Spontaneous reboots - discssion on possible causes

[OKSun 103]

7 hours ago, lzb said:

The random reboots are getting worse. They seem to be much more frequent than when I first got the phone. I don't know what the root cause is, or why they are more frequent now, but it's starting to boarder on unusable. I feel like I need to contact Fxtec but at this point I'm not sure what they can do.

In my case the spontaneous reboot were due to the poor WiFi connection in one room of my flat. I do not experience spontaneous reboot since I installed an additional WiFi acces point in the flat.

[lzb 43]

7 hours ago, OKSun said:

In my case the spontaneous reboot were due to the poor WiFi connection in one room of my flat. I do not experience spontaneous reboot since I installed an additional WiFi acces point in the flat.

I actually got a new router recently that improved my coverage. The only thing I can think of is that the new router utilizes SON (Self-Organizing Networking), which silently switches connected WiFi devices between 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz on the same SSID, might be confusing the Pro1. But still, if that's the case, that is a massive software failure. None of my other devices experience this. With the Pro1, I go for days without issues, and then one day the phone will reboot 3-4 times in the same day, and then it's fine again for awhile.

[lzb 43]

11 hours ago, Hook said:

It may not be a solution you want to do, but as far as I can tell they don't happen on Lineage.

So it's a massive software failure in stock. I'm a Google Pay user so non-stock is not an option at this point.

[EskeRahn 5,421]

1 hour ago, lzb said:

I actually got a new router recently that improved my coverage. The only thing I can think of is that the new router utilizes SON (Self-Organizing Networking), which silently switches connected WiFi devices between 5 GHz and 2.4 GHz on the same SSID, might be confusing the Pro1. But still, if that's the case, that is a massive software failure. None of my other devices experience this. With the Pro1, I go for days without issues, and then one day the phone will reboot 3-4 times in the same day, and then it's fine again for awhile.

An interesting theory if SON is triggering this bug! Could you (temporarily) set them as two independent networks, and see if the Pro1 can work with both without the random boots? And if that works double check that the bug reappears by setting your router back to using SON.

[lzb 43]

1 hour ago, EskeRahn said:

An interesting theory if SON is triggering this bug! Could you (temporarily) set them as two independent networks, and see if the Pro1 can work with both without the random boots? And if that works double check that the bug reappears by setting your router back to using SON.

I could try it, but it's a big PITA because I'd have two new SSIDs, and I'd have to reconfigure all my other wireless devices. I didn't use SON in my old router because it was a feature that was added in a software update and I had already had my two SSIDs set up and didn't want to deal with it. But I can't remember if the Pro1 had the same issue then (which might be a hint that it didn't). Also, one buggy device should not dictate my network architecture; it should be fixed in stock.

[EskeRahn 5,421]

31 minutes ago, lzb said:

one buggy device should not dictate my network architecture; it should be fixed in stock.

Obviously the bug should be fixed on the Pro1, but you might help them in testing if this theory has anything to do with reality. It could be other things that also affects it so even if they bought the exact same router they just might not see the same bug. And thus would not find the bug pestering you. The more it can be narrowed down, the easier it will be to find and fix.

[lzb 43]

12 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

Obviously the bug should be fixed on the Pro1, but you might help them in testing if this theory has anything to do with reality. It could be other things that also affects it so even if they bought the exact same router they just might not see the same bug. And thus would not find the bug pestering you. The more it can be narrowed down, the easier it will be to find and fix.

Considering that when I emailed them about it, their response was basically "might be a bad app, do a reset," I don't have high confidence that low-level network issues are on their radar. If I did this test, who would I tell? Is someone officially aware of this issue? Do they have an internal development ticket open? Are they collecting data? This is not a new issue, as can be seen by this thread. If they were aware, they would have said something I would think. You're suggesting I do their QA for them, just to have a data point that might be useful down the road, to somebody, if/when they get around to fixing it.

Edited August 21, 2020 by lzb

[MvBoe 31]

1 hour ago, lzb said:

I could try it, but it's a big PITA because I'd have two new SSIDs, and I'd have to reconfigure all my other wireless devices. I didn't use SON in my old router because it was a feature that was added in a software update and I had already had my two SSIDs set up and didn't want to deal with it. But I can't remember if the Pro1 had the same issue then (which might be a hint that it didn't). Also, one buggy device should not dictate my network architecture; it should be fixed in stock.

Another possibility would be a separate guest network with its own name that is only used for the Pro1.

[lzb 43]

6 minutes ago, MvBoe said:

Another possibility would be a separate guest network with its own name that is only used for the Pro1.

That is an easier option that would be less destructive to my network setup, but might prevent me from doing certain things, e.g. use Google Home (devices need to be on same network). It would also be difficult to know if it actually helps, since the reboot behavior seems to be random. If I try it for a week, how do I know that on day 8 it wouldn't have rebooted?

Edited August 21, 2020 by lzb
Reword

[EskeRahn 5,421]

4 minutes ago, lzb said:

That is an easier option that would be less destructive to my network setup, but would prevent me from doing certain things, e.g. use Google Home (devices need to be on same network). It would also be difficult to know if it actually helps, since the reboot behavior seems to be random. If I try it for a week, how do I know that on day 8 it wouldn't have rebooted?

Indeed. Had it been easy to spot, they would most likely have fixed it. If it 'only' happens as seldom as in the order of days or even week it will be very hard to reproduce systematically, no matter what you do.

[lzb 43]

3 minutes ago, EskeRahn said:

Indeed. Had it been easy to spot, they would most likely have fixed it. If it 'only' happens as seldom as in the order of days or even week it will be very hard to reproduce systematically, no matter what you do.

I would argue the audio crackling issue was easy to spot, yet it shipped that way, and it took them a very long time to fix.

Considering my comment above about their (not) addressing the reboot issue, anything I do would just involve my messing with my network, not really getting any definitive answers, and ending up right back where I am now. Ideally, they should be aware this issue exists, and have a proper development and testing setup to investigate it and fix it.

[lzb 43]

For the record, I just had a random reboot while using my phone as I sat on a bench outside, nowhere near my wifi (on cellular)

[EskeRahn 5,421]

On 8/22/2020 at 12:58 AM, lzb said:

For the record, I just had a random reboot while using my phone as I sat on a bench outside, nowhere near my wifi (on cellular)

For the first time in at the least a year I had it too this morning. And looking at the logcat it could be related to WiFi.
I see entries like these before and not after the crash

08-24 07:48:21.605  1668  2065 E AndroidRuntime: FATAL EXCEPTION: LocaleTracker
08-24 07:48:21.605  1668  2065 E AndroidRuntime: Process: com.android.phone, PID: 1668
08-24 07:48:21.605  1668  2065 E AndroidRuntime: java.lang.NullPointerException: Attempt to invoke virtual method 'void android.net.wifi.WifiManager.setCountryCode(java.lang.String)' on a null object reference
08-24 07:48:21.605  1668  2065 E AndroidRuntime: 	at com.android.internal.telephony.LocaleTracker.updateLocale(LocaleTracker.java:412)
08-24 07:48:21.605  1668  2065 E AndroidRuntime: 	at com.android.internal.telephony.LocaleTracker.updateOperatorNumericSync(LocaleTracker.java:284)
08-24 07:48:21.605  1668  2065 E AndroidRuntime: 	at com.android.internal.telephony.LocaleTracker.handleMessage(LocaleTracker.java:135)
08-24 07:48:21.605  1668  2065 E AndroidRuntime: 	at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:106)
08-24 07:48:21.605  1668  2065 E AndroidRuntime: 	at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:193)
08-24 07:48:21.605  1668  2065 E AndroidRuntime: 	at android.os.HandlerThread.run(HandlerThread.java:65)

 

[lzb 43]

On 8/24/2020 at 3:13 AM, EskeRahn said:

For the first time in at the least a year I had it too this morning. And looking at the logcat it could be related to WiFi.
I see entries like these before and not after the crash

08-24 07:48:21.605  1668  2065 E AndroidRuntime: FATAL EXCEPTION: LocaleTracker
08-24 07:48:21.605  1668  2065 E AndroidRuntime: Process: com.android.phone, PID: 1668
08-24 07:48:21.605  1668  2065 E AndroidRuntime: java.lang.NullPointerException: Attempt to invoke virtual method 'void android.net.wifi.WifiManager.setCountryCode(java.lang.String)' on a null object reference
08-24 07:48:21.605  1668  2065 E AndroidRuntime: 	at com.android.internal.telephony.LocaleTracker.updateLocale(LocaleTracker.java:412)
08-24 07:48:21.605  1668  2065 E AndroidRuntime: 	at com.android.internal.telephony.LocaleTracker.updateOperatorNumericSync(LocaleTracker.java:284)
08-24 07:48:21.605  1668  2065 E AndroidRuntime: 	at com.android.internal.telephony.LocaleTracker.handleMessage(LocaleTracker.java:135)
08-24 07:48:21.605  1668  2065 E AndroidRuntime: 	at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:106)
08-24 07:48:21.605  1668  2065 E AndroidRuntime: 	at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:193)
08-24 07:48:21.605  1668  2065 E AndroidRuntime: 	at android.os.HandlerThread.run(HandlerThread.java:65)

 

I wasn't sure how to capture the logs, but this seems like a major OS-level issue. Not sure how to get it on their radar (other than this forum)

[lzb 43]

Another data point: seemingly every time I come home from being out, and the phone switches from cellular to my home wifi, a reboot occurs. Almost without fail. The opposite, switching from wifi to cellular, does not cause a reboot

[OKSun 103]

It would be good to have a tutorial on how to capture the logs. I do not know how to dig them after a reboot.

[lzb 43]

I have just received the following response from support:

Quote

There's an upcoming software update due to come out anytime in the next 1-2 weeks. It will address an unexpected restarts issue which was reported by a few people. I personally never experienced it, but this new update has a fix focused on that particular report. Your Pro1 will notify you automatically once the update has been pushed out.

So I guess we'll see

[lzb 43]

I just received the update yesterday. I'll continue to monitor it and see if it helps.

[lzb 43]

So after almost three weeks, I can say that there is definitely an improvement. I have not had any random reboots at all, even at my work site (which was a known problem area)

[daniel.schaaaf 177]

For me it was the complete opposite. My phone was working well with my fibre router and WiFi from a second Android phone used as a hotspot. Some days ago I got mobile broadband installed and therefore I got a new router. The new router is just another common Zyxel device. And it made my phone reboot so fast, it was difficult to disable WiFi quickly enough to prevent further reboots.

Well, well ... I finally made the transition to LineageOS. F(x)tec really blew it with their craptacular flavour of Android 😡

Edited September 26, 2020 by daniel.schaaaf

[tdm 2,322]

23 hours ago, daniel.schaaaf said:

For me it was the complete opposite. My phone was working well with my fibre router and WiFi from a second Android phone used as a hotspot. Some days ago I got mobile broadband installed and therefore I got a new router. The new router is just another common Zyxel device. And it made my phone reboot so fast, it was difficult to disable WiFi quickly enough to prevent further reboots.

Well, well ... I finally made the transition to LineageOS. F(x)tec really blew it with their craptacular flavour of Android 😡

 

To be fair, this is Qualcomm's mess not FxTec or IdeaLTE.  Both stock and lineage use the Qualcomm qcacld driver for WiFi.  Just different revisions.  Apparently some revisions are buggy for some people, other revisions are buggy for other people.  Maybe I just got lucky and picked the revision that seems least buggy?

 

[VaZso 1,997]

Not really spontaneous reboot but I had a problem of something like a reboot loop of Android when I have restarted my phone but also later it became worse and started the same loop after I plugged in to charger.
It was not a complete reboot as Linux kernel did not restart, but Android did it on the top.

This reboot loop usually took hours, then the phone started and functioned well till the next charge attempt.

So yesterday I wanted to save everything and do a factory reset.
Before that, I wanted to take a backup using Android built-in function. It has uploaded general settings and SMS, but it also started the same loop during backup.

So I did a factory reset, then setup restore, let the application installed and also installed applications from F-Droid.
After reboot, the same loop started again.

Then I did a factory reset and started to setup the phone, it worked without loops.
However, I have found my in-app purchases will be lost this way (so Aquamail thought it was not purchased), so I did a factory reset again and initiated a restore, but turned off WiFi and canceled the installation of some rarely used applications. I have also not installed all of the applications from F-droid.

So far it works well, there is no reboot loop.

What I have found is restarting the Pro1 took a while compared to the speed it had at initial state.
After doing factory reset, the restart was fast again, but after installed all of the applications, it was slow again.
However, now (so without some of the applications), it also seems to be booting fast.

I had some benchmarking apps, sensor testing, etc. which I have not installed now and I also had Termux:Boot installed which I haven't used yet so I have skipped it now.
I don't know which one was the cause but I think one of the installed applications had some background worker which slowed down the system (I think the reach of background storage) and as a result, a protection mechanism has restarted Android on top of Linux kernel.

So this kind of problem was Android related and otherwise Pro1 seems to be still fast and as reinstalling all applications reinstalled the problem itself and without all of the applications the problem has gone, plus the difference is only a few applications, I think the hardware itself has no problems.

I though to share this experience as others may also run into it (someone even contacted me of having the same problem earlier).

So the conclusion is this problem was not Pro1-related. 🙂

[FlyingAntero 860]

On 7/17/2020 at 9:30 AM, FlyingAntero said:

I have not noticed random reboots since March but I have not been travelling due COVID-19 situation (I am working from my home). That makes me believe that the root cause of the issue is the same with some Sony devices. I mentioned that earlier. All random reboots that I have faced have happened during travelling.

Yesterday I noticed first random reboot since March. However, this time the reboot happened at my home where I have not faced reboots ever before with Pro1. I don't know if the latest updated changed something or was this just a random hiccup (not related to previous reboots)? I was watching YouTube and scrolling web using split screen so maybe I was just stressing the phone too much? I will report if it happens again.

Totally have faced 5 or 6 random reboots during 8 months usage so it is not that bad issue.

Edited September 30, 2020 by FlyingAntero

[VaZso 1,997]

43 minutes ago, FlyingAntero said:

I was watching YouTube and scrolling web using split screen so maybe I was just stressing the phone too much? I will report if it happens again.

 

What was the appropriate temperature of the phone?
If it was too hot then it can be a cause.

Otherwise, I had only one reboot since last update when I was in Google Camera's interface (GCam port) wanting to take a photo, then the display went green and a full reboot happened.
Otherwise it remained stable.

[Chibz 2]

Hi everyone!

Is there any fix for the WCDMA reboots?
I have a lot of reboots every time I leave the city or go down in elevator -- every time when my phone tries to get 3G.
4G and GSM are working well but if i try to select "WCDMA only" connection type the phone immediately starts rebooting.