Note 4 N910A: Software Update Interrupted every time I OTA

AHA! Thanks! It turned out that my old phone's IMEI was still registered on my account as my current phone.  I'm not updated yet, but it's getting sorted out now.

OK, so as I just said, my IMEI was incorrect. The ATT rep explained to me that what was happening was that my phone kept downloading and attempting to install an update for my old phone. The downloads were working, but installation was failing because the update info was not matching with my phone's model (or whatever).

It's bedtime now, so I'm going to let the update download tonight and will report back tomorrow evening (after work).

Nevermind.  After chatting with the ATT rep, I redownloaded the update and it STILL wouldnt install.  This time though, it broke the software updater completely!

Whenever I went to Settings>General>About Device and then tapped Software Updates, a little toast notification appeared saying "No Firmware."  It should've brought me to the screen that allows me to check for updates (where it would either A) Find nothing, B) Say I need to wait [some time] before I can check again, or C) find an update).

So at this point, I'm mad, frustrated, and now concerned that my phone is busted.  I brought the phone to a Best Buy store hoping they could just flash the update, but no store within 1 hour of me had the update yet.  I ended up deciding to have the Samsung rep flash the NK3 KitKat firmware on my phone again.  My thinking was this:

The OTA update downloads 100%, but only fails when trying to install.  This says to me that there is an issue with the phone or the update file downloaded.  Reflashing NK3 would at least attempt to fix the phone issue.

Immediately after the reflash, I was notified once again that there was an update.  Still at the Best Buy store, we started the update, but I ended up having to leave after the update had been downloading for an HOUR, yet was only at 25%.  So I left and the rep and I agreed that if this installation attempt doesn't work, then I'll come back next week when they SHOULD have the Lollipop update available for flashing.

I'm still downloading the update now.  Fingers crossed that it works.

IT WORKED!!!!!

Thank you Best Buy Samsung Rep!!!!! (I want to give his first name, but afraid to).

Glad to hear it worked. I know the IMEI was the initial cause, but it didn't work anyway, so Best Buy to the rescue! Since us S5 users have to live vicariously through everyone else; How is it?

Honestly? I hate it.

Seriously.

The only great thing is that my phone is now lightning fast.

But the color scheme is awful. There are little to no new features compared to Samsung's KK, and I'm getting irritated by the lockscreen notifications (I only want a calendar event app and new text messages to appear on it, yet I also have "Do Not Disturb Mode On" and a few other things that I can't get rid of.  You can block some of these, but not anything from Settings or SystemUI, which is what the "Do Not Disturb" notification is from).

The other thing irritating me is that I thought Google reverted the external SD permissions to pre-KK.  I was wrong.  They made it so that non-system apps can modify files, but only if they request a new permission from the user, or if the files are contained within a folder created by the app in extSD\Android.

Finally, I'm finding that many apps that are supposed to work on LP, and worked perfectly on KK, are now glitchy.

All I can say is that I'm hoping that my Note 4 will get root soon.  I NEED to fix the stupid external SD access.  That was the only reason why I was desperate to get LP.  The speed increase was surprising and excellent, but that was really about it.

EDIT: I'm sure some of it is just too new for me and I may get used to it eventually.  But right now, I do hate the color schemes and design of the UI and especially the external SD thing.

I had a buddy on TMo that updated his S5 and he told me the same thing. He can't stand the color schemes, but he was very happy w/ the speed. While I'd like some of the security features w/ sdcards to go away since KK I can personally live w/ the speed increase and some of the other features.

I'm sure you'll get used to it and enjoy it eventually. 🙂

The colors, yeah, I could learn to accept that.

The lockscreen notifications, not so much.  The lockscreen only shows 2 notifications, while additional ones need to have the notifs expanded.  Whenever I was getting new texts, I ALWAYS had to expand everything.  I tried turning the lockscreen notifs off, but then I cant see my new texts, missed calls, etc.  I eventually gave in and started using an app call NiLS.  It's basically a widget that lays over your lockscreen and acts just like the Lollipop notifications, except that you can choose which types of notifs (or by app) that you want to see and want you dont want.  Loving it so far.  Improved my experience so far!

3rd party apps always make life better on your phone. 🙂

When (or if) I ever get it on the S5 then I'll be able to report my likes/dislikes, but sadly that seems to be a dream at this point.