S5 Lollipop update - changes to silent mode and menu background

[Anonymous]

Hi,

I updated my S5 OTA last night to Lollipop 5.0. First impressions are smoother performance and new look which is nice, however 2 major bugbears are overshadowing any improvements for me:

1) - Removed "silent" mode. The options now seem to be only are Sounds On or Vibrate, but no silent?? Looking around the web a lot of people are commenting on this, seems Google are pushing "interuptions" as the new mute-mode. It's not a straightforward swap though - unless I'm missing something there seems to be no way of having the phone on silent (i.e. no sounds or vibrations) but still to get notifications / LED indications come through for working in the office / library etc. This seems a stupid ommision!

2) No way to change menu background colours. Going into Settings, Contacts, Messages etc, there are all now a white background by default. I had it set to Black under KitKat which I preferred as it's easier to read in low light (first thing in the morning, at night etc). Why remove this option? Appreciate it'll be driven by Google, but one of the best things about Andriod phones is the ability to customise it and set it up to look and feel how you like. These menus have an iPhone-feel about them now from that perspective - some will not mind it, but I don't like it!!

Again, if I'm missing something and someone can direct me how to silence my phone but still receive notifications, or change menu colours, please let me know.

Thanks

Ian

[Edmondo]

My comments are aimed at the more fundamental issues re the operating system upgrade, e.g. power consumption, wifi performance and the like and NOT the silent mode, I personally see that as only a minor irritation.

This should NEVER have been released to the public with the level of defects present.

[drey_p]

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@Edmondo wrote:

My comments are aimed at the more fundamental issues re the operating system upgrade, e.g. power consumption, wifi performance and the like and NOT the silent mode, I personally see that as only a minor irritation.

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A lot of those issues have been cured by doing a factory reset on the device.

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@Edmondo wrote:

This should NEVER have been released to the public with the level of defects present.

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Once again, something you will have to raise with Google as this is their update and the things you mention above, Vodafone would have had no control over. 

[Edmondo]

Vodafone have control over whether the upgrade is released to their customers and Vodafone's testing should have identified the defects, so I cannot share your views on this. 

Vodafone has therefore either let down its customers through inadequate testing or if these defects were identified through testing or known "features" then they should have either delayed the release of the update untill a more stable version with fewer defects was available or have issued a list of the defects present together with actions which could be taken to minimise their impact.

As a customer either of these courses of action would have been infinitely preferable to what I and numerous customers have been forced to endure.

[drey_p]

Vodafone do not have full control over the release I'm afraid.  They certify the software for the network ie they check for compatibility and then have any customisations added.  The roll out is done by the manufacturer

The core functionality, which is what you are referring to, is controlled by Google. Vodafone have no say on this, nor do any other network operators.

Your complaint is with Google and not Vodafone.  It is not Vodafone's customisations that are causing issues.  As stated previously, people on here and other forums have reported that a factory reset of the device sorts out the issues. This isn't particular to Vodafone or the UK. So it is safe to assume that Vodafone wouldn't have picked up the issues, especially if the device had been factory reset. 

As said before, I would suggest you take this up with Google as it is their functionality you're complaining about.

It seems that Vodafone are damned if the do and damned if they don't.  If they had held back an update, people would be complaining, if they don't, people complain. 

[Edmondo]

As suppliers of the hardware and the software that resides upon it, Vodafone have a duty of care to manage their suppliers and to ensure that the products are fit for purpose, each vodafone customer will whether they have purchased the device direct or have it on contract will have have a contract for the purchase with Vodafone.  It is therefore in their interests to ensure that upgrades of this nature are as seamless and problem free as possible.  However what we see from their response to any forum member is to direct them to some vanilla statement on upgrades in an attempt to wash their hands of any involvement.

If the upgrade had been even more defect ridden than it currently is then I can assure you that Vodafone would be taking a rather more proactive approach on this in preference to every customer returning their handset to them (note customers would not be returning their devices to google!).  My contention is, that they should be rather more proactive full stop!

[Anonymous]

Hi guys. Bringing all this back to my original post and the reason for starting the thread - I felt that there were changes with the firmware which felt like a step backwards rather than a step forwards. For me (and many others judging by the feelings on this thread and around the web) these were a) the removal of the silent mode and b) the forced background colour of white when in Contacts, Messages, Phone, Settings etc.

We've got a fix coming for a) as part of Lollipop 5.1, but no news on b). While firmware and changes are clearly driven by Google, I'm pretty sure it's Samsung rather than Vodafone who have the ability to pick and choose what's implemented in TouchWiz. 

Wonder if anyone from Vodafone has the ability to feed back to Google and/or Samsung about the features that people are not happy about for consideration about how to adjust future firmware releases? While the silent mode is coming back our way, the forced white backgrounds in the core menus still feels like Samsung's having a crisis of identy and is pretending to be an iphone. I can't get used it, bring back the ability to change the backgrounds to black!

[JudyJade]

hiya - yes thanks for original post - you can change the background in the Messages at the 3 dots top right - - scroll down to settings - then display - then background... i have put my own background picture which i quite like... but yes preferred whatever was there before! there is an option of Black too...  thanks..

[SandpiperNC]

Sorry, but your Firmware statement is 4 years old and a cop out.

Being a senior software developer myself, I appreciate you don't want to get dragged into the same old questions over and over again. But, people have genuine concerns over the poor quality of the recent Lollipop update making many quality phones unusable, or as good as. Vodafone need to fix and address these issues rather than keep saying "we not going to respond to firmware issue".

[stantheman77]

There has been a futher improvement update for the Sim free SM-G900F

G900FXXU1BOC7

[Anonymous]

So, after a few months now with Andriod Lollipop 5.0 - the issues that I opened this tread with remain, however as you naturally get used to the way these things work - the more serious bugs have come to be the new "top annoyances" with 5.0. Namely:

- "Unfortunately Contacts has stopped". This warning message pops up every few hours at random times. It's consistent regardless of what app I have open, whether I'm in messages or phone or not in anything at all. Why? Why is Contacts even being used in the background when I'm not in it?? Very frustrating.

- Force closing of everything, be it apps, contacts, emails, photos, whatever - again at seemingly random times for no apparent reason.

- Video player in browsers streaming in full screen. Works with some websites, not with others. All browsers impacted, Chome, stock, all of them. could play full screen in Jelly Bean, can't under Lollipop.

Hope all these are going to be fixed in 5.1. Again, presume this is all Google & Samsung. Not Vodafone's fault, but if they can advise when 5.1 is going to launch, that'd be great.