Help mankind by helping my phone suck less. (VZW Nexus)

[Fingolfin269]

I've had this phone for about a year and it seems so ridiculously slow now. I'll open up a browser, click the search bar, and wait for 3 or 4 seconds before Swiftkey pops up. That's just a single example, it's really an all around lag fest.

What's the best way to go about making this thing like new? I bought the phone used and it was apparently previously rooted so I'd like to undo that as well. Basically I want this thing to act as if it just came out of the packaging for the first time (sans the amazing scratches on the screen of course).

I know how to go through the motions on 'factory reset' but the root portion is where I fail. I didn't root it and I've heard you need to know what method was used to unroot in order to restore back to factory. Is this true? If so how would I go about figuring out what method was used?

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Do you know if there is a custom recovery on it?

Can you take a screenshot of the "About Phone" page?

Do you know how to install a custom ROM?

You should keep the root, I'll help your phone feel new (Once the above questions are answered)

 

[sweenish]

Getting rid of root (and custom recovery?) is exactly what you don't want to do. Not right away, anyway.

What you want to do is back up your apps, get on a stock 4.3 ROM, and enjoy life. I'm running the Shiny ROM and my toro has never been smoother. This ROM doesn't even install root, that's how stock it is. Do always keep your custom recovery for updates, though.

Or, if you're still rooted and don't want to bother with any of that, download the lagfix app and run it every day.

It would help if you dropped information like what version of Android you are running, what your kernel is, etc. Radios and bootloader wouldn't hurt, either.

 

[Fingolfin269]

Do you know if there is a custom recovery on it? I think it has clockwork recovery loaded. I know when I tried to install the latest version of Android (as prompted by Verizon) it went to a recovery screen and failed.

Can you take a screenshot of the "About Phone" page?

Do you know how to install a custom ROM? No, but I'm willing to learn.

You should keep the root, I'll help your phone feel new (Once the above questions are answered)

See above. Thanks! If you'd rather discuss in PM that works for me as well.

 

[dguy6789]

The Google Chrome browser is really slow(it has gotten worse and worse with updates since it first launched) it's not your phone's fault for that.

 

[Fingolfin269]

The Google Chrome browser is really slow(it has gotten worse and worse with updates since it first launched) it's not your phone's fault for that.

I'm using Dolphin and it didn't used to be this slow. Honestly it's not just the browser. It really feels like that old windows computer feel, the kind where you just know it's time to do a fresh install and everything's going to hopefully be ok.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

Pm sent, this shall be a fun project

 

[AstroManLuca]

This is what I did toward the end of my own VZ Nexus' life:

0. Rooted and installed custom recovery. Every Android phone I've owned gets rooted, this is not a debate.
1. Installed the latest stable CyanogenMod ROM. Some nightly builds are fine but some cause problems. Easier just to stick to the stable builds and not worry.
2. Uninstall every app that I don't use. There are so many just hanging around doing nothing.
3. Get rid of all alternative browsers, including Chrome, and install Naked Browser. Fastest Android browser I've used, no eye candy but very functional. And it has tabs.
4. I also only had one home screen with about 15-20 of my most-used apps in folders so they don't take up the whole screen. The only widget I used was Beautiful Widgets for the weather, and it was set to only refresh every 4 hours (or when opening the widget). Other widgets are worthless IMO.

Phone "ricing" has gone too far. Live wallpapers, widgets, tons of home screens, and tons of pointless apps that may run in the background and keep your phone from sleeping... this is why phones become so shitty.

I ended up ditching Android in favor of Windows Phone and I'm fine with it, but before doing so, I did the steps I listed above and things were much more tolerable.

 

[Fingolfin269]

Thanks for the help Yamamoto! I now have a freshly rooted and flashed to stock Jellybean 4.3 ROM. Much snappier. Much less likely to sink to the bottom of the local lake any time soon too.

 

[ImDonly1]

Thanks for the help Yamamoto! I now have a freshly rooted and flashed to stock Jellybean 4.3 ROM. Much snappier. Much less likely to sink to the bottom of the local lake any time soon too.

Which rom did you end up flashing?

 

[Fingolfin269]

Which rom did you end up flashing?

Shiny

http://rootzwiki.com/topic/36706-romaosp438713-shiny-ota-like-stock-android-43-jwr66v-no-bugs/

 

[Joe1987]

4.3 is supposed to deal with flash memory much better with TRIM management of storage. It sped up the N7, and VZ GN.

 

[dagamer34]

It's weird your phone didn't get any updates to 4.2 automatically and 4.3 after that.

 

[T_Yamamoto]

It's weird your phone didn't get any updates to 4.2 automatically and 4.3 after that.

His phone was rooted and the previous owner (OP bought it used) had just unrooted, but left CWM as the recovery. The OP tried to update with the OTA but it kept failing because of CWM being his recovery instead of the stock one.

(I helped him though the whole flashing process, it was a fun little project)