Some Problems with Note 2

[Wilma]

Hi everyone,

I'm Wilma from the UK. I have a Note 2 which I've had for a little under a year and I really enjoy using it, although I think I probably don't make as much use as I could of all the short cuts and extra facilities.

Recently I've been having problems with the S Note utility which won't stay open. As soon as I select it, it goes through the motions and then suddenly closes saying S Note has to stop. I have gone into the Application Manager and deleted the cache and finally the data but that's not doing the trick. Am I right in assuming I will have to do a factory reset? If so, will the data that I've backed up (using Kies) be recovered when I restore everything? I've tried searching the forum for an answer but can't find anything that directly addresses this problem.

Thanks in advance.

[UltraDroid]

Welcome to the forum Wilma!

Sorry that you're experiencing problems with your Note 2, but you've come to the right place for help. If you can hang on for awhile, we'll get one of our really knowledgeable members or staff over here to give you a hand.

[smalltowngirl13]

Welcome to the forum Wilma...have you recently installed any new apps or if you are rooted, have you modded anything - sometimes, it can be some rogue messing with an app that causes it to force close / stop.

[Bkdodger]

Welcome to the forum. .I don't use Kies hopefully someone here can chime in ..are you stock? No modifications?

[Wilma]

No I've not routed the phone or made any fundamental modifications (apart from adding apps via Google Play). Recently I've had notifications that I was running out of memory so I have started binning apps I don't really need but that didn't make any difference. The addition of an SD card also made no difference.

I suspect there may be an issue relating to a recent software update. I think I was originally on Android 4.2 and now it's updated to 4.3. Could that be the problem?

[Bkdodger]

I have read that doing a factory reset on new OS updates has helped people ..if you want a good app Helium in play store works with non rooted phones saving data for apps ..you just need a computer to connect phone. .

[Wilma]

OK, that sounds good. Thanks for the advice

[FirstLight]

... Recently I've had notifications that I was running out of memory so I have started binning apps I don't really need but that didn't make any difference. ...

Hi Wilma,

The "out of memory" message is suspicious. If your U.K. Note II has 2 GB of RAM like our Note II's in the U.S., then you would need to run a huge number of apps to fill or crash the memory. Unfortunately, "out of memory" errors can be an indicator of several bad things:

1 - Your phone is defective.
2 - The update from Android 4.2 to 4.3 had problems.
3 - Your phone is overloaded with "free" apps that generate lots of ads.
4 - Your phone is infected with spyware, malware or malicious adware.

Before you do a factory data reset, I recommend doing a bit of investigating first to see what is consuming your memory. Launch the Android menu and tap on "Application manager". The Application Manager will load to the "Downloaded" list of apps. Swipe the headings toward the left past "SD Card" to the "Running" column. The Application Manager will now list the apps that are actually running and it will list how much memory they are consuming. You should also see two totals on the bottom of the screen (total used on the left and total free on the right).

Report what you find and we'll see if we spot anything obvious.

If we can identify the app(s) that are needlessly consuming your phone's memory and determine that they are superfluous, then you can uninstall them. This may solve the problem. Otherwise, the next step would be to both wipe the Android system cache and do a factory data reset. If this is necessary, I strongly recommend wiping the Android system cache both before and after the factory data reset. We can provide instructions later if it gets to that point.

Kind regards, FirstLight

[cali]

Welcome to the site. Hope you were able to get this worked out.