Basic Problems & Solutions

[Jofaba]

I have a feeling that we're going to need a thread like this; else we're going to have page after page after page of individual and repeated help request threads.

Let's pretend the reception issue some people (myself very much included) isn't a problem or can be fixed, and that this phone, while oddly unintuitive, is worth figuring out. My first impressions are that there are several quirks which must have solutions, so I guess this is where we can discuss our shared problems, and aggregate their fastest, easiest and best solutions.

I'll start the breakdown in my next post.

 

[Jofaba]

Stretched Movie Playback: At the bottom of your screen are some playback controls (touch the bottom of the screen to bring it back up). The button that may remind you of the familiar "STOP" button is actually what you need to press to change the way the video appears. Once you push it, you should see the video change and you'll have black bars on the top and bottom to allow the video to play properly (not stretched, where everyone was looking tall!)

Cannot do "landscape mode" for home screens: Use Launcher Pro. Note: Not all live backgrounds play well with this program. Most, if not all of the default live screens, however, DO appear to play well.

My USB cable won't stay in: You're almost there! You just need to push the usb door a tiiiiiny bit further to the right! You should hear a click, which sounds the same as when you close it all the way. Once it's all the way open, your usb cable should stay connected just fine!

 

[Jofaba]

SOLVED! Problem: How do I get videos to play in their proper resolution? I wanted to be able to put some sample hd videos on my Captivate to get a sense of the screen. The first thing I thought of was to put the trailer for Avatar on my phone and it looks great but it's stretching to fill the screen (tall people syndrome). Is there a fix to this? SOLVED!

 

[Loco Leeep]

Try tapping the square icon in the bottom right of the player. It looks like a stop button but actually toggles through different aspect ratios.
I've found none of the options are perfect but some are worse than others.
Hope this helps.

 

[sremick]

So are you going to maintain a consolidated FAQ in a single post? That'd be very useful... far more-so than having to sift through pages and pages of babble even if just one thread.

Filter out the chit-chat and have it just be a list of common questions/issues and their solutions.

 

[Jofaba]

Thanks that worked! And yes, I will maintain a consolidated list of solutions.

 

[theneklawy]

i have many problems as i am not only a newb to android, i'm also just a general newb to smartphones and all their wonders, so i'll start simply with some basic issues...

1. how can i mass delete all my contacts from my phone memory, I'd like to just keep my contacts on my SIM card?

2. all this rooting business seems fun and exciting, but at the same time, complicated and there's too much information and directions on it. can anyone just give me a simple and clear explanation of exactly what you're doing to the phone and where the dangers lie in this "hacking" of sorts?

thanks

 

[tychadwell]

I'm finding the lag to be pretty extreme so far.

I've spent a few weeks with an HTC EVO and it has run quite fast. I assumed with the same CPU speed this phone would be just as fast, but that's not the case.

running last.fm, for instance, is a chore. 3 seconds to load. 2 seconds to respond to a keypress. It's not like there are that many apps open either; I make sure to advanced task kill apps when I'm testing speed but it still remains slow.

anyone else having lag issues? I'm assuming this is a software issue that hopefully can get fixed.

 

[Pinetree09]

I've had no lag issues at all...


Also, when I use an image from my gallery as a wallpaper, the phone stretches the image. Is there a way to make it not do this?

2. all this rooting business seems fun and exciting, but at the same time, complicated and there's too much information and directions on it. can anyone just give me a simple and clear explanation of exactly what you're doing to the phone and where the dangers lie in this "hacking" of sorts?

thanks

http://androidforums.com/samsung-captivate/120616-captivate-root.html

5 easy steps

 

[tychadwell]

interesting. I wonder if I restored to factory settings it would get faster.

anyone else experience lag?

 

[Toddbee]

i had the lag too. horrible. the EVO runs so fast compared to this phone. I thought maybe i installed an app that slowed the thing down so i did a hard reset and it seemed to fix everything. runs fast now. how do you like it compared to the EVO?

 

[Jofaba]

To keep this thread clean, please pm me if you think of a better way to word each problem/solution. And feel free to offer suggestions, because this isn't just for me. I do think we should keep the problems and solutions as tech-simple as possible for the average user. That's why I thought something like "stretched movie playback" sounded a bit more human than "improper aspect ratio default/settings" etc.

 

[Jofaba]

I've seen in videos that the captivate's main screens can be displayed not just in vertical and horizontal layout by turning the phone, but also upside for each, essentially flipping for all four directions. Anyone figure out how?

 

[theneklawy]

i posted earlier, but still seeing if anyone knows how to mass delete contacts stored on the phone, since I want to keep them all on my sim card exclusively, instead of deleting one by one.

 

[Jofaba]

i posted earlier, but still seeing if anyone knows how to mass delete contacts stored on the phone, since I want to keep them all on my sim card exclusively, instead of deleting one by one.

I didn't proceed because I don't want to delete any of my stuff just yet, but give this a shot:

go into contacts, then groups, then hit the virtual edit/settings button. You should see "create/delete" options, then be presented with "group only/group and group members". For me that'd allow me to delete my gmail group which is a huge contact list that is pretty much meaningless to me except a handfull of them.

 

[Tsquare]

Ok, here is what is happening:
In my fiances phone, she has me as a contact. My number is put in there as #-###-###-####
When she goes to send me a text message and selects me from the list, it puts my number in as ###-#### (removes the area code) which of course sends back an invalid number.

Now, if she sends it by typing my number (###-###-####) it goes through, but as soon as she leaves the messaging program, I reply, and she tries to reply back to me, it defaults the number back to ###-#### (removing the area code again).

ANYONE???

 

[keredini]

I've seen in videos that the captivate's main screens can be displayed not just in vertical and horizontal layout by turning the phone, but also upside for each, essentially flipping for all four directions. Anyone figure out how?

Interesting, in that I just tested this out on my way home from work. I fired up Google Navigation for turn-by-turn directions to my house. While driving and looking at my phone (not safe, I know) I began wondering if I should buy a windshield mount. The problem I noticed is that the charger port is at the top of the phone, and would stretch the car charger if i needed to have it plugged in. I rotated the phone so that the top of the phone was facing the center console and the bottom was facing the drivers side. Navigation correctly adjusted. Just tested now on my home screen as well, and the home screen works in landscape in both orientations.

tl;dr - Landscape works properly in both orientations. Unsure of portrait.

 

[theneklawy]

I didn't proceed because I don't want to delete any of my stuff just yet, but give this a shot:

go into contacts, then groups, then hit the virtual edit/settings button. You should see "create/delete" options, then be presented with "group only/group and group members". For me that'd allow me to delete my gmail group which is a huge contact list that is pretty much meaningless to me except a handfull of them.

So that works, but the bigger problem is that I can't seem to link contacts when one of the contacts is off the sim card. Other contacts, such as my gmail contacts, which were automatically synched when I added my gmail account, must be saved to the phone's memory and can't be moved or copied. Also if you create a group, it's automatically saved on the phone's memory as well and can't be done on the sim card. I don't know anything about rooting, but maybe rooting would allow one to move contacts around more freely?

In any case, I think I'm just going to use the SIM card to back up my mobile contacts for the time being.

 

[Jofaba]

Not sure I understand, are you saying when you're in your homescreen (the 7 screens with your center as your "home") that when you turn your phone the layout swaps? I can't figure out how to get it to do that.

I have another question*: My phone keeps defaulting to "automatic brightness adjustment" which is annoying the hell out of me because it never automatically adjusts upward. Anyone know how to set it and forget it?

*note: Yeah, I'm going to be asking a lot of questions here. I'm having several issues which is why I started this thread (I figured others must be having tons of problems too). I hope no one thinks this is selfish of me. I will maintain this thread for EVERYONE'S problems, but I want to also be able to participate and try to solve my own. Also, don't think that just because I posted a new problem after you posted yours means that no one is paying attention to yours too.

WE MAY WANT TO UPDATE OUR OWN POSTS TO READ AS "SOLVED!" ONCE THEY ARE!

 

[Jofaba]

In any case, I think I'm just going to use the SIM card to back up my mobile contacts for the time being.

I wish I could help you but beyond that investigation I am way over my head there. The cellphone part of this device is my least used. Besides businesses/bill paying I call like 4 people regularly, so I have no use for contact programs. Sorry =(

 

[gin_tonic]

I'd like to add 2 problems I can't solve myself:

1. Lack of locales. By default Captivate supports English, Spanish, Italian, French, and German locales only. Regular Android supports much more. Is it possible to add another? I'm especially interested in Russian locale

2. Limit the synchronization to My Contacts group only. I don't need a few hundred contacts from Google Contacts, I'd prefer to see 'My Contacts' only.
The temporary solution is set option that allow to display contacts with phone numbers only

 

[Blackforge]

I've seen in videos that the captivate's main screens can be displayed not just in vertical and horizontal layout by turning the phone, but also upside for each, essentially flipping for all four directions. Anyone figure out how?

LauncherPro Beta supports both portrait and landscape orientations.

 

[whsbuss]

Didn't realize there is no visual voice mail for the Captivate. I'm surprised AT&T didn't have it on their top android phone.

 

[ric3bowl]

I think there are 3rd party apps in the Market that you can get for free that addresses this issue.

 

[naxir]

Problem: When I connect the phone to my computer over USB, my files don't show up, what gives?

Solution:
1. Download and install the drivers from the sticky.
2. Change USB mode to mass storage device. (Home screen >> Settings >> Applications >> USB Settings >> Mass Storage Device)
3. Connect phone to computer via USB.
4. Pull down notification bar and click 'Mount' next to the USB connection.