Reverting back to gingerbread

[t sport 1978]

After having used ICS for 2 days, I can no longer stand it and am reverting back to GB 2.3.6. Below is a list of things that made me wanted to do this:

1. Keyboard crashes very often especially when SWYPE was input method
2. Homescreen lag and general app lag
3. Random crashing of app and phone itself
4. Random screen corrputions (like a broken TV/Monitor)
5. General degrading of performance
6. Face unlock does not work 85% of the time

I feel for the first time let down by Samsung, I mean what have they been doing all this time to release such a crap firmware? This bearing in mind that I did a factory reset after the update to start from scratch, from clean slate so to speak and still I had all these problems.

I feel Samsung did a very poor job of quality checking for this release, and it simply is not fit for purpose. I did not want to use my phone any more and just NEEDED to revert back to GB, my phone was running the risk of becoming a very expensive paper weigh.

I reverted back to 2.3.6 using ODIN, which by the way is a GOD SENT!

Having had a search around, I can see that this view is pretty common and if Samsung don't get their act together, they are going to pee a lot of people off. Come on Samsung, PULL YOUR FINGER OUT!

 

[ifb-online]

Blame others, its easy. Face unlock only fails for me when there isn't enough light. My 14 year old daughter continues to be amazed at how well it works. Am using Swype to key in this post. 100% reliable. No crashes, much better performance and smoothness. Samsung, you gave done a great job and it's all been worth the wait!

 

[hazza74]

Well i reset to factory settings yesterday and thought that done the trick, nope back to gingerbread for me too!

ICS is just total waste of space

 

[t sport 1978]

Blame others, its easy. Face unlock only fails for me when there isn't enough light. My 14 year old daughter continues to be amazed at how well it works. Am using Swype to key in this post. 100% reliable. No crashes, much better performance and smoothness. Samsung, you gave done a great job and it's all been worth the wait!

Yeah it is easy to blame this to ICS, when my 2.3.6 was 110% perfect and then overnight after having ICS turned the phone into an unusable piece of rubbish. How you and your 14 year old daughter uses your phones may be different to how I and many others uses their's, just like how quality control if done properly would have identified these problems if the scope was large enough to cover different usage. Samsung failed.

An example of keyboard crash would be when i am replying to an Whatsapp message, keyboard starts and it would just sit there, doing nothing. Whatsapp is responsive at this point, but the keyboard would not and you cannot get out of it until you select a different input option and wait about 2 minutes.

This along with the other described problems are not acceptable and makes the phone using experience poor, why should I accept it when 2.3.6 was so good and ICS is not?

Well happy for you and your 14 year old daughter though, but cant see why being 14 is relevant in this post however.

 

[t sport 1978]

Well i reset to factory settings yesterday and thought that done the trick, nope back to gingerbread for me too!

ICS is just total waste of space

Have you already reverted? Let me know if you need any help in doing so.

ICS for me is a pure disappointment, well for our SGN release at least.

 

[hazza74]

Have you already reverted? Let me know if you need any help in doing so.

ICS for me is a pure disappointment, well for our SGN release at least.

Im going to leave it for a week at least and if no change i will contact you regarding reverting back cause i wouldnt have a clue!!

Cheers

 

[PeterWeb]

Clearly some people are having ICS issues. I am also, but they are very minor - certainly not enough to consider a downgrade.

I think I've had two spontaneous reboots in the two weeks or so since I updated. They were not during any mission-critical operation fortunately (web browsing IIRC). For the rest, my experience has been pretty good, though I'm sometimes puzzled at how the icons on the home screen can sometimes be slow to reappear.

Given the extent of this upgrade, I can certainly cope, and look forward to updates that fix the issues that remain.

Thing's I'd REALLY like to see improved on this system: face recognition in low light (need a front-facing led , better handling of non-US accents for voice control, improved voice control in general.

And a way to update/merge contacts without them duplicating all over the park - most annoying, that.

 

[Zenstrive]

never had those issues you mentioned.

 

[learner24593]

Have you already reverted? Let me know if you need any help in doing so.

ICS for me is a pure disappointment, well for our SGN release at least.

Could you please tell me how to revert beck to Gingerbread. Had ICS for a day and already sick of it!

 

[ifb-online]

You know, I was ready to disable face-unlock, but I have learned to make the most of it and it now works in all but the most extreme situations. I even used it successfully at the cinema before the main feature started. The lights were on but pretty dim, and it worked.

Comments like 'Had ICS for a day and already sick of it!' sound suspiciously like troll-speak to me. ICS on the Note is functionally a mild upgrade compared to some other devices. The look and feel changes are very small.

Most other issues people have experienced are, I believe, down to needing to reconfigure settings reset by the upgrade.

If you revert to Gingerbread you will not solve these problems.

Ian

 

[Omar Days]

With moderate to heavy use it used to last a whole long day, taken off charger at 7am and I'd be down to 20% by 11pm. Now with ics, I'm getting 8 hours max til I'm reaching for the charger, and this is with trying to conserve the battery. It's worse than my old desire hd.

There better be a patch or something to fix this. If not, then this is my first and last Samsung phone.

 

[MadAmethyst]

You know, I was ready to disable face-unlock, but I have learned to make the most of it and it now works in all but the most extreme situations. I even used it successfully at the cinema before the main feature started. The lights were on but pretty dim, and it worked.
Ian

I have found face-unlock great since using the improve facial recognition setting,i'd recommend that people give this a try it really does make a difference

 

[ifb-online]

With moderate to heavy use it used to last a whole long day, taken off charger at 7am and I'd be down to 20% by 11pm. Now with ics, I'm getting 8 hours max til I'm reaching for the charger, and this is with trying to conserve the battery. It's worse than my old desire hd.

There better be a patch or something to fix this. If not, then this is my first and last Samsung phone.

I don't have a magic Note. I doubt your Note is possessed by the Devil, so there has to be an explanation as to why you (and others) are experiencing double the battery drain that I (and others) are. A software patch is not the solution, either.

Check the configuration - and perhaps be patient as the batter profile for your note will improve over time.

Ian

 

[t sport 1978]

I don't have a magic Note. I doubt your Note is possessed by the Devil, so there has to be an explanation as to why you (and others) are experiencing double the battery drain that I (and others) are. A software patch is not the solution, either.

Check the configuration - and perhaps be patient as the batter profile for your note will improve over time.

Ian

Why do you continue to be so condescending in your tone, who saids you have a magic note, what the hell has the devil or your 14 year old daughter has to do with anything?

If you are going to be constructive then fine, but all you do is harp on about how everyone who are having issues with ICS are either doing something wrong or not knowing what they are doing.

Please explain how it is that people who are all of a sudden experiencing battery issues with ICS has nothing to do with software? It certainly has nothing to do with hardware now is it? Are you ignorant and stupid? Do you really like being talked down to like you do to other people? I think not?

Either try and help figure it out or just keep your smugness to yourself, jesus...some people. Magic note? AND STOP CALLING PEOPLE TROLLS FOR VOICING THEIR PROBLEMS.

Back to this little issue.

I am defintely happier being back to GB 2.3.6, those problems that i mentioned that i had never existed in GB, it was all present in ICS, that is for definite.

For those who needs a pointer on what to do if you so choose to revert to GB, here is a good guide which I followed with success for my own Note.

[STOCK ROMS] N7000 All stock ROMs + install + Root guide All at 1place,Latest ICS LP9 - xda-developers

Hope this helps.

 

[ifb-online]

My point is that we probably have identical hardware. There is no reason to suggest that the ICS update software we both installed is different. So why do we have such different experiences? It has to be set up and configuration. What other explanation could there be?

I am actually very sympathetic for those that are experiencing problems. I am trying to help.

What I object to is people declaring gloom and doom and blaming Samsung when there is so little logical reason to do so.

The person I suggested sounded like a troll had apparently registered to post 1 message saying he was 'sick of ICS already' - how useful is that?

People having problems will be heard the most. I'm just trying to provide a benchmark to represent the unheard (and I suspect vast majority) who aren't having problems.

If you feel I'm condescending then I respectfully and honestly apologise - that wasn't my intention at all.

Ian

 

[jkncates]

I don't have a magic Note. I doubt your Note is possessed by the Devil, so there has to be an explanation as to why you (and others) are experiencing double the battery drain that I (and others) are. A software patch is not the solution, either.

Check the configuration - and perhaps be patient as the batter profile for your note will improve over time.

Ian

Gotta say I haven't agreed with everything you've said, everyone's experience will differ, and regardless of what people think every device is different in some way.

BUT, This is spot on. With any electronic device the battery profile will improve with use. If the complainants will try charging it over night and using it until it completely dies once or twice it'll work great. I've had mine off the charger all day (since I woke up at 7am) and it's still at 50%.

If you read the instructions that come with the Note (and any battery powered device for that matter) they will suggest the same thing along with Charging your phone up completely before first use. But NO ONE does this, and I don't either. I bought mine and played with it all the way home, made my wife drive infact but after a week I had to condition the battery some.

 

[ifb-online]

I did fully charge my Note from new. Maybe that is one factor that improved my experience with the battery stamina?

Ian

 

[ridgmont61]

I used these instructions to downgrade to gingerbread:

How To Downgrade ICS On Samsung Galaxy Note To Gingerbread 2.3.6 | Geeky Android - News, Tutorials, Guides, Reviews On Android

It was easy. I had enough of ICS German version which I used for about 2 weeks - battery life poor and many craches - shame as I was looking forward to ICS.

 

[t sport 1978]

My point is that we probably have identical hardware. There is no reason to suggest that the ICS update software we both installed is different. So why do we have such different experiences? It has to be set up and configuration. What other explanation could there be?

I am actually very sympathetic for those that are experiencing problems. I am trying to help.

What I object to is people declaring gloom and doom and blaming Samsung when there is so little logical reason to do so.

The person I suggested sounded like a troll had apparently registered to post 1 message saying he was 'sick of ICS already' - how useful is that?

People having problems will be heard the most. I'm just trying to provide a benchmark to represent the unheard (and I suspect vast majority) who aren't having problems.

If you feel I'm condescending then I respectfully and honestly apologise - that wasn't my intention at all.

Ian

Apologies accepted

As for the phone, you might be glad to know that i have given ics a second chance. This time round i factory reset gb first then updated to ics, then reformat the device plus factory reset again. Basically its 2 factory resets and format usb option... Well well well, its a lot better this time round and much more stable, no weird problems and none of the previously experienced issues either.

Fingers crossed and will keep an eye on it for a while and report back.

 

[ifb-online]

I'm really pleased! Resetting does seem to be the solution. I see from some other posts that fears about bricking one's Note by resetting after the ICS update appear to be specific to rooted Notes. If you haven't rooted and you do have problems after resetting then you should be covered by your warranty. Not sure what happens if you have have rooted and then brick your phone. I'm not sure how Samsung could actually determine which phones were rooted or not, to be honest.

In the end I do feel vindicated. Samsung can only sensibly test stock hardware and software. Who knows what some apps and custom settings could do to an ICS update? I was lucky in that my Note came through the process normally. Some people were not so lucky. But the knee-jerk reaction to revert to Gingerbread or demand a magic bullet software patch never made any sense to me. That resetting appears to be solving problems makes a lot of sense.

Ian

 

[ridgmont61]

Apologies accepted

As for the phone, you might be glad to know that i have given ics a second chance. This time round i factory reset gb first then updated to ics, then reformat the device plus factory reset again. Basically its 2 factory resets and format usb option... Well well well, its a lot better this time round and much more stable, no weird problems and none of the previously experienced issues either.

Fingers crossed and will keep an eye on it for a while and report back.

What method did you use to do the factory reset?

 

[t sport 1978]

both times were done using the menu and not through the recovery mode, the second time i also did usb format.

 

[ridgmont61]

both times were done using the menu and not through the recovery mode, the second time i also did usb format.

Step
1. So a reset in GB in Settings > Privacy > Factory data reset
2. Format USB in GB ? How is this done?
3. Then once ICS installed a Factory Data Reset again - via the menus?

Thanks

 

[t sport 1978]

Step
1. So a reset in GB in Settings > Privacy > Factory data reset
2. Format USB in GB ? How is this done?
3. Then once ICS installed a Factory Data Reset again - via the menus?

Thanks

after you select factory reset that was an option for format data.

by the way my swype keyboard crash is still happening.

 

[laurie53]

"but they are very minor " (the problems)

But they are not.

One of the reasons I upgraded from the S was that my sight had deteriorated to such an extent that I needed the bigger screen.

I now find that many of the screens, and the fonts used, have been reduced in size and are not affected by settings or pinch zoom, so I am back where I started.

What is the point of a larger screen if you can only use two thirds of it?