Help Bottom Navigation Icons Quit Working - Please Help!

[jaybird16]

I have created a problem with my T-989, mostly because I am an ignoramus.

When I bought my S2 in Nov2011 (my first smart phone), I got it from a guy who bought it for his son, but his son decided he wanted an iPhone instead, so it was brand new BUT already rooted (juggernaut v3.1, clockworkmod recovery). Which was cool, except the resulting gaps in my understanding allowed me to become the bull in my own china shop.

I didn't know what the Kies and Kies Air apps did, and I assumed it was just more bloatware, so I used the bloatware removal and backup tool to uninstall them and store them away.

I noticed a few things over time. One thing was that my apps were updating, but I wasn't receiving updates to my gingerbread 2.3.5. I thought maybe this was because my phone was rooted? Something else is that if you don't use something for a long time, often you go back to it and it doesn't work anymore. (You can probably tell where I'm going with this.) When I realized that Kies was the app that updates the phone's operating system, I went back to try to restore Kies, and found that the bloatware removal app could find nothing anymore. I actually tried using File Explorer (with superuser permissions) to try to search for the .apk with no luck. I've tried searching at various times online for a Kies .apk file, but I haven't been able to come up with anything that worked anywhere.

Until recently, my phone worked perfectly, so even though I knew I had a problem, I wasn't too worried. However, this last week, the bottom icon bar quit working! My phone is well protected with one of those D30 covers, and I haven't dropped my phone in a long time. So, I suspect this is an OS software glitch, not a hardware problem, and I bet that if I can solve the Kies problem I've created and update the phone's operating system (finally) to the current ICS, then that alone might restore the bottom navigation. Right now, the only way to get back to the home screen is to reboot the phone! Other than that, everything still works perfectly, but the lack of navigation is crippling.

I'm not a hacker, but I'm pretty good at solving lots of techie problems with regular computers, but I just haven't gotten up to speed with troubleshooting my phone at all. I need someone to help get me on track. Please help!

 

[Atma]

Hi JayBird :wavey:

Kies on your phone isn't what updates it. You can use Kies on your computer to update but the app on your phone has nothing to do with it.

There are a couple of things you can try. First is a factory reset.

Power off your phone. Hold both volume buttons and the power button at the same time. When the phone vibrates, let go of the power button but keep holding both volume buttons. In a few seconds you should be in the recovery menu. Use volume buttons to move up/down and power button to select. *if power button doesn't work, use your home key*. Go to wipe data/factory reset and select it. Next, select format cache partition.

That may get your nav buttons working again.

What you may want to do is update to ICS or at least the latest Gingerbread. To do that you can read this guide and use Odin. That will unroot it and make everything stock again. If you decide you want to root again after, you can use this guide.

 

[jaybird16]

Thanks Atmazzz. My power button works fine (but my home key doesn't!) I was able to get to that screen, but before I do the wipe, I will have to back up my user data.

Okay, so, if Kies isn't the reason, then what is the reason I have never received notifications or updates to my phone? Surely updates come directly to the phone, otherwise people without computers would be SOL. See, this is just the sort of gaps in my knowledge that not having experience with a stock phone, and not having done the root myself creates... Anyhoo, thanks for helpin.

 

[Atma]

I'm not sure why you haven't received a notification. Probably due to running juggernaut rom. Normally you get updates OTA (Over the air) or you would hook your phone to your PC and use Kies on the PC to update it if the update is also available to Kies. To check for an OTA you would go to settings > about phone > software update. It might be a little different on Gingerbread, I can't remember. I'm pretty sure it wouldn't update running a custom rom.

You do have the sgh-T989?

 

[jaybird16]

Yes, the T-989. IMHO the best of all the s2 phones. And the iPhones by comparison are so thick they have the profile of a brick. The s3 is even thinner than the s2, but to me seems physically not as robust, but oh well. Time marches on. Love the phone you're with, I guess.

 

[jaybird16]

Okay, so, after I backed up my apps and data, I went back to the recovery screen, but I forgot that my cable was still connected to my computer, so I ended up in Odin mode, which I had to bail out of. After that my bottom navigation icons started working again! I have no idea why. Simply entering Odin mode shouldn't have changed anything. Alas, not for long, they quit working again. Then I did the wipe, I was actually surprised but that didn't fix it. BUT, after flashing it with ICS 4.0.4 everything was working again. Thanks so much for the links to your guides, btw. They just took all the uncertainty out of it and made it easy.

Kies said there was a firmware upgrade, so I did that too. Everything installed without any error msgs. However, after that, the bottom navigation icons quit working again!

I would have thought that upgrading all of this would have solved the problem. The fact that it's intermittent gives me some hope, because that proves it's possible for it to continue to work.

Any ideas?

 

[Atma]

Only thing I can think of is try going to settings > display > touch key light duration, make sure it is set to come on.

 

[jaybird16]

I've been searching for a stock FroYo rom. Is there any such thing for the T989? I have only seen it for the T959. Apparently that works with the *#2663# firmware update for the touch keys. Stock ICS 4.0.4 absolutely doesn't.

Thx in advance.

 

[Atma]

No, I think when the sgh-t989 was released it had GB 2.3.5.

If you put your finger over the light sensor that's to the left of the T-Mobile logo do the lights come on?

 

[jaybird16]

No, they never did light up unless touched. They do flicker and light up when using the *#2663# code while the phone indicates it's updating the touch key firmware though.

Yeah, 2.3.5 is what this phone shipped with.

 

[Atma]

No, they never did light up unless touched. They do flicker and light up when using the *#2663# code while the phone indicates it's updating the touch key firmware though.

Possibly something is wrong with the light sensor? They should light when you cover it up.

 

[jaybird16]

Nah, the light sensor is working just fine. It regulates the brightness of the screen just like it always has. But the lights behind the touch keys only come on when touched and remained on for 6 seconds (my choice under the settings > display > touch key light duration menu), and then turned off until touched again. Maybe they also got brighter and dimmer according to light sensor, for as long as they were on. But when the touch key light duration expires, they're off, under all circumstances, until you touch them again.

 

[jaybird16]

A couple of questions...

After I flashed ICS the first time, I lost CWM recovery and have only seen 3e recovery since. After flashing a new rom, should I always expect to lose the custom recovery and be returned to 3e?

In your rooting guide, #4, you say, "Select PDA in Odin and browse to the ClockworkMod file you downloaded. Select it. Now press Start and Odin will flash the recovery." The ClockworkMod file I downloaded both from your page, and the newer one I downloaded from ClockworkMod ROM Manager - Recoveries as well, were .img files, which I assumed were disk image files like a .iso file, but MagicISO says this file does not contain a disk image. I can't select the .img file in Odin because Odin wants to see PDA files (.tar, .md5, or .smd). What am I missing? How is one to go about selecting a CWM file in Odin to flash?

(There is some indication that the *#2663# code might work under Gingerbread, but force close hell is rendering my attempts to return to Gingerbread totally inoperable, and that might be because after flashing to Gingerbread, my power button is inoperable in 3e, meaning I can't select any options and therefore can't do any wipes and, for all intents and purposes 3e might as well not even exist .)

 

[Atma]

A couple of questions...

After I flashed ICS the first time, I lost CWM recovery and have only seen 3e recovery since. After flashing a new rom, should I always expect to lose the custom recovery and be returned to 3e?

In your rooting guide, #4, you say, "Select PDA in Odin and browse to the ClockworkMod file you downloaded. Select it. Now press Start and Odin will flash the recovery." The ClockworkMod file I downloaded both from your page, and the newer one I downloaded from ClockworkMod ROM Manager - Recoveries as well, were .img files, which I assumed were disk image files like a .iso file, but MagicISO says this file does not contain a disk image. I can't select the .img file in Odin because Odin wants to see PDA files (.tar, .md5, or .smd). What am I missing? How is one to go about selecting a CWM file in Odin to flash?

(There is some indication that the *#2663# code might work under Gingerbread, but force close hell is rendering my attempts to return to Gingerbread totally inoperable, and that might be because after flashing to Gingerbread, my power button is inoperable in 3e, meaning I can't select any options and therefore can't do any wipes and, for all intents and purposes 3e might as well not even exist .)

Anytime you use Odin to install a stock ROM it is also going to install the stock recovery. If your power button doesn't work in recovery, use your home button to select.

The CWM file in the guide is a .tar file. I used Odin to flash it myself when I put it in the guide to make sure it worked ok. You aren't extracting it before you try to use Odin are you? The ROM manager file, You need to install ROM manager from the play store and use it to install the recovery. Just be sure you select the T-Mobile galaxy s2. I personally haven't used CWM in months. I think TWRP is much better.

 

[jaybird16]

Oh geez, yes, I was. My Winrar just opened it up and I assumed it was zipped up in a .rar or .zip file. I knew I had to be missing something...

Anyway, I found a touch version of CWM in a .md5 file (a file I don't know how to screw up) and used that to flash recovery after flashing stock 2.3.5 and so managed to make Gingerbread work, and then I also managed to successfully update the touch key firmware, but that didn't change anything.

So, I don't know if it's a hardware or software issue, but I suppose if I'm not going to be able to make them work again, it doesn't really matter, does it? The touch key lights do still work and they always flash on at startup, so that proves some aspect is still working, but that doesn't prove that they can pass data back to the processor. You can have a beating heart and be on a ventilator, but that doesn't prove you're not braindead. The touch key lights used to stay lit during the entire boot sequence, but since I updated the firmware, it's a new boot sequence anyway, so that doesn't prove anything. I would prefer to go back to the old firmware, because it was silent when booting up and shutting down and provided lots of system controls besides just 5 in at the top of the pulldown menu, especially the ability to turn on and off network data and LED flashlight, but, whatever, I guess.

Also, now that I have unrooted and rooted my phone, it finally dawned upon me that the reason why I didn't receive updates is not because my phone was rooted, but because my phone was running a custom rom, which are totally independent things. The guy I bought it from paid a guy $50 to root it, and the only reason why I can think that he would put a custom rom on it too is in order to create more business for himself down the road, cuz if you knew how to do this stuff yourself, you would, instead of blindly having some other guy make all the choices for you.

Anyways, thanks for helping a noob start navigating the dank and seeky android underworld.

 

[jaybird16]

oh yeah, and I'll give TWRP a go when I go back to ICS.