Develop Bugs

[Q] newbie looking for advide

Hi folks,
I am going to buy my very first smart phone. I am currently debating between iPhone 4 and Samsung Vibrant Galaxy S (in Canada) Without going into the question og whether I need to get a data plan or not, I have some very specific questions that I would appreciate your words of wisdome on:
1: Is there a free third party GPS app that does not consume data while on the road (i.e. direct satellite connection). Would a paid app such as CoPilot Live 8 still be not good enough because Samsung GPS has reliability issues?
2: Does Google Maps continuously consume data while showing you your route on the road or does it just downlaod the map once and then simply use the gps-satellite channel? I need a good gps system on the phone so that I can have the phone in my backpack and follow the directions via my motorcycle's blue tooth enabled helmet.
3: Does Samsung Galaxy S have capability of turning speech into a text SMS?
4: Is there an alternative to the dreaded Kies for Samsung?
5: From being a complete noob up until a week ago to words like jailbreak, rooting, froyo, etc, I have come a long way and have explored several options. So wondering rooting is even necessary and it it is, is there a Cydia like application for Android. iPhone users use Cydia primarily for installing pirated software such as TomTom.
6: Can I turn off data consumption and use wifi and still receive calls?
Thanks in advance

datawiz2012 said:
1: Is there a free third party GPS app that does not consume data while on the road (i.e. direct satellite connection). Would a paid app such as CoPilot Live 8 still be not good enough because Samsung GPS has reliability issues?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Copilot is available for Android too, but in my opinion, Travroute suck. There are plenty of alternatives, but depends on your country. We aren't really too sure how good navigation is on the final froyo either, but car navigation should be fine. Worst comes to worst, you can get a bluetooth GPS.
datawiz2012 said:
2: Does Google Maps continuously consume data while showing you your route on the road or does it just downlaod the map once and then simply use the gps-satellite channel? I need a good gps system on the phone so that I can have the phone in my backpack and follow the directions via my motorcycle's blue tooth enabled helmet.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are some that read off the directions.. Depends on the app.
datawiz2012 said:
3: Does Samsung Galaxy S have capability of turning speech into a text SMS?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are apparently a few, but maybe best to give it a try yourself at a store, to see what results are like. Speech recognition has a habit of being slightly "meh". With VOIP though, in some countries, short phone calls cost cheaper on VOIP/skype than an SMS though.
datawiz2012 said:
4: Is there an alternative to the dreaded Kies for Samsung?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For flashing, there is heimdell and odin. Contacts sync with google contacts anyway. You can set the phone too mass transfer mode to expose it as files in normal file browsing tools to copy data/music.
datawiz2012 said:
5: From being a complete noob up until a week ago to words like jailbreak, rooting, froyo, etc, I have come a long way and have explored several options. So wondering rooting is even necessary and it it is, is there a Cydia like application for Android. iPhone users use Cydia primarily for installing pirated software such as TomTom.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
We don't need jailbreaking really because Android is open, whereas Apple screws developers around with restructions. And you can root if you want to, but you only need to do so if you are messing with low level OS stuff.
And unlike iOS, anyone can open an app store for Android, because Apple restricts apps which can be install.
datawiz2012 said:
6: Can I turn off data consumption and use wifi and still receive calls?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Use Wifi to receive calls? For voice calls, you simply hold the power button, and there is an option to turn off 3G data/HSDPA. Haven't tested it properly, but pretty sure it works the way you want (maybe check the manual). VOIP apps exists too, like Skype and Sipdroid (and in late firmware's, they actually work properly).
Other considerations are:
1) The iPhones are MUCH more restrictive for developers. Apple will tell you they are the most consumer friendly company on the planet, but the harsh reality is, they REALLY aren't.
2) Android is far more customisable than iOS.
3)If you own an iPhone, you should assume you need to use iTunes (say goodbye to flac support, and many other things).
4) You buy from the Android store, I think the purchased apps should also work on any other future compatible android phone. If you buy on the iPhone store, they will only work on future Apple devices.
5) Some people will tell you the iPhone doesn't lag, etc. I tested an iPhone 4G the other day, and this is DEFINITELY untrue.
6) Steve jobs is no better than most politicians. He does consistently deceive people and blatantly lie during announcements. For iinstance, at first he tried to claim there was no antenna issue (and it was simply shonky software), despite antenna experts PROVING there was. The iPhone succeeded solely because people were sucked in by Steve Job's exageration of multi-touch. The first iPhone couldn't even run third party apps.
7) Android is growing quickly. The app store now has over 100,000 apps. Whilst there are less apps than Apple's platform, you'll find that all the good ones seems to be there.
Anyway, my opinion is that consumers should avoid the iPhones.. Another phone you may wish to consider though is the new HTC desire HD.

thanks for your very very detailed reply. Much appreciated. I am still confused about the GPS stuff. Hopefully other people will pitch in as well. I should have phrased my question about turning off data better than I did.
What I'd meant was whether I can turn off 3G so that I don't use internet data while using a GPS app such as CoPilot but would doing so prevent me from receiving/making calls?
Thanks,

[Q] htc evo rooted, no data access

Over the past 2 weeks, I have tried to research the answers to my questions, but could barely find anything on this particular subject. So it's my first time posting to this forum, and my situation is a little embarrassing. I have had my htc evo for about 1 1/2 years, and I finally decided to root it 2 weeks ago. I've been with sprint for 6 years, and am on the unlimited data family plan, as well as the sprint hotspot feature on my phone, which I pay them 30 dollars additionally every month. I pretty much exclusively use my phone for all tasks and browsing and downloading etc, so I didn't get this feature for the "wireless tethering" , I actually got it so I could discontinue my home wireless internet through cox communications, so my phone is my only wifi source at home. I almost never use an actual pc!
I rooted my evo for 2 reasons mainly: 1) I am sort of an app addict, and I needed to free some space on my phone. I especially love using different keyboards ( which are often very large files). 2) I love customizing my home screens, but want to be able to use icons from icon packs such as crazy home's, with ADW launcher etc. I did a factory data reset on my phone before rooting, and I think I backed up all my apps to my laptop... but I wanted to start fresh anyway, so have not bothered to restore them from my pc to my phone.
Two days before I rooted my phone, Sprint temporarily disconnected my account do to Past due payment. I'm not going to get into the details, But I can't afford to pay off my balance until May. It is what it is, I'm not whining or complaining, times are a little tough for me financially and i just have to deal with not being able to make calls or text for a month. Lol, it's harder than I thought! It's pathetic how dependent my family has become on cell phones and texting for communication. We don't even have a land line. Just to give you a quick background, I didn't even know what sd card was, or a usb cable, before I got my htc evo. I'm not tech savvy at all, But when I first learned what this phone could do I was hooked. I have a laptop at home, But I never use it because a few keys on the keyboard are broken. As a matter of fact, The first time I actually plugged my phone into my pc, was when I rooted it!. I used the unrevoked 3 method, which was fairly straightforward. Because I have no data access right now, I was unable to update my profile etc. And of course, without data access I cannot take advantage of the free wireless tether.
My main question is, did I make a mistake in rooting my phone while not having network access? Right now, if I'm not in a wifi area I basically can't do much with my phone. I downloaded a few apps that allow free calling over a wireless connection, and facebook chat,etc... so I can communicate with my family as long as I'm in a wifi zone. But, I have been afraid to do anything else with my phone because I wanted to do a little research on this. I know some of you are probably thinking, why didn't she research it before she rooted? Lol, I would be saying the same thing! I didn't even think about it until I was done routing and it told me to update my profile. Since then I've been a little freaked. I'm hoping I didn't Make a bad choice. I just wanted to the able to access a few icon packs lol.
Is there anything I should know, or have done differently? Or does it make no difference at all? I guess basically what I'm getting at, is can I go ahead and reset my phone again and start flashing roms, just like I would if I had network access?
Again, please forgive me if I sound ignorant in this matter... because I am. Any advice will be much appreciated.

You can start flashing roms as normal. You didn't make a bad choice rooting without data access, because whether you do or don't doesn't make a different. i would say just make a back up of your apps in titanium backup, then backup your rom before flashing.
And you can pm me if you need any help.

Post neglected...double post.

I would say to reflash ur rom but it might not work try to go back to the sense rom if u have it backed up once u do that update everything under ur settings nd updates nd if it still don't work the only other thing I know u can do is unroot it and take it to.sprint so thay can look it
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA Premium App

Kriskat74 said:
Over the past 2 weeks, I have tried to research the answers to my questions, but could barely find anything on this particular subject. So it's my first time posting to this forum, and my situation is a little embarrassing. I have had my htc evo for about 1 1/2 years, and I finally decided to root it 2 weeks ago. I've been with sprint for 6 years, and am on the unlimited data family plan, as well as the sprint hotspot feature on my phone, which I pay them 30 dollars additionally every month. I pretty much exclusively use my phone for all tasks and browsing and downloading etc, so I didn't get this feature for the "wireless tethering" , I actually got it so I could discontinue my home wireless internet through cox communications, so my phone is my only wifi source at home. I almost never use an actual pc!
I rooted my evo for 2 reasons mainly: 1) I am sort of an app addict, and I needed to free some space on my phone. I especially love using different keyboards ( which are often very large files). 2) I love customizing my home screens, but want to be able to use icons from icon packs such as crazy home's, with ADW launcher etc. I did a factory data reset on my phone before rooting, and I think I backed up all my apps to my laptop... but I wanted to start fresh anyway, so have not bothered to restore them from my pc to my phone.
Two days before I rooted my phone, Sprint temporarily disconnected my account do to Past due payment. I'm not going to get into the details, But I can't afford to pay off my balance until May. It is what it is, I'm not whining or complaining, times are a little tough for me financially and i just have to deal with not being able to make calls or text for a month. Lol, it's harder than I thought! It's pathetic how dependent my family has become on cell phones and texting for communication. We don't even have a land line. Just to give you a quick background, I didn't even know what sd card was, or a usb cable, before I got my htc evo. I'm not tech savvy at all, But when I first learned what this phone could do I was hooked. I have a laptop at home, But I never use it because a few keys on the keyboard are broken. As a matter of fact, The first time I actually plugged my phone into my pc, was when I rooted it!. I used the unrevoked 3 method, which was fairly straightforward. Because I have no data access right now, I was unable to update my profile etc. And of course, without data access I cannot take advantage of the free wireless tether.
My main question is, did I make a mistake in rooting my phone while not having network access? Right now, if I'm not in a wifi area I basically can't do much with my phone. I downloaded a few apps that allow free calling over a wireless connection, and facebook chat,etc... so I can communicate with my family as long as I'm in a wifi zone. But, I have been afraid to do anything else with my phone because I wanted to do a little research on this. I know some of you are probably thinking, why didn't she research it before she rooted? Lol, I would be saying the same thing! I didn't even think about it until I was done routing and it told me to update my profile. Since then I've been a little freaked. I'm hoping I didn't Make a bad choice. I just wanted to the able to access a few icon packs lol.
Is there anything I should know, or have done differently? Or does it make no difference at all? I guess basically what I'm getting at, is can I go ahead and reset my phone again and start flashing roms, just like I would if I had network access?
Again, please forgive me if I sound ignorant in this matter... because I am. Any advice will be much appreciated.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Not being able to update the profile won't make any difference at all, if you have no data connection to begin with. Once you're able to get things situated, and you need to get your phone activated again, you'll just need to make sure you're on a Sense rom before you activate it again. No worries, you can flash away all you want, with or without a data connection.
Also, how have you had your Evo for 1 1/2 years!? They were released June 4th last year!

Ha ha really? I feel like I've had this evo for years.. since the day I got it I've been like a kid in a candy store! Thanks for the reassurance everyone. Unfortunately, I've just encountered the problem with the SD card not being recognized by my phone or my PC. According to my research, I'm supposed to find this file on my SD card under android. secure and delete it? But my PC isn't recognizing my card, and my apps that are on SD are seen by my phone. I get a force close when attempting to unmount SD. My market apps won't install or uninstall.... ugh. Like an idiot,I never did a Nandroid backup. I really don't care about losing my app backups though,I just don't want to mess up my phone. All this information is overwhelming me... Nandroid this, titanium that, recovery boot, drivers, and on and on.... so much advice is outdated I don't know which to follow. I'm a dummy! That's why I need my smartphone to help me out lol.... how do I fix this?
Eek....I just saw a gigantic spider.... creepy..

in a nutshell, you can do anything with your phone, without data access, or service.
I rooted and flashed the ROM I did for my old Moment, after it had been turned off so I could sell it.
Now that you are rooted, I uses Titanium backup for all my apps/data. I only backup actually apps, not HTC stuff, etc, or anything that comes with the ROM you flash.
You can tell this becasue the apps are in white lettering in the Backup menu.
At least they are on mine, and I use all default settings.

rooted without data access
Thanks everyone...I fixed my problem with my sd card, turns out mine had gotten corrupted so I will deal with that later.I just put in my other card and Im back in business....lost all my personal info though. Thats the least of my worries. Someone said I can do anything on my phone without data service, but they must mean only when I am in Wifi zone right ? See, unfortunately, I dont live in a populated area. I have no wifi access at home and there are hardly any free wifi spots in town. At home, I can see that there are wifi networks around (linkys via cox communications), but they are locked. Oh, thats another question i had....why do people lock their wifi? I never did, and I have no problem letting others access mine when they need it. Should I? If so, why?I am so sorry if I sound clueless again, but Im learning a little more every day thanks to people like you!
So as far as communication, Im out of luck. A couple months ago,I had an issue connecting to the network while i was at home, but i just turned on my sprint hotspot and i had instant network access so i couldnt call or text, but i was able to get a hold of my daughter on facebook lol. How did my phone do that? I dont get it. I am going to a couple of those prepaid phones tomorrow so we can make calls in the meantime.
As far as navigation, any tips on how to find any apps that dont need network access that work well? I found a couple, but they seem so complicated to set up. And, I tried Nettalk for making calls over wifi but it only works sometimes. I read about apps that offer free sms and calls over wifi but I couldnt find one that was stable.
I cant wait to get my service restored..I didnt realize how much I depended on it. I still havent flashed any ROMS...Im a little nervous. I still dont totally understand what is different about my evo now tthat its rooted, but i plan to educate myself once I get full access to wifi again.
Any advice/tips is very much appreciated. Thanks again for this useful forum.

Smart Device Manager

Last night I noticed Play asking me to update an app called Smart Device Manager. Having no idea what the app was, or why it was on my phone, I read the description:
OVERVIEW
Smart Device Manager is an app that runs on the “child” phone in order to power two family safety services on the Sprint Network, Drive First and Mobile Controls. These services allow parents to automatically lock a phone when driving or to prevent phone usage during school hours.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With a bit more searching, it looks like it's a background utility that comes preinstalled on our phones. It's a helper for parental controls to manage what your children (or employees, I suppose) are doing, as well as lock your phone when you're driving to discourage talking or texting while driving. Accomplishing this requires some pretty nasty permissions. Granted, it's obviously not CIQ, and it shouldn't be doing anything at all unless you activate and pay for the appropriate services, but I still don't want it on my phone, if for no other reason than it may be using up some juice.
It appears there was some sort of bug with the change to Google Play that prompted many (everyone?) with the app to update it, even though you have no reason to update it unless you're actually using the service(s) (Source). As it's a system app, you can uninstall it with Titanium if you are rooted. I've done so and it hasn't hurt anything thus far.
Just figured I'd let a few people know what was up, in case they get the notification as well. And if it's already common knowledge, *shrug* I guess I wasted a few minutes of my life

interesting...

Just read about this.
http://phandroid.com/2012/03/28/spr...are-to-android-devices-heres-how-to-avoid-it/
Thank goodness for custom roms and their bloatware removal.

What's weird is that I'm running Blazer Rom, have never installed this service and google play is reminding me every day that I need to "upgrade it."
Somehow must have been left in Blazer.....

wotan2525 said:
What's weird is that I'm running Blazer Rom, have never installed this service and google play is reminding me every day that I need to "upgrade it."
Somehow must have been left in Blazer.....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it's a Sprint/Google agreement that is going to show up in our market suggestions no matter what ROM we run, the key is just ignore the suggestion and don't install.

Thanks for the info. I missed this one when I was getting rid of the bloatware. Even if it's not activated on my end, I'd rather not give them one more route of easy access to controlling my device. I suppose it's a good feature for parents/employers, but can you imagine if service providers started shutting down your phone (essentially airplane mode) if your were traveling over a certain speed?

You can delete this from system/app and it will stop alerting you in the market. Its actually labelled smartdevicemamager.apk in system/app.
Edit: Pointless post. Sorry.

When i had this app on it would give me slow data then i disable it and now i have full speeds
Sent from my SPH-D710 using xda premium

Sycobob said:
Last night I noticed Play asking me to update an app called Smart Device Manager. Having no idea what the app was, or why it was on my phone, I read the description:
With a bit more searching, it looks like it's a background utility that comes preinstalled on our phones. It's a helper for parental controls to manage what your children (or employees, I suppose) are doing, as well as lock your phone when you're driving to discourage talking or texting while driving. Accomplishing this requires some pretty nasty permissions. Granted, it's obviously not CIQ, and it shouldn't be doing anything at all unless you activate and pay for the appropriate services, but I still don't want it on my phone, if for no other reason than it may be using up some juice.
It appears there was some sort of bug with the change to Google Play that prompted many (everyone?) with the app to update it, even though you have no reason to update it unless you're actually using the service(s) (Source). As it's a system app, you can uninstall it with Titanium if you are rooted. I've done so and it hasn't hurt anything thus far.
Just figured I'd let a few people know what was up, in case they get the notification as well. And if it's already common knowledge, *shrug* I guess I wasted a few minutes of my life
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
updated it last night as well running blazer 4.0, didn't know what it was just don't like "updates available" popping up on boot
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA

I just deleted it through titanium backup
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk

Codename havent ever seen it lol
Sent from my SPH-D710 using XDA

More info here:
http://community.sprint.com/baw/thread/87271?start=0&tstart=0
Sprint reps said the service has always been on the phone but the recent Google Play Store update caused the update to show up. Supposedly Location Labs (the company created the software) is looking into why it is showing up as an update....

Link is already in the OP

[Q] Enough is enough! Need help with galaxy note 2 bugs/issues please!

Ok, firstly I apologize if these have been covered before but I need help with a few issues with my galaxy note 2 that Ive sure you guys have noticed as well. Im no expert but I have had android phones for a few years so I do know the basics. Im thinking it might be time to root/rom or whatever my phone because I think the issues I am having are bugs in the software though I have never attempted such a feat, havent really had a reason to until now. I absolutely love this phones, its super awesome, one of the best ive had but there are a few nagging issues I have that Im not sure if its just me or the software, usually Im pretty good with tech stuff. Have a samsung galaxy note 2 on att network android version 4.1.2 and ive searched around a little and best I can tell the newer version i have has changed some menu options which I cannot find and caused or not fixed some of my other issues.
1. I am unable to adjust the locations of the options on the screen when you pull it down from the top such as wifi, bluetooth, airplane mode and whatnot. Near as I can tell it was possible to organize them in the order you wanted before the update that added multiscreen support and it seems multiscreen support options under settings has taken place of the setting to adjust these icons and I cannot find anywhere to change them. Have you guys noticed this? how is it possible to change them or are they stuck now?
2. The media player auto playing when connecting to my bluetooth sync system in my ford F150 is kinda neat but highly annoying as it auto starts the player when it connects whether I want it to or not, and usually I do not because I rarely use my phone to play audio via bluetooth and when i do its through my Sirius XM app or pandora or some other media player and its highly annoying having to end the default media player and start play on my preferred app every time I shut off and restart my truck, or disconnect and reconnect bluetooth if you prefer. Is there a way to get this default app to NOT auto start playing every time it connects to bluetooth? I have been unable to find such an option and its getting on my nerves and draining my battery when I dont even want it on, GRRR!!
3. Pretty sure this one is a software bug/change but every android phone Ive ever had auto sets a 15 minute time reminder when I enter a calendar entry, which Ive gotten used to and is awesome as far as im concerned because an entry without a reminder is worthless. I have to turn on a reminder manually every time and have not been able to find any setting to change to revert this back to the normal experience that im used to on my at least 4 previous android phones. I have gotten used to manually turning it on now but its still annoying and i would like to be able to skip this step to save time as I use the calendar reminder features daily.
Thats all i can think of for right now, but im sure theres some I forgot. Hoping some of you experts can hook me up with some easy fixes to these issues or point me in the right direction of how to resolve them if possible, thanks a million!

Whew!!
One hell of a post there ...
An easy solution to the majority of your device issues would be...
Flashing back to the factory shipping rom...
It is pushed to the device via Odin.
I believe the rom is UCALJ2...
In the development section, under the "everything" thread, you will find the rom listed above.
There you will also find Odin, its PC drivers, and instructions to restore the device to pure stock.
The recent updates to the device will be removed, and following the Odin flash, the device will be pure stock and have no personal data...(fair warning)
From that point, to prevent the updates from appearing again, the update application must be frozen by using titanium backup or an app capable of rendering the update application null.
This process must be done with care ...and not before you understand what you are doing.
The steps in those threads are complete, but you must learn them first.
Happy reading and learning ....and happy flashing ....g

Your right. ..time to root it and add a custom rom. The new Jedi is awesome. . (shameless plug. ...lol)
Mac

Here is my thread to get back to stock. Enjoy
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2275844
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I317 using xda premium

I wasnt aware you could move your toggles in the dropdown but then again I was only stock for a couple days.
Sent from my SGH-I317

Learning My T-Mo D851 on ATT. Musings of a stranger in a strange land...

Hi everyone,
I'm the new owner of an unlocked T-Mo D851, and will be using it on AT&T. I bought the T-Mo version instead of the ATT version due to the unlocked bootloader and better Dev support. Love those Devs!
I figured I'd post a thread with the things I learn along the way, to help others that might benefit, particularly since I'm joining the G3 community long after the novelty has worn off. Folks like me that join have a lot of past experience to review here, and so much is out of date it can be intimidating, particularly when our new device acts a lot different from our old one. I hope this thread helps someone, but at minimum it will serve as documentation for me to refer back to, should I need that. I'll include links where appropriate.
I'm an intermediate level flasher, having worked with maybe 6-8 other phones/tablets. So, I know enough to be dangerous, but not enough to have an ego to bruise. My most recent phone was a T-Mo Galaxy S4. But I dropped it, and cracked the screen, just a few weeks after getting it all settled in with a nice 5.1.1 GPE ROM. Sigh.
I got the phone a few days ago but have just gotten around to working on it.
On day 1 I charged it up, skipped setup (touch corners, upper left, upper right, lower right above the softkeys, lower left above the softkeys... took 10 tries or so!), and connected the wifi (no sim card inserted yet). It immediately found update 20E (it shipped with kitkat). I let that update, but was surprised it didn't find the current 20G update. I want to make sure I start with the latest firmware/modems etc. installed.
In this thread, helpful user @mitbit2k3 pointed me to the online LG site that lets you download the LG Mobile Support Tool. It also gives instructions for installing the PROPER PC connection driver for the phone which works, versus the default Win7 driver that doesn't work for the purposes of the update. With proper driver installed, and with USB connection in the right mode (follow instructions to set the phone USB settings), I got up to 20G stock.
I exercised the phone a bit (still without SIM card) and made sure everything worked... cameras, GPS, wifi, etc.
Then I figured it would be time to install TWRP and take it from there. Much to my surprise, you need to root this thing FIRST. Even with an unlocked bootloader, you can't just fire up ODIN and flash TWRP.
I did my research on the forum and through Google... with all the versions of software since release there were numerous descriptions of how to root the thing, some of which were outdated. For me, on 20G software (5.01 Android), this worked fine:
https://www.reddit.com/r/LGG3/comments/3n0nk1/new_super_easy_oneclick_way_to_root_g3/
it references back to XDA of course:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/lg-g3/general/guide-root-method-lg-devices-t3129197
From this I learned to review the top level LG G3 subforums, not just the T-Mobile XDA subforums!!
OK, that rooted me just fine and installed SuperSU. I was able to use the "first way" which is super simple.
With that done, I was able to install TWRP. I went straight to the source for it:
https://twrp.me/devices/lgg3tmo.html
I used the "dd" method which involves running ADB on the PC. I use a version that is a "Minimal ADB and Fastboot" that works fine... I used it to mess around with my Shield tablet previously, so I was familiar with it. Basically you run the minimal ADB through a desktop icon, and it loads a command line interface. You type ADB Shell after plugging in the phone to the USB cable (it has to be on, developer options enabled, debugging enabled). Then you type the commands listed on the TWRP site. Pretty soon TWRP is installed.
Next I had to figure out how to get into download mode. Yeah, yeah... power plus volume down... been there done that, but on the LG you have to boot with power/down, then when the LG icon comes up you release for a second, then press the two keys again, then at the next screen tell it you want to wipe the phone, and confirm this again on the next screen. THEN it finally boots into TWRP. Kinda scary. And getting the keys right takes some practice.
Once in TWRP, I backed everything up (including EFS partition) to an external SD card, just in case I messed something up. I had previously erased the SD card from within the phone's SEttings/Storage mode, to make sure it would be able to be accessed. No problem.
So now I've got a rooted phone, with TWRP installed, and the next step is to figure out what I want to do ROM wise. I wish there were a 5.1.1 GPE stock + LG Camera ROM. But I haven't found one. I like plain ROMs. The default stock ROM, even if it were debloated, its a bit annoying to me (and just 5.0.1) so I'll probably move to BlissPop or Slim something, but I will research around.
It's time to stick my SIM in and see how the phone does on AT&T. I'd like to get a baseline before I go ROM-hopping.
I will say that on stock ROM, with no SIM but WIFI on, the standby power drain on this thing is incredible. It went overnight (7 hours) and was still reading 100%. A whole 24 hours in, it was only a few percent lower. Of course, I hadn't attached any Google accounts, so the phone was truly idle, but it's very impressive nonetheless.
Stay tuned. I'll be updating this as I go along.

OK, I'm a few hours in.
No problem with my ATT SIM card in the phone; the phone was purchased unlocked and everything hooked up fine as soon as I entered in the APN information for ATT (which you can get from here).
The phone gave me a warning about WIFI Calling invalid SIM; I went into the settings and turned off WIFI calling, since I'm on ATT and only T-Mo offers it.
One other problem I haven't sorted out yet is that I get a text each time I reboot the phone, apparently my phone is sending a text to a very long address 060504071000004163.... and the text I get back is an error message that this isn't a valid number. Not sure how to turn this off. Annoying, but once per boot won't kill me until I figure it out. Google will likely be my friend. EDIT: I think this relates to T-mo visual voicemail. I went into the T-Mo Visual Voicemail app and I immediately got another one of these texts. Time to remove this app...
Meanwhile I notice the WIFI reception of this phone is much stronger than the S4. On the other hand, it seems less likely to drop a weak WIFI in favor of a stronger one... I have several access points around my house, and I've found I've needed to switch them manually now and then. Haven't had to do this on the S4.
I'm also struggling to get restores to work from my Backup Your Mobile app. I moved the backup onto an SD card in the G3, but the app isn't recognizing it. Uh oh. That's got my MMS/SMS/Call log backups. So, I've still got things to work on.
I gradually entered my various Google accounts, and let Play Store download the updates needed for all the apps. I've got about 75% of the apps I use re-downloaded.
I've got one "serious" problem in that the Play Store says the ATT Visual Voicemail app, which is a cornerstone of how I use the phone (because it transcribes voicemails into readable text), isn't compatible with my phone. That's crap. It worked fine on my T-Mo S4 (running a generic GPE edition). I'll probably have to sideload the app, but it's annoying that it's locked out.

Making progress.
I still couldn't download the ATT Visual Voicemail app from the Play Store, and went stir crazy trying to find it on my S4 (which is rooted, so I should be able to find it, but...). I went haring off in lots of directions, including making a full apps backup with Helium, but then the G3 won't restore without using the PC app due to changes in 5.0... which is weird because my S4 (which is running a 5.1.1 GPE ROM) restores fine. I don't have the PC app installed so I tried using Backup My Mobile... but then eventually figured out that on the S4, with ES File Explorer, I not only had Root Explorer OFF (didn't know I had to turn it on), but it's easy to find apps with the APP Library. Once I found the app there, I uploaded it to my Google Drive, then downloaded it from there onto the G3. It installed fine.
I used System App Remover (which requires root) to get rid of all the T-Mobile specific apps and that annoying Lookout security program. Bah! This cured that spurious text message I get with each boot. It was definitely due to the T-mo visual voice mail. Problem solved!
In using the phone, I'm a bit bummed because it didn't occur to me that a big part of my bigger screen as compared to the GS4 would be taken up by the softkeys on screen. The S4 has a physical home button and capacitive keys to either side. So, my screen isn't effectively much bigger, when I account for dedicating some of it to the buttons. You can make the buttons autohide, apparently. One issue is I use my phone in landscape much of the time, and the buttons don't rotate to the new "bottom" of the screen when I rotate. Gotta figure that out.

This morning I installed the PC Helium App so I could enable backup/restore access on the G3. That worked fine, but Helium on the G3 still doesn't detect my external SD card, in order to restore from it. I could manually copy files over to the internal Carbon folder, and restores from there worked fine. Still, I'm not sure why I'm having so much SD Card angst. I know things change each version of Android wrt SD cards... maybe something is fixed in 5.1.1 (as I had on my S4) that is broken in 5.01 on the G3.
So, I've got some tweaking to do from here. The phone is basically set up and working fine except for some straggler apps that I won't bother with until I need them, with one major exception: I need to go in and set up Light Flow. That app is a big part of how I manage notifications on any phone...

If you rooted your phone, then download and run the SDFix app from the Play Store. Apps will then have the ability to write to the external SD card...
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nextapp.sdfix&hl=en&referrer=utm_source%3Dgoogle%26utm_medium%3Dorganic%26utm_term%3Dsd+card+fix+kitkat&pcampaignid=APPU_1_bJMtVsTJBoKajwP4noeABw
... and yes, it also works w/ Lollipop.

redduc900 said:
If you rooted your phone, then download and run the SDFix app from the Play Store. Apps will then have the ability to write to the external SD card...
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nextapp.sdfix&hl=en&referrer=utm_source%3Dgoogle%26utm_medium%3Dorganic%26utm_term%3Dsd+card+fix+kitkat&pcampaignid=APPU_1_bJMtVsTJBoKajwP4noeABw
... and yes, it also works w/ Lollipop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I'll give this a whirl!
EDIT: WORKED LIKE A CHARM. Thanks again! And thanks for the link, because there were several SDFix apps. The link made sure I got the one you intended.:good:

OK, I'm in a pretty good place after making some changes. Still plenty to tweak though.
First, I decided to abandon the stock Home launcher. It was a bit annoying with little UI tweaks LG made that make it just not how I expect it to look, but the kicker was that in landscape mode, the titles of the icons were not readable... they were mostly cut off. I use Rotate (Ultimate Rotation) so pretty much every screen including home is rotatable. But LG Home maintains in landscape mode the little dots representing the various home screen pages... these take up just enough room so that things get squished a bit and the titles cut off. Couldn't figure out how to disable that, so just bailed and installed Google Now Launcher which fixed me right up. That fixed the look and feel of the home screen, the apps drawer, and even reverted settings to the normal views I'm used to.
The only problem is that it kills double tap to sleep... or at least reduces the footprint of the double-tappable area to the notification strip at the top. Sigh. In another thread someone mentioned using Greenify to fix it. I'll try that when I get a chance.
Another weird thing I've got going on is that when I connect via Bluetooth to my car, it starts playing music. See this thread. That's pretty annoying... for now I deleted the default music that was playing, and with an empty directory nothing plays.
I put on a screen protector last night. I got the 0.2mm iCarez one. I performed the application in a steamy bathroom after running the hot shower for a bit, per some tips over in the Accessories thread. I left the backing on, positioned the glass on the screen, taped one side for the "hinge method" after getting it perfectly aligned and accounting for the eventual loss of thickness of the plastic underbacking, cleaned everything one last time with the alcohol wipe, peeled the backing, and plopped it on starting in the center. Got it perfectly positioned and no major bubbles. There were a couple of "spec sized" non-uniformities but they were gone by morning.
I'm gradually setting in... Still lots to play with.
I've noticed the WIFI, while it gets good reception, is a bit sluggish to drop a weak connection in favor of a strong one. Anybody got a tweak for that?

Frankenscript said:
I've noticed the WIFI, while it gets good reception, is a bit sluggish to drop a weak connection in favor of a strong one. Anybody got a tweak for that?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try this app for WIFI management. I have tried several and this is the best I have found. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.kman.WifiManager I agree completely that the wifi in the phone is very slow to drop a weak signal and grab a stronger one. But with wifi manager you can play with the sensitivity. Good luck.

Will do. Thanks for confirming it's not just me. Also on another note I just found the LG keyboard has lots of settings for customization. Not bad. May keep it!
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