Build 10166

[jdballard]

If anyone tries this on their 640 (particularly from 8.1), I'd love to hear your experience. I was thinking after the last build that the next one (i.e., what turned out to be 10166) might be the one I move my daily driver to. I figure if I brick it (upgrade fails and I can't revert), it's a $99 phone. But I'm always willing to let others try first. :grin:

 

[HXD]

I'm actually disappointed as the major bugs I faced on build 10149 are still there in 10166. Sorry, man but I don't recommend this build at all. And if I have internet I'd have recovered back to 8.1....

 

[jdballard]

Sorry, man but I don't recommend this build at all.

Well, I installed it before I saw this. Here's what happened to me:

1. Install took over an hour but completed.
2. Seemed fine at first.
3. Then, I rebooted the phone. It didn't recognize apps on the SD card. Strangely, if I went to the store, and searched for an app, it would tell me it was installed and give me the option to open it, which actually did open it. This didn't work for all apps, though.
4. Everyone says that it needs a hard reset (or that at least it helps), so I did a hard reset.
5. Here's where I may have messed it up. After ten minutes being stuck on the "restarting" screen, I "helped" it out buy holding the power button and volume down and forced it to restart.
6. It restarted and got stuck in the gears-->frowny face-->restart-->gears-->frowny face-->restart loop. (The loop only continued automatically if it was plugged in. Unplugged, it wouldn't restart automatically. When I restarted it, though, it went through the same loop.
7. Downloaded and installed the Windows Phone Recovery Tool.
8. It didn't recognize my phone, and as others have said, I had to hold down the power button and volume at the same time and it finally recognized it showing it was stuck in UEFI mode.
9. It downloaded the package for restoring, but it took so long that it got back t the spinning gears ago and since it was plugged in, it kept rebooting. Since it was on the spinning gears, it couldn't find the phone when it finished downloading. I started the WPRT process over and it had NOT deleted the download files so this time it found the phone and updated it.
10. I restarted and am just about finished restoring from my backup, back on 8.1. One odd thing. I have Wi-Fi calling enabled under the sim settings but I don't have the Wi-Fi calling icon. Not a huge deal and I'll have to look into it.

And if I have internet I'd have recovered back to 8.1....

Ouch. Wish I could help you out.

I took the chance on my primary (only) phone and it fortunately didn't burn me. (No need for anyone to tell me it's alpha software, I could have bricked it, etc. I was well aware.)

In the brief time I had Windows 10 installed, I liked what I saw. Edge seemed really fast at rendering pages. Seemed fairly smooth overall.

I think I'll wait a bit before I install the next insider release.

 

[Allen Brandt]

I did the same as JD: updated the to the latest build (166), checked some apps, then did a hard reset. Got the same sad face and constant reboots.

Was able to get back to 8.1 using the recovery tool, now I'm re-trying the test build again, this time without a hard reset!

For the few hours that I had it up, it seemed fast, smooth, stable and I really liked Outlook and the calendar apps. It this goes OK later today and tomorrow, I'll run with this as my primary starting next week.

 

[vookcevic]

Hey guys,

If, after upgrading and/or resetting, your volume doesn't work (no sounds + volume bar shows 00 no matter where you put the slider + volume buttons don't work), you just have to press VOL DOWN + POWER BTN simultaneously and wait for it to reboot. After that, it works.

Just wanted to share that. Cheers and enjoy your Windows Phone!

 

[HXD]

After ten minutes being stuck on the "restarting" screen, I "helped" it out buy holding the power button and volume down and forced it to restart.
[*]It restarted and got stuck in the gears-->frowny face-->restart-->gears-->frowny face-->restart loop. (The loop only continued automatically if it was plugged in. Unplugged, it wouldn't restart automatically. When I restarted it, though, it went through the same loop.

Dude...You never do anything while the phone is on the Spinning Cogs screen, LOL.
But, good for you that you're back on WP 8.1. To be honest after the sixth Hard Reset, W10M now is doing fairly well. But it wasn't easy Resetting it six times, one of which every single app disappeared including settings, and I couldn't even reset it from there...But, yeah...

you just have to press VOL DOWN + POWER BTN simultaneously and wait for it to reboot. After that, it works.

That's called a Soft Reset. But thanks!

 

[jdballard]

Dude...You never do anything while the phone is on the Spinning Cogs screen, LOL. !

Actually, it wasn't on the spinning cogs screen...it was stuck on the screen that said "restarting" after I confirmed I wanted to reset my device. I've been doing this long enough to know I should never do that on the spinning cogs screen! I actually thought "this might not be a good idea" on the restarting screen, either, but did it anyway. I figured 10 minutes would have been good enough. I now wonder how long it would have taken on the "restarting" screen or if i would have stuck there, too. Fortunately even though I had to revert to WP 8.1., at least I didn't brick it.

I thought after reading the reviews of the last build (10149 was it?) that 10166 would be good enough (for me), but the whole apps not recognized on the SD card kind of killed that.

 

[jdballard]

Was able to get back to 8.1 using the recovery tool, now I'm re-trying the test build again, this time without a hard reset!

I'd love to hear how it goes the second time if you have time post back.

For the few hours that I had it up, it seemed fast, smooth, stable and I really liked Outlook and the calendar apps. It this goes OK later today and tomorrow, I'll run with this as my primary starting next week.

Yeah, I really liked what I saw, too, although I'll be a little more cautious installing preview builds. I know my limits, I'm willing to take a chance bricking my phone, but I need a certain level of dependability. After reading the reports of 10149, I thought 10166 would have been good enough (for me), but it doesn't seem like it.

 

[HXD]

I know my limits, I'm willing to take a chance bricking my phone, but I need a certain level of dependability.

I don't think it's that easy bricking a phone, I've been flashing and cooking firmwares since Symbian S60V3, and never really bricked a phone. When it happened there was always ways around it...

 

[jdballard]

I don't think it's that easy bricking a phone, I've been flashing and cooking firmwares since Symbian S60V3, and never really bricked a phone. When it happened there was always ways around it...

I've read a few cases of people not being able to get the recovery tool to recognize their phone. Might be few and far between, but it's always in the back of my mind when going down the road of installing a preview. Could very well be they just have no idea and they're in over their heads. Worst case scenario for me is that I do brick and spend another $99 to get another 640, but I'd rather not have to do that.

 

[HXD]

I've read a few cases of people not being able to get the recovery tool to recognize their phone. Might be few and far between, but it's always in the back of my mind when going down the road of installing a preview. Could very well be they just have no idea and they're in over their heads. Worst case scenario for me is that I do brick and spend another $99 to get another 640, but I'd rather not have to do that.

I see that you know what you're doing, so no need to worry, as long as you don't turn the phone off during any ongoing process, you're ok, LOL.

 

[jdballard]

I see that you know what you're doing, so no need to worry, as long as you don't turn the phone off during any ongoing process, you're ok, LOL.

Yeah...I really thought twice about it resetting it when it said "restarting". Thought I should give it more time but also figured 10 minutes was long enough. But my impulsiveness won out and I reset it. All's well that ends well.

 

[brad4560]

Ahh i was waiting for this post!!! The GEEK in me, really REALLY wants to put this on my 640, it is my daily driver soo.. i'm free tonight. it might be time.. if i do i'll post back!! (Just got it on my spare 635, but that doesn't have data so i can't test alot i want)

 

[Sedp23]

Everything works great for me I stopped installing apps I use alot to my SD card because of issues.

The photos app is still slow to load new pictures/screenshots etc but everything else seems fine

 

[Carl Anderson]

Just took the plunge, and so far seems to be okay but haven't put it through its paces yet.

It took almost 25 minutes to get from downloading to the gear, and another hour after that to be ready. The hard reset took another 30 - 35 minutes. I have been letting the apps update before I do any other customizations, connect it to my corporate e-mail, etc.

p.s. so far 4 apps haven't installed, they are - Lumia Help+Tips, T-Mobile TV, rate us, and an unknown app. All with error code 0x803F8001.

 

[jdballard]

So I decided to try again but went the "nuclear" route as outlined in this post. My experience is much, much better. A few things I've noticed:

1. Lost my wifi connection yesterday a while after I'd installed. Tried a soft reset, no joy. Reset my wireless router and it started working again. Weird, because everything else connected to my wifi was working fine.
2. Had trouble getting Nextgen Reader and Tweetium to work. Did a soft reset and they started working.
3. The phone has randomly rebooted once.
4. I used Cortana to send a text: "I'm on my way<period>". Finally they've updated the OS to interpret the "<period>" as "." It initally spelled out the word but then realized it was the end of the sentence, deleted "period" and replaced it with "." I've heard this was coming and this made me happy. It's the little things in life.
5. When streaming music from OneDrive the music skips half-seconds here and there. To be fair, WP 8.1 with GDR2 did this as well, but it actually seems worse. I'll reserve judgement on it until it ships, but this should not be an issue in 8.1 GDR2, much less 10.
6. It seems fairly fast & fluid.
7. The battery indicator is showing what looks like about 95% but it says 74%, which given my usage today, I would say 74% is correct.
8. Not sure I like the "phone" icon (to call the contact you're messaging) on the messaging screen right below the text input area. I like the idea of the button but not the position.
9. When using the "press and hold" on the start button to bring the screen down (5" or larger screens only), the hamburger menu options don't scroll, so items beyond the screen aren't accessible.
10. I like the action & notification center. The four icons with the "expand" button is great.

With a clean install per the guide linked above, it's running much, much better than it was after an update. At this point, it's quite usable for me as a daily driver. YMMV. And, that's after less than 14 hours with it, so I reserve the right to change my mind.

 

[Carl Anderson]

So far, so good.

Do have a couple question for those who are more familiar with T-Mobile than I (only been a customer since 7/5) -

1) Has anyone seen the Wi-Fi Calling icon? I have turned off WiFi calling and re-enabled it the SIM settings, but Wi-Fi calling doesn't appear to be working.

2) What is the status of you IMS Connection? Mine in unregistered on my 640, while on my VZW 928, it is showing registered.

 

[james05gt]

So far, so good.

Do have a couple question for those who are more familiar with T-Mobile than I (only been a customer since 7/5) -

1) Has anyone seen the Wi-Fi Calling icon? I have turned off WiFi calling and re-enabled it the SIM settings, but Wi-Fi calling doesn't appear to be working.

2) What is the status of you IMS Connection? Mine in unregistered on my 640, while on my VZW 928, it is showing registered.

I have a T-mobile 640, wi-fi calling enabled and I can see the icon. IMS status says, registered to msg.pc.t-mobile.com

 

[Carl Anderson]

I have a T-mobile 640, wi-fi calling enabled and I can see the icon. IMS status says, registered to msg.pc.t-mobile.com

I'm guessing your on 10166.
Did you do anything to get the IMS registration?
Any APN (either Internet or MMS) settings that are different than Default APN for Internet and empty for MMS APN ?

 

[agaskew]

I did an in place upgrade on 640 from 8.1 to latest build of 10. Overall I have to say its pretty good! Some of the new / updated apps are great - the new Weather app and especially the Edge browser (let's face it the old browser is terrible). The People app's animated tile is pretty funky. I use multiple email accounts and have them pinned to the Start screen, in a group...the text of the icons in the group is microscopic!

Aside from the odd app that isn't installing yet, there are a couple of drawbacks for me: Here Drive+ is "no longer available" which sucks. Also any apps on the SD card were dead and needed to be reinstalled, but after my last try with Win10 Mobile, I already switched to putting apps on the phone and Data on the SD card, so the impact of this lessens each time.

The new design language is beginning to grow on me. I'd like a dark background everywhere though, including in the new Outlook/Calendar apps, as the dark theme helps eliminate a migraine trigger for me.