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Help Is it time to give up my Razr M?

Several years ago I purchased a Razr M cell phone from Verizon. I really like this phone for it's size, weight and all around functionality. Recently, however, I seem to be having a lot of issues with the phone and don't know if there is anything I can do to salvage the phone or not. If there's something that I can do to save the phone, I would appreciate any advice given. Here are my issues.

  • The phone was once pretty good about holding a charge but now it seems that once I unplug the phone from the charger the battery drains quickly to the point where the phone might be dead within 5 hours of pretty much doing nothing.
  • Periodically the phone gets really hot to the point where it shuts down.
  • I've started noticing apps will simply stop running and the system will ask if I want to wait or start over. Contacts seems to be one that goes down frequently.
  • My apps don't seem to be updating automatically and when they do they appear to start to download and then either pause during the download for a long period or they stop and then restart the download.
Pretty much I'm getting sick and tired of having to have a dead malfunctioning phone and I'm not sure if there's an app that's causing all this grief or just the phone going south and is in need of replacement. I hate to spend money on something if the phone is salvageable but I can't figure out what's going on. Can anyone advise? Thanks.
 
Some of it might be the battery age and the need to replace it. Not my area.

For performance ... try a Wipe Cache Partition that removes all temporary data and doesn't touch anything else ... from the Motorola website ...

This will remove any temporary files that may be causing the problem, but will not delete your files or settings.
1. With the phone powered off, press the VOL UP + VOL DOWN KEY together + POWER KEY .
2. The device will display different BOOT OPTIONS
3. Use the VOL DOWN Key to SCROLL to Recovery and VOL UP Key to SELECT
Tip: If the device reboots, you may have waited to long to make a selection, you will need to begin the process again.
4. The device will display the Motorola logo and then the Android in distress ( logo with Exclamation mark)
5. Press and hold the VOL DOWN key, then tap and release the VOL UP key.
Tip: You can try this step, holding the phone in landscape. If you are stuck on step 5, try a force reboot by pressing the power Key and Vol Down key, and start the process again.
6. The device will display additional menu options (Text will appear in BLUE)
7. Use the VOL DOWN Key to scroll to wipe cache partition and the POWER Key to SELECT this option.
8. The device will then perform the partition wipe
9. Once the Formatting is complete, press the POWER key to confirm a REBOOT
11. The device will reboot and start the normal power up sequence .

You can run in Safe Mode (disabling all apps you added without uninstalling them). If the problems stop they are caused by an app or apps that you added.

... Thom
 
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The interface is clunky. The process makes a big difference. I wipe the cache partition on my Turbo every Saturday.

Safe mode is a great way to identify errant apps that you added ... from Verizon ...
  1. Press and hold the Power button until the options menu appears then release.
  2. Select and hold Power off until the 'Reboot to safe mode' prompt appears (approximately 1 second) then release.
  3. From the 'Reboot to safe mode' prompt, tap OK to confirm.
    linote.gif
    Allow several minutes for the device to power off and restart into Safe Mode.
    linote.gif
    Upon reboot, 'Safe Mode' appears in the lower-left of the unlock screen.
  4. note.gif
    Notes:
  • With Safe Mode enabled, test device and app functionality. If the previous issue fails to occur, the cause has been isolated to a third-party app and all recently installed or updated apps should be uninstalled.
  • Power cycle the device to disable Safe Mode, reinstall then test each app, one at a time, to identify which is causing the problem.
... Thom
 
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Thom,

Thanks for the reply. Well, after 2 days of use all I can say is WOW, what a difference. Where previously I could get about 5 hours of use (mainly standby time) from a full charge I've gotten about 15 - 16 hours of use out of my Razr. In addition to the extra time I did not experience any overheating issues either.

So what is it with the cache partition that seems to have caused the problem? Is it your opinion that it was the cache itself that was the issue or was it some app or apps that caused the problem? Are their known apps that have issues that the publishers are simply not addressing? My wife has the same phone as mine and most of the common apps we use are the same as well. We both took our phones off the charger at about the same time and when we stopped for lunch yesterday we both had about the same percentage of charge on our phones and since she wasn't having the issue I was having my conclusion was that it was probably some extra app I have installed or it was the cache itself that I was just unfortunate enough to have gotten corrupted. Any insight you can offer would be appreciated. Thank.

P.S. I had CCLeaner installed on my phone before I cleared the cache and removed it beforehand. I swore that CCleaner had some capability of clearing the cache partition without going through the rebooting process you outlined but now that thing are working right I'm reluctant to reinstall the app. Have you had any experience with this App? On a PC CCleaner is considered to be one of the best and safest apps you can use but that doesn't mean that on an Android phone it works that well. Let me know your thoughts and what your experience has been if you have any. Thanks again.
 
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I don't know what various cleaner apps do in regards to the cache partition. The standard process works and I do it once a week on whatever my current phone is (Droid Turbo currently).

It is the area where temporary files are stored by various apps. It can become corrupted over time and different apps start bumping heads. It could be a single app. It could be multiple apps. The result can be s slow down and an enormous battery consumption.

Because there are so many people and organizations involved in the Android environment the only way you can reduce your exposure is to periodically remove all residual temporary data and start over.

If left alone it will eventually get corrupted and you will drop into the same condition.

I wipe every week and never have to think about it.

... Thom
 
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Thanks again for your reply. One would think that in this day and age, the potential for one app waltzing on top of another app would be a thing of history but i guess we're still not there.I'm going to keep all the above threads and I'll probably follow your advice but perhaps not as frequently as you do. This may give me the opportunity to also see if I develop an issue if I fire up an app I haven't used in a while and I start having the same problem. I may reinstall CCleaner again to see of there's anything about cleaning the cache partition and If there is, I'll let you know.
 
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