Older OS versions disappeared after the 0.19→0.20 update

Using /e/OS Troubleshooting
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#1

Hi,

Phone: FairPhone 3+

I was using version 0.19 of /e/ and I had lots of older versions of the OS in the System updates menu. I cleaned up a little by deleting two or three of them using the dedicated buttons before upgrading to 0.20 (0.20-20211215151799, Android 10), but kept some versions (and of course I would not delete 0.19 itself since I was using it).

Surprisingly enough, ever since that upgrade, I get an empty list of versions in System updates, with the “No new updates found. To manually check for updates, blahblah” message. Running a manual check does not change this (btw, these checks take several minutes on my phone and I dunno if that’s normal).

Note that in the System updates preferences, I set “Delete updates when installed” to OFF months ago.

I have no current need to roll back to an older version (well… I dunno, I have yet to extensively use the new version and maybe I’ll run into something nasty), but this still surprises me.

  1. Were the older versions all deleted due to a bug?
  2. Or maybe a rollback-dedicated menu was created somewhere else in 0.20?
  3. I also worry that these now-maybe-impossible-to-delete-the-normal-way older version would use up space on my device for ever or something.
  4. Too early to say, but: I hope this won’t interfere with the discovery, listing and installation of future versions.
#2

https://images.ecloud.global/dev/FP3

https://images.ecloud.global/stable/FP3

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#3

How much of your internal storage is used? (Settings > Storage)
Has the phone been slowing down generally recently?

#4

Thanks for the replies.

@piero Thanks for the links; those are nice to have as bookmarks. The mysteries remain, though. :laughing: (And I’m a phone-flashing noob; it seems way trickier than putting a stupid .iso on something via dd. I see people mentioning stuff like TWRP and I have no idea which methods are advised / suitable and whether they’d nuke my personal data, but that’s another topic. :yawning_face:)

@urs_lesse Huum, I’m at about ½, with more than 30 GB free. My tiny SD card is nearly full, though, but that’s always been the case :grin:, and it’s just used to store media I manually transfer from my PC, not app data or anything too touchy.
Performances look normal; never had speed issues on my FP3+ AFAICT. I don’t do really demanding stuff with it though.

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#5

Have you thought of just searching for the older installation files in the app FILES? I mean just trying to locate a file by searching for it by a search term like “0.20-20211215151799” (just an example)?

#6

Have you thought of just searching for the older installation files in the app FILES?

Hum I kinda assumed that if they are somewhere it’d be in weird hidden stuff with names that do not necessarily match the official version name, but I guess it does not hurt to try.

Huuum… Nope. Brutally checked everything with “2021“ in its name: only my photos and public transport timetables popped up. :woman_shrugging: I’d say the upgrade probably did a brutal unwanted cleanup for some reason. Strange. Even 0.20 itself should, in theory, be listed right after the installation, but nope, nothing. As long as 0.21 will be findable and installable (:crossed_fingers:), I won’t complain too much, but that’s kinda distressing nonetheless.

#8

The install method via TWRP or ADB sideload does not apply to the Fairphone 3/3+ and other A/B devices. Installing is done in fastboot mode with the fastboot command via USB.

The official install guide for the Fairphone 3/3+ is here: Install /e/ on a Fairphone FP3/3+ - “FP3”.
The following actions, wherever mentioned, will wipe your data:

  • Locking the bootloader
  • Unlocking the bootloader
  • “Wiping the data partition”/ “wiping data”/ “wiping userdata”/ fastboot -w
  • “factory reset”
#9

The Updater app puts the updates in a folder (/data/lineageos-updates I think) that is not visible to apps on the phone. you can check if any files are still there using adb

adb root
adb remount
adb shell

ls -alr /data/l*

You can copy any files that are there to your computer using adb pull or to a folder that is visible to the Files app (e.g. /data/sdcard) by using adb shell and cp commands

3 Likes
#10

Thanks, you all. I’ll feel better armed if anything fatal-ish comes up for the next upgrade, and my anxiety abated somewhat.
Still, I’m a bit crestfallen: I expected boatloads of “Oh that happened to me as well”. :laughing:
Apart from that, 0.20 seems to be running OK so far.

#11

Update:
Version 0.21 could be found normally, and appears, after installation and reboot, in the list displayed by the updater app.
So I suspect something went wrong the last time, when I deleted two old versions prior to installing the new one. It kinda purged stuff or whatever. Now I’ll try to either delete or install stuff, not the two actions in a single session. :sweat_smile:

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