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Nexus 4 Android 4.3 OTA update problems found so far

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The LG Nexus 4 Android 4.3 OTA update has not gone smoothly for many users, problems are still occurring on this smartphone and customers are not happy at all.

We have taken a deep look into this and decided to list the issues found so far after users installed the Android 4.3 update. For some the phone runs smoothly and happy with the features they got with the update, but there are a majority that are upset. We will list some of the problems here; please let us know if you have experienced any of these.

Even though there are many issues after the update the three main ones that stick out the most includes the Nexus 4 overheating, phone not restarting as well as multitouch not working properly.

Many users have shared their issues with Phones Review and one reader said that when the update ended they got an error message and now the Nexus 4 will not start, all they get is the Google screen and then the X screen in an infinite loop. This seems to be a major problem because many other readers said the same thing, another said that when they boot the phone it does not ask them for the pin code and that their home button does not work anymore.

Here are the problems after installing Android 4.3 on the Nexus 4: Overheating, phone will not start up, Nexus 4 running very slow now, touch is not working, unlocking the phone after the update seems an issue. These are the main problems, but others said they have had other issues including unlocking of the phone because it does not give them the option to enter their pin, a few apps have disappeared like Google Drive, loss of signal in some cases, and photos being lost from the photo gallery.

One comment on our previous article said,

“I updated it today morning and my gallery is all messed up. Thumbnails of deleted pics are still shown in the Gallery, and when you click on the thumbnail the later pictures come up. So if u try to delete the thumbnails the new pictures are getting deleted.”

Another reader said, “My 3D mark benchmark score dropped from over 11,000 to 7,500 after installing the 4.3 update! The benchmark is noticeably stuttering now. Before the update it ran smooth as silk. Also my phone is continually reporting “Oops! I’ve crashed…. blah, blah” though I can’t work out, which process it is that is crashing, but I guess it’s a core component as it happens no matter what app I am using, but doesn’t appear to affect the open app. NOT a Good update.”

Another one of our readers asked these questions:
Are you having problems with the update OTA, Have you flashed the update? Are you using custom ROMS when you updated?

It seems Android 4.3 is not good at the moment for Nexus 4 owners, please let us know if you are having problems since updating your smartphone?

Comments

141 thoughts on “Nexus 4 Android 4.3 OTA update problems found so far”

  1. Tirath says:

    As said by the writer the problem is only if you are using the custom rom and kernel. Factory reset stock 4.2.2 and then wipe dalvik cache and install 4.3.
    Then you are good to go.

  2. aym says:

    My phone will not start up after update either! extremely frustrating….holding the power button,or power button and down vol simultaneously, no combination does anything…is warranty
    an option?

  3. Alex Murray says:

    I updated it and it seems to be really laggy and it has fully crashes and had to restart once and the apps continuously crash! Quite frustrating , just release android 5 already haha

  4. Mesmerised says:

    the pulse notifications stopped working after upgrading to 4.3, really annoying… anyone else have this problem? (I don’t use any special apps for the pulse notifications)

    1. PreachJohn says:

      The LEDs never did work on my Nexus 4. I use Light Flow from Play Store.
      Had to uncheck the 2nd from bottom in Settings or very difficult bootup.

  5. Dan says:

    I ran the 4.3 OTA update on both mine and my wife’s Nexus 4. Update went smooth, but starting immediately after the update we both keep getting the pop-up bubbles at the bottom of the screen saying “Oops, I’ve crashed etc. etc. etc.” I’m not sure how to check any logs to see what exactly is causing it, but it’s a stock Nexus 4, not rooted, no unlocked bootloader. Anyone got any suggestions?

  6. Eric On says:

    I updated my nexus 7 to 4.3 and now I cannot download apps from the play store
    My device isn’t rooted and I updated the device through the update page on my nexus 7

  7. Sezer says:

    Since I updated my nexus 4 it keeps crashing and I have to boot it again, sometimes right before it crashes it will vibrate and it won’t stop vibrating until I’m forced to turn the device off. Also my nexus 4 has been getting really hot.

    1. DrXym says:

      Me too. The exact same issue. I left the phone, came back to it and it was dead as a dod. Power on button doesn’t turn it on and then after a while it does. No reason for shutdown either – plenty of power.

      1. bcasmedic says:

        I called the Nexus help line and they walked me through a fix,

        To wipe the cache partition, follow these steps:

        Turn off the device.

        Press and hold the Volume Up and the Volume Down and Power keys at the same time for about 10 seconds.

        An image of an Android lying on its back will appear.

        Press the Volume Down key twice until “Recovery mode” appears on the screen.

        Press the Power key to restart in “Recovery mode.”

        An image of an Android with a red triangle will appear.

        While holding down the Power key, tap the Volume Up key.

        The Android System Recovery screen will appear. Release all keys.

        Use the Volume keys to scroll to wipe data cache partition and press the Power key to select.

        Hope this works for you it seems to have worked for me

        The phone will restart.

          1. DrXym says:

            Cheers for the tip I’ve done it now. I’ll see if I suffer any more issues. I can’t see this being much use if the problem is widespread.

          2. Daonex23 says:

            hi, my nexus 4 is suffering from the same issue after i updated the 4.3. So did it worked?

          3. Daonex23 says:

            well, i tried it, but phone still powers off while in sleep mode and had to push the power button to reset the phone, and that takes a while too. Im hoping google will come out with a fix like android 4.3.1 soon, because this is getting very frustrating.

  8. Tim says:

    I only get Edge now. After reboot, I have HSDPA or 3G for a short period, then back to inf. Edge.
    And I had to re-install Twitter or it wouldn’t post pictures.

  9. steve ohhh says:

    Yes, my phone is now a brick after the update. I didn’t do anything to it besides shut down after the install process froze two hours in. You risk losing all your non-cloud data with the update. Wait to update until Google has issued an official apology and assured users their devices will actually restart!

  10. littlenoodles says:

    Happened to me. Rooted, but otherwise stock Nexus 4. After the OTA, it would boot to my lockscreen and then immediately reboot whenever I entered my password.

    Found instructions to fix it that worked. Basically download the update and manually apply it with fastboot. Everything’s fine now, and the phone seems to be working better than ever. But an inexcusably bad update on Google’s most recent phone. How could this have been sent out?

  11. j says:

    Wow sorry to hear people. Well after my 4.3 update on the release date, all I have seen is improvements and no bugs on my nexus 4 since 4.2.2.

    1. Here too. Absolutely no problems, if anything runs a little smoother. Saw a bigger difference on my Nexus 7 after the update, but even that wasn’t stuttering and stalling as so many people have been describing. I know the problems people are having are genuine, it’s just near impossible to judge how widespread they are.

    2. MC Wong says:

      No issues after update, phone runs just as smooth if not better. I received the update 1 weeks after release and almost forced the update by clearing data in google services framework and checking for updates. But decided to wait which turns out to be a wiser choice.

    3. PreachJohn says:

      I consider myself somewhat fortunate too after reading of the myriad of horrors legions are going thro’ with this Update to ‘Naked’ Android.
      OTA 4.3 has come down to my phone 4 times now. Each time it Reboots itself to Error. But, a non-specific one. An error # would help. Then I can Reboot it each time so far to status quo 4.2.
      My Nexus is rooted. But I read Posts of rooted Nexus phones that upgrade to 4.3 with no problem. If I only knew that rooted is a block, I can unroot and root again.

  12. matt says:

    Updated last night, the lock screen appears on startup but won’t let me input pin, but the home key somehow skips past the screen. Have app info stuck in info bar, will not swipe away and touchscreen is nowhere near as responsive as before. Not good at all but consider myself lucky ready some others problems. Stock android 4.2 before update

  13. mamad says:

    when I updated my nexus the Bluetooth dose not work as well I tried to send some apps of another phone but I could not but in 4.2.2 it works

  14. kpp says:

    I have updated successfully, but had problem while unlocking after update, also user profiles not seen in India edition.. any idea why no multiple user profiles? otherwise, running smooth , battery life improved massively

  15. Adylan Lima says:

    After the update my nexus 4 crash 3 or 4 times while using the camera app and my only choice was reset the phone. Please Google, fix it.

  16. baw08222 says:

    4.3 on my samsung galaxy nexus is giving lock screen problem. The screen will come on soon after I have locked it by pressing the power button and it remains on.

  17. kevinlittle says:

    While video chatting in Skype, the entire phone will reboot every few minutes. Also, Talk is completely gone, which is annoying (but not really a bug).

  18. Zewks says:

    No crashing, but my touch screen becomes 100% unresponsive randomly, requiring a full reboot of the phone to fix. I cant narrow it down to any single app or action. Sometimes its happens 2 seconds after turning my phone on, other times I can use the phone for 4 hours before it happens. The phone is still active, the power button still works as does the volume buttons. I can see the clock still moving and any live wallpapers still animated. Touch just stops working completely. This started happening within 30 minutes of upgrading to 4.3. Very disappointed

  19. Google Sucks says:

    I had the same problem with my Nexus 4. After updating to 4.3, the phone won’t start and stuck at the X logo. Google Play Support isn’t being helpful at all. They read off instruction on how to reset the phone to factory like a parrot over the phone and when nothing works, they advise me to keep trying and sent off a copy-paste email with the same exact instruction that they already walked me through 2 times over the phone. I asked for a replacement based on my warranty clause and still waiting and waiting for days. Very frustrating! I have no phone to use. Where can I report this scam?

  20. Caio says:

    My nexus has a serious problem related to charging when plugged into this outlet is giving him problems, especially when trying to lower the notification bar with two fingers (shortcut for wifi, bluetooth, configurations …).

  21. NeilC says:

    I spoke to Google today and a cache wipe fixed mine. I had an error message pop up all the time ‘oooops, I crashed’ blah blah and battery life was ALOT shorter. I will post again shortly with instructions what to do.

  22. I.P. Freely says:

    I got a message that an update had been downloaded and was ready to install, so I let it do it. It got stuck in some mode where the screen was black except for a graphic that said something about download mode, do not unplug! It never finished. I held the power button down to do a hard reset. It booted back to 4.2.2. Now when I check for updates, it says “your phone is up to date”. So there is no 4.3 love for my phone.

  23. Saqalain says:

    My Nexus 4 keeps turning off automatically and then turns back on eventually after a couple of minutes trying to turn it back on. I’m scared that once it may not turn back on. Has anyone else had this problem after the 4.3 update? Google need to sort this out. Also if my phone does for some reason not turn back on, will Google fix it? (I bought it from the Google Play Store just 3 months ago)

  24. kr0y says:

    Upgraded successfully but now the long pressing of the Power button does not show any options. Pretty clueless here on how to power off the phone.

      1. kr0y says:

        I have no idea how but this is fixed now. I forgot to charge the phone leading to phone shutting down on its own and when I charged it up next the power button was working.

  25. nexust0m says:

    The power button sometimes does not work for long periods of time. Also when I leave the phone on overnight it turns of and again the power button is somewhat temperamental.

  26. Carlos says:

    My Nexus 4 has been turning off 9/10 times after it goes to sleep.
    This is so annoying coz you do not realize your phone is turned off until the next time you have to use it.

  27. Since *trying* to update, 2-3 days ago, my Nexus 4 is basically a brick ==> Upon pressing the Power button, the Google logo appears, and then the phone restarts and loops again.

    I’ve tried starting it with the power button + pressing both + and – on the volume rocker, but even through this, nothing specific happens…

    It’s still under warranty, so I’m tempted to ask Google to exchange it or something… But this is ridiculous: it’s an official release pushed by ElGoog itself!

  28. ragi says:

    Therz major issue with the network after it got updated to 4.3, never had such issues everything konks off like never before.WiFi and edge are non-existent in ma device now.

  29. davidmartin78 says:

    Hi, after installing the update my Nexus 4 is blocked on X for infinity. I tried recover to factory setting but no issue. Overall that, no one information could be seen in google website, it seems google is begining to go down and down, disapointment…

  30. Nic Fulton says:

    Mine died inexplicably. I plugged in for a few minutes then did hard reset (power and volume down) after about 30 seconds the battery charging icon appeared. I then powered on and it was OK. 62% battery level, so the battery hadn’t discharged. Very odd… Nothing like this happened before the 4.3 update

  31. Dave says:

    Got a bootloop during the update, booted into recovery and started from there. It started up but the home button didn’t work and the quick settings menu was missing. I performed a factory reset and it now runs very smoothly. The only problem is it is getting hot. It is usually in the mid to high 40°C with an ambient temperature of about 18°C. The screen seems to be draining the battery faster than before the update.

  32. InternationalRelationsXPERT says:

    My phone crashes at least once a day. I have to hard reset it to get it to come back to life. This happens throughout the day. I am a sales rep for a GSM carrier in the US and it is embarrassing when your phone shuts down in the middle of demonstrating the capabilities of the phone to a prospective customer!

  33. dsfsDZ says:

    سلام من آپدیت گلکسی نکسوسم 4.3 رو از طریق ota از گوشی دریافت کردم .ریستارت کردم و رفت توی ریکاوری (ریکاوری من cwm mod ) هست .یک ارور داد برای signature امضای غیر معتبر فایل بود. ولی بعدش یک ارور میده میگه فایل نصب نشد Abort میشه .چکار کنم ؟ ضمن اینکه دیگه اجازه دانلود هم نداشتم .یعنی سیستم میگه گوشی شما آپدیت هست و لی هنوز نوشته 4.2 . فکر کنم فقط یک بار اجازه دانلود داریم . واگه بدونم فایل کجا ذخیره شده خوبه برش میدارم لاقل .

    69696969696969696969696969696969696969696969696969 69696969696969696969696969696969696969696مجدداضمنا من هیچ کرنلی هم نصب نکرده ام Ùˆ یا دستکاری در گوشی ام نشده .فقط روت بود Ú©Ù‡ آنروت کردم. بوتلدر باز است.استوک ریکاوری نصب کردم بازم ارور داد ارو به این صورت است Ú©Ù‡ میگه NO-context file .assert error (system /data/app/phonesky.apk) Ùˆ یک سری چرت Ùˆ پرت های دیگه هم داره .این ارور در هر دو ریکاوری استوک Ùˆ TWRP مشاهده شد.در ریکاوری cwm هم مشکل “ساینچر ” بودن فایل با شرحی Ú©Ù‡ Ú©Ù‡ در اول پیفام گفته شد .موندم دیگه ………..چیزی به ذهنت میرسه بگو.دمت گرم

  34. Dante Masci says:

    I can’t even get the ota 4.3 update because when I try to install, the little android laying down gets a red triangle over his head and says error, at first I was mad but after reading this article I’m glad I did not update.

  35. Dave says:

    I have no issues at all with the update. I did notice my battery would drain faster at night, but I attribute this to Trim running in the background, last night it was fine.

  36. subramanya says:

    oooooops….. after reading all these i am happy that i didn’t had it on my Nexus 4….
    but soon expecting the good one.. which can work smoothy…..

  37. Sri says:

    Hi.. I have recently updated my Nexus 4 to 4.3 OTA and all the applications that use Camera (Skype, Tango etc) are causing the phone to shut down mid way through the video call. I have two Nexus 4 and both have the same issue after the update. It usually shuts off after 5 mins into a video call. Pathetic update from Google.

    1. SA M says:

      front camera does not work after 4.3 upgrade. Main Camera works fine 1st time, once i toggle to front camera , the camera app hangs with DARK screen and after some time error: Not able to the Camera.
      LG service center says front camera needs replacement.
      Any 1 else facing these issues

  38. Cyprus says:

    My Nexus 4 keeps turning off automatically and then turns back on eventually after a couple of minutes trying to turn it back on. Using Hangouts-Skype Video

  39. Bree says:

    My Nexus ran fine, if a bit slow for a few days. Until Friday when I was using it, it just turned off, and now won’t turn back on. I’ve tried charging it for hours, pressing all combinations of volume rocker + power, opened the back and disconnected the battery etc, and nothing is working. 🙁

  40. blackstone says:

    had the annoying power button behavior after 4.3. loaded into stock recovery (turn off, hold down power+vol up+vol down) and cleared cache position (you don’t have to do factory reset). everything’s fine now

  41. Chancey says:

    I updated and lost the touch function on the bottom half of my screen, I am pretty pissd off about the update. Can anyone tell me how to restore to old software

  42. jwalker says:

    Both my nexus 4 and nexus 7 no longer have stable wifi connections since upgrading to 4.3. When connection made it’s often slow. This basic failure makes the whole concept unusable.

  43. David Bui says:

    My phone has been running noticeably slower, laggy, and shuts off randomly from time to time. My phone has turned off 4 times since the update. The lag has been occurring daily since the update as well.

  44. Vinke says:

    The screen is not responding to touch sometime and need to press power to reset. 2. The speed of the phone will suddenly slow down and need to press power to reset to normal.

  45. Tony Robertson says:

    After making a call the screen is taking a long time to come back on, so I am not sure if I have hung up on the call or not. Even hitting the power button does not always return the screen, but if I hold power button down too long, it reboots.
    Didn’t have any of the other problems mentioned, and the upgrade went very smoothly.
    I have noticed the phone being sluggish from time to time, but killing apps normally works to restore faster response, maybe the memory footprint is smaller with 4.3??

  46. Chaucers Left Testicle says:

    Since update my Nexus 4’s screen has been going haywire. It’s fine for a few seconds after booting, but then starts to work on its own, bringing up the ‘Date & Time Settings’ menu, again and again. It’s impossible to do anything on it.

    Nice work, Google.

  47. RService says:

    I constantly have issues with parts (or all) of my touchscreen becoming non responsive or freaking out like it’s being touched all over. After multiple restarts it’s temporarily useable then after a while will do it all over again.

    1. Annoyed says:

      I am having the same issues…phone just goes into icons and starts typing and going through stuff as if someone is actually doing it…also my touch does not work a lot of the time. At the moment i am completely locked out because the touch number 1, 2 & 3 are not working and therefore cannot put in my pin as one of those numbers is included in it. SIGH!! How do we fix these issues. Can we get a replacement phone….what? There has to be some relief other than going and buying a new phone. It is only not even 4 months old!

      1. BryanR says:

        I’ve been experiencing a similar issue. The touch functionality sometimes takes on a mind of it’s own then take over everything.
        Additionally, there seems to be a dead zone touch area going down the middle of the phone the short way.. so annoying

  48. Mark Urup says:

    My N4 looses the connection to the cellular network.

    Trying to manually scan/selecting a mobile network immediately returns with an error.

    The only way to restore it, is to reboot.

  49. tr says:

    My N4 is also having these problems after the update, is much slower and today I turn it off and now it won’t turn on what do I do HELP PLEASE!

  50. Oliver says:

    After the update my Nexus 4 had problems unlocking with the screen showing a black but lit screen for 10 or 20 seconds… even then sometimes it would unlock but freeze on my home screen. Not enjoying this ATM hope they sort it soon enough.

  51. Suchit Mehrotra says:

    My phone worked OK for sometime after the 4.3 update but suddenly it started switching off automatically at times.The battery consumption graph shows sudden dips from 80 % to 5 %.Also the cellular network gets disconnected at random times.Also charging the phone for the entire night did not help.Has some one else faced a similar issue.

  52. drev says:

    I have a problem with it dropping the mobile signal sometimes, and it won’t reconnect by itself. If I go into mobile network settings and search for an operator it will reconnect, or if I restart the phone, but if I don’t notice it’s disconnected it can be off for hours until I intervene. How do we go about escalating this with Google?

  53. vijay says:

    After 4.3 system update, my multi touch is not working, a full vertical line of 5-6 mm thick screen touch is not working, i cannot unlock screen swiping horizontally as some part of my touch is not working .. i unlock by swiping in vertical direction now.

    Please someone suggest! It a new phone not even 1 month old. It was working fine till 24 hours before , until this system update screwed-up.. But, is google hearing us?

  54. vijay says:

    My phone upgraded to 4.3 from 4.2 few days before, touch was working fine.
    But, after another system update JWR66Y on 25th August 2013 applied on mobile created the issue, touch is un-responsive on some part of the screen ( i cannot type ‘n’ , ‘j’ for example.)
    5-6 mm thick vertical strip goes un-responsive to touch , cannot type alphabets falls in that area .. swipe breaks in that area.

    Please some one suggest if faced similar issue, what to do ?

    Phone reset works?
    How to downgrade to 4.2.2 OS ?
    How to just go back 1 level to where it was working fine ?

    Any other thoughts.. your reply is much appreciated.. thanks in advance

  55. Aaron says:

    Since the update, my Nexus 4 reboots A LOT. But the thing is, there is no pattern to the rebooting. Sometimes it waits a few days for the next reboot, and other times it waits just a few minutes until the next one. Most of the time, I might not even have one app running, and it still reboots. It also overheats soooo much! And it’s also overall slow now. Help!!

  56. Mike says:

    I just updated my Nexus 4 to v4.3 a day ago and I noticed the overheating issue almost right away after the updating. I put my phone in pocket without using, my leg felt warm and I took my phone out, it was pretty warm in hand. If I used Google Now or Google Map, my phone can easily warm up in a few seconds. It was pretty warm! Hopefully Google can address the issue soon otherwise the overheating would destroy my phone.

  57. nikhil says:

    I have updated my nexus 4 to 4.3 and using it .my phone screen is getting locked by pressing the power button But if I press the button with out releasing my phone is not getting shutdown what is the problem ??

  58. Jae says:

    While making a call with the phone, putting the phone close to an object or face will put the screen out, that’s normal. But the phone failed to light up again after it was removed from the object (face). So I can do nothing but reset the phone. This problem doesn’t appear if u r talkiing over a bluetooth headset

  59. Binshad says:

    Problem faced since 4.3 update

    1. Buggy camera (Horrible)
    2. Touchscreen lag sometimes
    3. Phone Hangs sometimes
    4. Complex graphics not smooth. Was before.
    5. 3G battery drain is still there.
    6. Phone overheating issue.
    7. Overall integrity is questionable.

    Previous version is much better

  60. Mapleleaf says:

    I’ve only had my Nexus 4 for a few weeks, so it came with 4.3. The problem I have is that it turns itself off randomly and I need to hold down the power key twice (long holds) to get it to turn on again. This has happened when plugged in and not plugged in, and always with more than 50% charge. A big problem when I use it as an alarm clock!

  61. Hans says:

    I have my new Nexus 4 since one week and I got immediately the update to the 4.3. I don’t know how it would have been with the 4.2, but now the phone is shutting down randomly even with still a lot of remaining battery. Although the specs of the phone are very good, I cannot rely on such device! I hope the google guys will find soon a solution otherwise I have to give it back!

  62. tr00don says:

    Nexus 4 issues after the Android OS 4.3 update (worked well before with OS 4.1-4.2.2):

    – 25%-30% decrease in performance
    – randomly hangs, esp. overnight
    – overheating

    The last two issues all but disappeared after I did a factory reset. However, the decrease in performance persists.

  63. shrysevo9 says:

    My nexus is screwed up too. Chrome hangs 95% of the time. Back button never works after a call, need to press home. It hangs often while updating or downloading anything. Also the letter ‘n’ doesn’t work half of the time. Like even now had to retype it. All I get is a blank space.

  64. Melyssa St-Hilaire says:

    I’ve been having issues with “calling” apps that will automatically shut the screen off (so even the phone mode freaks out) where the screen will turn black and then I can’t turn it back on. It will light up for half a second and then turn back off. Every time this happens it will either ventually crash on its own or I’ll have to hard reboot it. Either way, it has to reboot. It’s kind of really annoying. Is there a way to turn auto screen off, well, off, until this is resolved?

  65. Percy says:

    I have my new Nexus 4 since one week and I got immediately the update to the 4.3. I don’t know how it would have been with the 4.2, but now the phone and apps are working very slow, back & home button doesn’t respond properly ….. don’t know how many problems i have to face it in d coming time…….

  66. Hans stance says:

    Fortunately i haven’t faced these kind of problems so far (updated 5 days ago, because i was hesitating to install it when I’ve read this article), but there are some minor issues like
    – problem with camera, it lags now and very much slower than before and when you take a picture the thumbnails and pictures that you just took are just shown as a blank black page.
    – The other problem I’ve is the time i make a viber call and after the call screen doesn’t come back or it takes few sec for it to comes back again so I’ve to press back button to have it back on.
    If i had any further issue I’ll update you.

    1. vahid/ says:

      when you have these problem, you should restart your phone, the problme is solved. these problem is happen when some video call plugin is setup in your phone

  67. Frustrated says:

    I have a Nexus 4 and a Nexus 7 tablet, and wished I’d never downloaded this update. ON my phone I have problems accessing internet, in my tablet, I have a very hard time viewing a video on youtube. Really regret doing this.

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