Help Gingerbread OTA Update Bricked my Stock Android!!

[zeldaboy101]

At about 4:18pm I noticed my phone's icons had changed in the notification bar and it tells me it has an update. I check and it turns out today is the day for Gingerbread. Well the instructions say it'll take 17-18 minutes to install, so I let it go ahead and do the install.

Just 17-18 minutes later it finished installing and rebooted, without me doing a single thing to the phone during the whole process. After a couple of minutes at the loading screen with the red thing in the middle, it rebooted. Then still sat there...and it has been on an endless cycle of this rebooting every like 5 or 10 minutes and doing NOTHING.

I tried holding the power button and it just reset it and did the same thing still, tried the power + home button reset and no change, and even took the battery out of the phone.

Looks like I gingerbricked my STOCK ANDROID charge!!!!! Thanks a lot verizon! Sitting in your store tonight while you fix this is just what I wanted to do.

 

[treb1797]

Please keep us posted!!!

 

[spc_hicks09]

Seems kind of sketchy to me. You're the absolute only person to report getting the update. No one else (out of the 5 different forums sites) has got this update yet. Something smells fishy.

 

[NJ Droid]

Seems kind of sketchy to me. You're the absolute only person to report getting the update. No one else (out of the 5 different forums sites) has got this update yet. Something smells fishy.

I was thinking the same thing.

 

[summamd]

Supposedly over at xda there was a memo about the ota. They were supposed to push it to 1k this morning and another 19k tonight and ther est by 12/2. Don't know how reliable that is, or if it's someone just pulling things out of their behind. Im guessing probably the latter. We'll see in the next couple days I guess. It seems strange it bricked him, wonder if he was rooted and forgot to wipe a cache or something after going back to stock?

 

[zeldaboy101]

Wow, thanks for the confidence guys. I was running stock android 2.2, never rooted or added anything special.

I took it in to the vzw store and they were dumbfounded. They tried every reboot and finally the reset I didn't know about, holding the volume keys down, I think with the power key as well? The first time it did nothing so they were entering my info to exchange the phone for a new charge. He had done it a second time just to see and it amazingly finally came back to life after a couple minutes. The phone was 100% wiped but GB was installed.

I haven't posted screenshots before but how about this, when you finally get your OTA update, VZW's message will tell you it 17-18 minutes, just like it told me today. Then you'll believe me...

It sucks I have to reinstall everything I have, but it's worth it. My battery died on me so I had to charge it once I got home. After a little while I turned it back on and I almost missed that red loading screen it booted so fast!!! Stock GB is already looking fantastic! I just tried the camera and while the opening of the camera app seems similar to stock froyo, once focused, it takes roughly 1.5 seconds to take the pic, show you it, save it, and already be ready to take another. That's significantly faster than before on froyo.

So far everything is looking very good!!

 

[WildH]

Zelda...i believe ya man. Wierd things happen. Glad you got it going! Btw screen shot it pushing home and back keys at the same time. For the nonbelievers post a screen shot of your system info page.

 

[treb1797]

Has anybody got notification of the update yet? Why is Zelda here the only person in the United States that got the update????

 

[Blue218]

1942 hours mountain time and NO update yet

 

[spc_hicks09]

Zelda...i believe ya man. Wierd things happen. Glad you got it going! Btw screen shot it pushing home and back keys at the same time. For the nonbelievers post a screen shot of your system info page.

Lol, a screenshot of the system info page means nothing. I can upload one right now that says I'm on 2.3.6 because I have the leaked OTA update.

Still don't believe him, but whatever.

 

[zeldaboy101]

Well i've heard on the vzw forums that they've heard only 40,000-50,000 sets would get it at first. Think about how many droid charges there are versus how many of them are people that would seek out and post on an android forum.

Thanks for the screenshot instructions WildH, here you guys go. Believe this or not, I have no reason to make this stuff up. Instead, i'm going to actually go enjoy using my phone a whole lot more than I used to.

Just a few things gingerbread has improved:

Camera - Once focused, the pictures are saving easily 5x faster, with only about 1.5 seconds (including displaying the pic for a mini preview) between taking the next photo, a massive improvement.

Redrawing home screens - This was one of the things I hated the most before, exit an app and it'd take sometimes a full minute or two to redraw the home screens (which I kept to a small number and limited the number of widgets too!). Now they redraw almost instantly most of the time, and if it needs a moment to redraw everything, it's very short compared to everything. I haven't tried insanely graphics intensive games to see if it takes a while after those, but rest assured it's way better than it was.

GPS - havent been able to test out yet

Overall speed - Everything just moves faster and more fluidly. Apps are more responsive and it's just more enjoyable to use this phone!!

 

[maggieo]

I am DYING for my GB Update b/c my phone barely works on the internet/network at all.. sometimes yes - often not.. 3G, 4G - it just plain stinks.. I even got that network explander for home and it still stinks when using that and/or my wireless.. So - I was all hoping for the GB update today.. I did NOT get it.. However, I did get confirmation from both Samsung and Verizon that it is indeed getting pushed out - actually starting on the 28th.. I wonder too - though - why we aren't seeing people on these forums getting it.. I may have seen one other not counting the one that got his phone messed up.. I tried hard to get details of how fast they push it out - is it be ESN or demographics and all I got was they do it in groups so if there's a problem they can stop the updates.. of course that is total BS because it's not like they are watching for calls and if they get a few they're going to stop it.. I couldn't get any info on how long it will take either - although when I was saying, 1 day, a week, a month? to the verizon guy (supervisor - the 1st guy was really telling me stupid stuff - although he WAS telling me it was being rolled out as of today) (oh yeah - he told me to google and I'd find out stuff - yeah "we" always know more than they do!! LOL) - but he couldn't say re 1 day or one week - but said it would be well before 1 month... Go figure.. I'm still waiting.. My husband and I both got this phone (300/each) - lots of extra batteries and accessories and the network expander thing - so I have easily $1000 into these phones and they stink.. I want my update so badly - and I just hope it helps.. I will surely report here if/when I get it - unless a zillion others have already done so.. Good luck to us all! This has been a LONG wait and I think there are a lot of people unhappy with this phone..

 

[2003vstrom]

I`m installing right now, I got at work around 4:50 am left my phone at my desk and went to the bathroom, came back and my phone said there was a update, well see in another 10-15 mins

 

[oOOOo]

Given the possibility of having to do a hard reset to get gb successfully booted, what additional backup type thingies should we be considering? I've got contacts backed to gmail and to V's backup. I've downloaded photos recently. List of installed apps? Is there a way, other than screen print from inside market, to give me a way back on that? Anything else we should be considering? I'm sure it'll work like the proverbial umbrella - take it along and it won't rain. (Not rooted, do have some mostly pedestrian apps loaded, all from market.)

 

[zeldaboy101]

It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. All data on the sd card has so far appeared to be fine, which was where all my photos were saved to in the first place and where most apps saved their data on my phone.

I use Astrid Tasks (a to do list type app) and it had backups saved on my sd card, so I was able to get my to do list back. If you use google tasks though it could be backed up on the cloud.

Google and Verizon had my contacts backed up.

I use Go Launcher and it actually had a backup saved to the sd card as well. After installing Go Launcher I found the restore ability in its settings and pulled my old home screens (from like a week ago) back, but all the icons were the stock android icon because most apps werent installed.

The Google market didnt have a list of my apps saved, despite using the same gmail account. I logged in to my amazon market account and found a list of all apps downloaded there before that I could go through and redownload as well.

The default android apps updated back to regular ones after a few hours at most depending on the app, so no need to put new icons out.

A lot of programs have different settings, widgets, and themes on GB vs froyo, so some widgets are missing minor things or needed custom settings applied again.

Overall nowhere near as bad as I expected it to be.

 

[Rex89]

I got the update this morning as well and one of the first things i noticed was all my text message contact pictures that were linked through my facebook are no longer there. Its still linked in my contacts, just not my text messages. Anyone know how to fix that?

 

[syntrix]

The Google market didnt have a list of my apps saved, despite using the same gmail account.

It does.

Log in using a web browser on a PC. It will show you all your apps, but you still have to install/push them individually. It's a lot easier than sorting through marketplace on your phone.

https://market.android.com -> My Library

 

[zeldaboy101]

It does.

Log in using a web browser on a PC. It will show you all your apps, but you still have to install/push them individually. It's a lot easier than sorting through marketplace on your phone.

https://market.android.com -> My Library

I'd never actually logged in from a browser before, just the app, that makes things soooo much easier!

 

[CalBearsFan95]

So now worrying about this happening, what's the best backup software to get my data stored in the Google cloud or whatnot?

 

[oOOOo]

Installed App List Backup. That may help. We'll see. Hopefully sometime soon!

 

[zeldaboy101]

So now worrying about this happening, what's the best backup software to get my data stored in the Google cloud or whatnot?

Your downloaded apps are saved in the Google Market and Amazon Market account, so you can re-downloaded them again if you need to.

If your app is saving to the sd card you won't need to worry about losing data.

 

[stevehoffman]

There is no way, however, to back up one's Angry Bird Scores, is there? When I switched over from OG Droid to Droid Charge earlier this year, I was told there was no way. Of course it was easy to get the Angry Bird app on my new phone, but had to start the game over with level 1!

 

[maryd06]

Wow, thanks for the confidence guys. I was running stock android 2.2, never rooted or added anything special.

I took it in to the vzw store and they were dumbfounded. They tried every reboot and finally the reset I didn't know about, holding the volume keys down, I think with the power key as well? The first time it did nothing so they were entering my info to exchange the phone for a new charge. He had done it a second time just to see and it amazingly finally came back to life after a couple minutes. The phone was 100% wiped but GB was installed.....

Pulled the update OTA. It took FOREVER to load. Once done, I factory reset the phone, which you should do after an update, and bam bricked. Just like you described. It's stuck on a system recovery screen that I've never seen, says something about Manual Mode, and none of the buttons work. I tried pulling the battery and doing your volume down+power but it just boots back to the system recovery screen. I can't even go into download mode and try to flash with Odin. UGH!

Any help would be super appreciated!

 

[maryd06]

In download mode finally. GOod luck everyone!

 

[droid-addict]

Got my update and what do you know the same thing happened to me.

The phone got stuck in an infinite reboot loop. Had to do a factory reset in order to get it boot properly. Put all of my apps back on and even choose to not install a few that I wasn't using. The phone appears to be working great except that when I reboot the phone it sits on the droid red eye screen for 60 to 75 seconds before loading the home screen. Does anyone know what the phone is doing during this long delay? Is it doing an internal check of some kind and an indication that something didn't install right?