LG K5's battery problems and end...

My LG K5 or better probably the battery faced (or is still facing) a slow death while being on the travels. A look back on my only 10 months with that phone.

After four years with Samsung Galaxy S3 mini before this phone not even lasted one year. I can easily see, 'Of course, because it was free', but the issue is most likely related to the battery.

But from the beginning: As I got it seemed like a step forward for me on one side - since there was an Android 5 version installed from the beginning. But it had lots of downsides: The camera was worse than at the previous Samsung. And there was not even a proper music player pre-installed.

No chance of making a playlist or anything. I additionally added the Vanilla Music player for at least being able to let multiple run in a row.

And the phone storage was a big problem: I was always close on the space, even if I had put media files on a separate SD card - but I was really limited on the amounts of apps I could install.

It wasn't even possible to extend the app storage through an SD card. And then came the biggest issue: The battery.

First it was alright listening to music all day at work, but then it got rapidly less. I went to flight mode quite often to keep the battery alive. Especially WiFi and mobile data cost a lot of energy.

In March I reached a point where the battery went down to 0 within 15 minutes. I could only temporary start the phone again. And the charging process got weird: Sometimes it went quickly to 100% or it remained stuck at 0%. Often you need to put in on charger for an hour to be able to boot at all.

This situation confronted me with the situation: New battery for around AU$40 (if I find it) or switch to another phone.

And I find a good price for a Huawei Y7 the situation was easy to solve. Just migrating the data is a matter of patience. As the LINE backup went easily via bluetooth, WhatsApp needs to saved different as my current backup is not up-to-date and I also need to change the phone number since I cannot activate WhatsApp on new phone with a European number while being in Australia. Probably I will temporary switch...

Anyway, since the LG was free, it was alright. But now I already feel better using the new Huawei phone.

LG K5 and double SIM config

The LG K5 has a slot for a second SIM card. Here are the things you need to check!

With two cards you should decide which SIM card you want to use for which service. Sometimes in regions with multiple countries it could make sense to divide the service depending on what the costs are.

In the European Union for example it seems no longer necessary since all providers should allow mobile (data) roaming now with the same conditions as in the country from where this SIM card's origin is.

But in other cases: Go to 'Settings', 'SIM cards' and you will see the overview with both of your SIM cards. Decide now which you want to use for 'Mobile data', 'Calls' and 'SMS messages'.

You can even set unused cards to 'inactive' if you are currently in a country where it does not make sense to use your SIM.

That's pretty much it. 

LG K5: 'The file format is not supported'

You want to listen to your mp3 files and just get the error message 'The file format is not supported'? Here's why!

If you are using the LG K5 you get to a point where the local storage is getting close.

To make up at least a little more space you may try to disable some Google services like Google Play Movies.

Interestingly, the internal music player is some sort of connection to Google Play Music. Therefore as soon as you disable this Google app you can no longer listen to mp3 files! So that´s a service you need to let keep running.

So... just let it run...

Pokémon GO 0.69.1: My surprising return after one year!

Around one year ago I played Pokémon GO the last time - apparently in September my account was banned - and could not play again. And now it works again - with the same account!

It did not really play that much last year, mostly in Las Vegas and a bit in Germany - when I was in Japan I could not really test it. A shame. From my old phone back then I used a workaround by installing the apk file manually, since the download via PlayStore did not work, but at one point the latest version at the time - 0.39 - stopped me from logging in.

That was the reason I stayed away from the game and asked to reactivate my account. Nothing happened. After switching from the Samsung Galaxy S3 mini to an LG K5 in June I tried to log in again - still did not work...

Suddenly working again!

Today I gave it another shot: Downloaded the current version 0.69.1 via Google PlayStore, installed the game, agreed to login with my Google Account and suddenly I could see the loading screen seeing the Pokémon Tyranitar from the second generation Johto! And the game opened with my old account. I can still see the history!

After catching my first Pokémon after one year and collecting some items my history looks a bit weird (see above). I am not too much

aware what happened during that year. I know they added the second generation of Pokémon and extending the possibility to catch more different Pokémon and being able to actually have battles which seemed not so easily possible at the beginning.

Therefore for me it´s now rediscovering the game again and increasing my Pokédex. Let's see how it's going to turn out the next few days. I'm currently in Spain and I don't know if there are any rare Pokémon here. Anyway, I could already level up from 5 to 6 which is nothing, but not surprising since I haven't played a lot. 

Feel free to comment on your experiences and what happened during that year! I'm now outside checking out the area.. ;)

From a classic SIM to Micro SIM - and it worked!

After using a 'classic' SIM card for many years I reached a point where I had to switch to a phone which no longer supports big SIM cards. Here´s how it went...

With my old Samsung Galaxy S3 mini getting slower and the battery discharging quite quick the signs are clearly showing for a change to another phone. Which I got. From a bank. And even for free. It´s a LG K5 with two SIM slots. But more about that another time.

I was aware that it was possible to cut your SIM card to a smaller Micro SIM with a cutting template, but I never tried it before. Now, while being in Germany - in proximity to my service provider if anything goes wrong - I gave it a shot. 

I printed the template, cut the lines as suggested easily with a scissor. After the important cuts were done I switched to a nail file in order to make the card fit properly and getting the lines more accurately. Initially it did not work. Tried the file again and the card was in. I booted the LG phone and the PIN was requested! Great, it worked.

But for some reason mobile data did not really work, even after a few minutes. I mean the 'E' (edge) letter was seen at the top, so 'Data' was basically on. First I expected that may a part of the SIM got damaged. Or even the slot? I tried the second slot, issue the same. 
Refiled the SIM again a bit and put it back into the first one. Issue remained. But there was some data transferred, just a few MB, but opening Google and other sites ended in a timeout.

So what about the APN settings? They looked kinda old, so I checked for other settings for German T-Mobile:

Name: T-Mobile

APN: internet.t-mobile

User name: t-mobile

Password: tm

Changed the settings, rebooted. Waited a few minutes for changes to apply and then it worked. In hindsight, maybe the old settings would also have worked if I had waited a bit longer, but anyway:

The SIM card cut worked!