To upgrade, or not to upgrade (ICS)

[eomund]

Hello all. As my first post I do want to say hello and I've found this site to already be a fountain of information.

My question is, is it really worth it to upgrade my new bionic to ICS? My brother gave me basically a brand new bionic for Christmas, and it still has gingerbread loaded. All the issues with slow processing, the battery drain and overheating issues has made me more than a little skiddish of this upgrade.

I did force install this upgrade on my Galaxy Tab 7.7 (what i'm typing with now) and quite love it. My real issue with installing ics on my phone is i have no current warranty or insurance so if it gets bricked, I'm back to my old device (the original moto droid).

I have a few questions
Is this update really worth it?
I know what to do to insure the best chance of no errors, but if I have to can I flash the old firmware back on to it?
And lastly, would I be better flashing the firmware on manually in the first place? Like I said, i already did that on the tablet I'm on right now.

Thank you for your time and reading through my wall o' text.

-Eomund-

 

[Thom]

Welcome to Android Forums.

I assume you are un-root-ed.

In short ... yes you should upgrade to ICS and you should do a Factory Data Reset immediately after doing so. Neither or these is complicated or easy to mess up.

I don't know what all the problems are that you are referencing. I haven't had any. They really cleaned up the bugs that were in Gingerbread and ICS on the Razr went first. They cleaned up the ICS bugs on the Razr and when released ICS to the Bionic.

The only problems on the Bionic that I am aware of are due to people not doing the Factory Data Reset after the update. There are ac couple in the most recent posts here.

... Thom

 

[johnlgalt]

Hello all. As my first post I do want to say hello and I've found this site to already be a fountain of information.

My question is, is it really worth it to upgrade my new bionic to ICS? My brother gave me basically a brand new bionic for Christmas, and it still has gingerbread loaded. All the issues with slow processing, the battery drain and overheating issues has made me more than a little skiddish of this upgrade.

I did force install this upgrade on my Galaxy Tab 7.7 (what i'm typing with now) and quite love it. My real issue with installing ics on my phone is i have no current warranty or insurance so if it gets bricked, I'm back to my old device (the original moto droid).

I have a few questions
Is this update really worth it?
I know what to do to insure the best chance of no errors, but if I have to can I flash the old firmware back on to it?
And lastly, would I be better flashing the firmware on manually in the first place? Like I said, i already did that on the tablet I'm on right now.

Thank you for your time and reading through my wall o' text.

-Eomund-

Some technical aspects that should help you make up you mind.

Gingerbread is an OS that is not written to make use of more than one core in a processor, even if it has 2, 3, 4, or 1 million. ICS is written to make use of the cores available - 1,2,3,4 etc.

Our phones were designed to run ICS. GB was sloppily put together so the phone could get released. The additions that Motorola added to our phones, such as Blur, will not run as efficiently on GB b/c it is a single core OS.

If you really want to get the most out of your phone, upgrade t ICS. If you want to shorten your time, use RSD Lite to by pass taking the update and start with a brand new phone running ICS. Or, if you prefer, use SamuriHL's House of BIONIC (aka HoB ) utility to install ICS (aka .246, which is part of the release build number) onto your phone. This will be the fastest and most assured way of making sure nothing get messed up. Both methods will erase data anyway, so there is really no need to perform a FDR afterward.

You'll be amazed at how much better, even though it is subjective, that the phone will perform.

 

[OutOfPhase]

I agree with my fellow guides as we are all bionic owners. You should follow the steps in my signature "how to flash 6.7.246 with rsdlite". Follow the instructions using the 6.7.246 file and do not use the modified files to save data you need are clean slate.

Welcome to the forums and enjoy your bionic, it really is a great phone.

 

[eomund]

Wanted to post an update. I went ahead and installed the OTA update last wednesday. I went through every precaution. Constant wifi. Full battery but not charging, and rfd'ed both before and after.the install. So far seems to be working fine. As.previously mentioned I.have a tablet so 90% of the time on on it over the phone. But its still not doing the super fast.battery drain, getting hot, etc.

If any issues arise I'll post it up. But for now it does look like a success.

 

[Thom]

Great.

Was rfd'ed in your message Factory Data Resets?

... Thom

 

[eomund]

Yuppers. Ya I just thought it would be a good idea to.start with a fresh platform as well. With the nightmares I've read and heard about. I figured better safe than sorry.

 

[Thom]

Great ... you should be all set ... the second Factory Data Reset you did was the important one ... it created the clean foundation for you to build on.

... Thom

 

[welbinator]

I hate ICS. My "dual core" phone is slow as hell now. But it's better than not ever having data which is what I experienced with GB.

Needless to say, I can't wait until May when I can upgrade. My wife just got an HTC Rezound and I'm super jealous.

 

[Thom]

Did you do a Factory Data Reset after upgrading to ICS?

... Thom

 

[welbinator]

Did you do a Factory Data Reset after upgrading to ICS?

... Thom

talking to me?

no, but I'm tempted after reading the forums. Some people it seems to help others it doesn't.

just tired of re-setting up my phone.

 

[OutOfPhase]

I would strongly recommend doing a FDR and letting all your apps download from the play store. It will give you a clean slate to start with. You can use a sms and call log backup program to save them if you need to.

sms backup

call log back up and restore

 

[Thom]

talking to me?

no, but I'm tempted after reading the forums. Some people it seems to help others it doesn't.

just tired of re-setting up my phone.

Yes. I strongly recommend that everyone do a Factory Data Reset after upgrading to ICS.

I am aware of only one Bionic user who is still having problems after doing the Factory Data Reset and we have not yet learned what was done after doing the Factory Data Reset.

... Thom

 

[welbinator]

I would strongly recommend doing a FDR and letting all your apps download from the play store. It will give you a clean slate to start with. You can use a sms and call log backup program to save them if you need to.

sms backup

call log back up and restore

yeah, and by "let your apps download from the play store" you mean wait 2 days for about 40% of your apps to download (usually the 40% you use the least).

I think I'll do it. I got nothing better to do the next couple days than re-set up my phone. If it takes care of the lag, TOTALLY worth it.

I feel like I'm using my blackberry storm again...

 

[Thom]

yeah, and by "let your apps download from the play store" you mean wait 2 days for about 40% of your apps to download (usually the 40% you use the least).

When I went through the process I was in a 3G-only area and downloaded 118 apps. In Play Store | My Apps the listing under Installed showed something like 116 apps having updates available. I selected to update them all. The two remaining were not compatible with ICS. (In addition I had two apps not from the Play Store and two that I wrote.)

... Thom

 

[johnlgalt]

yeah, and by "let your apps download from the play store" you mean wait 2 days for about 40% of your apps to download (usually the 40% you use the least).

I think I'll do it. I got nothing better to do the next couple days than re-set up my phone. If it takes care of the lag, TOTALLY worth it.

I feel like I'm using my blackberry storm again...

The latest Play Store allows you to view the apps you've installed on any device by going to My Apps - so you can by pass the automatic installation and start installing those apps yourself.

 

[doogald]

The latest Play Store allows you to view the apps you've installed on any device by going to My Apps - so you can by pass the automatic installation and start installing those apps yourself.

FWIW, you can also install apps to the device on the Play Store on the web (on a PC browser, I mean, of course.)

 

[johnlgalt]

FWIW, you can also install apps to the device on the Play Store on the web (on a PC browser, I mean, of course.)

Actually, I could not - on the PC it would only make it through the letter H before looping back to the beginning of the list. I finally went through my list (on my tablet, no less) and was able to delete 689 (!) orphaned apps that I no longer have any interest in having installed.

On Android devices I can go through the entire list, but on a PC there seems to be a max app limit after which it drops off the last apps (alphabetically).

I wonder if I am now (finally!) under that limit? I should get on a PC and check....

 

[doogald]

Actually, I could not - on the PC it would only make it through the letter H before looping back to the beginning of the list. I finally went through my list (on my tablet, no less) and was able to delete 689 (!) orphaned apps that I no longer have any interest in having installed.

Sure you can, if you search for the name of the app.

 

[johnlgalt]

When you have 300+ installed, that gets old. Quickly.

 

[welbinator]

The latest Play Store allows you to view the apps you've installed on any device by going to My Apps - so you can by pass the automatic installation and start installing those apps yourself.

oh, sweet. something that amazons app store for android always did that I wished androids app store for android did. That's cool.

honestly it's an opportunity to weed out the apps I don't use, but just not installing one until I realize I miss it. =]

 

[johnlgalt]

To weed them out, long press any single app until the the top of the page change color and it says 1 selected on the left. From then on just scroll and short press to add the rest to the list, and then you can delete them all at one time.

I had to delete 689 (no that is not a typo - six hundred eighty-nine) that I no longer use - and yesterday I deleted another 48 lol.

Also, you cannot delete apps that are physically installed on the device that you're using to remove from that list (of course )