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Galaxy S3 Android 4.3 Update Problems Plague Roll Out

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The Samsung Galaxy S3 Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update roll out continues as Korea and the United Kingdom are the latest regions to receive the brand new software update. However, users in those regions will want to be a little judicious when it comes to the software thanks to a number of issues that are evidently plaguing the Galaxy S3 Android 4.3 update in regions where it has rolled out.

Earlier this month, after weeks and weeks of anticipation, Samsung began the Galaxy S3 Android 4.3 Jelly Bean roll out, pushing the software out to users on Vodafone in Ireland. As expected, the roll out has continued to hit other variants of the Galaxy S3 in other parts of the world, bringing Samsung Galaxy Gear support to users of the aging flagship.

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The Samsung Galaxy S3 has landed in the United Kingdom and in Korea, meaning, the software has skipped the United States once again. Sprint was originally rumored to be delivering the software on November 6th though that date came to pass without a software update. It’s now unclear when the company might push the software out though we recently saw a new build emerge, a sign that the carrier is making progress.

It appears that this delay may have been a blessing disguise due to the amount of issues plaguing Galaxy S3 owners who installed Android 4.3 Jelly Bean. Yesterday, we reported that the Galaxy S3 Android 4.3 update was causing issues for many who downloaded it, issues that included intense lag and abnormal battery drain. Today, we’re hearing even more about these issues.

We’ve heard from several Galaxy S3 owners in the past 24 hours, some of whom are touting the international version of the Galaxy S3 in the United Kingdom, who claim that the software is indeed plagued with bugs. One owner in particular claims that his device is plagued by no less than six issues after installing the Androie 4.3 Jelly Bean update.

Those issue are said to include:

  • Phone restarting itself.
  • When phone is locked and asleep, press either home key or lock key and nothing works. Battery must be removed.
  • During some incoming calls the screen doesn’t display caller and the ringtone is “spluttery”.
  • Alarm works only sometimes.
  • Heavy battery drain during a ten minute call. It dropped by 12%.
  • Notification bar shows apps that have already been downloaded. Clear them and they reappear again.

He claims that he has spoken to Samsung UK who says that it is working on a fix but we haven’t seen the company come right out and confirm that just yet. There are also rumors that suggested that Samsung may have pulled the update in the United Kingdom, something that wouldn’t be surprising given the issues that Galaxy S3 owners appear to be having.

At the very least, Galaxy S3 users should proceed with caution right now due to the overwhelming amount of negative feedback that is being given to the Galaxy S3 Android 4.3 update at the moment.

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There is also now speculation that these issues could contribute to a delay of the Galaxy Note 2 Android 4.3 Jelly Bean roll out, a roll out that was expected to take place in the near future. Samsung has yet to confirm anything.

What is confirmed now is that the delay in the United States may have been a blessing in disguise as it looks like at least some owners of the Galaxy S3 with Android 4.3 Jelly Bean are going to have to deal with problems in the days and weeks to come.

29 Comments

29 Comments

  1. hamir madam

    11/13/2013 at 10:22 am

    4.2.2 for s3 GTI9300 available through samsung kies officially,i have just talked to samsung center india and they have confirmed 4.2.2 for s3

  2. Jamie

    11/13/2013 at 12:19 pm

    I updated my Samsung galaxy s3 to 4.3 on Monday and I’ve had nothing but problems. Says i have low disk space when I’ve 10gb remaining. Camera, gallery, play store, Samsung keyboard and the home screen keeps force closing as well as the lock screen crashing.

  3. Duncan Maybury

    11/13/2013 at 1:29 pm

    I updated my international version in the uk today, and so far from the list of six problems above and have noticed the annoying download notifications and the sluggishness on waking. Quite disappointing. Great if Samsung could get their act together and be on the ball with updates. Maybe they could sort out a working 4.4 for the gs3 asap ;)

    • Joshua Strive

      11/13/2013 at 7:28 pm

      There won’t be 4.4 For the S3 not with all these problems showing upfor the 4.3 Update. But I’ll be honest. All these problems Sound like a touchwiz 4.3 Problem

  4. Simon Adamson

    11/13/2013 at 2:21 pm

    Samsung did this quickly to sell smart watches 60 million s3 handsets sold wonder how many punters they have lost in one hit with one untested software update apple must wetting them selfs haha bye bye samsung

  5. Haydn

    11/13/2013 at 2:31 pm

    Word of warning to all S3 users – DO NOT INSTALL THE UPDATE!! Like you report states, it is extremely buggy and for me the issues seem to keep growing each hour. Battery drain, very laggy, applications not responding, constant crashing, ending a call can take up to 1 minute (unless the other person hung up first!) and more. One good thing from the update is a very fast recharge time which comes in handy when your phone drops 30% in an hour of non usage! Avoid like the plague.

  6. Paul Rice

    11/13/2013 at 3:24 pm

    Updated to 4.3… Omg… Can take minutes for the home screen to wake up. Battery is getting rinsed. Alarm didn’t work this morning. No longer recognises SD card which was absolutely fine before update now lost everything on it. Do not update until fixed

    • graham pissed off wells

      11/13/2013 at 3:58 pm

      Its a pile of crap dont update as u CANT remove it I cant send a txt if it gets any slower opening apps it will go backwards come on fix it

  7. graham pissed off wells

    11/13/2013 at 4:02 pm

    Update my battery is draing at the rate of 46% per 15mins is this down to Samsung or google who ever it is needs fu*kin shot dont they test these amazing updates first

  8. Dennis

    11/13/2013 at 4:07 pm

    really this is the exact same thing that happened to my HTC Tunderbolt i mean to the “T”!
    I had to replace the phone and verizon gave me credit.

  9. truffol

    11/13/2013 at 6:59 pm

    This is exactly the kind of problems 4.4 KitKat is set out to fix. Hopefully no more delayed or problematic Android updates down the road!

  10. Rodrigo

    11/13/2013 at 7:54 pm

    I have no problem at all with my 4.3 from U.K…. only the lock screen ( light ). Everything is perfect and fast. no problem with the battery etc…

    From Chile.

    Sg3 i9300.

  11. merns

    11/13/2013 at 8:43 pm

    Initially l was pleased with the update but as the day wore on l found lag, sluggishness, crashed twice had to remove battery email taking long to load battery drain switched itself off twice… split screen not on at all. Watch you don’t go the way of blackberry samsung… sort it out…

  12. Robert Simpson

    11/13/2013 at 10:57 pm

    I’ve only had these issues with 4.3 on my S3:
    1.when I press the lock screen button or the home button to wake my device, it takes 6 seconds to actually recognise that its being turned on.
    2. Whenever I play music through my headphones or through speakers, the sound distorts when you turn the volume down or pause the song. Ive not had this problem before updating to 4.3, in fact, 4.1.2 was better for music, etc.
    Basically Samsung were ill prepared for this update and this is reflected in the software bugs that massively effect the phone’s user experience.

  13. syaoran1412

    11/14/2013 at 12:22 am

    The leaked version is actually PRETTY stable.

  14. Darren Christopher

    11/14/2013 at 12:22 am

    My Phone updated last night and it is a pile of rubbish.
    1. its slow
    2. my alarm did not sound this morning
    3. I keep getting old pdf documents saying they have downloaded.

    DO NOT use the update.

  15. A Diriye

    11/14/2013 at 1:59 am

    I had my update jelly 4.3 yesterday ota and I am having lot of problems including battery drain is there any way I can reinstall my old android 4.1 please could someonettell me how to do it?

    • Somebody

      11/15/2013 at 9:08 am

      download the appropriate rom from sammobile. flash through odin. no root required.

  16. Paul

    11/14/2013 at 2:43 am

    I got this in the UK, it’s shocking. I can’t believe they released this. Not only is it slow, buggy and battery draining they also REMOVED features! Where has the swipe to unlock gone? I used to use it with the security settings which meant I could wake the device without it automatically trying to log in as it does now.

    Anyway, if you keep getting the download issues you can try one, or both, of the following:

    Navigate to the downloads app and clear all the items listed

    and/or

    Open up the task manager, find the download app and clear it’s cache

  17. Craig

    11/14/2013 at 3:26 am

    I must admit that i didnt bother with 4.3 update after all the issues that seemed to pop up and instead rooted the phone and went to 4.4 via cyanogenmod 11. Works a treat and as of yet have not had a problem.

    No doubt when Samsung get around to a 4.4 version for the S3 they will make a hash of it!

    I know that they all the phone companies like their own little mods to set them apart from the others but I wish they were optional as a lot of the issues that android users have seems to be due to bloatware and customisation supplied by the manufacture.

    I am really in the mood to move to Nexus for its stock nature or possibly Sony Xperia from what I have seen and heard its about as close to stock as you can get from a major player.

  18. jgmccabe

    11/14/2013 at 2:42 pm

    I’d just like to say that, if you’re having problems and haven’t already done so, please contact Samsung support for your country. It’s fine to moan about it on forums like this but it doesn’t necessarily mean Samsung will become aware of how disappointing/annoying/frustrating all this is for those of us who’ve installed this junk in good faith!

    • Graham Wells Cooldude

      03/16/2014 at 10:26 am

      Just to make it clear I contacted samsung support 4times each time they said take your phone here this place will fix it 4times this happens and 4tes jack shit gets fixed samsung a response oh well never mind shit happens that’s why I went back to apple

  19. Mark

    11/15/2013 at 6:56 am

    Where do we sign up for the class action suit?

  20. LHastings

    11/17/2013 at 12:27 pm

    S3 4.3 work around. The problem seems to be due to memory usage. The 3.0.31 kernel is relatively inefficient space wise. One of the feature in the 4.3 update is a process called kswapd0 which swaps process out of memory to the sd card swap space. That’s it’s job, make more free memory by moving relatively inactive process to swap. The process, to use an old term, thrashes if the free memory is less than ~150MB. It moves processes constantly back and forth. This thrashing uses cpu time and power. That’s why the biggest power user is the OS and not the screen (which is the normal power muncher). This is why some people are reporting no problems with 4.3, they have enough headroom memory wise. This is probably why the S4 is ok with it. So if you disable active apps that you don’t need and free up 200MB say, you get a quick smooth S3. No big wakeup delay, no eat the battery and no high bit rate MP3 playback stutter when the screen is locked. The kitkat kernel is a lot more efficient with space, so would solve this problem. Once Samsung tweaks kswapd0 or uses the kitkat kernel (if that’s possible), to fix 4.3, you can goto ‘app manager’, ‘disabled apps’ and enable them all again, provided there is enough headroom in the Samsung fix that is.

    Check out https://forums.whirlpool.net.au/archive/2181386 TonkleChicken he/she put me on to this and after I investigating I agreed.

    It doesn’t fix the download notification bug however. I worked round this by disabling the download manager notifications. Not perfect I know, no down load notifications any more. If you want to do this tap and hold down the repeating notification, an ‘app info’ tab will appear. Tap this tab and your in the ‘app manager’ at the correct process, the ‘download manager’. Uncheck show notifications. You can enable this again when Samsung fix it.

    Hope that helps. Don’t blame me if it doesn’t, I didn’t release 4.3.

  21. graham wells

    11/19/2013 at 3:21 pm

    Graham really pissed off wells I have just spent 2 fu*kin hour getting my fone to work it was stuck in start mode all because this software update god sansung fu*kin suck sort it or I am going back to apple

  22. Annoyed user

    12/07/2013 at 2:34 pm

    Terrible update, my phone was restarting itself for hours and even since that stopped it’s been crashing and the screen randomly blinks out. Very disapointed

  23. John

    02/24/2014 at 9:17 pm

    i am getting a msg “Unfortunately Samsung keypad has stopped working” after updating to 4.3

  24. Radu

    03/14/2014 at 3:42 am

    Solve phone issue restarting itself:

    – Install Kies3, connect the phone with usb cable, install drivers, etc.
    – In Kies3 go to the Tools – Firmware upgrade and installation, press ok
    – Most probably you have the latest version, doesn’t matter, click ok and follow the instructions
    – Backup your phone data
    – Your phone will reboot and rewrite the firmware
    – This time the data will be rewritten correctly (for me it works!) good luck!

    • Graham Wells Cooldude

      03/16/2014 at 10:20 am

      I got so pis**d off waiting for a fix I went back to apple got a iphone5s and truthfully I am glad I did it’s a shame I really liked my galaxy s3 & 4

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