Fairphone 3/3+ (FP3): OTA upgrade from Android 9 (Pie) status

[AnotherElk]

New topic for increased visibility … to whom it may concern … from newest to oldest info …

Despite earlier contrary info, an OTA upgrade from Android 9 (Pie) to Android 10 (Q) is in the works.

@Manoj

The Pie to Q OS OTA upgrade is under development. There is also a parallel effort to upgrade the OS OTA from Q to R.
There are some development challenges in getting the data to back up and later restore with no loss. Will share more details once there is any positive news to report. Checking if we can have a direct jump from Pie to R.

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According to forum user info, possibilities are still under review:

@PhilA

Info from /e/ Help Desk, end of June.

@PhilA

They were studying different scenarii to workaround the problem, including with a complete OS reinstall with data and applications backup.

Studying different scenarii doesn’t mean it will amount to anything in the end, but it isn’t nothing either, there still might be hope.

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It was clarified that the planned OTA upgrade on Fairphone 3/3+ (FP3) will be from Android 10 (Q) to Android 11 (R).

@Manoj

We are looking for volunteers to help with the testing for the

• FP3 OS OTA upgrade from Q to R

Week 32, 2022: Development and Testing Updates

The OS OTA upgrade build for FP3 will be from Q to R.

Support for /e/OS based on Android 9 (Pie) was dropped a while ago with /e/OS v1.0 on all /e/OS devices, and on Fairphone 3/3+ (FP3) no OTA upgrade from Android 9 (Pie) is coming.
The current Android version of /e/OS on a device can be seen in Settings - About phone - Android version.

Upgrading to Android 10 (Q) can be done manually via command line or via the Easy Installer and by default includes a data wipe, so user data on the phone will be deleted. Consider syncing to the cloud or backing up to a computer if necessary.

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In the fringe case that the bootloader was left unlocked and should stay unlocked (with the accompanying security implications), there’s a chance that simply installing Android 10 (Q) manually via command line, making sure to not wipe any user data in the process (by not executing the fastboot -w and fastboot flashing lock commands), and just wiping the cache partition (by executing fastboot erase cache) might result in a successful upgrade keeping user data and Apps (worked for me on Fairphones 2 and 3 after seeing a hint about it, but no guarantees).
Unlocking a locked bootloader for this now will not help, as this will force a factory reset (deleting user data) for security reasons, as will locking the bootloader.
When in doubt, the state of the bootloader can be seen in fastboot mode by keeping Vol - pressed while starting or rebooting the phone. It will display “DEVICE STATE - unlocked” or “DEVICE STATE - locked”. Just press the power button while the top of the screen displays “START” to reboot the phone into the OS again.

[Ceddev]

Thank you for this clarification.
I had read the release notes and I was still waiting for an OTA on my FP3. I purchased it on the /e/store, it was delivered with Android 9.
I didn’t paid attention that this will be from Android Q, sad to read that I will need to do a reinstall … If only there was a way to reinstall all app …

Thank you for all this information, very helpful !

[chogo]

Is there any good way to backup data? I can copy images and everything accessible in the file system but app settings and everything that is only accessible via root will be lost. Or is there a way to backup those? Same applies to the installed apps (which is my smallest issue).

[AnotherElk]

@chogo

Is there any good way to backup data?

Week 25, 2022 : Development and Testing Updates

There is no one-size-fits-all solution. There are different possibilities and approaches which can be considered for different user needs and situations. It starts with copying the Internal Storage to a computer via USB. Then there are tools like MyPhoneExplorer, adding connections other than USB as well as handling of contacts, messages and more. It gets tricky when it comes to Apps and their data. Here’s something recent … … but TWRP needs an unlocked bootloader on the Fairphone 3/3+, S…

[AnotherElk]

Added the following info to the opening post …

@PhilA

Info from /e/ Help Desk, end of June.

@PhilA

They were studying different scenarii to workaround the problem, including with a complete OS reinstall with data and applications backup.

Studying different scenarii doesn’t mean it will amount to anything in the end, but it isn’t nothing either, there still might be hope.

[AnotherElk]

Added the following info to the opening post …

@Manoj

The Pie to Q OS OTA upgrade is under development. There is also a parallel effort to upgrade the OS OTA from Q to R.
There are some development challenges in getting the data to back up and later restore with no loss. Will share more details once there is any positive news to report. Checking if we can have a direct jump from Pie to R.

[ulionetouch]

In the past I had no OTA update to Q and had to do it manually.
No joy but it worked.
But now, I had the OTA update for FP3 from Q to R (/e/OS 1.5-20221028230215).
**Really really good job! **
As far as I know: no data loss, no bugs.
I only needed a few restarts but then everything worked fine!
A big thank you to all developers!

[Libre]

Did you OTA upgrade from dev or stable?

[ulionetouch]

The previous version was installed with the installer, therefore I assume it was stable.

[AnotherElk]

Latest and seemingly final:

@Manoj

The FP3 OTA OS update from Pie to Q/R is not possible as encryption method changed on FP3 between Pie and Q/R. It is not possible to change the method while updating. The team spent a great deal of time on this, but has not been able to resolve this problem. For now, the manual process is the only way to upgrade the FP3 from pie to other OS versions.

(I can’t edit the first post anymore, so I’ll mark this as the solution to at least put it in up there.)