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OTA update officially released 8/24/11...(MR-5 Update) Discussion thread

I had been having the random shutdown issue (but not the silent call issue) before the recent MR-5 update, and after doing the update and also doing a factory reset, I still have the problem.

My random shutdowns (or reboots) always seem to start happening after I've been using a memory-intensive operation, like taking pictures with the camera, playing music, using an internet radio app, using Google Maps, playing Youtube videos, etc.

Is there anyone else out there still having the reboot/shutdown issue after the update?

I'm guessing a phone replacement may be my only option at this point.

I'm less than a week from my 30-day return limit, so I'll probably have to act quickly in order to have time to make sure a new phone won't have the same problem.


I've had it once since MR5 but no other issues. Oddly, although the three items in the update don't mention it, I've seen ny 3g speeds double.
 
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I have seen 1 reboot since the update. I was hoping MR5 would fix that.

Only encountered 1 random reboot when I first got the phone and it hasnt happened again. Although Im using using a memory manager now and usually close out games or memory intensive apps when I'm done using them. I know I shouldn't have to worry about memory but I do.
 
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Had phone lock up five times yesterday. I installed latest OTA update on thursday. I can't get out to do it with any regularity though. all but once the gps was off. Not sure that is it. The only regularity I do have it's that most of my lockups have come on Saturdays??? Very frustrating, was hoping that OTA would fix that! EVO worked great.
 
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Have you tried the proposed solution of reformatting your SD card?
This solved the problem of random reboots for many people. The
reason is that phones format SD cards a bit differently. We had this
a number of times during my blackberry days as well but this siolution was also proposed in motorola forums.



Had phone lock up five times yesterday. I installed latest OTA update on thursday. I can't get out to do it with any regularity though. all but once the gps was off. Not sure that is it. The only regularity I do have it's that most of my lockups have come on Saturdays??? Very frustrating, was hoping that OTA would fix that! EVO worked great.
 
Upvote 0
Have you tried the proposed solution of reformatting your SD card?
This solved the problem of random reboots for many people. The
reason is that phones format SD cards a bit differently. We had this
a number of times during my blackberry days as well but this siolution was also proposed in motorola forums.


I have not reformated the card since the OTA update. But I did reformat from phone last weekend when I initially had all the lock up problems.

My problem is not a reboot rather the phone just locks up. Pushing the power button will not turn The screen back on. The phone is not powered down because the green led on front is flashing. Just cant turn on screen.

I left phone off of the charger last night and when I woke up this morning it was locked up. The battery level was down, but not drained as expected from phone being on all night. I had to pull battery so I could not get a battery history.

Is there a way to log what is going on on the phone. That way when it locks up maybe one can trouble shot that log file?

My phone is only a week old so I still can take it back and get a new one however before doing that I would like to have a little idea as to what is causing this rather than getting right back into same situation with a new phone along with all the lost time of setting up a here phone.

Thanks for all suggestions!
 
Upvote 0
Have you tried the proposed solution of reformatting your SD card?
This solved the problem of random reboots for many people. The
reason is that phones format SD cards a bit differently. We had this
a number of times during my blackberry days as well but this siolution was also proposed in motorola forums.

Ok - I don't want to jump the gun, but on the suggestion noted above, I did reformat my SD card with the phone last night (after copying important stuff to my computer, obviously) and even though I've been trying like $&%& to get the phone to "randomly" reboot in the usual annoying fashion - by using Google Maps with GPS and wifi running full tilt, playing endless Youtube vids, running the photo gallery slideshow ad infinitum, shooting video with the camcorder, etc. - I have yet to have a single reboot since last night at this time.

I guess I'll keep an eye on it for another day, but in any case it looks like I won't necessarily be rushing off to the Sprint store first thing Monday morning for a replacement, as I had previously planned (knock on wood!)...

It would make some sense that a problem accessing data on the SD card could cause the phone to seize up.

So, thanks for the above pointer! We'll see what happens...
 
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I was hoping this would fix the google location problem but it didnt, anytime i goole searchsomething and select location a lil pop up window wats to know which location to use, it doesnt matter what i select (current location by gps, or typeing in a city or zipcode) because when i select a city or location it recommends the process starts all over in an endless cycle, very aggravating, cant even exit out of the pop up because it come right back, anybody else have this issue or know a fix gor it, havent seen a thread on it yet, thanks
 
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You guys are making me nervous. My third photon is running near perfect since the update and my 30 warranty period is up today. I've made several calls, sent texts, used wifi/bluetooth, etc to see if there's any issues and none so far. If everything stays the way it is this is the perfect phone. (keeping fingers and toes crossed)
 
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You guys are making me nervous. My third photon is running near perfect since the update and my 30 warranty period is up today. I've made several calls, sent texts, used wifi/bluetooth, etc to see if there's any issues and none so far. If everything stays the way it is this is the perfect phone. (keeping fingers and toes crossed)

Although I'm only going on one week, since the update, doing a factory reset AND formatting both the internal AND external card I brought over from my EVO, I've had no issues thus far. I still love this phone and have no regrets whatsoever.....
 
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Knock on wood...I haven't had ANY issues since the OTA update. More importantly, the ONLY consistent issue (mute call of death) I was having, prior to the update, hasn't come up on any of the calls I've made or received. So unbelievably happy with the MoPho!

And seems like sales are picking up after the price drop, so hopefully there'll be more and more to continue the support of this phone. It's a beast, even without rooting the phone.
 
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I'd like to start by saying, the Photon is an amazing phone, I LOVE it!
I got one, my girlfriend, her best friend, and one of my co-workers also got one. So of the 4 Photons, mine is the only one with any of these issues.
I had the silent call issue at first, but no longer.
My phone would randomly reset... and seems to have stopped since update.
My phone also would freeze up and the screen would not turn on, requiring a battery pull (which I'm sure is mentioned in this thread). THIS HAS NOT BEEN FIXED

The update was done on Aug 25th, and yesterday the 28th, I was out doing errands with my child and girlfriend and the phone did this 3 times back to back. Very irritating, especially since mine is the only one of us 4 to ever do it

So, Sprint has a new one on its way too me and hopefully it works as smoothly as everyone else. Sorry for ranting :D
 
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You guys are making me nervous. My third photon is running near perfect since the update and my 30 warranty period is up today. I've made several calls, sent texts, used wifi/bluetooth, etc to see if there's any issues and none so far. If everything stays the way it is this is the perfect phone. (keeping fingers and toes crossed)

Any product - smartphone, computer, lawnmower, washing machine, whatever - will have a forum somewhere of people complaining about something going wrong with it. That's what people do with product forums; they search them for solutions to problems and post about their problems, hoping for answers. What you have to remember is that these people generally represent only a small fraction of the product ownership. The majority will be happily using the product with zero thoughts about posting to some forum.

The take-away: don't let the normal number of problem posts dissuade you from buying something. You'll drive yourself crazy if you try to hunt down the "perfect" device. From what I've read on these forums and others, if you were going to have one of the Photon's most well-known issues, it would have hit you by now. So don't worry! :)

Edit: I just noticed you said you were on your third Photon, so you're familiar with the problems. Third time's the charm, you know!
 
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... (snip) My phone also would freeze up and the screen would not turn on, requiring a battery pull (which I'm sure is mentioned in this thread). THIS HAS NOT BEEN FIXED

The update was done on Aug 25th, and yesterday the 28th, I was out doing errands with my child and girlfriend and the phone did this 3 times back to back. Very irritating, especially since mine is the only one of us 4 to ever do it\

Yes, the post-update freezeup (requiring battery pull) happened to me twice today on the playground with our kids, with plain-old reboots having happened a few times earlier this afternoon.

I was almost starting to rationalize the random reboots as being bearable, but the freezeups are most definitely not. I sure hope the replacement Photon does the trick.
 
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Any product - smartphone, computer, lawnmower, washing machine, whatever - will have a forum somewhere of people complaining about something going wrong with it. That's what people do with product forums; they search them for solutions to problems and post about their problems, hoping for answers. What you have to remember is that these people generally represent only a small fraction of the product ownership. The majority will be happily using the product with zero thoughts about posting to some forum.

The take-away: don't let the normal number of problem posts dissuade you from buying something.


I agree 100% you are always going to have problems with any product. Just because someone posts about an issue does not mean their product is a piece of junk. I personally love the Photon and the possibilities of this phone and the others to follow. Not happy with problem I am having right now, but I remeber when the EVO first came out, I had that phone also, and it had its share of problems to. People on this forum helped me solve alot of the issues I had with that phone as well.

The majority of the people posting here are posting to gripe, but there are also people posting here, wanting to help find a solution. Personally I would like to help find a solution, because this phone and it's possibilities will help me.

Now a little more on my issue with the phone locking up. I was reading on the Motorola website that this could be due to problems with a battery. I went to the sprint store yesterday to have the battery tested and my battery tested fine. The salesman again offered to replace my phone. After thinking this thru, I decided to get a replacement phone. Last week when I went in I did not get the replacement phone because I was hopeful that the problem would be cured with the OTA update. My opinion is that this issue is hardware related. I may be 100% wrong, but that is part of trobleshooting. The alternative would be for all these phone manufacturers to wait till they were 100% sure their phones were flawless, if that was the case we just now be getting the original EVO 4g.

So now that I have the new phone one of three things are going to happen. First the lockup problem has been cured, leading me to believe that this was a hardware problem, but that does not explain why others are having issue, unless they were getting older stock that also had hardware issues. Second the phone will still have the lockup problem, leading me to believe this issue is software related and another update can and will solve the problem. Or thrird the phone now gets some of the other issues reported on site, along with the lock up problem leaving me totally confused, HA!

Either way, I am here to help trouble shot these problems. If anyone knows of an app that can be installed to monitor the phone and save whats happening right before lockup, I think this could give valuable info.

By the way, did I say that I love this phone! I am typing this reply using a bluetooth keyboard and mouse. Currently I do not have the HD dock, its on order and cant wait till the LapDock is made avaliable for the Photon. The need to carry a laptop everywhere will be gone.
 
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Well, my phone seemed to be doing better on its own but after this update I can confirm my battery life has gotten much better. With normal use (calls, few texts, check email and twitter a few times a day on 3G service) Im making it to the end of the day with good battery life still left. Very happy about that.

SO happy to hear that Godfather. Hearing your situations had me a little on edge that it might pop up on my device at some point and cause my battery to drain like crazy. With all the troubleshooting you went through, glad to know that improved.
 
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