Most problematic phone I've owned!

[sidesix]

I'm really disappointed with my Z1 Compact. I'm a loyal Sony fan, I had the original X1, two X10's and the S before this... All of which I found to be really reliable. I'm not completely a wizzard with technology, but I'd like to think I'm pretty compotent at resolving issues myself. I've already tried resetting the phone, removing apps and complete factory restores to no avail...

The issues I'm having with the Z1 Compact are:

1. Freezing & Restarting: The phone will freeze and restart randomly. This has got considerably worse over time. I may not even be running any more than one app, consistently checking and closing apps running in the background makes no difference.

2. Camera: The Camera freezes, or you take a photo and the picture doesn't save. Which is really upsetting when you've missed that moment.

3. Album: The album constantly crashes. It shows no photos, or is blank, you can't share pictures on WhatsApp or other apps like Instagram, it will crash the phone as well. Even trying another gallery app, or a file explorer to open or share a photo makes no difference.

4. Hot & Battery Drain: The phone gets hot. I have the screen on it's lowest brightness, I have it in stamina mode, I have made sure apps aren't running, I make sure things like NFC and Bluetooth and Mobile Data are off... yet the phone gets boiling. It feels like it's constantly working overtime, and then it goes into "1. Freezing and Restarting"

5. Wi-Fi Connection Issues: I find that on some Wi-Fi connections the phone cuts in and out CONSTANTLY, no matter how much you clear the cache, or make sure the phone is not using Bluetooth, ensuring the phone isn't trying to connect to another network etc... It makes no difference. My Z Tablet using the same Wi-Fi connection will work perfectly, as will my partners HTC One and iPad Air 2. So it's clearly a Z1C issue.

6. Sound Notifications: this is a brand new one! It's been about 3 days since I did a factory reset. Day one, the phone worked great, Day 2, already the above issues were back - and now it's developed a new problem. No sound when you get an email, call or WhatsApp etc. Yes, my volume is turned to max, and when I try to get into the Notifications area on the phone, it won't open up the ability to switch to a new sound or check what the current sound is. Rebooting and so forth makes no difference.

I've had it - I'm going to be calling my network provider today to see about getting a new phone! Just really annoyed that it's not been a great experience

[JiYong]

Have you checked if Google+ Photos and Uploads is set to sync?

If it is, try switching it off.

Settings > Accounts > Google > "your.account@gmail.com"

You can also check there if other services are having a problem syncing.

Album also has the option to tag faces.

I assume you haven't activated that.

And there is the option to sync with Sony Play Memories.

Switch it off,when you have activated it.

I have also had some minor problems and my suspicion is, that it has got to do with those services that have a problem syncing.

But it could also be that your problem is different than mine was.

[SergioPL1]

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@CraigNaz wrote:

Ugh, I need to find a better solution than factory reset.  Then I have to set up everything again, which is a major hassle.  I have corporate email and other things ...

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I know how it hurts. I had to go through it few times for different reasons. I'm using encrypted phone so sending it to service required full wipe without backup option.

But I you want and have time to dig it deeper try to remove all unnecesary images, reset Album data, maybe try in safe mode.

If it was my phone I would also try to enable developer options, connect it to Android Studio and watch DDMS console for output. This way I tracked down the issue with Calendar draining my battery - it was crashing on one repeating birthday occurence without end date (not supported under Android 4.2, created on 10 years old feature phone).

If application crashes it leaves trace on the console, maybe even hint for the crash cause.