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Today seems to be Jelly Bean day for a lot of people. After AT&T’s Motorola ATRIX HD received the illustrious upgrade, Verizon has finally delivered the OTA to users of its Samsung Galaxy S3. It promised us it’d be here tomorrow, but many were still holding their breath and saying they wouldn’t believe it until they saw it due to the unpredictability that can come with wide-scale roll-outs.
Well, you better be believing it now as we’ve gotten a string of reports in our inbox letting us know that the update is beginning to show up. Some folks are getting notifications that an upgrade is ready, but some of you might need to force the upgrade to initiate in the phone’s settings menu. And if that doesn’t do anything for you then a healthy glass of “wait” is in order as it could be due to Verizon employing a staggered process, meaning your device could be waiting as long as 3 weeks.
Most people will get it sooner rather than later, though, so don’t let that little disclaimer scare you too much. If you don’t remember, this upgrade will bring things like Google Now, Project Butter, new notifications, new camera effects and more. ISIS support will also be added so you can make mobile payments using your NFC phone at supported locations within (currently limited) supported markets.
Folks might not like that fact considering Google Wallet still isn’t supported, but Verizon’s stance is that Google’s app is not permitted to use the secure element required to make Google Wallet work, and that apps can only gain authorization through an approval process that may or may not be as straightforward to go through as Verizon makes it seem. Whatever the case may be, though, you’re still getting Jelly Bean so there’s a lot to celebrate today. Hit your phone’s settings menu right now to see if there’s a nice holiday treat waiting for you.
Just went to check for the update and its already downloading. Nice. Located in the Hudson Valley area of NY state.
Is anyone else getting an error: Service Unavailable?
Yep, I am. Been doing it since last night, no idea why
I see the same thing. I’m assuming that means no updates available yet. At least I hope that’s what it means.
I’m hoping this is normal, and not something wrong with my phone. My wife’s GS3 took the update first try. We both have the exact same setup. This is why i’m confused.
That’s a bit disturbing. I’m in SC, I was hoping it was a regional thing, but I assume your wife is in the same region as yourself. Please update if you finally get it, and i will do likewise. Has anyone seen this message and then gotten the update?
Yes same region, and neither of us has traveled since we’ve gotten the phones. Same city to be exact. Sacramento, CA
My understanding is, it’s a bad sim card. From reading forums. Will get a new sim tomorrow.
Well, I just tried inserting my wife’s SIM into my phone, to see if my phone will take the update, still no. even after clearing services cache. So i don’t think it’s a SIM problem for me. Besides, I just don’t see how a SIM can affect an update. You can update over WiFi….
Wife’s phone accepted the update first try BTW, with her SIM.
Based on forums, sounds like it’s a sim card issue. Probably get a new card tomorrow and see what happens.
Its going now in Tallahassee..!
Downloading now in North Carolina!
Wallet works fine. All u need is to visit xda.
Got the update around 11:20am today –
Houston,Tx
Got it about noon, in Yardley,PA.
Getting alot of “unfortunately… has stopped ..” Tho..??
Is the ability to show a news ticker on the lockscreen new? How do you change the news source from Yahoo to something else (e.g., google news?)
“. . .a healthy glass of “wait” is in order as it could be due to Verizon employing a staggered process meaning,” Verizon is dragging their feet all the way.
Just did a check in here in Chicago. It’s available.
I installed it this morning and can honestly say I can not tell a difference between JB and the previous build. I was really looking forward to the ‘Project Butter’ decreasing latency on the touch screen. But that was crap. All the music instrument apps still lag way too much for Android to be taken seriously in the music department. The only thing I really see being useful is the expanded notifications. Also, my copy/paste now works without crashing my phone!!! That was the best “upgrade” of them all =P
I agree, not too much has changed. I cant sence the Butter enchantment and the emails are still defaulting to landscape mode. and the swipe text thing stopped putting spaced between the words. boo
I’m liking the update! Google Now is great!
Got it in Minneapolis
got it here in Missouri. I manually downloaded the software
got mine installed now and I’m loving it. I’m noticing lots of differences already.
Received update around 9:30 am in Los Angeles, CA
If you are not getting the update, try this. It works. As soon as I did it, the update came throught
http://www.gottabemobile.com/2012/12/14/verizon-galaxy-s3-jelly-bean-update-now-available/
I’ve been trying this method all day long. (25 times so far) All i get is this screenshot. My wife’s same GS3 pulled the update first try. Is this error normal?
My phone had that same issue, and it took getting a new SIM card (for free) from a VZW store to fix the issue. Not sure how they relate, but getting the replacement did resolve the problem.
Really? Pfff…. I’m goign STRAIGHT to a Verizon store then :) I feel left out…..
Just found out what my problem was. I recently inserted my SIM into a Verizon Tablet. After I put the SIM back in my phone, Verizon thought it was still in my tablet. A phone call to Verizon resolved that problem, and now my S3 automatically pulled the JB 4.1 update :)
that dont work for me. =/ i still get the “no software update”. located in Ventura County, California.
downloaded and installed in Phoenix, AZ. Not noticing too much of a difference as far as project butter goes. I like the folder style on ics better than jb. Folders look like a jumbled group of apps now. Gonna have to play around with it more before passing final judgement though.
Got it this morning in Lima, Ohio. Not overly impressed. Went back to using Apex launcher.
Got it at noon smoother browser.
Hampton roads Virginia
Heyy same here!!! Go Hampton Roads!!!
Got the update!!! Woot!
Verizon late to the party most of us on other carriers are bored with it already and back to flashing ROMs.
i downloaded it manually this afternoon in Kansas City. I had Google Now previously on my Droid X with AOKP 4.04 and look forward to seeing how well it works on the S3. Otherwise, I can’t tell any difference from Project Butter either.
yep..downloading mine right now..Los Angeles Verizon.
The new Wi-Fi notification is annoying as hell. Why the hell they can’t just make a toggle up top like the others is beyond me. I hope someone finds a fix to ditch this notification (forums say the old SQL Lite edit no longer works)
Just got mine, I had to download it to from the menu. Why the heck is the display so dark?
if anyone knows how to change the setting please let me know.
I hope there is someone that can help me. While I enjoy reading about people who root and mod,etc, I’ve never done it because I know I don’t have the skills. Today, I went to download the JB update for the VZW GS3 I bought used. I had used a root checker just after I bought it, which said it was unrooted. Just after I got the phone I had noticed some empty Clockwork files in Polaris File Explorer, which I deleted.
Back to today. The update downloaded, started to run, opened ClockworkMod Recovery (much to my surprise), and came to a screen that says “Install Untrusted Package, THIS CAN NOT BE UNDONE.”
There are a bunch of No options (I chose one earlier and phone booted up ICS all normal), a Yes – Install untrusted zip, more No options, +++Go Back++++. There is text below that says
ClockworkMod Recovery v.6.0.1.2
E: Invalid command argument
Finding update package….
Opening update package….
Verifying update package…
E: failed to verify whole-file signature
E: signature verification failed.
What will happen if I select Yes? Will I brick my phone? I really want JB, but I am scared shitless that I will brick my phone and all the stuff I have on the SD card.
you might want to try posting your question in the forums section, particularly in the all things root section, might be some guys there that can help you.
Thanks, will do.
hehe, dont worry too much about bricking your phone, i’ve done it a few times already on my s3 while trying out cm10 and the 3 different leaked verizon jelly bean build, and it’s an easy fix. you can find all the info on youtube for step by step on unbricking and such.. just search for verizon galaxy s3 “unbricking or rooting or unlock bootloader, etc.” you can also to go xda developer forum. that’s where i go. my advise for you is to reinstall the factory 4.0.4 ice cream, again you can search youtube. then do the update, carrier’s updates usually go wrong when the phone is rooted. you will need odin, samsung driver for your phone, the stock rom, nothing wrong with rooting phone.. i always root mine so i can use phone info app to switch from cdma to gsm and borrow my g/f’s t-mobile sim b/c she has unlimited data even though their 4g is really not 4g. verizon jellybean now allow access to the radio button to allow this but i haven’t tested it yet. it’s really not hard to flash roms on you phones. i’ve flash my s3 back to stock rom about a dozen times now and again this morn b/c i was using cm10 and want to try out the official build, but will prob go back to cm10 b/c it’s a build off jelly bean 4.1.2 which is now only available in europe. while in US we are still on or just getting 4.1.1.. and dont forget to backup first important data to ext sd card.. i prefer using ez recovery app that you can find at google play, but it requires rooting your phone. i think titanium backup and cwm requires rooting as well.
Bought two S3’s yesterday at best buy for $49 each and the update was waiting as soon as the phone booted..nice :-)
As a android lover and galaxy s3 lover this uodate is crap. I’m noticing a a lot more lag when typing and ysing the notifocation screen. I was also hoping they fixed the keyboard too but thay didnt happen. Anyone else having this problen?
Ive been waiting for this sense I got my s3 in july. And I JUST got back from a trip abroad too. I am very disappointed. My keyboard and notification screen are somewhat laggy now, which wasnt a issue before the update. Also while in nyc last night I couodnt use my data, I kept getting a popup saying I’m roaming outsode the us.