ICS Upgrade - The secret to success.....!

[mik2010]

RichH very informative and useful thread. Keep up the good work.

[Mannequin]

Ive had problems with kies all day.. Just got it to work now.. All I did was turn the phone off and take the battery out for a couple of mins, put it back together and plugged in USB and kies decided to work

now just debating whether to install ICS or not ?!?!

[Joey]

Too many of us on here are constantly having to write the same answers to the same questions. If you are reading this because you have upgraded to ICS and are having problems with some applications and battery life, this thread should help you not having to ask the same questions again....
I am assuming you are using Kies to upgrade as anyone using Odin will probably have the experience to sort the issues themselves anyway....

1 - Before upgrading BACK UP your phone. To do this you need to download Kies from here http://www.samsung.com/uk/support/us...tware/KIES/JSP. Install the software then open Kies. Connect your phone to PC using the supplied data cable and WAIT until your PC loads the drivers for your phone. After a few moments you will see a message that says "your device is ready to use". At this point you should see your Kies change to show details of your phone. IF you have an upgrade available you will see the message saying so on screen. Otherwise you will see a message saying "your phone has the latest firmware", this means no update available, yet. At this point press cancel on the upgrade message because you need to BACKUP first. Go to the BACKUP tab in Kies and select the components you wish to back up. Wait until this process is complete then disconnect your phone from Kies and close Kies down.
2 - FACTORY RESET. Turn off your phone and wait for the vibration to notify you it is completely shut down. Then hold the following buttons down together in this order. Vol +, Home key, Power ON. Hold all buttons until you see the Samsung slash screen then let go, wait until you see a menu appear on screen. Use Vol - key to select "Clear cache" and apply using power on key, wait then use Vol - key to select "factory reset", accept the warning using power on key then execute using power on key again. Wait whilst your phone reboots. You can skip through the set up screens at this point until you get to your home screen.
3 - UPGRADE TO ICS. Unlock your phone to the homescreen then connect cable to phone and PC again. Kies will start and offer you the upgrade. Accept the upgrade and follow the onscreen instructions. DO NOT TOUCH YOUR PHONE AT ALL UNTIL UPGRADE IS COMPLETE. Once Kies has finished your phone will reboot to ICS version 4.0.3.
4 - Disconnect phone from PC and REPEAT step 2 to clear cache and factory reset again.
5 - Connect phone to Kies for the last time and go to "Restore" tab in Kies where you can restore the backup of anything you created in Step 1. Check your accounts and add anything as required. Most likely will be the need to add your Google and Samsung account details as these don't appear to get restored by Kies (you may be lucky though).
6 - Job done, enjoy ICS.
7 - If you want the official ICS wallpaper pack, see here http://samsunggalaxysforums.com/show...ICS-Wallpapers
8 - If you experience poor battery life, see here http://samsunggalaxysforums.com/show...-Apps-and-Tips
You may also need to recalibrate your battery by allowing the battery to drain fully until it turns off. Then, recharge in one go with phone still off. Do not use the phone at alll during this calibration charge period.
9 - SGS2 ICS manual and user guide here http://samsunggalaxysforums.com/show...Manual-for-ICS

Hopefully this will help with most of the common issues, please feel free to post anymore tips and guides and remember the forum has a SEARCH function. Use it and you will probably find the answer to your question much more quickly than posting the same question again and waiting for a reply

I read that fully discharging li-lon batteries is a bad idea, the battery loses a bit of capacity every time it's fully discharged.

[BeaconBlazer]

Ok. ICS upgraded no problems for me, but, I dont have the fancy ICS app screen.Just normal grid style aka Froyo, Gingerbread etc. What did I miss?

[RichH]

Ok. ICS upgraded no problems for me, but, I dont have the fancy ICS app screen.Just normal grid style aka Froyo, Gingerbread etc. What did I miss?

You missed nothing.... This is Samsungs version of ICS and they have rolled it out with TW launcher which was the same as previous. Nova launcher or Apex launcher of Play will give you something closer to stock ICS appearance.

[BeaconBlazer]

That sux big time!

[RichH]

That sux big time!

Actually it's the beauty of the Android system. You can choose to download any one of a large number of launchers off Play and customise the look to how you want it, not how someone else thinks you want it

[GGN]

Hi, I am a new owner of the awesome SGS II, but I am not new to Android as I previously use an OG Galaxy Tab and a BlackBerry. I was used to "limited tinkering" with the BlackBerry software but now that I've really learned a bit more about Android, I am surprised at the crazy amount of customization you can do to this OS.

Reading this thread and some others, I am glad I bought the SGS II after ICS officially came out, and I upgraded the stock Gingerbread to ICS right after I popped in my sim card into the phone, via Kies It was surprisingly smooth and had it all done in one go. Even my USB port was detected instantly. Samsung has gone a long way since I last used a Samsung phone, which was an S60v3-powered INNOV8 (GT-I8510). Those days it was almost impossible to even make the desktop manager detect the phone without a few plug-and-pulls and reboots. But Kies is in no way perfect - I experienced the "undetectable" USB connection issues again when I tried updating my cousin's Note to the latest version of Gingerbread, which frustrated me, although not to the extent of my long gone INNOV8.

However I do still experience some issues with ICS. So far they are not game breakers and I still love this phone very much, even though it can be said I got it quite late. Regarding the OS' appearance, I actually think I quite like the TouchWiz interface, but I also have installed GO Launcher + ICS Pro theme and never came back since. If anything can make me let go of this phone, it will probably be a new Nexus with Jellybean or SGS IV

[ongchum]

Hi all,


This morning I put my S2 in the pocket and went to work, at that time phone was still working fine. However when I arrived at work, it is completely dead and will not turn on no matter what I do.

I have borrowed a colleague's S2, swap the battery, my battery power his S2 on, but his battery won't turn mine on

I have try to do everything I could find on the net, things like
-- take out the battery and press the power button for more than 10 seconds, put it back --- not turn on
-- press home + volume up + power --- not working
-- press home + volume down + power --- not working

I leave the phone with the battery in it, half an hour later the phone is suspiciously warm, more warm than an idle phone.

this is an unlock, I bought it with 2.3.3 and flash it to 2.3.5 last January.
Last week, I flashed it to 4.0.3 I9100XXLPJ with the firmware from sammobile website, after flashing I tried to rooted it unsuccessfully and decided to leave it like that, I did not perform a factory reset before or after (duh!). It was working fine till today and this happens.

Please advise.
Thanks

[greenman]

If you can't get in to download mode there is not much you can do.
You could try a USB jig from eBay or a trip to Samsung Service Centre.

This is the kind of jig you need (although not a recommendation)
http://item.mobileweb.ebay.co.uk/vie...d=120774899736
And this is how it works:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z0HveYvWg5Y