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Galaxy S4, Galaxy S3 Android 4.3 Problems Bring Out Pitchforks

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Samsung and its carriers in the United States still aren’t talking about solutions for Android 4.3 Jelly Bean problems plaguing Galaxy S3, Galaxy S4, Galaxy Note 2, and Galaxy Note 3 users and the frustration surrounding the situation has led some to sign a petition, refuse the Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update and give up their phone altogether.

In October and November, carriers in the United States, and elsewhere, started rolling out Android 4.3 Jelly Bean updates for the Galaxy S4, Galaxy S3, and Galaxy Note 2. The Samsung Galaxy Note 3 launched with Android 4.3 in September and in early October.

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The Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update delivered Galaxy Gear support and Samsung KNOX to owners of the Galaxy S3, Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note 2 and owners of the Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note 2 were treated to features from the Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note 3 respectively. The updates, as we have pointed out twice before, also brought some issues along with them.

Android 4.3 Jelly Bean roll outs in the United States were marred by issues. AT&T and U.S. Cellular were forced to pull the upgrades due to problems with the software and almost immediately after the updates rolled out, we started hearing from Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S3 owners in particular.

We have detailed many of the lingering problems affecting Galaxy owners including Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S3 battery life and connectivity issues as well as a major issue with the GPS on board the AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note 3. These problems continue to linger and they are frustrating owners to no end.

Over the past few days, we’ve heard from a number of Galaxy device owners who have relayed their issues with the Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update. The issues remain the same but the frustration with Samsung and these updates continues to grow.

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One Verizon Galaxy S3 owner told Gotta Be Mobile that the widespread issues have convinced her to hold off on installing the Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update. “I have been manually postponing the pushed update, for nearly two weeks now,” she said.

Instead, she says that she’s simply going to stay on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean and wait for Android 4.4 KitKat to arrive. Android 4.4 KitKat is rumored for March though American carriers will surely be weeks behind that. Others are looking for ways to go back to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean though there is no official way of doing that.

We’ve seen other users say that they are simply going to abandon their device. One user on Android Central’s forums says that the “update has been a complete pain and that he is “getting rid of this gs3 tonight, was a fun run.” This echoes some of the comments we’ve seen in our own comments sections and in other forums on the web.

Users are so frustrated with the issues, and lack of communication from Samsung, that they have started a petition imploring the company to fix the issues that continue to plague their devices. Sadly these petitions, more often then not, fall on deaf ears. The fact that users even have to start a petition shows just how desperate some owners have gotten.

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Historically, Samsung has stayed silent on potential bug fixes and American carriers have generally followed suit so users are likely going to remain in the dark for the foreseeable future and in the buildup to Android 4.4 KitKat. Major Android updates typically bring major bug fixes along with them so it’s possible that many of the issues plaguing Galaxy S3, Galaxy S4, Galaxy Note 2, and Galaxy Note 3 owners will get fixed when it arrives. Owners just shouldn’t expect to know for sure ahead of time.

For now, users are will need to depend on the Android community for temporary fixes. Galaxy S3 users experiencing Wi-Fi problems will want to try these fixes, and Galaxy S4 and Galaxy S3 users experiencing battery life issues will want to consult our tips.

Those who have tried everything may want to consider performing a hard reset on the phone. Often times, a hard reset will dislodge at least some of the issues though it’s not going to work for everyone.

 

34 Comments

34 Comments

  1. Spict1930

    01/22/2014 at 11:50 am

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  2. Steve W

    01/22/2014 at 11:57 am

    Thanks to the huge wave of complaints about the Jelly Bean update on the web, when I received the push notification that I had “an update” that needed to be installed, I simply avoided it. I have cheerfully skipped by every time that annoying pop-up appears on my phone, and I will (if I have to) continue to do so until the phone dies. I like my Galaxy S III just the way it is, it works like a charm and I easily can get 24 hours on a charge (assuming I’m not using GPS, Wi-Fi, etc. ) and see no compelling reason to upgrade the OS and suffer like those unfortunate people that swallowed the Jelly Bean.

    • R B

      01/23/2014 at 10:52 am

      My thoughts exactly!

    • Bill Peavy

      01/27/2014 at 1:04 pm

      You were smart Steve! I allowed the thing on my Verizon Galaxy S3 and experienced several annoyances, the most noticeable being the fact that I quit receiving audible notification of incoming messages.

      I finally appealed to Verizon for help and that was a bad mistake! The ‘corrective’ measures managed to ‘lose’ random(?) Contacts, removed all my email accounts, even after a “cold” factory reset.
      Terrible experience for me. It also called into question the integrity of Verizon’s Backup facility which is apparently the proximate cause of the lost contacts.

      BTW, support for POP3 accounts appears to be down the tubes as well. I had to switch to IMAP accounts in order to receive email from my 3rd party providers — as did my spouse on HER Verizon Galaxy S3! She’s now seriously considering switching to an iPHONE because she needs reliable communications for her real-estate business.

      Bottom line, if you can avoid this hoodoo, do so!
      Otherwise, be ready for trouble.

  3. Paul Jones

    01/22/2014 at 4:03 pm

    I have the GS4 Active and since the update to 4.3 when I start the device it shows Samsung custom and an unlocked padlock.
    Took it back to AT&T they said its doing that because the device has been rooted and unlocked, which it has not.
    Any suggestions?

    • jdub

      01/23/2014 at 10:32 am

      Yes, your device is rooted. Or rooted at some point, that’s why it has the custom screen. You can download root checker from play store to verify. An update wouldn’t have done that to your phone but you can return it to stock by flashing the stock rom through odin.

      • Paul Jones

        01/23/2014 at 3:26 pm

        I downloaded root checker and says device is not rooted.
        Took it to AT&T and they said same thing. Called Samsung. They said if I lost connection anytime during the download it could cause the problem.
        I just saw tonight that when I connect device to Kies it show a different version of firmware than what is shown on the device screen. Yes I used cable that came with the unit.
        How do I flash it?

  4. A. Kowskey (@kowskey)

    01/22/2014 at 4:21 pm

    And this would be why I ditched Verizon and my S3 and got a Nexus 5.

  5. Sujeet

    01/22/2014 at 9:49 pm

    These problems are always with carrier locked phones.. i have used galaxy S2, S3 and now using S4 with 4.3.. i have never got a single issue.. even after root and using custom OS.

    • Toni Babic

      05/05/2014 at 9:37 am

      Youre right and not at the point… Root gives you actually power of developer, you could basically turn on every shit thats connected with hardware and software, but there’s bad point of it, after some bigger problem you could basically throw it to trash!

  6. EM

    01/23/2014 at 1:26 am

    It takes only few seconds to sign the petition!! Samsung cannot “upgrade” our $500+ phones and make them useless or lose important features!!!
    https://www.petitionbuzz.com/petitions/samsung43problems

  7. Kawo

    01/23/2014 at 3:44 am

    Why are you trying to make out that this is a US exclusive problem? Check your facts. The UK has it just as bad, take a look at the posts made my users on the Samsung Mobile UK Facebook page, Samsung deny there are problems and tell you to do a factory reset.

  8. KT

    01/23/2014 at 4:58 am

    I will stick it out till July when my contract is up with Verizon, then I am leaving for T-Mobile and definitely not getting another Samsung. They are trying way too hard to fork android, and not very good at it. I like plain android, will probably get a moto or nexus.

  9. tamanabarakzai

    01/23/2014 at 10:59 am

    I am so pissed I Sid the hard reset and got all my stuff deleted and it just fixed the glitches my battery never charges it only charged 2% in 10 hours and the battery drains like crazy even while its on charge

  10. jay

    01/23/2014 at 12:15 pm

    Led light flashes sporadically for no reason now

  11. jm

    01/23/2014 at 12:55 pm

    I updated without knowing about all of these problems. My galaxy s3, Verizon is very buggy now. Extremely frustrating. Browser java issues now, browser kicks out back to home screen for some reason every so often, when on call switch out to email or browser during call then go back to call other party can no longer hear me as if phone is on mute, messaging now has contact picture next to talk bubble making the text talk bubble smaller no option to change back so much for android customization, a lot of operational lagging now, email appearance stinks now. Everything was fine before the update. If iphone comes out with a larger screen pretty sure I’m going to switch.

  12. Paul Jones

    01/23/2014 at 3:30 pm

    AT&T says a 4.3 1 update will be out within 7 weeks that is supposed to repair several of the problems.

  13. Kzon James

    01/23/2014 at 4:03 pm

    Here in Norway, I got an auto update to 4.3 for my s3 earlier today.After it was completed and tried to restart, it stopped on the samsung logo with the blue light indicator on.it just stayed like that never moved on. pulled out the battery and turned it on again but same problem.done it so times but until now it still wont turn on. Cant use my phone.

    • Jsb

      01/24/2014 at 6:58 pm

      Same problem here. Is there any solutions here ?

  14. trob6969

    01/24/2014 at 3:47 am

    I have the Verizon s4 and don’t have any problems whatsoever with the 4.3 update.

  15. John

    01/29/2014 at 7:49 am

    This is exactly why all these carriers take FOREVER to roll out updates. The majority of the general population are stupid. They will have problems no matter how much testing is done. I have a Note 2 and haven’t experienced one problem whatsoever. I see nothing but improvements. How is possible I have no problems? I bet these people either messed with their phones trying to root them or didn’t let the install properly finish or a bunch of other user end issues.

  16. Anthony

    01/30/2014 at 8:44 am

    HELP! I did the update and so did my wife, we both have the Galaxy SIII. Since then, web pages won’t load, whether I’m connected to WiFi or using 4G! The load bar at the top of web pages starts to creep across, then just stops forever and the pages are just white screens. And once in a while I get a website to load, but then none of the links work…they’re just frozen. Meanwhile, no matter how strong my WiFi or 4G signal, the web won’t load! Sucks!

    • Toni Babic

      05/05/2014 at 9:43 am

      Call your mobile service and ask for activating your connection, same happened!

  17. Anthony

    01/30/2014 at 8:45 am

    P.S. My wife does not have the problem I just wrote about above. She can surf just fine.

  18. Angela

    02/13/2014 at 8:39 am

    Why!!! Why!!! did I do this update after the update my camera pictures were deleted. GS3 Can someone please tell me how to get my photo’s back?????? I don’t like all these other apps that came with the update that you can’t delete!!!!! what the what

  19. Mike

    02/15/2014 at 8:55 am

    So many problems with this software. My phone randomly disconnects from my car’s blutooth during calls which is really frustrating. The phone is primarily in 3g mode even when I’m in 4g coverage areas. The email and browser are incredibly slow. My phone is pretty much useless to me at this point. This software update was a major fail! I was happy with my phone prior to the update.

  20. After the final chapters

    03/07/2014 at 5:34 am

    My phone updated during the night automatically. I cant get it to stay on, when it does it freezes after a few minutes. The only way to get it to turn of is to take out the battery. If it goes off by itself it wont come on unless you take out the battery. I cant even send a message because by the time i get to the message screen it has frozen. So is this it? I my phone screwed?

    • Toni Babic

      05/05/2014 at 9:44 am

      Reset factory settings…. You’ll lose your data, but won’t have any firmware update and it will ask you about automatically updates……

  21. Pantalones

    03/09/2014 at 11:04 pm

    I updated today and so far so good

    It even says I have more storage space on my phone, though I don’t know how that’s possible since I still have all my apps.

    • Toni Babic

      05/05/2014 at 9:45 am

      Well… It’s not possible because update takes even more memory, it’s not good as you think it’s still screwed up!

  22. rsstoner

    03/10/2014 at 11:30 am

    I am starting a social media war with Samsung Mobile USA on Facebook:
    https://www.facebook.com/SamsungMobileUSA?filter=2
    Please Join Me! Keep in mind, please be respectful when posting. List all your grievances so they either roll out the new update quicker – KitKat 4.4 or rollback to the earlier version. Thank you.,

  23. Toni Babic

    05/05/2014 at 9:31 am

    Well, batery life, automatically shutdowning (crashes), and things like that are probably results by overclocking some parts inside, seems like this update somehow upgrades some hardware things, which basically are not handled that well on these models, the good thing is that your phone is safe 100000%, new parts are made to turn off by itself if something goes wrong (or if its overdoing), better parts (more energy) = BATERY LIFE (higher with worse parts, less with great parts)…. All you need to do is reset to factory settings, and every update will be deleted, some APPs too, don’t forget that all images randomly goes to your phone memory not microSDCard which means that storing your things on some king of flash drive is needed…. Hope you’ll fix it ;)

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