OK to start things off this is going to be a long list of questions/issues and various impressions, some opinionated and some fact. I've had apple phones for years and appreciate both, I changed because my iphone couldn't do some things my note 3 can do such as open up 200+ MB pdfs with relative ease, but then again the samsung struggles to do simple things the iphone did fresh out of the box. This is not meant to be a discussion of which is better but it would help to know what I'm comparing it to and how I think simple things should work. I use a PC just FYI.
1.) Data Transfer of large files from various desktops to the Note 3 either through internal memory or external sd card.
My first issue is that I cannot move large files from my internal memory to my sd card. The sd card in question is a sandisk 128gb but have also tried to few others just to make sure it's not the card. If I download a large file on utorrent such as a 720p movie or better, I cannot move it from internal memory to sd card. I just won't do it. Not only will it refuse to move large files but any photos are sometime hit and miss, sometimes it moves them with no issue at all, most of the time the files stay in the parent folder and don't end up in the destination folder. I can move various files if I connect it to my desktop and drag and drop them onto the sd card but sometimes moving the file corrupts it where it cannot be played on the phone. I've also tried this with numerous computers with the same result. to move files on the phone i go to my files, select the directory and then select the file I want to move. I hold down on it to select it and then press move, it then shows the internal and external storage options, i select the sd card and the folder I want the file in and then press move here in the top right hand corner. If there is another way let me know.
Second issue is when dragging and dropping large music files directly to the sd card or internal memory from a pc. If a drag and drop a FLAC album it corrupts it about 50% of the time. I routinely go to play the album and get the message that it does not support the file type or something to that affect. I often just delete it and redo the process, most of the time that works. On MP3's, if I drag and drop an entire discography of an artist (say 8gb or so) it's corrupted 100% of the time. When I go to playback the albums they play at double speed. I have to go back and drop them one by one and sometimes (but rarely) that has the same issue.
2.) Audio Playback/Microphone/Headphone/Bluetooth Issues
Firstly, I thought that all 3.5mm headphone jacks were on a standard. I did not realize that the note did not come with headphones and that the headphones that I used with an apple device would not fully function on an android device. This seems like something so simple it shouldn't even be an issue. All of the headphones, earbuds, etc I have that have inline controls do not adjust the volume or skip tracks on my android device. You name it, like a half dozen brands. It just doesn't work...
When trying to use talk to text for a text message either with headphones with inline mic or with a Bluetooth headset it does not use the microphone on the accessory device, it uses the internal phone mic which is an issue for me. So instead of using the mic right next to my mouth I have to hold the phone up to my mouth in loud places. I don't know any way to change this...I couldn't find it in any settings.
3.) Lockscreen (I don't know how this is supposed to work, I looked it up and I'm assuming its something I'm doing.)
I want my lockscreen to be simple but I cannot seem to get the weather off of my lockscreen. It does not appear unless I swipe down and there it is. How do I remove it? If I open up the lockscreen editor by swiping from left to right its not there. I only have one lockscreen page so I don't know whats going on.
When I have notifications on my lock screen and click on them it puts a box around the lower part of my lock screen where you normally swipe as to say swipe here stupid to unlock. Is that the case or am I missing something else? It seems as though if my phone doesn't have a security lock on it and I press on my notification it should just open it. Or is it intentionally non-intuitive for some other reason?
4.) GLITCHES!!!!!!!! Various other issues
Routinely my music apps gets stuck on a page. Say if I'm listening to an album and try to back it up to my list of albums it just loads the same page over and over again. I have to hit my homebutton and open up the music app again from the icon and sometimes that causes it to crash. It does this on the stock Samsung music player and on play music. Normally my phone plays music 24/7 so it may be just how much I use it for that purpose.
Apps crash on a regular basis, at least a few times a day. I'd say I have an app crash maybe 3-5 times a day on average. Some more than others. Because of all the glitches I did a factory reset weeks ago to see if there was another issue. I've also tried uninstalling and re-installing all the apps that normally crash but that hasn't seemed to help. I don't believe apps used by millions on other android devices such as Bank of America (crashes literally every time I use it) or Pandora could be the problem.
Google integration is sketchy at best, It routinely doesn't delete e-mails off the google server when I delete them off my phone. It's really hit and miss. Sometimes it works, sometimes it will load the same e-mails dozens of times even though I've deleted it daily. The google+ photo backup is hit and miss and even updates over cellular even though its set to only update over wifi when plugged in. All of the sync settings seem appropriate for what I want it just doesn't work.
Text scaling under most situations is completely absurd. I've got 5.7" of screen and have to re-scale practically everything that loads so I can read it. This is especially and issue when reading forums which I'm on frequently. Is there a way to change this? If there isn't there definitely should be! Not a glitch but an issue.
All social media apps that load from a page (a wall, forum, feed, whetever) always reload when I click on something and go back forcing me to start over from the beginning. I've only had this issue on this phone, my previous iphones just take me back to where I was. Is there a way to change this annoying problem?
5.) The Photo Gallery
It just doesn't work. I don't know any other way to put it, its the second biggest failure on the phone. i wouldn't trust it with important anything! It routinely just looses photos, online account's don't update at all, s health photo that I've deleted dozens of times keeps showing up in my photos, all my album covers end up in my gallery and I have to manually go back and delete them all, photos end up corrupted and not able to view them whether on sd card or on phone, it goes on and on. Is there another application I can use? Can I make another app my default gallery app? Some online photos like picassa/google+ don't load correctly, it'll show the preview photo and when clicked on it'll show a completely different photo from that album. I would just delete it but can't delete online account photos from my phone gallery app and when I delete them online it doesn't update it on my gallery.
6.) Voicemail
I recieved a voicemail the first 10 minutes I had my phone and clicked on it in my notifications and it called my voicemail. I was confused at first, was i holding a 700 dollar phone or 90's Nokia? Seriously? And on top of that it didn't come with ATT visual voicemail out of the box, I had to download it. WTF! No I don't need voicemail on a phone I need 20 other google apps instead...seriously? On top of that att visual voicemail app is crap. I routinely miss voicemails because it not reliable enough to show all my voicemails in my notifications. Is that how all android devices are? I may be a little spoiled by the voicemail being on a tab in my phone app but it seems as though if there is an att specific model this should work better than it does...
7.) Text messaging
I don't use the stock mesaging app because it wouldn't reliably send a photo...that is all. I use textra now and it works better but still isn't what I would consider to be reliable...
8.) General Gripes about the phone app
The buttons are so large it looks like its designed for the seeing impaired.
Color scheme looks like I'm 4 and trying to push blocks into the appropriate holes...
I can't figure out how to change the color scheme on it, can you change it?
I hate the cartoonish figures for people that don't have photos.
Okay, it generally looks childish or like it was designed by Mattel. I need something far more professional looking.
On a positive note, speech and handwriting recognition is second to none, S Pen apps and S pen integration in general is very refined. It's extremely fast with very little lag in all situations. There are lots of positives so I'm not downing the phone at all but it just needs to fit my needs better. That's not everything but a good start. Thanks for your time and patience.
1.) Data Transfer of large files from various desktops to the Note 3 either through internal memory or external sd card.
My first issue is that I cannot move large files from my internal memory to my sd card. The sd card in question is a sandisk 128gb but have also tried to few others just to make sure it's not the card. If I download a large file on utorrent such as a 720p movie or better, I cannot move it from internal memory to sd card. I just won't do it. Not only will it refuse to move large files but any photos are sometime hit and miss, sometimes it moves them with no issue at all, most of the time the files stay in the parent folder and don't end up in the destination folder. I can move various files if I connect it to my desktop and drag and drop them onto the sd card but sometimes moving the file corrupts it where it cannot be played on the phone. I've also tried this with numerous computers with the same result. to move files on the phone i go to my files, select the directory and then select the file I want to move. I hold down on it to select it and then press move, it then shows the internal and external storage options, i select the sd card and the folder I want the file in and then press move here in the top right hand corner. If there is another way let me know.
Second issue is when dragging and dropping large music files directly to the sd card or internal memory from a pc. If a drag and drop a FLAC album it corrupts it about 50% of the time. I routinely go to play the album and get the message that it does not support the file type or something to that affect. I often just delete it and redo the process, most of the time that works. On MP3's, if I drag and drop an entire discography of an artist (say 8gb or so) it's corrupted 100% of the time. When I go to playback the albums they play at double speed. I have to go back and drop them one by one and sometimes (but rarely) that has the same issue.
2.) Audio Playback/Microphone/Headphone/Bluetooth Issues
Firstly, I thought that all 3.5mm headphone jacks were on a standard. I did not realize that the note did not come with headphones and that the headphones that I used with an apple device would not fully function on an android device. This seems like something so simple it shouldn't even be an issue. All of the headphones, earbuds, etc I have that have inline controls do not adjust the volume or skip tracks on my android device. You name it, like a half dozen brands. It just doesn't work...
When trying to use talk to text for a text message either with headphones with inline mic or with a Bluetooth headset it does not use the microphone on the accessory device, it uses the internal phone mic which is an issue for me. So instead of using the mic right next to my mouth I have to hold the phone up to my mouth in loud places. I don't know any way to change this...I couldn't find it in any settings.
3.) Lockscreen (I don't know how this is supposed to work, I looked it up and I'm assuming its something I'm doing.)
I want my lockscreen to be simple but I cannot seem to get the weather off of my lockscreen. It does not appear unless I swipe down and there it is. How do I remove it? If I open up the lockscreen editor by swiping from left to right its not there. I only have one lockscreen page so I don't know whats going on.
When I have notifications on my lock screen and click on them it puts a box around the lower part of my lock screen where you normally swipe as to say swipe here stupid to unlock. Is that the case or am I missing something else? It seems as though if my phone doesn't have a security lock on it and I press on my notification it should just open it. Or is it intentionally non-intuitive for some other reason?
4.) GLITCHES!!!!!!!! Various other issues
Routinely my music apps gets stuck on a page. Say if I'm listening to an album and try to back it up to my list of albums it just loads the same page over and over again. I have to hit my homebutton and open up the music app again from the icon and sometimes that causes it to crash. It does this on the stock Samsung music player and on play music. Normally my phone plays music 24/7 so it may be just how much I use it for that purpose.
Apps crash on a regular basis, at least a few times a day. I'd say I have an app crash maybe 3-5 times a day on average. Some more than others. Because of all the glitches I did a factory reset weeks ago to see if there was another issue. I've also tried uninstalling and re-installing all the apps that normally crash but that hasn't seemed to help. I don't believe apps used by millions on other android devices such as Bank of America (crashes literally every time I use it) or Pandora could be the problem.
Google integration is sketchy at best, It routinely doesn't delete e-mails off the google server when I delete them off my phone. It's really hit and miss. Sometimes it works, sometimes it will load the same e-mails dozens of times even though I've deleted it daily. The google+ photo backup is hit and miss and even updates over cellular even though its set to only update over wifi when plugged in. All of the sync settings seem appropriate for what I want it just doesn't work.
Text scaling under most situations is completely absurd. I've got 5.7" of screen and have to re-scale practically everything that loads so I can read it. This is especially and issue when reading forums which I'm on frequently. Is there a way to change this? If there isn't there definitely should be! Not a glitch but an issue.
All social media apps that load from a page (a wall, forum, feed, whetever) always reload when I click on something and go back forcing me to start over from the beginning. I've only had this issue on this phone, my previous iphones just take me back to where I was. Is there a way to change this annoying problem?
5.) The Photo Gallery
It just doesn't work. I don't know any other way to put it, its the second biggest failure on the phone. i wouldn't trust it with important anything! It routinely just looses photos, online account's don't update at all, s health photo that I've deleted dozens of times keeps showing up in my photos, all my album covers end up in my gallery and I have to manually go back and delete them all, photos end up corrupted and not able to view them whether on sd card or on phone, it goes on and on. Is there another application I can use? Can I make another app my default gallery app? Some online photos like picassa/google+ don't load correctly, it'll show the preview photo and when clicked on it'll show a completely different photo from that album. I would just delete it but can't delete online account photos from my phone gallery app and when I delete them online it doesn't update it on my gallery.
6.) Voicemail
I recieved a voicemail the first 10 minutes I had my phone and clicked on it in my notifications and it called my voicemail. I was confused at first, was i holding a 700 dollar phone or 90's Nokia? Seriously? And on top of that it didn't come with ATT visual voicemail out of the box, I had to download it. WTF! No I don't need voicemail on a phone I need 20 other google apps instead...seriously? On top of that att visual voicemail app is crap. I routinely miss voicemails because it not reliable enough to show all my voicemails in my notifications. Is that how all android devices are? I may be a little spoiled by the voicemail being on a tab in my phone app but it seems as though if there is an att specific model this should work better than it does...
7.) Text messaging
I don't use the stock mesaging app because it wouldn't reliably send a photo...that is all. I use textra now and it works better but still isn't what I would consider to be reliable...
8.) General Gripes about the phone app
The buttons are so large it looks like its designed for the seeing impaired.
Color scheme looks like I'm 4 and trying to push blocks into the appropriate holes...
I can't figure out how to change the color scheme on it, can you change it?
I hate the cartoonish figures for people that don't have photos.
Okay, it generally looks childish or like it was designed by Mattel. I need something far more professional looking.
On a positive note, speech and handwriting recognition is second to none, S Pen apps and S pen integration in general is very refined. It's extremely fast with very little lag in all situations. There are lots of positives so I'm not downing the phone at all but it just needs to fit my needs better. That's not everything but a good start. Thanks for your time and patience.
