Power button won't lock phone

[wganz]

Looks like both theChive and 10 Minute Home Workout have been pulled from the Store.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Looks like both theChive and 10 Minute Home Workout have been pulled from the Store.

Yeah, but unless the monumental Windows bug is related to the spelling of the apps name, Pandora's box is still wide open.

Microsoft hasn't issued any warnings to customers about how to avoid the problem unless WC has dropped the ball reporting that MS has pushed out a fix. So at the moment, ANY new or updated app could trigger the same major Windows flaw accidentally or even intentionally and cause LOTS of Windows customers to have to hard reset.

I very much believe that MS is keeping quiet and hoping other apps don't trigger the bug until they can fix it. Widespread word of the Windows bug would be a huge blow to WP being seen as the safest and most stable smartphone platform (at least compared to Android and IOS).

Can you imagine if the few most popular apps started triggering this Windows bug and millions of people had to go thru a hard reset? It would set the platform back years or maybe even kill it. Aside from the downside of doing a hard reset, probably 90% of the owners don't even know the option exists or how to do it. The Android and Apple loving press would have a field day.

MS better get their act together and tell the developer world how to avoid triggering the bug or they need to get a Windows fix out ASAP. I think they are sitting on the former hoping they can do the latter before more apps cause it.

In the mean time, until we are better informed about this Windows bug, I'm not installing any new apps and may disable updates.

 

[wganz]

Totally agree. This is unprecedented. I told people for years to not worry about installing from the Store and this is no longer true. This seems bigger than what is presented in the Windows Central article. People in these forums will simply tell you to do a hard reset (which does work), however explaining that to my wife, mom, and mother in law is another story.

 

[Lundon44]

So I'm now officially in the same boat as the rest of you sadly. Had the Chive app, used it on occasion. All was good. Suddenly experienced lock screen issues today and noticed I had 7 pending apps in the store waiting to download but won't download. Cancelling and retrying didn't fix the updates. Tried a soft reset and still saw issues with my pending downloads and again, lock screen issues. So I removed the Chive app completely which like most of you here caused even more problems. After 10 or so soft resets it's finally allowed me to lock the screen and wake it properly. Though I don't know how long it will work fine for. I really don't want to do a hard reset despite that most things are backed up. Last restore I did didn't save my start screen set up and that alone took a good 45 min to re-do because of the all the folders I had. And I also don't want to lose game save data which doesn't always sync to the cloud for many games.

Any idea if the demin update could potentially resolve this for anyone who can hold off doing a hard reset?

 

[Michael Adaniya]

I was very hesitant on hard resetting my Lumia 1520, and I am glad I was. My phone is now back to working normally. I had downloaded The Chive app. I had my power button malfunction. I had my phone experience a somewhat "downgrade". BUT.... My phone is currently back in working condition. What I did, I can't say exactly. But, here are some things that I did do. Uninstalled The Chive app. Turned Glance off. Turned my phone's lock setting to "never". Soft reset my phone multiple times, both plugged in and not plugged in. AND, I did not give up, lol. I really resisted hard resetting because, come on it sucks. And.... in the long run I was shocked when the phone turned off when I pushed the power button... Then more shocked when it turned back on... Then off and on and off and on and off and on... It is working again!

I will also take this opportunity to say that I am very disappointed that there has been NO accountability associated to this issue. Something screwed up. I feel that it is not the chive's fault, but the developer platform. Whatever they did with their app was allowed by the "governing agency". What I was searching for this entire time was a Microsoft release stating;

"HEY EVERYONE, we understand there is a problem that many people are experiencing with our OS. We do not know where the fault lies, but rest assure we are searching for it. We will keep you updated with any information." That would have kept me resilient.

Also, one thing I noticed during this time was that my phone displayed the battery icon as being charged, regardless of my phone being plugged in or not. Not sure the significance, but it was noticed.

I hope this helps those in my position of not wanting to hard reset. A couple of days with a phone that wouldn't acknowledge it's power button was no BIG deal.

 

[Michael Adaniya]

As an update, I have turned my phone's lock setting back to 1 minute. It is still working.

 

[Michael Adaniya]

Oh. And also, I did uninstall the "Live Lock Screen BETA" app.

And.. my phones specs... AT&T, Nokia Lumia 1520, Developers preview, OS Version: 8.10.14219.341

 

[Sunil Patil2]

As an update, I have turned my phone's lock setting back to 1 minute. It is still working.

That's grt to see you have done some R&D here. Can you tell me how did you do lock screen setting to never? I didn't find that option in my L925.
And yes, its totally irresponsible behavior from MS.

 

[Harrie-S]

My L925 also does not have the possibility to switch to never but my 930 has. Both on CYAN + P4D.

And I do not agree that it is total irresponsible behaviour of ms. Sh.t can happen and this is a phone not an airplane.

 

[Sunil Patil2]

My L925 also does not have the possibility to switch to never but my 930 has. Both on CYAN + P4D.

And I do not agree that it is total irresponsible behaviour of ms. Sh.t can happen and this is a phone not an airplane.

Sh.t can happen. But why MS didn't own the issue? Won't you think twice from now on to install a new app from store? This sent a msg that windows mobiles are vulnerable even by some new entry apps. The sandboxing ain't working fine.

 

[dKp1977]

Sh.t can happen. But why MS didn't own the issue? Won't you think twice from now on to install a new app from store? This sent a msg that windows mobiles are vulnerable even by some new entry apps. The sandboxing ain't working fine.

That's utter bull****. Sandboxing is working perfectly fine. I've read about the power button issue and tried to reproduce it on my 1520. I fiddled with Glance settings, installed the Live Lockscreen Beta, installed TheChive and whatnot. My power button kept working. There is no API that overrides the default behavior of any button or could access the quick action toggles. It just can't be related to an app. Rather a weird combination of coincidences.

 

[Harrie-S]

To many people got this problem so it can not be coincidence. (Even if it is not 100% proven it is thechive .,something defenitly happened.)

Did you read http://m.windowscentral.com/reports...installing-thechive-app-windows-phone-surface

There is a possible explanation which could explain this.

So no sandbox malfunction but the result has influence on the power button.

In the past there also was the upside down glance screen. So without breaching a sandbox unexpected things can happen.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Sh.t can happen. But why MS didn't own the issue? Won't you think twice from now on to install a new app from store? This sent a msg that windows mobiles are vulnerable even by some new entry apps. The sandboxing ain't working fine.

It's worse than you think. Yes, they may be jerks for not telling the story, but don't forget, there has been no updates to Windows (or firmware if this is just a Lumia thing) so the exposure is still there. Any new app or updated app could do the same thing, And it would be VERY naive to think the problems with TheChive are the worst that the bug would allow.

The ONLY valid reason to not publicize this is if its even more serious than we think and they are rushing to push out a Windows update to fix it in the next day or so. But that is unlikely for several reasons, not the least of which is carriers that block updates for many months while they "test" them.

I suspect MS is focusing on detecting and removing apps that trigger the Windows bug. Maybe its something they can scan for in apps which could catch 9x% of accidental triggers but I doubt they could catch intentional ones from someone who wants the trophy for the first WP8 Malware.

If MS can keep a lid on it until they can get Windows updates out to nearly all phones with the vulnerability, they may just pretend it didn't happen.

However bad the actual bug is, I hope MS doesn't make the mistake of a failed cover-up which hurts them worse than the actual thing they are trying to cover up.

It's not like MS doesn't know about the bug. They are just stupid for not issuing some kind of statement, even if its just "we are working on it." Its stupid because the press could have a field day with a cover up story.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

Rather a weird combination of coincidences.

Somebody cut class the day they taught the definition of a "bug".

 

[dKp1977]

To many people got this problem so it can not be coincidence. (Even if it is not 100% proven it is thechive .,something defenitly happened.)

Did you read http://m.windowscentral.com/reports...installing-thechive-app-windows-phone-surface

There is a possible explanation which could explain this.

So no sandbox malfunction but the result has influence on the power button.

In the past there also was the upside down glance screen. So without breaching a sandbox unexpected things can happen.

Yeah, I've read that. But it's definitely not down to a single app, but a combination of several things. I suspect it's even a certain hardware affected by it. Whatever the reason is, it's unlikely that someone could exploit it on purpose, as there are too many factors involved in order to kick off this buggy behavior.
And unlike other conspiracy theorists over here, I don't suspect a strong vulnerability behind it, just because Microsoft doesn't go all public about it. It's some minor bug, occurring on a minority of devices and will most definitely be addressed in one of the next firmware updates or hotfixes.

 

[Harrie-S]

Totally agree dKp1977. It is more an accident of some kind than a exploid.
(that is what I wanted to point out)

For the conspiracy believers. It also can be North Korea or the NSA

 

[Sunil Patil2]

@HoosierDad, yes I agree with u. MS definitely should check what was wrong with apps like "theChives", "5 minute home workout" etc. I personally have shared logs to MS, lets hope any such vulnerabilities will be fixed.
@dKp1977, I don't know which app you have tested. Because both the apps which were root cause for this issue are no more available in store, and thr r other apps with same name but no bug. As you r not a victim of such bug, I don't buy your "coincidence" theory. Also its not a minor bug, it corrupted thousands of windows phones. If you scan across this post, you can see 925,930,1020,1320,1520,630, etc affected. These are not small set of devices, but flagship devices of MS.

 

[HoosierDaddy]

And unlike other conspiracy theorists over here,

For the conspiracy believers. It also can be North Korea or the NSA

Looks like several people cut class the day they taught the definition of conspiracy theory.

 

[dKp1977]

@HoosierDad, yes I agree with u. MS definitely should check what was wrong with apps like "theChives", "5 minute home workout" etc. I personally have shared logs to MS, lets hope any such vulnerabilities will be fixed.
@dKp1977, I don't know which app you have tested. Because both the apps which were root cause for this issue are no more available in store, and thr r other apps with same name but no bug. As you r not a victim of such bug, I don't buy your "coincidence" theory. Also its not a minor bug, it corrupted thousands of windows phones. If you scan across this post, you can see 925,930,1020,1320,1520,630, etc affected. These are not small set of devices, but flagship devices of MS.

I've tested every single combination that had been suspected to be the root cause of the issue. Btw, neither 925, nor 1320 or 630 are flagship devices. 925 could be considered one, but out of the bunch you mentioned it's only down to the 930, 1020 and 1520. I own the latter and wasn't able to reproduce the issue. I'm not saying it doesn't exist, all I'm saying is that 1) it's nothing critical and 2) it's definitely not being caused by a single app, but rather by a combination of multiple factors.

 

[Sunil Patil2]

all I'm saying is that 1) it's nothing critical and 2) it's definitely not being caused by a single app, but rather by a combination of multiple factors.

1. I don't know how did you test when the app theChives(by resignation team) and "5 minute home workout" is Removed from store.
2. For me, I installed only "5 minutes..." app and nothing else, so there was no combination of multiple factors. If u drill through the posts in this thread , u can find different ways the phones got infected.
3. You cannot judge it as a small bug, because many ppl cud not backup properly due to this bug and lost many valuable info, documents, apps after hard reset. Plus the time for backup-hard reset - restore.