Since the OTAs for KRT16S started rolling out in the middle of last week,
some Nexus 4 owners updating from Jelly Bean are experiencing really
troubling behavior after installing the new version. There are reports
of issues with core interface functionality like a non-working Home
button, Quick Settings toggle, a broken dialer, and various other
issues. Not all affected devices have had exactly the same results, and
many weren't hit, but some unusual complications have definitely started
turning up.
The problems seem to be limited to those upgrading from the final
version of Jelly Bean (JWR66Y) to the most recent build of KitKat
(KRT16S) via the OTA, or using the factory image without wiping data.
Devices updated from the KRT16O factory image posted a couple of weeks
ago seem to be unaffected. A specific cause for the malfunction hasn't
yet been identified, but various reports suggest there is no connection
to whether a device is rooted or if the bootloader is unlocked.
So far the only fix for the malfunction seems to be wiping data
through a factory reset. This has the side-effect of clearing out all of
your installed apps and locally stored data, so be sure to make a
backup first. For the more advanced users this probably won't be more
than an inconvenience, but the average person is likely to be put out
quite a bit.
Update: A possible fix has been
suggested by Paul O'Brien. If you have adb set up on your computer, try running '
adb shell am start -n com.google.android.setupwizard/.SetupWizardTestActivity'
from the command line. Alternatively, if you use a launcher capable of
running custom activities (Nova and Apex are popular choices), try going
to the widget drawer and creating an activity pointing to
Setup Wizard > SetupWizardTestActivity,
then run it. Once the Setup Wizard has started, go through the normal
steps for setting up a phone. In theory, this should fix the various
button issues. None of us at Android Police can reproduce the bug, but
this method shouldn't cause any adverse effects. Good luck, and let's
hope this works for everybody! -
Thanks, Paul!
We can't be sure how widespread the issue is, especially since it doesn't appear to have hit the
Nexus product forums or
AOSP issue tracker, but we've certainly
heard complaints from
quite a
few people.
Hopefully there won't be too many affected, and perhaps a new OTA will
come out with a more reliable upgrade script. In the meantime, if you
haven't yet updated, keep this in mind when deciding if you want to
continue with the installation. As usual, we'll keep you posted if we
get any more information.