So you (or your child) are going off to college this fall? Don’t forget to pack a toothbrush, some extra-long sheets, a great laptop, and all the important tech gear. These essential apps for your Android phone will help keep you organized, productive, awake, and ready to tackle the challenges of higher education — and maybe even have a bit of fun along the way!
1. Oxford American Dictionary and Thesaurus for Android
Price: $19.99
Download: Oxford American Dictionary and Thesaurus
A good dictionary and thesaurus used to be a standard fixture on every dorm room desk. While their utility hasn’t changed, their form has! With this app, you can carry around a full dictionary and thesaurus on your phone. More than 200,000 dictionary entries and definitions and more than 300,000 synonyms are included, and you can search online or download the dictionary directly to your mobile device.
2. Virt U: The Virtual University
Price: Free
Download:Virt U
This app lets you download and watch lectures from universities such as MIT, Harvard, Berkeley, and Stanford right on your phone for free. Whether you’re looking to complement your existing courses or brush up on other subjects that interest you, you’re sure to find something among the hundreds of lecture videos available for both online and offline viewing. Connect with friends and post favorite lectures to Facebook, and join in discussion on Virt U’s forums.
3. Droid Scan
Price: Free for Lite, $7.49 for Pro
Download:Droid Scan Lite, Droid Scan Pro
Not everyone has completely converted their lives (or classes) to a digital format yet, which is why Droid Scan is such a valuable app. It allows you to use your phone’s camera as a scanner, turning photos of documents into high-resolution documents you can then open on your computer, save, organize, or share. We certainly wouldn’t recommend skipping class and then just scanning your friend’s notes, but this app could be helpful for taking photos of whiteboards, handouts, or even the menu of your favorite takeout place. Droid Scan Lite allows you to save files as .jpegs; the expanded Pro version gives you more file formats and better scan quality.
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4. Evernote
Price: Free
Download:Evernote
We’re pretty big fans of Evernote here at Tecca. This great note-taking app works in conjunction with a Web app and the desktop program, syncing your notes between all three. You can type notes, take photos, record voice memos, and create to-do lists that are easy to find on all of your devices. The Evernote app is free, as is a basic account, or you can upgrade to a pro account with extra features for $5 per month or $45 per year.
5. Studious
Price: Free
Download: Studious
There once was a time when students kept their class and homework schedules in physical notebooks, but those days are long gone. Studious does it all for you, right on your phone. When you put in your class schedule, it automatically silences your device during class time and reminds you of upcoming homework and tests. Save text notes and photos so you don’t miss a thing.
6. GrubHub
Price: Free
Download:GrubHub
Everyone’s gotta eat, and sometimes you just don’t have time to take a trip to the student union cafeteria. GrubHub makes it almost ridiculously easy to order food for delivery right to your door! Using GrubHub’s database of more than 25,000 restaurants in more than 300 cities around the country, you can browse menus and read restaurant reviews, recall past orders, and save multiple addresses for quick access, then place your order right from your phone.
7. Alarm Clock Xtreme
Price: Free
Download:Alarm Clock Xtreme
Don’t sleep through your most important classes! Snooze button mashers and gradual awakeners, rejoice — there’s an alarm clock app for you. Alarm Clock Xtreme works for everyone, no matter what your sleeping and waking habits might be. You can set it to wake you up gently and gradually, set a variable snooze duration, and even set it to require you solve math problems before it will turn off the alarm. The app also features a countdown timer and lets you set reminder alarms for events throughout the day.
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Sandra E 
MikeWhat happen to all the tones and ringers lowering at once. All together. When I turn down the volume it should lower everything. Say your in a meeting,I turn my volume almost to nothing and still get loud notifications cause there stuck on high. Never 
Matt 
Mark 
cotydlux 
librado 
ricks99 
Porgy 
Mike 
flowers 
Luke 
Mary 
Dawn 
Amy 
Rick Freeliving 
Gabe 
Tiffany 
I have taken so much care of my phone just so this stupid ICS ruins it. Does anyone know what to do??
Onery 
BOOBOO 
I’ve not had difficulties since ICS was installed I have a theory as to why I haven’t been troubled.
I use an app that is for different purpose but as secondary use, may be significant. It’s App to SD card (not sure card is actually in name) while it’s great for keeping track of where apps are what can be moved, etc. the second use that shows each time that app is activated is to show exactly how much cache is accumulated asks if I want to clear it. I have become a regular user of the app for that purpose, am amazed by large sizes of cache that is regularly built.
It seems to me if a person did not have that app along with the system of using it to clear cache or its equivalent, it could create a problem when ICS is installed.
I offer this as a theory since I apparently have skipped over the issues that some are experiencing. I was not completely ready for ICS but was curious about whether it was available for my RAZR, had done some checking but when I checked under “about phone” updates, it automatically started to download! That was a surprise. I didn’t have opportunity to do last final clearing cache, last final saving of everything but there have been no issues.
I only have the power off, sleep, airplane, and toggles between mute, vibrate and volume. I can’t even follow step 1. Am I missing something obvious here?
@Eddie..I am glad you asked that question because I was thinking the same thing. I can’t even complete step 1 for that same reason.
@Sandra…thanks a million for the tip. I have App2SD Pro and I forgot that it would clear the cache for you automatically. As soon as I used this option, my phone started behaving MUCH better.
I, too, have had issues with my Razr Maxx since the 4.04 upgrade – having gone from over 38 hours of battery life – to that of less than 10 (on a GOOD day). Criminal! You do know that if you go to SETTINGS, then PRIVACY and scroll down to FACTORY DATA RESET… it does the same thing, right!?
What Adam probably many to say was “power off the device”…..ignore #1, just power off and go on to step #2.
I am entitled to at least one brain fart a month. Just power the phone off.
Will I need to do this on a brand new unit???
when i try to get to the HBOOT screen I am getting some ‘locked mode’ screen rather than HBOOT?
I’m with you. Just get locked, etc. nothing to re-boot.
once the phone is off, press and hold Volume Down and Volume Up and Power. wait for the screen to go black and thats when you will press and hold the three buttons on the side of your phone.
I had too get a new phone. There is no way to turn of the 4 G and i am not talking about dialing #*#6236 what ever that number is. Also when i
installed ICS my battery is draining. I never had
that or the 4G issue with gingerbread. I have a new RAZR Maxx with gingerbread i refuse to installed ICS. I want to keep my battery lasting along time and i wanr to be able to turn off my 4G.
Hi Alexis,
Here is a app that you can use to turn of 4G;
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.andirc.lteonfoff
Thanks Mike. I am almost tempted to reinstall ics.
I didn’t like that I could not toggle either, but the app LTE on/off works. It get’s you to that same screen without dialing those numbers. When you open the app, scroll down till you see LTE/CDMA/EvDo, that is your 4G, change it to EvDo only and that changes it to 3G.
I’m def having issues w/ my MAXX since ICS. Phone is very “laggy” and freezes. When I hold the power volume down button the phone stays off. I’ve tried holding them for up to a minute. When I let go the phone powers up normally. What am i missing? Thanx
once the phone is off, you must press and hold all three of the buttons on the side…power, volume up and volume down.
You will have to hold up and down on the Razr or maxx with the power to go into boot
Thank you for responding. That worked. Whenever the instructions say “hold power volume down” it’s really both down up
Also, in step 4, it is the volume up button that selects (the power button will start it normally).
I wiped my cache and the apps are still crashing immediately when opened – and I’m not talking about third-party apps, it’s things like the native photo gallery. I also tried going into settings and stopping the cache for that specific app alone and it didn’t make a difference either.
I had the same problem only thing i can say is your gonna have to do a factory reset. Sorry i know its a pain but my phone works great now with the reset.
Thanks for the helpful pointers everyone, my razr works great now!
I’m stuck on #5. I’m on the window with the triangle and the exclamation, I hold down power and the volume up button, but it doesn’t do anything. Can anyone help me out? (I have the Razr, not MAXX)
I got stuck here too… you have to hold all 3 buttons again, not just up
On the Razr Maxx at least, these are the correct instructions. I can’t test the standard Razr as I don’t have one.
1. Power off the phone
2. Hold the Volume Down, and Volume Up buttons and push the Power Button for about 3 seconds to get to the HBOOT screen
3. Press Volume Down to scroll down to Recovery
4. Press Volume Up to select Recovery
5. When the Android lying on his back with the Triangle above his chest appears, press Volume Down and Volume Up at the same time.
6. Press Volume Down repeatedly to scroll down to “wipe cache partition” then press the Power Button to select it.
7. Once it completes the wipe, the blue menu will appear again. Make sure “reboot system now” is selected, and press the Power Button to restart the phone.
Thank you Kyle.
Thanks. That worked.
Perfect instructions. Thanks for correcting these.
I did this on mine and it worked fine. (Razr Maxx)
Thanks this is correct for the maxx
thank you! This new update has been so frustrating! Will this help my battery issue? I can’t make it 8 hours!
nevermind, still not working right.
This was great!!!! For you Maxx users hold both power and volume buttons. Then read the screen it tells you to use down volume then up volume to select.
When you get to delete cash use volume up and down to get to delete cache then hit power button it works .
Thanks for posting
I had issues the first two days i was on ics. I tried wiped my cache partition to no avail. I did the next usual step and backed up all my data. Then the unthinkable factory data reset from recovery and it fixed all fc’s and I have not had any issues since.
well it seems like after clearing the cache, now my phone reboots even more frequently, like every three minutes. I had to call Verizon and they said they were just going to send me a refurbished Maxx for my three week old one.
Ask for a supervisor.
I called VZW, and they wanted to replace my MAXX as well, I told them “NO”. I do not want a used phone after spending 299.00 for my phone. I also told them it is not the phone….it’s the software!!!!!!
I phoned VZW again and spoke to a very nice technical person. She also has the MAXX. She told me that Moto is currently working on a patch/fix for ICS. When it is out, we ALL will know. Don’t take a used phone if you just got a NEW one….
yeah i was really iffy about that but they swear up and down that my warranty will carry over till next year.
I forgot to mention, “just in case that any issue arises with the refurb’d phone.”
Plus how do you reboot your phone? Power button + volume buttons are now screen capture. How do you reboot??
How do I reboot my DROID RAZR Maxx on ICS?Power button + volume down used to reboot but now its screen capture. How do you reboot on ics??
Turn your screen off and then hold down the power button + volume down button…I kept doing it with the screen on, and it kept taking screenshots, but as soon as I turned my screen off and tried, it did the hard reboot. Hope this helps, I have a DROID RAZR.
I had the same issue as Hanna. With my Razr, I got to step 5 and couldn’t get past the triangle/excl screen.
Nevermind, I got it… let’s hope this worked! Although, I don’t think this will do anything for my 6 hour ICS battery life. I hope that fix rolls out soon. I did notice that switching my network from Global back to LTE seemed to help some, and making sure the cache of apps that is shown when holding the home button down is cleared often. I don’t know if it’s my imagination, or if it’s really helping…
Follow the below steps to perform a droid razr cache partition wipe:
To clear cache partition using external keys — follow these steps word for word and it will be a quick and easy process.
1.Power down and wait until you are sure the device is completely off.
2.Power up the phone by pressing the VOL UP + VOL DOWN KEY together + PWR KEY .
3.The device will enumerate with different BOOT OPTIONS
4.Use the VOL DOWN Key to SCROLL and VOL UP Key to SELECT
5.Select Recovery using the VOL UP key
6.The device will start up with Motorola logo and power up to a little Android man logo with Exclamation mark
7.Press the VOL UP and VOL DOWN Key together at this screen
8.The device will display BLUE Text on a Black background .
9.Use the VOL DOWN Key to scroll DOWN and the PWR Key to SELECT the option desired .
10.In this case, press the VOL DOWN key till wipe cache is selected and press the PWR key to confirm the selection .
11.The device will then start clearing cache
12.Once the process is complete, press the PWR key to confirm a REBOOT (which is highlighted by default after the cache is cleared)
13.The message rebooting is displayed on the phone.
14.The device will reboot and start the normal power up sequence .
Thnx it really worked for me.
Installed ICS this morning – everything working okay EXCEPT text messaging. Messages won’t show sent status or receive replies. Any ideas on how to fix it? Already did a factory reset.
Not sure if it’s necessary but i dialed *228 and it said my sim card was now activated. Maybe that is what you need to do?
If you are having battery draining problems with ICS turn off your GPS. Add the power control widget to one of your screens and make sure the the GPS symbol (middle one) isn’t highlighted. I went to VZN and they said that if you keep that turn ON all day, your battery will drain in 6-8 hours. If you want to use the Navigation app, you will have to turn the GPS back on (obviously).
The problem I’m having is that it now takes my phone about 12 hours to get a full charge! Anyone else having this? I’m using the same chargers and everything else as before.
I’m not having problems with cache, maybe because I use App Cache regularly. But my email is really screwy. It keeps bringing in older emails already deleted off the server. It brings in about 100-150 old emails at a time that I then have to go delete. I also don’t like the new email setup at all. It’s hard to click the little box without opening the email. Is anyone else having this problem with older emails coming back?
I figured out the problem (after Verizon was no help at the store). ICS reconfigured my email account so it wasn’t working right. I deleted the account and created it from scratch, and now it is working fine. So if you find your email isn’t working right, that’s what I’d suggest.
I don’t like the new email program very much, though. It’s ridiculously hard to hit the little checkbox on the side rather than opening the email, so I end up opening spam when I don’t want to. The autosuggest now only shows three items instead of 5 or 6, as previously. You can long press in the middle and bring up a grid with a lot more options, but that just adds additional keystrokes to what was very easy to do before. Now typing emails takes longer.
My Razor was upgraded to ics and I do not like some of the features. Now I have people instead of contacts and when I am in the phone dialer I cannot switch over and check my contacts without leaving dialer and entering people. I like how it worked before?
+1
I agree with Ron. It was logical before and now it is stupid. Makes me wonder what they were smoking when making these decisions? I hate a lot of the ICS features. Even the use of blue color for battery full indicator bugs me. And the new whiny voice for the Navigation is horrendous. Makes me want to not follow her directions!!! Screen scrolling is staccato. A mess, all in all. Wish I could revert till they fixed the issues
what ICS we are still waiting for it in the uk so stop moaning.
I thing so it will be next week in the UK.
Has anyone else noticed that after the ICS update, the sound is weird too. I mean when I press on each icon, it used to be alot louder with gingerbread. We all looked forward to ICS and it turns out to be crap! Every day its something else I notice that does not work right. Also noticed today that texting is strange as well.
This is really shit. between moto and verizon, all we do is WAIT, and WAIT. But, Verion NEVER WAITS FOR MY PAYMENT!!!! Isn’t that right Big Red, I am ALWAYS ON TIME.
See, you people ask for good better and best, but when you get the change that comes with best, you don’t know how to accept it and learn the new way. If you don’t like it, go get yourselves a piece of garbage non-upgradeable phone and you dont have to deal with change
Didn’t seem to help any on my RAZR. Still crashes when trying to open apps, including My Gallery, My Music, and even the Play Store. Also freezes when I try anything as simple as changing my ringtone. At least the thing still makes phone calls.
I tried opening my e-mail that was set up for my yahoo account and when I open it I was given the menu for syncing an account. So I entered my yahoo account information and I get a reply that says attention you have already added this email account. But it won’t open!
My email was screwed up too. It created a duplicate of my main account, then asked me to delete one of them. The one remaining didn’t work right. So I finally deleted that one also and recreated it from scratch. Now it works perfectly. I suggest you delete your Yahoo account (or maybe two versions, if there are two) and then recreate it from scratch.
Go to System Settings, Accounts sync and see what you actually have.
Mine did that before ics …ics actually fixed that problem for me
Since the great Ice Cream update my battery life sucks at least 50% less this blows any idea of how to correct this?
I cannot get the above “fix” to work. After I power down the phone and then do volume down power, nothing happens other than a brief blink of a line then the phone just comes back on as usual :-/
Same is happening with me. Help anyone?
you have to hold the power button plus volume up AND down! took me forever to figure it out
Sorry if it has already been posted, but the procedure for me was a little different. I had to press all 3 buttons: Power, Volume Up, and Volume Down to get the menus. Otherwise, worked great and seemed to fix flash issues, at least in stock browser. Thanks!
Everything was working fine until I turned the 4G on (I’m usually on wireless). Within a couple of hours, the phone had gotten ridiculously hot to touch and the battery drained. I turned 4G off, and the phone cooled off. Has anyone else found this?
Update: I downloaded that helpful app mentioned above for turning off 4G. It worked fine. I switched to just 3G, and my phone remains cool and holding its battery. So it’s just 4G that’s the problem. That sucks, but at least I have a data connection.
I hope Verizon has a software fix for the 4G to keep the phone from overheating.
BTW, I read on another forum that someone left her Razr plugged into the car charger while it was off so it could do the update over 4G. She went in a store, and when she got out, the phone had totally drained the car battery, the phone overheated and melted, and the glass on the phone cracked. Verizon is sending her a new phone, but GEEZ! But, as a reminder, NEVER leave a phone plugged into a car charger when the car isn’t on. It will drain the car battery. I always unplug the charger too, even if the phone isn’t attached. I don’t want to take the chance.
I can tell you there is no way that a car charger can drain a car battery in a few minutes completely. That kind of current drain not only would pop the fuse but it would set the wire on fire in the car.
didnt work for me….. still cannot watch videos
I can get the video to work but I get no sound.
same issue here
Regarding the melted phone left in car to charge. It’s a frustration to me that a phone in a car that’s not running, doesn’t work because upon engine off, the charger no longer sends any juice to the outlet. I grant that it doesn’t make sense to leave a phone to charge (assuming that car does charge when engine’s off) but common. the sense should dictate that not doing it when the temperatures are high, should be a basic. If a car battery is in good shape, I can’t imagine it would wear down a car battery.
On a recent trip, I consistently got messages from RAZR that I should unplug the charge cord because it had full charge.
I’m in agreement that described situation is bizarre but also recognize that it would not be ABLE to happen with my equipment. I don’t own any unusual auto equipment or phone other than my RAZR.
My car actually has 2 ‘lighter’ charge ports. 1 does shut off with the key but the other is Perma-On. I could easily leave something plugged in and draining if I use the wrong port in the car.
Continuous power is supplied to all 12V outlets regardless of the position of the ignition switch in most American cars.
I’m assuming its the exact opposite in foreign cars?
I’ve never owned a foreign car before (I’m from Detroit and that’s a no-no) however I recently came across a deal I couldn’t pass up on a used Hyundai to use as a daily driver and was quite surprised that the headlights and cigarette lighter/12V socket powered off with the ignition.
I agree with Sandra – The battery in your car would have to be in very, very bad condition to be drained by a cell phone/charger unless it was over a very, very long period of time.
I “accidentally” just upgraded my MAXX to ICS.. Waiting to see what happens…
so after one week running with ICS, I have come to the conclusion that the only way to solve the battery drain issues, and all the bugs that came with it was a factory reset. I really didn’t want to do it, but i’ve already seen vast improvements in battery life ( ran over 5 hours and only dropped from 30%-15%) and my phone has been off the charger for 2 hours and lost 10%… not bad. My gallery works again, my email notifications came back, no more facebook or iheartradio crashes, and everything just seems to be running smoother. If you haven’t factory reset, I highly recommend it. It honestly only took me about an hour to get everything back to the way that it was. p.s.- joining all the facebook contacts with my actual contacts was a PAIN IN MY ARSE!!
Worked, but had to hold volume up AND down AND power. Instructions said just volume down. Phone performing much better. Was getting frustrated.
Thanks for the tip.
After going over a few of the articles on your website,
I honestly appreciate your way of writing a blog. I book marked it to my bookmark site list and will be checking
back soon. Please visit my web site as well and let me know your opinion.
I have problems as well. Battery drainage very fast also very laggy while reading forums and web surfing. I have cleared the cache and that was no help on the laggyness. Before the up grade to ICS the phone was very smooth and fast now while surfing it take it a split sec for the scroll to work and making it very jerky. Also if i try to watch an attched vid on the forum it will lock the phone up.
Anyone else having these problems?
Also have problems with the double tap zoom.
I just installed the Adobe AIR from PlayStore and my flash videos started working on all browsers.
After ICS update I had several odd things with taps not working, or the phone seeming to have a mind of it’s own. Also, of 3 e-mail accounts, only one still worked. I also had a couple of episodes of the case being really hot and the battern charge dropping quickly. (I do not have 4G in my area yet.) I tried deleting my corporate e-mail and adding it again, but it would not connect.
I finally got the wipe cache partition to work (had to use all 3 buttons.) Then was able to add the corporate e-mail first try. Things do seem better, but I am not crazy about the screen dim or the lower volumne on alerts. I guess I’ll have to get used to them.
It’s been mentioned before but these instructions quite honestly SUCK. You have to use ALL three buttons and power button in place where they are telling you wrong. This is from memory, but I’m pretty sure it’s a LOT more accurate than the instructions above.
1) Press and hold the Power button and turn the phone off. (CORRECT)
2) When the screen turns off, press and hold Volume Down and Power. (BAD! Use all three buttons (power and BOTH volume rockers)
3) When the white HBOOT screen appears, use the volume button to move down to “RECOVERY.” (CORRECT – however, you have to use the DOWN button and use it carefully)
4) Press the Power button to select “RECOVERY.” (BAD! mine said to use the UP VOLUME ROCKER TO SELECT.)
5) When the triangle and exclamation appears, hold the Volume Up and Power button at the same time. (BAD! Use the volume up and down buttons and the power button)
6) Using the volume button, scroll down to “Wipe cache partition” and select it. (CORRECT, BUT they didn’t tell you that NOW you use the power button to select.)
7) Select “Reboot system now.” (again, use the power button).
Sorry for the rant, but I spent 20 minutes worried I was going to hose my phone because the poster didn’t test. Sorry for being a newb, but these were not good instructions. Looks to be a generic copy/paste from a forum, and not tested on the RAZR. Hope that helps someone else.
Thanks man…..it actually worked! have to see if the rebook actually made any difference
No difference….wikipedia still doesnt open and the cache keeps building up
To DNK, you can use an app called “App to SD card (mine Pro version) and each every time that you click on the app, it figures how much cache has built up select the next action for that -I ALWAYS clear it as I’ve never missed anything that was deleted out of cache.
Alright so i’m on just the normal droid razr and i got the update this morning and its having all of the above problems. But it’s also running my apps super shittily and i can’t view any pictures. I just now did that whole “fix” process and it really didn’t do anything :/
Actually i just went to the verizon store. they said if you go to systems settings, then privacy, and do a system reboot(don’t delete all of your shit) that it should fix it. Both of the workers their had similar phones!!
I don’t see that option. Only Factory data reset on the privacy menu.
I put my phone on silent and the thing still yells Droid where get a text . Volumes don’t lower our raise together. (not good)
SORRY …. When I get a text message….
If you would change it to some ringtone other than that stupid “Droid” ringtone! then you wouldn’t need to hear that sound. If you don’t want to hear anything, then set it differently for “notifications” then you will. O longer hear that. I recommend you watch some videos on how to setup a RAZR. There is no intelligent reason for listening to any sound if you don’t want to hear it the answer is to educate yourself on how to silence any sounds you find objectionable. I did just this when my RAZR was brand new. You are capable of doing it also. Guided tours are available for how to setup a new RAZR.
It sounds as though you need help with initial setup of your phone because it needn’t be in that annoying setup. You are able to separately setup ringtones for phone calls, at times, on individual basis) . It would not be such a popular phone if everyone was consistently annoyed. Y their phones. If you get app to sdcard (I have the Pro version since I’ve established that I like the app, use it regularly, etc), you’ll be able to make certain you can clear cache when you click on it. Al, it’s use makes sure that your apps are put where the phone will function best. In each app, info is given for place app should be put so it will be helpful. With smartphones, it’s necessary to learn certain maintenance routines to keep the phone’s operation to be both fast smooth. Good Luck to you with your RAZR.
You could set a barely audible puff for notifications but select an appealing ringtone that you’ll be pleased to hear. Personally, have my RAZR setup for certain ringtones to match the caller. You can do the same. I haven’t spent a dime but have very interesting ringtones, customized through the teeth.
It’s all about learning if you cannot or will not take the time to learn your phone, just as all of us do, then, I recommend that you get a less complex phone.
You could set a barely audible puff for notifications but select an appealing ringtone that you’ll be pleased to hear. Personally, have my RAZR setup for certain ringtones to match the caller. You can do the same. I haven’t spent a dime but have very interesting ringtones, customized through the teeth.
It’s all about learning if you cannot or will not take the time to learn your phone, just as all of us do, then, I recommend that you get a less complex phone.
No, this is in no way a duplicate comment wouldn’t have wasted my time to type the same stuff. If you don’t recognize that, I cannot help you but content is different.
What happen to all the tones and ringers lowering at once. All together. When I turn down the volume it should lower everything.
Say your in a meeting,I turn my volume almost to nothing and still get loud notifications cause there stuck on high. Never had this problem before ics update
There is a setup screen for setting up notifications sounds vs etc clearly, you need to go there which will solve this issue. It gives the user more control over sounds but I think this existed prior to ICS but not certain. Good luck I’m confident you’ll be happy after doing that setup.
I checked return with Detailed response! Press Home (the farthest bottom left button under all things like Phone, people, apps), “Settings” will appear, under Settings, click “Sound”, which takes you to many options but categories include Volume, Ringtones Notifications, System, Audio Effects. Choose ringtones Notifications to setup a different ringtone for different things. I personally have loud ringtone for phone calls but just a swoosh sound for Notifications. In response to this persons issue, the key choice is for volume which clearly allows you to setup if you prefer no sound or just vibrate during a meeting. Keep in mind, at end of meeting, this setting must be reversed. Once aware of system, it’ll become second nature to set this for meeting mode. This is how my RAZR, non-rooted, ICS is controlled.I hope this resolves your mystery gets your phone so it doesn’t embarrass you.
when i get to the hboot screen there is no option for recovery or any others. it does say ‘Device is LOCKED. Status Code: 0′
I have the exact same problem. I can get to the hboot screen, but the up and down volume button do not do anything and there is no “recovery” option available. Mine also says “Device is locked. Stats code 0″ any thoughts? Thanks!
I was having the same problem. When your phone is off, press both up and down together then the power button.
Then scroll down to recovery
click up
the moto logo comes on. click both up and down. You should be good from there.
This information is useless
first of all there is no restart option on droid razor and when the white screen appears there is no recovery option says the phone is locked so that being said is there any other option ?
Here is the correct way to fix. I copied and pasted this directly from the Motorola forums.
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Discussion Subject:ICS having issues? Wipe Your Cache!!Comment:I just want to say, many people have issues regarding their applications etc. If you are having issues with your music player, camera, and other aplications…you should do the following:
**Steps Pulled from ElDudarino42**
Step 1: From a Power off position press and hold the Power, Vol up and Down Key until the bootloader screen comes up
Step 2: Volume down to recovery and than hit Volume up to select
Step 3: When the Android with the the Red Triangle appears push the vol up and down button together
Step 4: Scroll to clear cache partition and push the power button
Step 5: wait for it to clear and than choose reboot once complete by pushing the power button.
It seems to me that the OTA upgrade did not wipe the cache before the install of ICS (Or it didn’t do a good job at it). Hopefully this won’t become problematic in the long run…people who install custom ROMs tend to have many issues if they dont wipe their cache before install.
THANK YOU notbond007. Your instructions worked perfectly
Thanks notbond007! I did it just now that “volume up and down buttons” ! The article missed the volume up button.
This cleared the cache on my RAZR Maxx. Thank you! Hopefully it’ll improve things until an update comes along.
Thank you Sandra,I just thought it would be soo simple to lower and raise everything at once. Like it use to be. Why would you want one sound soo loud and the other barely heard. Than switch them back later when your done. I like everything loud cause I’m deaf…lol there use to be a little box to check soo all the sounds will move at the same time. Thanks you soo much for for your help. Hope the next software will correct this. Think its jelly bean…lol
PS vibrate its obnoxious too during a meeting
Ever since I got droid razr to accept ICS, my battery life is ridiculously short!!!! Does anyone have a word of advice on this? Also, when I checked what was taking up battery life it said at the top “screen” is taking up 43%! and I have screen very dimmed! Help please!
Well i got my replacement phone,now i’m just worried about upgrading to ICS again.
The app (crackle) won’t play movies/video’s no more either.
Mine either — I used to be able to stream videos from Amazon Prime on the phone. Now they won’t load, and they lock up my browser for half an hour or more. Was told (by a message on the phone screen) to update Adobe Flash after doing ICS update, but that didn’t work. Have done the cache clear (thank you for the instruction fix . . . it made it simple), but REALLY miss my videos. Anyone have any thoughts?
Since ICS, my phone will not ring. It will announce the caller but won’t ring. I have it set thru “smart actions” to announce and ring (and it use to until the upgrade)
Also it gets very hot while plugged in.
After reading of your plight, I called my phone Surprise! My phone doesn’t ring either. It’s announced but no ring. In Sound, it’s set to be at full volume Smart Actions, same ringtone but no sound other than recorded voice mispronouncing words.
I’ll aw.it until this update comes through hope! I have far too much put in my phone to start from scratch-just like others do as well.
Do the factory reset (see my post below). That fixes everything. Pain in the neck, but necessary. My phone’s been nice and cool since then. It also rings!
I finally bit the bullet and did a factory reset. I used MyBackup Pro to restore. That had a bug in it with caused the phone to lose it’s dialer and a lot of other stuff when I restored everything. If you have this program, uncheck the “Android home” box before restoring or you’ll crash your phone. They’re issuing a new release this weekend addressing some ICS issues, so hopefully that will fix the problem, but if not, they are now aware. After restoring line by line, and with three factory resets (and many hours), I finally got the phone working again.
I have to say that now that I did the reset, the phone holds its charge fine and equivalent to what it was before ICS. I have not tested 4G since then since I don’t have 4G where I am. Last Monday, I was in a 4G area all day and the phone became extremely hot to touch and drained the battery right down very quickly. I’ll post again after I’m in a 4G area again to see if that has resolved with the factory reset. I suspect it will be fine since my battery is acting like it’s on Gingerbread again.
A word of advice if you use a backup program. Take pictures first (or write down) what apps you have on the home screens and how they are arranged. Restoring didn’t put the apps back on the screens (though it did reinstall all of them), so I had to figure it all out again from scratch. Since I was already exhausted from spending all night doing three complete factory resets, I really didn’t want to have to think about that too! LOL
Verizon’s Backup Assistant, BTW, not only brought all my contacts back (but no phone logs), but also my wallpaper and quite a few other settings. But I would get a backup program for the rest before doing the reset.
So my verdict is you have to do the factory reset to get the battery back to working normally. There really doesn’t seem to be any other way around it, so just bite the bullet and get it done. It’s still not as bad as resetting a laptop back to factory status!
The article’s instructions are flawed.
If you want to “wipe the cache” you need to hold BOTH volume keys and the power button on the Droid Razr Maxx. This will take you to the phone’s system where you can select “recover”.
It took me ten minutes and a lot of reading to determine the article’s author mislead a million people in the vein proceedure it listed.
I can’t get this to work? When U power off my phone and then try the 2nd step…hold power button and volume down button to get the HBOOT screen appear, nothing happens? Am I doing something wrong?
The person that wrote that article gave incorrect steps to accessing the Razr Maxx system boot menu and to clean the wipe the cache. You must hold BOTH volume keys and the power buttom at the same time until the boot menu appears.
I cleared the cache following the directions, but my phone is still messed up! I have HORRIBLE battery life. When I go to check what is causing it, it says my screen is using 88%!!!! I am using a stock wallpaper and my display is as dim as possible!! Any ideas?!
You need to do a factory reset. That’s the only way.
Amy, I actually, called Motorola. They told me that the factory reset will NOT get rid of ICS, nothing will they tell me. But I hope the factory reset can help in any way. Stupid ICS!!!!
The factory reset isn’t to get rid of ICS. That’s a done deal. The factory reset fixes the battery and other problems. My phone has been running just fine since the reset, as have the phones of two friends. Good luck!
I am having the SAME problem!! But I don’t think the screen is that high, 60% or less. Hmm… I hate ICS, people should sue them (as if..) Anyways, I called Motorola. They’re helping me, though so far nothing’s working
I have taken so much care of my phone just so this stupid ICS ruins it. Does anyone know what to do??
Do a factory reset. That should fix everything.
After the ICS update…as soon as I try and use any type of data, browser, email apps etc…my phone looses all connectivity….ALL…Ive cleared the cache’s, dont a factory reset, even installed a new sim card…anyone else have this issue? It only does it in 4G but since ICS doesnt have the option to stay in 3G im screwed
I haven’t seen that problem. But I installed the app LTE on off which lets me easily switch data to 3G only or off, if I want.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.andirc.lteonfofffeature=related_apps#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEwOSwibmV0LmFuZGlyYy5sdGVvbmZvZmYiXQ..
Just add the 3g toggle from the market. Its called LTE ON/OFF for the thunderbolt. It works great with the razrs!
ICS Android 4.0 has a un-fixable bug conflicting with Razr Maxx phones. You will have to wait until an updated OS is put out and hope they fixed this bug. Specifically, and the worst case of the problem, is that while hotspot tethered to your laptop or other device (i.e., ipad) surfing the Internet all bluetooth devices lose connection every 1 to 2 minutes and then re-aquire connection. So, if you get a call while hotspot tethered you have to disconnect the tethering to your computer otherwise you will cut in and out on your bluetooth headset. Also, yes you can disable 4G by going to your phone’s dialpad and dialing in *#*#4636#*#*
goto phone information, then click on LTE/CDMA/EvDo and change to CDMA only
Just curious Rick..is this a one time deal (dialing *#*#…..) to get the CDMA only option back into menu options, or do you have to do it everytime you want to get it? If so, then I’lll stick with the LTE on/off
Im having problems with my browser it freezes ,bad batte
ry, its because who ever that made the update didn’t have the brain to test for bugs SMH(what a shame) now I can’t watch south park Like I use to do when there was the GB, ICS SUCKS
call Motorola, hopefully they can help.
these instructions suck, don’t work, screw this, it is easier to change freaking carriers, what a joke
fr did the trick for me and I also added LTE on/off. Everything is fine (Battery is back to pre ICS level) except for some annoying page display problems on browser. Sometimes portarait display only fills 2/3 of screen in x direction until you rotate phone to landscape and rotate it back. Annoying but NBD.
After installing the upgrade to ICS I am unable to see my MS Outlook Calendar. I receive my emails without any issues. I have been as high as Level 3 Teck at Motorola without success. I revisited my Version Store and they replaced my Razar Maxx with a new phone that did not have the upgrade. Now I am back to Ginger Bread without issues. The Teck at Motorola told me they were not a where of any issues with the ICS upgrade.
I loved this phone before they upgraded it. Now I have fuzzy fonts and photos, shabby wireless, web pages with a mind of their own and a crappy user interface. Don’t bother calling Motorola. They’ll only tell you you’re stuck and then they will hang up on you.
I appreciate the info, but I can’t get past step 2 on my regular Razr. I see the white-on-black HBOOT screen but no key press will move off the default; eventually the phone just starts itself.
I also agree with other users who said the upgrade made the battery life worse, in my opinion. My usage stats also report a ridiculously high percentage for ‘screen.’ Also annoyed that my nice GPS, WiFi, etc toggles were deleted and replaced only with the Power Control widget which has an obnoxiously big footprint. Also, GPS toggle is not in System settings, so the widget is the only option to toggle it and therefore the only option to get Navigation to work. Shortsighted, incompetent customer service on the part of Motorola.
I did the reset and I cant tell it helped mine really but hadnt had much change to mess with it. ive had alot of the same problems. crappy battery life and little bit sluggest on the internet and horrible signal.. I fixed the signal problem by going in and changing my signal from global back to LTE/CDMA and that fixed that some what. Better then what it was but still not the same as before. But one thing im having problems with that bugs me bad is that I cant send pic text anymore, It just says that the pic is to large to be included in the text. I didnt have that problem before. I updated my girlfriends phone the same day as mine and she hasnt had any real problems out of hers and can send text no problem an signal but i changed hers to with the LTE/CDMA and it helped hers to. Maybe someone knows what to do about the text id appreciate it how to fix it but hopefully well be seeing a update soon fix some of the problems.
oh and we both have the razr and not the maxx