S5 issues (EE Branded)

[Danjester]

My EE branded S5 is giving me no end of problems at the moment:

There's an inexplicable 250MB of data in IPsec Service that I can't delete. This is apparently tied up with VPNs, but I've never used a VPN on the handset.

Recently, the mic pickup is very poor on phonecalls. Restarting the phone doesn't fix it, nor does where I am, so it's not a localised cell issue. BUT what's odd is that it seems to only happen on calls, calls over Whatsapp are fine.

I am fed up with EE never sending updates. To my knowledge, they never even patched Stagefright. I've had no updates since 5.0, last April IIRC. Yes, I've checked for updates on the handset.

The phone was a replacement via insurance when I was on Orange. They replaced my busted S4 with an S5 (Which was nice) and it was an EE branded one. I'm now on an EE SIM-only deal. Reckon the phone would still be under warranty?

Went to watch a YouTube clip earlier, had no sound. Closed, reopened, still no sound. 30 mins later, working normally. Same thing happens when using the headpohnes, although removing and reinserting the headphones seems to fix that.

Will try and full wipe and factory reset, but wondering if that'll make any difference. :-/

 

[ironass]

You already know my opinion, via PM. I must say that EE have been very tardy in their firmware releases. As you correctly state, the last one, OD1, was back in April 2015, whilst the unbranded U.K. firmware, BTU, has had no less than 5 updates since then, culminating in, (if you discount the Marshmallow release that some unbranded U.K., BTU, users received)...

Model SM-G900F
Model name GALAXY S5
Country United Kingdom
Version Android 5.0
Changelist 5508620
Build date Mon, 05 Oct 2015 07:14:38 +0000
Product code BTU
PDA G900FXXU1BOJ1
CSC G900FOXA1BOJ1

If you flash the above firmware, using the instructions and video contained in the links of #1.11 of 42 Galaxy S5 models - Dummies Guide, you will lose any stock EE features, void your warranty and be unable to receive future updates via OTA or Kies/Smart Switch.

 

[Danjester]

How much of a pain is moving from OTAs and having to wait for a new ROM to show up online?

 

[ironass]

How much of a pain is moving from OTAs and having to wait for a new ROM to show up online?

You will need to root your phone and install a custom recovery such as TWRP, and learn about nandroid backups and Titanium Backup before you can flash custom ROMs, (as opposed to stock firmware), and this requires a good deal of reading and research on your part since their are numerous custom ROMs that are Good, Bad and Ugly, out there. For competent and experienced users, I would recommend the CyanogenMod CM13, Marshmallow release, nightly's. These are beta ROMs that are updated every day and are based on Google Android AOSP. For other ROMs and recommendations, see the Root - Samsung Galaxy S5 section of the forum.

 

[Danjester]

Did the full Wipe and Factory reset, will report back on how it goes.