At this moment, https://images.ecloud.global/dev/FP3/ shows 5 (!) variants of a Q update.
Yet my current Pie build (0.12-2020102981459) does not seem willing to download any of these updates (‘No new updates found’).
Maybe that’s for our own good? @Ingo_FP_Angel, @Manoj, any clue? Thanks!
Regain your privacy! Adopt /e/ the unGoogled mobile OS and online services
I was wondering exactly the same… 
The upgrade from pie to Q will be blocked on the updater. Which could be why the Q builds are not showing up on the UI. The initial Q build will have to be flashed manually
Thanks for pointing out. Good to hear that Q is now ready for FP3!
The manual flash involves a bootloader unlock - and therefore all data will be wept (i.e., needs to be backed up before & restored after).
Will /e/ create an upgrade that frees (especially non-tech savvy) users from this? Much like the Pie -> Q upgrade on the original FP3’s Android OS?
No can do, because I loose all my data and settings (again).
unless there is an easy way to make a full data backup from my FP3 I see no real possibility to upgrade to Q. 
Android Q is still under beta, the link to the device page has been shared on Fairphone forum but it seems that it is not already shared through /e/ website.
I flashed it easely, some functions are buggy but honestly I feel like it is 99% operational.
There has been this press release the day before yesterday.
https://e.foundation/fairphone-and-e-expand-the-availability-of-e-os-to-fairphone-3-plus-users/
Thanks for the update, but is doesn’t give any link to install or to upgrade to Android 10, that’s what I was saying, so I understand that /e/ probably shared the link to install it only with beta testers …
Yeah, you are right, I’m not aware of some documentation how to upgrade from Pie to Q.
But the official install instructions on the FP3 page already specify Q for fresh install (unfortunately the hint about the Pie version not being for FP3+ hadn’t been altered at the same time). So yeah, the documentation isn’t perfect at the moment. But the Q install images weren’t just shared with a closed group of beta testers, the relevant links have been public (as opposed to the “real” beta testing of new feture development).
How will the upgrade to Q on the FP3 stable channel work? Will we be forced to switch to the dev builds?
The FP3 / FP3+ documents are being updated.
The upgrade document from Pie to Q is also available.
There is a warning on the FP3 document about not flashing FP3+ builds which is not relevant now. This section has been removed but the changes has not been pushed on to the documentation server.
The stable version of the build which goes out to users who purchased the FP3/ FP3+ is under testing and the link should be shared with user this coming week.
The initial stable builds will have to flashed manually subsequent builds will come OTA.
Will check if we can share the stable builds with all users.
The difference between the stable and dev builds is the dev builds after being tested for a few weeks are marked as stable.
So there will never come an automatic update to Q from Pie?
Since it took me a while to get used to the new android and took me quite some tweaks, my question is: how i can keep all of my system-settings. Can those be backupped and recovered too? Can the e-installer (https://doc.e.foundation/easy-installer) do this? Or can i do it within the manual process? (i saw that there is a wipe userdata command.)
I’m not using /e/-account, got my own server for mail, contacts and calendar. But could using an account do backup systemsettings?
Theres difficult but important stuff like i’m using different types of contacts (for reasons): some carddav, some phone only, some sim only.
Also i’m using r2mail2 with pgp, would love not to migrate all those certifiates … again.
(yeah and stuff like finetuning the custom keyboard, understanding the /e/-infrastructure and getting it to work along with my server or disabling unecessary stuff like weather, and so on - lotsa things i’d need to do again from scratch, since i forgot everything about it, of course.)
(i know, that a clean new setup is always better, but i still can do that if i get in trouble)
tldr;
how can i backup and recover most of the system-settings possible on an upgrade from pie to q (in case that there’s no automatic upgrade coming)?
hello manoj. in this documentation stand that the bootloader has to be locked after the upgrade. is it really necessary?
at the moment my bootloader of my 0.17-p…-Version is unlocked and it works fine since over one year.
all my data have gone after the upgrade or is it not?
No, locking the bootloader is not really necessary if you chose to leave the bootloader unlocked before.
Yes, your data will be gone.
Even if you leave the bootloader unlocked (when locking it would force a factory reset), the manual upgrade procedure still needs you to wipe user data.