Hi everyone,
I have a problem with Internet Explorer on my HD7
Since yesterday, Internet Explorer refuses to open from the start screen or Apps list. Clicking on web links in emails does not work, clicking on pinned web pages does not work. Live tiles, Emails, RSS feeds, texts, Phone calls etc. work as expected. I have downloaded several third party browsers which work as expected.
I have checked using 3G and Wifi connections, and soft reset multiple times to no avail
I have searched and have not seen anyone else reporting this problem which leads me to suspect it's a device specific software problem. I was following my normal morning routine yesterday, reading the emails with new and updated posts from XDA when it suddenly stopped opening the links in the emails. I tried opening up Internet Explorer and this too failed. The animation transition starts to take place when pushing the I.E. tile, and then it comes back to the start screen.
I am running 7720 and have not played around with the phone or changed anything to cause this problem.
Does anyone have any suggestions or thoughts before I go ahead and press the "Reset your phone" button ??
Thanks in advance,
Garrickus
Work around
Hi,
Got the same problem with no available solution till now.
I just have a workaround for you, disable in settings the "open links in new tab" and you should be able to use IE9 again afterwards.
Tabs will not work though.
I even read somewhere that hard reseting device will not solve the problem !!??
Do it or not and tell me if you find something.
Regards,
Thomas
Thanks
tlefeuvre said:
Hi,
Got the same problem with no available solution till now.
I just have a workaround for you, disable in settings the "open links in new tab" and you should be able to use IE9 again afterwards.
Tabs will not work though.
I even read somewhere that hard reseting device will not solve the problem !!??
Do it or not and tell me if you find something.
Regards,
Thomas
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks Thomas
I can confirm your solution does indeed work as you describe, and yes, tabs are now broken
I'm curious as to your firmware version and operator, as there may be a link ?
You say you read "somewhere" that hard resetting the phone doesn't fix the problem , (I haven't as yet done so myself, as I'm currently compiling word docs of Internet Explorer favourites etc. and uploading them to Skydrive so I can restore them later ) which implies someone else has also encountered this problem ?
If a hard reset doesn't work for me (I'm waiting on the weekend to do this as it'll probably take hours ) then I'm seriously thinking of upgrading the sdhc card to a 32gb one and flashing a custom rom
I'll keep you updated.
And once again, thank you for taking the time to reply , with well over a hundred views, I was beginning to think I was invisible
Garrickus
i would flash a custom rom (you have the requirements), its easy to do (just search for it) and the advantages of it are great. you would never want to go back to an official rom again.
I haven't heard of this problem before, and don't have a direct fix - I'd need to examine your phones in some detail to do so.
However, if you have a full-unlocked phone, or you have WP7 Root Tools, I'm releasing an app that can configure your phone to use a third-party app as the default beowser (on my phone, I'm currently using IE+, for example). There are some caveats - not all browsers will be supported, and not all of IE's features work on third-party browsers - but it should work to let you open links sent in emails or SMS or apps. They have tabs too (in fact, IE+ has better tab management than IE9; one reason I use it).
Glad to see it partially solved your problem ;-)
My device is a Samsung Omnia 7 with latest firmware and mango installed (do not have the disapearing keyboard fix).
I suspect either windowbreak interop unlock method or windows phone manager to be the culprit with our tabs problem. Are you interop unlocked ? Have you installed Windows Phone Manager ? Have you sideloaded any app ?
Sent from my OMNIA7 using Board Express
Thanks
GoodDayToDie said:
I haven't heard of this problem before, and don't have a direct fix - I'd need to examine your phones in some detail to do so.
However, if you have a full-unlocked phone, or you have WP7 Root Tools, I'm releasing an app that can configure your phone to use a third-party app as the default beowser (on my phone, I'm currently using IE+, for example). There are some caveats - not all browsers will be supported, and not all of IE's features work on third-party browsers - but it should work to let you open links sent in emails or SMS or apps. They have tabs too (in fact, IE+ has better tab management than IE9; one reason I use it).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Funnily enough, I hadn't heard of this problem either, before it manifested itself on my phone so it can't be widespread.
I'd love to allow you (you Windows Phone Guru ) access to my phone, if it would help me and the community, but, it's my main device and your too far away to visit
I have a stock phone so I doubt there is any kind of dump or something I can do to provide more clarification on the problem, but it's very real and very annoying
I had a quick search for "IE+" in the marketplace, but didn't see it. Could you provide a link please ? Or did you sideload it ?
If the hard reset doesn't work, my carrier has said they will swop it out for a refurbished unit, so I have a couple of options.
If I get my act together by the weekend, I might upload a video of the problem to YouTube for information purposes.
Also, my phone has been exhibiting some strangeness for a while now. Occasionally freezing up, then unfreezing itself. Internet Explorer freezing when the loading bar reaches 4/5's distance, and taking ages to finish loading. Some tiles (third party only) losing their images but not the text, or backing out of an app to the Start screen resulting in all the tiles being empty for a few seconds before filling in. Start screen flashing green and crackly looking. None of them particularly bothered me too much till now.
I'll keep you all posted.
Garrickus
Thanks
tlefeuvre said:
Glad to see it partially solved your problem ;-)
My device is a Samsung Omnia 7 with latest firmware and mango installed (do not have the disapearing keyboard fix).
I suspect either windowbreak interop unlock method or windows phone manager to be the culprit with our tabs problem. Are you interop unlocked ? Have you installed Windows Phone Manager ? Have you sideloaded any app ?
Sent from my OMNIA7 using Board Express
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, thank you. I was beginning to go mad with it lol.
I too am running Mango without the disappearing keyboard fix, but I am not windows broken, iterop or any other kind of unlock, or used any kind of programs other than Zune, so we don't have that in common I'm afraid.
Thanks anyway
Garrickus
IE+ is being published to the Marketplace this week, I think. There's a pre-release build of it available on this forum, but I'm not sure if that version supports the required behavior for be-the-default-browser support. I'm looking at other apps too (requires decompiling them, unless I can get a chance to talk to the developer, but that's usually easy).
However, if your phone isn't interop-unlocked, you wouldn't be able to use the switcher anyhow, though. It requires TCB (or "root") permissions, because it needs to write to the registry. It's possible to interop-unlock your phone (I have an HD7 myself), but you'd need to downgrade the firmware first.
The list of bugs you're experienced sounds like it *might* actually be some kind of defective hardware. The usual problem is the internal microSD card that is used for storage on the phone being defective or coming loose. There are a few other possibilities too, though. Unfortunately, trying to fix them yourself is likely to void your warranty, with no guarantee of success.
Video uploaded to Youtube
Hi all,
So my problem persists, and I am due to hard reset the phone to see if that solves the issue in the next couple of days. Before I do so however, I have uploaded a video showing the problem to Youtube for information purposes.
Lets see if anyone else is having the same problem, and if a solution exists.
Here's the link to the video
http://youtu.be/L0YIkCybvhg
If the hard reset doesn't work, my carrier have said they will swop the unit for a refurbished one. Does anyone have any experiences of this ? Are they like new ? Or beaten up a bit ?
Regards
Garrickus
More people reporting the problem on Microsoft answers forum
Hi everyone,
I checked the Microsoft answers forum and it seems Others are reporting the issue as well
I counted at least half a dozen posts with the same problem as myself here
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...one&CurrentScope.Filter=&askingquestion=false
So far, the only advice offered is to hard reset the phone, with some users reporting this solved their issue. One user reported that although it solved their issue, now their phone tile doesn't work
Regards
Garrickus
After hard reset
Hey everyone,
So I hard reset my phone on Thursday
and as a result, Internet Explorer now works again as it should
I decided not to restore a backup, and set up the phone manually (which took about 3 hours ).
A couple of things I've noticed since -
Battery life seems massively improved , now reporting over a days use on a full battery. I'll keep an eye on this as before I was only getting about 14 hours.
Another thing I've noticed is the keyboard. Now when I type, it highlights the word it thinks I want to use in bold, and it definitely didn't do that before
I'll keep you all posted on how things go over the next couple of weeks, if any of the problems I reported show up again, but, fingers crossed, it's all good for now, and loving my phone again.
Thanks for all your input.
Garrickus
Have a question... Does Hard resetting the device keep the os updates ?? (Mango, etc..) Or do you have to apply them again afterwards ?
Thanks for your answer
Thomas
Sent from my OMNIA7 using Board Express
tlefeuvre said:
Have a question... Does Hard resetting the device keep the os updates ?? (Mango, etc..) Or do you have to apply them again afterwards ?
Thanks for your answer
Thomas
Sent from my OMNIA7 using Board Express
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes it does.
Thanks !! Another and last question, does hard resetting keep the phone windowbreak interop unlocked ?
Sent from my MID74C using XDA
Too bad. I have this problem too. Last night after connect to public wi-fi and enter username & password in automatic IE pop-up.
You can't open IE if your setting of "Open links from other apps in" is "A new tab". If change this settings to "The current tab" you can open multi-IE for multi-tab but can't use normal tab.
I think I will HR my device too.
tlefeuvre said:
Thanks !! Another and last question, does hard resetting keep the phone windowbreak interop unlocked ?
Sent from my MID74C using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, interop unlocked will go away.
I am facing similar issue. I guess I know when it started (but not sure about it)
I had opened Google Search app. I was searching some images. In results displayed, I clicked 1 imgage. It opened Internet Explorer. When I tried to open "Tab" from Menu to close tab and exit IE, IE was simply not getting close and it was opening continously. I finally pressed Power button to switch off phone. After phone was restarted, I observed that while internet explorer is open and I open the tabs, it shows absolutely nothing, it doesn't show the tab for the page that is currently open or none of the other tabs that are open. Rather it shows Blank page with symbol to add new tab. But even new tab is not getting added. I tried several reboot on phone but somehow "Tab" thing is broken. I am also having feeling that Internet Explorer running in the backround that will not close even after a restart.
I dont want to Hard Rest Phone, but I think its only Solution for now. Hope MS fix this issue in WP7.8.
As I am sure all Alcatel Idol 3 owners noticed by now, Alcatel have, over the last year or so, released on Google Play "updates" for most of their builtin software - the launcher, file manager, radio player, photo gallery, calendar and more - with what is, if I can be blunt - malware, updates whose only intention is to show you ads and notifications (whereas the original applications, obviously, did not have ads) which you have no way of disabling, and who knows what else.
I avoided this crap by "uninstalling" the updated applications and getting back the preinstalled versions.
BUT, today I started getting on all my Alcatel Idol phones (I have 3 of them!), OTA Android update. And I'm worried what would happen if I click it. Will I get the "updated" (malicious) versions of all the builtin applications with no way to revert them?
Does anyone have an experience with the new OTA update that came out yesterday? Can you tell me if after the update, the "joy launcher", "file manager", etc., are decent versions or the crappy versions which show ads?
P.S. Alcatel, you guys are idiots. I love your phones, and in the past bought 5 of them, but I'll *never* buy another phone from you because of this malware issue.
i have been wondering the same thing, i was scared to even touch the notification to see if it is a large upgrade or just 1 or 2 megabytes, in case touching it forces me to download it. please note, i have no idea if the OTA is any good, but i'm going to continue this post to vent about alcatel idol 3.
i was a bit annoyed with the last system upgrade, which started flashing the screen on and off periodically when any notifications were left active... for me, i always leave some notifications going, so that i don't forget about them or just want to leave them up even if i never take any action with them...
so i'm sure this takes a toll on my battery, since the screen will be flashing on and off for a few minutes before it stops.
i was shocked when a few months ago (or even a year?) apps started sending ads to the notification bar, from reading some posts i figured out you not only had to stop auto-updates in the play store, but also go into the updates app and disable them there. i didn't even know ads on a stock system were a thing, until i saw my dad's BLU $50 phone and realized that's how they make a decent phone $50.
since my idol 3 4.7" was relatively cheap at $180, i could see how they might need to put ads, but if i got a brand new alcatel phone at over $400, i'd be even more furious, do they put ads on their brand new phones?
i see a lot of cheap phones on amazon now listed having versions with "lockscreen offers and ads" including idol 5s
as long as the ads aren't malicious, and if you can just block notifications in android (i dunno if they somehow disable that) then it's sort of worth saving the money
anyway, i've had my idol 3 4.7" for just about 2 years, it's still fine, but i guess i'm starting to think about getting something else. i'd love to get another small phone, right before this i had an xperia z1 compact which i loved but the the battery started failing and bloating after less than a year and a half, so i'm kind of thinking i should never spend over $200 for a phone again (that one was $350)
my android history has been
nexus one $529
galaxy nexus $435.50
xperia z1 compact $350
idol 3 4.7" $180
i've been looking at nokia's new androids lately, or some kind of honor maybe
but my idol 3 4.7" is still working fine pretty much
i just remembered one other thing i hated about the marshmallow updated, which is the adopted SD card storage...
from what i understand if your phone dies, everything that was on the SD card can never be read again, because it works only when plugged into your phone. i mean i guess that's good for security, but it should be optional. it'd be nice to just be able to take that SD card to a new phone and just have everything that was there on it again.
i just noticed someone's post about "semi-adopted" SD card, which i guess means making 2 partitions, which kinda makes sense, but it would be nice if android offered that as a preset option. i had just gotten an SD card a few weeks before the marshmallow update came out and moving apps to SD for apps that supported it, worked fine.
anyway, i don't think and kinda hope no one read this, i'm not sure why i wrote this
I know that feeling, bros
Actually, I managed to uninstall built-in apps using adb shell, which was described in the discussion about Debloater (the app itself did not work after Marshmallow update):
Code:
pm uninstall --user 0 com.package.name
(this uninstalls system apps for the current user, so that they cannot be launched, do not notify about their updates in Google Play, and this works without root)
nyh said:
BUT, today I started getting on all my Alcatel Idol phones (I have 3 of them!), OTA Android update.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dear nyh, what is your region and phone model (like, 6045K or 6039Y or with other letter in the end)? Here in Belarus (Eastern Europe), my 6045Y does not notify of any update (current system version 6.0.1-010 20).
Mankann said:
Dear nyh, what is your region and phone model (like, 6045K or 6039Y or with other letter in the end)? Here in Belarus (Eastern Europe), my 6045Y does not notify of any update (current system version 6.0.1-010 20).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the 4.7" model 6039S, and three more phones of the 5.5" model, I don't remember now their model number.
What I'm running now appears to be Android 6.0.1 build number "1BGD-UED2". I don't know how this relates to your number. I noticed the "update" program tells me the new version is "0100020" which is suspiciously close to the number you said, maybe it's the same. With your version, does "uninstalling" the "Joy Launcher" (and other) applications to get back to the preinstalled one, gets you a decent version, or one with ads?
nyh said:
I noticed the "update" program tells me the new version is "0100020" which is suspiciously close to the number you said, maybe it's the same. With your version, does "uninstalling" the "Joy Launcher" (and other) applications to get back to the preinstalled one, gets you a decent version, or one with ads?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah, I understand now. It seems that your phone wants to update to the version that removes fastboot commands (so I suggest you triple-think and triple-check before upgrading).
"Uninstalling" system apps does not revert them to preinstalled versions, it makes them completely unavailable until hard reset (they are only listed in Settings labeled with "Disabled for current user" and cannot be run). If you decide to do this, you should first install some alternative apps (like Nova Launcher, Google Calendar etc), or else you won't be able to boot and use your phone.
I have the Idol 3 5.5 6045l(USA) Android 6.0.1 Build number 7VGE-UEE1.
I am reluctant to install the OTA I have pending:
______________________________
System update available
010 01 (471.5 MB)
New in this version
Version 7VGS-UES6 includes a security update that fixes Android major security flaw.
Update info:
- Netflix service
- Gameloft games
- UE improvements& bug fixes
______________________________
I am baffled that Alcatel would include Netflix & Gameloft with a major security fix.
After the adware riddled system app updates(that I've reverted to original) I will wait for more information before updating.
I love my phone and was considering buying a back-up or an Idol 4s especially as it seems that the front-facing speakers have been dropped from Alcatel's 2018 lineup.
But the bond of trust concerning system & app updates has been broken.
[Not sure whether one will be able to revert adware riddled system apps after the update]
That's real bad
Maybe this "security update" is resolving BlueBorne vulnerability (actually I wrote Alcatel about this, and they told me not to have bluetooth on all the time, wait patiently and install an antivirus which of course I did not do). But Netflix or Gameloft as system (priv-)apps is a no way (I struggled with TWO hidden Facebook services preinstalled on my phone until I found a method to "remove" them, which I described above).
If such an update comes to me (it may take days, weeks or months before it reaches all regions), and if no one installs it, I will do it and report here
I was stupid and sleepy and didn't fully check the update notes in depth when I saw it pop-up yesterday, I figured the majority of it was for security and maybe a couple of quality of life improvements like a new lock screen, even the entry about the Netflix app just sounded to me like they were fixing a problem people might have been having with it. suddenly I have and Netflix app I didn't want, a news app, some sort of Alcatel store front and two space wasting games (or at least one game and some gameloft "50 free games thing I have no use for).
I got rid of the apps that could be insta-deleted, and the netflix app can at least be disabled, but the filemanager is by far the worse offender. It's "boost" download and obnoxious UI, not to mention it clutters my notifications and lock screen. I've managed to quiet it down by canceling its access and whatever permissions I could. The fact that it restarts itself after a few seconds is just as irritating even before the reports that it actually may make my phone operate worse. I haven't experienced anything yet aside from the Google Play store crashing once while trying to figure out how to get rid of the update, but that was shortly after doing the factory reset and it's only been a day.
Whats mroe annoying is this now part of their most recent update on Idol 3. It's now impossible to revert or kill this as it's all baked in, not even factory reset will remove it. The new file manager app restarts at every turn, even after Force stop and will not allow you to disable it, and it seems to resist methods of hiding it from the user. I'm still seeking ways of getting rid of it that dont require rooting my phone but at this point it seems like the only possible answer, which is a shame because I was fine not rooting android, this was a really nice phone until they ruined it with this garbage. I know I'm pretty much screwed because My computer doesn't always seem to respond properly to Android stuff for some reason so any attempt to root will probably result in me bricking the thing, and even if I could root I'm not certain I'm comfortable with my phone being that open with other applications like this roaming around not to mention the questions of whether any of my desired apps will respond poorly to my doing it. But I wanted to at least add my voice to the rest that are complaining about this and telling Alcatel this is the last product of their's I'll ever own.
@PN04
Thank you for your very detailed report. Sorry to hear of the predicament you are now in. It goes without saying that I - thanks to you - will not be updating.
PN04 said:
I got rid of the apps that could be insta-deleted, and the netflix app can at least be disabled, but the filemanager is by far the worse offender. It's "boost" download and obnoxious UI, not to mention it clutters my notifications and lock screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
have you held down on a notification and hit the (i) and then block notifications?
does it somehow disregard that? that was a new feature added in marshmallow
zxcvb2 said:
have you held down on a notification and hit the (i) and then block notifications?
does it somehow disregard that? that was a new feature added in marshmallow
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have, it takes you to the app notification section where you can reduce it's priority, stop it from peeking and "hide sensitive content" (not sure what that last one means but I turned them all off anyway). As far as I can tell it's teeth are pulled as long as I don't actually start the app or give it any permissions when it asks, but the fact that constantly force stopping it only gets rid of the menu bar on my lock screen for a few seconds and that little stupid broom icon is constantly showing in my bar at the top means it's still an ugly scar on an otherwise nice phone. also App memory usage claims it's used 27 mb in the last 3 hours and I havent' even touched it.
I'll probably be studying up on rooting this weekend.
ichmoimeyo said:
@PN04
Thank you for your very detailed report. Sorry to hear of the predicament you are now in. It goes without saying that I - thanks to you - will not be updating.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same here, no update for me either thanks to PN04's findings. I have managed to silence the Update app by uninstalling updates on the app and then turning off auto update and notifications. So far so good, no nagging messages about the update. Considering my latest security patch is from Nov 2016, I was not expecting to get any more anyway.
Shame on you Alcatel for ruining an otherwise perfect phone! Maybe i can get one more year on this one. The Xperia XZ1 Compact is looking more and more attractive, apart from the price (native Wifi calling, VoLTE and band 12 on TMO US, stuff that this phone didn't have and start to become more important for me).
Glad it helped. I guess I can take some measure of comfort in that at least.
The result of the upgrade.
nyh said:
Does anyone have an experience with the new OTA update that came out yesterday? Can you tell me if after the update, the "joy launcher", "file manager", etc., are decent versions or the crappy versions which show ads?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, I was surprised nobody came up to talk about their experience with the upgrade, so I took a risk and updated two of my Alcatel Idol 3 phones (mine and my son's) to the new update. Like in the old movie, I have good news, bad news, and ugly news:
The bad news was that the application content of the update was just as lousy as I feared it would be. It has the evil file manager and a bunch of other crap applications which spew notifications all the time, spontaneously install applications you never wanted to install, and so on. The strangest thing is that the update claims to add Netflix support, but actually uninstalled the Netflix app that I already had installed, which was very annoying (I had to re-install Netflix, re-download my downloads, and tell Netflix that I don't have the "old" device any more so it will let me download on the "new" one).
Also, the last on the bad list: after using the new system for two days, I haven't found a single thing to be better than the old system. This update doesn't upgrade Android - it's still exactly the same release 6.0.1 as it was before. The "patch level" is listed as November 2017, so maybe it has some security improvements, but I can't really tell.
The good news is that with some considerable effort, I was able to get rid of all of the crap (at least, everything I found so far). There is a new application called "Apps" which installs random crap. You can't uninstall it, but you can "disable" it and it never runs again. The evil file manager you can't uninstall (or disable), but its menu has an option to not send notifications, and then it doesn't. Then I went to the list of applications and uninstalled (luckily, that's possible) a bunch of games and other crap that Alcatel installed for me. If Alcatel had a better track record, I might actually enjoy trying out the new games they installed for me, but as it stands, I was worried about what might happen if I run them - I prefered to uninstall them. Anyway, after doing all that (sorry I don't have more detailed instructions), I am running with the updated Android for two days, and I haven't seen another ad, unexplained notification, or unsolicited application being installed. Hallelujah!
The ugly news is that after two days, I'm starting to worry that this version is less stable than the previous one. In two days I had to reboot my phone at least three times, once it hung during taking a video, once when Netflix suddenly couldn't find my downloaded content, and once when another app suddenly couldn't use the SD card (and a reboot solved these problems). I can't say I never had to reboot my phone, but this seems to be more frequent than I used to do it. I'm not sure this a real new problem or just a string of bad luck - only time will tell.
Mankann said:
Ah, I understand now. It seems that your phone wants to update to the version that removes fastboot commands (so I suggest you triple-think and triple-check before upgrading).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What is "fastboot commands", and why should I be worried if they are removed?
Mankann said:
"Uninstalling" system apps does not revert them to preinstalled versions, it makes them completely unavailable until hard reset (they are only listed in Settings labeled with "Disabled for current user" and cannot be run). If you decide to do this, you should first install some alternative apps (like Nova Launcher, Google Calendar etc), or else you won't be able to boot and use your phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is not my experience... In the Google Play app. For most applications, "Uninstall" lets you really uninstall an app. But for built-in applications, when you "Uninstall" it asks you if you really want to revert to the pre-installed version, and that is actually what happens. This is why I did on my Alcatel Idol 3 for a year before this latest update. In application tray, when you long-press an application, it lets you "uninstall" regular applications, but for built-in application, the uninstall operation is simply missing. I never found any way to do what you describe - "disable for current user". Somebody above suggested this can be done through adb, but I never saw a way to do this in Alcatel's normal UI.
I wrote above my experience from the upgrade, which you can read, but I have two small comments about your experience:
PN04 said:
I got rid of the apps that could be insta-deleted, and the netflix app can at least be disabled,
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's hilarious (or more accurately, sad) how people who already had Netflix installed (like me), their installation got deleted - but for people who never had Netflix, it got installed and made unremovable. Great job Alcatel!
PN04 said:
but the filemanager is by far the worse offender. It's "boost" download and obnoxious UI, not to mention it clutters my notifications and lock screen. I've managed to quiet it down by canceling its access and whatever permissions I could. The fact that it restarts itself after a few seconds is just as irritating even before the reports that it actually may make my phone operate worse.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What I did to solve this was to reduce its permissions and more importantly, go into the file manager, go into its "settings", and ask it to stop its notifications. Luckily, it worked, and I never heard from the filemanager again. I don't know if it continues to do evil stuff in the background. It appears it is still running (my app info tells me it has used memory in the last 3 hours), but using "0%" CPU.
PN04 said:
this was a really nice phone until they ruined it with this garbage.
I wanted to at least add my voice to the rest that are complaining about this and telling Alcatel this is the last product of their's I'll ever own.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I wonder if someone in TCL lost their marbles with these adware updates... As I said, I bought *five* of these phones - for me, my wife (two phones), mother-in-law and son, and I would have continued to recommend their phones if it weren't for the tricks they started to pull off last year.
nyh said:
What is "fastboot commands", and why should I be worried if they are removed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One of the Alcatel's OTA updates (IIRC, it was from Lollipop to Marshmallow) removed the ability to send fastboot commands to the phone, so that it became very hard to unlock bootloader and install root or custom ROMs. Actually it was already discussed here many times.
nyh said:
Somebody above suggested this can be done through adb, but I never saw a way to do this in Alcatel's normal UI.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can either use adb shell or you can use shell directly on your phone via apps such as Terminal Emulator (Google Play, F-Droid). Of course you cannot do this within "normal" GUI, because it is designed not-to-be-able-to-break-things
I work from home/am self employed so most of the time so my phone doesn't get outside except for a few occasions a week otherwise it's usually connected to the home wifi so that I don't waste data. But this weekend I had to run a few errands and in a single hour outing using mobile data, I force quit the file manager maybe 26 times as opposed to 5 - 8 times just connected to wifi so I feel like it's constantly trying to ping servers unless you restrict it to mobile data. I also noticed that number dropped by half to maybe 3 or 4 times in the house when I had a few apps like AIMP or one of the games I do play on it to pass time idling in the background. As I said before I did cancel every permission I could find for it and it still manages to crawl out of the grave every so often but maybe those apps had a high enough priority level so having them active an in memory pushes it down the list.... Literally while typing this just now I was charging the phone and got the signal that the battery was full, woke it up to check if file Manager was running, saw nothing on the lock screen, unplugged it and File manager popped up again.
This update is a cancer. I haven't had to restart yet, but I've definitely noticed a few more app crashes. The loss of Fastboot might explain why my first attempt to hide the offenders with ADB failed. after installing every thing , switching to developer mode and connecting it to my computer the phone just refused to show up in the program (again, this might still be a computer issue because I've had trouble with minor developer tools in the past). I may not be an Android developer like some people on this side but feel like I fiollowed the instructions correctly. I get the feeling this is bad news. We might not be able to even get a different rom installed on it at this point.
Is it possible someone has an older version of the firmware that can be reinstalled over top of this some how? ugh, I really can't afford to have to buy a new phone right now.
PN04 said:
This update is a cancer
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Click to collapse
I agree. People, please try to avoid this update. If you can find a way to stop the "update" process from notifying you, great, if you don't, learn to leave with them - it's better than doing the update.
After another day experience with this update, I figured out that:
1. The "Google Play Services" processes takes 30% of the CPU all the time, and causes my battery to run out after 6 or so hours. This was not the case before the update. I can't figure out what is calling the "Google Play Services". I see the evil "File Manager" running, but it's not taking up CPU, and nothing else takes CPU except the "Google Play Services".
2. Every once in a while - several times each day (!) - something "hangs" in the OS, and applications start to hang: sometimes they can't start, sometimes they can't read their data (!?), sometimes they can't connect to the network (!?), and other bizarre phenomena. Rebooting the phone solves the problem, and I've been doing this several times each day now. Before that I rarely had to reboot the phone (maybe once a week).
Avoid this update. Like the plague. Shame on Alcatel / TCL.
Mankann said:
Code:
pm uninstall --user 0 com.package.name
(this uninstalls system apps for the current user, so that they cannot be launched, do not notify about their updates in Google Play, and this works without root)
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Click to collapse
Doesn't work for me:
pm uninstall --user 0 com.jrdcom.filemanager
Error: java.lang.SecurityException: Package null does not belong to 10096