Gingerbread update from Samsung

[79pw4x4]

Let me start by saying that I have read the thread a few below this one, in that thread there's talk of the update crashing and bricking phones. The thread was started quite a while ago and had been idle for a long time. Have things improved?

Has Samsung fixed it's upgrade so that's it's now less likely to brick a phone? I want to do the update, but not at the expense of bricking my phone. Should I skip Gingerbread and go to JellyBean? My Infuse is not rooted, never has been.

 

[electricpete]

I've never done the OTA update, but heard bad things.

If you look for advice in the xda Infuse forums, OTA is not high amongst their recommendations, if mentioned at all.

Starting on Froyo - root using SuperOneClick linked on xda. Piece of cake.
Then you could use Heimdall to flash qkster's UCLB3 package. As long as you don't check "flash bootloaders", there's no way to perma-brick your phone in that process. And by the way qkster's package has bloatware removed which makes a big difference.

When you have root, you can have simple very good apps like:
Samba file sharing... put a shortcut to your phone files on your pc and access them from file manager (with small setup on phone).
DroidWall - block selected programs from accessing the internet. Save battery, more secure..
Gemini Apps Manager - block programs from auto-starting (assuming you don't want to freeze them) - great for programs you want but just don't want loaded all the time.. like google Maps.
and lots more...

ICS, JB, those take a little work to get to. I'm not sure it's worth it.
You don't need to be a rom-flasher to enjoy the many benefits of rooted phone on GB. That's where my phone is and I'm tickled pink with it.

imo.

 

[dlee1001]

Let me start by saying that I have read the thread a few below this one, in that thread there's talk of the update crashing and bricking phones. The thread was started quite a while ago and had been idle for a long time. Have things improved?

Has Samsung fixed it's upgrade so that's it's now less likely to brick a phone? I want to do the update, but not at the expense of bricking my phone. Should I skip Gingerbread and go to JellyBean? My Infuse is not rooted, never has been.

After UCLB3, the Gingerbread update, the Infuse has never gotten any more updates from Samsung or AT&T, and I think it's going to stay that way. Want proof that it hasn't gotten any updates after UCLB3? Go to http://www.samsung.com/us/support/SupportOwnersFAQPopup.do?faq_id=FAQ00003312&fm_seq=3480.

The Infuse is not even part of the Galaxy series. It hasn't even received ICS. Given that, it most likely won't get Jelly Bean either. The phone is done for, in terms of updates. Gingerbread too was half-baked, in my experience with it. Its release for this phone was a big fiasco last year up until this past April. So many delays last year ended with a broken GB update in February that caused another two month delay trying to fix it. But even after it was officially released, it had a lot of bugs that needed to be fixed in future updates, but none of them were fixed, even to this day.

If you have not updated yet, DON'T! It will mess up your phone big time. Your battery life will get worse, the phone will freeze up on you more often, and the GPS will almost stop working. At least, that was my experience when I had the Infuse updated to Gingerbread.

OK, maybe your experience could be better if you do a complete factory wipe before you try the upgrade, but I overall recommend sticking with Froyo, no matter how outdated that is now. Or maybe you have a better Infuse than I do and so yours might run GB better than mine.

As for me, I made the mistake of thinking that Gingerbread would make the phone run just as well as Froyo, so I updated to it right away, with disastrous results. I now think the Infuse was originally designed to work with Froyo, not Gingerbread; the phone was the most usable when it had Froyo.

 

[79pw4x4]

With Froyo my phone works fine, no freezes or anything, guess I'll leave well enough alone. I'll start looking for a newer phone in the spring.

Other than a few things that bother me with the way the stock email app works I'm happy with the infuse.

 

[andyrockstar]

I tried for a second time to upgrade my Infuse to GB, and for a second time I bricked the phone. It sat for hours stuck at 25% through the update with nothing going on. I even did a full GSM reset on the phone prior to doing the upgrade (both attempts). I don't know if it's a problem with Kies, or the fact that I'm using a computer running Windows XP SP3 (which shouldn't be a problem as it's a 32-bit machine). Getting the full Black Tie Protection thing at Best Buy has proven useful since I'm now getting a second replacement Infuse.

Looks like I'll be stuck with Froyo until I eventually upgrade to a newer phone. I don't want to bother with all the rooting stuff just yet.

 

[electricpete]

...If you have not updated yet, DON'T! It will mess up your phone big time. Your battery life will get worse, the phone will freeze up on you more often, and the GPS will almost stop working. At least, that was my experience when I had the Infuse updated to Gingerbread.

OK, maybe your experience could be better if you do a complete factory wipe before you try the upgrade, but I overall recommend sticking with Froyo, no matter how outdated that is now. Or maybe you have a better Infuse than I do and so yours might run GB better than mine.

As for me, I made the mistake of thinking that Gingerbread would make the phone run just as well as Froyo, so I updated to it right away, with disastrous results. I now think the Infuse was originally designed to work with Froyo, not Gingerbread; the phone was the most usable when it had Froyo..

First paragraph - sounds like good advice.
Second paragraph - could be that will help the OTA, I don't know.
Third Paragraph - Implied Gingerbread is the problem (maybe that's not what you meant, but it could be read that way). There's nothing wrong with Gingerbread. I've been running it on my Infuse for 6 months, no problems. It's the update method that's the problem. xda has update methods published and tried many times. It does take a little reading, but there is plenty of info and plenty of people there to help if you want to spend the time.