Verizon Tech here - ask away!

[medicTHREE]

Hi Viper. Thanks for all your help here, it is appreciated.

I apologize if this question was already asked... I skimmed the thread, didn't see it pop up so here goes...

What do you know about the problem with the crackling audio when doing music playback or any other audio through the phone's headphone jack?

For example, any time the headphone jack is in use (such as plugging in headphones and listening to music on the Droid, or plugging the Droid into a car stereo via the headphone jack linked to the car's AUX input), if you turn the phone's volume up past approximately 70-80%, it will make severe crackling noises come from the speakers, mostly the left speakers. This happens in my $400 shure headphones... I love high-quality music and no MP3 player I've ever had causes this problem; none of my iPods, I had an I River way back in the day, and a Zune, and they all playback music better than my Droid. In the first week I had my Droid, I didn't have any problems. However, the past 2-3+ weeks have been a bother with the crackling problems when I do playback via the headphone jack...

I actually thought I blew a speaker in my car before I noticed the crackling coming from my Bose stereo system at home as well, in addition to my my surround sound system at home, all when I had the Droid plugged in via the headphone jack.

I've since had my Droid exchanged (due to 11 dead pixels in the screen of the previous Droid... sigh!) and this new Droid does the same thing, both before and after the 2.0.1 update.

Anything you know about this? Is it a bad phone, or an issue everyone is having?

I have family who works as a CSR in our area's retail VZW store, and he said he keeps forgetting to ask his in-store tech about the problem. I'd normally go through him for answers, but he is off work for a few more days and I'm seeking answers relatively quickly.

Thanks!

Crackling audio is common in many mobile devices when using the headphone jack. It goes that loud for ringers, but does not have the sound processing ability to provide clear sound with the power it outputs at that point.

 

[medicTHREE]

yeah I also have the same crackling noise when playing music through my car stereo. I also thought I had blown my bose stereo system. It would be nice to get this fixed.

Use the sound at 75% and use the stereo to make it louder. It is really that simple.

 

[viperboy]

Hi viperboy - one question for you: the only problem I've had with my Droid is about 5 times the phone has got stuck at the eye when powering up. 3 times it eventually came up after a good while (while I kept pressing the power button) and the 2 other times I pulled the battery. Do you think this could be a hardware issue or is it a software issue? Thanks!

Try booting in Safe Mode and see if boot up takes a while. If it still does, I would have the phone swapped out.

Hey there viperboy, thanks for joining. I would also like to thank you for extending your services for this site and it's users. We will try to keep this thread on topic, and if you need any help with that just send a PM and we will see what we can do about it

Thanks very much! I would love to one day make it to a mod here, always thought that would be cool :icon_ banana:. Thanks, I will let you know if any problems arise.

Cool, welcome dude. Hey so many of us have an issue with outgoing calls sounding horrible. Some have reported like a warble effect, others say their sound goes in/out and the person on the other end can't hear them. It has also been reported that the receiver says we sound muffled. Now this is totally different than the "echo" sound that the receiver hears when they themselves talks to a Droid cell phone user. These are all "outgoing" calls in which the receiver has problems hearing. Look at this thread over at Motorola Support Forum. They can't even tell me who to contact about the bug so it gets tracked. The Forum Manager over there bailed on the thread. So who's issue is this? Motorola's, Verizon's? Google's? and how do we report it so it gets tracked and fixed?

Dont worry.. I'm not coming at you sideways.. just want to get the blasted thing fixed.

Huge thread, I will try to read through all of it at a later time. I have been getting this in the store alot. Here is what you can do to improve call quality. I have done this on every customer's Droid.

##7764726 (##PROGRAM)
CALL Button
Enter SPC Password - 000000
VERIFY
04 Vocode
Select EVRC-B

This will change how the phone compresses and decompresses call audio. Seems to work really well, I have noticed and improvement for sure and I no longer get the "you sound like you're underwater" complaints from people I talk to. Give it a shot!

Viperboy,
I just recieved the update but have not tried the fix for the "outgoing sound quality" Is this addressed in the update? Or should I still try this setting to see if it helps?

It should improve a few things in the SW but changing the settings should improve it further.

Hello! I just wanted to ask some questions I been searching for answers with maybe you can help.

How do i switch back and forth between calls? When im on the phone someone calls I accept talk to them for however long and when its time to switch back I don't see the option and I end up hanging up on everyone. (Not the swap button in the upper left hand corner, i mean when the 2nd caller is hanging up but it hasn't disconnected yet it stays on the line if i swap i want to disconnect with this person without hanging up on the first caller)

And (its verizon not the phone) when someone calls me and im on the line already it beeps for the caller, letting them know im on the phone. I kinda don't want that since sometimes I dont want them to know im ignoring them lol leaves an akward moment when they call back or text saying "I know you was on the phone!" Can I call verizon and tell them to take that off or am i stuck with that?

Well, when you swap, they won't hear your conversation - they'll just hear silence. They will eventually hang up

And the call waiting beep couldn't be turned off. The only solution might be to have call waiting removed from your account but they wouldn't hear the beep. It would probably go right to VM and you would never know if you got another call while you're on the phone or not. Doesn't seem like a good trade off IMO.

is there a way to save attachments from emails (ie mp3's) to the phone? I tried it with my gmail and my hotmail and only get a preview or open option, that will play it, but no way of saving. I have not tried it since the update, but never heard anything that this was being addressed by the update anyway so I assume it is still like that

thanks

I feel the built-in GMail app is lacking and I hope that is something they address in a future update. You can go to your browser and log into GMail and download things if you have a problem with the GMail app. I also have Download Crutch installed which helps with downloading of some files. Works really well.

Hey everyone. I just registered for this site. Seems like a great place to be. I do Tech Support for Verizon in-store and know all of the phones pretty well. I am here to answer any questions you might have (let's try to keep it related to the Droid) that you might not have the answer to. Please keep in mind, I'm not a developer and I'm not going to be able to tell you that why such and such app isn't working on your phone. I'm here to answer questions related to Verizon and how the Droid works with Verizon's network and any tech related questions related to the Droid.

Feel free to ask whatever questions you have, and mods, if there is a better place for this thread, please feel free to move it Thanks guys. I look forward to helping you.

How about reaching out to your contacts in your field and extending a invite to this site. Set up your own section here, and you and your friends can gain information as well as help newbies.

That wouldn't fly, unfortunately. I don't think they officially want us posting on forums in the first place. But, it's not like I'm giving out any info - I'm just troubleshooting phones over the internet. That's how I think of it

Viperboy - Love the droid, bought it the day it first went on sale. ONLY problem is the earphone jack. The plug from aux output of my car stereo does not seat properly in droid earphone jack. A google search shows other droid owners have same problem. Is there way to get jack fixed/replaced? Thanks

Does it do that with any 3.5mm plug you plug into the phone? If so, yes, have it replaced and bring a cord to show the tech what you're talking about.

Huge thread, I will try to read through all of it at a later time. I have been getting this in the store alot. Here is what you can do to improve call quality. I have done this on every customer's Droid.

##7764726 (##PROGRAM)
CALL Button
Enter SPC Password - 000000
VERIFY
04 Vocode
Select EVRC-B

This will change how the phone compresses and decompresses call audio. Seems to work really well, I have noticed and improvement for sure and I no longer get the "you sound like you're underwater" complaints from people I talk to. Give it a shot!

Seemed to work for me as well.

Thanks so much. Just wondering why its not set like this from the factory.

Couldn't answer that for sure. My guess though is that EVRC-B can require more bandwidth and some towers don't support that feature. Most of them do now, but that would be the only reason I could think of.

Thanks for offering your help. I just received the update this morning and now my soft keys and physical keyboard doesn't light up. I've restarted the phone, done a battery pull, and tried using the camera (a lot of people said their's started to work again after using the camera) and no luck. Any thoughts?

As suggested, try going into the Brightness settings and uncheck Auto Brightness and recheck. If still not working, battery pull and than Safe Mode. If it's still not working, get it replaced.

Occurs before and after update: email header is from exchange account, and email body is from yahoo email account. How do I keep my emails from combining?

After update today, now my exchange account will show emails, but if I select an email, the system locks up, and gives me options to "force close" or "report." I've done both of those several times, and cannot resolve the issue. How can I delete the account any maybe start over, or is there a much larger issue?

Thanks for any help!

I would try deleting the accounts and readding. Home Screen > Settings > Accounts and Sync. Tap on the account and than "Remove Account". Once both are deleted, readd.

Viper,
More of a hardware issue, i've exchanged one droid already for this but... have you seen any phones come in with a loose screen, tapping on the left side. Best way to describe this is it feels like you typing on BB Storm, the top half of the phone clocks against the bottom half (mostly on the left side) when pressing on the screen.

Thanks.

I'm wondering about this too! it's really annoying typing in landscape onscreen as every keypress gives a loudish tap.

Related questions:

1) how long do we have to exchange the device after purchase for HW defects? 30-days? 60-days? 1yr?

2) how does the exchange process work in terms of transferring everything between phones? Do I have to back everything up? will the verizon store transfer everything (apps, widgets, home-replacements, etc)?

I've seen it and it seems to be "normal behavior". It's nothing that bothers me personally, and most customers for that matter. Verizon might replace it if you want, but I believe all the phones will work like this.

You have a 1 year manufacturer warranty to have the phone swapped. This does not mean that you drop the phone and crack the screen. That is not covered under the manufacturers warranty.

Everything is supposed to sync automatically with your GMail account, but I have seen it where apps transfer and sometimes apps don't transfer. Contacts will transfer without a problem. Home screen will have to be setup again.

Thanks very much! I would love to one day make it to a mod here, always thought that would be cool :icon_ banana:. Thanks, I will let you know if any problems arise.



Huge thread, I will try to read through all of it at a later time. I have been getting this in the store alot. Here is what you can do to improve call quality. I have done this on every customer's Droid.

##7764726 (##PROGRAM)
CALL Button
Enter SPC Password - 000000
VERIFY
04 Vocode
Select EVRC-B

This will change how the phone compresses and decompresses call audio. Seems to work really well, I have noticed and improvement for sure and I no longer get the "you sound like you're underwater" complaints from people I talk to. Give it a shot!

Viperboy,
I just recieved the update but have not tried the fix for the "outgoing sound quality" Is this addressed in the update? Or should I still try this setting to see if it helps?

This works very, very well! My mom had a very hard time hearing me. I did this yesterday, and she said the call quality has improve 100%!

Just tweaked the call quality settings.
I'll check it out and see if the wife notices a difference on the other end.

Thanks Viper!

Glad to hear guys! You're welcome!

Hey everyone. I just registered for this site. Seems like a great place to be. I do Tech Support for Verizon in-store and know all of the phones pretty well. I am here to answer any questions you might have (let's try to keep it related to the Droid) that you might not have the answer to. Please keep in mind, I'm not a developer and I'm not going to be able to tell you that why such and such app isn't working on your phone. I'm here to answer questions related to Verizon and how the Droid works with Verizon's network and any tech related questions related to the Droid.

Feel free to ask whatever questions you have, and mods, if there is a better place for this thread, please feel free to move it Thanks guys. I look forward to helping you.

When I opened my computer this morning, Gmail asked me to change my password. How do I sync my phone?

Home Screen > Settings > Account and Sync. Tap on the green sync icon next to your GMail. It should fail if you changed your password on the computer. You should then get a notification saying sync failed or something like that and you should be able to put in your new password.

second phone i have had in 10 days. i am beginning to think I should give up on this phone. it is fully charged but remains black. frustrating because now i am in a different state and need to take the phone in to be checked or return for good. LOL

Did you try a battery pull or Safe Mode? What were the results?

Just tried a call after the call settings tweak and it sounded even better than after the 2.0.1 update yesterday---both ends of the call sounded better.

Any other programming tweaks that can improve overall quality?

Viper- Thanks!

That is pretty much it, not much more to mess with for audio

Viperboy please help, I did the update for the droid but it deleted all but 30 of my contacts. Which means I lost about 400 numbers. I pulled the battery, that didn't work. This is my first "smart phone" so I had yet to figure out how to backup to anywhere and the backup assistant I had previously I haven't figured out how to put on the phone. Please help, I am hysterical over here! Thanks in advance and I hope you have a fix for me.

Go into your Contacts and than Menu > Display Options. Tap on your GMail account and check everything. Most likely, they're hiding under All Other Contacts but checking all of them shouldn't hurt unless for some reason you have every one of your contacts in every category. Than you will have a ton of multiples.

Do we know if the Verizon is aware of the Browser lag issue introduced in the 2.0.1 update?

It's starting to get alot of reports on the Google Code bug page.

I posted about the details, and video example of it here:

Browser Issue with Verizon Droid 2.0.1 Update - JefTek.com

If Verizon is aware of it, do we know if they have any plans on when a patch might be available? Will it have to wait till January?

I have sent the issue up and will report back as soon as I know anything. But as of right now, it is not recognized officially by Verizon that I know of (atleast what they make available to me).

Viperboy please help, I did the update for the droid but it deleted all but 30 of my contacts. Which means I lost about 400 numbers. I pulled the battery, that didn't work. This is my first "smart phone" so I had yet to figure out how to backup to anywhere and the backup assistant I had previously I haven't figured out how to put on the phone. Please help, I am hysterical over here! Thanks in advance and I hope you have a fix for me.

Log into your gmail account on the computer and check your contact list. If they are missing there as well, then they are gone for good. Hopefully you still have the contacts on your previous phone and can re-import them?

For everyone, it's a good idea to use the gmail account on the computer to export your contacts as a backup. Apparently this is especially important to do before any OS update.

Edit: Someone had posted this in another thread regarding missing contacts after the update -
"Anyway, thought they were gone, but it was simply a setting on the phone that had changed. For some reason the update changed a 'display' setting in contacts that only displayed contacts flagged as 'My Contacts." (even though I had never flagged any contacts any such way) Once I re-checked 'All Other Contacts' everyone reappeared."

Thanks for answering this for him. Sorry I couldn't answer it sooner.

Hey Viper, thanks for taking the time of joining the forum!

quick question (ill probably have more later). going through my contacts after the update and all my contacts have 3-4 facebook icons to view their profiles instead of one. anyway to fix this to only show 1 like before the update?

I would remove the FB account from Home Screen > Settings > Account and sync. Tap on your FB account and remove. Than readd it.

Hi Viper,

It's great that you take the time to look in on this forum. I'm sure everyone appreciates your help and time.

This morning my wife's phone got the OTA update and she updated to 2.0.1. After that she started getting the sync error of "Too many deletes" for her gmail contacts. Interestingly enough, I had gotten the same error when I updated. What I did was I exported my contacts on gmail then on my phone I responded to that error with "delete". That seemed to do the trick for me. However, my wife chose "undo deletes" and now a bunch of her contacts are screwed up. For instance, her contact for mine now shows three entries when she edits the contact; each one a little different.

Also, now her contacts won't sync. She's getting the "Sync is currently experiencing problems. It will be back shortly." message. I suspect she's going to have to clean up the mess that happened in her contacts (because of the update?) before they'll sync again. It also seems her gmail (email) isn't syncing either. Have you seen this happen to anyone before? If one of the three gmail syncs (calendar, email, contacts) gets an error does it tend to screw up the syncing abilities of the others?

Related to that, I was thinking it might just be easier if she deleted her gmail account from her phone and re-add it; thinking that deleting it would nuke all her contacts and she could resync it from gmail. But when she tried to delete it the phone told her she couldn't (sorry, don't remember the exact error). That being said, how painful is it to do a factory reset? I've seen mention of it on the forums but haven't seen any instructions on what you have to do AFTER the reset to get your phone back to where it was. Do you have any instructions on how to do this?

Thanks for any help!

-Gary

Had this problem the other day with a customers phone. Go into your GMail account from a computer. Go to "Contacts" on the left hand side. Check them all and back them up by selecting Export. Export them as a Google CSV file. Then, go back in and delete any multiple contacts in there. Once that is done, export that file. Save it as a DIFFERENT NAME than the first export. Once you are SURE you have both of those files, check all contacts and delete them. Then, readd in the second backup you had with any multiple entries deleted. Go into the phone under Accounts and sync and click the sync icon next to contacts. Should fix that issue.

thanks for taking your time to help us all out.

Myself and others have reported that doing a Voice search (even in car home mode) and saying "call Joe Doe Mobile" will always do a google web search and never go into phone mode. saying "dial 555-1212" does the same thing. Voice search always goes straight to the web search. Some users have no problem, others like myself do.

any ideas?

Thanks.

Well, truth be told, I don't sure the Voice Search but if you press and hold the Search key from the Home Screen and say "Call John", for example, I get a list of people named John. That doesn't work for you?

Viper,

Myself and a few others have noticed a slight screen calibration issue that requires the user to touch slightly above the intended target. Others have not seen this, have you seen or heard of this?

Could it just be my unit?

I am talking slightly higher like 1/16 or 1/8 of a inch. I am a previous Itouch user and believe the calibration on the touch was much better.

Never have seen this or heard of it being a problem. It would be a problem with your phone. Did the update fix it or did you post this after you already had the update?

Is the any way of viewing video clips that are sent in text messages

You should be able to press and hold and save the video and than watch it from the Gallery.

Viper,
Is there a way to "delete all" e-mails - and/or have them "stay deleted" once I delete them? (sometimes they show back up in my inbox after they have been deleted)

Thanks in advance for your help.

Again, I think the built-in GMail app is lacking. I have not seen a way to delete all, which I just can't believe they wouldn't have included. It might be that GMail is sending the emails back to you. Best thing I could tell you is to go onto your GMail from a computer to delete them all.

Mr. Viperboy

I have a question about chargers.... I would really like to get a cheap charger that works.

Where could I find one?


Can damange be done using some of these chargers- I have chargers they claim work for the droid but it makes the screen go crazy----


Any help appreciated- I know you want to sell a $30 verizon charger, but I was thinking in the $4 range...


Greg

Well, there are certain auction sites on the internet that would sell aftermarket chargers. However, that can cause malfunctions with the phone and void your warranty. Obviously, working for Verizon, I can't really recommend any other chargers than the ones we sell.

Holy cow. If this pace of posting keeps up, viper will have another full time job on his hands besides actually working at verizon. I hope we don't burn out viper - it would be a shame to lose such a helpful resource.

Nope! Don't worry, I'm here but I just have other things besides work to do. This really is going to be a full time job for me here!

I just finished reading all the post's on this thread.......it amazing on how many questions people have about their droid device, and viper responds to them quickly.

Madsrx - I think once VIPER mentioned he was VZ tech, he started his second job here.

Keep up the great work VIPER.

Thanks again! I will do my best for everyone here!

Hey Viper,

I see you are being inundated with posts. I am hoping you can get to this one because it seems to be an odd issue that really is causing problems for many people. The issue is where the droid phone just makes some random calls, often calling the last person you called, usually late at night. It seems a couple threads indicate that if the phone is on a non-oem charger this may happen. First of all.. why? What does a non-oem charger have to do with the droid starting up and dialing a phone number? That just seems like a major flaw.. yet it only seems to be some people having this problem. Any ideas why this might be? Has either Motorolla or google addressed this issue.. is it a hardware thing with the charging jack that somehow triggers the dialer? That seems really strange to me that this could happen at all.

Thanks.

Well, it is best to use the OEM charger for a phone. It might seem silly, but with aftermarket chargers, they sometimes are not pinned correctly, so to speak. Like, it might have another pin inside the plug that is causing a short on the board or something to that effect. You know how electronics can be flakey sometimes. Seems like some of the aftermarket chargers just aren't compatible.

Again, just be careful with non-OEM chargers. It can void your warranty and hurt the phone/battery. I would recommend a Verizon charger

Thanks for joining the forum Viper. Quick access to a real tech is excellent. Although you may need one of these..lol

Great picture! I think it could come in handy lol

He hasn't responded in a while........

Sorry, when they implant a phone in my head with instant access to my mail and everything else and I don't even have to say my response and I can just think it, I promise, responses will be alot faster.

Up until that point, believe it or not, I do have a life outside of sitting here on this forum and answering questions. Please understand that.

Well he or she has a job and probably needs to sleep at some point... and probably has a social life. Just relax. Only one of him and many of us. so give him time.

Thank you very much for understanding.

Hey everyone. I just registered for this site. Seems like a great place to be. I do Tech Support for Verizon in-store and know all of the phones pretty well. I am here to answer any questions you might have (let's try to keep it related to the Droid) that you might not have the answer to. Please keep in mind, I'm not a developer and I'm not going to be able to tell you that why such and such app isn't working on your phone. I'm here to answer questions related to Verizon and how the Droid works with Verizon's network and any tech related questions related to the Droid.

Feel free to ask whatever questions you have, and mods, if there is a better place for this thread, please feel free to move it Thanks guys. I look forward to helping you.

This is likely a dumb question, but here goes. Open up messaging, and there is a red triangle icon with a white exclamation point in it, next to a txt messaging thread. What does that red triangle icon indicate?

It means the message failed to send. It should also tell you that in your Notification bar. No question is dumb! Don't hesitate to ask!

Yes... Note that Viper did say he was working as a Tech at Verizon Wireless.

With that said, he is not going to be exactly sitting at a computer, ready to answer questions at any moment, he is also not an Authorized Verizon Wireless Rep.

Please note, he is doing this on his own free time, so that means he will try and respond when he can an when he is able to. Just like most of us, he does have a life outside of this forum and all.

Now... If he was AUTHORIZED by Verizon to be a representative on this website, they would pay him to help people out on a forum. But given most company stipulations, and the fact he is doing this on his own free time, you just have to pace yourselves and be patient.

Again, thank you. This is something I am doing on my own free time to help you guys.

This is likely a dumb question, but here goes. Open up messaging, and there is a red triangle icon with a white exclamation point in it, next to a txt messaging thread. What does that red triangle icon indicate?

It just means that the message was NOT able to be sent at the time. Usually has to do with a bad connection.

Thanks for answering that. I still answered it above anyway lol

Viperboy, thanks for the offer of assistance. But perhaps your biting off a pretty big chunk...

I've been looking for an awnser, and hoping for an update... The droid regular email, not gmail, won't open attachments originated on an Exchange Server system. I get .pdf files from a customer that uses an Exchange server, and I can open the picture they use as a company logo in all thier emails, but not any of the attachments. I get a 'fetching attachment' message, then a message that say's 'The attachment cannot be displayed' .....

I thought I had this fixed once, but the problem never really left. If I take the same attachment from my home email, foward it to myself on the droid email I can read it. But Not from the exchange server email system...

What's up with this?

Thanks in advance for trying....

Pinshooter

Edward Milliron

Yeah, there is alot more interest than I thought there would be in this thread!

As far as that issue, it seems that it could just be how your email provider is handling the email coming in. It's hard to saw without seeing it. Can you view it fine from this email account on a computer? If you forward it to your GMail and you can read it, it seems like a problem with your email provider when it is getting sent to your device.

Viperboy please help, I did the update for the droid but it deleted all but 30 of my contacts. Which means I lost about 400 numbers. I pulled the battery, that didn't work. This is my first "smart phone" so I had yet to figure out how to backup to anywhere and the backup assistant I had previously I haven't figured out how to put on the phone. Please help, I am hysterical over here! Thanks in advance and I hope you have a fix for me.

Since this post I have received text messages from friends and I can view the contact but it does not save in the contact list, even if I make an adjustment to the contact it doesn't save. So it seems they have not actually deleted from memory but I just cannot view them or access unless someone texts me. Can anyone at all help?

Contacts > Display Options. Select your GMail account and check everything. Back out and they should come out from hiding

This is likely a dumb question, but here goes. Open up messaging, and there is a red triangle icon with a white exclamation point in it, next to a txt messaging thread. What does that red triangle icon indicate?

It just means that the message was NOT able to be sent at the time. Usually has to do with a bad connection.

actually the message was sent and responded to

That is incorrect. It is a message that failed to send.

not sure if this was asked yet.. since this thread is too long to read. but anyway- any updates you can give us on the passion's release date and pricing?

Something that I can't really comment on. What I can tell you is that you guys will know about it before we do. Now, by "we", I mean the majority of Verizon. I, like you guys, read a ton of stuff online for phone news. So I might know what you know, but I can't tell you about speculations or anything that isn't official by Verizon.

Why cant I get my Visual Voicemail to work with my bluetooth...this sucks! It worked with the strom (dont make me go back:icon_eek:?)

CAn a app be made for this????!?!?

Thanks for your help

That is a known issue and a fix for that should be in a future update, but we are aware of that.

I always think it is funny when someone comes in and says they work for such and such and they are going to answer all of our problems. Rarely do they live up to the hype. I think the soft approach of just helping where needed without being all showy and asking everyone to look at them works a lot better... Prove we should listen to you, don't tell us we should.

I think its awesome that he came on here to offer assistance instead of people like you blindly posting and getting 10 different answers to a question because someone who works at the local shopping mall and scrubs toilets happens to have a VZW phone and posts in a forum. I think its a very nice offer and should be looked at as such. I also worked at VZW in a call center for over 2 years and I used to offer advice on another website dedicated to VZW. I was always available with PM's or public help in the forums - and I didn't get paid for it obviously, it was just in my blood to help others, even after spending 10 hours on the phones at work. When you call into VZW or go into a store do you give them a litmus test to prove themselves worthy to you? If you don't like advice from VZW reps then don't read it. Don't be a jack and try to make the poor guy think twice about helping others.

Thanks, buddy. Appreciate it. I hope everyone sees I'm trying to help. This has taken me about 45 mins to multi-quote everything and type out everything to answer questions. I am doing my best, guys.

Feel free to ask whatever questions you have

OK, I will. My question is, why do I get prompts on the dialer screen to "Activate my phone" weeks after it was "activated" at the store where I bought it whenever I update my PRLs? During the *228/2 PRL update, all the automated prompts are as usual, the PRL update happens successfully, and the call is terminated automatically. Then, when I touch the "Next" button, I get a prompt saying "Your Phone Has Been Activated!".

Why all the hoo-haa about "activating" if it's already "activated"? My wife's phone did the same thing. Both Droids have the OS update.

*228 brings up that screen because, typically, you'd only dial *228 to activate. Yes, you do it for a PRL update as well, but not everyone does that. Everyone activates their phone, so it is just the screen that is called up everytime you dial *228. Not a bug, really, just how they chose to have it setup. It's not reactivating when you do option 2, even though it might say it does.

Viperboy, sorry if already posted, I tried read every page, I got to page 4 and by time I get to page 10 it'll be 5 hrs from now. My question is simple I hope..how come when I click on a contact some contacts have like 6 view there facebook profile. It varies, some have 3, some 5, etc.. thanks,..waiting for suggestion

Delete your FB account and readd. Home Screen > Settings > Account and sync. Give that a shot.

viperboy, I was just at the Verizon store because my OTA update was failing. The tech was able to install the update, but told me my phone had been rooted, thus I was out of warranty.

--I did not attempt to root my phone, although I must say I was not careful regarding what apps I installed ---

1st how did he know it was rooted?
2nd can I reset the phone back to factory defaults, thus removing the (for lack of a better term) rooting software? and
3rd How is my warranty voided, I did nothing intentionally? (but now I might)

Honestly, that's crap that he said that. The only way to tell if it was rooted would be a terminal program and typing "su" to see if you get access. I doubt he went through all that. If you had apps that said it required root and you didn't have root but you downloaded anyway, that doesn't matter.

For info on how to unroot and things of that nature, take a look at AllDroid.org. Now, I have not officially heard if rooting voids your warranty. I doubt anyone is really familiar with what rooting is, to be honest. I will see if I can get a better answer for you, but it will take some time to get this answer. Lots of emails and things need to be sent and I will have to ask a few people who will have to ask their people and you know how that goes.

Now that being said, I would think it is safe to say that if you root, it would void the warranty. Why? Because you open the phone up alot easier to get screwed up by apps or by terminal commands that you couldn't do before. That is probably how Verizon is going to look at it. That being said, I have mine rooted and I would just assume that I no longer have a warranty. I would recommend that everyone operate under that assumption.

Hey everyone. I just registered for this site. Seems like a great place to be. I do Tech Support for Verizon in-store and know all of the phones pretty well. I am here to answer any questions you might have (let's try to keep it related to the Droid) that you might not have the answer to. Please keep in mind, I'm not a developer and I'm not going to be able to tell you that why such and such app isn't working on your phone. I'm here to answer questions related to Verizon and how the Droid works with Verizon's network and any tech related questions related to the Droid.

Feel free to ask whatever questions you have, and mods, if there is a better place for this thread, please feel free to move it Thanks guys. I look forward to helping you.

Great! I want to change what icons are on the home screen....how do I move icons from applications to home screen????

Bring up your apps list and press and hold on an icon. When the app list background disappears, drag it to a free spot on the screen. To delete, press and hold on an app and drag into the trash can at the bottom middle of the screen. Now, that doesn't delete or uninstall an app. That just removes the shortcut from the home screen.

Hey Viperboy, heres one for you.. I have a droid and my girlfriend does too. Well in the same house I get one bar and have trouble watch youtube in HD.. While she gets 4 bars and can watch the same youtube video in HD no problem.. It may never play or start(after long delay) and stop several times on mine, where on hers it starts very quick and plays hole video..
I have swap my phone twice frist phone was bad, second was worse, third is better then the first 2 but still not like hers..
I have talk to tech guys over the phone. the first guy said it was my network, second guy said it was the phone. These talks were during the time frame of the second phone.. The last guy put in a work ticket And I guess somebody is going to contact me in about 10 days(seems like a long time)
I don't know if this matter but my girl was with the Alltel before merge and my number is from a few years ago with Nextel.. Thanks for any insite..

Hmm, that's very odd. How was service (as far as how many bars you had) before the Droid? What phone did you have previously? Seems like your girlfriend could have a "factory freak" that gets tremendous reception. That's the only really logical explanation if you did the PRL update via *228 option 2.

If you want to try, try activating her phone on your line and your phone on her line and see if anything changes. If she still has really good service on your phone and you have low service, definitely a major problem with the network side of your phone line's provisioning, it would seem. This is out the realm of what I can do to help you. I can only theorize the problem, I cannot access the tools needed to fix it. Working with tech and having a trouble ticket filed might be the best option at this point.

Viper....can the number of rings before going to voice mail be changed...or has Verizon put a stop to it?

Unfortunately, I don't believe that can be changed anymore. You might still be able to change the amount of times it rings if you forward to a number other than VM. I would call 611 and ask. Sorry, more network related and I don't really deal with that. I couldn't answer detailed network feature questions, just how the network should work normally and things of that nature.

Do you know why I don't get signal in my cafeteria while ATT does? like, possible explanations?

Maybe not a tower nearby? CDMA signal (Verizon and Sprint) should penetrate through buildings better than GSM signal (ATT and T-Mobile). Do other people have this problem who have Verizon in the caf?

Sweet sound quality fix! Worked like a charm!

Hope this link:

https://supportforums.motorola.com/thread/17480;jsessionid=74438F24B440BBAFE28A963765ACB22D.node0

Helps for those of us that are like "OK WHY does EVRC-B make it better and what is EVRC?"

I was one of those people that had to search google before I made the change to know why...lol.

While I appreciate that Viperboy intends to help, switching to EVRC-B is not a good idea, based on what is found in the link above. Bottom line is that while EVRC-B will sound better than EVRC, not all cell sites support it. So if you set it and it works where you are now, you will eventually wander into a cell that does not support it and you won't be able to make calls and won't remember how to switch back. A better choice is the first option "13 bit". It apparently sounds as good as EVRC-B but works all over and apparently uses more bandwidth.

Almost all towers now support EVRC-B. I wouldn't think it's anything to worry about.

Hi Viper. Thanks for all your help here, it is appreciated.

I apologize if this question was already asked... I skimmed the thread, didn't see it pop up so here goes...

What do you know about the problem with the crackling audio when doing music playback or any other audio through the phone's headphone jack?

For example, any time the headphone jack is in use (such as plugging in headphones and listening to music on the Droid, or plugging the Droid into a car stereo via the headphone jack linked to the car's AUX input), if you turn the phone's volume up past approximately 70-80%, it will make severe crackling noises come from the speakers, mostly the left speakers. This happens in my $400 shure headphones... I love high-quality music and no MP3 player I've ever had causes this problem; none of my iPods, I had an I River way back in the day, and a Zune, and they all playback music better than my Droid. In the first week I had my Droid, I didn't have any problems. However, the past 2-3+ weeks have been a bother with the crackling problems when I do playback via the headphone jack...

I actually thought I blew a speaker in my car before I noticed the crackling coming from my Bose stereo system at home as well, in addition to my my surround sound system at home, all when I had the Droid plugged in via the headphone jack.

I've since had my Droid exchanged (due to 11 dead pixels in the screen of the previous Droid... sigh!) and this new Droid does the same thing, both before and after the 2.0.1 update.

Anything you know about this? Is it a bad phone, or an issue everyone is having?

I have family who works as a CSR in our area's retail VZW store, and he said he keeps forgetting to ask his in-store tech about the problem. I'd normally go through him for answers, but he is off work for a few more days and I'm seeking answers relatively quickly.

Thanks!

Hmm, crackling? It sounds to me that the volume from the phone is too high which means that too much gain is being pushed from the phone into your audio system. It's kinda like guitar... gain is how you get distortion and, with guitar, distortion is awesome so if you want that, high gain from a pre amp (in this case, your phone) and low gain in the post amp (your audio system).

Obviously, you want a clean sound for your music so that would be the opposite way - low gain from pre amp (your phone) and high gain on the post amp (audio system). What I'm trying to say is lower the volume of your phone to about half way and turn up your audio system more. Do you still have the problem? Did what I say make sense? If you're not into audio and things, it might be a little vague. I'm sorry if it is.

Hey viper Verizon's OTA firmware update fuc&ed up my Droid it runs like crap is their anyway Verizon can send me 2.0ota?

What is your phone doing? I have heard nothing but good things about 2.0.1 as it relates to smoothness in the OS.

And no, no way to push 2.0 back on.

My biggest problem is text messaging. My facebook updates are a few days behind. Also my wife will send me a text message and I want get it for a day or two? What is the deal? Definitely sounds like a verizon issue.

Facebook is behind, unfortunately. I'm assuming you mean the widget? It doesn't audo update from the live feed. That is a Facebook issue, not a phone or Verizon issue.

As far as the text messaging, call 611 and they will probably have to file a trouble ticket for you.

Where's my DROID T-Shirt & coupons?!!! 13+ years as a loyal customer isn't good enough?!!!

- Mega (who's not entirely serious, but kind of inquiring...)

EDIT:
I'm either an XL or XXL depending upon the fabric.

I'm really sorry, I wish there was something I could do about this. I really wish I could send you a shirt, but there is nothing I could do

 

[viperboy]

:motdroidhoriz:viper how long is the normal for the droid battery

Depends on your use. I am a heavy user, text and browse the web all day and I need to charge every night.

Hi Viper. Thanks for all your help here, it is appreciated.

I apologize if this question was already asked... I skimmed the thread, didn't see it pop up so here goes...

What do you know about the problem with the crackling audio when doing music playback or any other audio through the phone's headphone jack?

For example, any time the headphone jack is in use (such as plugging in headphones and listening to music on the Droid, or plugging the Droid into a car stereo via the headphone jack linked to the car's AUX input), if you turn the phone's volume up past approximately 70-80%, it will make severe crackling noises come from the speakers, mostly the left speakers. This happens in my $400 shure headphones... I love high-quality music and no MP3 player I've ever had causes this problem; none of my iPods, I had an I River way back in the day, and a Zune, and they all playback music better than my Droid. In the first week I had my Droid, I didn't have any problems. However, the past 2-3+ weeks have been a bother with the crackling problems when I do playback via the headphone jack...

I actually thought I blew a speaker in my car before I noticed the crackling coming from my Bose stereo system at home as well, in addition to my my surround sound system at home, all when I had the Droid plugged in via the headphone jack.

I've since had my Droid exchanged (due to 11 dead pixels in the screen of the previous Droid... sigh!) and this new Droid does the same thing, both before and after the 2.0.1 update.

Anything you know about this? Is it a bad phone, or an issue everyone is having?

I have family who works as a CSR in our area's retail VZW store, and he said he keeps forgetting to ask his in-store tech about the problem. I'd normally go through him for answers, but he is off work for a few more days and I'm seeking answers relatively quickly.

Thanks!

Crackling audio is common in many mobile devices when using the headphone jack. It goes that loud for ringers, but does not have the sound processing ability to provide clear sound with the power it outputs at that point.

It also depends on the bit rate of the music as well. If you have a ringtone encoded at 32k instead of 128k, you will notice a major decrease in quality.

yeah I also have the same crackling noise when playing music through my car stereo. I also thought I had blown my bose stereo system. It would be nice to get this fixed.

Use the sound at 75% and use the stereo to make it louder. It is really that simple.

And make sure you have good quality mp3s, the lower the bit rate the worse it will sound.

Simply unbelievable!

You have a Verizon Tech willing to help out and 80% of your questions can be found by just searching. Why don't you lazy users - look for an answer first? You are going to chase away the Tech - lets save the Tech for real problems.

Yeah, I noticed that. But I still answered all the questions. I'll fix my OP to kinda encourage people to search and post a small Tech FAQ that I will keep updated.

 

[viperboy]

Phew!! That took a while, about an hour and a half. Hopefully, I answered everyones questions. If I missed something, please let me know. I will update my first post with a few things as far as common troubleshooting steps and things.

Off to answer my huge list of PMs...

 

[overtsilence]

thanks for taking your time to help us all out.

Myself and others have reported that doing a Voice search (even in car home mode) and saying "call Joe Doe Mobile" will always do a google web search and never go into phone mode. saying "dial 555-1212" does the same thing. Voice search always goes straight to the web search. Some users have no problem, others like myself do.

any ideas?

Thanks.

Given viper wasn't sure on this one I thought I'd throw this in there just in case it's been overlooked. Have you looked at your search settings? If you go to settings and choose search, you pick where it wants your search/voice search to look. Make sure Contacts is checked. You could even uncheck web search if you wanted to.

 

[NyczVegeta85]

do you think i should exchange?

Been almost a month and my droid reset twice for no reason... its too early to tell becuz of the update but did the update include something that fixed this issue? I also had the sound of my ringtone and notifications(all sounds in general) get switched from the speaker to earpiece. I don't have insurance for this phone so I want to be safe. What do you think? And also, I bought it directly from verizon so I wouldn't be able to go to a local verizon store to have it replaced is there? Thabks in advance and welcome to the forums!

 

[viperboy]

thanks for taking your time to help us all out.

Myself and others have reported that doing a Voice search (even in car home mode) and saying "call Joe Doe Mobile" will always do a google web search and never go into phone mode. saying "dial 555-1212" does the same thing. Voice search always goes straight to the web search. Some users have no problem, others like myself do.

any ideas?

Thanks.

Given viper wasn't sure on this one I thought I'd throw this in there just in case it's been overlooked. Have you looked at your search settings? If you go to settings and choose search, you pick where it wants your search/voice search to look. Make sure Contacts is checked. You could even uncheck web search if you wanted to.

Thanks! I have never really used voice search on any phone I've ever had, so I don't know much about it because it's not something I really use. I knew the settings for it where there, but didn't think to suggest it. Sorry, it's late for me Thanks again.

 

[titans]

Hey Viper, I know this is not tech related, but I was wondering if you know anything about the shirt/coupon distribution. Was the shirt and the coupons sent to random customers, or is there a reason behind it? Thanks

 

[viperboy]

Hey Viper, I know this is not tech related, but I was wondering if you know anything about the shirt/coupon distribution. Was the shirt and the coupons sent to random customers, or is there a reason behind it? Thanks

Not a clue, my friend. I'm sorry.

 

[SSHGuru]

I heard that visual voicemail was just changed to work with wi-fi. I just canceled it because it wasn't...

Is this true that it will now work if you use wi-fi?

 

[Corinacakes]

I heard that visual voicemail was just changed to work with wi-fi. I just canceled it because it wasn't...

Is this true that it will now work if you use wi-fi?

wi-fi is checkin mine now

 

[viperboy]

Honestly, I don't really trust (nor see the point in) your credentials of "Verizon tech". As was pointed out earlier, the vast majority (if not all) of the responses you gave to questions can be answered with a bit of time on Google.

And I do find it interesting that you coincidentally don't know the answers to a lot of the things I'd expect someone in the Verizon know to... well, know. Not gonna bother citing any examples here, because I think they're self-evident, and again, I don't think it's really that important.

Either way, yeah... welcome to the forums.

There are certain things that I can and cannot say. I identified myself as a Verizon employee to help other people, especially with things related to how it works on our network, software enhancements, things of that nature. I need to post things that won't jeopardize my job.

And please, point out something that I should know that I "don't". I really don't care if you believe me or not. I am here to help and if you want to question if I am a Tech or not, feel free. I don't need to prove it to you or anyone, I'm not going to, and I don't want to jeopardize my job by leaking information to prove that I am who I say I am.

I heard that visual voicemail was just changed to work with wi-fi. I just canceled it because it wasn't...

Is this true that it will now work if you use wi-fi?

Here is what was changed in this new software (don't know if you guys saw this already - this is readily available from the verizonwireless.com website)

http://learning.verizonwireless.com/learning/Droid_Motorola_Software_Update.pdf

But I believe that the VVM and Wi-Fi is fixed, even though it's not on that list. Anyone care to chime in?

EDIT: Thanks for the confirmation, Corinacakes.

 

[keiichi25]

Honestly, I don't really trust (nor see the point in) your credentials of "Verizon tech". As was pointed out earlier, the vast majority (if not all) of the responses you gave to questions can be answered with a bit of time on Google.

And I do find it interesting that you coincidentally don't know the answers to a lot of the things I'd expect someone in the Verizon know to... well, know. Not gonna bother citing any examples here, because I think they're self-evident, and again, I don't think it's really that important.

Either way, yeah... welcome to the forums.

I want to interject on this, cause there is something people also need to understand on something with regards to how employees are allowed to answer certain things in a public forum.

An exerpt from my own company's policy with regards to posting in a public forum, when addressing something company related, regardless of any privacy with regards to their identity, they are still subject not to reveal any information that is private or cannot be disclosed to the general public.

For legal reasons, a company can get a writ to supeona another company to divulge information on one user if there is some proof of possible malfeasance that needs to be investigated, which includes Viperboy here not only stating he is a Verizon Rep, but misrepresenting their company that he is a part of.

So for Viperboy to do what he is doing, on his own time, he has to keep within company policy of what he is allowed and not allowed to divulge. Furthermore, like him, many techs, not just Verizon Techs, refer to answers they also look up on the web for issues because of a simple fact, there are many issues that come up that no one will have the 'magic bullet' solution. Many of the issues most of us have posted, have been encountered by other people and have been resolved in similar fashion, others are harder to explain because of the simple fact that there are many variables that can come into play.

Look at the Battery Life threads... People are ranging from having 2+ day battery life with the OTA update, while others are saying it is worse. The problem here is, that without knowing more information other than just a general statement, there could be many reasons why people are getting mixed results, and not all of them will be related to the Update.

 

[Sex Cells]

why does my droid drop 4 out of 5 calls?