If you are anything like me, you rely heavily on your smart phone being, well, smart! I have been an Android/Samsung fan ever since I traded a Nokia for a Note 2 many years ago. Since then, I have had several upgrades, the last one being the S8. It is a year old and I am eligible for an upgrade. The new S9+ comes with updated software too!
I was considering it, until… DISASTER STIKES!
Android rolled its software update out to all eligible phones, including my S8. I have had several minor updates in the past, so I thought little of it. I made sure all my essentials were backed up, and then hit the update overnight button. The next day, all HELL broke loose.
My phone was “blowing up” with alert dings every few minutes. Not only did the update change my assigned alert sounds, but now it was alerting me to EVERY NEW EMAIL received in my Gmail inbox! My spam mail catches most of the junk, but I still get hundreds of emails a day. Some are newsletters I subscribe to, some are store coupons, some are friends, and some are very important “must respond NOW” Urgent Messages.
Anyway, to make a long story short, Gmail allows you to filter messages into custom “labels”. I could then assign separate ringtones from my phone to alert me when I received an email that was filtered into that label.
The new software was supposedly designed to help make things simpler. But it only gives me the choice of setting alerts for “Urgent” emails (which I would have to assign contacts to) or ALL emails! How the HELL does this make my life easier???
For those of you who are confused about why I am so angry and frustrated, let me give you an example….
Normally, I could be elbows deep in craft glue and paint, or… IDK, hydrochloric acid for etched glass projects… from the other room where my phone is on the charger, I hear Captain Mal Reynolds ask Jayne Cobb if he wants to “Run this ship”…[Yes, I am a geek]…that ringtone tells me that I just received an email from a member of the Art League. Not exactly a drop-what-you’re-doing-urgent message. But, if I hear Vader’s Imperial March, my life might depend on how fast I respond to that email.
But now…. “ping” I just got another ambiguous email…. Must go look at my phone….ARRG! Its just a coupon from Michael’s Crafts…. Android WHY did you have to go and ruin a good thing. “ping” I can’t take this anymore!
I spent the last two days researching and found that it is an issue with the new Android Oreo OS and the new Google rollout. There is no fix, so I must “downgrade” to the Android 7 (Nougat) which is the version between the one that came loaded on my phone originally and the latest version that SUCKS and won’t let me assign alert ringtones Gmail labels. So, I can’t just do a factory reset. I must do something called “Firmware Install”.
Thank goodness for Google, and Youtube. I know this is not a Techie Blog, but if you are having the same problem, here is the info I found to be the most helpful.
What a mess! I finally have Android Version 7 back on my Galaxy S8, and I am so glad that I discovered this major bug before I purchased a new Galaxy S9 with this problem built in straight out of the box! I am going to hold on to my S8 for a while. At least until this bug gets fixed or some genius app developer comes up with a patch or work-around. Sorry Android… Love your phones… but you can’t compete with google for productivity apps!
I lost 3 days of work trying to fix this disaster and it still is not quite over. Now, I have the daunting task of personalizing all my settings and setting up all the apps that were deleted during the reboot, including adding all those social media accounts back on the phone. [All the business branding I do from my phone…so many Twitter accts, Instagram accts, google accts, Facebook pages…I really hope I can remember all my passwords!
That is my rant for the week. My advice, If you haven’t upgraded, don’t until you can be sure the upgrade really does make your life easier!