
Google broke telephony for many Nexus users - evpuneq
https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=82949
======
edent
I work for a telco (I don't speak for them, usual disclaimers apply).

Everyone gets _really_ ranty when operators delay firmware updates. Yeah, some
of them delay to force you to buy a new phone, or to stuff the ROM full of
bloatware. Most, however, do extensive testing to make sure that customers
don't ring up call centres making angry complaints.

Carriers (by and large) test the phone to make sure that the network portion
operates correctly. They make sure that it complies with local regulations and
that it's not going to interfere with the network. They also test that basic
cellular functionality works. Many go further and check all standard
operations of the handset.

It's been several years since I was responsible for device testing, but here's
a list of problems that I remember from big name manufacturers (Nokia, HTC,
Sagem) on their "final" firmware.

\- 999/112/911 features not working.

\- Reboots when receiving a text starting with a 0.

\- Factory reset when receiving an MMS with more than one attachment.

\- Inability to switch from 3G to 2G on handover.

\- Caller ID always picking the first name from the SIM.

It was, frankly, an unending parade of shoddy workmanship. We'd file reports,
wait for an updated firmware, test it again, see that it had more bugs, refuse
to ship it.

Frankly, a few "enthusiasts" whining that they don't have a 0.1 firmware
upgrade is a sensible price to pay compared to millions of customers storming
your shops and demanding refunds.

Google has an atrocious attitude to customer service - it's part of their
business model [https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2013/02/googles-customer-
contempt-c...](https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2013/02/googles-customer-contempt-
conundrum/)

~~~
glass-
> compared to millions of customers storming your shops and demanding refunds

And yet somehow Apple is able to push updates without carrier approval and
this doesn't happen.

~~~
mackey
Except for 8.0.1 which hosed cell service for everyone.

However, Apple was able to pull the update within hours and release a fix the
next day.

~~~
glass-
And millions of customers stormed shops? Which is the rationale that is
provided for carriers taking months to approve updates for everyone but Apple.

~~~
mackey
I am not defending carriers here. I just wanted to point out that Apple's
approach isn't perfect either.

------
ansible
I've seen this issue too on my Nexus 4. Rebooting fixes the problem, at least
temporarily.

Since I had just used the OTA updates for stock 5.0 and 5.0.1, another
redditor suggested that I do a factory wipe. I haven't seen the problem recur
yet, but it has only been a couple days.

Because of this and other problems (random crashes), if I see any issue again,
then I'll downgrade to 4.4.4. My typical uptime for that release was measured
in months, and for 5.0.1 the uptime is measured in days. I've been severely
disappointed with this release. I don't see how the new look and feel provides
any significant usability benefit.

~~~
comboy
It may be a bad generalization since I imagine Google teams for different
products don't have that much in common, but it seems to me that since some
time Google is pushing more forward and caring less about apps being reliable
and bug-free.

I've seen errors in inbox, in google music, and most annoying in google photos
where I'm unable to access some of my albums (created stories were unavailable
for me for about 2 weeks - I've checked almost every day, it's fixed now).

I tried taking Google take out (downloading all of my Google data), but all I
got was an e-mail that it failed to create it. And there's of course not much
I can do, I'm simply out of luck (well I can google similar problems to see
I'm not the only one and that others are also out of luck).

I'm still a Google fan but I'm very dissappointed with this. Of course they
can exist just fine if it works only for 99% of cases, but that's not the same
brand that I knew.

~~~
arenaninja
Lollipop definitely feels like a beta release. As for features removed, it
feels like this is Google's Windows 8.

I had to download QuickPic to do what Gallery used to do (no-nonsense viewing
of media stored on my device, no I don't want your cloud). A lot of text is
gone and I have to do a web search to figure out what the icons mean and what
I'm supposed to touch to do what I'm trying to do. Using my Nexus now requires
me to read the manual. My e-mail went unsynced for days before I figured out
how to manually sync it again.

I bought a Nexus to avoid all the crapware, and now Google is churning out the
crapware directly to my phone.

~~~
gcb0
i had to use quickpic since nexus one, mostly because the stock gallery took
some 3min to open when i had 1k images on the sd... sadly quick pic now has
ton of "cloud" features. only a matter of time until i need an alternative

------
userbinator
_Priority-Small_

An indication that Google no longer considers the phone functionality of a
smart _phone_ to be all that important? Or is the Nexus 4 considered too old
already? It is a little over 2 years old, which is a relatively long time in
the mobile world.

I'm curious to know what the cause of this bug is.

~~~
delroth
It's the default priority for user reported bugs before triaging.

~~~
spdustin
And that causes a lot of consternation to users, obviously.

Priority should be divided into two fields in these systems: user-submitted
priority, and dev team's priority. Look at all the people who feel directly
insulted by the "Priority-Small" tag - they don't know what it means or if it
indicates that Google hasn't triaged it (seriously, this old, and not
triaged?) , they just feel minimized and condescended to.

------
iwince
"Hi, I don't think anyone from google is even looking at this since we have no
resolution"

What's up with this Google?

~~~
johnduhart
Maybe they're on holiday? Is that not possible?

~~~
spacefight
The full quote should read

"Hi, I don't think anyone from google is even looking at this since we have no
resolution, upgrading of priority or even an acknowledgement response."

~~~
belorn
Would be interesting to know how high priority telephony has as a feature.

~~~
thrillgore
I'd say very high since technically Android is an OS for smartPHONEs. Note the
word "phone."

~~~
tdkl
Technically it was bought for Google services and data collection in mobile
space, that's inside their control.

------
evpuneq
This issue also affects users of CyanogenMod 11 which is currently based on
Android 4.4.4
([https://jira.cyanogenmod.org/browse/CYAN-5728](https://jira.cyanogenmod.org/browse/CYAN-5728)).
The same thing happened to the HTC One M7, but HTC fixed it quickly with an
OTA update ([http://venomroms.com/venomhub-fix-no-sound-calls-htc-
one-m7](http://venomroms.com/venomhub-fix-no-sound-calls-htc-one-m7)). All in
all it looks like the malfunction is caused by an automatic update of the
Google Play Services framework. Not reacting at all so far is definitively not
a good move of Google.

~~~
gcb0
if it's a bug in a closed source Google service, how HTC released a fix? even
if they roll back the service on a new system image it will self update...
unless they hacked away and bumped the version...

~~~
evpuneq
The services probably just trigger an error deeper in the call stack like in
Qualcomm's proprietary binary blobs. Perhaps they received a new version from
Qualcomm.

------
bluehazed
I've been holding off on the 5.0.1 update due to laziness, looks like that was
a good thing.

~~~
davidw
I have a Nexus 4 with 5.0.1 and it works fine.

~~~
bluehazed
Fair enough, but 5.0.0 is working fine for me, I think I'll sit this one out
until this is confirmed/looked into better.

------
jmscharff2
I am looking at getting the Nexus 6 and its threads like this that make me
think twice about leaving the iPhone. I prefer android, I love my nexus 7 but
issues like this are the reason I left android to get the iPhone 5 from a
Droid X2. Now, I thought if getting a Nexus google would support it more
because my main issue with the Droid was that it was never updated...but now I
am concerned.

~~~
orclev
The good news at least, is that the Nexus 6 seems unaffected by whatever this
is (and may in fact be at the core of this). Nexus 6 shipped with 5.0.1 and
I'm not aware of any Nexus 6 owners seeing this problem (when running stock
5.0.1). It's mostly the pre-5.0 android phones that are having this problem
when upgraded to 5.0.1, so my guess would be that it either doesn't happen
with a stock (from scratch, not upgrade) install of 5.0.1, or else it's some
difference between the hardware/firmware in Nexus 6, and every other Android
phone.

~~~
beernutz
There are around 7 replies in that thread specifying they have a Nexus 6 and
see the issue.

I have one, but have not noticed it. Though I always use it with a BT
earpiece, so that might account for the difference?

------
iliaznk
I'm on 5.0.1 with Nexus 4 and have no problems. Looks like it's not a common
thing.

~~~
Someone1234
While both their claims and yours are anecdotes, I'm more willing to side with
more people with similar anecdotes than a single one who then uses their
single experience to try and invalid the multitude of other experiences
expressed.

~~~
davidw
I don't think they're trying to "invalidate" anything, just state that it's
not something _everyone_ is seeing. I have 5.0.1 on a Nexus 4 and it's working
fine. I also don't doubt in the slightest that something is screwed up and a
lot of people are encountering a serious bug.

~~~
spdustin
No, he _was_ trying to invalidate, or could have chosen his words better. By
saying his _one_ experience makes the telephony bug reported by so many users
to be "not aa common thing", he has (purposefully or carelessly) stated that
his experience outweighs the multitudes who knew enough to go to that site to
report the bug, and the folks at XDA who found a fix that works for many.

------
amelius
Google also broke my bluetooth audio... :/ And they are not being very
responsive about it on the issue tracker.

And the silly thing is... it once worked! I feel like I should have never
"upgraded" my Android version.

~~~
callahad
In what way is your bluetooth audio broken? If you're seeing frequent
disconnects, switching from 5 GHz to 2.4 GHz WiFi seems to have resolved it on
my Nexus 7. Which is utterly ridiculous, but hell, it works.

~~~
raisedbyninjas
5.0 degraded the ability for google maps navigation voice prompts to work
while other apps are playing bluetooth audio. It creates a lot of silence and
cuts off parts of the audio.

------
hokkos
There has been 2 threads about Apple decreasing software quality, I found
theses reports to be totally bogus. If there has been a piece of technology
that is falling in quality it is Android, Lollipop is the worst update ever :

[https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=79729](https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=79729)

[https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=79445](https://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=79445)

------
qdog
I've had this happen to me a couple times, seems like when I'm doing something
on my phone and answer a call, the sound from the app on my phone plays over
that call, annoying. Then when I end the call, I no longer get voice on calls
until I reboot.

So, basically, don't answer then phone when in an app until an update cures
it.

Just about what I expect as far as phones these days, people just suck at
making software.

------
codeulike
I have a Nexus 4 running 5.0.1 and it works fine.

If this was a widespread issue surely there's be more than just an bug report
about it?

------
reedcat
This is why I never upgrade my phone to the first couple updates pushed to the
device.

~~~
Someone1234
First couple of updates relative to what exactly?

Because with Android's update process you cannot opt to push anything but the
latest update which is always an unproven by its nature.

It isn't like Windows where you can opt out of the latest service pack for a
while and wait to see if it is stable. With Android you either take the latest
update or you don't.

~~~
emidln
You can install updates via downloading the updating and flashing. This isn't
too difficult (basically what you have to do if you run a ROM). It's often how
people opt-in to updates that are rolling OTA before their device wins the OTA
lottery.

------
tsax
Android Lollipop also broke the led indicator at the bottom of my Nexus 5. I
can no longer count on it to reliably indicate if I have messages/emails
pending on silent mode.

~~~
darshan
That's intentional. Lollipop no longer has silent mode; instead it has "no
interruptions" mode, which considers the LED indicator an interruption. I
suspect there are third-party apps that can do a pseudo-silent mode that may
work for you.

~~~
tsax
Yeah I realize that and it's broken. There's clearly a use case that the LED
served between ZERO interruptions and buzzing/ringing.

------
jsnell
A comment in the recent "Apple has lost the functional high ground" thread
started as follows, "Thing is nobody complains about Android updates breaking
everything [...]".

I thought that was hilarious, since at this point my baseline expectation for
an Android update is for absolutely core functionality to be broken, and not
be fixed for a few months if ever. Now, technically only 3 out of 6 Android
devices I've ever owned ended up in that state. But it appears that it would
have been just a matter of time for the Nexus 4, and it doesn't appear in
those stats just due to being stolen before it was broken.

------
wildmXranat
I have to restart my Nexus 4 more than once a day. Either I don't hear the
other party or they hear pure static. And here I thought I was buying a
quality device.

------
colinbartlett
(No comment was entered for this change.)

Status: Obsolete

------
gcb0
paranoia time:

i have the exact same symptoms since 2.3, but only when using Google voice.
i.e. routing my calls though Google.

and on the report everyone says they can dial when disabling data/wifi.

i will be watching the fix for this one very closely.

------
andyl
My Nexus 5 is broken. Is there a simple way to revert to the old version?

~~~
paralelogram
[http://www.androidpit.com/how-to-downgrade-a-
nexus](http://www.androidpit.com/how-to-downgrade-a-nexus)

~~~
raisedbyninjas
Ok, now how do you stop the OTA update from spamming the notification bar?

