[Verizon Galaxy Note 3 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] verziehenone:
I've had my Verizon Galaxy Note 3 since 10/13-10/14, pretty close to when it was released at Verizon. I've loved it, loved its tons of features, since I got it, and have had many people jealous. (I upgraded from a Galaxy Nexus, a heck of a reliable phone, when I realized that the Nexus 5 would also not go to Verizon.) In the past 6 weeks, i've encountered some curious behavior that i'm stumped and frustrated by. Overall, I love the phone.

Notes: I have searched and searched and searched for help, via Google and via XDA / AndroidCentral / other sites. My phone is un-rooted (never rooted), and has not been factory reset, dropped, submerged in liquids, or in any way mishandled. My phone uses the stock launcher and aside from some games, does not have a ton of apps installed.

However (Stated verbosely but with detail):

1) On two separate occasions, my Alarm has crashed. I used my Galaxy Nexus for nearly 2 years without ever having it fail to wake me (with many roms in between); I used my Droid X for nearly a year prior without ever having it fail to wake me, and before that my Blackberry Storm 2 for nearly a year without it failing. I'm not used to my phone failing me as an alarm.

In both cases, last Thursday (11/21) and today (11/25), I woke up to my phone acting as though the Alarm was still going off. (The notification bar indicated I should either Snooze / Dismiss the Alarm). I woke up about an hour after it should have went off, and there is absolutely zero possibility that I slept through the alarm going off that long. When I unlocked my phone, in both cases, it indicated the Alarm app had crashed.

I was using Timely on my Galaxy Nexus for the last few months of it as my daily driver, and then for the first few weeks on this phone. I immediately assumed it was the culprit, and went back to Alarm Clock Plus (the app I had used for nearly the entire time on my Nexus). This morning, Alarm Clock Plus crashed (with the 'Wait / Report / Close' options), and i'm now more confident that Timely was not the culprit.

In both cases, with both apps and on both days, after I clear the error, I had a similar experience.

- On Thursday, I pressed the power button to turn off the screen, and when I pulled the phone out of my pocket about 20 minutes later, it was completely powered off. However, I could not power it back on by pressing the button, and had to perform a battery pull to turn it back on.

- Today, I had pressed the button to perform a restart, and only tapped it instead of pressing + hold. Same thing happened: it turned off the screen but also somehow powered it entirely down, and required a battery pull to start it again.

- After Thursday's debacle, I have rebooted my phone multiple times, so it's definitely not because of an uptime related issue.

The only thing I can think of for the above scenario, is that I did have it work (the alarm) without any issues for a few weeks, and both issues (and some other random crashing of Google Plus, etc) have been following the update that was released by Verizon.

2) This is an issue i've experienced for the entire life of the phone, and is flummoxing me and extremely frustrating. I loved using the Droid X and then Nexus as my music player (both via headphones and definitely in the car via the Aux on my older stereo). On my Nexus I experimented with different Equalizers, including ones from Google Play (I liked 'Equalizer' quite a bit actually), and then I tried out and enjoyed Beats (or whatever it is now called, NexusLouder or whatever), to great enjoyment. Music sounded awesome.

On my Note, I expected at least a marginally similar level of audio (to that of the Nexus without Equalizer), until I rooted (which I have not done yet). I am facing (like others have sporadically reported) and issue where it appears that my Audio or Equalizer or something is turning off or turning on between songs. I'll plug it in to my car stereo, slap it in the window mount thing, and let it ride. It plays one track (sometimes two) without issue. Then, it will play a song either really quietly or really loudly. (I don't mean the volume has changed; it has not and I have verified this). The solution i've found is to go back (or forth) a track and then return to the same track, which has resolved this 100% of the time .... until a few tracks later. /rinserepeatrage

- I have tried this with the same Equalizer app, a few other Equalizer apps, and even without a Google Play Equalizer app (using only the built in one).

- On my Nexus and now my Note, i'm using Google Music, and use the pre-downloaded/cached songs.

- I have tried clearing the data / cache for Google Music and uninstalling / reinstalling it, to no effect.

- The only interesting thing i've noticed is that after the Verizon Note update (I believe), the audio appears to only get softer, rather than getting ear splittingly louder.

- Additionally, this seems to occur much more frequently when the screen is off.

Today I am going to the Verizon store and they will likely tell me they have to perform a Factory Reset (which is why I haven't already done one) before they'll give me another one, in the case that it is a hardware issue. I will very carefully be monitoring and see if this corrects / resolves either issue. I also intend to NOT install the update if I have any say (I don't know how not-rooted phones work with updates, i.e. if it is required or prompts for update, etc) If any of you have any ideas, solutions or suggestions, i'd be very open to them. I love this phone, but I absolutely hate that these two very important functions are not working consistently.