My Disney Experience App

[Trackerbee]

I have a Samsung Galaxy 3 smart phone. Used app 2 years ago at Disney on this same phone, now it says that this device does not support this app???? Can't even log into the website on my phone. Is anyone else having this problem. My phone is perfectly fine for my use and I can't justify spending 700.00 for a new phone to go to Disney.

 

[jpeterson]

The newest version dropped support for some versions of android and iOS. They likely moved to a newer version for the general feature and usability improvements.

 

[mom2rtk]

You can use the website with your browser.

 

[Trackerbee]

Tried just using the website, but that doesn't work either. All I get is all the website features listed in a long row, but they can't be clicked on.

 

[mom2rtk]

Tried just using the website, but that doesn't work either. All I get is all the website features listed in a long row, but they can't be clicked on.

Don't rule out the system having issues. I would try again later just to be sure.

 

[Trackerbee]

Unfortunately my husband has been trying to use the website on his phone since January with no luck. Wish a temporary issue was the problem

 

[mom2rtk]

Unfortunately my husband has been trying to use the website on his phone since January with no luck. Wish a temporary issue was the problem

That stinks. I'm sorry.

 

[scard192]

I have an older Samsung phone and the MDE is not compatible with it. Before our trip last year I tried to use the Chrome browser app on my phone and it would not work. Downloaded the Firefox browser app and that did work for me.

 

[CAS239]

Yea it's due to how old your phone is.

Likely the the app developers aren't making apps anymore for your operating system and Samsung has stopped providing system updates for you

 

[siskaren]

The app now requires an operating system of 5.0 or better.

 

[srwarden1928]

I had a Galaxy 3 and had the same problem. I needed to upgrade for other reasons. I now have a Galaxy 7 Active, and MDE was the first app I downloaded for it. (My old apps all transferred.) It works fine now. Plus, it is supposed to withstand Kali River Rapids.

 

[SaharanTea]

The updated app cuts off the Galaxy series for everything prior to an S6. For Apple, it cuts off everything prior to iPhone 6S. It was a big jump and cut out quite a few phones. You'd think they'd take a more stepped approach. There are other cheaper Android phones with newer OS's, but their hardware is often not up to Galaxy standards. For Apple, there's nothing compatible that's cheap.

Personally, I thought it was a bit of a drastic deprecation.

 

[FelisLachesis]

I just checked what The Galaxy S3 has for an operating system, and what MDE needs. The GS3 stopped getting updates at "Jellybean." The latest MDE app requires "Lollipop" to run correctly. The Android versions are all sweets in alphabetical order, starting from Cupcake (C) and is currently on Nougat (N). The "O" version is currently being tested.

On the Apple side, MDE require iOS 9.0 or later.

Disney did this because some of the older code was giving the app fits. It had a choice of either continuing to support the older versions, or to steamline the code and say "sorry" to the older phones. The cost/benefit ratio was probably just no longer worth it. Fewer and fewer people are carrying the older phones, so there's not much financial sense to keep spending money and time on development where the returns are diminishing.

Now as for another phone, you don't need a Galaxy S8 or an iPhone 7s to run MDE. for Apple, A well updated iPhone 4s or better should have the minimum requirements to run MDE. An iPhone 6s or greater will be able to run MDE right out of the box, though updating them is always a good idea. On the Samsung Galaxy S side, a well updated Galaxy S4 or S5 will be able to run the app. Any Galaxy S6 or better can run it without updates, though, again, updating them is always a good idea.

So you don't need the latest phone to run MDE. Unfortunately, your GS3 just missed the cutoff. I wouldn't risk just getting a GS4 or an iPhone 4s to meet the minimum requirements. If the Disney app developers raise the bar, then your phone, again, will no longer be able to use it.

 

[SaharanTea]

I just checked what The Galaxy S3 has for an operating system, and what MDE needs. The GS3 stopped getting updates at "Jellybean." The latest MDE app requires "Lollipop" to run correctly. The Android versions are all sweets in alphabetical order, starting from Cupcake (C) and is currently on Nougat (N). The "O" version is currently being tested.

On the Apple side, MDE require iOS 9.0 or later.

Disney did this because some of the older code was giving the app fits. It had a choice of either continuing to support the older versions, or to steamline the code and say "sorry" to the older phones. The cost/benefit ratio was probably just no longer worth it. Fewer and fewer people are carrying the older phones, so there's not much financial sense to keep spending money and time on development where the returns are diminishing.

Now as for another phone, you don't need a Galaxy S8 or an iPhone 7s to run MDE. for Apple, A well updated iPhone 4s or better should have the minimum requirements to run MDE. An iPhone 6s or greater will be able to run MDE right out of the box, though updating them is always a good idea. On the Samsung Galaxy S side, a well updated Galaxy S4 or S5 will be able to run the app. Any Galaxy S6 or better can run it without updates, though, again, updating them is always a good idea.

So you don't need the latest phone to run MDE. Unfortunately, your GS3 just missed the cutoff. I wouldn't risk just getting a GS4 or an iPhone 4s to meet the minimum requirements. If the Disney app developers raise the bar, then your phone, again, will no longer be able to use it.

I'm not sure about Apple phones, but you can't update the Galaxy line without jail breaking them, unless you know something I don't, which is quite possible. I've read its the carriers that lock them.

I get that MDE can't sit on old operating systems forever, but they did cut out a big chunk of both user bases in less than a year

 

[Tiki Birdland]

FWIW, the latest MDE app works fine on my Galaxy S5. Downloaded the latest on Thursday.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

The updated app cuts off the Galaxy series for everything prior to an S6. For Apple, it cuts off everything prior to iPhone 6S. It was a big jump and cut out quite a few phones. You'd think they'd take a more stepped approach. There are other cheaper Android phones with newer OS's, but their hardware is often not up to Galaxy standards. For Apple, there's nothing compatible that's cheap.

Personally, I thought it was a bit of a drastic deprecation.

My Galaxy S6 edge (bought Nov 2015 though the phone had been released for a while before that) just got the Android 7 release in early May and before that had the Android 6.0.1 for quite a while though I didn't start with that version.

I have Sprint for reference.

It totally sucks for sure but I had an S4 slider for over 2 years before I got the S6 edge so we're talking the S3 was well before that. ETA: And cell phone providers aren't trying real hard to push newer updates on these old phones.

I will say sometimes apps have issues with newer versions of Android and become incompatible then. I had a Samsung theme on my phone that became uncompatible in the sense that not all features worked with it with the Android 7 update and the widget for "what's this song" also stopped working completely and has been unusable since the update.

 

[smallworldnh]

I have a Samsung Galaxy 3 smart phone. Used app 2 years ago at Disney on this same phone, now it says that this device does not support this app???? Can't even log into the website on my phone. Is anyone else having this problem. My phone is perfectly fine for my use and I can't justify spending 700.00 for a new phone to go to Disney.

I have the same issue with my Droid android, the old version worked fine but now i can't download the newest one and it stinks. I, too, refuse to upgrade my phone just to get the app. I'll just use the website and deal with it.

 

[FelisLachesis]

I'm not sure about Apple phones, but you can't update the Galaxy line without jail breaking them, unless you know something I don't, which is quite possible. I've read its the carriers that lock them.

I get that MDE can't sit on old operating systems forever, but they did cut out a big chunk of both user bases in less than a year

A carrier lock is different than a software lock. A carrier lock is simply a phone can only be used on one particular network. A phone running on Verizon, for example, can't simply be told to run on AY&T's network. Sometimes, a phone can be told to do so, but it's tricky. A software lock is where certain apps can't be run. Those apps can cause major damage to a phone if not careful. They get into deep inner workings of a phone, where carriers don't want people going.

Carriers can, and will, push software updates all if the current phones in their lineup. All of the Galaxy phones, from S4 on up, will get an update to at least Lollipop, which is supported by the carriers. There is no unlocking or rooting necessary to get the updates. If your phone doesn't have it, it will, usually within 24 hours of turning it on. There probably is a way of getting an S3 to run Lollipop, but that's beyond the scope of a Disney-related forum. And yes, that would require rooting and unlocking. (Jailbreak is an Apple only term)

And, honestly, there aren't that many people using 5 year old phones, anymore. The vast majority of people on the major carriers will get a new phone every two years, so that's where most of the support lies. After two years, the number of phones "out in the wild" decreases rapidly. I would guess that less than 15% of the phones being used are older than 3 years old, and the percentage of phones older than 5 has to be in the low single digits.

 

[JerseyJanice]

IPhone, people. IPhone.

 

[SaharanTea]

A carrier lock is different than a software lock. A carrier lock is simply a phone can only be used on one particular network. A phone running on Verizon, for example, can't simply be told to run on AY&T's network. Sometimes, a phone can be told to do so, but it's tricky. A software lock is where certain apps can't be run. Those apps can cause major damage to a phone if not careful. They get into deep inner workings of a phone, where carriers don't want people going.

Carriers can, and will, push software updates all if the current phones in their lineup. All of the Galaxy phones, from S4 on up, will get an update to at least Lollipop, which is supported by the carriers. There is no unlocking or rooting necessary to get the updates. If your phone doesn't have it, it will, usually within 24 hours of turning it on. There probably is a way of getting an S3 to run Lollipop, but that's beyond the scope of a Disney-related forum. And yes, that would require rooting and unlocking. (Jailbreak is an Apple only term)

And, honestly, there aren't that many people using 5 year old phones, anymore. The vast majority of people on the major carriers will get a new phone every two years, so that's where most of the support lies. After two years, the number of phones "out in the wild" decreases rapidly. I would guess that less than 15% of the phones being used are older than 3 years old, and the percentage of phones older than 5 has to be in the low single digits.

I wasn't talking about being locked to a carrier. I mean the carriers disallow updates to the OS. It does make some sense because new OS's aren't designed for old hardware, but one or two steps ahead would likely be ok.

As for pushing updates, I have an S4, and it's stuck at 4.2, which is, I think, jelly bean. The S5 is even relegated to an OS before MDE's requirements, unless it's allowed an update after purchase.

I'm not sure about phones, but I checked statistics on android OS's in use a few months back. I think you might be surprised how far behind the latest OS most people are. Besides, the S4 is still being sold as a new phone. They are much cheaper than a $700+ S8.