DON'T Upgrade your Samsung Galaxy S4!!

[Dan31877]

The recent upgrade from Verizon killed my Samsung Galaxy S4. I was told at the store that the S4 isn't able to handle the upgrade. I'm posting this because I was frustrated by the fact that this wasn't posted anywhere.

[MiiHere]

Did they try to troubleshoot your device at all? Or did they see you had an upgrade and threw that suggestion out first as the fix?

[Dhenry64]

I was able to update my phone but it is a terrible update. I am not satisfied AND it deleted all my pictures that were just taken. Fortunately (for some reason) I transferred all the pictures that where on my phone over to my computer prior to the update so I only lost the most recent. I was lucky as some of the pictures were not replaceable.

[MiiHere]

What device do you have? What steps have you taken to troubleshoot it?

[Snn5]

It can handle the update.  Many have done so.  I have no idea why Verizon reps would state it cannot handle the update if the update was cleared and certified to work with the S4.  Sounds like a sales tactic to get some unsuspecting customer into a new contract or a new agreement on a new phone.

[Dan31877]

You gave me some suggestions on a question I had posted, Why is text messaging is taking 20 minutes?.  The person I worked with told me the same thing happened to him so he upgraded. I don't think he was being dishonest but he probably didn't troubleshoot it thoroughly. I upgraded because I need to have it for work and I didn't have time to troubleshoot more than what we did yesterday. 

[MiiHere]

If the SIM card replacement didn't work, he should have backed up everything for you; which would have been done prior to getting an upgrade anyway, and then done a factory reset and not backed up or restored app data which may have solved the problem. Since not all avenues were tried to fix the problem, you can't say that the lollipop update ruined your phone or that the lollipop update isn't compatible, especially when other people are using their phones just fine after the lollipop.

[Dan31877]

You're right but you can't say that it wasn't the upgrade either or that it wasn't some factors specific to my phone plus the update. I think if I knew this was a possibility then I wouldn't have upgraded and even though I can't prove it, I suspect I wouldn't have had a problem.

[MiiHere]

I think it was partly the update that caused the malfunctions, but there are plenty of things to try to remedy the situation before saying that the phone can't handle the update; there are plenty of older phones running it without any issues. Verizon Reps are not tech reps (nor am I) I am however an avid reader and researcher and more people say that the factory reset helped than those who say their phone isn't compatible with the OS.

[jrh0828]

I've been telling people for months not to install any updates for the S4.  The Lollipop update is only the latest of updates that have nearly destroyed S4's.  I haven't done any updates since last Fall.  It's a pain to do, but every day I delay the update to the next day.  I'd rather do this than trying to unbrick the phone.