(UPDATED WITH INSTRUCTIONS!) My non-US HTC 8S Works Beautifully with 8.1- Cortana included!

[jefbeard911]

I have to say that my little , much maligned, 4GB HTC 8S has been transformed with the Preview for Developers Win 8.1 Upgrade.

It it faster, smoother and with all but 1 app moved to my 16 GB SD card it still has 944MB of on board men left! It's truly a new, dare I say powerhouse, phone...ok, powerhouse is over the top but it works very well.

And..its got Cortana!

My 8S is a Singaporean region phone and I live in Vietnam. So to get all of this working was a minor miracle. I was even able to keep my Deezer app (which is not in the US store).

I plan on writing a full review with all of my install steps (which weren't complicated) very soon.

Cheers!

 

[anon(7900571)]

Re: My non-US HTC 8S Works Beautifully with 8.1- Cortana included!

Glad you are enjoying windows phone 8.1 on your HTC 8S :wink:
what's your favourite feature in windows phone 8.1 ?

 

[jefbeard911]

Re: My non-US HTC 8S Works Beautifully with 8.1- Cortana included!

Glad you are enjoying windows phone 8.1 on your HTC 8S :wink:
what's your favourite feature in windows phone 8.1 ?

Still playing around with it, of course apps to SD is a MAJOR deal, but that's not anything fun to talk about. I think Cortana, once I figure it all out will be. I used to set an appt to call my mom and it worked great! Put it right in my calendar.

The speed increase is really noticeable as well...its all good!

 

[Diffluent]

Re: My non-US HTC 8S Works Beautifully with 8.1- Cortana included!

So you got Cortana working on an non-US HTC phone?
I can't wait for your workaround. But is an SD-card required in your workaround (If so, we HTC 8X owners are screwed)?

You can also send me a PM to see if this works on other non-US (owner of a HTC 8X from The Netherlands) HTC devices aswell. Can't wait!

 

[jefbeard911]

Re: My non-US HTC 8S Works Beautifully with 8.1- Cortana included!

So you got Cortana working on an non-US HTC phone?
I can't wait for your workaround. But is an SD-card required in your workaround (If so, we HTC 8X owners are screwed)?

You can also send me a PM to see if this works on other non-US (owner of a HTC 8X from The Netherlands) HTC devices aswell. Can't wait!

I did

No SD card required. The HTC 8X has 16 GB of internal ram so that'll work fine.
I will get to the wworkaround soon. But I just basically did what the posts here said to do.

 

[Peter McNeill1]

Re: My non-US HTC 8S Works Beautifully with 8.1- Cortana included!

It's quite possible you have a grey market US phone which is why it is working. Many Asian markets sell grey imports because they are cheaper than through official channels. Not saying that's the case, just a possibility.

 

[jefbeard911]

It's quite possible you have a grey market US phone which is why it is working. Many Asian markets sell grey imports because they are cheaper than through official channels. Not saying that's the case, just a possibility.

Good point, but I doubt it. It defaults to the Singaporean region when it turns on and the label reads Singapore. Im sure Vietnam has its own regional suppiers. It's a big market and HTC is big here.

 

[vinscg]

So everything working OK ?
Im wondering if i should update...
Where is the full review?

 

[alirazaakbar1]

Re: My non-US HTC 8S Works Beautifully with 8.1- Cortana included!

Man ur like a wizard,turning a not so good phone into a beast,but u gotta tell us how to do it,i was literally about to sell this phone,but lingered to it cuz of its smooth design,screen and amazing audio quality(BEATS) so plz man hurry up,and tell us how to do it ,THANKS

 

[vinscg]

Re: My non-US HTC 8S Works Beautifully with 8.1- Cortana included!

just read this its all there and legit : http://forums.windowscentral.com/windows-phone-8-1-preview-developers/271799-developer-preview-program-please-read-first-post-before-asking-questions.html

let us know how its going!

 

[jefbeard911]

Re: My non-US HTC 8S Works Beautifully with 8.1- Cortana included!

just read this its all there and legit : http://forums.windowscentral.com/windows-phone-8-1-preview-developers/271799-developer-preview-program-please-read-first-post-before-asking-questions.html

let us know how its going!

Sorry for the delay in posting it. I will get to it in a day or two
sorry, been a bit busy..cheers!

 

[azcruz]

Re: My non-US HTC 8S Works Beautifully with 8.1- Cortana included!

What took you so long? I was running 8.1 on my HTC 8S on day 1.

 

[azcruz]

Re: My non-US HTC 8S Works Beautifully with 8.1- Cortana included!

Man ur like a wizard,turning a not so good phone into a beast,but u gotta tell us how to do it,i was literally about to sell this phone,but lingered to it cuz of its smooth design,screen and amazing audio quality(BEATS) so plz man hurry up,and tell us how to do it ,THANKS

I don't know what's your problem but as long as you have around 1GB free, the update is flawless. It will start with a pre-8.1 update requirement and that's where it will al start.

 

[jefbeard911]

Re: My non-US HTC 8S Works Beautifully with 8.1- Cortana included!

I don't know what's your problem but as long as you have around 1GB free, the update is flawless. It will start with a pre-8.1 update requirement and that's where it will al start.

Agreed. But to get 1 GB free on the HTC 8S is nearly impossible without a factory reset. That's what I did.

 

[jefbeard911]

Re: My non-US HTC 8S Works Beautifully with 8.1- Cortana included!

Man ur like a wizard,turning a not so good phone into a beast,but u gotta tell us how to do it,i was literally about to sell this phone,but lingered to it cuz of its smooth design,screen and amazing audio quality(BEATS) so plz man hurry up,and tell us how to do it ,THANKS

Hang I there. I will post the steps what I did in a day or so. Sorry for the delay.

I didn't do anything special. Just installed the Preview for Developers. But there are some things I did by trial and error which made it work. That's what ill post.

 

[vinscg]

Any major bugs in 8.1 on htc8s?
Beats audio is still working?

Sent from my A620m using Tapatalk

 

[jefbeard911]

Re: My non-US HTC 8S Works Beautifully with 8.1- Cortana included!

Any major bugs in 8.1 on htc8s?
Beats audio is still working?

Sent from my A620m using Tapatalk

No issues at all. Beats Audio works fine. I haven't found any glitches yet.

 

[jefbeard911]

Re: My non-US HTC 8S Works Beautifully with 8.1- Cortana included!

Man ur like a wizard,turning a not so good phone into a beast,but u gotta tell us how to do it,i was literally about to sell this phone,but lingered to it cuz of its smooth design,screen and amazing audio quality(BEATS) so plz man hurry up,and tell us how to do it ,THANKS

Ok, here's what I did to get PD 8.1 working on my 8S...

A few things first.
1. I didnt do anything tricky or new. I just followed the instructions I found in a WP Central post entitled Installing Preview for Developers 8.1 on Non-US phones (or something close to that). You can search for it if you want.
2. I have a Singaporean Region HTC 8S and I live in Viet Nam.
3. You may be able to do the upgrade without doing some of the things I did - I just didn't want to take any chances.
4. You will need to do a FACTORY RESET first.
5. Make sure you know your Microsoft Account user name and password before you start. You will need to sign into it. Ignore the 'skip this' button. You can't. You wont be able to download any apps unless your signed in.
6. Don't reload your previous apps from backup. Start over. (you may be able to get away with it, I just didnt want to take a chance)

Let's start:
1. Do a Factory Reset (Go to setting, about Phone, Reset My Phone). This may take awhile. Let it go thought everything. Eventually you'll get to the 'Welcome to Windows Phone' screen.
2. IMPORTANT : Go through the set up screens, dont skip any. Make sure you CHANGE REGION TO U.S, U.S LANGUAGE, U.S KEYBOARD. Make sure you set every option it asks for to U.S Region.
3. Connect to a good wifi .
4. Go to the Windows Phone Marketplace and download Preview for Developers. Only download that app for now.
5. Run the PD app, It will ask you some questions and then want you to verify your account with an email address. Do it, Follow the steps it says.The last step will be go to CHECK FOR UPDATES.
6. Check for updates. It will be there. Download it. It will take awhile (10-20 min). It will reboot a coupe times and run the gears a bit. Just let it finish.
7. CONGRATS! you should now have PD 8.1 installed.
8. 8.1 Set up will ask you 'where do you want to store appp?" Select SD card. I would store everything on SD. Now when you download apps, unless the app doesnt let you install it on the SD card (it will tell you if it cant be), all of the apps will automatically install on your SD.
9. HAVE FUN - A few more things:

Cortana should be installed - The app icon will be in your list of apps. Pin it to start screen. IMPORTANT: Cortana will only work when your phone region (and langauge) is set to U.S Einglish. If you think your gonna be clever and install it then switch your region back. Dont - Contana will disappear if you do! (Dont worry, if you do it, it will reappear when switched back to US)

If your using a non-US 8S you MAY be able to 'trick' your phone into getting your local (non-US) apps anyway. I use Deezer Music. Its not available in the US, So its not in the US Marketplace..BUT... I switched the region back to Singapore after I installed Cortana, It disappeared. But Deezer was there. I downloaded Deezer. Then switched back to US region. It worked! Both Cortana and Deezer were there! Both work great!

Have fun!

 

[jefbeard911]

So everything working OK ?
Im wondering if i should update...
Where is the full review? 

Ok, Here is my REVIEW OF THE HTC 8S WITH PD 8.1 UPGRADE:

In short - It's pretty freakin' awesome. It turns a crippled (by the wimpy 4GB internal storage) phone into a VERY usable and enjoyable phone - This is what the 8S should have been like right out of the gate...Now on to the details.

The question many are asking me is : Should I do it? I would say this....If you are having ANY low memory issues right now, having to be very careful about the apps you can install, Can't install ALL the apps you want because of the storage (4 GB) issue - Then DO IT! you will have a phone that you can basically install any and all the apps you want by simply installing them to an SD card (or course you MUST have one- 16 GB min). I have found only 2 apps that wouldn't let me install them on SD. Just as an example of what to expect ..I have many more apps installed now than I ever had (some I don't even need) and still have 750MB of free internal storage available!

Another big reason to install it is Cortana. Its cool! Really cool. Worth the price of admission. I won't go into all of the details about the changes in the update. You can read about them elsewhere. But another big upgrade is the ability to clear (erase) your temporary memory. In 8.0 it was a pain to clear (if you even could) It took minutes to delete and it never really deleted much. In 8.1 it takes 10 seconds to delete and it really does delete it.

The phone works smoothly, with no issues so far. Its just as quick if not quicker than before. Ah, also, the stock camera app has been vastly improved. In 8.0, I didnt like the stock one much so I always instated a 3rd party camera app (there are many good ones). But they take up memory. Now, I can use the stock camera app and be happy with it.

A couple things I dont like (not the fault of the 8S) but when you upgrade theres no going back to 8.0....The People Hub works like before, but if you want to read a post in the Hub from FB it launches the FB app. You no longer can read the full comment from the People Hub - I hate that. I loved the People Hub as before and could do without FB app, not now. Gotta have it. Dont misunderstand me. You can still see all of your feeds in the People Hub and read a bit of what it shows. Its only when you click on the individual comment to read it in its entirety does it launch the FB app..still, I dont like it.

I have also noticed a few, small screen shutters when transitioning from one app back to the start screen. Not a big deal, just a shutter that wasnt there before. Not all the time either. Also, the XBox Music app has changed. Some for the better, some not. You can read about it elsewhere. Good news is theres an app now to launch the old, 8.0 XBox Music if you dont like it.

All and all, I really cant see why you would not want to upgrade. Especially with the 8S. It really does transform it to a very workable and nice phone. Id say that if you are totally happy with your 8S now and really dont care about Cortana you can keep 8.0. (Dont forget this is an official unoffical upgrade. 8.1 hasnt been released to the masses yet) you can always do it then.

Otherwise, to me, its a no brainer to upgrade. Good Luck

Cheers!

 

[n13 black]

THANK YOU !!!! i got a new 8S from my dealer because old one died god knows why...i hope i won't have same troubles with this one, regarding update to 8.1