I’ve been using Android phones for a while now. Lately however, it has been a pot of boil and trouble. Lollipop issues, Kit Kat issues, Hangouts and Chrome issues spring to mind. It’s time to try something else as outlined below.
Nexus 4 Problems
I have a Nexus 4 which was running great on Kit Kat. I made a fairly early move to Lollipop and was hit by early mover issues like many others. Okay, this is somewhat expected with a new release.
As updates came for Lollipop, issues came and went. Sometimes it was even worse than before, with my phone randomly turning off etc.
Now that the Nexus 4 has been dropped off the Marshmallow update list, I am at the end of the road for Google updates. Problem is, my phone still randomly switches off during media playback, like video calls.
Hangouts seems to perform really poorly lately and is unusable when talking to someone with poor internet. The Line app handles this a lot better.
Hangouts also seems to have some issues on my desktop computers as well. Windows going missing, login issues. Sometimes it just needs killing and restarting.
Chrome browser on Android has also been having issues getting stuck in the search area and not wanting to do anything. This only seems to be solved by closing Chrome from the task manager.
I’ve talked to other people and they have seen similar issues with Chrome and Hangouts. A few also seem to be annoyed with their Android devices.
Motorola XT905
I also had an older device that is still in use, but was recently offered an update to Kit Kat. Not learning my lesson from Lollipop updates, I actually installed Kit Kat. Turns out I should have investigated more. Plenty of people seem to have the same issue of Wifi range halving, which means it is unusable in half of the house.
The Answer?
Well, I bought a MacBook, but I am not quite ready to saddle up for the iOS ride.
Microsoft Windows change their phone OS every 5 minutes. The last few people I knew with a Nokia Windows phone both ended up with bricks.
So I have installed CyanogenMod 12.1 on the Nexus 4. Good thing I am a developer and already had the necessary Android dev tools installed. After a couple of issues with the instructions I eventually got there.
Initially I downloaded the Cyanogen Recovery image that was associated with the CyanogenMod Build I downloaded. This didn’t match the instructions I was using and seems less featured than the Team Win Recovery software I later installed.
CyanogenMod installation instructions for Nexus 4
Another issue I faced was the “stock” version of Open GApps was apparently too big to install. I used the “nano” version, which is probably nicer anyway as I can install what I need.
Too early to tell yet if the issue is solved, but we shall how it goes after some testing.
Update
Seems like a no go so far. One crash already. Maybe I will need need to try Kit Kat (CyanogenMod 11)!