By If the GPS problems weren’t annoying enough, you might get a kick out of this one. Apparently, a few Samsung Galaxy S phones are experiencing device resets whenever they’re plugged in to a computer via USB. It’s said that the issue is caused when there exists file extensions with more than 16 characters. We’re not sure what developer would be crazy enough to make a 16 (let alone more) character-long file extension, but deleting the troublesome files apparently remedies the issue (which we imagine isn’t widespread due to the rarity of such a file).
Gizmodo France uncovered the bug, but Samsung has stated that a permanent fix is already in the works. Anyone experience this bug with their Galaxy S phones?
[via Samsung Hub]
Wow that is weird.
wtf? I’m more curious about where someone got these weirdo files
I warned people about Samsung. They are the Kia of phones.
The concept of a ‘file extension’ is relative to application though, as well as usage. If you had a data file with maybe a few parameters in the name, say application, date, your name, something else, you could have say ‘APPLICATION-NAME.YOURNAMEHERE.100810.PROCESSNAMETHATISLONG’ where really PROCESSNAMETHATISLONG is not a ‘file extension’, but merely a naming parameter for a flat-file that an application uses for data storage.
until now, it hasn’t happened at my Galaxy. Strange. . .
I am having that problem, my phone is going crazy, when I plug it in it starts rebooting, when I unplug the usb it keeps on running scan and says that the usb is still connected.
well my guess would be file names like
com.google.zxing.client.android.apk (Barcode Scanner). Windows sees the first period and assumes extension after that. This could then fall into that 16+ characters
Want to love the Vibrant, but I’ve put my SIM card back into my MyTouch until the update comes out. Mine is terribly glitchy.
Don’t think it works that way. Windows will scan the filename from the end and look for the last period. Only the part after the last period will be treated as the extension.
I’ve got one – my phone stops working when I smash it with a pick axe. It also stops working when I drop it in the toilet.
Please…..There will be no pick-axe-toilet-water patch! Samsung cannot be expected to test and prepare for every contingency. If I decide to do something crazy with my phone that isn’t listed as a capability and it doesn’t work, I won’t be expecting a fix. 16 character file extensions?? WTF!
Samsung is not the Kia of phones.
Since Android is Linux based not sure how Windows issues are relevant.
me, before making such conclusions just look at the files on your own hard drive. Something like Matrix.Reloaded.DVDRip.blabla.avi is shown as an AVI file, not .Reloaded.DVDRip.blabla.avi file.
And that’s why I won’t buy a Samsung…. HTC and Motorola FTMFW!!!!
Like HTC and Motorola dont have bugs? All these big phones get OTA air updates days or even the very next day after being released to fix bugs, such as Droid 2, Droid X, Evo. Cmon it goes with the territory.
@Joshua…
this has just started happening with my SGS too…i plug it in and it keeps saying Connected via USB in the notifications…
must be some side effect from a market update?!?
I don’t think anyone has experienced this because….we don’t have 16 character extensions. we have 3, such as .apk.
This happened with me until i installed samsung kies on my computer. If they are still getting this maybe kies isn’t installed correctly?
I think I had this happen to me. After transfering files via USB my captivate blew out all my email accounts (exchange and pop3).
Kia of phones? haha Yeah, Kia who makes more than Lexus and Infinity combined. HTC is like Cherry Mobile from China. The FIRST car to fail all safety test lololol. There is no way in hell i’m getting a china made product over a Korean or Japanese one.
hmm, never heard this before and I hang around xda all day. i call it bs
no phone is perfect, i’d rather it be software then hardware like many of HTC devices lol. @ Keller, true that! I ain’t buying no chinaman made kirf from HTC.
yet another attempt to defame the best android phone out.. still. wholly agree with you Michael!
@ syborg
Most of the users desktops will be running Windows.
I love my Captivate. Its my first Android OS phone and I liked it better than previous WinMO and Blackberry phones from Day 1. Haven’t encountered the problem with 16 character file extensions and I’d just as soon stay away from any apps that had a developer using 16+ character file extensions anyway. I will certainly be glad when Samsung fixes the GPS issues on the Captivate.
JD, if you never buy a Samsung phone, I doubt Samsung will lose much sleep over it.
I’ve had no problems with my Vibrant, but then again it’s rooted with the lagfix, for a quadrant score of 2100.
@Jonathan Drake
Um, you might want to do your research buddy. Samsung is one of the top selling mobile phone brands in the world. But ignorance is bliss, so you go ahead and think what you want.
I tried to find a list of the best selling cell phones ever. The best I could find was a list dated Feb 2009. In that list of 40 top selling phones all time, 9 of them were Samsung. The only company that had more top selling phones was Nokia (12), and that’s probably because they have been making cell phones since the beginning of time.
It’s a Samsung. “Best selling” or no, I’ve yet to have a bug free experience with them; They are riddled with problems.
@Contraus
What does popularity have to do with reliability? They are garbage. From the Moment to the Galaxy. Heck I bought a samsung blu-ray not too long ago to save a few coin over the Sony brand: it locks up if i pause a netflix movie… ended up returning it.
Samsung Quality is horrid atm, I cannot in clear conscience recommend their products.
Yet another Samsung hit-piece by phandroid…would have been fine if the headline wasn’t sensationalized with the word Plagued…I would hardly call an obscure, hard to reproduce bug like this a plague. The gps bug is legit, but to put this out there like there is some sort of plague of bugs on the device is just malicious.
Since when did two bugs constitute a plague? The GPS problem has been fixed and this bug will affect no more than one in every hundred thousand users, if that. Get a grip.
First Vibrant died the day it arrived. It wouldn’t access the Market after the first few hours and would’t do a soft or hard factory reset. The next one was fine until I tried to plug it into a Mac. Spent a hour on phone with TMo looking for a fix. It is now working but I am not too happy that I have to change settingsbetween plugging it into a Mac and a PC. Tried to put in a 4GB HC card and it won’t read it. And then there the GPS problem. It is a buggy phone. Way more buggie than any of the HTCs I have owned. But then again I have never had a new release that wasn’t buggy for a while. It is still an amazingly fast phone with a beautiful screen.
My guess is it is an RFS bug. If so, its possibly exploitable as well and it exists in some form on a ton of RFS using Samsung device.
And if it is RFS, then yes, it is squarely the fault of Samsung for more needless NIH.
I fear there will more issues with samsung ……. glad I wasn’t suckered to get on the bandwagon after the behold 2 fiasco……….
;)
I bought the Captivate the first hour the stores were open and had a small problem with the UI lag until I disabled the TouchWiz and used a downloaded application launch which as worked much better. Only GPS problems I have had were when using a rubber case around the phone. I take it off when it doesn’t connect within a few seconds and no problems. Though, often times it works with it on. Haven’t nailed down what makes the difference. I have had no problems with it rebooting at all and I plug it in every day. It’s a good phone. Actually wish it were slightly heavier and I could find more accessories, but, that’s not the phone at all. Ever phone, manufacturer, etc., have advantages and disadvantages. The Moto Droids are great phones, but, Motorola has been a joke for years until this and it’s wait and see if this actually saves them. We could all be here arguing Ford/Chevy superiority or anything else. What’s next, stickers of little boys peeing on Samsungs, or Motorolas, or Nokias like with the Ford and Chevy logos?
I have not had this problem on my Captivate.
I’m french, so excuse my poor english.
I’ve had this problem, with a Skyfire file. It came back to normal when the file was deleted. I read somewhere that Soundhound also generates such files.
I’m not a “power user” so i don’t really matter about samsung’s bugs, but i admit that they exists, as with EVERY brand, maybe a few more.
By the way, my Galaxy S rocks, even with original firmware, and no other phone can give me such a screen (cause I like to watch movies on the go).
Christ…the fanboyism on here is ridiculous!! we are all using practically the same phones!
Confirmed as happening on my Galaxy S Vibrant. Didn’t start happening until recently. My guess is that it has something to do with a market update, like previously mentioned. Those are the only updates the phone has received.
Never happened to my galaxy lol…. this is sad, when some 1 get bad product and its on yt, like everyone should be either… GO AND CHANGE IT MAN !
How to fix that ?
@Jonathan Drake Oh god, like any other phone hasn’t had a bunch of launch problems. This is a small problem compared to something hardware related like EVOs 30 fds issue. Samsung is supposed to be bringing a fix to the Gal S phones along with Froyo at the end of September. Don’t act like you know something or that any other phone out there doesn’t have problems.
Linux often doesn’t use file extensions. In addition, files whose file names start with a dot are hidden. So a Linux user might place a file named “.hidden_file_with_long_name” on the SD card.
help my samsung galaxy s will not connect to the samsung kies to download anything.samsung kies only picks up the phone when i am on windows media player.anyone any answers help
I found that the BordersAU app (Australian bookstore app) was the culprit on my Galaxy S. Ironically this app is installed via Samsung Apps, Anyway once you have a book installed if you go to sdcard/BordersAU/Images you will see some Artwork files with extensions of .AndroidCoverHigh I simply removed the file and this fixed the problem. :)
thanks filthypierre,
i uninstalled borders app and deleted borderAU file, and it works! there’s no more MTP application flashing on my sgs. but still having problem with my kies, it keeps showing “connecting with device” even though the phone shows “connected”.
File Extensions are entirely arbitrary. I use “.”s all over the place, for example
[code]
Menstrubation.tar.bz2
[/code]
… is a fairly typical name.. I’m quite amused this was ever an issue at all.
I feel your pain pie…