings out a big Note style screen I'll be going back.

 

[Jalopiejoe]

If it is buggy, like the messaging app, nothing will help but a full reset.

You don't have to lose data with a reset.

Sent from my Awesome Note 3

But you probably will lose data and won't know it till it's too late!

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 3
"Size Does Matter!"

 

[Kelly Kearns]

But you probably will lose data and won't know it till it's too late!

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 3
"Size Does Matter!"

I reset all the time and never lose anything. I back things up with Kies, I move things to my SD card, etc.

Sent from my Awesome Note 3

 

[Jalopiejoe]

I reset all the time and never lose anything. I back things up with Kies, I move things to my SD card, etc.

Sent from my Awesome Note 3

Well I guess I'm just stupid then! I did backup to Kies and my SD card and Dropbox and Verizon cloud and still lost stuff.
Just a warning!

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 3
"Size Does Matter!"

 

[Kelly Kearns]

Well I guess I'm just stupid then! I did backup to Kies and my SD card and Dropbox and Verizon cloud and still lost stuff.
Just a warning!

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 3
"Size Does Matter!"

How did you lose it? The data is on your computer and your card isn't touched with a reset.

Sent from my Awesome Note 3

 

[Jalopiejoe]

I don't know. I downloaded the Kies 3 update and check marked "all" for backup. I transferred everything I could to my SD card. Made sure the clouds were current.
I did not backup to Google
(they know to much already) but I probably should have.
I lost some important stuff in my Scrapbook I can't replace.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 3
"Size Does Matter!"

 

[Kelly Kearns]

I don't know. I downloaded the Kies 3 update and check marked "all" for backup. I transferred everything I could to my SD card. Made sure the clouds were current.
I did not backup to Google
(they know to much already) but I probably should have.
I lost some important stuff in my Scrapbook I can't replace.

Sent from my Samsung Galaxy Note 3
"Size Does Matter!"

I don't "backup to Google". I sync my contacts and calendar there as I always have.

Sent from my Awesome Note 3

 

[zgrrl80]

If it is buggy, like the messaging app, nothing will help but a full reset.

You don't have to lose data with a reset.

Sent from my Awesome Note 3

You don't have to lose data... Well Kies claimed to backup everything, and I can even see folders for stuff on my computer, but it won't restore everything. Also now I'm missing stuff from my SD card (well N3 doesn't "see" it) which makes no sense since I removed it during the reset. IDK should I reset again with the SD card in this time n see what happens? Lol... I'm missing all my settings for email, keyboard, actual msgs (which kies claimed to back up and subsequently claimed to restore)... Annoying.

Posted via Android Central App