Galaxy S3 Android 4.3 update pulled, Note 2 delayed
Last week Samsung started the procedure of updating last year’s flagship handset to a newer version of the Android operating system, but after it was released many users’ encountered problems and now the Samsung Galaxy S3 Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update has been pulled with the Note 2 surely to be delayed.
Since the update was first released by Samsung the update has reached more regions but it soon became apparent that some users were being hit with issues. The Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update for the Samsung Galaxy S3 yesterday hit the UK and it was available for our unlocked version of the device via an OTA update.
Reading all the comments we had on our earlier article we decided not to update the handset and this morning we checked the device again, only to be told that it already has the latest updates installed.
So this means that Samsung has pulled the Android 4.3 update for the device and could also mean that the same software will be delayed for the Galaxy Note 2 that looked ready to go. Many users moaned about the handset being unresponsive after the update especially the lockscreen, and battery life had become a joke.
Other problems included a patchy Wi-Fi connection or the handset locking up completely needing the battery to be pulled to restart the device. Considering the handset has been sitting on Android 4.1.2 for a while now it’s a poor performance by the company when you take into account how long Android 4.3 Jelly Bean has been available.
The update had also reached some carrier versions of the handset in the UK that included O2 and Three, and you would have thought these have been pulled as well and hopefully Samsung quickly provides a fix for those that have already installed the software and commences the rollout of the update.
Did you install the software and have had problems with your Galaxy S3?
Comments
113 thoughts on “Galaxy S3 Android 4.3 update pulled, Note 2 delayed”
I did install it and have had nothing but problems since. Anyone know when we could expect a fix?
What kind of crappy e-rag is this? Grow a pair and update your phone and then REPORT the problems firsthand!
I have had the upgrade for under a day no serious problems yet Loses charge no quicker than before
I installed the upgrade this afternoon (Vodafone, UK) via OTA and have been seeing some of the issues mentioned by other users. Regret doing the upgrade and hope Samsung provides a fix at the earliest.
I installed and now having problems with music playback stopping and starting even with local files and the screen dosent turn on when you press the power button, sometimes i have to take the battery out and turn it back on or sometimes it will randomly wake up after i pressed it.
This is the last samsung product I ever buy and I’m gonna go with sony
I moved from Sony to Samsung because of the exact same issues.
Once they have your money, they’re not bothered
Android is a mess regardless of the manufacturer, even google has completely neglected the 2 years old Galaxy Nexus not allowing the update to KitKat. My wife’s 4 years old iPhone 4 instead got a prompt update to the latest version of the OS as soon as it was released. My next handset is defiantly going to be an iPhone.
Lots of problems here as well. I even carried out a factory reset hoping that issues will disappear but the improvement was marginal. Issues I have are: wifi is playing up; the phone takes ages to wake up when the home/on buttons are pressed; download manager gets stuck on a loop; general lag and apps crushing. I cannot comment on the battery consuptions as it has not been long enough. I hope Samsung issue a fix soon.
Updated yesterday. Battery life has HALVED! Also problems waking the phone from deep sleep. The battery problem is strange as the CPU seems to have no problems entering deep sleep and doesn’t run at a higher clock speed than it did under 4.1.2 (mine usually stays at 800MHz if the phone is being used, unless I’m pushing it). I wondered if the antennae were causing the drain, but the phone lost 3% charge in 1 hour on Airplane Mode with the screen off. Previously it would lose 2% in an entire night.
For those with music playback skipping when screen is off and lockscreen enabled: my problem has seemingly disappeared for good once I simply woke the lockscreen. The music player widget appeared and the skipping has now completely ceased.
The update reset my notification volume to zero, so I had to re-enable that. Samsung keyboard makes a keypress noise and haptic feedback, even though these were disabled. To re-disable go into keyboard settings, enable both options, exit settings, then go back into settings and disable.
The other annoyance (for me, at least) is that the upgrade forces the new version of Google maps, which loses a ton of functionality.
Other than that the upgrade is great! The phone is much smoother across the board, and is especially noticeable on apps which were very janky, such as G+. I’m liking the new options too, and Touchwiz looks a bit prettier too. I can’t believe they didn’t pick these bugs up in testing but Samsung WILL fix them (if they don’t they’ll lose a ton of customers on two-year contracts who would otherwise move up to the forthcoming S5).
If you’re having Wi-Fi stability problems check your Advanced settings for Wi-Fi. There are options to put Wi-Fi on a timer, disconnect when the phone sleeps, and auto-switch networks if the signal is weak. Check these are all disabled. Mine are, and I’m having no Wi-Fi issues.
I’ve only owned the phone a week so thought I would start with the latest Firmware, made the mistake of following the instructions on IBTimes.
After trawling round the forums I can’t seem to find a way of going back to 4.1.2 without losing my carrier signal.
Can any1 help ? A nice little “HOW TO” would probably be appreciated by 1000’s.
Oh & after installing the Ireland update I also lost the “USB debug” option as well as all the developer options.
I’m pretty sure that the Kies PC software gives the option to rollback an update, but I might be wrong.
Developer options: go into Settings, “More” tab, About Device, and scroll down to the Build Number. Keep tapping on this and Developer Options will be enabled.
After installing the update Kies will no longer recognise it & gives the message “Software Incompatible with Kies 🙁
but thx anyway
Any xxemg4 rom seems to work fir modem
u need to download Kies 3.0
Use Odon to flash you’re normal 4.1.2 firmware but extract the modem from irish Rom put Rom in pda and modem in phone do this at the same time it worked for me telecom nz 4.1.2 I also lost network going back works great now.
Hey mate try downloading this I9300OXAEMG4 firmware, it happened to me but im using this firmware now and everythings back to normal.
Flash it using Odin
Download I9300OXAEMG4 firmware, it will let you downgrade and will have network signal, i know this because i tried a few 4.1.2. This one works, I highly recommend it.
Does the connectivity problem get resolved wen u flash this firmware version????
Yes 🙂
I made the same mistake yesterday of updating it, wish I now hadn’t. I’m going back to HTC
I didn’t see this update, and thankfully i will wait for a more bug free update to 4.3 ! Nice one Samsung corp! :/
I just updated my phone few hours ago, and I wrote an email to samsung, because this update is the worst I’ve ever seen!
Home button doesn’t work properly as the power button.
Wi Fi doesn’t work at all.
Battery drains so fast.
I’m so disappointed
I hope they are releasing a patch ASAP
Samsung makes great handsets but the constant softwares issues are getting to me. To be honest I’ll rather go for nexus or Sony next time.
HORRENDOUS!!!! I updated my S3 to 4.3 a few days ago and without any doubt this is the WORST ever EVER software update of any sort i’ve ever done. As mentioned battery life is beyond ridiculous going down from a full day of heavy use on a single charge to now probably 4 hours at best. Wake up lag from instant to 5+ seconds.
There are so many more problems it has pretty much ruined completely my user experiance of this phone which i’ve really enjoyed for the past 12 months or so.
Samsung / Google SORT THIS OUT NOW!!!!!! You are causing people so realy issues with this pathetic, ill though through, under tested (if at all) none update..
DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES UPDATE YOUR DEVICE TO THIS PILE OF SH*T!!!! unless of course you want your phone to slip back to a 1990’s brick.
Updated my unlocked S3 to 4.3 last night using Kies.
1) Unresponsive home and power buttons
2) Ridiculous battery drain (down to less than 50% this morning after only 2 hours, mostly on standby)
3) Bluetooth audio stuttering worse than 4.1.2
4) Kies 3 doesn’t recognise the handset
No impressed. I may just get rid and go for a Nexus 5 32Gb.
Updated yesterday OTA on both mine and my wifes phone and had the same problems with battery drain, lock screen freezing and so on. Download manager was stuck in a loop with both phones. Backed up with Kies 3 (eventually – took 5- 10 goes for each phone) and then did factory reset and restored again from Kies. So far this seems to have improved things- no issues with download manager and battery life seems better but still slow on lock screen.
Installed the update Monday evening (UK, unbranded). Battery life has taken a hit but still beats my old HTC. The biggest problem for me is the extreme lag that hits when the device is locked. Unlocking seems to take forever and the music player skips and stutters. Time to dig out my old mp3 player I think!
Can only agree. Update happened on Monday and within hours I was having problems. Have had to remove the battery several times already. It’s unbelievable that they don’t do any end user testing. They can’t have done any of this as there are so many problems that even they could no miss them. The problem with software development these days is that they use automated testing and not give it to end users (ie us) to try and break. This is down to Samsung – really disapointed in this. Each day that now passes until they fix this will add another nail to their coffin over such upgrades.
Companies like them really need to start waking up to what Customer Service is about – and not just think they are a good company because they have a good marketing department.
Updated my i9300 UK BTU version to 4.3 yesterday. I downloaded via Samobile and flashed with Odin. OTA made mine freeze
After the first time flashing I had keyboard freeze ups and home screen lag.
Fix: Wipe cache and factory reset after flashing with Odin
Issues: Only one is the battery drain.
Just downloading and saw these comments. I cancelled download. Many thanks
Updated to 4.3 and having the same problems everyone else is, very poor quality control from samsung. does anyone know if its possible to roll back to 4.1.2? at least that was useable!
hello…yes i have the same problems exactly screen power and no wifi restart alone three time a day please we need help from the samsung firma,,,, what is this 4.3?
go to sammobile and search for your handset’s model in their firmware section for 4.1.2. Download it and use Odin to flash it back.
After the update the device definitely feels a lot slower. Hopefully we’ll be seeing a fix sometime soon.
Mine is smoother. Also I use Nova launcher prime. I’ve never been a fan of laggy TW
i do wipe cach data and factory seset about three time and no fix the problems
Did you flash or OTA?
Did you choose not to restore previous apps?
odin ….i mean flash
odin
It’s been installed on mine; battery drain is awful and so is the wake-up lag. Samsung had better do something about it ASAP!
I installed 4.3 n it seemed so slow n my fone wud freeze wen sum1 was ring me n the music wud skep a lot of tym I hope samsung will sort this out
DAFUQ did I just read??
I installed on mine yesterday lots of problems; slow lock screen, unable to share pictures from the gallery it keeps closing the gallery, text message shows on the message app, even after reading the message, Phone has locked twice, resulting in having to take the battery out. BBC weather app will not show on widget. It seems I am finding new bugs all the time. My advise would be not to install, and think twice about buying a samsung phone. Not a happy customer….
Gone from a working phone to one that’s full of bugs..
you must to make factory reset and wipe cach data
after i installed the new version 4.3 i have 70% problems but after factory data reset and wipe cach data now 20% problems
Installed 4.3 for Ireland in a unlocked S3 in Brazil (via ODIn) and I’ve faced most of the reported problems: fast battery drain, no gallery app and camera not connected to the gallery, locked start screen, slow motion, faulty alert sound in whatsup, message and phone calls.
I’m using 4.2.2 on my international S3 and it is rock stable.
Not going to bother with 4.3 until its sorted out.
Installed 4.3 on unbranded gs3 on monday. Have most the same issues as others. Screen lag, stuttering music player etc.. Emailed samsung support, will wait and see.
One not seen mentioned is if you are playing music through the music player and you use the headset to play/pause music the music hub player starts up and stops the general music player?
Maybe Samsung should start beta testing and not let the customers do it for them. Have the same problem with TV firmware from them. You never know what functions stop working after an update.
yup updated on unlocked handset via 3 network, all problems as listed by other plus constant notifications regarding old downloads, files no longer on phone, clear them and they return over and over.
Shame this is these are the first real issues I’ve had with Samsung. sure it will be resolved swiftly so as not to lose customers to other brands and makes coming up to the Christmas period of deals. fingers crossed
I’m also experiencing these problems, albeit with the unlocked device. The device is also really slow to show the lock screen when you press the power button – anything from 5s to 1m. Considering manually downgrading back to 4.1
i solved the downloads issue by long pressing the download notification and then sleecting app info, stopping the downloader app and clearing its data and cache
Update has left the phone in an unusable/unstable condition, surely Samsung must realised that this means consumers are entitled to a replacement as it can be classed as a manufacturers fault! Unfortunately it’s the end of the relationship between me and Samsung…
try to make factory data reset wipe cach data
My phone is now unusable. Imagine if Apple had done such a shitty job. There would be hell to pay in the media. I will not choose samsung again.
Blah blah blah, Apple has done the same thing and had to come out with quick fixes. Sh#t happens, software developers are human, not God.
Actually Samsung is the one not recognizing and dealing with developer fallibility. I’m a developer myself and make mistakes just like the next guy. In order to deal with my own humanity, myself and the organizations I have worked for do proper testing before releasing anything.
Samsung has clearly been pushing for their older devices to be compatible with Gear before the holidays and they probably rushed past all the testing.
Btw, as a Note2 owner I’m not affected by this problem other than the update being delayed – which to me is an acceptable consequence of developer err.
On Vodafone and have updated to 4.3 Jellybean. The handset has now become very laggy. Lock screen can take up to 15 seconds to respond, and on one occasion it locked up and I had to pull the battery. I also have issues with wifi, texts not displaying correctly, and the battery life I get about half the up-time I used to.
In short, this update has ruined the usability of the phone and unless it is sorted soon, I will have no option but to switch. If that’s the case, I can guarantee it wont be to another Samsung product.
Mate.. I am on note 2 and my phone already hangs like 10 times a day. I have a small tint on my screen which is why I can’t get the guarantee. I am never recommending samsung or any of its high end product as its not really worth it.
Multi window not activating, Notifications of downloads refusing to clear, broken music playback.
Need to know how to uninstall 4.3 & roll back
🙁
change home screen mode to easy and then back to standard, then try multi window, worked for me
hi.. you can not uninstall but you can install the old version 4.1.2 or 4.2.2 and than factory reset than get all new …i do that and i wait for bug and fix the problems on 4.3
Total shite from samdung! Just swapped my xperia t for my s3 and since the update waking the damn thing takes ages, looks like i,ll be swapping it for iphone or putting it on the bay for sale, shame as its mint n boxed but no good if it dont wake up!
Samdung LOL …LOVE IT MATE 🙂
My music player stutters when the screen is locked and it takes up to 15 seconds for the screen to respond when I want to unlock it and that’s all since I updated… And no, there’s nothing wrong with my SD card or my headphones, I used the phone’s memory to listen to music, as well as profesional headphones with no avail. Music still stutters like every minute or 2 while the screen is turned off. Sigh
i have been having the same problem.A factory reset didn’t help.
The update is no good. The battery life is really really poor. The lock screen is very laggy. When in sleep and press home button phone takes an age to light up. I wish I could roll back to 4.1.2
bad update, look screen is laggy, battery lifetime 50% less than in 4.1.2, alarmclock has also bugs…
Blah blah blah, Apple and others have done the same thing and had to come out with quick fixes. Sh#t happens, software developers are human, not God.
Agreed but why not do a 4.3.1 update to at least sort the unlock/wake up issue, friends have mailed them and been ignored totally. Apple did do this few yr ago I rang them n got a replacement. No prob, thats the difference here common customer service
No idea what you are talking about. They already pulled the update and are trying like mad to fix a few reported problems and start a new roll out ASAP, what more do you want?
Pulling it doesn’t help the people that already updated and can’t revert back to 4.1.2. That’s the problem. People have to cope until the next update / fix.
What dgscoob2000 stated was that something like this happened to his iOS device and Apple replaced it instead of having to wait for the next update.
I don’t know if Samsung should offer replacements, but an option to revert back to a previous update might help to calm the angry crowd.
Agreed mate I did a full wipe and cache wipe, made no difference to it unlocking/waking up just hassle reinstating all my stuff, id be happy with a revert asap to solve issue
Samsung has options to revert if you don;t mind losing your data and re-installing apps. Samsung’s KIES app will let you install any of the older versions for your carrier.
Yes but something as fundamental as this should have shown in testing unless of course Samsung got a chimp to do the testing.
Samsung does pretty good testing, but they then release it to the individual carriers who modify and add their own stuff, Then it’s up the the cell carrier to test and release the final.
lock screen on my s3 takes a while to open, traditional 3×3 mobile keyboard gone,hate the qwerty only keyboard no use to me! why is there no option for this??other than that it works! might have to flash back to 4.1.2 unless a fix is issued asap!
wake up issue getting worse for me now! think im gonna have to flash back to 4.2.1 unless a fix is issued soon, to everybody else..download Odin and google the “KIES_HOME_I9300XXEMG4_I9300OXAEMG4_1314436_REV00_user_low_ship.tar.md5” file and flash using that, if your not sure how to do this go to youtube for instructions, ive done this before after rooting and it worked perfectly!
I DID – how stupid of me. Hope a solution is rolled out soon.
I feel exactly like you. I wished I had never updated my s3
I did update to 4.3 jelly bean everything is working fine there is no issue with lock screen or battery drain or wifi issues and so haven’t noticed any issues with stability. But some features are missing from the new update such as on lock screen don’t have the ripple or the light effect anymore! You cant even go into settings and change it the option isn’t available. Also how in 4.1 we used to have lock screen app short cuts to quickly access apps straight from lock screen that’s not available either. I think Samsung has disabled the problematic features and still going ahead with update. So it’s safe to go ahead and update. By the way I have a international i9300 in UK.
The ripple is still there. you just have to turn it on. You can find it in Settings > Lock Screen > Unlock effect
How is it that samsung can get 4.3 to work so well for the note3 out of the box and yet botch it for the s3/note2 whose update they have been on longer. Lets not forget when samsung are done with testing an update, it goes to the carriers who run their own tests on the update and only then is said update released to the public. It look to me both samsung and the carriers didnt want to brick a couple of their own s3 in testing, they thought it would far funnier if the customers phones were bricked instead. Samsung need only to give the s3/note2 customers the run around for another 6 months, the s3 is 18 months old and the note 2 is 12 months+ old, and then the can forget about both troublesome devices.
After 4.3 update the phone has become very laggy. Takes upwards of 15 seconds to wake up and audio stutters terribly when screen is off. 🙁
yes thats right i am also my s3 caput ….we must wait for fix all bug
Hi, My S3 on Vodafone UK was updated to 4.3 the other day too and the battery life is now a joke, it’s not lasting anymore than 7 hours before it’s below 20%. There are also times when none of the buttons do anything for ages, especially if the phone has gone to sleep, and I do mean ages!! Come on lets get it sorted……
Yeh! Me too.
Lock screen takes an age to wake up
Battery life halved
Downloads stuck in a loop
Missed some calls because even though the phone was ringing I could not wake the screen up
Can’t undo the update either.
Just have to wait for Samsung to issue a fix
yes my phone is a mess I cant even answer a call , battery goes quick, and all the rest is very messi
Yep just discovered. Mine dont play ringtone correctly and I am unable to answer it anyway, f-ing magic samdung!
I let my S3 install 4.3 a couple of days ago. The whole thing works fine, except for battery life – full charge to 20% takes less than an hour, even without use – best not use the Media player at all, if you have an attention span greater than that of of a goldfish.
I have to say I don’t like the SMS settings, the standard fonts are either miniscule (and difficult to read) or huge, and difficult to read as constant scrolling is required.
4.3 works perfectly well on the Note, how is it possible to get it so wrong on a closely related device?
This is why I’m sticking to Cyanogenmod.
Yes. That update broke my phone 🙁
Yes the unresponsive screen is driving me mad. When will they release a fix?
have fixed my s3 simply by backing up data on kies, disconnecting phone and entering recovery mode and wiping data/factory settings and deleting cache partition, this resets the phone to factory settings, still have 4.3 OS and home screen now opens instantly and it appears to be problem free, try it folks..its worked for me
How did you get into recovery mode and wiping data/factory settings and deleting cache partition? I only ask because, not everyone knows how to do that
I updated my S3 last week, had no problems before but now the battery life is shot. I can’t answer calls as the screen goes blank and is unresponsive when the phone rings. My music player cuts in and out constantly and the phone shuts off and will not turn on regularly. Very annoying.
it sucks!!!!
s3 now unresponsive from lock screen..at least 30 seconds to activate or battery removal to restart…aghh
Yep, same as bellow with unlocking, but on the positive I have been able to activate Light Flow in the system setting without all that folder opening/closing voice…. lol
Battery life is shortened and the wake up from lock screen is taking forever, very unresponsive opening apps as well, not impressed!
Who on earth tested this pile of worthless crap, have had major issues since update all described in the article, so am I stuck with it until KitKat becomes available in a years time?
Bye Bye Samsung, Hello LG.
Dont go lg they suck just as much at updating :-/
I have had the Galaxy S3 Android 4.3 update. I wished I had not of bothered Battery drain. Screen lag, Patchy music. Wi-Fi saying it’s unstable. I emailed Samsung and they suggested I take battery out for 4 at least 4 hours. Put battery back in to discharge it. Then, fully charge battery and then do a factory reset. Still same problem. Samsung should have tested update properly before releasing it. Not very happy.
Mine keeps repeating downloads of old attachments. It’s an absolute pain. I SO wish I hadn’t upgraded.
i cannot receive/make calls or texts…..this is really not good for me as its my main source of contact
Just got the Note 2 update for 4.3.2 – It’s now almost impossible to listen to podcasts as the audio jitters every 10 seconds or so for 2-20 seconds, and the battery life has gone down the drain – I’m lucky to get half a day with very little use whereas I used to get at least a day, sometimes longer. It’s no where near as responsive to use either – lagging all the time when trying to use the interface. Not impressed – almost unusable now, and I can’t downgrade according to the upgrade notice.
This update sucks my camera wont work. Cant share and pics via my gallery cant watch videos internet is always unstable now and many more problems how can this be fixed?? These are all yhe reasons I use my phone so what is the use having something u cant even use?? Please Fix this
Yep, it still sucks, Had all the other issues reported (Crashing apps – only solution to uninstall and re-install, running hot with short battery life, unusable wi-fi even on home network), and for some reason it decided to set notification volume to zero for messages & email!
Basically the phone is one step away from junk due to this ‘upgrade’. will be asking EE for a refund if the data allowance goes over the limit for sure.
Upgraded to 4.3 on my S3 and now have a heavy delay when pressing the home button to unlock. Takes 4-5 seconds for the screen to light up 🙁
Having the same Problem. Sometimes inputting the pincode does not work at all. Touch Screen does not respond or only after some while, after several attempts. Also apps Pop up significantly slower.
我S3ç¾åœ¨ç”¨çš„系統Android 4.1.2我還沒å‡Android 4.3 Jelly Bean
而且三星系統更新å¯ä»¥å…ˆè©¦å¥½åœ¨è®“我們更新
我用的Android4.1.2也超耗電 有時候系統還會擋擋的