Help Can't change bottom dock icons

[itsnotarace]

I have had an S4 since launch and never had any problems with it...until I dropped it in water and managed to kill it of course.

So I've bought a new one from Amazon UK, SIM free and whilst setting it up I realised I can't change the 5 default dock apps at the bottom of the screen (or 4 as I guess you can't change the 'Apps' icon anyway.

On my old S4 this was a simple case of dragging another app down into the dock and replacing one that was already there. However when I try that on this S4 I immediately get the message "You can resize widget sand reposition widgets, shortcuts and folders by pressing the menu key and and tapping Edit" as soon as I longpress on any icon.

However when i do that, it still doesn't allow me to change the dock icons.

After googling, I've also tried going into the App drawer, changing Viewtype to customisable grid and then editing from there - but the bottom docks are missing meaning that won't work either.

Does anyone have any ideas on how to chang the dock icons? This is driving me crazy.
I know I can use another launcher, but surely this should work since it worked ok on another S4, and by all accounts almost everyone else's S4?

Many thanks

 

[Goodspike]

Have you tried it with other icons--ones you know are not a widget? There are 1x1 widgets.

 

[itsnotarace]

Yeah it's 1x1 icons I've been using e.h the shortcut for WhatsApp, Facebook, GO SMS etc

It wouldn't make a difference anyway though - as soon as I long press anything, the bottom icons disapear, which means nothing can be dragged there anyway.

Googling it a bit, I can see that some Austrailian versions are having this issue. I'm not sure if it's a worldwide thing or not.

 

[itsnotarace]

Looking into this further, it looks like the ability to move the dock icons is disabled on some S4 models. From what I can see, it seems pretty dominant in the Australian market, although Samsung are calling it a 'feature' to people that complain.

This is one feature I can live without for a phone of this cost, thanks goodness for Distance Selling Regs.