***FIXED*** HTC Thunderbolt Google NOT Syncing AND Weather Widget WRONG LOCATION PROBLEM

[DCM*T*BOLT]

.... So, I decided there were just too many bugs for my taste and convinced VZ to let me bail and return it. I think the Bolt is potentially an awesome phone and was willing to accept a few flaws here and there, but the flaws/glitches just seemed to keep coming. When I discovered (on top of all the other issues previously discussed) my msg notification sounds would change on there own, or not work at all, and then discovered my video recording volume was almost non-existent, I decided that enough was enough. For the amount of money spent on this phone, I'm sorry, but I expect a bit more reliability and working features than that.

Thanks to everyone that chimed in trying to help. It was much appreciated. This is a great forum. I'm currently back to my crappy old Env Touch, not sure what direction I'm going now, perhaps give the iPhone 4 a try, or limp along waiting for the next batch of droid phones,... or even wait for the iPhone 5.... not sure yet ....

 

[destardi]

This is my first post on this site. I just registered moments ago. I registered because I have been having the same issues with my Thunderbolt that MANY PEOPLE seem to be having, and am very surprised at the lack of knowledge of the VZ tech support people at not being able to troubleshoot these very rampant issues.

I am on my 3rd Thunderbolt now, despite the release delay, I think they should of held back a bit longer until some of these common bugs that it seems likely thousands of people are having were fixed.

I have have had:
* hard to push / countersunk power button
* contacts disappearing issues
* Google contacts NOT syncing error
* weather gadget not showing my actual town

Ok, at the very moment, ALL of those issues are NO LONGER an issue -- here's the secrets

* power button --- easy-- hardware issue, ( probably bad spring) - return the phone for one that is not counter sunk ... first one I had was countersunk, could barely push it ... second one was up a tad more, one side a bit higher and was no problem to push, third one (this one) button is up as high as the volume button


* contacts disappearing --- (this is the short version of my discovery/fix) ... both Google backup and Verizon Back Up Assistant were up and running, I then discovered the 'double contacts' issue, I decided to delete the Google ones and doing 'that' also deleted about half of the Verizon contacts ---->>> At THAT POINT GOOGLE WOULD NO LONGER SYNC ---- yes, I did all the fixes that I have seen all over this sight, ...up to and including a factory reset with VZ tech support on the phone ... which did NOT fix the syncing issue...

---- what DID FIX THE SYNCING ISSUE IS THIS: .... RE-FORMATTED THE SD CARD ,... yes I know that seems like an odd fix... but as soon as I restarted , Google was syncing just fine. WARNING: SAVE YOUR CONTACTS FILE FIRST

..continued.... later that night, I re-created the same problem ( I was trying to decided on keeping VZ vs Google, I decided to delete VZ contacts and just stick with Google, when I deleted my VZ contacts ... SOME of my Google contacts also disappeared .... and It would NOT SYNC once again .... HOWEVER,... this time.. re-formatting the sd card and everything else I tried did NOT work .... I then decided to return #2 for #3 ...

THIS TIME, I did NOT even put the PIN in and set up VZ back up assistant..... and THIS THUNDERBOLT has been syncing with Google just fine .... !!!!

--- there is obviously a 'glitch' with both VZ and Google contacts syncing/linking at the same time, that screws up Google Sync .........



* Weather Widget / Wrong Location --- this issue I had with all 3 of them, showing near by towns, but rarely if ever showing the actual town I am in.

... moments before registering to this site I stumbled on something that fixed this issue on mine and decided that after all of the valuable info I have learned on this site (and others) that I wanted to contribute (give-back) in appreciation.

Ok, I know this may sound strange, BUT IT WORKED !!! .... I was in SECURITY settings setting up a numeric (PIN) screen lock. I had it set to phone lock after IMMEDIATELY ... I then locked the screen and unlocked it a few times, just testing it out....and I just happened to notice for a split second I thought I seen MY ACTUAL TOWN in the weather widget ... ,.. I was going back in to delete the security pin screen lock and when I went back to the home screen .. it was BACK TO A NEIGHBORING TOWN.. ,.. so,.. on a gut feeling.. I went back in set up the same screen lock/pin/immediately , went back to my home screen and WA-LA ... THE CORRECT TOWN IS NOW BEING DISPLAYED ... I deleted the screen lock once again..and put it back a few times...and my CORRECT TOWN is staying... ... during this process I only had Google location service checked... but just now I also checked standalone ...and I refreshed and my correct town is still showing...

Don't ask me how this worked... obviously a software glitch ......

I hope it works for you all .... good luck.....


--- I would love to hear if this works for anyone.... ???

I'm having these same issues; sometimes the time on the phone gets out of sync even.

/Hate to be 'one of those people' about spelling, but FYI - 'wa-la' is wrong; you mean 'voila' which is french.

 

[androidisforporn]

Using the instructions above ^ I fixed my contacts. But my time is definitely out of whack. Sometimes I'm in Orlando, sometimes Japan, I can't change my Home city in the clock app which seems to sync the time in your phone. Ugh.

 

[sisca]

my weather widget keeps telling me the weather in austintown, ohio. i live in texas. sure am glad im not in ohio, apparently it was 39 degrees and raining yesterday.

 

[Drew5150]

Well I say let's start with HTC and the widget. Why not give end users a choice in picking which weather service to use? Beautiful Widgets has the option.

And.. I just checked, for BW we have a weather choice of Google, or Accuweather. I have Google selected, and all is well, reporting my city of "Eastlake". Went back in, changed it to Accuweather, refreshed and BAM back to showing "Ohio" only.

If BW can have the option for users to select a weather provider, then I think HTC can do the same thing.

I was linked here from another thread. I have the evo on sprint and I have been using beatifuul Widgets since June 2010.

If I remember correctly back in june people complained that beautiful Widgets time was off, not wrong location. And back then it only had one option - Google. It was updated sometime last summer to give the option for accuweather. I switched to accuweather after that update. My location and time has never been off. Even when I travel. I just checked and its fine. Switched it to google and then back to accuweather. My time and location are still correct.

I have to question if the problem has anything to do with accuweather. If I were to guess, I would think the phone reports its location to the weather service and pulls based on that. Just a guess from my experience with my phone.

Though adding choice of service to the htc widget would make a lot of sense..

 

[MRW1215]

It's weird, because I've had my Thunderbolt for about a month, now, and suddenly in this last week, every time I turn the phone on, it thinks I'm in Anchorage, Alaska (I'm actually in Ohio...). So, the time is like four hours behind, and the location/ weather in the clock widget is off. Eventually, it'll fix itself (though sometimes it can take a long time...), but I don't understand why it didn't have this problem for the first three weeks I had it, and now, all of a sudden, it starts up thinking I'm all the way in Alaska.

 

[xtremevette]

So has their been any new update for the weather...my sprint HTC evo has been showing my state instead my town for over a month now. It does not update when I travel either. I went to mass and it still showed Tennessee...the state I live in.