No updates found - stuck at /e/OS 1.21.1

[jekyl]

Heyho

somehow, my phone seems to have lost connection regarding updates. I remember my OS suggested updating to version 2 some months ago, but I decided to do it later and then forgot about it.

Now my system is still running on 1.21.1 from March and doesn’t find any new updates, even after clicking the manual refresh button. I also tried rebooting, but it didn’t help.

What can I do to receive updates again?

Thanks in advance

[mihi]

Are you on stable instantnoodle

First we need to know which device and build?

[HOWTO] Give complete /e/OS version info easily for support, answers, comparison etc

If you read just the start of this text because it gets cited in the forum: There are screenshots here, please have a look at them before assuming you know what this is about. Thank you! As they say, every hint has its history . Where were we? Ah, yes … You are running /e/OS on your device and want to give info about your version to get support, or a simple answer to a question, or anybody else to confirm whether they can observe the same behaviour you observe? Sure … Your device will …

[jekyl]

@mihi Thanks for the quick response and heads-up.

I am using Fairphone 4, the exact version is 1.21.1-s-20240325389527-stable-FP4

[aibd]

Your question is very similar to the one answered here Why no updates in over a year? FP4 - #3 by aibd

[jekyl]

@aibd thanks for the link

So far I tried everything except manual update to no avail. I’ll try updating manually later, as I need some more focus time for that (haven’t done this before).

[Thonku]

Hi all.
I have a similar problem on a Galaxy S7 (SM-G930F) which is stuck at android version 10 and /e/OS 1.17-20231109350746 according to the updater which says I’m running the latest version.

I’ve tried clearing the updater storage and that didn’t change anything. I have browsed the forum but did not find clear information about what I should do from here with this device. I’m not sure if a manual upgrade is necessary or even possible. Any pointers would be very helpful. Thanks !

[aibd]

Please can you give your build_string as Post # 2, specifically are you running dev or stable?

From an Android 10 (Q) dev build a manual upgrade with Format data was required.

So first thing would be to secure a good backup.

[Thonku]

Hi. Sure. The build number given in the “about phone” section is
e_herolte-user 10 QQ3A.200805.001 eng.root.20231109.175056 dev-keys,stable-release

edit: /e/ OS version is 1.17-q-20231109350746-stable-herolte

[aibd]

So you do have a stable build (now designated as official) so you should have expected the Android version upgrade some time ago but it hasn’t happened. (The current outage situation limits any availability of older builds; you could wait to see what improved options appear but there will be quite a wait probably.)

As you are on Android 10 (Q) potentially upgrading to Android 12 (S) I would propose a backup of essentials then treat the job as a fresh install Install /e/OS on a Samsung Galaxy S7 - “herolte”. This would involve Format data.

• (You could experiment with omit Format data, but please do not rely on this to preserve your data.)

[Thonku]

So a complete re install is necessary I was hoping not to have to do that.
I could wait for some more convenient options in the future. My only issue now is that the App lounge does not work any more. The anonymous mode returns “the anonymous account you’re currently using is unavailable” and the google log in just returns error 404.
If there was a way to fix this without upgrading I’d be willing to wait. Anyway thanks for your answer.

[piero]

The Applounge issue is not related to your old version.
You can workaround by using F-droid and AuroraStore…

[Thonku]

That does seem to work indeed. Thanks for the suggestion

[jekyl]

Okay, I finally found the time (and guts) to try updating manually and am now in an unexpected situation in recovery mode, and hesitant what to do.

I followed the suggestions by @piero over here: Why no updates in over a year? FP4 - #21 by piero
and chose variant 3, downloading the latest ota update onto the SD card of my phone, went into recovery mode and picked the file. The package was verified successfully, and after spending quite some time in “Step 2/2”, it now says:

“Now send the package you want to apply to the device with “adb sideload ”… E:Timeout waiting for messages from minabd”.

Is this something I should/can just cancel and retry? Or do I really have to install adb in order to send the same package from the PC again?

---

Update: in the meantime I tried to adb sideload, but for some reason adb couldn’t find the device, so I cancelled and tried again from sdcard, and now it’s in “Step 2/2” again, for about an hour. How long does this usually take?

[aibd]

Did you check if you have a locked bootloader, status found on Bootloader screen?

A locked bootloader should be able to cope with an OTA update. Stable=official builds are capable of OTA Upgrade of Android version, but we do not know fully whether the magic to do this extends out from the initial OTA upgrade release.

If the bootloader is locked, you may have to prepare for the possibility of a fresh install.

Step 2 of 2 generally indicates that the sideload is near completion, like 5 or 6 minutes, as I have seen.

[jekyl]

@aibd thanks for the response. Just before I saw it, I had canceled the update progress by pressing the back button, because there was no more progress. After doing so, another log message appeared at the bottom of the log, which told me the update was successful

My phone is now running on v2.6.3 thanks to anyone who helped with this.

[jekyl]

To anyone who stumbles across this encountering the same situation, here is what I finally did to update my phone.
It was a bit of trial and error and gathering information from different threads, hope the summary helps:

• Basically following the suggestions from piero over here, variant 3: Why no updates in over a year? FP4 - #21 by piero
• I created a backup before I started, just to be sure (didn’t need it in the end, though)
• Download the update file: go to /e/OS stable FP4 download and copy the link to the latest build, but before downloading, remove the leading “IMG-” from the filename (the “IMG-” one seems to be the file for a complete installation, which is not what we want)
• Transfer the file to the SD card of your phone.
• Reboot phone into recovery mode: (on FP4: turn off, then hold vol-up + power until first vibration)
• Choose Apply Update → from external storage
• select the zip file from your SD card
• Wait for the update to finish.
• On my phone, the process seemed to be stuck in “Step 2/2” for about 90mins, so I decided to hit the back button to cancel. But the update was successful anyway

Thanks for helping, everyone.

[thierry_g]

Hello !
I am in the exact same situation. Did you find a way to update without re-install ?
Thanks

[Thonku]

Unfortunately I didn’t. For some reasons the App Lounge is working again though. I still have Aurora Store just in case.
But I’m still running Android 10, and E/OS 1.17 with no update available. Hopefully there will be a possibility to upgrade in the future.

[aibd]

Hi @thierry_g welcometo the /e/ forum.

Does your “exact same situation” include being on Android 10 (Q) ? This is really the thing that requires to wipe / Format data, and is the significant difference from the OP and his Solution.