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Please help non-tech old person with 2 year old S-L-O-W SGH-T959

SuaveGato

SuaveGato

Lurker
can anyone please help me with my phone? Been doing some reading and I'm a novice so I don't understand most of these terms, etc.? (and I'm old, lol) I have 2 year old Vibrant SGH-T959. I don’t even really use it a lot except for a browser, phone & text but it has just been getting slower & slower to the point it’s nearly unusable now? I thought maybe my memorie(s) were filling up but from the data below, doesn’t look like that’s it? I read somewhere maybe I should back everything up, then somehow put it all back to factory and start over? Any tutorial on that for “dummies”? Thanks for any help.

Firmware = 2.2, baseband = T959UVKB5, kernel version = 2.6.32.9, build = FROYO.UVKB5SD card = total space = 1.9 GB, available = 1.52Gb. Phone storage = 13.18 GB, available = 12.97. Application storage = 0.88GB.

P.S. I guess I should what slow is specifically? takes SOOO long to switch between screens, apps, sometimes the delay in responding to my screen touches that I miss a phone call before it responds to my "Swipe to answer". etc. Thank you.
 
Hi, SuaveGato. I had the Samsung Vibrant for a while and I loved it, it's a very nice phone even though it's quite old by mobile tech standards. I would like to help you with this phone but I have some questions:

1. Is the phone rooted?

2. Have you had the chance to read these guides?
* http://androidforums.com/vibrant-ti...ricks-share-only-sub-forum-not-questions.html

* http://androidforums.com/vibrant-ti...-your-galaxy-s-phone-you-gotta-check-out.html

* Vibrant - Support and Troubleshooting - Android Forums

After you've had a chance to read those guides, I would recommend finding a good backup strategy that works for you. My backup strategy involved using a backup app from the Google Play Store to backup all apps. Then use a file manager from the Google Play Store to backup all personal files.

I recommend My Backup to backup apps and ES File Explorer to backup all personal files. Both apps are free and are very good at what they do. I also recommend getting into the habit of using a backup strategy on a weekly basis just in case something happens to your phone. I still use both of the above apps and am willing to help with them at any time.

It sounds like a factory reset might be beneficial. This involves invoking the built-in erase and restore procedure to reset your phone back to the state it was in when it left the factory. Keep in mind that this procedure will erase everything from the phone, so you'll have to re-install all of your apps afterward. However, given that a factory reset is a bit invasive, I would like to save this step until after you have read the guides I listed above, you may not need a factory reset at all.

Since you have a Google account, you can take advantage of Google Drive. Google Drive is a cloud storage service where you can store your files and access them at any time. I recommend installing the Google Drive app from the Google Play Store. I use this app all the time to store files in my Google account, I view this as a type of backup and you can never have too many backups.

Go ahead and read through the guides I listed and let us know if you need further assistance. Don't be afraid to ask lots of questions, there are many people here who are quite willing to help.

Lastly, you have a very nice phone, we'll get you up and running in no time :)
 
Suave, I would suggest plugging your phone to your PC... if you have one, and go to the sd card folder or go to My Computer(Windows XP) or Computer (Windows 7/Vista) and open up the new drive that is there.. C: is your main computer. Your pc may say something like E: open that drive and copy everything in there and then go to your desktop and create a new folder called phone. Paste everything in that new folder.

from there go to your settings tab. you may have to search around for this, but look for either security or back up/ restore. or something along those lines. Inside of that you will see a factory data reset or wipe data button, tap it and agree to everything. BEFORE YOU DO! make sure you know your Google login ID and PASSWORD! you will need this to set your device back up! Any other questions feel free to pm me or post back here and either myself or someone else will help you.
 
THANK YOU BOTH! I have read many of the links pasted above, some don't seem to apply to my situation, some just confused me... But I will go back through them and see if I can't educate myself. I do connect my phone to my PC often, to load pictures to my computer, so I do know about the drives you mentioned. I did recently copy everything on both of my drives (assume one is the SD card and one is the internal memory of the phone?) when I do that, does it also save my text messages? that is the main thing I don't want to lose. If it saves EVERYTHING, then I can copy/backup like that again, so it's current, then do the factory reset thing. Then, how do I get all of my stuff back onto the phone? Sounds like the google app might make that process easier? I do have the Google Drive app, I read that somewhere here and downloaded it but haven't used it.... I will read some more, THANKS again for the help, I'm sure I'll have more questions.
 
SuaveGato said:
THANK YOU BOTH! I have read many of the links pasted above, some don't seem to apply to my situation, some just confused me... But I will go back through them and see if I can't educate myself. I do connect my phone to my PC often, to load pictures to my computer, so I do know about the drives you mentioned. I did recently copy everything on both of my drives (assume one is the SD card and one is the internal memory of the phone?) when I do that, does it also save my text messages? that is the main thing I don't want to lose. If it saves EVERYTHING, then I can copy/backup like that again, so it's current, then do the factory reset thing. Then, how do I get all of my stuff back onto the phone? Sounds like the google app might make that process easier? I do have the Google Drive app, I read that somewhere here and downloaded it but haven't used it.... I will read some more, THANKS again for the help, I'm sure I'll have more questions.
Click to expand...

Ok, it looks like you've found a good backup strategy that works for you (copy and paste from phone to PC). I can't stress it enough that your preferred backup scheme should be performed each week, even if the phone appears to be running perfectly. Life can sometimes throw us a curve and it's nice to have backups of all files just in case.

Yes, the two "drives" are your external memory (SD card) and your internal memory.

As far as I remember, the backup scheme that you're using does not backup text messages, you'll have to find a different way to back those messages up. I don't text much so I'm afraid that I won't be much help there, perhaps someone else will chime in with something.

Once the factory reset has been completed, you can simply copy and paste files from your PC back to your phone (a reverse of what you did to back them up). I recommend keeping a "phone" folder on your PC at all times and updating backups in case you ever need to copy files back to the phone.

I understand the guides can be a bit confusing, so don't hesitate to ask any questions needed. We're here to help as long as you need us.

Update1: I just looked at the backup options in My Backup Pro and it lists several things that it can backup, among those options are SMS and MMS. So, you might want to invest in this app to backup your text messages if you can't find another backup scheme for that purpose. My Backup Pro is a paid app but there is a free version in the Google Play Store. This app has many options for backing up apps and data.
 
One other thing before you reset your phone.

Make sure your contacts, phone numbers, etc, are backed up to google and not just your phone.

Not sure how to do that with your phone though. Just a thought in case it was missed in above tips. :)
 
Ok, with a little (ok a lot) of help from you folks, I'm feeling pretty smart now... I was able to go into my phone and see that I had saved most of my contacts to the PHONE and not the SIM card or Google. So I exported all of my contacts to the SD card and then was able to mount the phone (SD card) to PC and upload all of my contacts from SD to my Google account. Was even able to "merge" my duplicates, pretty cool! Thanks so much!.

So, next step...? I think I need to download a text message backup app and save my texts. Then, Re-save my SD card and my internal phone memory so they are current. Then, do the factory reset thing?

Anything I should before pulling the trigger on the reset thing? I’m nervous!

Thanks, I feel like I might actually save my phone now instead of having to buy new which means another 2 year contract, Uggg.
John

P.S. the links listed my the first responder "know your cell" link is "page not found" and the other link seems to go to some other site, I couldn't find the Vibrant info.?

P.S.S. i found @ Google Play Store "SMS Backup and Restore" app. I'm trying that one.
Thanks!
 
SuaveGato said:
Ok, with a little (ok a lot) of help from you folks, I'm feeling pretty smart now... I was able to go into my phone and see that I had saved most of my contacts to the PHONE and not the SIM card or Google. So I exported all of my contacts to the SD card and then was able to mount the phone (SD card) to PC and upload all of my contacts from SD to my Google account. Was even able to "merge" my duplicates, pretty cool! Thanks so much!.

So, next step...? I think I need to download a text message backup app and save my texts. Then, Re-save my SD card and my internal phone memory so they are current. Then, do the factory reset thing?

Anything I should before pulling the trigger on the reset thing? I
Click to expand...
 
***UPDATE***
Hey Folks, I did it! not a complete success but thanks to your help I had the juevos and knowledge to try it to fix my phone! A couple notes though.
1) even though I backed everything up, I did still lose some stuff. For example I had my contacts organized into WORK, FAMILY and CONTACTS. after backing up to Google and restoring, the folders got eliminated somewhere along the way? So now all of my contacts are in one big folder. Not the end of the world though.
2) Same with the text messages... I backed up all texts to my SD card. then after factory reset, re-installed them but all of the attached pictures are no longer attached? Not sure if they are still on my SD card and or retrievable? I sure hope so, any suggestions?
3) And last but not least, doesn’t seem to have fixed the issue with my phone. It’s still stalling and grinding S-L-O-W… bummer. But I had a thought?

Since I backed up ALL of the data from phones internal drive, then factory re-set. Then I copied my backed up files I had saved, back onto the phone. When I did this, it asked me, some of the files have the same name, do you want to replace them, blah, blah, blah… What I’m thinking is, many of those files I assume are system and OS files right? So when I replaced the freshly factory reset files with my backed up old ones, did I not just “reload” the screwed up files I had to begin with and over write the freshly written factory ones? Was I supposed to ONLY copy my personal data files (pictures, documents etc.) back onto the phone after the re-set?

Thanks again everyone, maybe I need to do it again and only copy my data files back to phone, thoughts?
 
Since you have everything backed up, do the refresh again but try using it for a while before you restore anything.

See if it works. :)
 
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