Samsung Galaxy S3 problems

[Anonymous]

Ever since the update to 4.3 I've had ever increasing problems with my S3, wifi error messages being up there with the most annoying. Latest is the sd card - continuous messages saying "sd card removed unexpectedly" or "sd card is blank or unsupported format" only to go back to "normal" on reboot. However, today is solidly refuses to recognise my sd card is even there, yet it was working perfectly well yesterday, and the phone hasn't moved! Driving me demented. Will not be getting another Samsung, however I can't afford a refresh, so lumbered with it until November grrr. Is there any talk of 4.4 for the s3 yet? Hoping that might fix things, but from what I've read online Samsung have basically sidelined the s3 and refuse to admit there are any issues. To say I'm annoyed is an understatement! Any ideas?

[Anonymous]

I had glitches on my s4 after upgrading to 4.3 a factory reset sorted it good luck

[Anonymous]

Just to update - as yet not done the reset as I've been unable to backup my phone on kies. After installing the wrong one (read the manual face palm) finally got kies3, ran the backup procedure....failed on every single step ... Flatly refuses to back up anything, even contacts - just says "failed". Yesterday the phone recognised my sd card again, but today again saying it's blank or just not there. I have photos etc on Dropbox, is there anything crucial I would need to backup or should I just wipe it and hope for the best? My contacts and whatnot are stored on google so in theory......

[MI5]

As long as your Dropbox sync is on and you contacts are definitely on Google, the only other things you might miss are texts and whatsapp messages. Fear not though as SMS backup + will back all of those up to your Google account too
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.zegoggles.smssync&hl=en

[Anonymous]

Is there an alternative to Kies to do a backup? My impression of kies is not good....it's almost as if my phone rejects it completely - in effect giving it the proverbial finger - bog off kies this phone don't like you - kinda thing...I am highly imaginative ...

[MI5 · Accepted solution]

What else that we've not covered do you need to back up?
There is a forum guide here http://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Android-Devices-Samsung-HTC-Sony/Guide-to-backing-up-your-Samsung-Andro...

[Anonymous]

Excellent thanks

[Anonymous]

Some success! In the end I took out my sd card, backed up on kies, followed your reset guide and it's now functioning better than it did - at least it's stopped crashing every few mins, and the unstable wifi messages have gone. The sd card appears to have given up, so perhaps there was a fault there after all. I only bought the sd a few weeks ago and still have the receipt so will seek an exchange. The restore wasn't 100% success as some apps I had to go seek out again! and of course all the layout, folders etc were gone, but at least I have a usable phone again. Thanks all for your input! Have to say though it's taken up most of my afternoon so wouldn't be in a hurry to do it again!

[jonsie]

Glad you have sorted the problems out to a large extent. It's strange but when you do a factory reset you never get the same set up as you had previously with regards to folders and layout etc. but you do find that you usually have a load of apps that you have never used and can get rid of.

Good luck with the SD card, it certainly sounds as though it's faulty.

[MI5]

I've done resets so many times now I can get it down to about 15-20mins.... You do get quicker the more you do it