It’s been months I am reading news about /e/ OS 1.20 being available, and then 1.21, but I am still stuck on 1.19.1 on my Pixel 3a. I regularly check for updates and nothing is available. So I went online and I saw today on https://images.ecloud.global/dev/sargo/ that 1.20 and 1.21 are already available for months but they are based on Android T (while 1.19.1 is S). So I imagine that this major update of Android is the reason why it is not available with OTA update? I think it is a shame, because most users are not going to know that there are new versions but not available through the phone update channel.
If really this is technically complicated, at least a message should be displayed, “a new update is available but can’t be installed over the air, please download and install it manually” or something like this…
And some documentation about how to flash a new major version of Android on /e/ OS would be great. Am I going to see all my data erased or not, for example?
Cheers, thanks for the good work.
The OS upgrade where manual, does require a stock ROM first and then /e/OS install. I believe the updater does not allow to show different OS versions. A message to the effect
would be helpful. Not sure if it can be displayed given the Updater limitations. Checking with the build team on this.
On the upgrade guides, we have removed them from the documentation site. The recommendation is to have a clean install the first time /e/OS is flashed, which involves formatting the device. Subsequent builds come OTA on most devices.
Users are recommended to take a backup. The reason for the removal was users were soft bricking devices while attempting upgrades without following all the steps as mentioning in the installation guides.
Are you 100% sure about this? I think I flashed /e/ OS S on top of /e/ OS R without issues.
I think there is a misunderstanding here. I’m not talking about “the first time /e/ OS is flashed”, I am talking about how to upgrade between major versions of Android, from /e/ to /e/.
OS distribution (GogolOS or /e/OS) is builded on top of a specific Android version, that is builded on top of a specific Firmware version.
when Firmware or Android is updated, the top layer also have to be modified to reflect those changes
in conclusion you have to install coherent software on your device
(in regard of the build revision of the three layers)
I understand that, but that should not be something that an end user should care about. In my case, the issue is simple: I am on 1.19.1, I see 1.20, then 1.21, then 2.0 versions being promoted everywhere in emails, blogposts etc, I keep refreshing and see no update available from my devices. This by itself is already an issue.
Then, after digging and because I am a technical person, I was able to understand that the people who are building /e/ OS for the Pixel 3a (I would be happy to know who this is by the way, at least to say thank you to them) are not providing 1.20 for the version of Android I have installed. So, /e/ OS 1.20 and the next ones are available for Pixel 3a, but nothing in my device is informing me about this, nor telling me how to update. And that is an issue.
So, can anyone tell me if I have to manually flash a new Android version of /e/ OS, and if so if I am going to lose every data so I should backup and restore them?
I did a “dirty flash” meaning an in place upgrade with NO wipe on my p3a XL to upgrade to 1.21 (and then using normal upgrade in the system go up to 2.0+ since the android version is the same it is easy).
So I downloaded the newest version from the images site and then using the /e/ recovery just installed it withOUT wiping user data . No apps or data were lost but please make copies of important things to avoid the risk of a problem.
Well, as I understand the 1.19 to 1.21 to even 2.x are just /e/ fixes and improvements. The hardware support is all based on the underlying Android version (“T” or Android 13 in all these cases). So I don’t think there is a need to do it sequentially.
Note again with that underlying Android version change there is a chance things may not go smoothly, but I have not had any problems. But IF you find things not working you may need to be prepared to do a more thorough full clean install (including first load most updated Android 13 first). I think you should be fine though.