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S3 does NOT kill SD cards...

Yeah id say the radios are the second biggest battery killer.
I use DS Battery Saver (it isnt an app killer, they are bad)
It has a toggle widget so when im going out and wont be near a charger i turn it on and it prevents apps from using mobile data while the screen is off so the only notifications i get are calls and sms. Every X hours it lets the apps connect for 1 minute to check for notifications.
I can get like 36 hours standby using it. Great app. Im not sure if it requires root access or not though..
 
funkylogik said:
Yeah id say the radios are the second biggest battery killer.
I use DS Battery Saver (it isnt an app killer, they are bad)
It has a toggle widget so when im going out and wont be near a charger i turn it on and it prevents apps from using mobile data while the screen is off so the only notifications i get are calls and sms. Every X hours it lets the apps connect for 1 minute to check for notifications.
I can get like 36 hours standby using it. Great app. Im not sure if it requires root access or not though..
Click to expand...

Hmm, might look into that. I charged my battery last night and I was able to go all day with one charge and using the phone a lot. I did not reach yellows on my battery at all today.

I have a theory about battery life, but may be wrong. When my phone was in "jacked up mode" my battery was dead in no time. My 4.1.2 version with a ton of apps disabled also ran into some battery longevity issues. Here is what I think...if those apps are disabled and one of them is dependent on another for some weird reason, then that app runs in the background like a loop looking for it's "hook" for communications. When it's not detecting the hook, it forces itself to run all the time until it has been killed in task manager. Not having any apps disabled other than the ones I mentioned, there is no "looping and searching for the communication hook" any longer, hence, not wasting battery on back-end processes that mean nothing to me.

Like I said, I could be wrong, but I am seriously seeing an improvement in my speed and battery life.

I wonder if Samsung was listening to their users all this time now and have made the adjustments to the code to help out with battery drain as well as the efficiency of the overall kernel and code for faster throughput.
 
I dont know about your disabled apps theory tbh lol. My rule of thumb has always been that any app thats visible in the app drawer is safe to disable.
Youre right about samsung firmware and battery life though. Ive been running non-samsung firmware for like 6months or more and none of the rom/kernel combos can beat Touchwiz for battery life imo. The phone was built to run TW and TW is built for the phone. Maybe even more so on the international version that uses a samsung cpu :thumbup:
 
So, after 4 solid days of the new 4.3 update, a factory reset and not disabling any applications other than Yahoo News and Finance, my S3 is better than ever. I get a ton of battery life, quicker UI and just a great overall experience.

There are seriously ZERO issues with the update and the system. I still think it is funny when I read some of the "Kills SD Cards" post and the first question that comes to mind is "how much tweaking of their phone did some of these people perform."

I have now helped 59 people with their "dead SD Card" issue and they are back to running awesomely.

To update everyone, I have now unchecked all "show notifications" in all the apps I was allowed access to, no issues. I have not disabled any other apps since my system is flawless...no need to. :D

I think Android is awesome about allowing access to manipulate apps you want on or off, but at what cost. In my experience so far, opting to leave the phone alone seems to be a favorable option for me and everyone else I have helped out. No one is loosing sd cards and not getting stupid notifications nor freezes and crashes.

Samsung did a great job this time around.
 
I ran across a thread regarding this 4.3 update and a list of apps were shared that can be disabled and certain apps that should be "running". I will be experimenting with these to confirm and report back once I know more. Apparently, disabling these will make the the S3 run faster than it already is.

Also, for those people that still believe this phone "Kills SD Cards", there is memory management process called "kswapd0" which swaps processes out of memory to the SD card swap space. Confirmed by Samsung on a phone call, certain apps do access the SD card for communications and if that app is disabled, the memory management gets funky, creates a corrupted file on the card and reports that the card is no longer functioning. When I say be cautious of what you disable, I really am trying to help everyone.

Things that can be disabled in
 
I think Samsung is referring to the internal SD card in this instance.

BTW my S3 killed 2 SD cards. I've made absolutely no mods to my S3 other than installing apps.

One card lasted a couple of months, the other about 6 months.
 
HighSierra said:
I think Samsung is referring to the internal SD card in this instance.

BTW my S3 killed 2 SD cards. I've made absolutely no mods to my S3 other than installing apps.

One card lasted a couple of months, the other about 6 months.
Click to expand...

Hmmm, seems weird. 'Cuz no one else I know had issues when they did not disable apps. I'll bet a buck you disabled some apps. :p
 
TheQuicken said:
Hmmm, seems weird. 'Cuz no one else I know had issues when they did not disable apps. I'll bet a buck you disabled some apps. :p
Click to expand...

You might be onto something here -- as I have had no less than three SD cards "killed" on now, three different S3s, all cards different sizes and brands

And yes, I did disable an app -- the Verizon Backup Assistant -- and I did that on all the phones.

But ... that said, my most recent phone (before this current one) also had Backup Assistant disabled and it didn't have any SD card problems --but it also had a Samsung SD card.

Had to replace that phone because the touch screen suddenly stopped working.

Most current S3 still uses the same Samsung SD card, is having no problems with the card, and has the Backup Assistant app disabled -- because if it is NOT disabled, my phone locks up constantly!
 
WAWood8 said:
You might be onto something here -- as I have had no less than three SD cards "killed" on now, three different S3s, all cards different sizes and brands

And yes, I did disable an app -- the Verizon Backup Assistant -- and I did that on all the phones.

But ... that said, my most recent phone (before this current one) also had Backup Assistant disabled and it didn't have any SD card problems --but it also had a Samsung SD card.

Had to replace that phone because the touch screen suddenly stopped working.

Most current S3 still uses the same Samsung SD card, is having no problems with the card, and has the Backup Assistant app disabled -- because if it is NOT disabled, my phone locks up constantly!
Click to expand...

I had a long talk with a couple of people today at Samsung (I have friends that work there) and they confirmed that most of all the apps do "talk" to each other in one fashion or another. Since my issues have disappeared since I enabled all the apps, I have better battery life and Zero issues with my phone. All 59 of the people that I have helped have said the same thing.

Everyone needs to understand that Android is a TRUE ecosystem and everything impacts other things. It is great that we DO have access to all of the apps and the ability to manipulate our devices, but at what cost. Notifications arise and users have to call Samsung for help!!!

C'mon...think about it for a moment. How do you keep a company in business...create demand!!! Give the community the opportunity to have control over their devices, let them "screw it up", provide support for their screwed up device, offer suggestions, when all else fails... replace the device at a cost to the user....hence, here comes S4.

Guys, make no mistake, S4 is really S3 with more CPU cores and a slightly bigger screen. It isn't really THAT big of a difference over S3. If S4 was that big of a difference, then why do they offer the 4.3 update to S3 users. Why get the latest and greatest software with "old" technology? You may not see where I am going with this, but eventually you will. Samsung is in business because the user community is a little smarter than the iPhone community. You rarely hear of users that "root" their phones complaining...that's because they are technical. The folks that don't "root" their phone have issues and complain because they "think" they have control over their devices, but they really don't. Samsung does!

Okay, off of my soapbox. Moral of the story, stop messing with your device and use it they way it came from the factory and you won't have issues. If you truly want control over your phone, root it. But stop getting mad when you change something on your device and it acts FUNKY!!! Anytime you adjust something on your device, it really does affect other parts of your phone. I really am trying to help you guys out here.

95% of all technical issues are from user error. I am a techie, this is a very true statement.
 
funkylogik said:
Lol are you rooted and rommed mate?
Click to expand...

I am 100% stock ROM, bro. No need to root since I know how to use my phone properly and there are a ton of free apps out there for my use. I cannot tell you how many times I have read the "S3 Kills SD cards" thread and I laugh my A$$ off. If users actually stopped messing with their devices, then they would be happier.

I used to root phones and had a great experience with them. (Damn those companies that think they can tell me I cannot manipulate the their devices...had fun hacking the crap out of PSP) But now, since Android is solidly good, I don't need to root anymore. The problem comes from carriers and their added "bloatware". Those add-ons is what is screwing up the phone when people change things up. Then the same idiots scream to Samsung and SanDisk about their product not working properly, when in reality, it is the user messing things up. When San-disk and Samsung have to replace products for free or dirt cheap, someone has to pay for it...that someone is us!!! When the price of an SD card goes through the roof, it's to pay for the poor fool that got a free one month's before. Same thing as Samsung or any product for that matter.

SO I finally came out here to share my information and to finally tell people to stop messing with their devices.

There are going to be those naysayers out there that say that "my card died and I didn't do anything to my phone"...BS. Samsung built a phone knowing that people were going to screw it up. LOL!!!

I really am here to help people.
 
In my experiences with past phones, smart or not, I have noticed some people luck out and get perfect phones while others can get stuck with crap. I had 2 friends who had the same Motorola phone years age and one phone started to crap out from the get go while the other lasted 3 years. My friend's mytouch 4g died within a year while mines is still working and that friend is now using my mytouch.

My point is this. My original sd fried within one month. My second one I put in January and thought it would last until the end of the phone's life. It fried 2 weeks ago. I do hope your sd, Quicken, lasts an eternity, but don't count your chickens before they last. I hope you aren't like me and back up your files on the sd.

Hopefully, Samsung (or someone) will figure out the problem and explain why our sd cards got fried.
1 theory on the other thread was that doing your phone might have something to do with it. I am normal careful with my phone but stopped it prior to the card dying. To all the fellow users out there, be careful of that.
 
Hello, just spent the past half hour or so reading through this post. Some very interesting stuff in here (nice tip about airplane mode, didn't think about that). I was very concerned about the whole SD card frying issue which is why I never bought one until now.

Question I have is which one should I get? I realize that might be a little OT but I'm curious as to which one everyone has the best results with. Is it with the SanDisk one or is another brand better? If it matters - I have the GT-I9300 16GB.
 
nzdbox said:
Hello, just spent the past half hour or so reading through this post. Some very interesting stuff in here (nice tip about airplane mode, didn't think about that). I was very concerned about the whole SD card frying issue which is why I never bought one until now.

Question I have is which one should I get? I realize that might be a little OT but I'm curious as to which one everyone has the best results with. Is it with the SanDisk one or is another brand better? If it matters - I have the GT-I9300 16GB.
Click to expand...

I have always used SanDisk Class10 on all of my devices. The manufacturer really doesn't matter here, honestly. The most important feature is the speed in which the data gets written to the card. Class 10 is not the absolute fastest, but it is the most economically fastest. Anything above class 10 is seriously a waste of money because those faster card are very expensive. Another piece to the whole "which card should I get" consideration is how long that data takes to get written to the card. Here is a great read for those who aren't very familiar with SD cards. The most important thing is going to be speed, no matter what. Number 1 reason SD cards act a little funny, other than messing with the phone/device itself, is trying to write a 1080P 5-minute long movie to your card on the fly. If you have anything under a class 10, you risk corruption and bad sectors simply because the lower class card cannot write that large amount of data quick enough.

What class sd memory card is best? - electronics

Hope this helps
 
funkylogik said:
I just thought of something.
If your theory in the OP is correct then why doesnt everyone who disables apps or runs a debloated TW rom have a corrupted SD? :D
Click to expand...

IDK, methinks they didn't do a factory reset and if their sd was jacked, they didn't use Linux. I have now fixed 68 devices and am starting to think I should start charging...LOL :). I really enjoy doing this, so no worries.

As you may have noticed, there are fewer responses from the community. My theory is working, methinks. I can almost guarantee if people just follow my advice, they will be some happy folks...but there will always be those out there that still learn the hard way...if these people would just give my idea try....It works everywhere else.

One more thing to add; if there is a debloated S3 out there, chances are it is a rooted device and people that root usually know what they are doing and the code written for root is definitely different than stock ROM. On top of that, there is not such an interdependency of apps on rooted devices as there are on stock phones. I could be wrong though, but whatever I am doing, it's working
 
TheQuicken said:
IDK, methinks they didn't do a factory reset and if their sd was jacked, they didn't use Linux. I have now fixed 68 devices and am starting to think I should start charging...LOL :). I really enjoy doing this, so no worries.

As you may have noticed, there are fewer responses from the community. My theory is working, methinks. I can almost guarantee if people just follow my advice, they will be some happy folks...but there will always be those out there that still learn the hard way...if these people would just give my idea try....It works everywhere else.
Click to expand...

Sounds like you have a decent solution. I noticed a Linux Boot Disk above for recovery of Sd card contents. Would you mind putting it all together in a step by step solution that is easy to follow for all (most;)) S3 owners? Seems like something the community would benefit from having.
 
Here's my take on people that mess with their devices that aren't technically savvy enough...either don't mess with it or educate yourself enough to know what you are doing.

95% of all technical issues are due to user error...but in the case that someone doesn't have enough technical skill, Linux makes life easy. If people are grown up enough to mess with their devices, then they are grown up enough to know or learn how to make a bootable Linux CD...this video shows people how to actually use it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Solq8-mqRO0

My biggest heart burn is reading the crap people put out there about good company's "poor" products or "mistakes" these companies have made when in actuality, it is the user that screwed themselves over, not the company.

I hope this link helps. ;) Linux is the best!!!
 
Im not a Linux or even a desktop user but i know my way around an android phone.
I just dont want you scaring people out of tinkering with their device.
And the "s3 kills sd" thread.. wasnt it you who revived it lol? :p
Anyway when i first got my s3 i used another very big android forum site and complete noob first time posters who wouldnt even know what or where the application manager was were en-mass complaining about fried sd cards.
All im saying is dont be a one-trick-pony and dont always think that your findings apply to everyone because they dont.
We used to have a member here who was one of the most knowledgeable android guys ive ever read. He has some excellent posts on XDA thanked by hundreds of people and his SD got "fried" by his s3. he also lost his first s3 due to SDS (Sudden Death Syndrome [read up on it] which is comgletely samsungs fault so please dont try to defend samsung... youll just get on peoples nerves.
Nothing personal man, just take a step back from the ego-trip you seem to be on :beer:;)
P.s. i do get that youre trying to help mate
 
funkylogik said:
Im not a Linux or even a desktop user but i know my way around an android phone.
I just dont want you scaring people out of tinkering with their device.
And the "s3 kills sd" thread.. wasnt it you who revived it lol? :p
Anyway when i first got my s3 i used another very big android forum site and complete noob first time posters who wouldnt even know what or where the application manager was were en-mass complaining about fried sd cards.
All im saying is dont be a one-trick-pony and dont always think that your findings apply to everyone because they dont.
We used to have a member here who was one of the most knowledgeable android guys ive ever read. He has some excellent posts on XDA thanked by hundreds of people and his SD got "fried" by his s3. he also lost his first s3 due to SDS (Sudden Death Syndrome [read up on it] which is comgletely samsungs fault so please dont try to defend samsung... youll just get on peoples nerves.
Nothing personal man, just take a step back from the ego-trip you seem to be on :beer:;)
Click to expand...

Well said. I appreciate someone who says it the way it is. There are millions of devices out there so there will be an issue from time to time.
You're right about me reviving the other thread...I inadvertently did that. I guess I was so happy to have a solution that seemed to work for me I thought I would share. Everyone has a different situation than I do, but if it helps one person...then that is good.
 
funkylogik said:
Im not a Linux or even a desktop user but i know my way around an android phone.
I just dont want you scaring people out of tinkering with their device.
And the s3 kills sd thread.. wasnt it you who revived it lol? :p
Anyway when i first got my s3 i used another very big android forum site and complete noob first time posters who wouldnt even know what or where the application manager was were en-mass complaining about fried sd cards.
All im saying is dont be a one-trick-pony and dont always think that your findings apply to everyone because they dont.
We used to have a member here who was one of the most knowledgeable android guys ive ever read. He has some excellent posts on XDA thanked by hundreds of people and his SD got "fried" by his s3. he also lost his first s3 due to SDS (Sudden Death Syndrome [read up on it] which is comgletely samsungs fault so please dont try to defend samsung... youll just get on peoples nerves.
Nothing personal man, just take a step back from the ego-trip you seem to be on :beer:;)
Click to expand...
OMG Thank YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU
I was just about to post the following in a different thread he posted telling someone to factory reset and that was users fault for tweaking his device.
Quicken this site is half used by noobs who know we as a community are smarter than the rep you would speak with from the carrier they use or samsung reps who are just reading to us the quick shooting tips that they have been told to use. The other half are those who are smart as or smarter than the developers of devices. If you havent noticed alot of this site is dedicated to rooting devices the methods of rooting devices are PROVEN to work. Tellin ppl to not tweak there device is quite a redundant statement to make on this site seeing how like previously stated this is half of the use for this site. Factory reset is a last resort last ditch effort. You shouldnt be so quicken to tell people that or insult them in your subtle ways as you have been.
Finally reason why am saying this is because i am fresh to the s3 community not to this site been a very grateful member for a year or so now but have been very turned off by your recent posts. Try pulling your ego on XDA where people are MUCH more knowledgeable on android devices than most of us could ever imagine and you would get bombed with hate.
Now i apologize to the rest of this wonderful community for any stress or offense this may occur but sorry think has to be said.
To the mods sorry i am willing to take whatever punishment you deem fit will get no argument out of me just dont ban me forever!!!!
 
I dont think theres any site rule about expressing an opinion unless it intentionally offends someone mate :beer:
I think the OP is smart enough to understand that its nothing personal and we are just offering guidance :)
 
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