Help Photon Turning off by itself, battery removal required to turn on?

[glaves123]

My phone did this twice today, I haven't had time to check for any reasons why but it is doing exactly what is being described in this thread (going black and not allowing me to turn it back on without removing battery). Specifically it seems after I leave it idle for at least 30 mins or so

 

[JackG058]

Does anyone else use Google Voice? I just found a text recieved through Voice that looks like a line of code. It was recived about the time this all started for me. I installed Voice last night after I got home and just uninstalled it. I'll have to let you all know how it works out. Even if it works was it the text or Voice?

I've got Voice and I haven't seen this issue. A couple of days into ownership I was getting a big battery drain, so I did a factory reset. Much better battery life and am very pleased so far with the device. Only other issue remaining for me is sometimes the screen won't blank out when I'm on a call with the phone pressed to my head. That issue is highly intermittent too. To me, it sounds like you may have a defective phone. No matter the build quality or manufacturer, there unfortunately are always going to be some defects that slip through quality control.

 

[tbhausen]

There's a fix for this in testing which will be pushed to us next week. Details here:

Photon - Sprint Official Known Issues - SprintUsers.com

 

[svenb352]

There's a fix for this in testing which will be pushed to us next week. Details here:

Photon - Sprint Official Known Issues - SprintUsers.com

This posting made my entire day - thank you so much tbhausen

 

[jpk36]

Happened to me yesterday 6 or 7 times in an hour. Seemed after booting, if I put one edge of the phone down on the table and let go, the jolt of it hitting the table would cause the phone to shut off, as you all described.

All I did to fix mine was to fold a post-it in half (double thick paper) put one end in the center of the battery and wrap it the long way around the center of the edge farthest away from the battery contacts. This way the double thick paper gives a slight sideways push to the battery when replaced in the phone which makes a tighter connection with the electrical contacts. Worked like a charm and haven't had a problem since. Hopefully it does for you too.

 

[PyroSporker]

There's a fix for this in testing which will be pushed to us next week. Details here:

Photon - Sprint Official Known Issues - SprintUsers.com

What good news for those dealing with this issue!
Out of my own curiosity and for the benefit of others I wish it said what the actual problem is instead of just describing the symptoms and saying that it will be fixed. My inquiring mind needs to know, even if it is some deep OS issue that I won't understand.
I also hope this fix works for the majority of people. Sometimes a common symptom can be caused by different things (though this seems pretty specific), or the problem can be multi-faceted. Oh well time will tell, hope the OTA comes soon for you guys.

 

[Bek]

Why wait? Just upgrade the leaked MR yourself:

MoPho MR3 address sound issues and more!!! MIRRORS FIXED - xda-developers

I did it last night right after I picked up my new Photon. Didn't take very long at all.

 

[glaves123]

just returned for an exchange, doesnt seem like enough people are experiencing this to justify waiting for some potential software fix so i'm going to assume its a faulty unit, though clearly it is more than just mine

 

[YodaDroid]

Hi all,

First of all, I LOVE this phone. I just returned my Evo 3D for it and I am confident I made the right choice. The battery life is awesome and it really is a great piece of hardware.

My issue, however, is with the phone randomly shutting down (no shut down animation or anything). It just completely shuts off after not using it. It seems completely random when this happens. It has not happened if the phone is plugged in, but if it is idle it turns off.

I got the phone Sunday. It happened once then, three times Monday, and yesterday it happened four times back to back. I figured I got a bad phone so I returned it to Best Buy and got a brand new one. I performed a restore from Google, set up the phone all over again, and it seemed fine. Today it did the shut down thing once.

I am assuming this is a software glitch (or at least I hope it is) or I have an app causing it (not sure how to check).

Is anyone else experiencing this problem? It's a huge pain in the butt to have to take the entire battery door off each time this happens (as you all know, the battery door isn't the easiest thing to get off, especially when you have a case that is also a pain to open).

Anyone have any thoughts on this or can you point me in the right direction? After doing a search on Google there are a few forums where people have also reported this.

Thanks !

What applications are you running? What settings do you have on?

 

[Damar1979]

I too experienced the photon do it's own reboot.. while trying to post on the phandroid app. then decided to do a battery pull an hour later, and next thing I know was flooded with a ton of messages all at the same time. hopefully this will be something that is a one time deal, or at least minimal.

 

[fusQer]

I too have had the battery removal necessary issues. I purchased the phone Aug 1 from Sprint.com. FWIW, the problem hasn't come up again in the past 36 hours.

 

[doneve141]

Been a good day on reboots. I had none. Work day so my phone sat while I worked. Battery mode on performance and Voice uninstalled. I may mess with Voice tomorrow again.

 

[SporkLover]

Sleep of death. I have it too, not as frequent, no pattern that makes sense.

 

[Wolfedude88]

What good news for those dealing with this issue!
Out of my own curiosity and for the benefit of others I wish it said what the actual problem is instead of just describing the symptoms and saying that it will be fixed. My inquiring mind needs to know, even if it is some deep OS issue that I won't understand.
I also hope this fix works for the majority of people. Sometimes a common symptom can be caused by different things (though this seems pretty specific), or the problem can be multi-faceted. Oh well time will tell, hope the OTA comes soon for you guys.

I'll make this short and simple for you. The cause is simply a software issue that is only affecting a handful of phones currently. I have had mine for a couple of days and already have had three reboots. I have zero apps installed, ZERO. All I have done to my phone is use the web, text, and calling. I have been busy.

Once was at work with low signal(which should not matter anyways), once at my parents, and once at my house, both which get me almost full bars there.

I did a factory reset after the second one and pulled battery which I shouldn't have needed to anyways since I haven't even installed anything but figured it wouldn't be a problem since all I would lose was call log and text messages.

So bottom line it seems this is just a software bug, common in new phones and software updates. Hopefully this is widespread enough where they push an OTA fast.

Sorry for everyone that is experiencing this and lets hope it is resolves soon enough.

 

[PyroSporker]

I'll make this short and simple for you. The cause is simply a software issue that is only affecting a handful of phones currently. I have had mine for a couple of days and already have had three reboots. I have zero apps installed, ZERO. All I have done to my phone is use the web, text, and calling. I have been busy.

Once was at work with low signal(which should not matter anyways), once at my parents, and once at my house, both which get me almost full bars there.

I did a factory reset after the second one and pulled battery which I shouldn't have needed to anyways since I haven't even installed anything but figured it wouldn't be a problem since all I would lose was call log and text messages.

So bottom line it seems this is just a software bug, common in new phones and software updates. Hopefully this is widespread enough where they push an OTA fast.

Sorry for everyone that is experiencing this and lets hope it is resolves soon enough.

I know all this, I've been following the issue. I need details man, details!

 

[doneve141]

I installed Voice last night and charged during the night. The reboots started as soon as I got up and pulled it off of the charger. I uninstalled Voice again. Sprint visual voice mail here I come. When the software update comes out I may try again. I just don't have the time to work around it. I need stability out of my phone. I love so many things about it that it is worth a little hassle though.

 

[bad1550]

How do I reset phone without removing battery?

Just picked up Photon today from Radio Shack and now its shut down and charging it does not help.

Also, if I have to remove battery, how do I do that.

Thx

 

[JackG058]

I installed Voice last night and charged during the night. The reboots started as soon as I got up and pulled it off of the charger. I uninstalled Voice again. Sprint visual voice mail here I come. When the software update comes out I may try again. I just don't have the time to work around it. I need stability out of my phone. I love so many things about it that it is worth a little hassle though.

Is it just the install of Voice that you saw the reboot from, or are you using Voice once installed? I have it installed but don't really use it much, and I'm not getting the reboots. I'd be willing to make a few Voice calls for you though, if that is where you are experiencing it, to try and duplicate.

How do I reset phone without removing battery?

Just picked up Photon today from Radio Shack and now its shut down and charging it does not help.

Also, if I have to remove battery, how do I do that.

Thx

From instructions I found, begin to pry off at the two bottom corners. You'll basically then just work it off from bottom to top. Just do it patiently, with slight pressure as you pull. Work it lose. When replacing the cover, again start at the bottom and just press down on the sides working up again. It'll snap into place in various spots.

 

[tbhausen]

Only the one "went dark" episode here. I use Voice all the time; it's where my VM's go so I doubt that's the issue. Even if it is, a fix will come due to the GV integration and Sprint and Google's mutual involvement. I have faith in this.

 

[doneve141]

I had it set up to be my voicemail provider. I don't think the problem is on all phones.

 

[svenb352]

Ever since I changed the battery setting from the managed one to the regular one I haven't had a single boot down.

The problem I am having now is with AmazonCloud. I am not sure if these are related or not, but if I am streaming music through the Cloud I can get through between 3 and 6 songs before it will just stop. It then may or may not boot back into the app when I push the wake button. If it does it may say the app will force close, or it will just stay black and not turn back on. Again, similar issue with the whole freezing/power down thing and it does require a battery removal to reboot.

Anyone else having this?

 

[Spolzie59]

I have experieinced the phantom Photon turning off issue. My service provider has not yet heard of such an issue but when I called Motorola 800 734 5870, they owned up to an issue. Accordingly there is no ETA on the hotfix but at least they are working on it. As far as removing the battery. They called this practice similar to a soft boot and it only partially recyles the phone. They suggested to take battery out too but to hold down the power button for 15 seconds, again with battery removed. They said this will not lose any profile custom settings. Good luck...

 

[bcrsr]

Factory reset doesn't work. Played with the battery modes. Every thing works fine in performance mode. Apparently its s glitch with the battery saving modes. Thats what I've found with mine today.

I did a factory reset and changed the battery plan to Performance and have not had this issue since. I agree 100%

 

[Damar1979]

I did a factory reset and changed the battery plan to Performance and have not had this issue since. I agree 100%

I tried that, changing the battery plan to performance.....and it still shut down on me twice. Hopefully Motorola can issue a fix soon. Otherwise, awesome phone!!

 

[whttigress]

The battery is such a pain to remove. When I have this problem I am able to boot it back up by plugging it into the charger and pressing the power button. Fortunately my phone only does it every 2-3 days. I have the no audio on calls much more frequently, and it is a real pain to be rebooting and calling people back all the time.