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Samsung Epic 4G Touch Owners Reporting Ice Cream Sandwich Issues

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We’ve heard from a number of Samsung Epic 4G Touch owners who are experiencing Ice Cream Sandwich issues after installing the new software.

Owners also let us know shortly after the original July 12th roll out that the Ice Cream Sandwich update was causing problems. In fact, it apparently got so bad that Sprint decided to halt the widespread roll out.

The carrier then restarted the Epic 4G Touch Ice Cream Sandwich roll out earlier this week though it’s unclear if the new roll out  solved any of the issues, as we and many Epic 4G Touch owners thought it might.

epic4gtouch1

The Epic 4G Touch ICS update has brought some issues with it.

What’s clear is that that the original Ice Cream Sandwich update for Sprint’s version of the Galaxy S II is causing major problems for owners.

We’ve heard from one Epic 4G Touch owner who spoke to a Sprint representative who claimed that at least some Epic 4G Touch owners who installed the update had seen their phone lock, freeze or become unable to receive calls.

We’ve also heard from some Epic 4G Touch owners who claim that they can’t read emails and that their device’s UI is now more sluggish than before.

Epic 4G Touch owners are also complaining about the usual poor battery life that seems to come with every major Android update.

And then there are those that are not seeing any issues at all.

However, it’s pretty clear that some owners of the device are struggling at the moment so it’s our hope that Sprint will issue a bug fix in the near future.

Anyone out there with an Epic 4G Touch seeing issues, even after the second ICS roll out? Or has your update to ICS been flawless?

120 Comments

120 Comments

  1. Cory

    08/02/2012 at 11:28 am

    My battery life has been cut in half if not more by the new update. Everything else seems to work normal. I’m considering complaining to Sprint till I can upgrade to the S3.

    • Herman Holmes

      08/05/2012 at 10:16 am

      I’m having the problem of the automatic light sensor coming on whenever I use the web browse,making the screen very dim even when it’s not on. I’ve taken the battery out,cleared cache changed settings
      nothing has worked. Didn’t have this problem before the update

      • Herman Holmes

        08/05/2012 at 10:54 am

        Update:Found that ics webbrowser has independent brightness control, problem fixed.

        • Rochelle

          10/26/2012 at 11:17 am

          Thanks for sharing… Problem resolved!!

      • rick renteria

        08/07/2012 at 7:46 am

        Go to website then click on menu tab bottom left. You will c a brightness tab . Click off the auto and go to 100 this will allow your settings to control brightness

      • Leanne

        08/07/2012 at 7:19 pm

        Have you solved the problem with battery life? I have the very same issue. The only solution I can come up with is hard reset which I am trying to avoid. Please let me know if you have come up with any successful solutions. Thanks

        • Lauren

          09/30/2012 at 9:30 pm

          Hard reset at the Sprint store back to ORIGINAL OS is the ONLY thing that worked for me with the battery issue!! Otherwise, my phone wasn’t lasting halfway through the day, on standby, with NOTHING running!

          Even the rep at the store told me to ignore all update requests until Samsung sorts out this whole mess.

  2. Ben

    08/02/2012 at 11:45 am

    After reading most of the post from the initial push of the ICS update for the Samsung Galaxy S2 (Epic 4G Touch), I just knew that Sprint would get it right the second time.  Well, being that I did not get the initial release as of 07/28/2012, I thought the one that finally showed up on the 07/31/2012 would be the correct one.
     
    1.  Battery Drains
    Since taking the new ICS update, the phone will not keep a charge for any amount of time.  I will explain.  I have charged the phone to 100% juice, and within 1.5 hours I found myself at 64% charged (mind you the GPS, WIFI, and Bluetooth were all turned off).  So I have yet to find what is draining the battery.  This was not happening before this update.
     
    2.  Signal and Connectivity Drops Constantly
    This evenings phone conversations where rather interesting being that the signal kept going in and out.  This is all new with this update.  I thought a new modem was being pushed with this update? Perhaps something was configured wrong.  Now the internet goes in and out like its not even there at times.  I am having to rely on a Wifi connection when I am at home because the normal 4G that I usually receive is not dependable now.  This is not looking good at all.
     
    3.  Clear Cache Suggested
    I followed the instructions of Clearing the Cache from the boot menu, and nothing has changed as of yet.  All of the above is still happening. 
     
    4.  Contact Pictures Blurry
    Through some testing on my own, I have found the problem with this one.  What I have found is that the picture assigned to the contact prior to the ICS update some how did not retain the size information or something.  Now that ICS is on the phone, I added a contact with a new picture.  When I expand that contact, the picture is not blurry like the rest.  So that tells me that ICS is handling the conversion properly but somehow maybe Gingerbread did not do something right when taking the pictures down to a thumbnail size.  This should be an easy fix.  The other fix would be to retake all the photos.  This is not an option.
     
    Well, this is all that I have found up to this point.  I will add more to this post as I uncover more.  In the meantime, I will have to carry a charger around with me to keep my phone going until they get a fix for this fix that fixed the first ICS problems.

    • Norm Kostuck, Jr.

      08/03/2012 at 7:51 am

      DITTO–I have the same issues and clearing the Cache did absolutely nothing to fix the problem. It is very frustrating to have to carry a charger just so I can use my phone.

    • Bill Rodgers

      08/03/2012 at 1:16 pm

      Ditto I have same problems.

    • Ben

      08/03/2012 at 10:26 pm

      As promised, I have returned to add to my list above.

      5. Device Sluggish
      The response and reacting time on the device has gotten much slower since the update. Apps are opening slow, and even preparing to produce a text message, it comes up slow.

      6. Phone is Hot
      The phone now is hot to the touch more so than ever.

      7. Screen Print Location Changed
      The location for screen prints use to be ScreenCapture. That has changed to Screenshots. Now a few applications are no longer working because they are looking in the wrong location with this change.

      8. Screen Print Function
      When did it become a requirement to check the Screen Print before accepting it. This has added a needless step to the process. Plus, the combo of Home+PowerButton only work some of the time now for taking Screen Prints.

      • Ben

        08/04/2012 at 5:59 am

        Found another small one….

        9. Contact Information
        The structure for name is labeled wrong. It reads Last Name, Middle Name, and Family Name. Should read First Name, Middle Name, and Family Name which is the Last Name. Just something small…

        • Ben

          08/06/2012 at 12:26 pm

          Well, I am experiencing two more issues. There is another one but I think others have reported it.

          10. Navigation GPS
          The GPS is not working. It sits here locked on looking for signal. This is a first. It worked flawlessly before the update.

          11. 4G Signal
          Today I watched the 4G go pass the sleep mode (zzz) to dead mode (x). The funny thing is that I have never had this problem in this area of town which is in the 4G coverage area. I did get the 4G to come back to life after I did a restart on the phone.

          This problem was reported when the phone originally came out and Sprint sent a hot fix out to resolve that issue. I wonder if sprint forget to apply that fix to the code for ICS.

          12. Text Message Sound
          It appears that when a text comes in while I am on the phone, the person that I am speaking with can hear the alert. That’s odd.

          • Glorimar

            09/11/2012 at 9:31 pm

            I am having the same problem with the txt and calls, when i am on the phone and i get a txt message it plays the song out loud and the other person on the phone and people around me can hear it. Help.!

        • Danielle

          09/24/2012 at 9:53 am

          You can change the layout in the settings how you view your contacts. I had to do this with mine.

    • LM

      08/12/2012 at 10:22 am

      I’m having all the frustrating problems as well. Today, the TwLauncher quit working; managed to get into the Play Store and download a simple launcher that is helping to allow me to use the phone apps and settings. Battery drain is horrible. And why was this update needed again???? :(

    • Alissa

      08/21/2012 at 6:05 am

      I am having all the same issues with the eception of contact pictures being blurry. I have not noticed anything diffrent there. My main issue is the battery life is horrible.

    • Gary Monte Shook

      09/14/2012 at 10:21 pm

      I had this issue too. So I reformatted my memory stick. Apparently it has a hard time reading your old files from gingerbread but it is set up so that it finds all your files and catalogs them for speedy processing. So my fix was format stick after ICS install. Then put my pics back on the drive. I backed up first of course.
      This seemed to fix a lot of issues. But still I was having keyboard freezing issues and other annoying freezing problems.
      So I did the best thing I could do. After having ICS for only 2 weeks, I updated to JB. They changed some things but no more freeze ups. Only issue I am having right now is my GPS won’t work. Good luck to all.

      • Robbo

        09/14/2012 at 10:59 pm

        How would one get GB, without eaiting for Sprint rollout.

      • Brian

        11/10/2012 at 2:59 pm

        Thanks for the tip. Reformatting my memory stick helped massively with battery drain.

    • pradeep

      09/20/2012 at 9:11 am

      I am facing the same issues after all the updates.

      My phone is turning itself off unpredictably( when battery was fully charged) , signal keeps dropping randomly.

      The fully charged battery lasts only 1.5 hours before it drains.

      One frustrating issue is that when I click a contact to initiate a call, the call doesn’t start immediately . The call starts after about 30 to 40 seconds later .This is so frustrating .

      Don’t know what solves these issues . I feel like using a basic phone instead .

  3. Greg

    08/02/2012 at 11:49 am

    Received my upgrade about two or three ago – NO problems that I have observed.

  4. Ryan

    08/02/2012 at 12:59 pm

    I had the ICS update, but rolled back to Gingerbread.

    The issues I experienced included:

    – Horrible battery life. Phone would last 8 hours with ICS, tops. With Gingerbread it would last all day.
    – Weakened signal. Kept dropping calls, could barely get a signal in the same area where I would get 3-4 bars before. I complained to Sprint and they gave me a free Airrave device, which pretty much fixed the problem.
    – Swype keyboard didn’t work on first boot. All I had to do to resolve this was reset the keyboard settings.

    There were some features in ICS that I really liked, but I’ll wait to upgrade until it is ready.

  5. Billy

    08/02/2012 at 1:20 pm

    Well I got the update when it first came out and have had no trouble at all….but I did do a data reset after it installed and it been working great but I do wish I didn’t have to wait for the ota have 3 more phones that are waiting on it!!

    • Ben

      08/02/2012 at 1:29 pm

      Pull the batteries out on the units that are waiting. Wait a few minutes, then power units back on. Then do a manual look for the update….settings, about phone, update… It should kick in..

  6. Kush

    08/02/2012 at 4:24 pm

    I’m SUPER frustrated. Spent the day at spring, though the staff was honestly really helpful in downtown san francisco, but that my battery life is basically half.
    1. When the update happened, i pretty much fried my battery. it still worked but was super hot
    2. spent the entire day at the sprint store. told them there are many issues online and to not flash my phone as nothing would change. THey did it and then saw the baterry issue.
    3. Bought a new battery. Stuff still sucks, but a tiny bit better
    4. Got sprint to get me a replacement, but i mean- whats’ going to be different.

    at that point, i asked them what happens now- if i get the replacement and it still sucks. They have no option but to give me a phone nowhere near as good. it sucks because i really like this phone!!!!!

    I did the manual updates, all that. Sprint refuses to help me get gingerbread back, and if i root it and do it myself, i lose the warranty on my semi new phone.

    CLASSIC.

  7. James

    08/02/2012 at 4:25 pm

    Email is complete failure on this update, does not display any emails correctly. Very unsatisfied about that but the rest of the phone is good. No sluggishness, No battery problems. Just a really whacked up email job.

    • Randy

      08/02/2012 at 9:54 pm

      Change your font size and it should fix the email…

      • Robbo

        09/05/2012 at 7:38 pm

        Yeah, what’s up with the font size change fixing the email. First I could not get any email at all – font size fixed it. Then all my email notifications were coming through in Korean (other notifications OK), again changing font size fixed it. Strange!

  8. techkraut

    08/03/2012 at 7:22 am

    I also experienced a number of problems after the update, but suspect that the fault lies (at least mostly) with apps that are not optimized for ICS.

    How often have you heard something like this: This phone/carrier sucks! The phone constantly did XYZ, but nobody could figure out why. They replaced my phone twice and it still does it! What is the problem? Each time the person gets a new phone, they immediately load the same apps they had on the last one. Lo and behold, it is as sluggish, buggy, battery draining as the last one.

    I would love to hear from folks that run a clean ICS version with no or few apps (especially none running services in the background). I suspect that a much lower % of those experiences any of these issues.

    • Kush

      08/03/2012 at 1:43 pm

      My reply is to tech kraut.
      I did it with a totally clean phone. sprint actually reset the phone and there is nothing on there, no apps loaded or any funny business, and it’s still horrific, I used to work at Tmobile so i know the deal on people being idiots with their phones and blaming the companies, but spring has ROYALLY fucked me in this situation. They won’t give me gingerbread back, and i void the warranty if i flash the phone. Even worse, even if we go back to gingerbread, the “UPDATE OS” message constantly will flash, they straight up told me that.

  9. Bill Rodgers

    08/03/2012 at 1:17 pm

    Ditto!

  10. D

    08/03/2012 at 1:56 pm

    Battery life now is abysmal and it now run SUPER hot, I cant charge it and do anything or it reaches 120°! Also the email doesnt update on its own only gmail. At least it has a pretty blue lining on some apps…

  11. Alan

    08/03/2012 at 4:09 pm

    I was having crazy issues with my phone too, poor battery life, sluggish response, etc. I ended up doing a factory data reset and now I can easily go all day on the battery….but ics still sucks. The ui is sluggish and sometimes takes forever to respond and typing with the new Swype keyboard is infuriating. The update down right sucks. Whoever Sprint had testing this worthless update needs to be fired.

  12. Maya Ayala

    08/03/2012 at 4:33 pm

    I agree with nearly everyone above!

    My phone is lagging now, the battery life is horrible, the device gets hot and I have already tried EVERYTHING that was suggested.

    At this point, I am convinced that Sprint needs to hire R&D personnel that know what they are doing and don’t release updates until they are PROVEN to work.

    This is ridiculous. I expected problems or issues. However, I didn’t expect for this fantastic phone to revert to EVO 4G like problems. The phone was wonderful with Gingerbread. I would have been willing to keep Gingerbread for a few more months if it meant that the ICS release would have been done right.

    Sprint. I sometimes wonder why I stick with you. You always make the other carriers so enticing.

    • Anniecom

      08/27/2012 at 6:53 pm

      I have all these problems, from no battery life, burning my hand, slow, wierd email problems…i called to complain and they acted like it was something I did. What it did to my Polish keyboard is a nightmare. I am so glad to know I’m not alone in these problems.

    • Lauren

      09/30/2012 at 9:37 pm

      I’m replying to everyone blaming Sprint: they are not responsible for this update. Samsung is. I have friends with this same phone on other networks, and they had the same update and the same problems. Ease up, y’all.

  13. Kris

    08/03/2012 at 9:03 pm

    Pulled the battery and still no update

  14. Kris

    08/03/2012 at 9:08 pm

    Pulled my battery and still no update! But with all the negative feedback I’ve seen really wondering if its worth it!

  15. jay

    08/04/2012 at 1:12 am

    yes the ics update sucks n problems as listed above. one major issue i hate after the update is when ur talking on the phone n if someone texts or calls the other person on the other line can hear it…..i dont kno how to turn tat off…..

  16. buster

    08/04/2012 at 11:01 am

    Yessssssssssssssss this update killed my battery like I can’t go a whole night without the battery draining without any use! The annoying sound when getting a message and talking on the phone, the phone lags more and has crazy spams that the screen goes crazy, the signal was never good so nothing changed about that and now when im using an app and charging the phone turns off automatically -______-

  17. Ali

    08/04/2012 at 1:12 pm

    Lower battery life was a major issue for me after the update. I think the problem is that the phone reception got worse after the update. So for those of us who live or work in areas where we do not get great reception to begin with, we would see a noticeable drop in battery life.

    Another issue is with the ICS update, upon receiving of emails, the notification light no longer blinks.

    At times, GPS would not work. This could be an App issue (I use Google maps and navigator).

    And the phone would get sluggish once in a while.

    All in all, after the update, the phone was no longer very reliable. As such, I went back to Gingerbread.

    I doubt Sprint will fix these issues. I suppose we will get some new phones close to the end of the year and they will sunset this phone.

  18. Brad

    08/04/2012 at 7:40 pm

    I had all of these issues. I however have had perfect results with a complete reset to factory, including formatting usb storage, and then reinstalling apps from the market. I did not use a back up to reinstall. Zero issues since and some of my reinstalled apps look a bit different.

  19. Nina

    08/05/2012 at 10:29 am

    It looks like I am having the same issues as most of you (battery life, connectivity, photos, email, sluggish), but I am also getting advertisements! Also, certain incoming calls are being rejected without any action on my part. My own daughter, who is on my Sprint account with me can’t call me. I was advised by a Sprint rep to reset to factory settings but she couldn’t confirm that Gingerbread would be restored; it works for some and not for others.

  20. SKIP

    08/05/2012 at 4:53 pm

    Love new update no problem s….

  21. Rich

    08/05/2012 at 7:45 pm

    I have the same problems- Battery, etc..
    Plus some others not mentioned.
    1) I had 1500 songs that lost the artist name. I attribute this to the new Google music app.
    2) Contacts lost, I could actually see their names disappear while scrolling the call log.
    3) Navigation talks to me in 3 different voices.
    4) Text keyboard problems with auto fill.
    5) Apps on home screen moved and replaced with others.

    Now, I am new to these dumb phones. No one told, or showed me to back up my contacts. Why do they need to be linked to a Google account? I had my contacts on my old flip phones for 8 years. I lost 140 in an instant.

    I talked to Sprint and asked them about their quality control and why they would let Samsung deliver a bad product to their customers. Of course there is no Quality control, we are guinea pigs. They referred me to Samsung, Stating it was my job to resolve issues with them, since I purchased a Samsung phone. Samsung stated they knew of the issues before release. Of course they passed the problem back to Sprint. What a run around, and bad treatment of customers. I asked about rolling back to Gingerbread, they told me it is impossible.

    I was able to restore my battery life by disabling the new apps put on my phone. I didn’t asked for them, nor do I want them. After all, It is MY phone, Right?

    I received a $10.00 dollar inconvenience credit. YEAH!. I told them to keep their money.
    Instead I would like them to teach THEIR customers how to back up their contacts, and create a quality control program to protect THEIR customers.

    • Terri

      08/08/2012 at 5:16 pm

      I have had such bad Sprint customer service it is beginning to be funny! Today a supervisor at a store told me if I wanted to order another phone to let her know by 5:30 as she was leaving to go on vacation! I will post my entire ordeal on a Sprint forum if you want to follow it–Probably in the next few days.

  22. Teslack

    08/06/2012 at 1:57 am

    I finally received the update for my S2 on the 4th of Aug from Sprint. Which in the first place was annoying because it’s so late (then when I heard they’d halted to fix bugs I was like ok I’m fine as long as it’s sorted…) Sigh.
    As with everyone else the battery issue was immediately noticeable. My phone can not go 5 to 6 hours even with a full 100% charge now. This is with having auto dimming, wi-fi, 4G, Btooth, GPS, even data sync completely off. Also some people have mentioned the heat issue. I was trying to charge with the original phone charger and the phone was extremely hot. Like I’d left it in the car in direct sunlight all day. Also charging the phone seems to take MUCH longer.

    Another thing that is really annoying is that my navigation won’t work in Google Maps. I can see the route based on my searched destination, but the phone always says “searching for GPS,” so no turn by turn navi. I’ve tested my GPS signal with 2 independent apps and it’s fine. It randomly stopped working in both GMaps and Telenav… when I had gingerbread; I heard rumors ICS was going to fix this, nope.

    Guess I’ll try a factory reset and see what happens. Worse case just buy 2 batteries and keep a spare for after that 6th hour… What a wash. This is Samsung’s game, let its most popular phone build up bug after bug and complaint after complaint just long enough for its next big release to come out. Then roll out barely tested updates (if any updates at all) to the users of the now “old” phone until they’re fed up and upgrade to the new product.

  23. david

    08/06/2012 at 8:53 pm

    Same problems as mentioned above.sprint needs to correct these problems asap.

  24. belinda

    08/07/2012 at 3:57 am

    the update has been okay. the only consent is blurry contact pictures. my battery life is amazing, but I see many of you aren’t as happy with it. I wonder what could be causing such battery drain for everyone else.

  25. belinda

    08/07/2012 at 3:57 am

    the update has been okay. the only complaint is blurry contact pictures. my battery life is amazing, but I see many of you aren’t as happy with it. I wonder what could be causing such battery drain for everyone else.

  26. Domingo

    08/07/2012 at 8:08 am

    After the Ics update my cell is restarting by itself very frecuently. I cleared the cache but still having the problem.

    • joeywalnuts

      08/07/2012 at 6:56 pm

      I am having the same issue. my phone is restarting 1 to 2 times a day on its own. i called samsung and they are saying i have to send my phone in for repair. sorry part is you lose your phone for about 20 days. this is TOTAL BS

  27. Greg

    08/07/2012 at 2:36 pm

    I’m a different Greg from the one above who had no issues. I have had most of the listed issues as well as some of my ringtones quit halfway through playing them. I had to use Kies Air to transfer the mp3 files to my laptop, remove them from the phone, convert the mp3s on my laptop to wav files and transfer them back.

    OTG(on the go) functionality is listed as something that ICS has native but on the E4GT, Sprint has chosen to block it? Not sure why and I am hoping that this is just a bug they will fix. With the OTG cable, I should be able to connect a jump drive to the phone but am unable.

  28. Terri

    08/08/2012 at 5:12 pm

    I have just had a cell phone nightmare—Too long to post here–I will post on Sprint forum–but I think it was the ice cream sandwich that messed up my phone–Does anyone have issues with the menu bouncing up and down constantly? To make a long story short, I called Samsung’s customer support and he walked me through the troubleshooting and reset my phone and now the menu issue is gone. My phone has been extremenly hot when charging, also. I have no comment about the 4 days I have dealt with Sprint about this.

  29. Chrios

    08/08/2012 at 7:26 pm

    Since the update this week I have had two major flaws:
    1. My 4G is not working (or the indicator is constantly stuck in the off position)
    2. My email accounts are unable to receive emails. I am constantly reminded to update my security settings, no matter what i double check, incoming mails are not retrieved. My mail was working flawlessly before the ICS update.
    Any help would be appreciated.

  30. Kris

    08/09/2012 at 1:04 pm

    Finally received the update not many problems just doesn’t seem to be as much of an update that i thought it was supposed to be

    • Greg

      08/09/2012 at 1:20 pm

      I’m having problems where I can’t edit or view anyone’s contact information without dialing it first. I press and hold the name and nothing happens. If touch the name and release it, it dials. It doesn’t ask or give any options.If I hang up the call immediately and go into history, a long press brings up the option to edit the contact information. It wasn’t like that with GB.

      My Swype resets itself to the generic keyboard at random. The Swype menu options look to be grayed out sometimes.

      Setting the cursor where you want within text is nearly impossible. It makes editing text extremely difficult.

  31. ryan

    08/09/2012 at 2:58 pm

    I work for a Sprint store and we are seeing at least a dozen people a day coming in to complain about their Epic 4G Touch since the ICS updates. Even the ones that got the 2nd version are having identical problems.

    The problems reported to us so far include:

    – Signal issues
    – Phone signal bars jumping constantly
    – More roaming than normal
    – Sluggish software
    – Wifi not turning on or phone not recognizing an existing network
    – Phone resetting
    – Problems connecting to a laptop

    Wiping the phones has been our only option and will fix some of the issues. This however does not fix everyone’s phone. The best result so far has been rooting the phone and going back to Gingerbread.

    • Greg

      08/09/2012 at 7:28 pm

      Completely wiped mine and am still having problems. Slowly re-downloading and installing apps. Lost some notes that I thought I had backed up. Hopefully Sprint will release a fix. This has been horrible!

  32. chris

    08/10/2012 at 1:53 am

    So frustrated, ditto to all the problems above. Out of all things, battery life is probably most impacting to daily use. Used to go at least a full workday with light-to-moderate use prior to needing a charge. Now will make only 6 hrs or so, and that is with NO usage!
    Amongst other things though:
    – laggy user interface including long lags in keyboard
    – intermittent freezes of lower buttons
    – wi-fi issues
    – charging way slower
    – phone runs hot
    – gps/navigation sometimes won’t give directions despite GPS lock
    – interesting that someone mentioned navigation given in different voices cuz I noticed it but didn’t associate it with the update until they mentioned it
    – dropped calls

    So frustrating. Sprint really needs to issue an update fix. Please help us!

  33. Greg

    08/10/2012 at 5:40 am

    I don’t usually use the voice on the GPS but decided to try it. I get no voice at all! I was also dropping calls and thought it was the building I was in. Now I’ll have to check that too.

  34. David

    08/10/2012 at 7:32 am

    I too experienced all of the issues mentioned in this thread.
    I went in to the local Sprint store and found a kid who was finishing his first day on the job.
    He was very knowledgeable with Android OS issues and advised that unfortunately, he needed to factory rest my device. I was sceptical at best, assuming I would get caught in the service loop of Sprint and be without a working phone for awhile. But after exporting everything from the phone to the sd card. We told it to reset. Upon boot, it popped up a message that it had finished the update. The TouchWiz interface is still there so it doesn’t really look or feel too different but the changes are noticeable.
    All of a sudden GPS works fine, streaming is good again, my bluetooth is connecting fine, and almost all the other problems seemed fine too. The only issues that remained were my battery life, and my exchange email continues to prompt to change the security settings.
    I went on to some Sprint forums and found a post that indicated the battery drain issue is because of the cache partition on the device. After the update it doesn’t allow components to turn off automatically, so they stay on and vampire the battery. Wiping the cache partition on the device proved to restore my battery to basically what it was before.
    I still haven’t found an actual fix for the email issue though.

  35. karen

    08/10/2012 at 7:07 pm

    Im also having the brightness problem and the network connection is worst then ever. At home i usually have pretty good 3 g / 4 g connection but every since is the update it’s been horrible. Sometimes its almost impossible to do simple browsing or even watch youtube.

  36. joe g

    08/11/2012 at 1:17 pm

    I just received the ICS update (I’m assuming the second rollout because I just got it late last night), and I’m not even halfway through my day but I am extremely frustrated with the lag on the phone now.

    My GS II and I were best buddies until this morning when I woke up to find that ICS had ruined all the wonderfully snappy and accurate performance of this phone. UGH.

    I unplugged my phone at roughly 8am this morning, and now it is around 1:15pm, and my phone is at less than 36% battery. I have only been lightly using my phone while connected to WiFi as I am at work. I have probably sent a total of 20 texts today and made one phone call.

    This is unacceptable. I feel like I want GB back, but what I really want is Sprint/Google/Samsung to figure out why the very LAST people to get the ICS update received the worst compatibility/performance issues as well.

    Lame lame lame. And frankly, I dont want to have to wipe my phone and possibly root it just to go back to GB.

    Help, please.

    • Krissta

      08/13/2012 at 7:57 am

      As I said in my post, here’s how I fixed the battery drain:

      Pull the battery for a few minutes, put it back, boot it up in the special mode (hold the power and the up volume button), and dump the cache. Rebooted it and let it charge up.

  37. Krissta

    08/13/2012 at 7:55 am

    I got the upgrade on Sunday, and the battery life was terrible. I’ve never had a phone battery die on me before, but it did. I plugged it in and let it charge just enough to pull the battery for a few minutes, put it back, boot it up in the special mode (hold the power and the up volume key), and dump the cache. I then rebooted it and let it charge up. So far, so good, except it rebooted on me twice this morning! It’s never done that before! I’m hoping it was just a fluke. I’d really hate to reset my phone. :( ICS seems really nice, but seriously? This is ridiculous. I switched from an iPhone to the Epic 4G Touch so I wouldn’t feel that I couldn’t do what I wanted to. But now, I feel like in order to use the phone to its full potential, I need to root it. Really? Seriously? I have to root my phone to be able to use it? /sigh

  38. Jenn

    08/14/2012 at 4:31 am

    I have the same thing happening :-( Not happy at all…after Sprint shocking five HTC Evo’s at me, the S2 was a blessing….ran flawlessly. Now it runs like an Eve….sigh. Not pleased at all.

    • Greg

      08/14/2012 at 6:39 am

      As a follow up to prior posts I’ve made, I took my fully charged E4GT and played a word puzzle game for about 30-40 minutes. Battery dropped from 100% to a whopping 15% with a low battery warning. My wife starts in with “What the heck is wrong with your stupid phone?” I could only answer “ICS”.

  39. Sam

    08/14/2012 at 4:33 pm

    Bad, and lost 4G wimax connectivity.. Hard reset not correcting issue.

  40. Greg

    08/14/2012 at 4:45 pm

    Here at the Jersey Shore we have no 4G, so I have no way to test my 4G. I’ll have to find a 4G area to try it out. I don’t know what Wimax is, so I don’t know how to check that.

  41. Greg

    08/14/2012 at 6:19 pm

    Just got off the phone with Sprint’s repair center and they said that they know the OTC updates are broken and they can manually update in the store to replace the broken update with a good update. Well post tomorrow to let everyone know if it works.

  42. Greg

    08/14/2012 at 6:56 pm

    Had all kinds of issues with ics, battery drain, locking up, can’t open Google play music, sometimes it won’t wake up, and I can feel it warm in my pocket, ugh give me gingerbread back!

  43. Doug

    08/15/2012 at 4:37 am

    Like everyone else, same issues, I won’t let my wife’s phone update. Ever since ICS all kinds of issues, can’t use several apps now too. Calling Sprint today and staying on with them until I get a new phone. This is ridiculous! No 4G, battery issue, email issues, can’t use apps, browsing issues, etc. Use to be a good phone. Who’s update is this, Samsung or Sprint? I’m done with it…..

  44. Doug

    08/15/2012 at 5:55 am

    On phone with Sprint now getting escalated through Managers, but they’re all basically telling me sorry about your luck pal. All they want to do is “sell me” a new phone. They need to eat this. They F@%*%^ up, they need to eat it. If I screw something up in my business, I have to fix it or eat it. and my wife’s phone (S II Epic Touch) is still trying to update with no option to end it. BS! I’ll let you know what the next Manager says……

  45. Doug

    08/15/2012 at 6:45 am

    …..The Only resolve offered by Sprint was to “allow me” to put insurance on my phone at $8 a month and then go to the Sprint store to see “IF” the will replace the phone under the insurance policy. And IF the replaced it, it would be with a refurbed phone. Probably with ICS already on it (Which I do not want), or with GB on it which then I will have to contend with the Update now, update now, update now, issue. I’m calling Samsung now…..

  46. Doug

    08/15/2012 at 7:12 am

    Just got off the phone with Samsung. Their resolve? Send the phone in, we’ll fix or replace it. “You will be without your phone for 2 weeks” Feck! Now what? Guess I will put the insurance on the phone ($8), go to the sprint store, make them replace it, then cancel the insurance, then hold my breath! This Sux! Banging head against wall…..

    • Greg

      08/15/2012 at 11:58 am

      Just back from Sprint. They said the people who are having problems generally got their OTA updates through 3G. Had I gotten it through wifi, I wouldn’t be having these problems. This doesn’t sound right to me. In any case I am now waiting 2-5 days for a replacement phone. I hate having to reinstall all of my apps. I really hate discovering I forgot to back something up and it’s now gone forever. At least I get to keep my current phone while I wait.

      • Doug

        08/15/2012 at 12:22 pm

        What are they replacing it with? S III Epic Touch Refurb?

  47. Greg

    08/15/2012 at 12:30 pm

    “Certified” refurb Epic Touch. If I still have problems I’m going to push for an S III.

    • Doug

      08/15/2012 at 12:33 pm

      Yeah, when the Exec gets back to me tomorrow, I’m going to push for the 32GB S III and not take no for an answer.

  48. Doug

    08/15/2012 at 12:32 pm

    I escalated mine all the way to the top, “VP of Customer Experience” then was kicked back down a few rungs. I just got off the phone with an “Executive Analyst – of Executive Regulatory Services” Bottom line after much aggravation, She informed me that they will be replacing my phone. What a headache! Not worth it, but the squeaky wheel gets the grease. Bottom line though, we are stuck with ICS until JB (Jelly Bean) comes out. WHich is suppose to be sweeter than….. Well, Jelly Beans of course!

    We live and learn

  49. larry

    08/16/2012 at 4:24 am

    Sprint is THE WORST of the cell carriers. Their technical staff is hit or miss as to having any real knowledge. I have owned my S24G since November 2011. It’s the worst phone I’ve ever had.

    In a conference call with Samsung and Sprint just 2 evenings ago, the Samsung rep said straight out that I need to downgrade my phone if I expect to have one that works correctly…that is to mean one NOT RUNNING ICS….. Imagine that… I”m so pissed.

  50. Jeanette

    08/16/2012 at 11:44 am

    I received update… Now my blutooth is no longer compatible, my 2010 hyundai santa fe is no longer compatible, my background picture saved from my own gallery is only allowing half the size of my actual picture and then enlarging it to fit the screen which makes it a fuzz ball. It reboots itself randomly. Tells me I have notifacations. When I try to open notifications there are none. I receive 1 out of three texts sent to me. Even now typing this my cursor is 3 letters behind my typing and no longer allows me to enlarge the screen to read it. I could go on… Have been to sprint so many times they know me when I walk in the door and sit me right down to try whatever they can think of to help. Still no hope.

  51. Ben

    08/18/2012 at 6:05 am

    I am sure Sprint is not concerned with any of our problems with the update. If they were, another one would be out correcting these issue. However the case, Samsung must not be concerned either if they are not making Sprint resolve these issues. You cannot tell me that Samsung sent this release to sprint in this manner. No. But you can tell me that after sprint put all their stuff and hooks in the release, it caused issues with the stability of the release. Maybe this will be the straw that breaks the Camels back and push people to the iPhone with AT&T because the one on Sprint is not the same.

  52. TJ

    08/19/2012 at 7:13 am

    Galaxy SII-Epic 4G Touch.

    I’ve had the update for nearly 3 weeks and it sucks so bad, that I’m thinking of throwing this phone in the ocean!

    Upon a full charge, phone freezes, battery magically dies. You plug in charger, it shows that you have about 60%, it loses network connectivity, works for a minute, then does it all again! They should at least give us a bill refund. This is ridiculous!!!!

    • soua

      09/08/2012 at 11:31 pm

      I have that same problem. I’m thinking it’s some kind of incompatibility with some of the programs. Like I said below, watching videos is fine but using apps will kill the phone.

  53. mee

    08/20/2012 at 8:07 am

    I had really bad battery but i turned off my 3g and its helped alot

  54. Alex

    08/20/2012 at 2:19 pm

    There is a known issue with this build where the phone does not go to sleep when the notification light is on which has big battery impacts. You can switch “Pulse Notification Light” off which helps.

    I personally just did a factory reset on my phone. It took close to an hour to finish all the automated updates. Since then I have kept most apps off the device to eliminate the possibility of apps causing issues. My performance has been very good and so has battery duration.

  55. Greg

    08/31/2012 at 5:54 pm

    Got the latest ICS update and the only difference I see, is that every 2nd or 3rd app I try to use gives me a black screen for 20 seconds or so before finally telling me the app has stopped. Also, running apps often crash with the 20 second black screen. Even Pandora crashed this way, all the while still playing music in the background!

  56. Kimberly Perrye

    09/01/2012 at 5:00 pm

    Anyone else have issues with their Gmail Acct Contacts Failing to Sync after the update to ICS? I also am having issues with my calendar sync – and all Gmail Acct related syncing across other devices (Android tablets, Apple iPads, etc) either doesn’t work or has problems. My other issues are: very poor battery life, phone is HOT, Burns to touch, poor or total lack of Sprint Signal -all types 3G, 4G & CDMA/voice, ‘hijacks’ my wifi/IP addresses from my other devices, turns off/reboots randomly, SLOW AS MOLASSES, SIGNIFICANT LAG when typing & performing any type of input, this weird ‘Weather Alert’ has appeared on every single day of my main Gmail Calendar (High & Low Temp for the WRONG city, “Arrendondo” I think) with an irritating ALARM that goes off twice a day and no way to remove it bc the entries are daily but separate and go on into perpetuity-aargh!, heavily used Apps like Facebook FC or have lost former functions or won’t operate consistently (ex: The photo upload/post feature suddenly stopped working this week on FBook– it will go through all the ‘steps’ properly and the progress bar will look normal, but at the end will say cannot be uploaded or upload failed– over & over no matter how many attempts are made or whether or not Wi-Fi or 3/4G is used)……and that’s not all. I’ve called Sprint and got NOWHERE. The no longer working Gmail Sync, especially my CONTACTS, is irritant #1 & the lame battery life and poor signal tie for 2nd place. Any news of a fix or maybe free Samsung Galaxy Note 2’s for all of us as an Apology….because that’s the ONLY thing that MIGHT make it up to me/us!

  57. Julie

    09/04/2012 at 10:22 am

    My battery life has dwindled to next to nothing. I charge my phone overnight and then by 11am I have to charge again, and then again around 6pm. I spend more time charging my phone than using it.

  58. Luis

    09/06/2012 at 10:16 pm

    Just want to add my two cents to all this. I received the ICS update about 2 weeks ago and from the get go I had problems. First off, battery life was cut to half. Second, When i would try and use the GPS nav I would get a lot of “searching for GPS” and it would not fix on the sats for about 3 minutes or more. But the worst thing that happened, and I have not seen any post so far, is that ICS is frying the micro SD card. I lost my first one about 2 days after the update. I figured a fluke. Went out and bought a second and a week later it fried the second. Prior to the second card going out, the phone went into reset mode and kept cycling off and on. I took the phone to sprint and they rolled back the phone to Gingerbread with not even an apology or offer to replace the one of the 2 sd cards got fried.

  59. soua

    09/08/2012 at 11:27 pm

    Anybody have a problem with the phone dying? I’m pretty sure it is not my battery because when I watch videos, the phone will drain down like normal. But, if I use the internet (even on a full charge) phone dies at about 85%. Phone can power on but dies before the start-up. I can turn it on only if I wait over an hour.

  60. Annette

    09/09/2012 at 10:11 pm

    I received the 2nd ICS update on 9/8/12. And where should I began with all the ISSUES!!

    1. Battery drains even more after 2nd update. You can actually see the battery draining in settings as the numbers go down when your not evening doing anything and during processes. When the battery is fully charged there are 2 battery icons in the status notification bar left side and right side. Also, while connected to charger once fully charged
    the phone says 100% as soon as you take it off it says 99 or 98% battery….wth!

    2. Calendar no longer gives notification/reminder alerts when set or it decides to come thru 2 or 3 days late.

    3. Power saving mode ~ u have to constantly reset manually after charging your phone. And there’s a dialog box that tells you this every time. It only automatically resets if you turn your phone off to charge. Before once you enabled power saving mode it would automatically remained set.

    4. Misssed Phone calls, Emails, and Text messages the notification light doesn’t always blink. This was not a problem before.

    5. Every time the update is done it resets my phone back to the factory pre~installed games/apps.
    Example: I uninstalled Nascar and purchased the full version of Nova 2hd. Nascar is back and my purchase of Nova was deleted with no link to the original factory install. I had to go to Gameloft and download the entire game again which has now created 2 icons for the game.

    I have also experienced the emails not being able to read, phone hot, and compatibility with music downloads not playing. This is so frustrating especially when you pay so much for a phone that was working fine before this major upgrade.

    • Robbo

      09/09/2012 at 10:54 pm

      Annette,
      You can likely fix the email issues by changing font size in email options a couple of times. You can change the font back to its original setting when things start looking right again.

      I believe the 2nd battery icon (on the left) you mention is simply the notification that your battery is charged – when you clear the notification/unplug the phone, it disappears.

      I’ve found that many of the common problems seem to disappear/diminish after a few days and frequent powering down of the phone. Seems almost as if it takes a while for the update to work its way through all the apps/functions. After 4-5 frustrating days of frequent power downs and occasional inability to send/receive calls/texts, I no longer needed to do this.

    • Nick

      09/21/2012 at 1:44 pm

      my evo was bloated with NOva.. i had serious issues with that company, as the game would be running in the background by itself.. start itself.. and its permission involved being able to read your phone data, texts and calls.. hmmmm .. i agree tho the gs2 was an awesome phone, now i feel like i just have another EVO.. how can such a public outcry be ignored so badly

  61. Jerry

    09/11/2012 at 12:07 pm

    not only has my batter life been cut down to less than half, now my phone overheats and shuts off when browsing the internet, even on wi-fi. I have everything turned off and even uninstalled most apps. I’m no longer using the batter % indicator, but nothing seems to help. I’m ready to take my phone to sprint for defective but not sure I want a refurb.

  62. Corey

    09/12/2012 at 12:16 am

    I am pretty upset that flash is no long supported.have not seen battery or heat issues but the phone does randomly turn off even a couple times during important calls.text message alerts can be heard by everyone during calls..not to mention nothing to do with ics but sprint refuses to give Phoenix..something like the 5th largest city in America any 4g coverage.I’m considering paying the outrageous cancellation fee and going to Verizon.Sprint just does not seem to care about customers

  63. Jon A

    09/12/2012 at 11:55 pm

    Just I installed the latest update for ics, build Fh13, and I couldn’t be happier. Battery life is back to stellar, and I got 20hrs of moderate use with 4G on all day today.
    Gps is working great.
    Only complaints: update reinstalled bloatware
    Loss of signal seems to occur much less often but is still an issue
    System update did not upgrade my phone to a gs3, and nor did it give me money.
    Lol

    Really though, install that build if you have an e4gt and you will love your phone again :)

    • Jon A

      09/13/2012 at 12:00 am

      One more gripe… It appears since flashing from gb to ics my pixel density has decreased, or they tweaked the resolution or something. My animated wallpaper used to look incredibly crisp and now it’s not as clear. Also my car mode widget is stretched, and text looks a little fuzzier.
      Fh13 gave no improvement on this issue… Has this happened to others?
      Has anyone found a fix?
      Pics and movies are not affected at all, it seems to just be any wallpaper and text.

  64. Heath

    09/21/2012 at 7:34 am

    since the upgrade, i have had horrible battery life. the bad part about it is that i got my s2 and upgraded like 2 months after the 2nd rollout. I don’t know if it changes anything but i have the d710 on the fh13 build. i have tried the hard reset and it didn’t fix it.

  65. Nick

    09/21/2012 at 1:40 pm

    I did the same thing.. ICS destroyed my phone, all the issues everyone is having.. i LOVED my gs2, navigation was amazing, everything was fast.. quality screen etc.. I also live in VT and the cell service is spotty.. data connections have been crap since early this year.. can’t watch any videos on 3g, too slow.. called sprint NUMEROUS times regarding my coverage, and got every excuse in the book.. was told they’re upgrading towers to 4g, that ”oh you’re out of the service area” etc.. something changed period.. and it’s not me.. i called and called. probably spent 5 hours total on the phone with them.. and finally got sprint to get me a new phone (Yes NEW, not refurb.. but it was gs2, and it already had ICS on it) phone seemed sorta ok for a very short period of time.. now it lags constantly.. locks up for 30 seconds at a time, internet connectivity is horrid.. tried to google a street on my maps, with 5 BARS, and 45 seconds later it still hadn’t loaded!!! what the HELL!?!? calling sprint repeatedly does nothing it seems like.. i want a phone that works like my original gs2 ..

  66. Nick

    09/21/2012 at 2:02 pm

    can’t seem to download from any of those sites

  67. NR

    09/21/2012 at 10:03 pm

    I’m gonna hire hackers to take down Sprint ‘so network. I’m done with lies. Also you do NOT have to pay an ETF. PERIOD. REGUSE

  68. George Anderson

    09/28/2012 at 1:08 am

    I’ve had all the same issues especially with battery and sluggishness. My once fluid phone gets stuck until i go back and try again or just locks up for up to a minute. Gps lock issues too. I am on 4.0.1 about to start looking at roms to downgrade…any errors on when we get jelly bean?

    • George Anderson

      09/28/2012 at 1:15 am

      O yeah, and several times I’ve had people call and the phone won’t ring or even register a missed call.The only indicationi get is a voicemail only of they leave one. I know of 4 times this has happened specifically. Who knows how many times its happened without my knowledge. One of the times was for card verification american express has to hang up and call be back directly. He had to call 3 times before it actually rang for me. 4 bars the entire time. Never happened that i knew of before ics

  69. Diana Trabel

    10/01/2012 at 9:28 pm

    We are also experiencing these same problems after the Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade. Battery life is down to about two hours, the phone gets very hot, and the GPS is no longer working as it did before. We are also having the same issue with calls either not being completed or waiting forever for it to call the number being dialed.

  70. Michael Gallegos

    10/06/2012 at 6:40 am

    Ive been througt 3 phones problems with all programs , camera won’t auto focus ‘ phone pad locks up and freezes , menu button keeps poping up and down screen brigtness keeps resetting to auto brigtness eaven though you select manuel setting ,horrible3g service , back key keeps automaticly backing out of programs., pandora won’t play just scrolls throught songs and won’t play . On my third replacement phone and what ever you do dont install the FF13 update . You will have to whipe the phone and start over!!!! Now the phone keeps promting me to install update when ever you go to google play or just on it’s own verry obnocious .you just have to press install later and clear your notifacations to get rid of it temporaely .as I am wrighing this just got another notifacation to installi it FF13 won’t let you up grade your PRL contacted sprint and they said ” dont’install it when prompted to just press install phone just kicked me out of me wrighting this to install it and my curser ended up in the middle of my text field . I have FF-18 build number phone works good now but update pops up at any time promting you to install it contacted sprint to tell them they said ” they don’t controll whats on google play ” and the problems may be corrected when samsung comes out with jelly bean could take till December!!! now it keeps moving my text field so I can’ see what i’m typing WTF.!!!! Calling Sprint in theA AM to complane!!
    Shit cant move my cusor nto install the basicow theAa Am mistake wont let me correct it good luck to you all
    Mike
    PS It took me and a good tech over 6 hours to

  71. Michael Gallegos

    10/06/2012 at 6:44 am

    See mistakes on my post I could not correct Mike :-(

  72. Jacob

    10/16/2012 at 9:09 am

    My epic 4g randomly restarts on its own with 60ish battery life before restarting and 20ish after. It’s also really slow leaving messaging or anything to show the main screen icons and everything. It jus shows background and all around its rather slow. Ics is not flawless

  73. Jon A

    10/16/2012 at 5:38 pm

    I just updated to the FI27 build today… night and day difference. battery life has stayed awesome, and network speeds are phenomenal. I went from 1-2Mbps down and .5-1Mbps up on full 4g to 6-17Mbps down and 1-3Mbps up. 3g speeds also showed increases, but not as much. they’ve stabilized quite a bit though. my “voice” widget (the one with voice command, driving mode and voice talk) is still stretched even after full wipe and reset.

    other than that minor gripe, I couldn’t be happier with the FI27 build

    • Cherie

      10/18/2012 at 10:45 am

      Jon A how did you update to this. Is it under the settings? I am soooo tired of calling Sprint.

      • Jon A

        10/18/2012 at 4:32 pm

        I woke up one morning and it was there.
        I searched for the official link for the update.zip but didn’t find an official Link.

  74. NiNi

    11/01/2012 at 9:36 am

    I have the same issue wit the txt tone coming in through a call. I just got the s2 epic. I had a galaxy s & in some ways i’ve already noticed it was better. As with the txt tone issue, i use to b able to pull the notification bar down n quiet it, now with the s2 nothing stops it til it’s finished & i use parts of a song as my txt tone. Also i’ve noticed i cannot even use the internet while on a call like i could on the galaxy. That really irritates me. Oh & there’s the fact that in my gallery, i dont have options to crop, rotate, & etc. very upsetting. I thought i was upgrading but other than finally havin a larger mp camera & a flash now, i think i liked my galaxy s best.

  75. lisa

    11/08/2012 at 11:15 am

    What are exact steps to go back to the previous Android version.Im having the same exact problems as everyone on this forum!! So frustrated with this USELESS piece of …

  76. eric

    11/20/2012 at 4:53 pm

    the first update actually fried my battery, i took it to the sprint store and they gave me a new one. the battery use to last almost two days, even with the most recent update, brand new battery / entire phone as of yesterday and the battery life is about six to eight hours. i had my phone replaced because of screen problems, and the phone they gave me started having the same issue and a few extras by the time i tried syncing my gmail account. it constantly thinks i am hitting the menue button and crashes. i took it back today but the sprint techs weren’t able to duplicate the problem so now i have to wait again until they get progressively worse to get a new one, the cycle continues.

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