LG G4 bootlooping outside warranty, need quick replacement

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arnemetis

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Hello everyone,

So this morning I wake up to my G4 turned off, well it's boot looping so I'm screwed. Bought in 2015, although I'm contacting LG I am expecting they will tell me to pound sand. I used GPS for over an hour yesterday so that probably did it. Anyway I need a suggestion on a phone now, since I was not planning on upgrading I am out of the loop.

Base it on the LG G4 as a baseline for features, specs, etc. Was perfectly fine with it.
Needs micro sd card expansion
Needs removable battery
Needs to be easily rootable
Needs to work on Verizon

Things that would be nice to have:
A better camera than the G4, especially in low light conditions
A superior manufacturer's warranty, 2-3 years?

Thanks for any suggestions.
 
Lg Warranty will probably still cover it. There are tons of users with the G4 or nexus 5x with the bootloop issue that have shared their concerns on reddit.
As for another phone, I would say avoid anything from LG, even though they are one of the easiest devices to root.
As of right now my v20 has cause no problems, "knock on wood". I love the functionality of the camera and being able to shoot in a manual mode.
It has 64gb built in, removable battery, and micro sd expansion.
 
My wife's G4 bootlooped a month ago, we had purchased the device in Nov. 2015. LG fixed it for free, no questions asked, and had it back to us 5 days after we shipped it to them. Contact them through text, they'll likely fix it.
 
braamer said:
My wife's G4 bootlooped a month ago, we had purchased the device in Nov. 2015. LG fixed it for free, no questions asked, and had it back to us 5 days after we shipped it to them. Contact them through text, they'll likely fix it.
Click to expand...

That's reassuring to hear! Any particular number I should be texting?
 
You contact LG through their website using their online chat support - my recommendation is that you go to LG's website and create an account now if you haven't done so already and register that LG G4 for the warranty now if you never did in the past. When registering the product it will ask for the IMEI and the purchase date and location, tell them you got it at Verizon (assuming that from your original post and the fact that you require Verizon compatibility which means only Verizon branded devices basically) and choose a purchase date of something like Oct/Nov/Dec of 2016 (they don't really care at this point but that puts you well inside the factory 1 year warranty period if needed).

Wait 2 days, roughly, then get on the website, start a chat with their online support, tell them your G4 just up and died and you need it fixed and they should email you a FedEx prepaid shipping label you print out and take to a local FedEx or Kinko's office, the personnel there will box it up and ship it free, LG will get it, replace the motherboard with one made in early 2017 (a new one that should never have bootloop issues again since they know what caused it originally now) and then return it in a few days just as described in the post above.

I've done this myself for 9 different G4 smartphones in the past 6 months, no issues getting them fixed, all of them have motherboards with manufacturing dates in the first 2-3 months of 2017 so they should be bootloop free for the future.

Good luck.

EDIT:
To check the motherboard manufacturing date use an app on the Google Play Market called LG Phone Info and it will show you the manufacturing date (embedded into the firmware on the motherboard).
 
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Just in case the LG warranty falls through; the LG V20 is pretty much the only phone that fits all of that criteria, but I'm not sure it's even has root on Verizon (Googling shows mixed results with one method saying there's no way to return to stock and it breaks Youtube somehow). Also, removable batteries are pretty much dead now, even LG has dropped them on their latest G6 phone and will likely drop it on the V30 as well. So barring the removable battery requirement, I'd say the HTC U11 would be your next best bet as I know it's rootable. The only probs with the U11 is that it's only available unlocked (not through Verizon with financing) and does not have Verizon's CDMA bands, but is fully compatible with their LTE network. So if you rely on Verizon's 1x/3G network at any point, it may not be a good option either.
 
My uncle has the G4...they made him pay $75 to repair the bootloop issue out of warranty. I have a Nexus 5X. Google replaced it for free out of warranty.

I don't know if there's many (any) phones out there that fit all your requirements. SD slots and removable batteries are going the way of the dinosaurs.
 
Just want to thank everyone for the suggestions so far. I've made my LG account and registered the phone as TIberian mentioned, I guess Wednesday I'll start bothering them via chat. I'll update the thread with how this turns out.
 
Got my phone back today, after having had successful chats with LG. Was not charged. I did receive my phone back, the sticker is the same and the headphone jack is a little dusty. The paperwork says Unit is not charging with cable, replaced board. They did remove my screen protector for some unknown reason, which has pissed me off since that was a nice tempered glass one. Has android 6.0, verizon version 2BA. It looks like others have had success rolling back to 5.1, which I initially planned on doing right away but now I'll have to think about it. The screen has what looks like packing tape over it, but there's no adhesive and it peels up easy. My case came with a plastic screen protector I didn't use, I guess that's what I'll use now.
 
If you get the chance, install the LG Phone Info app (only need to install it to use it one time, get the info, then you can uninstall it a minute later). That will show you the 'manufacturing date' of the mainboard you have now, it should have a manufacturing date in 2017, could be January, February, or March - I'm curious to see what it says for that device you just got back.

There's always a possibility that LG would actually do a repair to the mainboard that was in the G4 when you sent it in but it's unlikely at this point. The mainboards manufactured in 2017 so far have not bootlooped to my knowledge; I haven't seen one report of one that's failed as long as it was manufactured in 2017.

If it had the tempered glass screen protector missing and that protected clear tape thing stuck on it then more than likely they replaced the entire display assembly on yours as well, can't say that for sure but of the 9 G4's that I've sent in for warranty repair in the past 18 months not one of them has come back with that kind of clear plastic protector (which is on brand new never used display assemblies) on 'em. So, they might have just figured they'd replace the entire display assembly which includes the base chassis of the phone that everything else attaches to.

Sounds like they almost replaced everything except perhaps the back plastic assembly (which you remove to get to the mainboard). Either way, you should be set for the future now - one last thing I'd say to check is the IMEI number, if that's not the same as it was previously (sometimes they don't transfer that info to the new mainboard when they do the mainboard replacement) then it's nice to know that info for the record.
 
Well my IMEI is the same, so that's good. However the Production Date is 2015/08/14 and the Release Date is 2015/08/19. So maybe they really did repair the mainboard. I know that means there's a 99% chance it will bootloop again in a few months, insert expletives here.
 
Ah, it should have had a mainboard replacement at this point, perhaps if it up and dies on you at any point in the near future you'll be able to complain again and that time they'll finally give you the newer mainboard manufactured earlier this year, at least hopefully. But you're up and running again and it didn't cost you anything out of pocket or anything more than some time to maybe print the shipping label and drop it off at a FedEx office, I presume. ;)
 
Yeah it's working, but it wasn't just me having bad luck and them so graciously repairing my phone out of the kindness of their hearts. It is a widespread defect that they played nice with when really they should have done a 100% recall and replace. I'll take what I am given but it doesn't mean I have to like it. Thanks for your help, though!
 
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