I encrypted my device the second time during its lifetime. Now, it seems the pain in the… keyboard, to save all the data, export every possible settings to apps and so allow for safe update using data wipe. I’m referring to the current requirements to wipe data during upgrade.
Because I’d like to keep an updated OS – thank you for the bi-monthly updates – I leave my device unencrypted for some while.
But I’m curious, whether there are intentions of LineageOS or /e/OS to allow updates on encrypted devices, while keeping user data. I wish that updating an encrypted device is as seamless as it is updating an unencrypted one – fully automatic.
there never was a canonical requirement to wipe data during upgrade. Encrypted devices should have updates applied with intact userdata. If there is a failure, it is a bug.
What the R install instructions say is: if you have a modern devices that still receives vendor firmware, and also Android 11 firmware, please update to this firmware to receive the latest vendor specific partitions (baseband modem firmware etc).
If you have an older device, all of this does not apply. And since the /e/ team introduced code to handle the transition more gracefully a week ago:
… you can make Q->R upgrades with a userdata intact. Wait for the 0.19-R images coming this week.
@tcecyk I will cheerfully admit I missed this turn in the road until your explanation… And very grateful that an elegant solution from Q->R has been found. Well done devs!
Just to avoid a possible misunderstanding … The usual updates within the same major Android version don’t require a data wipe and don’t care about encryption.
Only the data partition (aka userdata) is encrypted, if anything, and the regular Android updates don’t need to do anything with the data partition.
Upgrading to a new major Android version (e.g. Android Q 10 → R 11), however, can be different, depending on device and situation.
