Galaxy Note Tips & Tricks

Who stole my butter? Solving slowness probelms in Galaxy Note after Jelly Bean update


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slow-jelly-beanJelly Bean 4.1 updated for Galaxy Note has been rolled out in phases since February 2013. This update brings Galaxy Note owners many excited improvements, new features and apps. Some of the new features were explained in  the Top 12 new features you should try after getting Jelly Bean 4.1 update for Galaxy Note.

However, some users reported serious slowness issues after the Jelly Bean update in their Galaxy Notes. It seems the Project Butter is nothing, or Samsung stole our butter.

What are the causes, and what are the solutions?

First, Galaxy Note is powerful enough for running Jelly Bean smoothly. 1GB RAM, and dual core 1.4GHz Exynos 4 Dual 4210 chip are still decent hardware specifications even after1.5 years. A lot of middle range Jelly Bean handsets has far less powerful hardware specifications.

So, do not suspect your hardware. Jelly Bean is not hungry for hardware. Any hardware that can run Ice Cream Sandwich should meet the requirements of Jelly Bean. A lot of manufactures do not give Jelly Bean update simply because  they do not want to put more resources on an old model. In this sense, Samsung did an excellent job.

The slowness problem in Jelly Bean update lies on the update itself. When you update the system, most of your old settings will be kept, some are necessary, some are unnecessary . Some of these settings are fully compatible with Jelly bean; some are compatible  but with degraded performance. For the known incompatible settings, the update will handle them. The biggest issue is that some old settings are not compatible to the new OS/ROM, but it is unknown yet.  Therefore, for the slowness caused by such problematic settings, a factory reset will solve the issue.

Please be careful when performing the  factory reset because it will erase your internal storage. You need backup all your data in the internal storage, including your contacts and messages. Apps can be re-installed, but the settings will be gone. If you have rooted your phone, you can use Titanium Backup  to backup and restore almost everything. If your phone is not rooted, you may try Carbon to backup and restore your apps. You may check this tutorial on how to use this app.

Of Course it is a good idea to use Kies to backup  all supported items (contacts, messages, s notes, photos…) to your PC. After resetting, you can restore the backup.  But you should never rely on Samsung’s Device backup. It is not reliable based on my personal usage.

Sometimes, the slowness is due to insufficient available RAM. Yes, I just said our Galaxy Note has sufficient RAM (1GB)  for Jelly Bean. Even you add up all Samsung’s TouchWiz, and all bloatware from Samsung and from your local carriers, the 1GB RAM (800-900MB accessible) should be able to handle all apps easily. So, why is there this  insufficient RAM issue?

As discussed in Why did I get less free RAM after the ICS update in my Galaxy Note? Android is very efficient in memory management. The RAM in our Note has 4 portions: reserved, used, cached, and available.  Reserved part is for system devices, e.g., GPU, in this Jelly Bean update, it is about  130-140MB. So, about 860MB is available for Android, and all stacks over it. Among this 860MB, Jelly Bean actually only require less than 200MB, slightly more than Ice Cream Sandwich. The TouchWiz UI (aka Samsung’s skin) is over-bloated, and needs about 200MB. This implies users get more than 400MB for their apps. This is more than enough for any app in the Play Store.

But in our Galaxy Note, there are some bundled apps (bloatware) from Samsung and local carriers, e.g, Yahoo Finance, Learning Hub, always running because these apps mark themselves as essential (it will restart itself if you kill them use task manager), although they are not essential.

An app can also listen to reboot or start services, and therefore launches itself when you reboot your phone. So, immediately after you reboot your Galaxy Note, if your Note uses more than 600MB RAM, you may have RAM issue with apps. Your Note may be sluggish gradually. You can read the RAM info in any task manger or through Application Manager–running. If this happens, it simply means you have too many apps either marking them as essential (usually bundled ones) or trying to auto-restart themselves. You should check the RAM before using any other apps except task manager. Only check this immediately after rebooting.

So, the solution for the slowness problem caused by insufficient available RAM includes:

  1. disabling some unnecessary bundled apps (of course, if your Note was rooted, you can uninstall them). You should be very careful and only disable the apps that you are not going to use. This can be done in Application Manager–all. For each apps, you can choose disable. If there are updates installed, you need uninstall the update first, then to disable.
  2. preventing some apps to start automatically. You can go to Application  Manager–downloaded. For each app,  you can choose “force stop” if it is not grayed out. During the Jelly Bean update process, the updater actually marked all old apps to start automatically! This was done in the optimizing apps stage in the updating process.  Force stop may be not consistent (depending on app). So, a more powerful approach is to use some autorun manager. For non-rooted phones, you may try an app called Autorun Manager (in basic mode).

To sum up, if you feel your Galaxy Note is getting slower after the Jelly Bean update, you may try:

  • Step 1: Back up all important data in the internal storage. You may use Kies for some files, contacts, S Notes, messages, photos, and Carbon for app settings. Make sure the backup is in a safe place.
  • Step 2.: Perform a factory reset (settings–backup and reset)
  • Step 3: Disable some unnecessary bundled apps;
  • Step 4: Reboot and monitor the RAM usage. The used RAM  immediately after reboot should be less than 600MB.
  • step 5: Re-install backups from Kies
  • Step 6: Re-install apps one by one  from Play Store.
  • Step 7: Reboot
  • Step 8: Force stop all downloaded apps,
  • Step 9: Install Autorun Manager, and disable most apps in the list (in the Basic Mode)
  • Step 10: Reboot and check.

Is the slowness problem in your Galaxy Note solved? If not, post your questions in the comments box below of discuss it with other Galaxy Note owners in Galaxy Note discussion forum.

 


Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Tass says

    Hello again,
    Good news! I haven’t received the new battery yet, but for the “lagginess” subject, definitively the factory reset solved the mater. Anyone experiencing the same problems should do a factory reset without a second though.

    Reply

  2. Tass says

    Hi guys, little late post, but I had my old Motorola Razr D3 broken and I bought this Galaxy Note N7000 from a friend. It came with GB and as I am used to JB, I upgraded it through kies. It became simply unusable: laggy, hot and very fast on draining battery. With 100% charge it took 15 min to reboot when I was restoring the apps I used to have on the old phone.

    I am doing the factory reset now, and I have already bought a new original battery. I will post again in one or two weeks, as soon I can have a formed opinion.

    Reply

  4. Chaitanya Mella says

    Unable to complete operation due to low memory problem when trying to upload photos to social networking site facebook. the pic is just 54 kb.. why is this problem cropping up

    Reply

  5. piyush says

    using galaxy note and upgraded to 4.1.2 via odin..done factory reset…disabled unused preinstalled apps….and did backgrnd process limit to 2…nw doing battery callibration process…i hope ths will gve my battery back…just waitin fr d results and let u knw if i gt any improvement…

    Reply

  6. Chaitanya Mella says

    I have run seriously low on the memory space available.. 137 MB of 11 GB.. I see a log folder which has over 2.GB of data.. is it ok to delete this folder…

    Reply

  7. ASIF says

    GUYS …ROOT UR SAMSUNG NOTE OR WHTEVER…………….FLASH GINGERBREAD ROM, AND LINK2SD …
    U WILL HAVE MAXIMUM RAM AND FASTEST ROM EVER…..ANY QUESTIONS…….??????

    Reply

  8. DSK says

    Hi i am using Samsung Galaxy Note 1 from may 2012. Last 3 months i am using jelly bean. Last two days i am unable to charge my mobile. when ever i am connecting the device to charger it shows that device is charging, but it’s actually not. Same happening while connecting to PC via USB cable. Please advise is the problem is due to charger or charging pin in the mobile device or battery or the jelly bean software.

    Reply

  9. sandeep bharaj says

    hello all..
    i updated my phone to 4.1.2 two days back.. till now phone running very well.. no lag at all.. battery back up is also not that bad… its totally smooth 🙂
    1 thing i didnt liked is d color of notification bar.. it should b black only.. rest everything is going well…

    Reply

  10. sandeep bharaj says

    ok thanx simon.. well m satisfied with d ph with 4.0.4… dont want to compromise d smoothness 🙂
    i want to ask one more thing.. why people complaining too many problems on ICS too after updating frm GB..

    Reply

  11. grahame says

    best solution for note N7000, after upgrade to 4.1.2. Had my phone 2 years, fantastic, best phone i ever had. After upgrade, phone lasts about 5 hours, no good for work as battery runs out. Calls drop out, some times disconects before it connects, can take minutes to try and place a call, when its bad i give up. App selection, select g-mail and get lottery, or e-bay, useless. Note, what a complete waste of time this is now, used it all night before as a note pad, now takes minutes to even start, or just freeze, or nothing happens. The best fix i found along with two fellow workers, throw in nearest bin and buy a Nokia lumia. At least this works. Given up with Samsung phones now. Unless anybody knows how to downgrade to ICS without having to be a professor in IT.

    Reply

  12. Sandeep Bharaj says

    Hello sir..
    i just sold my Galaxy Grand Duos. i am planning to buy Note N7000 as it is in my budget.. should i go for it?
    is it worth to get it in place of Grand?
    will it run slow on latest JB?

    Reply

  13. ikhtisar says

    Hello,
    I have been using galaxy note since November 2012.Earlier there was no problem .But now adays, my mobile charger is disconnected automatically with a tone although my charger and cable is ok. sometimes mobile shows message like” Dock is connected” for a second and charging gets disconnected.Then I brought it to my nearest samsung service center. They completely updated my mobile and the problem was solved.But after few days, i faced the same problem as soon as i downloaded some applications from play store and also i used PAN drive via cable.But my charger is working randomly at present.I do know what is the actual reason.is there any problem because of downloaded application?? Downloading was done via WiFi connection.So, Plz kindly give me a solution.thank you.

    with reagards

    Reply

    • dsaria007 says

      DEAR ikhtisar,
      There is a base problem in all galaxy note manufactured, the charging unit needs to get replaced, go to the service centre they will change the charging unit, tell them that you phone has auto charging problem, i have already replaced it twice free of cost as my phone was under warranty. Hopefully the same problem is with yours.
      A good advice for all the galaxy note owners please try to sell of your phone asap cause samsung has slashed the prices to hell, right now in india galaxy note 1 is availaible at 22000 only, via online websites like flipkart and so on.

      Reply

  14. Hassan says

    I have received small software update (2.5 MB) yesterday for galaxy note 1 N7000 , I already updated 4.1.2 earlier in the year , they said that this software update is for better stability , any one know any thing about that ?

    Reply

  15. Sandipan says

    Hi Friends,
    Does anyone know when the official JB will be released for Galaxy Note in Sweden? The customer service seems to be very reluctant in predicting any date. Another question is, my galaxy note was purchased in Sweden but since I’m in India now, is there a way to get the official updates for India, instead of the Swedish ones?
    Thanks.

    Reply

  16. dsaria007 says

    Dear friends,
    I have found a solution for the battery prob…most of the users over here are using note 1 for more than one year, and then upgraded to jelly bean aka 4.1 android … the only solution i found was reset ur phone to factory. And shift to a new original battery as the battery u ppl are using is 2 year old nd is almost bout to die, my phone was hanging like hell even aftr factory reset….i was even planning to buy a new phone, but then i changed my battery and my phone has got its life back….nw my phone is working really awesome…try this …

    Reply

  17. anurag says

    I hope that on 4.2.2 update Samsung will solve this ram problem…btw can u tell me when this update will be coming…..

    Reply

  18. Sanjay says

    Guys trust me….nothing is going to work out…this is a software issue, until we get proper update from samsung again this issue is not going to resolve…jb is really bad update for note…if samsung cant give proper update why the hell did they release it…cant they see thousands of people have the same issue… tell your friends or whoever it is not to update jb on their devices at least they wont suffer this issue, this is what i’m doing and i have already stopped many people in updating jb on their devices

    Reply

  19. Anirudh says

    great article..I’m gonna try your steps on my note and let u know if there is any improvement..

    Reply

  20. Sanjay says

    can you please tell me one thing…new phone which comes with jelly bean pre installed… have free space of 350mb to 370mb…how is that possible? i can give you ex, Samsung Grand, karbonn titanium s5, samsung s2 plus all these phone has a free space of 370mb…..why is our phone shows only 80mb which has been installed by kies….

    Reply

  21. anurag says

    I have done this before but its not working.
    my problem is same before and my phone still hang while playing…

    Reply

  22. anurag says

    hii all,
    I hv done factory reset and downloaded the autorun manager..and I m getting 325 to 355 ram free…but my problem is that when I play any game(subwaysurfer or temple run) it hang…any solution plss do rply…

    Reply

  23. Sanjay says

    yes, i did factory reset, i have already disabled some 15 applications it is still showing 75MB free… Samsung/android..need to send the update to resolve this problem or need to send the update to degrade to ICS through kies.

    Reply

  24. Sanjay says

    Hi, i see in galaxy grand the RAM free space is 250-260MB Grand also run on jelly bean. how come Grand has so much free space? and in my note it is 80MB, is it coz of company update software? i went and checked with samsung service center they asked me to reinstall the software again with them, is that means kies download has problem or i’m not sure even after i install the jelly bean from samsung service center will i fase the same problem?

    Reply

  26. Sanjay says

    hi, i updated jelly bean on my note one and its become very slow, i did factory reset, i formatted Phone USB devise still the Ram is taking more, when i reboot the phone and check the Ram will be around 350 MB after a while it will be showing only 80 MB….do i need to take the phone to samsung service center and reinstall the jelly bean OS again? your advise is greatly appreciated…

    Reply

  27. Manoj Kale says

    Dear all.
    I had same problems after upgrade to 4.1.2. Battery was draining like crazy. Its hardly provide back up morethan 5 hours. I regret for upgrading my note and want rollback to gingerbread. But fortunately after using method to drain battery to zero and then charge it to 100. Do this for weektime & battery back on its previous stage. Now I get same battery backup as when I had on gingerbread. my suggestion to all that please bear the draining problem to couple of days then using given methods patiently solve problem in week time. Mark my word..

    Reply

  28. Prakash says

    I upgraded my note to 4.1.2 and it has started heating up. battery drains very fast.
    It was working well for last more than a year before this upgrade.
    Any solution??

    Reply

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