"plussed" Fairphone 3

Without knowing anything official (apart from this old statement)… the Updater should display a file size for the update.
Compare this to the file size of the corresponding full install file you can download at https://images.ecloud.global/dev/FP3/. If this roughly matches, the updates wouldn’t be incremental and you could just do the latest one.

Since I just installed the latest build from scratch, I have no example for the Fairphone 3 currrently.
On my Fairphone 2 the Updater displays 0.12-2020102981459 with a file size of 719 MB. If I download the corresponding file from https://images.ecloud.global/dev/FP2/ it comes in with a file size of 719.223.931 Bytes … a match, of sorts.
(If you use 1.024 * 1.024 Bytes = 1 MB, which is the norm in IT, this would amount to about 686 MB, but that would make the full install file smaller than the OTA update as reported by the Updater, so I guess they simply used 1.000 * 1.000 Bytes = 1 MB in the Updater, same as HDD/SSD vendors do with people complaining afterwards they didn’t get what was advertised just because their OS uses the 1.024 base and thus displays a smaller GB number for the same amount of Bytes.)

I have read explanations and I understand. I took some pictures and exposure is better.
Thanks a lot for your answer and your help.

Thanks for your help.
I will try the more recent one.

Hi all.
Some feedback on my soft & hard upgrades, for those who are afraid or hesitating.
I have bought FP3 with Android installed.
In may, I have installed /e/OS with Linux and CLI, easy and top.
Yesterday, I received my two upgrades modules (top+ & cam+) but I have seen that Android 10 should be necessary to manage the new cam+.
So I chose easy-installer to upgrade Android from 9 to 10 to discover a more simple user way.
Fantastic software. I used it on Kubuntu and followed all on-screen instructions step by step. /e/OS is now on Android 10. Great job to all of you ! You are fantastic.
Second I opened my phone and swapped the two modules. Easy. Phone started, I saw difference in OpenCamera in image quality term.
I was surprised that top+ shows 16M of resolution and cam+ doesnt show 48M. Thanks to screenager for explanations about that.
FP3 is perfectly running and I am too happy !
Last hesitation : I see 3 software updates and I hesitate between download all of them one by one or directly download the more recent one. I will try this evening to install the more recent one.
Thanks to all for your job !

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Always install the lastest update.

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Oh ! Thanks a lot Manoj.
But then another question… :stuck_out_tongue:
I see 3 available updates on the screen. If I install the last one, how can I “delete” the previous one from the list ? I don’t see a remove or delete option.

The option to delete only shows up when you download one of the updates. The available updates show up on the screen as they are ‘available’. We do not have an option as yet to filter out say ‘All updates released within the last two weeks’ . I agree a screen like this can be a bit confusing… may be we need to make work on this UI a bit

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What I still don’t know is: will there finally come an ordinary OTA update before doomsday for this? I mean: still this year? Or is self updating using installers and downloaded packages really the only option? I ask especially because the FP3+ is now officially being sold with /e/ on it. So when does my FP3 get this OS version? Where’s the roadmap?

Just don’t make it sound like this would be an overdue given. If /e/ actually offer an OTA upgrade somewhen, it will be a concession to expectations and convenience, knowing it will most probably not work out smoothly for every single user.
As I wrote somewhere else once …

It’s certainly not useless to start from scratch with a new major Android version.

From a logical and technical standpoint upgrading over existing installations should not be possible or at least not be treated as a totally normal, recommendable procedure … it is not.

Avoiding upgrading over existing installations would avoid lots of trouble for lots of users, because vendors can never test each and every scenario that may be found out in the wild, installations grow unpredictable over time to a certain degree, so upgrade outcomes are unpredictable to a certain degree.

Wiping the phone and starting the install from scratch would put the phone into a well-defined, vendor-tested state to proceed from. Furthermore it would hammer home the necessity of doing a complete backup once in a while, and thus spread knowledge about how to actually do complete backups.

It would make total sense, so it will never be this way :slight_smile: .
Just imagine the shitstorm if vendors actually forced this upon users, this could only work if Google as the Android steward would spearhead this and take the blame … but probably then most people would simply not do any upgrade anymore :slight_smile: .

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Err, I’ve never done a fresh install for a major Android Version but always simply updated OTA (stock ROMs) or manual upgrade without wipe (Lineage; LOS to my knowledge has no OTA for major version changes). On the three of my devices that actually got a major upgrade that never caused a problem.

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I did indeed buy an FP3 with preinstalled /e/ for not being dependent on executing updates myself based on any official or inofficial downloads.

I had two other smartphones before, both Blackberries (a BBOS 6 and a BB10). These two devices did work for more than ten years without a single breakdown, based on just simple, well tested OTA updates. I mention this because this is indeed something the user expects from a smartphone OS and its provider.

And the fact that the FP3+ is to be sold now leads me to the assumption that the OS on it has reached a more or less official state. It must not be perfect but it’s surely better than the 0.11 from August 31. At least I could finally change that damned camera. And change is in my hands, it says loud-mouthed.

Well, if you want to convince (non-tech) iOS users to make the switch you’ll have to…
I’ve been using iOS for several years (company phone) and applied all major updates without data loss. Now I switched jobs and lost the company phone so I’m on e/OS/ because I really want to get out of the GAFA ecosystems as much as possible and it’s a FP because I really like the idea of self-repairable phones.
But it isn’t easy… It’s taking a lot more effort.
You need to dive into systems and blogs, then try and pray everything goes as expected. And still it’s not doing what you want :slight_smile:

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I still don’t understand why the update to Q should require a new installation. Fairphone has just made it with the FP3. Especially those who bought the phone, the well known “Mom and Dads” are now pinched.

/e/ is committed to provide:
[…]
attractive, state of the art user experience
[…]
(from the e-manifesto.pdf)

The experience of installation every year.

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Rightly so. The expectation is not wrong.
I only think vendors can’t meet this expectation for 100% of the users. They can try to get it right for a large enough majority of users so that support capacities don’t get overwhelmed and there’s no major internet backlash.

Ok, if we hang the bar to clear as low as “should not result in data loss”, everything should be fine.
Unless we’re still in Beta territory where even a “normal” update (not a major version upgrade) could get somewhat close to data loss.

Here! Mom and Dad (yes, both at once) …

Yep, I have installed the most recent update and all is fine.
Checking back in update screen previous ones were disappeared by themselves.
Really nice.
Thanks a lot !

It’s all we can expect. Even on iOS it breaks once in a while. :face_with_hand_over_mouth:

For your information, we have to work on the OTA update process from Pie to Android 10 for the FP3, but there will still be Pie updates as long as a lot of people are on Pie (so as long as we haven’t provided a way to upgrade easily).

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For those who have installed the new modules : Could you tell me if the front camera module improves the management of the automatic brightness of the screen?
With the old module, I manually manage the brightness because its poor sensitivity leads to strange behaviors.

Can’t say this improved much, on the other hand it’s the first feature I disable on all my devices :upside_down_face: