Forced Updates, Why?

  • 19 August 2019
  • 27 replies
  • 18027 views

Userlevel 1

I want to know why we are being forced to update our phones every month. I am tired of having to update it and then go without my phone because I cant recieve phones for 5 days because of the updates. I have disabled "Auto Download Over Wifi" and I have even gone through the developers setting and turned off "Auto Update System". I dont think that we need to constantly have a monthly security update on the Note 9 or to be forced to update it.


27 replies

Userlevel 7
Badge +15

Most around here complain about a lack of updates, even though the updates don't come from T-Mobile.  All updates come from the OEM and are pushed usually as soon as they are ready.

2CSGB for the Note 9 on the T-Mobile firmware, which contains the August 2019 security update, is what some have been whining for since the first day of August.  Updates are not mandatory but are recommended to install.

Userlevel 1

These updates do infact come from tmobile and are forced installs. I went one month of trying to avoid the update by turning the phone off when it tells me that it will be updated in one minute. I never clicked to install the update. Eventually it will force itself to do so. I have already checked all other carriers software's updates the an archive of samsung and t-mobile phones are the only one that gets an update every single month. Its absolutely ridiculous and takes up 200mb of storage every time

Userlevel 6
Badge +12

tsanko01 wrote:

These updates do infact come from tmobile and are forced installs. I went one month of trying to avoid the update by turning the phone off when it tells me that it will be updated in one minute. I never clicked to install the update. Eventually it will force itself to do so. I have already checked all other carriers software's updates the an archive of samsung and t-mobile phones are the only one that gets an update every single month. Its absolutely ridiculous and takes up 200mb of storage every time

Samsung is known to force updates even for warranty issues.

Verizon about forced updates

Search - Verizon Community

Doing the same for other carriers will show that After so many times denying the update it will force itself.

Userlevel 4
Badge +9

Besides all of the self-protection issues included in keeping your phone up to date, there is the altruistic point of view - you are sharing access to a network that we're ALL part of and it only takes ONE week link to break the chain of security for EVERYONE! Sure TMO protects itself as best as possible, but security is an illusion since it only takes one oddball (a hacker with a new idea no one else thought to protect against) to accidentally break it...😉. I personally am all about personal responsibility, however, sometimes its best to remember we're NOT alone.

For various reasons, I often use Bluetooth to transfer files and data between my PC and Samsung S8+ phone. (In situations, where USB or Wifi is not an option.)  Anyway, recently I received a forced update from T-Mobile, which crippled my phones's Bluetooth capabilities, so the phone can no longer make a Bluetooth connection to the PC.  Also the Bluetooth tethering option has been disabled / removed.  I tried doing a factory reset, and removed the T-Mobile SIM card, but the Bluetooth tethering option is still not available. 

So I have 3 questions:

Is there some way to re-flash the phone with the original OS, and restore Bluetooth functionality, or is my phone permanently ruined?

If I switch to a different carrier, which one can be trusted not to send crippling updates to my phone?

Can I sue T-Mobile for crippling my phone?

Userlevel 4
Badge +9

I doubt you are even aware of all the things you agreed to when you connected your phone to the T-mobile network, so, no, suing is not a viable option. However, what kind of computer are you using? Bluetooth has recently received a number of security updates due to a Mother Load of recently uncovered security flaws. Have you updated your computer? The Bluetooth drivers?  Personally, I use KDE Connect to connect my phone & PC; it's soooooo much faster! 😉

Userlevel 6
Badge +12

rjklindsay wrote:

For various reasons, I often use Bluetooth to transfer files and data between my PC and Samsung S8+ phone. (In situations, where USB or Wifi is not an option.) Anyway, recently I received a forced update from T-Mobile, which crippled my phones's Bluetooth capabilities, so the phone can no longer make a Bluetooth connection to the PC. Also the Bluetooth tethering option has been disabled / removed. I tried doing a factory reset, and removed the T-Mobile SIM card, but the Bluetooth tethering option is still not available.

So I have 3 questions:

Is there some way to re-flash the phone with the original OS, and restore Bluetooth functionality, or is my phone permanently ruined?

If I switch to a different carrier, which one can be trusted not to send crippling updates to my phone?

Can I sue T-Mobile for crippling my phone?

Due to Knox and how Samsung has packages signed once you go past a specific update you can't revert.  Updates come from the manufacturer not the carrier.  People have sued carriers from lack of updates and all those have failed for that reason alone. Samsung even within their terms of use it says Features may be altered in a future update.  You can switch carriers the results will be different as some carriers may pay/not pay for options set forth by the OEM. 

I agree with you .. I am tired of all the updates being pushed through my phone. I work and it will cut off to update @while I am waiting to join a meeting and then I am late! I say get it right the first time and then update us. This is crazy!! For all those defending these updates .. stop trolling other peoples opinion.

Userlevel 4
Badge +9

Disagreement is NOT trolling! And though, not everyone is of the same opinion or experience, everyone is welcome! 😉

People who agree with T-Mobile are ignorant. Me not updating will not effect no other customers. T-Mobile has countless security flaws. I'll rather root my phone. I'm leaving T-Mobile because they feel they still own a part of my phone after I pay for it. I'm just using ur service. 

@sweetpeach must work for TMobile. 

Userlevel 4
Badge +9

Obviously, I’m missing a paycheck! :scream::joy:

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How to stop the Tmobile push updates that go against their ToS.

Pause during the download of update.  It will leave is suspended for months and not keep bothering you.  My last update was in March. 

Force stop the IMS service in system apps when it first appears on your phone.. will also do the trick.

I too was sick of phones back together after Samsung and Google SHOVED in so much unnecessary stuff!!  I work for a company.. and fixing 35 phones isn't fun every month.

I have pending action against tmobile as one guy just blew me off after me trying to figure this out for a YEAR.

 

The updates are going through the Google Play Services app and they are indeed T-Mobile updates... You cannot turn off auto software updates on T-Mobile anymore but there are several ways stop it... First of all, the update usually downloads via WiFi... But it won't install it usually until between the hours of 12:00 midnight and 3am... so if you turn off your phone at night, you may avoid it. The update will not install if the battery is too low (under 75% charge) and if you have battery saver mode on (it will say "update paused, battery too low or in battery saver mode).. so if you did both of that, you can avoid the update and it'll skip. Another thing is don't update the Google app from the Google Play Store, I guess when you update the Google App, it assumes you are ready to install the software update.. so turn off auto app updates on the Google Play Store and don't update the Google app. Another thing is, like I said about the update going through the Google Play Services system app, go to the app settings and then enable show all apps.. then look for Google Play Services.. and then DISABLE permissions for everything.. disable permissions for storage and for system write access. It needs those permissions or the update will fail to install. 

 

This is the last time I am buying a T-Mobile variant phone, the software update installed on my T-Mobile LG V40 WITHOUT my permission.. I was updating the Google app from the Google Play Store and suddenly my phone rebooted and installed the update without my consent.. I was furious and angry.. I went from Android 8 to Android 9. I seriously don't CARE about security, I care about being able to have control of my own device that I have purchased with my money, I understand the risk of security or whatever, I just do not want T-Mobile to have control over my device and do things as they please without my permission. I would like to install updates on my own accord and be given a choice. Luckily I learned how to avoid the update, but the update still attempts to install all the time. The worst thing is you cannot revert back to an old OS once the update has been installed.. so I suspect this is planned obsolescence. I also noticed after the update, the phone does not fast charge as fast as before and it seemed slower.. and there were some features in the phone that was REMOVED! 

So T-Mobile, if you are listening.. please stop forcing people to install the software update, you guys don't do this on iPhone, you guys only do it on Android.. this isn't really fair.. at least with the iPhone, it will ask you and you could say no. Again, this may be the last time I'll ever get a T-Mobile variant phone, next time I'm only getting unlocked variants.

 

rjklindsay wrote:

 

For various reasons, I often use Bluetooth to transfer files and data between my PC and Samsung S8+ phone. (In situations, where USB or Wifi is not an option.) Anyway, recently I received a forced update from T-Mobile, which crippled my phones's Bluetooth capabilities, so the phone can no longer make a Bluetooth connection to the PC. Also the Bluetooth tethering option has been disabled / removed. I tried doing a factory reset, and removed the T-Mobile SIM card, but the Bluetooth tethering option is still not available.

 

So I have 3 questions:

Is there some way to re-flash the phone with the original OS, and restore Bluetooth functionality, or is my phone permanently ruined?

If I switch to a different carrier, which one can be trusted not to send crippling updates to my phone?

Can I sue T-Mobile for crippling my phone?

Due to Knox and how Samsung has packages signed once you go past a specific update you can't revert.  Updates come from the manufacturer not the carrier.  People have sued carriers from lack of updates and all those have failed for that reason alone. Samsung even within their terms of use it says Features may be altered in a future update.  You can switch carriers the results will be different as some carriers may pay/not pay for options set forth by the OEM. 

PLEASE stop telling people updates are manufacturer not carrier. They come from BOTH! I disabled wifi, mobile data, turned on airplane mode & it did not stop it. I think I will get rid of my phone. So many things I HATE about these phones that they change so often. The clock was on the right side for 7 or 8 years &it changed. Samsung now has an ANNOYING copy & paste thing where if you copy anything, it automatically dumps it on your toolbar above your keyboard (where the emoticon smily face, microphone etc., are) so if you need to replace what you said & prefer to talk text & I am used to it NOT doing that for so long, I automatically go to tap the microphone & it pastes what I just copied I'm doing what I was just trying to do. So it's annoying because you don't even get an option, I could see if it was a government phone or they were paying us to use the phones but these phones are expensive and yes I had a choice to not purchase it which is what I'm getting ready to do. I thought maybe you might get a little of a say or such as being an option you can set to do/not do ____ or arrange _____ or ______ way, etc. but you can't undo this option. I even chatted with Samsung & they had no idea what I was talking about which is typical for them as they have customer NO-service & are clueless moreso than not.

 

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I don’t know how old these posts are, but as of Aug 2021, the problem is still the same.  Obviously T-mob and Samsung don’t give a ____ and they are in the pocket of some larger gummint or corporate entities. We’re just the customers.  We don’t mean jack. 

The problem i have is the updates throttle devices as they get older I recently did an update and it took out my fast charging and my battery life the reason I know this is because it was fine before the update and then after it took six hours to charge my phone and only three for the battery to be empty the problem is these big cell phone company send out these updates and purposefully throttle the speed of the phone and do other things to make this phone feel old so you go and get a new one just like they did with the light bulb we could have light bulbs that last forever but the big light bulb company thought that was bad for business so they designed the light bulb to only last so long before they burn out that way you have to buy a new light bulb intern making the light bulb company more money look it up I don't mind updates I just don't want one every month I would rather then put them all together every 6 months or every 3 months and do it that way

Latest update made my phone less usable and is complete crap.  Nuked all my color coded calendar entries in month view. Made it so spotify stops play shortly after my screen shuts off, meaning i have to carry my phone around all the time and wake it up constantly to listen to music at work. This is bs and dumb as sht.

Userlevel 7
Badge +16

Latest update made my phone less usable and is complete crap.  Nuked all my color coded calendar entries in month view. Made it so spotify stops play shortly after my screen shuts off, meaning i have to carry my phone around all the time and wake it up constantly to listen to music at work. This is bs and dumb as sht.

make sure Spotify is fully up to date to match with your phones new update..my V60 ran into this a while back and i ended up getting a update from Sprotify in the Play Store that ended up fixing it..

 

as for the color change up on your calendar that might have been a change up on whoever the OEM was..same thing though..go into the Play Store and see if they have an update for it..and two..click on the calendar app and then hit up the comments...filter it to whatever phone you have and see if you spot the same complaints in there..

The updates themselves are annoying every 2 weeks or so. But it's not so much the updates that are annoying as it is everything in the phone. Everytime they update the software, they change things around unnecessarily so I pretty much have to do research to figure out my own phone again. 

So, do the updates but quit changing everything around unnecessarily. Can't we petition for that as we are the customer paying for this service...or do we  really have a say, other than leaving tmobile and going to someone else that's just doing the same thing. Corporations really do own us and we do nothing about anything because we are too lazy and it's inconvenient. I'm not generally like this but idk any other service to go to as I'm sure they all do the same. Probably even prepaid. We never own anything. Everything owns us and I'm really tired of it. I know ...TMI

Userlevel 7
Badge +16

if its physical things changing on your device that came with the device then that is on the OEM..any carrier requested changes would be for things like network connections and not so much for things like dark mode or changes to how things are listed out on a device compared to the previous update etc.

if its physical things changing on your device that came with the device then that is on the OEM..any carrier requested changes would be for things like network connections and not so much for things like dark mode or changes to how things are listed out on a device compared to the previous update etc.

I don't think you understand what I mean. Everytime thres an update, the whole look of my phone changes. Sometimes they move things around and I have to find them. These things change everytime there an update. Ivcan see updating security issues and glitches but I'm tired of my phone looking different and things changing, I have to iearn how to navigate all over again

Userlevel 7
Badge +16

welcome to the wild world of smart phones? again these type of decisions are made by the OEM and not the carrier.

I want to know why we are being forced to update our phones every month. I am tired of having to update it and then go without my phone because I cant recieve phones for 5 days because of the updates. I have disabled "Auto Download Over Wifi" and I have even gone through the developers setting and turned off "Auto Update System". I dont think that we need to constantly have a monthly security update on the Note 9 or to be forced to update it.

 

 

THIIS WEEK..T-Mobile is updating my phone TWICE!  Grr... seems like a conspiracy  to force me to upgrade my phone!   What they TOUT as "NEW"  actually is " back to the old way you used to do it before we forced you to update"  So disappointed with the SPRINT/T-MOBILE transition...both sides RIPPED us off, forcing us to buy 2 phones that never worked with the new sim and refused to give us credit or refunds on the phones.  I actually turned them in to THE FCC!!!  

I have the same issue! I am sick of T mobile updates on my samsung phone and I cannot stop them. And it's just T mobile, my friend with he same phone and different carrier does not have this problem

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