Issues with Idol 4S

[poit57]

I got myself and my parents each one of these phones to replace some aging and/or broken Windows phones (my dad recently broke his 4 year old Lumia 1020). We are all experiencing the same issues. I'm wondering how common these problems are and if perhaps this is just a poorly executed product that doesn't live up to its advertised specs.

All 3 phones are updated to the current Windows 10 Mobile build 15254.124 as of December 12, 2017.

Phone freezing:
We are all experiencing issues where the phone randomly freezes. When this occurs, a running app completely stops responding and the phone will not accept any type of input from the touch screen or any of the hardware buttons.

It sometimes only lasts a few seconds, but often the phone will take a minute or two to start working again. Sometimes the phone restarts itself after it freezes like this.

Touch Screen inconsistency:
I've tried with and without glove mode, but the same issues persist either way. I'm not sure "glove mode" actually changes anything. It definitely doesn't work like the Lumia 920's "super sensitive touch" with my gloves.

• The touch screen sometimes registers multiple touches when touched once - a letter being entered multiple times when typing or the back button going back several pages at a time. In the case of the back button, the phone vibrates quickly for each time it registers a touch, so we can feel when it thinks that we've touched the back button more than once.
• Swiping a word on the Wordflow keyboard will sometimes result in a break in the swipe motion. This results in the first letter of the desired word followed by a space and then a completely different word based on the rest of the swipe path.
• Sometimes the touch screen starts typing each letter in a message 3 or 4 times making it impossible to type a coherent message until the phone is restarted.

Message recipients displayed incorrectly in the Messaging app:
Often when we open the Messaging app, the contacts listed for each conversation appear incorrectly. The behavior sounds like a memory lag issue.

Examples:

• Last night, I received a message from my cousin's wife. When I opened the messaging app, it showed the newest message was from my cousin. His name was also listed on the third conversation which actually was from him. After I opened up the newest message and then backed out to the conversation list, all the contact names were corrected.
• My mother said she was really confused when she went to check her messages yesterday and there were 7 conversations listing the same contact name. She had to open each conversation to figure out who each message was from.

I've used Windows 10 on three previous phone models - Lumia 640, 640 XL, and 950. The issues described above are unique to the three Idol 4S phones that my family is using. I've been using Windows phones since Windows Phone 7 first launched, and it is the only smartphone platform that my family, including my brothers, have ever used.

One brother is getting a new Android phone this weekend that I'll have to set up and teach him how to use, and I have a feeling that the rest of my family will reluctantly be switching to Android soon as well based on this experience with one of the last remaining Windows 10 phones.

 

[brian770]

i have had my idol 4s for about a month, i havent had and problems with the phone freezing or with the screen, but 4 days ago my phone mic started acting up, i now have to shout into the phone to be heard, my wife says it sounds like i am talking from a call center with lots of background noise. i have tried doing a factory reset and it did not help. i cant find anything that is making it do this.

 

[nate0]

Are these T-Mobile Variant models or the Open Market Models? The freezing and touch issues I have never experienced yet. Have you tried to hard reset one of them to see if anything changes?

Message recipients displayed incorrectly in the Messaging app:

I have experienced something similar to this on the IDOL 4s and other different phones including the Lumia 950 XL and 1520. A phone reset does not fix this from my perspective. Am using T-Mobile currently but it has done this on other carriers. The other night I sent my wife a text and thought I had actually sent it to the 13 recipient group below it because her name showed in the message list but it said 13 recipients below the message preview. When I open it, it is just her in the message. Not sure what is causing the mms issues we are seeing lately on Windows 10 mobile.

 

[poit57]

Are these T-Mobile Variant models or the Open Market Models?

These are all factory unlocked versions purchased directly through the Microsoft Store.

Have you tried to hard reset one of them to see if anything changes?

I was enrolled in the Fast Ring of the Insider program for a while. I tried to use the Windows Device Recovery Tool to reset back to whatever build is available, but the computer software fails to recognize my device every time I follow the instructions to reboot into flash mode.

I did do a reset directly from the phone's settings, and I'm no longer worried about resetting using WDRT. Since opting out of the Insider program prior to build 15254.124, my phone is now on the same build as the other two phones that have never received any Insider builds.

 

[anthonyng]

My open market idol4s with insider build has intermittent freezing, it's been less frequent than when I since started using it full time.

The message app issue is something with the message app, force closing it and then re-open clears it up.

In emails, I have problem selecting blocks of text. It does one word, but I can't seem to drag the markers to where I want it to cover.

 

[nate0]

I tried to use the Windows Device Recovery Tool to reset back to whatever build is available, but the computer software fails to recognize my device every time I follow the instructions to reboot into flash mode.

Ok that there is a known issue. Not related to what problems you have now...There is only a couple methods we know of to reload the open market FFU to the open market phone and it is a bit more technical than using WDRT. You can look up the thread titled "Alcatel open market 4s" where we linked to the solution to reflash that model.

As far as messaging freezing and what not I am beginning to think Microsoft has a few bugs on their hand as across the board the Elite X3, Lumia 950 XL, and the Idol 4s are having what seems to be software related issues.

 

[gvp 1995]

What is the difference between 'unlocked' and 'open market'? I used to own 950XL, and Elite x3. They were perfectly detected by the MS tool. Alcatel Idol 4s was not detected in my case either.

This phone seems to be exceptionally buggy compare to x3 and 950. I posted several software bugs pertaining exclusively to this phone in another thread, among which is the one that can make it or break it - Proximity Sensor bug. There is a special thread on this forum dedicated to it.

Interestingly, some people will find certain bugs but never the other ones depending on how the phone is used. For instance, I never found 'messaging' bug because I never send mass- messages.

 

[nate0]

What is the difference between 'unlocked' and 'open market'? I used to own 950XL, and Elite x3. They were perfectly detected by the MS tool. Alcatel Idol 4s was not detected in my case either.

Same thing. Open Market is just the term they used to declare their factory unlocked model as opposed to the T-Mobile branded and factory sim locked variant.

 

[Adventurer64]

I used a T-Mobile Idol 4S from Feb thru Sept and experienced most of these problems sparatically. Not enough to justify getting another phone, but enough to be annoying at times. I eventually moved over to Android in Oct because the battery was only lasting 3 to 5 hours. Currently, my Idol is serving as a media device and GPS in my car. Overall, I liked the phone and wish the battery had lasted longer.

 

[gvp 1995]

I am surprised your battery is so bad. In my view this phone's battery is one of the best if not the best among many phones that I used.
Have to say though, out of 3 Idol 4s I bought, the second one goes back to MS tomorrow due to the Proximity Sensor bug. I was looking at the phone as I put it back in the box and thinking: what a beautiful piece of equipment, but if the phone cannot do what it is built for - make a call without a problem...

 

[Adventurer64]

Battery was great initially, easily lasting full day with heavy use. It just faded fast after 8 months to the point where I needed to move on to another phone.

 

[Adventurer64]

My 3.5mm audio jack is starting to fail. Sound goes off on right side if I don't have it in just right. This will be show stopper for my Idol since its serving as a media player in my car.