The frame firmware ruined tv

[userNbzHhjAe7v]

As many others have posted, the 1503 update or whatever version came out in June/July 2023 has broken so many features on the frame. 

HDMI CEC input switching is mostly unresponsive. Sometimes waking my apple tv will change to the HDMI input, but 9/10 times it will not. It used to work 100% of the time. 

Powering off an HDMI device no longer returns the tv to art mode. These two HDMI features are what made the frame worth purchasing. Now an additional remote is required and we're forced to switch inputs or swap to art mode. 

Art mode will also randomly not work. Sometimes it just refuses to leave the home screen. Truly abysmal. 

Finally, I've had zero WiFi issues for the last 8 months and now, every two days, the frame won't connect to wifi. It shows it's on the network but it shows a red X when showing internet connectivity. 

Samsung needs to allow us to downgrade the firmware. I have paid for the yearly store subscription and for the last 7 of 9 days, I have had zero access to it. No matter what I do, even factory resetting the device does nothing. Internet connectivity happens with no rhyme or reason. 

Art mode randomly changes brightness on screen with a dark yellow cast. Prior to the update, the tv would react quickly to ambient light changing. Now it can take 30-90 seconds and sometimes it goes dark in full bright rooms or it'll add a strange yellow cast in the dark. 

This is a product that was superb and has been absolutely ruined. It is so frustrating to use and absolutely infuriating talking to Samsung support. They wasted 2.5 hours of my time on the phone just reading from a script and saying to reset the tv. And that it must be my router that's the issue. It's not. I tried telling them I've tried different routers and changed from 2.4 to 5ghz and back. It's the firmware, not my router. 

How did this build make it out of testing?

[LuckboX]

Man, oh man...so frustrating. The same exact issue on my Frame.

[mle72]

Try using the "Smart Things" App.  Super annoying to have to control with your phone but so far it is allowing me to navigate TV and then move into Art Mode when I power off.  I am waiting to see if the blaring Samsung TV Plus thing starts happening again, where it turns itself on at full volume, but so far so good.  Even disabling  Samsung TV Plus from the menu hasn't stopped that since the update.

[chrismnz]

Yup same issue I thought it was something I’d done.  It also no longer works properly with eArc  and Sonos and the only fix I’ve found is turning EARC to off and then back to auto. Hdmi and cec is broken. Turning off ATV used to put it back into Art mode but now it fires up the smart tv software and starts playing random shows. What a horrible investment this has become. Hope Samsung get this fixed.  

[pez2046]

same issue here. 1503 firmware update destroyed 2 Frame TVs in our house

[userQvns9C5KvI]

I own 6 of these things. Ack. They used to turn on in Art mode and stay in art mode. Worked beautifully for 6 months. Now they just randomly switch feeds. Samsung for whatever reason also deleted the 10 minute rotation option for My Photos mode. Now you can use either 3 minutes (which is too short), or 15 minutes (which is too long). They took away the 10 minute option that came with the tvs entirely. 

I'm now stuck with 6 frame tvs that turn on, jump out of art mode on their own, and even when I put them back in art mode I'm stuck with a rotation time I don't want. Samsung ruined all 6 of my frame tvs with this abysmal update. Calling customer service got me nowhere. Totally unacceptable, Samsung. You took a very limiting product to begin with (but at least functional) and wrecked it entirely now. Ugh.

[userNbzHhjAe7v]

Has anyone tried updating the firmware? I got an update last week and it seemed to help the HDMI to Art mode a ton.

[userwDfn9dhHk4]

1520 firmware broke CEC off for both of my Frame TVs as well, both Xbox and Chromecast power down no longer return the TV to Art mode (or off) and it sits at the "Check device power" screen. Both devices correctly turn the TV on when turned on - and turning the TV back on when it's set to those inputs will also turn those devices on.

The exception is when you fully power cycle the TV, the very first CEC off event will work correctly and then never work again. I've reproduced this multiple times. Basically, completely power down your TV (or unplug it). Turn it back on. Turn Xbox on. Turn Xbox off. TV will turn off. Turn Xbox on. TV will turn on. Turn Xbox off. TV stays on in "Check device power" screen. Now every time you repeat this the TV will not turn off.

I just spent 45 minutes on the phone and the tech was clueless, he mentioned that the TV should stay on in these cases but I was trying to explain that isn't how it's configured (CEC power down is enabled for both devices and works once before it never works again). This also worked as expected for months before the latest software update.

This means that when I leave my Chromecast on and it eventually shuts off, instead of returning to Art mode it just sits at the Check device power screen which completely defeats the purpose of Art mode. Chromecast CEC volume controls are also no longer working and require the remote to be reconfigured to control volume with IR. Thankfully Chromecast remote has an option to control power via IR, which means when you manually turn the Chromecast off it works as expected. But if the Chromecast shuts itself off due to inactivity it cannot turn the TV back to art mode (or off). The Xbox does not have this option though, turning it off from the controller just turns it off and relies on CEC, so in the meantime I will be having to juggle remotes to turn things off when I'm finished. This is super obnoxious.

The tech suggested that it was Microsoft and Google's issue that they haven't "updated to match their newest update", and that "this isn't a common scenario". Honestly I have no idea, but I wish I had known to disable TV auto updates, because I don't use any of the built in Samsung features except for Art mode and this software update absolutely degraded my experience using the TV.

[z3r0c007]

Yeah, don't buy one.  They're terrible at software and terrible at support.  How hard is it to make a TV with a screensaver in 2023?  They found a way to screw it up.  

[Gerlon]

It’s a shame. I’ve always bought Samsung TVs and was planning to buy a frame. But since getting a 43 inch qled and going through the “dance” every time I connect my computer, I won’t. It’s really irritating. The display is beautiful and I use it for work as well as gaming. But they are trying to be an “everything” device instead of just being good at what they are good at. In the end you have a watered down mediocre to poor product. 😞

[FaiziAhmi]

I am also having this issue on two Frame TVs after the update.