Help Samsung Captivate Issues

[lpfanjohn]

i got the samsung captivate for AT&T a couple of weeks ago and have run into a few problems with it:

1) Wifi worked great for a while, but now it says unable to scan for networks and turns the wifi off...this wouldn't be too bad if I had a big data plan but I do not.

2) Battery Life...fml

3) I cannot find ANYWHERE any supporting software to sync media files with my PC

4) The drivers will not install on my computer

5) Way too many apps are using data without me even opening them (navigation, yahoo mail etc...) I have AdvAppKiller but that gets old


It is wonderful havibng such a wonderful, fast device with 16 gb of memory, but these shortcomings are making me realize why I enjoyed a flip phone for so long.

Peace

 

[BigCiX]

i got the samsung captivate for AT&T a couple of weeks ago and have run into a few problems with it:

1) Wifi worked great for a while, but now it says unable to scan for networks and turns the wifi off...this wouldn't be too bad if I had a big data plan but I do not.

2) Battery Life...fml

3) I cannot find ANYWHERE any supporting software to sync media files with my PC

4) The drivers will not install on my computer

5) Way too many apps are using data without me even opening them (navigation, yahoo mail etc...) I have AdvAppKiller but that gets old


It is wonderful havibng such a wonderful, fast device with 16 gb of memory, but these shortcomings are making me realize why I enjoyed a flip phone for so long.

Peace

Post this in the Captivate forums and you'll get a fast response.

 

[Steven58]

I'll move it there 4 ya!

 

[wooac]

I'm having a similar problem with the Captivate. It cannot scan for WiFi. This happened once but it stopped after I removed the battery. Now after the 30 days are up, it cannot connect to any access point because the WiFi cannot scan. Any ideas?

 

[getDange]

1) Wifi worked great for a while, but now it says unable to scan for networks and turns the wifi off...this wouldn't be too bad if I had a big data plan but I do not.

I suggest you uninstall your "enhancements" and try again. Juice Defenders and other "helpful" softwares can only cause problems with some users.

2) Battery Life...fml

Make sure you understand what apps you need and configure them appropriately. You may have background apps that go on the network every 5 mins or do something else actively, and you do not even use these apps. Your juice defender (or whatever software) may be configured to kill some important service, and the operating system is restarting that service constantly. Disable juice defender and see what it does to batt life.

3) I cannot find ANYWHERE any supporting software to sync media files with my PC

Can't help here do not use autosynching, just manage my media files by hand

4) The drivers will not install on my computer

What exactly is the issue? Do you have admit access to system to be able to install system drivers?

5) Way too many apps are using data without me even opening them (navigation, yahoo mail etc...) I have AdvAppKiller but that gets old

If you do not need those apps to use data, configure them not to use data - it is right in their personal settings and in the phone settings. If you do not even use these apps, uninstall them. Do not abuse App Killer as that software is not always helpful.

As I mentioned many times, I am a HEAVY phone user, and my batt lasts a day no problem, and my net plan of 200 GB is underutilized. All I did was I understood what I needed, and took the time to go through every "background" app and configure its settings.

 

[Infinite-t]

Well, I may not be able.to answer all York questions, but ill try.
The wifi thing sounds a bit weird, but look in your wifi settings and make sure that the scan for networks is turned on. Maybe. It got shut off.on accident. Or, maybe a task killer is killing the network scanning/notification thing. I stopped using those because they kept killing things I didn't want them to. I really don't have battery life issues either.

Adding media to your phone works a lot like adding media to a flash drive. Plug it in, set the phone to mass storage mode and mount it. Then create a folder called.music and another called video. Drag and drop the respective files there. There are a handful of.programs designed for this too. Samsung's kies program.. which sucks. Some use a program called.double twist.. but I didn't have very good results using that either. There is an app. Called isyncer, it costs like 2 bucks, but it allows yoU to use itunes. To sync
you music and playlists and stuff. That worked the best for me because I came from iphone and already had a tremendous itunes library. I can't say I'm crazy about itunes, but I know how to use it and this worked perfectly. The only thing it wont do is break Apples drm copy protection for protected content.

Apps like yahoo mail, face book, etc. Use the internet to check for new messages and stuff automatically. You can change the frequency of checks in their settings. If you are concerned with data/battery use, set them longer.

 

[Infinite-t]

Oh, I forgot about battery life. I have had days where I used the phone heavily and still got 20+ hours out of it. One thing I did that made.a HUGE difference was; for the fist week, charge. The phone 100% overnight. Then during the day, burn your battery all the way to dead before charging it again. Do that for like a week. This made a HUGE difference. For me. My battery life effectively doubled.

 

[Prim8]

i got the samsung captivate for AT&T a couple of weeks ago and have run into a few problems with it:

1) Wifi worked great for a while, but now it says unable to scan for networks and turns the wifi off...this wouldn't be too bad if I had a big data plan but I do not.

Haven't heard of this issue...

2) Battery Life...fml

This is a common complaint about all smartphones, especially android phones. I tend to blame this one on the consumer. We want small phones, which means small batteries. We want lots of features which means lots of battery drain.
You will have to seriously look at what features you want to use all the time. Do you really need that screen that bright all the time? Just turning the screen down to minimum or near most of the time made a massive difference for me. If you're playing games a lot you're probably not going to get great battery life but if you keep your widgets from updating all the time (do you really need your weather to update every hour?) and turn your screen brightness down you'll get battery improvement. Mine lasts a full day easily; I do some gaming, and lots of emailing, texting and web browsing.

3) I cannot find ANYWHERE any supporting software to sync media files with my PC

Some people have reported success with mounting the phone and using Download details: SyncToy 2.1
I just mount the phone and use explorer to copy what I want over to the phone.

4) The drivers will not install on my computer

http://androidforums.com/captivate-.../123644-captivate-usb-drivers-links-here.html

5) Way too many apps are using data without me even opening them (navigation, yahoo mail etc...) I have AdvAppKiller but that gets old

I can't speak to this, it's not something I noticed or can really say I checked for. I have unlimited data on this phone and never bothered to look what is using the data.

It is wonderful havibng such a wonderful, fast device with 16 gb of memory, but these shortcomings are making me realize why I enjoyed a flip phone for so long.
Peace

Flip phones definitely have their place, not everyone wants a phone that is a jack of all trades. Part of what I love about my Captivate, and android in general is the phone is pretty much what you make of it. Sure there are things you can't control at all or easily but the thing is just so customizable it's hard for me not to like it.
At the same time I know messing with the phone to get it how you like it, or constantly tinkering with it isn't for everyone. You have to decide what features you want, and what you don't. Android gives you that option, a flip phone or the iPhone don't really give you much choice.
If you want my advice, I would probably exchange the phone and start fresh. Some of your problems might be a defective phone, some might be of your own doing. I wouldn't bother with an automatic task killer either.
My display is on usually 6 hours a day and I very occasionally feel the need to close out an app. It's very occasional though, probably twice a week at most and I would guess I use my phone as much as the top 5% of smartphone users. When I do want to close out an app I use Systempanel lite SystemPanelLite Task Manager - Android app on AppBrain
Good luck with whatever you decide.

 

[qwertyaas]

To speak for Battery Life, with recent smartphones, you have to manage your battery much more so than previous phones (Blackberry and such).

That said, I'm continuously getting 20-24hours+ before I recharge (and the battery still has around 40% at that point). Last night I didn't charge it since I don't have to worry about going to work with a dead phone - 1day 9hours with 15% left (5-6 hours Display time).

As for data, you have to check what you have installed using Data. Check out Traffic Stats. It monitors each app's data usage. And always use WiFi when available.

 

[carmendiva]

Battery life on the captivate is weak in my opinion but that is because it is always awake due to me taking self portrait and texting as much as i do

but as i said in the other thread, i have issues with signal and it is starting to becoming annoying

 

[sremick]

As for data, you have to check what you have installed using Data. Check out Traffic Stats. It monitors each app's data usage. And always use WiFi when available.

I looked for an app by that name and couldn't find it. Would love a program like that.

 

[Fate0n3]

3) I cannot find ANYWHERE any supporting software to sync media files with my PC

People have answered all the rest about right. Now for this one try using DoubleTwist. It works like iTunes, I have used it quite a bit. And it does work well and it is very easy to use. Download the App via the market and then download it for the PC. Open the app on the phone then plug in your PC and then wait and it will appear on the left side of the screen then you can select what you want to transfer.

 

[JerseyScottie]

3) I cannot find ANYWHERE any supporting software to sync media files with my PC

windows media player my friend.

 

[qwertyaas]

I looked for an app by that name and couldn't find it. Would love a program like that.

Here you go.

TrafficStats - Android app on AppBrain

 

[sremick]

Here you go.

TrafficStats - Android app on AppBrain

Thanks, but it says it requires Android 2.2 or higher. The Captivate is 2.1.

 

[qwertyaas]

Thanks, but it says it requires Android 2.2 or higher. The Captivate is 2.1.

Oh I didn't notice that as I didn't install it. Does this one require 2.2 too?

TrafficInfo - Android app on AppBrain

 

[sremick]

Oh I didn't notice that as I didn't install it. Does this one require 2.2 too?

TrafficInfo - Android app on AppBrain

Yes it requires 2.2 as well.

 

[Abyss One]

i got the samsung captivate for AT&T a couple of weeks ago and have run into a few problems with it:

1) Wifi worked great for a while, but now it says unable to scan for networks and turns the wifi off...this wouldn't be too bad if I had a big data plan but I do not.

adding to the bug report:

I got the captivate yesterday, and finally had time to set it up today. The first order of business was to set up the wi-fi at home, and after scanning for networks, and discovering a few, it said it was "unable to save the network" when I had entered my password etc for the network.

It then locked into the same mode as the first post mentioned, unable to scan for networks, or save my network data if I input it manually.

I have not installed any 3rd party apps, and have not played with any deep settings, the phone is pretty much untouched.

I have rebooted, and will now start to mess with the system in the hopes that a sacrifice of frustration will appease the gremlins; and they will leave my phone in peace.

Thanks

 

[lpfanjohn]

Thanks everyone for your help. AT&T took back the phone because of the WIFI problem. I still haven't listened to a song on my 16gb hard drive, mainly because I lack the time to install drivers and such. It baffles me that every other USB device I plug in is quickly recognized and installed by my computer, yet a $200 intricate device like the Captivate cannot go smooth. Oh well

 

[reinbeau]

http://androidforums.com/captivate-.../123644-captivate-usb-drivers-links-here.html

I'm not speaking for the OP, but we've had the links, we've downloaded the drivers, they will not INSTALL - at least for me on the WinXP box for which I have total access, control, admin rights, etc. The drivers will not install. I've asked this question over and over, and have seen others post the same thing, but no one has offered a solution to the problem.

 

[condork464]

I've got the Samsung Captivate. I used to be able to connect the phone to the pc via usb whenever i wanted and screw with the files with no problem what-so-ever. Then one day it stopped. can't recall anything special that i've done. Phone has been rooted, have launcherpro, lagfix and a few other programs to make life better.

****actions taken so far********
1. unistalled everything and restored back to factory settings.
2. unistalled and reinstalled drivers on pc (drivers are correct for OS)
3. attempted Android Manager Wifi (won't connect)
4. attempted to use kies. (worked only 2 times)
5. attempted with and without debugging mode

******symptoms**********
- the 2 sd cards do not automatically show up anymore
- when i search for the under my computer occasionally they show up, however, when i go to open either sd card the computer starts to lock up until i remove the usb cable.

I have been reading and trying and reading and trying. Nothing works. Can someone please help me? And keep in mind I AM a newbie so please use very descriptive and detailed directions. Thank you to anyone willing to help.

 

[reinbeau]

Try a different usb port. Better luck is usually found using ports on the back of the unit for some reason.

 

[condork464]

I don't have usb connectors in the back, but i did try the usb that i had my wireless mouse plugged into. It freaking worked! LOL. hopefully it'll stay that way cause like I said before, i used to have no problems at all with the other usb's. Big thanks.

 

[reinbeau]

I don't have usb connectors in the back, but i did try the usb that i had my wireless mouse plugged into. It freaking worked! LOL. hopefully it'll stay that way cause like I said before, i used to have no problems at all with the other usb's.

Awesome!

Big thanks.

There's a button for that!