Samsung S3 Issues / Tips & Tricks

[Grimspoon]

Ok I figured instead of derailing the general S3 thread constantly, we can have a issues thread. If anyone highly objects it can be deleted

So I had some serious battery issues from day 1 and with the help of Krypt0n1te managed to resolve my problems. I was seeing a massive drain over night whilst on standby. Essentially I managed to fix this by getting 2 apps, BetterBatteryStats and Battery Monitor which gives you a better understanding of what is chewing the battery and how much drain is going down. I essentially nailed it down to 2 things. Other than the power saving on etc, I switched off key tones, touch sounds and screen lock sound. I also turned off the ripple effect on the lock screen. Also make sure to set Wifi to Never stay on when sleeping. Just doing these things alone have made a massive difference to my battery life. I have managed to get 1day 7hrs out of my battery and I am on 29% charge.

I also disabled some bloat ware in the background, no idea what some of it does, but I haven't had any issues thus far. Some people may want to keep these on if they use the features, but for me I don't need most of them.

I disabled:

All Share
BroadcomMEMsService
ChatON
Exchange services
Samsung Push Service
Video Hub


Now some of these might be important for certain features to work properly, but as I mentioned I have no noticed any issues. If you have any others than can be disabled let us know in this thread please.

Lastly I have heard a lot of people complain about the high data usage on the S3. I installed Onavo and it seems to aid a fair amount. It creates a VPN connection which some how by magic decreases your data usage. Maybe someone can explain the mechanics behind this, I am not to sure how it works. It also allows you to monitor usage and what apps are using your data. Very handy little app.


Again a shout out to Krypt0n1te for his assistance, I am sure if anyone has issues he can add some value.

 

[shinji]

I have the S3 too! Awesome phone just a pity there's no paper manual...

Anyway, I get about 2-3 days use using the phone to do twitter updates, check e-mail, sms and make a few calls. The phone is in airplane mode at night (to make the alarm go off the phone need to be on... 10 years ago phones could switch themselves on to make the alarm go off...).

Simple trick: Android ICS gave us an awesome dropdown menu that also includes icons to manipulate Bluetooth, WiFi, 3G etc. Simply switch off those services you do not need.
I always keep the WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS & Mobile Networks off and only activate them as I need them.

To prevent the phone from using crazy amounts of data:
1) Do not select Automatic Updates when installing apps from Google Play (aka Android Market)
2) Switch off auto 'Sync' in dropdown menu
3) Use task manager - in ICS it works a treat and actually helps keep data use low

The Galaxy S3 plays games very lekker - but remember games eat battery life like a fat guy eats Pringles!

 

[Mr Feesh]

Ok I figured instead of derailing the general S3 thread constantly, we can have a issues thread. If anyone highly objects it can be deleted

So I had some serious battery issues from day 1 and with the help of Krypt0n1te managed to resolve my problems. I was seeing a massive drain over night whilst on standby. Essentially I managed to fix this by getting 2 apps, BetterBatteryStats and Battery Monitor which gives you a better understanding of what is chewing the battery and how much drain is going down. I essentially nailed it down to 2 things. Other than the power saving on etc, I switched off key tones, touch sounds and screen lock sound. I also turned off the ripple effect on the lock screen. Also make sure to set Wifi to Never stay on when sleeping. Just doing these things alone have made a massive difference to my battery life. I have managed to get 1day 7hrs out of my battery and I am on 29% charge.

I also disabled some bloat ware in the background, no idea what some of it does, but I haven't had any issues thus far. Some people may want to keep these on if they use the features, but for me I don't need most of them.

I disabled:

All Share
BroadcomMEMsService
ChatON
Exchange services
Samsung Push Service
Video Hub


Now some of these might be important for certain features to work properly, but as I mentioned I have no noticed any issues. If you have any others than can be disabled let us know in this thread please.

Lastly I have heard a lot of people complain about the high data usage on the S3. I installed Onavo and it seems to aid a fair amount. It creates a VPN connection which some how by magic decreases your data usage. Maybe someone can explain the mechanics behind this, I am not to sure how it works. It also allows you to monitor usage and what apps are using your data. Very handy little app.


Again a shout out to Krypt0n1te for his assistance, I am sure if anyone has issues he can add some value.

what does broadcomMEMsService do?

Not sure if any one else has this but if you go under running apps it shows maps open twice?? (Samsung maps? is also on this list so not sure if it is causing maps to be open??)
Yet it does this even straight after i start up the phone. Also it doesn't show up when hold down the home button.

How much ram are you guys using? Mine is using 598MB with 181 mb free

 

[4cer]

what does broadcomMEMsService do?

Not sure if any one else has this but if you go under running apps it shows maps open twice?? (Samsung maps? is also on this list so not sure if it is causing maps to be open??)
Yet it does this even straight after i start up the phone. Also it doesn't show up when hold down the home button.

How much ram are you guys using? Mine is using 598MB with 181 mb free

Mine with about 30 apps installed and not stopping any processes is using 421Mb with 358Mb free

 

[Mr Feesh]

Mine with about 30 apps installed and not stopping any processes is using 421Mb with 358Mb free

I must have about the same if not less apps yet the phone is using alot of RAM even from start up. Noticed that its not nearly as quick as when i first got it.

 

[Grimspoon]

Anyone have an issue with Tapatalk where if you use 2x1 widget, they forum logo disappears? If I load the widget, I select the forum, like MyBB, the widget then shows the MyBB logo, but this reverts back to the default Tapatalk icon after sometime.


Edit: fixed this issue by turning cloud account off

 

[Gielie Geelmielie]

If you disabled an app, how do you enable it again, for example I disabled ChatON, and now it is not showing in the Application Manager so that I can enable it again?

 

[Gielie Geelmielie]

Oh, found it. All the disabled apps were moved to the bottom of the list.

 

[Grimspoon]

Yeah all disabled apps sit at the bottom.

 

[gnomez]

what does broadcomMEMsService do?

Not sure if any one else has this but if you go under running apps it shows maps open twice?? (Samsung maps? is also on this list so not sure if it is causing maps to be open??)
Yet it does this even straight after i start up the phone. Also it doesn't show up when hold down the home button.

How much ram are you guys using? Mine is using 598MB with 181 mb free

I dont have much installed and running... but im on 630mb used - 150mb free

I found that my twitter client, whatsapp and facebook eats memory like crazy

 

[sGuy]

hi all I keep getting the following "Unfortunately, the process com.android.phone has stopped" when I receive a call and it seems to be happening more often. My phone is not rooted

 

[Grimspoon]

hi all I keep getting the following "Unfortunately, the process com.android.phone has stopped" when I receive a call and it seems to be happening more often. My phone is not rooted

From another forum, worth a try:

Over on the Sprint forums, they've posted a fix for this without needing a reset: Go into Menu -> Settings -> Call settings -> Reject with message. If you have more than 5 messages in there, delete some so you have less than 5.

People are reporting that once they do that, they are once again able to receive calls without the force close happening. Hope that helps!

 

[sGuy]

From another forum, worth a try:

tried this only have 2 messages now and still have the same prob;ems

 

[sGuy]

hi all I keep getting the following "Unfortunately, the process com.android.phone has stopped" when I receive a call and it seems to be happening more often. My phone is not rooted

so some dude from samsung called cause i sent them an email. the advise is do a hard reboot (remove that battery from the phone while its still on) if that does not work then back up data and restore factory default. if this does not work then i need to take it in to have it look at.

 

[Grimspoon]

That's weird. Sounds like a software issue to me so maybe try a hard reset. I know this clears all data do a backup.

 

[Krypt0n1te]

Again a shout out to Krypt0n1te for his assistance, I am sure if anyone has issues he can add some value.

Thanks for the kind words, Mr G!

Will try and pop in a little later and see if I can shed some light on some of the issues in here. Great thread by the way.

Laters

 

[Cygon]

How does one remove the vodacom branding during startup/shutdown? I think its very annoying. Do I have to flash a new rom?

 

[coldzero]

Howsit, i picked up my S3 yesterday from MTN. The guy struggled a bit to get the mobile data going (adding an APN) he said give it a while and try again. I've waited about 24 hours now. Everytime I try manually add an APN it doesnt save the settings. If I do the settings request from the mtn menu thing it copies the setting in but still no mobile data access. What am I doing wrong. I've searched the forum for answers but maybe i'm running the wrong search. Can someone please assist?

 

[Gothan]

hi all I keep getting the following "Unfortunately, the process com.android.phone has stopped" when I receive a call and it seems to be happening more often. My phone is not rooted

I had the same issue, my problem was that I installed an app called "Facebook contact sync". And then set all my contacts to use the Facebook sync as the default account (with all other contacts from gmail and so on joined to the facebook account), that also worked fine, but as soon as I went into contacts and on some contacts I then changed the default account for the picture back to gmail account it would completely bomb out. If I leave the Facebook account as the default and do not change the picture, it worked fine.

So bleh, what I did was to keep the facebook contacts seprate and not join it to other contacts and it works fine now (hope this makes sense)

 

[Vanhimself]

How does one remove the vodacom branding during startup/shutdown? I think its very annoying. Do I have to flash a new rom?

I flashed SuperNexus Jellybean rom and now I have a new boot screen. Looking at CyanogenMod youtube vids they also have a unique bootscreen.

So I guess you will need to flash a new rom.