So, the day has finally come. Rogers threatened to cut off users’ data access to Android phones until/unless they update to the new 1.5/Sense UI/911 fix update/ Today they started shutting off data access to users. Problem is, not everyone can run the update yet, as there are issues with Windows 7, not to mention apparently no support yet for the Mac or Linux. If you can’t do it on your computer, they expect you to take it in to a Rogers location and have it done there… if you trust them not to screw it up.
If your phone is rooted and already running 1.6 or above, which already fixed the 911 bug… too bad! Owners of rooted phones are reporting that their data has been cut off even though their phones are immune to the 911 bug. This means if you have a rooted phone you will have to unroot and run the update, or lose your data indefinitely. Of course, if you do that, you won’t be able to root your phone again until/unless someone at XDA cracks it. Hmmm… interesting. Maybe this is the real reason Rogers is cutting off data?
RogersMary posted in one of the forums that turning off the data allows 911 calls to complete if the bug fix has not been applied. This implies a direct between data and E911, and that this is their reason for turning it off. I have to wonder though, if turning off data insures that 911 calls will complete, why didn’t Rogers turn off data the MOMENT they sent out the text messages warning of the 911 bug a week ago? If it’s about safety, they should have done it then, but they didn’t. Instead, they asked users to turn off GPS until a fix was available. If it was okay to simply turn off GPS then, why isn’t that enough now?
On top of this, users are reporting issues after the update. Here is a current summary of some user experiences:
- Fido customers report their phones now constantly say they are roaming (data I believe)
- Some people report various FCs and spontaneous reboots
- One person says he was unable to delete icons from the home screen (including Rogers icons)… has anyone else encountered this?
- Photo gallery error (GBD)
- Task manager “end all” causes FCs (GBD)
- Possible problem with MS Exchange (via Twitter)
- Twitter user XBrav is having problems with freezing, buzzing, and calls not completing.
- Flash player not always working
- Battery possibly draining faster
- Some apps previously available in the marketplace are now not available.
If you have experienced any of these issues, or others not listed, let us know, or post about them in this forum thread: http://androidforums.com/rogers/38974-rogers-911-sense-ui-update-post-your-problems-here.html
UPDATE: Interesting. Forum user Gnugu says his data has been cut off, and he bought his phone outright. He has a Dream. Since he bought it outright, not with a contract, he is not eligible for the Dream-to-Magic phone upgrade. He is running CM 1.6 which fixes the 911 bug, and his data has still be cut off.
My data has been shut off.
I`ve been on hold with Rogers now for about an hour to get it turned back on. The first tech support guy didn`t know squat, now I`m on hold for the second one.
You would think Rogers would have staffed enough techies knowing that just maybe they would be getting a bunch of calls by shutting off everyones data.
If you`re a win 7 user, these instructions were posted on android forums which worked for me…
http://androidforums.com/rogers/38624-rogers-update-911-fix-rogers-htc-dream-magic-ready-3.html#post290294
I use Window 7 and I had no troubles with install at all.
The only problem is the phone drivers, if you search for Windows Vista drivers for the Hero, you can find a zip file of them. Unzip and place in your HTC Driver file in the HTC Sync files. Then in the control panel you can install the drivers manually for the “unknown device” (You phone). After this, your phone will be recognized, and therefore, you shouldn’t have any troubles with the update.
P.S. : For the update on this post, it says “UPATE”, instead of “UPDATE”
I have an outright purchased HTC Dream. My data is not working even though I run 1.6 from Enom. Fido will not acknowledge any support for the phone since it is not a Fido phone but yet they still removed my data.
Conflict? I think so!
Another issue I have, I’m starting to lean toward mjschmidt on this one, I think there is an ulterior motive behind this update. Rogers/Fido could have easily programmed their network to deny anyone with a Rogers HTC Dream/Magic on the faulty revision of the OS, everyone else would be granted access. This would allow the users with rooted ROMs that want 1.6 or other features to use their phones as they please. Normal users that didn’t upgrade or couldn’t would not get data and they would have to contact Rogers/Fido to resolve the issue, which would legally protect Rogers/Fido on the E911 issue.
Something is fishy here or Rogers/Fido’s technical staff needs to be all fired for incompetence.
Has anyone gotten data back yet? I have called, and I am going to demand it. If they do not I thing we need to get a class action in order, we own the hardware and they are not taking the most logical steps to resolve it.
There appears to be a quick fix for people specifically in the position of Rebellion and Gnugu.
Quoting: “All you have to do is call up Rogers, in the automated system just follow instuctions to get to general technical support. If you try to talk to a PDA/Data rep they are flooded with calls by people that need help upgrading. Just ask the normal support rep to do a “network refresh” you will have to reboot your phone and your 3G data will be back.”
http://www.reddit.com/r/Android/comments/atnye/rogers_magicdream_users_with_cyanogenmod_rom/
I completed the upgrade 24 hours ago on my new htc magic (I am leaving my old htc dream alone for the mean time, just in case the magic got borked due to the upgrade). I had to dual boot into win vista as I run Linux 99% of the time. The upgrade took less than 10 minutes and it ran smooth (well it did after I realized that you need to run the RUU.exe as the administrator, otherwise it would just close without any warning or error, I am guessing by the lack of complaints or notes about this in the docs that everyone running windows simply runs everything as the administrator).
Before the upgrade I had 250MB free, after the upgrade I have just 160MB free, that’s 90MB lost. I am guessing that the majority of this loss is due to the new htc sense ui, yet that’s a hell of a major loss of free ram. However coming from an htc dream that still leaves plenty of memory in comparison, yet it’s still a major shock.
I have to say that I am in love with htc sense! The interface is very slick and the htc widgets are simply amazing to use and wonderful to look at. What really makes this upgrade worthwhile is the multi-touch support, so now you can run the dolphin browser and get pinch and zoom (someone please pinch me, I must be dreaming! lol)! In addition you get 7 home screens instead of the usual 3. I know that you can get some or all of these features by rooting your phone, yet for me it’s too much of a security risk to run a modified rom. I am no longer ashamed to show people my android phone. The stock android 1.5 interface on the htc dream was amateurish at best, and the apps constantly freezing my phone made it a nightmare to use anything quickly. My wife’s iphone 3g now has a good reason to be worried that it is no longer the most impressive smart phone in our home!
In summary, in two weeks I went from using a slow and choppy, low in memory htc dream where I had to constantly kill apps to an htc magic with plenty of ram where not only does the interface run super smooth, yet with htc sense I get 7 home screens, multi-touch and pinch and zoom browsing. In fact I no longer run any task killing apps/widgets because I never have any lag or choppiness, where I was killing apps every few hours on my htc dream. When you combine this with the fact that the htc dream to magic upgrade was free, and I am going to get a month of data access free for the firmware upgrade, I am a happy camper.
In spite of my happiness I do feel for those having problems, and hope rogers can come through for you (especially those without access to windows xp or vista to perform the upgrade who will lose their data access, that in my opinion is simply the most pathetic thing rogers wireless has ever done to their customers).
the apps disappearing isn’t because of the update. it’s because they no longer support 1.5.
as to me, the dream to magic promotion can be enough to forget all the trouble. what a great timing to find that stupid bug.
I updated both my phones, Dream and Magic. Went nice and smooth.
Data still does not work though.
Now I’m torn.
I love the Dreams keyboard. I hate using the onscreen keyoard on the Magic. But the Magic interface so much nicer.
Anyone know of any that has done a hardware mod? Combine the keyboard of the Dream, to the Magic.
running the update ended up bricking my phone (i followed all the steps)
so i called and they said they would send me a new phone in 3-5 business days.
when i asked about swapping for a different phone they took on a complete different tone saying “it’s not our fault, it was HTC” essentially. I was pretty furious that I would be without a phone for 3-5 days (if not more, i live in a more remote area) without any ‘apologies’ whatsoever.
After a bit of tinkering I did get the update… however I’m not telling THEM that (my data still works), maybe I’ll get to keep the 2nd phone they’re sending me.
btw – the pinch-zoom option works in the regular browser and in the gallery !!
I can confirm what SomeoneFromReddit has said. I called into tech support and kinda played dumb a bit. I turned off my phone before I called in and when asked to confirm build number said I didn’t have it. They did the network refresh, I waited 20 minutes or so, turned my phone on and it was working. I’m running magic, rooted with latest cyanogen.
HTC Released an update to HTC Sync for Windows 7. Version 2.0.18.
http://www.htc.com/www/SupportViewNews.aspx?dl_id=852&news_id=487
F@ck rogers. the *second* they cut me off on Sunday, I called them to ask that since I ran a custom ROM that was not susceptible to the 911 issue, could I have my data back. Tech didn’t know anything about it, and after 3 transfers I ended up transferred to a CABLE person. So I hung up, went to a Telus store, and got an iPhone. I will gladly pay the early termination fee to no longer deal with these knuckle draggers. Perhaps I will recoup some losses in the inevitable eventual class action lawsuit (we have, after all, been walking around with cells that have no 911 access for more than 6 months now)
So, i got free magic, it was great, then they forced the update, i updated it, worked even better, and then today, the phone bricked. I could not turn it back on no matter what i did, so i called rogers to order a replacement, i was then told they COULD NOT GIVE AN ESTIMATED WAIT TIME for a new device.
look, im lucky enough to have a back up phone, but what about those who don’t? this is seriously getting ridiculous.
Rogers, you seriously need to step up your game, cause you’ve got alot of VERY pissed off customers.
**** FIDO USERS!!!!! ******* I am a Fido user, with a rooted Dream and the CyanogenMod package. I followed the link from SomeoneFromReddit and ended up calling Rogers and bitching, bitching, and finally yelling. I managed to coerce the tech in doing a “Network Refresh” (“we’re not supposed to do it, we’ve been told not to do it but I’ll do it” – probably to get rid of me) and it worked. The data came back after rebooting my phone.
There’s a Flash Player included?
I called into Rogers and asked the CSR about the Dream to Magic upgrade, and was told they are no longer offering it since the mandatory software update fixes the problems the Dream had.
Ah well.
I’m running Cyanogen too, so I’m a bit put off about having my data cut off for no reason. The CSR couldn’t help me and there’s a half hour wait for tech support so I left it.
Hopefully the update to SenseUI is as decent as people are saying, because frankly I don’t find cyanogen runs any faster than stock. Phone is still sluggish and laggy most of the time. Quite disappointed in the whole affair, to be honest.
@Lee: The CSR to whom you spoke is misinformed. The upgrade from Dream to Magic was NEVER because of the 911 bug. The upgrade was because the Dream and magic were sold at the same time in June, customers were led to believe they would be supported the same, but only the _Magic_ is being updated beyond 1.5 (to 2.1).
Call back and explain it to them. Further more, it is illogical that the upgrade would have been because of the 911 bug given that the Magic suffers from the SAME bug!!! It would make no sense for them to give you a Magic because of the 911 bug when the Magic has the same issue.
For those of you who are fed up with this crap:
Go here -> http://www.ccts-cprst.ca/
Type this in the complain summary (or your own complaint, if you’re feeling creative):
‘This is about how Rogers pulled 3G usage from it’s HTC Magic and HTC Dream users because of the 911 bug. I contacted Rogers and explained to them that I was running a firmware on my phone that has this bug fixed. Rogers refused to return my service and as such I was *forced* to install their update. This update locks down the device preventing me from being able to run my own custom firmwares. Being able to install my own firmwares is important to me and is one of the reasons why I purchased this specific device. I want to have the same freedom with the phone that I had on initial purchase of the device. Unfortunately with this update this is no longer possible.
I feel that the way Rogers handled this (taking away mobile internet services and refusing to restore them) was heavy handed and unfair to paying customers. These kinds of actions have also ruined my experience with the Android platform and as a Rogers customer.’
Try to get this out to as many HTC Magic users as possible. Also, if you have suggestions please post them below.
I have a rogers branded HTC magic. I bought it used without a contract and signed up with Fido. Installed 911 update and yes since then, phone always indicates roaming. You need to go into network settings and enable “connect to data services when roaming”. That got my data back.
I’ve read that despite the roaming indicator, the phone is not actually roaming and one should not incur any roaming charges. Here’s hoping.
NOTE: my phone did NOT indicate roaming on the Fido network prior to the update. This is new. I’ll probably wait a few days and then pester Fido tech support when hopfully have received a few more complaints.
[...] it’s been more than 24 hours since U-Day now. Many people (most?) have run the update (I have not, for the record), and as I expected the [...]
[...] this comment by Lee: I called into Rogers and asked the CSR about the Dream to Magic upgrade, and was told they [...]
** FIDO USERS**
I have a unlock Rogers HTC Magic but I am with Fido. I had updated my phone and now it constantly saying it roaming.
I went back to the store where I bought the unlock HTC and told me to keep my phone in ” connect to data services when roaming” (My data came back) I was afraid i was actually really roaming so i called FIdo. and have them double check if i was roaming….. As long as I’m not in the states or byNiagara falls or in Windsor. It should be fine. I told her my phone is constantly saying roaming on the handset. She said the phone might be confused with the rogers tower.
So, not to worry if it has the “R” symbol on your phone.