This used to be the best phone I ever owned UNTIL the android update. It used to be fast, responsive and never get hot. It would go for days without any issues.
Then after the major update I noticed it would work about a day before it was so slow and unusable it had to reboot. And the cycle repeated.
I suffered along hoping another update would fix it. It never did. Always the same.
Last week, I factory reset and restored my backup and it's still the same issues.
What is the problem?? I don't run anything crazy. Not rooted or anything. Just basic Facebook, and other socials. I'm a Sr. Software Engineer. I know tech. I know phones. Been using Samsung since the S4 ! This is so infuriating an disapointing.
I was infurated by the constant slowdown and rebooting (multiple times per day)! Instead of hucking this thing into a brick wall, I decided to give it one more attempt. I kept thinking about what @NPC1 said, and did a compromise betwixt not installing anything (as I was fairly certain the stock phone would "work", but again, it'd be useless without FB, messenger, work email, home email, etc.) So I factory reset it. Did NOT let the phone install any backups from Samsung or Google as it tries to do when you reset. Let it go through all updates and such and get stable. Rebooted again. Then restored ONLY my SMS messages. Side note, the SD card backup is useless - you can't just pick apps to install singularly, you must install them all or none! Also, I have 5GB of txt messages (43,000) apparently and while it would look like it was restoring, it would complete with no errors, but also say it didn't restore them either. Very confusing. What did restore them is the Samsung online backup much to my surprise (as I thought that one would be truncated for sure). Also, another weird glitchy thing. I had to load up the Samsung messenger to see them FIRST. Then switch to Google Messenger which is the one I prefer. Going right into messenger they didn't show up at all oddly since AFAIK messages all go into a standard bucket space that any messenger should be able to access... continuing on, I did NOT install any apps from any backups I had. I just installed them from the play store and re-setup as needed. I did use the backups as a reference as to what apps I had previously installed (and also a good time to not install things I haven't used in a long time, like airline apps or whatever where I'll just install them as needed when needed, and delete when done)
Another couple of notes. Some apps are still stupid and don't store their data on their servers, so go through your important apps and make sure they don't have any import/export type features that you need to make backups FIRST or you'll have a bad day.
Also, plug your phone into a computer and just copy the entire INTERNAL mount to your hard drive. Or as I found out (too late), buy yourself a 256GB USB-C OTG compatible USB stick ($25) and dump directly to that as it's much faster apparently AND the benefit of it's easy to copy back from it after the reset any files you may need such as the ringtones, alarms, pictures, and of course things in the "Android" sandbox folders...
There are maybe some apps that I have/use that are NOT available anymore in the play store for whatever reason, so those I was able to use the individual samsung backup for. There are also apps out there that will take an app and make an .apk file from it again, so that's another option. "aCar" for example; I prefer the "old" version before they sold out to Fuelly and fkd it all up (also that's one of those that you must export your backup file and reimport).
Make sure if you have your SD card encrypted, you UNENCRYPT it FIRST or you'll never get the contets off it again! Kind of sucks you can't store the encryption key to re-use after the reset. I mean it's the same phone after all...but whatever.
Anyways, hope this helps anyone else out there with their otherwise amazing phone starting to suck. Breathes new life into it again and I've been using it for 4 days now, not a single reboot; it doesn't even get warm/hot like it did either.
I'd say after the factory reset & backup restore, it's actually WORSE. To the point I had to enable automatic restarts every day, and almost every day it'll reboot on its own or I have to force it. It's infuriating. I'd consider updating, but these a$$holes stopped having SD cards in models after this, so 512gb is cost prohibitive and they still want like $600 to over a thousand dollars for newer models. I paid $200 for this used.
I refuse to pay a monthly installment as you end up getting and pay way more than the phone is worth after 2-3 year contract.
😆 reason you don't restore is to figure out if it's one of the apps you have installed. But if you're not going to take advice, why even ask for help?
I was infurated by the constant slowdown and rebooting (multiple times per day)! Instead of hucking this thing into a brick wall, I decided to give it one more attempt. I kept thinking about what @NPC1 said, and did a compromise betwixt not installing anything (as I was fairly certain the stock phone would "work", but again, it'd be useless without FB, messenger, work email, home email, etc.) So I factory reset it. Did NOT let the phone install any backups from Samsung or Google as it tries to do when you reset. Let it go through all updates and such and get stable. Rebooted again. Then restored ONLY my SMS messages. Side note, the SD card backup is useless - you can't just pick apps to install singularly, you must install them all or none! Also, I have 5GB of txt messages (43,000) apparently and while it would look like it was restoring, it would complete with no errors, but also say it didn't restore them either. Very confusing. What did restore them is the Samsung online backup much to my surprise (as I thought that one would be truncated for sure). Also, another weird glitchy thing. I had to load up the Samsung messenger to see them FIRST. Then switch to Google Messenger which is the one I prefer. Going right into messenger they didn't show up at all oddly since AFAIK messages all go into a standard bucket space that any messenger should be able to access... continuing on, I did NOT install any apps from any backups I had. I just installed them from the play store and re-setup as needed. I did use the backups as a reference as to what apps I had previously installed (and also a good time to not install things I haven't used in a long time, like airline apps or whatever where I'll just install them as needed when needed, and delete when done)
Another couple of notes. Some apps are still stupid and don't store their data on their servers, so go through your important apps and make sure they don't have any import/export type features that you need to make backups FIRST or you'll have a bad day.
Also, plug your phone into a computer and just copy the entire INTERNAL mount to your hard drive. Or as I found out (too late), buy yourself a 256GB USB-C OTG compatible USB stick ($25) and dump directly to that as it's much faster apparently AND the benefit of it's easy to copy back from it after the reset any files you may need such as the ringtones, alarms, pictures, and of course things in the "Android" sandbox folders...
There are maybe some apps that I have/use that are NOT available anymore in the play store for whatever reason, so those I was able to use the individual samsung backup for. There are also apps out there that will take an app and make an .apk file from it again, so that's another option. "aCar" for example; I prefer the "old" version before they sold out to Fuelly and fkd it all up (also that's one of those that you must export your backup file and reimport).
Make sure if you have your SD card encrypted, you UNENCRYPT it FIRST or you'll never get the contets off it again! Kind of sucks you can't store the encryption key to re-use after the reset. I mean it's the same phone after all...but whatever.
Anyways, hope this helps anyone else out there with their otherwise amazing phone starting to suck. Breathes new life into it again and I've been using it for 4 days now, not a single reboot; it doesn't even get warm/hot like it did either.
