Android 4.3 Jelly Bean Update Causes Problems on Samsung Galaxy S4, Galaxy S3 and Galaxy Note 2: How to Fix Them
When the Android 4.3 Jelly Bean update for Samsung Galaxy devices got announced, it promised a range of game-changing improvements and updates. However, it seems a number of device owners have been experiencing otherwise. There are reports saying that their devices became buggy once they updated to Android 4.3 Jelly Bean.
It was in September when Samsung announced the rollout of Android 4.3 Jelly Bean to a number of its devices. The Korean tech giant noted that the update would come with Galaxy Gear support so users should not have problems with the rollout. Among the devices mentioned include the Samsung Galaxy S4, Samsung Galaxy S3 and the Samsung Galaxy Note 2.
Some reports say that Samsung played it coy. The company did not name Android 4.3 Jelly Bean as the update but it was obvious after. Since its announcement, Samsung confirmed a number of 4.3 Jelly Bean features like Samsung KNOX support.
The company started rolling out the updates after. Samsung pushed an international rollout initially before introducing it in the United States. It was just recently that the U.S. version of the Galaxy S4 received Android 4.2 and Android 4.3 updates. Other carriers still need to introduce the updates to their Galaxy S3 variants. Sprint is the only carrier that introduced Android 4.3 to Galaxy Note 2 so far.
Waiting for companies to complete their "rollout phases" can be demanding and long. Likewise, some reports are saying that owners of Galaxy S4, Galaxy S3 or Galaxy Note 2 may not have been lucky at all to receive the update. There has been a list of bugs reported for the mentioned devices. This is regardless what carrier they have.
For instance, the Samsung Galaxy S4 under Verizon has been suffering from bad WiFi connectivity including poor battery life and slow charging following the update. Owners of S4 under AT&T started experiencing similar bugs including bad Bluetooth connectivity. The Sprint Galaxy S3 has been experiencing video problems on specific apps.
These problems were reported on XDA Developers forum thread.
As for the fixes, the most reliable solution as of the moment is to conduct a hard reset. Users have to restore the factory settings of their devices. This will release all data and avoid the cited problems. Users may skip to another update or wait for a bug fix to resolve all issues.