yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] rignfool:
And we're still waiting for the results of the factory reset he has refused to do...

Now.... We all like to tinker... Or at least we should... Being here and all...

And there is a great fix for the industrious... Using one of the myriad of gcam ports... Or a factory reset...

Sooo... If you want some more help... Do one or both of these...
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] SquireSCA:
I just completed it. took awhile to set up, copy over my music, install and log in to 50+ apps, etc...

I just snapped a quick pic in my office here. The pic looks kinda grainy, just isn't very clear and precise. I can't tell if it is better than before because I need to try and take the same pic in the same lighting so I can do a side by side...
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] rignfool:
Do me a favor...

Download Open Camera and shoot the same picture and post it...

And are you using HDR?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] SquireSCA:
I will try Open Camera next. Here is as close to the pics I took the other day and they do seem a bit better. I wouldn't say that the quality is on par with an iPhone or Pixel or even my OP3, but it isn't blurry like it was last time, or yellow...
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] SquireSCA:
Ok, why does this camera not save the orientation of the pics? They appear on the phone correctly, they appear fine in Windows, but when I post them here they are at a 90" angle...
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] rignfool:
When you say you see "blurry"... Are you referring to the object you were trying to photograph? Or something else in the picture?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] SquireSCA:
Taking the pic with Open Camera doesn't seem to change the quality.

---------- Post added at 06:30 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:28 PM ----------

The pics I took the other day of my bike after I installed a new windscreen, the entire pictures were blurry. Like motion blur. Like I would press the button, it clicks, and unless I kept holding it there it was I guess still trying to take the pic, so my moving it made it blurry.

Seems like lag, or slow shutter speed.

It seems a bit better now, but I will have to test further tomorrow.

Other pics I took that day were in bright clear sunlight, but the pics were all yellowish... Weird stuff.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] rignfool:
Are you rooted?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] SquireSCA:
Nah, haven't rooted or run a ROM in years. The stock roms on most of my recent phones were solid, no real need to...

---------- Post added at 06:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:31 PM ----------

And look at the pics of the red bike... It just doesn't look that sharp, in bright white lighting...
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Ascertion:
My essential just started randomly restarting over and over again until I was greeted with this screen.

Weird as I wasn't even using the device when this happened. I noticed it kept rebooting beside me.

Looks like maybe something that Beta 2 will resolve. I flashed this beta maybe two weeks ago.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] wolfhelm:
https://www.howtogeek.com/254830/why-your-photos-dont-always-appear-correctly-rotated/
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] herwarth:
Looks like a corrupt filesystem. All you can try to do is a full wipe.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] SquireSCA:
Luckily a full wipe on this phone doesn't take too long. Just copy off your pics, or use Google Photos... Copy off your music or any physical files and then do the wipe from the settings menu. Make sure the phone backed up to the cloud first, and then wipe it.

When setting it up, don't set it up as a new device, restore it from the cloud and it will restore all your apps, wallpaper, settings, your screen layouts, etc... Pretty easy, despite it being annoying that you have to do it at all... haha
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] SquireSCA:
Ok, here are two videos... Question, does this phone camera have OIS for video? Granted, the video I am taking is bouncing me around a bit, but the video seems quite jittery... The colors and crispness look fine, but I am open to thoughts on the OIS thing...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UhNxf6DC36Y

I will post the second one when it finishes uploading to YouTube

---------- Post added at 05:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:44 PM ----------

Second one.

https://youtu.be/XxqFTwNaDCE
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] JoRocker:
Sorry, but this just isn't the place for all this talk. Please go to Q&A to keep the discussion going on camera quality.

Moderator: Please clean up this thread to more relevant information (including my past posts as well).
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] rignfool:
Check out the AMA...

They talk about image stabilization in video being on the road map... But not *AS* important as some of the other bug they have to squash first
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] SquireSCA:
Cool, that's good to know. I wasn't sure what the deal was...

I have not checked out the AMA much. I started to, but the format of Reddit is like from 1997 and I hate it... LOL
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] lnimmer:
I was on the Android Beta Program from Google on my N6P. Those ran pretty darn good for betas. Would you guys say the Oreo Beta for Essential is similar or would you say worse, bug wise?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] NaterTots:
I've been happy with it. Some days battery life isn't very good, but a power off/on usually corrects it.

Essential said there could be Bluetooth battery drain issues.

It should be updated this week also.

Auto night mode doesn't seem to work for me. I think that's all I've found
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] rignfool:
I have severe deep sleep issues... Can't find the issue with BBS... The drain isn't bad... Still get a full day...

I can reboot and it'll sleep for a day or so... Then it stops again... Still average less than 6% per hour...

Otherwise... I have had 2 reboot fits since early adoption... Both were 3 or 4 randoms within a short period of time without lasting reprocussions..
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Mania626:
Are we ever going to get this beta#2 rolling once in for all?? Lol
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] elkay:
I'm hoping for a release in the next day or two, too, as the brand new 2017 head unit I bought and installed in my car doesn't talk right to Android Auto on this phone. Works perfectly fine with my old Nexus 6.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] SquireSCA:
Hopefully soon... I don't have a ton of issues with Beta 1, but there are a few...

1) Android Auto randomly disconnects and reconnects while driving along. Never happened on any other phone I have owned with this truck.

2) Keyboard lag, often causes issues if I type too fast.

3) If I use my headset on a phone call, it produces an echo for the other person on the line. This headset doesn't do that with any other phone I have tried, only this one.

4) Camera quality, while better quality after the hard reset, is still slow AF when using it. I honestly don't know how they let this out the door so poorly implemented in this day and age.

Those are the ones that annoy me. We shall see if Beta 2 fixes them, if and when it gets here, and at that point I will decide whether I keep or sell the phone...
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] mpetruzz:
Wouldn't it be better to wait until the final version comes out and then make a decision about selling the phone vs how it performs on the beta??
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Mania626:
My biggest problem is cell phone reception and wifi, they are terrible (t-mobile).
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] SquireSCA:
Depends on what they fix and what other bugs pop up. haha

I have noticed that my signal drops in and out a lot as I drive around, which doesn't happen with other phones...

It's such a nice phone in so many ways, it is unfortunate that the phone was pushed out before it was truly ready for prime time. I will give them a little more time to get it sorted and then decide...
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] qwahchees:
Are you guys having signal issue on Oreo or was this on Nougat as well? I'm on Nougat still, and I haven't had any issues with cell reception. I have noticed that when I palm most of the side of the phone, signal decreases by a bar or so.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Mania626:
Nougat and oreo for me, compared to my oneplus5 I sold to buy this one,the difference is night and day.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] JoRocker:
Lol I noticed this too! I thought I was crazy. When I'm playing games horizontally (poker) it randomly stops working, and has almost cost me big time! (In play money)
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] elkay:
Wonder if it's the issue the iphone was having with antenna and the "bandaid" fix. Are those that are having signal issues running caseless?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] dhruvzz:
I ordered this phone from amazon to india as they directly ship it here.m not having any signal issues here my signal always remains full almost all the time.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] SteveHG:
Is your phone on Oreo beta?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] dhruvzz:
Nope

Still full network here.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Flapjack:
I honestly find myself wondering about the T-Mobile complaints. I'm a TMO customer and have had zero issues with signal strength. I would say it's on par with my Axon 7, which has also been great. My Moto X Pure was garbage on T-Mobile, so I know how bad a phone that does poorly on TMO can be.

Maybe it was only certain batches of PH-1s? I wonder if anyone has had a replacement phone has seen an improvement.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] markwebb:
Yeah, I get a third the speed rate on the Essential versus my Pixel 2 XL and Note 8 with TMO: for some reason connectivity is horrendous with the Essential.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Mania626:
And what fustrait me the most is that I'm in NYC, if you don't get good coverage here I don't know where you're going to get it.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] NaterTots:
My Tmo signal is pretty much the same as my Op5 is. No issues for me.

I bought the Cyber Monday phone from Amazon.

I'd like to think that the Beta should be very close to final since Beta 1 came out about 5 weeks ago.

That's a lot of time to fix bugs so those that are waiting for this update to decide if they'll keep the device is fair I think.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] SquireSCA:
Exactly.

They have had over a month to squash bugs, but the fact that they said that Beta 2 was coming early last week and missed it, and then said again that it was coming early this week and missed it again, doesn't bode well...
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] markwebb:
If this phone is pure Android, I'm not quite sure why they're having issues with an Android update. Unless there is something in their Essential hardware creating problems. Or, the Oreo version of Android is more Google centric than to their liking.

Better yet, they just may not have the staff.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] SquireSCA:
Yeah, I mean, I am not jumping ship just yet, but I do wonder about things...

If the guy that basically founded Android and worked for Google for 13 years, who has a billion dollars at his back... can't seem to get this sorted out... He should know better. This is a brutal market. If you want to make it, your first product needs to be more than just flashy and bling.

It's got LCD instead of amoled... Camera is sub-par despite what the specs and marketing materials claim. Signal issues, screen lag...

Yes, they have put out a couple updates and fixes, but that it went out the door in that shape at all is a cause for concern. Hence why they had to drop the price by 40%. When there are so many solid, sorted and reputable options out there, there isn't really much reason to settle for these problems and take the risk on a startup. Yeah, the price is nice, but OnePlus is at the same price point and is a much more sorted and reputable brand...

Hopefully, they prove me wrong!
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] vergilbt:
Don't misunderstood me, but didn't jump into the boat? Sure?

When I'm reading your posts I'm thinking you're the driver of this ship
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] SquireSCA:
I wish I was the driver of the ship. haha
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Mania626:
The thing is, 5 weeks into the first beta and they still struggling with the second one when this is supposed to be close to stock android is almost embarrassing, Im not the one to complain a lot but it is the truth, I absolutely love this phone but im starting to doubt about the people that are running the software side of this company , hopefully I'm wrong.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] SquireSCA:
Yeah, I think it's just a bit of disappointment... Maybe my expectations were set too high for Essential. I just assumed that with Rubin and a billion dollars, that this was gonna be all the things that the Pixel should have been, without the Google/Apple price tag.

It seems that despite very nice materials and construction, the phone cut some corners. The screen for one, and then the camera and software... To me it seems like form over function, which is not how it was marketed.

Oh well, live and learn. Maybe they will surprise us later today with a new Beta that addresses some of the more irritating bugs...
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] elkay:
Screen isn't the problem. In fact, I don't believe the touch panel is the problem, either. Oreo is smooth scrolling now, and so is Lineage on this device. It was a driver or software issue. And to another point - LCD was actually a selling point for me over OLED. My last two phones (flagships) both had severe burn in problems in less than a year, and my first Android watch had to be retired due to burn in. I'm tired of the burn in issue and the blacks on LCD panels nowadays are pretty damn good, so I actually prefer LCD tech. I can have Waze up on my phone on my hour+ commute each way every day with no worries, as we wait for the Android Auto fix that is keeping me from using my head unit for Waze.

I am growing a bit concerned about the delays in B2, though. It's a beta and they should have made a release last week with different guardrails if something else got broke while they fixed current issues.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] mpetruzz:
Have you tried flashing a rom??? I've been switching from both Lineage and RR and both have been Rock solid!!! If you've sideloaded the beta then it's something you should try.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] elkay:
I know they fixed the 360 cam in Lineage. Did the fix make it into RR?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] mpetruzz:
I don't have a 360 camera so I'm not sure, sorry
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] vergilbt:
Is out!

https://twitter.com/essential/status/943557743780220929
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Mania626:
Yess!!!!
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] vergilbt:
Root User have to wait for image for sideloading, right?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] spotmark:
No, you can flash the stock boot image and take the OTA. That's what I'm in the process of doing.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] vergilbt:
Will it work also if I'm rooted? OTA is recognised...
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] 1Krima:
Removed Magisk, restored stock boot.img but the OTA fails to install.

Anyone else having this issue?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] jgracz01:
downloaded and updated , whoo hoo! For the record, my only beta gripes have been LED wonkiness and battery drain. AA worked perfect with my Audi and my GMC. only crashed once in those 5 weeks.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] freshlysqueezed:
It's also available on the essential website to download and sideload install.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] spotmark:
No, you have to be stock.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Stutler:
Beta 2

The link for beta 2 is now live.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] wolfhelm:
I can confirm that beta 2 works OTA from beta 1
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] 1Krima:
OTA failed for me. I had to sideload it
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] SquireSCA:
OTA fails because it isn't downloading the entire file. When I tried it, it said that the OTA was 142mb, when it's 1GB on the Essential web page... So I am just sideloading it now...
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] vergilbt:
You know the difference between OTA and hole image file?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] SquireSCA:
Apparently not... LOL

I just know that on this phone and even my OnePlus 3, when the OTA first comes out it often reports a smaller size and fails, and then later on that day it tries it again and the file is much larger and then it works...
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] NaterTots:
My VVM by way of the native dialer doesn't seem to be working still. I'm on T-Mo.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] DaveHTC200:
Have they fixed it so notifications actually come from the top of the screen rather than below the camera notch?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] spotmark:
I don't know WTF was going on with Essential's sideloading instructions, but ADB kept booting me. I ended up sideloading it with TWRP.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] anandlal:
No issues upgrading via OTA. Non rooted. It seems to run a bit smoother and faster. Not sure if that's the update or just a placebo effect.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Mania626:
I wonder if we won't have any issues with the pixel camera port anymore , if anybody has try it already please let us know.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] wolfhelm:
Because the OTA is just what's different. My OTA worked fine.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Caltinpla:
Just updated to beta 2 and the pixel camera port works fine as intended.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] mpetruzz:
I'm rooted running Lineage. Can I just sideload this via twrp or so I have to go back to stock and then flash??
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] derausgewanderte:
with the new fixes I went ahead and just sideloaded it. Very happy so far, especially with my favorite Substratum theme (Mono/Art). Love it.

not seeing any differences in speed or general behavior so far. Hope it's similar for battery life. don't mind a slight hit for that, but will take a couple days to see.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] SquireSCA:
Well, a lot of people it doesn't work and I saw the same thing on the OnePlus 3... I was stock, unrooted, no mods and half the time it would fail. When I checked back later it was a different file size and then it would work, so I don't know...
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] JoRocker:
Worked fine for me OTA... Seems better to me, especially having stutter gone. I had found a way to enable smooth scrolling in chrome dev, so most of my experience have been smooth even before the second beta anyways, but it's nice it's fixed everywhere else too!
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] paulr24:
So I was on beta 1, unrooted but with a Substratum theme applied. I forgot to uninstall the theme and tried the OTA update, but it failed and said that I may need to do a factory reset. Next I tried sideloading but got the same result. It's not the end of the world if I need to factory reset but I'd rather not... Anyone have any ideas I can try to get this thing flashed without a factory reset?

Edit: More specifically it's saying this:

"Can't load Android System. Your data may be corrupt..."

I'd like to wipe cache/dalvik but it doesn't give me the option on the recovery screen...
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] DROIDESP:
Beta 2 no issues OTA.. ....Glad Essential changed its mind. Initially, they said only one beta round before public. Could we get a beta 3 with 8.1? :)
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] JoRocker:
No way. It will be a full release 8.0 by the end the year as they said.

P.S. it will probably be identical to Beta 2. That's usually how it works.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Mania626:
Nah, I just tested it and it corrupted the original cam app and it doesn't shoot video either.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Caltinpla:
Well, I'm stock and unrooted that may make the difference!
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Mania626:
Me too, if you don't mind, can you share your settings and the version you are using?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Caltinpla:
I got it from here. The Arnova v1.2 in bold red. And my settings using Nexus 6P configuration.

https://www.celsoazevedo.com/files/android/google-camera/
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] VennligFiende:
Updated to Beta 2 via OTA. Everything seems fine except that Visual Voice Mail on T-Mobile is still not working.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Caltinpla:
Did you try to clear the phone app data and catch?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] elkay:
Updated fine via OTA after manually checking for update. I'm stock not rooted on Sprint.

Everything seems to be working about the same. Android Auto still doesn't work right with either of my Kenwood head units. Ironically has worked fine the whole time in my Miata with a hacked-in Android Auto installation. I've tried 7 or 8 cables on 2 different head units, one 2016 model and one 2017 model, and neither work. It tries to connect in an endless cycle until the app gets stuck until I reboot.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] VennligFiende:
Yes. Just did. No effect.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Caltinpla:
Here the trick: download Tmobile visual voicemail from play store, complete the app settings then go back and try the phone app visual voicemail if it is working, then uninstall the app.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] VennligFiende:
Thank you. Attempted it. Did not work.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Caltinpla:
Sorry to hear... I'm out of options here, just wondering has it been working before you updated?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] treIII:
Did u go to phone app settings and enable vvm?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] VennligFiende:
No worries. Yes, it broke when I moved to Oreo Beta 1 and now 2.

Not a huge deal. They will probably fix it down the road. Besides, other than that, everything else is working.

Thanks again.

---------- Post added at 03:11 AM ---------- Previous post was at 03:10 AM ----------

Yes.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] treIII:
Is there a changelog for beta 2?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] syckman:
Updated to beta 2 - just confirming magisk/root won't work until magisk devs update for the new OS?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Caltinpla:
Here it is
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] wolfu11:
The Beta 2 keeps trying to revert my unlocked phone back to sprint I have a Verizon sim in it but it it loaded 2 sprint apks behind the scenes.

Since I didn't stay on sprint (50 days) I am going to revert back to N. on every reboot it goes from no service to sprint 2 times then to Verizon.

There has to be something in the bootloader causing this correct?
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] wolfhelm:
I'm also on a sprint unlocked to verizon phone but I have no issues, I had the Sprint SIM in for less than a week in total. It hasnt loaded anything from sprint in the background nor does it say anything about sprint on reboot.
[Essential Phone Guides, News, & Discussion] Locura18:
Try sideloading the unlocked factory image. Maybe that will solve your issue