Help S5 Update Problems - Dummies Guide

[ironass]

Wow, @ironass! This thread was ridiculously useful. I'm using a Samsung Galaxy S5 on Verizon, and had many of the problems cited by other Verizon users.

For everyone else, YMMV, but I'll explain what I've done to rectify each of the issues I experienced. First let's start with the issues I have had. From most to least troublesome:

1. The phone would occasionally enter into a "reboot loop" where it would restart, and upon restarting would need to restart again.
2. Overheating issues - specifically, it would be warm/hot to the touch and would enter the "cooldown mode."
3. Severe battery drain - battery burn was at least a factor of 50% up from what it was just before upgrading to Lollipop
4. Severe lag on multiple apps
5. Increased hard drive space for the OS
6. The led for monitoring heart rate would go on whenever the phone was unlocked and I had my finger against it... regardless of whether any health apps were currently running.

I did some googling, and that led me here.

This thread was incredibly valuable. It taught me a few key things, including that issue 5. was an expected cost of the upgrade. But the issue was that cost happened without the benefits!

So... I tried the things suggested here. First, I wiped the cache. That made the phone MUCH more stable, as it solved issues 1 and 2. No more resets, and although the phone still ran warm it wasn't hot enough to trigger the cooldown mode. And it was still a little laggy, but not as bad as it was before.

I gave the phone a few more days, as apparently adjusting to the new OS can take some time. But it was still a problem about a week into the upgrade, and I was stuck in the house today due to weather so I did a factory reset.

The factory reset was MUCH smoother than I anticipated. Because Lollipop backs up the apps and many of their settings, within a few hours I had a phone with much of my previous stuff in place... and without the lag!! Performance was significantly smoother than before the factory reset!! So far battery performance seems at least better than it was before the factory wipe, if not before the upgrade. And the heart monitor light no longer comes on spuriously.

So I'm declaring victory, at least temporarily. All my issues are now solved, except the hard drive space that is an expected cost of the upgrade.​

Glad that it helped you and thanks for the very informative post, Brio Hondo

I have noticed other forums have begun referring to this guide, or elements from it, and the number of views has shot up considerably since the Verizon version of Lollipop was released.

Whilst no one likes having to do a Factory Data Reset, sometimes it is the only way and, as you have found, can solve a lot of issues and improve your phone's performance. The alternatives are listed in #2.8.

 

[ironass]

If I understand this right, a shortcut method (to maintain app information) would be as follows: –
Upgrade to lollipop with minimal if any apps on the SD.
Clear cache after lollipop update and restart.
After a few days (to allow lollipop to optimize) do a factory reset and restart.
Lollipop will restore the apps and their settings with hopefully most bugs eliminated.

Not as comprehensive as your original instructions (ironass) but a shortcut nevertheless?

You may as well just update and clear the cache partition, something that seasoned flashers do automatically. If there are then any issues, you will need to run in Safe Mode to determine if it is the firmware or the apps and settings that are causing a problem.

 

[ironass]

Have added, "#1.8 Speed up a laggy, slow, phone", to post #1 which should help some of you get a snappier feel to your phone particularly if you have one of the slower, carrier branded, models.

 

[AZgl1500]

I did more than that, I turn OFF all animations period.

IMO, they just aren't needed and require more CPU cycles that must be handled before what you want can be done.

 

[ironass]

Have added, "#1.9. De-Bloat your phone", for un-rooted users to post #1 as it appears that certain carriers are hell bent on adding as much bloatware as humanly possible to their firmware releases and causing performance issues, battery drain and data usage, among other things.

 

[ironass]

If you are experiencing an abnormal battery drain, lags or high data usage you may want to check out the following...

Top Five Worst Apps That Drain Your Smartphone Battery And Performance: Facebook, Spotify, Instagram And More

1. Facebook

2. Spotify

3. Instagram

4. Path

5. Amazon

Try wiping the cache and data of these apps to see if that helps your battery and performance. See #1.5 User Apps: Wiping cache, data and uninstalling


You should also check any other apps that you are using to ensure that they have been updated for Lollipop and ART. See #1.2...

Some of these problems are caused by app's or settings that are not suitable for the new firmware. Remember, not all app's/games on the Play Store may be compatible with your new firmware yet. This is down to the developers of those apps who have had 6+ months notice to update them. Most have, some have not.

 

[angelbowler2002]

Been getting SIM card not installed messages. Had to take the card out and put it back in. Taking out is not easy. Is this related to the Lollipop update?

 

[KialReece]

Got major lag after installing Lollipop on EE GS5 , Arrived today brand new, did a quick on and off and it seemed to fix the problem but Samsung Contacts keeps crashing, I get a notification saying contacts has stopped responding ? Love the material notification bar, improved keypado and dialer. 3GB though :/

 

[angelbowler2002]

I'm also getting contacts has stopped messages. Have cleaned cache. Is there a FDR in my future?

 

[KialReece]

Im gonna back up what I need and then do a factory reset as well as clear cache and data on downloaded apps and see if that fixes the problem, phone works fine functionally it's just hints of lag from pressing buttons to the animation of an app or window opening which is annoying, Samsung should of give S5 consumers 3GB

 

[ironass]

Been getting SIM card not installed messages. Had to take the card out and put it back in. Taking out is not easy. Is this related to the Lollipop update?

No, this sort of problem crops up on all phones and firmwares, from time to time. It can mean that the SIM card needs to be replaced or is not seated snugly.

Got major lag after installing Lollipop on EE GS5 , Arrived today brand new, did a quick on and off and it seemed to fix the problem but Samsung Contacts keeps crashing, I get a notification saying contacts has stopped responding ? Love the material notification bar, improved keypado and dialer. 3GB though :/

I would, in the first instance, suggest wiping the phone's cache partition, as per #1.3 of post #1.

I'm also getting contacts has stopped messages. Have cleaned cache. Is there a FDR in my future?

If you have cleared the cache partition and this has not resolved your problem, you could try clearing the cache and data in both Contacts and Contacts Storage in Settings > Applications > All as per #1.5 of post #1 to see if that resolves the problem. Failing that, a Factory Data Reset would be the next option. Which is what a Samsung Service Point will do anyway.

Im gonna back up what I need and then do a factory reset as well as clear cache and data on downloaded apps and see if that fixes the problem, phone works fine functionally it's just hints of lag from pressing buttons to the animation of an app or window opening which is annoying, Samsung should of give S5 consumers 3GB

After a Factory Data Reset, take the time to thoroughly check out the phone, prior to installing any apps. Some user apps are RAM, battery and storage hungry monsters, see post #34. Personally, I am finding that Lollipop is a lot faster and smoother than KitKat but even I have had to ditch a few apps because they were not Lollipop ready. This is down to the app developers to sort out. You could also compensate for lag by adjusting the animation scale as per #1.8 of post #1.

 

[KialReece]

No, this sort of problem crops up on all phones and firmwares, from time to time. It can mean that the SIM card needs to be replaced or is not seated snugly.



I would, in the first instance, suggest wiping the phone's cache partition, as per #1.3 of post #1.



If you have cleared the cache partition and this has not resolved your problem, you could try clearing the cache and data in both Contacts and Contacts Storage in Settings > Applications > All as per #1.5 of post #1 to see if that resolves the problem. Failing that, a Factory Data Reset would be the next option. Which is what a Samsung Service Point will do anyway.



After a Factory Data Reset, take the time to thoroughly check out the phone, prior to installing any apps. Some user apps are RAM, battery and storage hungry monsters, see post #34. Personally, I am finding that Lollipop is a lot faster and smoother than KitKat but even I have had to ditch a few apps because they were not Lollipop ready. This is down to the app developers to sort out. You could also compensate for lag by adjusting the animation scale as per #1.8 of post #1.

Did the Clear Cache Partition after first putting it into oden mode by mistake ! What I've found is apps like Facebook and WhatsApp majorly affect the speed and ram of my S5 so I've refrained from downloading them, I've also downloaded greenify and moded some settings on devoloper mode, changed the animation to 0.5 and removed the home button activating S Voice now it's very snappy transitioning from apps and the home key, Lollipop is a really good improvement on KitKat that's for sure, but all the white doesn't help battery consumption ! So after advice on here and a few YouTube videos I've pretty much solved the issue, don't want to tempt fate but haven't had any issues with the original problem I had. As I said though 3GB ram on the S5 would have been a good shout as when I've really stocked up on the apps there's an abundance of lag that is annoying and for a Flagship device regardless a year old or not I don't expect that ! So thanks for the help guys

 

[angelbowler2002]

What is Unified Daemon and why am I getting messages it has stopped?

 

[ironass]

What is Unified Daemon and why am I getting messages it has stopped?

Oh, angelbowler2002... I guess you missed #3.4.

However, as I am in a good mood and on my 3rd mug of Taylor's Rich Italian Roast, double strength, black coffee... here goes.

"Unified Daemon is an application for Weather, Stock, and News app. It shows the total data usage from ‘Accuweather.com’, ‘Yahoo Finance’, and Yahoo News’. The data is requested by Alarm, Desk Clock, S Planner, Camera, and Briefing app.

Data usage will be different according to settings of each user.

For example, data usage depends on how many cities set in the Weather app, and how you set the Stock or Category in Yahoo finance and news. If you want to reduce data usage by those apps, set a more suitable refresh period depending on your needs. "

As per #1.5, go to All in Applications and clear the cache and Data in Unified Daemon and reboot, to see if that helps.

 

[ironass]

This is a copy of a message that I received which I am posting here as I do not reply to PM's...

"Can you absolutely GUARANTEE that if I do all the things in your Update Problems Dummies Guide that my sh***y f**king phone that has been screwed with lollypop by google and samsung will work properly?

G900V"

My reply...

I see that you have the G900V, Verizon, Galaxy S5, so there are two things that you should be aware of...

1. Neither Google or Samsung are directly responsible for the firmware on your Verizon phone. As per #1.6 of 35 Galaxy S5 models - know yours??? the Verizon firmware is a heavily modified, by Verizon, hybrid of Samsung's TouchWiz firmware that is released directly by them and not via Samsung. Whilst there have been around 160 different Samsung S5 releases worldwide for Lollipop, it is the one, non Samsung, release for Verizon that is responsible for the majority of posts.

Please be aware that you are not running Google Lollipop or even Samsung's TouchWiz Lollipop but are in fact on Verizon's own version of Lollipop.

2. Whilst the recommendations in S5 Lollipop Update Problems - Dummies Guide will certainly help with any update problems you may experience, I am afraid that there are several things that the guide cannot do, such as, re-write the code for the Verizon version of Lollipop you are on and it cannot update it. Neither can it remove the myriad of modifications that Verizon has made to the stock Samsung Lollipop firmware and it also cannot remove all of the extra apps embedded by Verizon into their firmware that they have chosen to saddle you with and which, judging from the various posts, causes a performance lag and battery drain.

A great number of posters have said that wiping the cache partition has helped whilst other Verizon users have stated that a Full Wipe and Factory Data Reset has improved their phones.

You may also wish to consider reverting back to Android 4.4.4 until such time as Verizon can release an update for their firmware... whenever that may be, as it can take them up to 6-8 weeks to do so.

Hopefully, Verizon will base their next Lollipop update release on the Samsung OB7 Lollipop build of the 13th Feb. which has both the Mute Button and Screen Pinning enabled along with a great number of under the hood fixes. Given the aforementioned time scale, we should see an update release from Verizon for that around the end of March or middle of April.

Here is my final thought, for what it is worth... Why don't Verizon and AT&T stick to what they are good at, providing network coverage, and let Samsung handle the firmware and updates for them!


(N.B. These are personal views and not those of Android Forums necessarily)

 

[philayl]

I totally agree with what you say ironass, some people just can't see past their phone maker, or Google, I'm in the UK and am surprised by what I read on this and other forums about Verizon and their totally dysfunctional bloatware, why Verizon still have a customer base is beyond me, or are we just fortunate in the UK to have a myriad of network providers to choose from, if one doesn't get it right we just move to a better one, unless you are under contract that is, I always buy my phones SIM free so I can move to any provider I want, but I do realise that not everyone is in my position to do this. Phil

 

[ironass]

I totally agree with what you say ironass, some people just can't see past their phone maker, or Google, I'm in the UK and am surprised by what I read on this and other forums about Verizon and their totally dysfunctional bloatware, why Verizon still have a customer base is beyond me, or are we just fortunate in the UK to have a myriad of network providers to choose from, if one doesn't get it right we just move to a better one, unless you are under contract that is, I always buy my phones SIM free so I can move to any provider I want, but I do realise that not everyone is in my position to do this. Phil

Like you philayl, I am on the International, unbranded model, SM-G900F, and could not understand why Verizon and AT&T customers put up with the less than satisfactory firmware updates that are forced on to them by their carriers. However, EarlyMon wrote a very enlightening and informative reply, here, to some questions that I posed on the same subject of these carrier hybrid firmwares which have had a long history, through many Galaxy S devices, of being, shall we say, below par. Personally, if I were in the States, I would not touch either the AT&T or Verizon phones with two barge poles lashed together... however, unlike the U.K. and most of Europe where coverage is fairly uniform, in the States it would appear that you are sometimes constrained by a particular carriers coverage and network in your area, not to mention GSM or CDMA, as to which phone you can have. Also, there is no widespread availability of the unbranded phones that most of the rest of the world has and so therefore there is little incentive it would seem, for these carriers to compete on bloatware and regular updates.

I think that the thing that rattles my chain so much is when posters on these hybrid firmwares cannot differentiate between their release and the stock Samsung releases and start blaming Google and Samsung for problems that are unique to their firmware. This in turn can frighten the vast majority, 99.93%, of stock Samsung users worldwide into believing that Lollipop is totally useless when in fact there were nearly 100 Lollipop firmware releases prior to Verizon's, that went with hardly a murmur on these forums, see post #8.

 

[AZgl1500]

sigh.....

as a 20 year customer of Verizon USA, I will just simply say that I waded thru a lot of pain and money trying to find a carrier that would provide "good coverage". i won't bother with the long list of ISP names, just suffice to say a lot of them are now extinct for a darned good reason. customers left by the droves.

"In the beginning, Chapter Genesys", there were only Popsicle phones or flip phones and it did not matter who you were with "provided you could hear the other guy".

Then came Smart Phones and the world changed... Well, having been thru the pain of useless ISP coverage I am not willing to try and find another carrier and move my 4 family phones over to them. The expense would be horrific.

I think that when I can afford it, I will get a spare S5 and experiment on rooting it. Once that is working well enough to be stable, then I can move my SIM card over to it and try it out for a while.

In the meantime, I have discovered how to prevent Lollipop from installing and as the phone is working "very well" with 4.4.4, I am going to "leave well enough alone".
____________________________________
2 ea. Verizon Galaxy S5, 4.4.4 forever!, ART
MyPhoneExplorer lets you access a broken phone while locked
Nova Prime, Textra, Blue Mail, Qi wireless equipped
MacroDroid can help extend battery life
MacroDroid senses Screen off, turns Wifi & Data OFF
MacroDroid senses Screen on, turns Data ON

 

[ironass]

sigh.....

as a 20 year customer of Verizon USA, I will just simply say that I waded thru a lot of pain and money trying to find a carrier that would provide "good coverage". i won't bother with the long list of ISP names, just suffice to say a lot of them are now extinct for a darned good reason. customers left by the droves.

"In the beginning, Chapter Genesys", there were only Popsicle phones or flip phones and it did not matter who you were with "provided you could hear the other guy".

Then came Smart Phones and the world changed... Well, having been thru the pain of useless ISP coverage I am not willing to try and find another carrier and move my 4 family phones over to them. The expense would be horrific.

I think that when I can afford it, I will get a spare S5 and experiment on rooting it. Once that is working well enough to be stable, then I can move my SIM card over to it and try it out for a while.

In the meantime, I have discovered how to prevent Lollipop from installing and as the phone is working "very well" with 4.4.4, I am going to "leave well enough alone".
____________________________________
2 ea. Verizon Galaxy S5, 4.4.4 forever!, ART
MyPhoneExplorer lets you access a broken phone while locked
Nova Prime, Textra, Blue Mail, Qi wireless equipped
MacroDroid can help extend battery life
MacroDroid senses Screen off, turns Wifi & Data OFF
MacroDroid senses Screen on, turns Data ON

I do feel for you and all the other customers of Verizon and AT&T, AZgl1500.

Thanks to that post I mentioned by EarlyMon, I now understand why you have to put up with the things you do. I suppose that until networks like T-Mobile, etc; can cover your areas there is no other option for you. However, try and see it from the other 298 or so different stock Samsung firmware users point of view, who may come to this and other forums and see a disproportionate amount of complaints about Lollipop being a total and unmitigated disaster with users trying vainly not to upgrade to it, without realising that these complaints are, in the main, from 1 or 2 non Samsung released Lollipop firmwares that represent less than half a percent of the total firmwares that are actually released by Samsung.

Don't get me wrong, stock Lollipop is not absolutely perfect, otherwise we would not be seeing 5.0.1, 5.0.2 and 5.1 in the pipeline.

I can only but hope that the delay from AT&T in releasing Lollipop means that they are doing so on a later firmware release and that they have learnt from Verizon's over eagerness to get Lollipop out first. As for Verizon, they too should have learnt a lesson and hopefully, when they finally do get round to offering an update, it will also be on OB7 or later with the Mute Button and Screen Pinning as well as the other bugfixes.

 

[AZgl1500]

oh, I fully realize that there are a tremendous number of Satisfied Lollipop users out there.

I will in future posts make darned sure I state that I'm on Verizon.... I have always really tried hard to make all of my Verizon posts contain my special signature to make it clear as to what I am using, and who my carrier is.

In other plain vanilla Android posts, I do not use the signature lines as they are superfluous...


As to Verizon's next release.... I can only cross my fingers and pray to the Android Gods who show VZW's software engineers how to program , that they will make a proper choice of the next release version and in doing so, would actually give us poor suffering consumers a decent Lollipop platform to use
____________________________________
2 ea. Verizon Galaxy S5, 4.4.4 forever!, ART
MyPhoneExplorer lets you access a broken phone while locked
Nova Prime, Textra, Blue Mail, Qi wireless equipped
MacroDroid can help extend battery life
MacroDroid senses Screen off, turns Wifi & Data OFF
MacroDroid senses Screen on, turns Data ON

 

[angelbowler2002]

oh, I fully realize that there are a tremendous number of Satisfied Lollipop users out there.

I will in future posts make darned sure I state that I'm on Verizon.... I have always really tried hard to make all of my Verizon posts contain my special signature to make it clear as to what I am using, and who my carrier is.

In other plain vanilla Android posts, I do not use the signature lines as they are superfluous...


As to Verizon's next release.... I can only cross my fingers and pray to the Android Gods who show VZW's software engineers how to program , that they will make a proper choice of the next release version and in doing so, would actually give us poor suffering consumers a decent Lollipop platform to use
____________________________________
2 ea. Verizon Galaxy S5, 4.4.4 forever!, ART
MyPhoneExplorer lets you access a broken phone while locked
Nova Prime, Textra, Blue Mail, Qi wireless equipped
MacroDroid can help extend battery life
MacroDroid senses Screen off, turns Wifi & Data OFF
MacroDroid senses Screen on, turns Data ON

I too am on Verizon. And agree with you whole heartedly. [emoji6]

 

[jmatteis]

ROgers Canada customer here. My S5 is third party unlocked. Rogers has released the Lollipop firmware upgrade for the S5 officially, but I cannot update, stating that I have already downloaded the latest update (showing 4.4.2), they suggest, trying Kies, do that, and it also states that my firmware is up to date. Rogers keeps asking me about being unlocked and third party etc... Again through Kies, I do the firmware update and initialization, to which is goes through, shows that the current version is up to date but then says I need 100 MB free to do the update, I have over 1 GB... and I click okay and nothing happens... suggestions?

 

[ironass]

ROgers Canada customer here. My S5 is third party unlocked. Rogers has released the Lollipop firmware upgrade for the S5 officially, but I cannot update, stating that I have already downloaded the latest update (showing 4.4.2), they suggest, trying Kies, do that, and it also states that my firmware is up to date. Rogers keeps asking me about being unlocked and third party etc... Again through Kies, I do the firmware update and initialization, to which is goes through, shows that the current version is up to date but then says I need 100 MB free to do the update, I have over 1 GB... and I click okay and nothing happens... suggestions?

You can either take your phone to the nearest Samsung Service Point and see if they will flash the firmware for you or download the official stock Roger's firmware, below, and flash it via Odin by following the instructions and video in the links of #1.11 of 35 Galaxy S5 models - know yours???

Model SM-G900W8
Model name GALAXY S5
Country Canada (Rogers)
Version Android 5.0
Changelist 4100894
Build date Fri, 13 Feb 2015 08:51:06 +0000
Product code RWC
PDA G900W8VLU1BOB3
CSC G900W8OYA1BOB3

 

[jmatteis]

You can either take your phone to the nearest Samsung Service Point and see if they will flash the firmware for you or download the official stock Roger's firmware, below, and flash it via Odin by following the instructions and video in the links of #1.11 of 35 Galaxy S5 models - know yours???

Model SM-G900W8
Model name GALAXY S5
Country Canada (Rogers)
Version Android 5.0
Changelist 4100894
Build date Fri, 13 Feb 2015 08:51:06 +0000
Product code RWC
PDA G900W8VLU1BOB3
CSC G900W8OYA1BOB3

Very cool. If I do it this way, will it affect future updates? Rogers is telling me to give it a few more days as they are still rolling it out and of course, if that doesn't work, to factory reset the phone, which I hate doing... Does this new firmware reset the phone anyhow or just install over the existing one, leaving other settings etc intact?

 

[ironass]

Very cool. If I do it this way, will it affect future updates?

No. Providing your CSC code is RWC for Roger's.

Rogers is telling me to give it a few more days as they are still rolling it out and of course, if that doesn't work, to factory reset the phone, which I hate doing...

Give it a few days if you want. There should be no need to FDR your phone though.

Does this new firmware reset the phone anyhow or just install over the existing one, leaving other settings etc intact?

It is a, "No Wipe", stock firmware update as per the normal Samsung update. However, as with any flashing or update procedure, I recommend a backup.