Hello there.
I was wondering when the xzp will lose updates (like security updates), and if the phone will likely get Android Q.
Also I'd like to root the phone, could I keep the stock ROM installed with it being rooted? So I could keep the normal Xperia apps on it.
Many thanks,
-MegaBytesMe
IIRC usually happens around 2 years after the device has been released, at least for flagship models. However things like the security updates didn't exist back then so I don't know Sony's approach to that. If anything they should at least try to keep the security updates for the device. It might be just me but I don't think this phone is going to get Android Q.
Related
Searched and looked around in a few threads, but couldn't find a definitive/clear answer.
Recently bought an HTC Radar. Phone prompted that an update was available (I believe it's an OS update).
My question is should I be updating my phone at all if I'm hoping for an interop unlock?
From reading, am I right to assume OS updates should not affect future abilities to interop, but firmware/baseband updates would? Is there an easy way to figure that out?
I'm coming from an iPhone, so I still have this mindset of "to update or not to update..." when it comes to homebrew.
Thanks all!
Usually HTC updates disable the unlock but beware that it is also possible for updates to disable hacks and mods too. Do some research first. What update is it, does it say?
OS updates shouldn't affect the ability to unlock, correct. On the other hand, we can't currently interop-unlock HTC gen2 phones anyhow, so at this point it doesn't matter much. I suppose firmware updates might make it harder to do so in the future, but if nothing else we can always tell people to roll back too. I suggest you keep your backups around (move or copy them to a folder with a different name so they don't get overwritten; they're stored in "%localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows Phone Update").
sinister1 said:
Usually HTC updates disable the unlock but beware that it is also possible for updates to disable hacks and mods too. Do some research first. What update is it, does it say?
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Thanks. The phone came with stock 7.5, and the update prompted is 7.10.8107.79. I went ahead and updated regardless because the keyboard issue was driving me nuts.
GoodDayToDie said:
OS updates shouldn't affect the ability to unlock, correct. On the other hand, we can't currently interop-unlock HTC gen2 phones anyhow, so at this point it doesn't matter much. I suppose firmware updates might make it harder to do so in the future, but if nothing else we can always tell people to roll back too. I suggest you keep your backups around (move or copy them to a folder with a different name so they don't get overwritten; they're stored in "%localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows Phone Update").
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Thanks. Done and done.
So my phone is now prompting me to update (and I can't even tell it to got to hell like I could on my S4 Mini ) but I refuse to do so until I know I can keep my root intact (or until Kingroot becomes capable of rooting that version).
Is there ANY way of keeping my root intact? Maybe by using the PC companion to update (this used to work before ICS didn't it?)? Or doing something to the phone (besides flashing firmware) to preserve the root ahead of the update?
I don't want to be installing a custom rom (and yes, I still count generic stock as a custom rom because it would get onto my phone just like any other custom rom) just to update and I absolutely need root for Link2SD so if I can't keep root in some way and Kingroot doesn't catch up then I'm going to stay on my current version forever, security be damned.
SCHUMI_4EVER said:
So my phone is now prompting me to update (and I can't even tell it to got to hell like I could on my S4 Mini ) but I refuse to do so until I know I can keep my root intact (or until Kingroot becomes capable of rooting that version).
Is there ANY way of keeping my root intact? Maybe by using the PC companion to update (this used to work before ICS didn't it?)? Or doing something to the phone (besides flashing firmware) to preserve the root ahead of the update?
I don't want to be installing a custom rom (and yes, I still count generic stock as a custom rom because it would get onto my phone just like any other custom rom) just to update and I absolutely need root for Link2SD so if I can't keep root in some way and Kingroot doesn't catch up then I'm going to stay on my current version forever, security be damned.
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No. You can make prerooted 546 and flash it in recovery and it's only way how to retain root. As soon as you update using OTA you will loose root as system will be overwritten.
Sent from my D6603 using Tapatalk
Thanks, guess I'm waiting then.
Any way to temporarily disable the update message/get it out of my notification bar?
SCHUMI_4EVER said:
Thanks, guess I'm waiting then.
Any way to temporarily disable the update message/get it out of my notification bar?
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Maybe you can disable the Software Update app in settings...
By the way, however it`s your decision, I don`t understand reasons behind why not flashing latest software with Flashtool. There are sometimes nasty issues with upgrades, like people loosing LTE with OTA upgrades to 5.1.1 and so on. I would just backup everything and flash latest .570/.580 firmware (yes, even .546 is now getting outdated as upgrade to .580 becomes available to address MMS based vulnerabilities). Flashing software in flashmode is the same like flashing it through PC Companion and provides for clean way how to do system updates. You can even download version intended directly for your market/provider instead of generic one.
Flash the pre-rooted .546 zip. It has been posted weeks ago.
ondrejvaroscak said:
Maybe you can disable the Software Update app in settings...
By the way, however it`s your decision, I don`t understand reasons behind why not flashing latest software with Flashtool. There are sometimes nasty issues with upgrades, like people loosing LTE with OTA upgrades to 5.1.1 and so on. I would just backup everything and flash latest .570/.580 firmware (yes, even .546 is now getting outdated as upgrade to .580 becomes available to address MMS based vulnerabilities). Flashing software in flashmode is the same like flashing it through PC Companion and provides for clean way how to do system updates. You can even download version intended directly for your market/provider instead of generic one.
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Because the phone isn't even two weeks old. Nowhere near time yet to risk bricking it doing non-standard things, I've already tested my luck enough by rooting it. And my region doesn't have 580 yet anyways. The inability to remove the battery makes me even more nervous about this sort of stuff, and yes I know there is a simulated battery pull, but that's still software and software gets fudged up which is the whole reason to actually physically remove the battery from your phone.
Not gonna happen thank you very much. Besides I'm never in a hurry with updating Android, it's always 2 steps forward one step back, never an all-round improvement. Some monkey of a programmer inevitably always rips out some base function every device should have, just look at ICS and the mess it's caused by choosing to ignore SD cards. Even Lollipop lacks things prior Android versions had for utterly no reason. Stagefright can kiss my you know what. Not gonna update till I can root with the click of a button avoiding almost all risk (in my mind anyways).
SCHUMI_4EVER said:
Because the phone isn't even two weeks old. Nowhere near time yet to risk bricking it doing non-standard things, I've already tested my luck enough by rooting it. And my region doesn't have 580 yet anyways. The inability to remove the battery makes me even more nervous about this sort of stuff, and yes I know there is a simulated battery pull, but that's still software and software gets fudged up which is the whole reason to actually physically remove the battery from your phone.
Not gonna happen thank you very much. Besides I'm never in a hurry with updating Android, it's always 2 steps forward one step back, never an all-round improvement. Some monkey of a programmer inevitably always rips out some base function every device should have, just look at ICS and the mess it's caused by choosing to ignore SD cards. Even Lollipop lacks things prior Android versions had for utterly no reason. Stagefright can kiss my you know what. Not gonna update till I can root with the click of a button avoiding almost all risk (in my mind anyways).
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Well, seems you are new to XPERIA`s because there is hardly any way you can brick it. Battery pull is not a problem, because in addition to Power+VolUp reste, there is a push button hidden on the side of SIM card that triggers hard reset and switches the phone off.
But I aknowledge that you have your rights for your fears. However I wonder that with all your fears you would allow to install and run undocumented chinese app, that although roots your phone, may do other things and you will never know. Everyone is responsible for his own luck.
ondrejvaroscak said:
Well, seems you are new to XPERIA`s because there is hardly any way you can brick it. Battery pull is not a problem, because in addition to Power+VolUp reste, there is a push button hidden on the side of SIM card that triggers hard reset and switches the phone off.
But I aknowledge that you have your rights for your fears. However I wonder that with all your fears you would allow to install and run undocumented chinese app, that although roots your phone, may do other things and you will never know. Everyone is responsible for his own luck.
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Yes and no. I had a neo but that was a very different device and I never felt the need to do anything custom to it (although I did check XDA for it) so it remains stock even today. Then I went to Samsung cuz everything Sony sucked at the time, at least in my price range. And now I'm back with Sony cuz there's something wrong with Samsung, dunno what, but I just don't like them so unless they're far ahead on paper I won't touch them again. (unless Sony tanks).
I didn't know about that button but I'd still rather not.
And I don't have anything sensitive on my phone so Kingroot can spy all it wants to. Of course I'd prefer it didn't, but if they absolutely have to then they're welcome to any and all info. Simply running an APK on my phone (that thousands have run before me) just seemed like the least brickable way of getting root (since I didn't have to do anything special like stuff up in the recovery or mess up an ADB command or anything like that). When I'd read about there being no root methods for 5.1.1 yet I erroneously took that to be all of Lollipop so I thought my phone was unrootable anyways when I turned it on and found it had lollipop (it was sealed so I thought it would still be on KitKat and easily rootable) so Kingroot was basically just a hail mary at the time. And since it worked so well I see no reason to ever do anything else.
I just got my honor 8 and was wondering if I will get system updates when I upgrade the to the beta nougat?
I think that before rooting you should ask yourself what do you want to achieve. I used to root every phone that I had, usually in first two weeks after purchase. But now I have a phone and a tablet , both from Huawei and neither of them is rooted. Why? Because I came to the conclusion that I gained nothing with root and lost a lot. First there is no fully functional custom kernel for Honor 8 and the same is true for custom roms. So what is the point of rooting then? To have troubles with any single OTA and cutting off any chance of using secure apps (like Android Pay, other payment methods, Pokemon..). And profited only a chance to get rid of some system apps? Which can be frozen and removed from the home screen instead without rooting the phone.
I believe Android changed a lot with Marshmallow and every new release seems to be a step in the right direction. Huawei's EMUI is not a disorder in the concept, rather an improvement in many functionalities of the stock system (call recorder, close all apps, eye comfort screen, themes, phone manager....).
Honestly, I'm missing only two things to declare this phone as perfect: internet calling (voip, native sip, volte) and dark mode. But none of these could be solved with rooting. Internet calling should be implement (better: retrieved as the aosp has it already) by Huawei and dark mode might be created either by the producer or a skilled themer. Without rooting.
You probably would once the official version of Nougat for the Honor 8 is released. Personally, I would wait for the official release of Nougat rather than use the Beta. As it has allot of bugs and missing features on it.
DarkGuyver said:
You probably would once the official version of Nougat for the Honor 8 is released. Personally, I would wait for the official release of Nougat rather than use the Beta. As it has allot of bugs and missing features on it.
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The beta's are actually pretty stable with very few bugs. And waiting on Huawei for the update is useless. Their updates are the slowest of any manufacturer I have ever seen. Use the Charles method and update as soon as possible. It's like a whole new phone.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=69885525
Sent from my FRD-L04 using Tapatalk
I have had my honor 8 for a few months now and I too normally root etc my phones as soon as I get them.
I have not rooted this one and am not planning on for a good while.
Im on the beta N program and I find that this together with the themes and fonts that I can use with out root makes the phone do everything that I want it to.
I'm going to keep my one as stock and make use of the updates that have been promised.
I can't see the point in rooting my phone just coz it's seen to be the thing to do with Android phones.
I do however have other phones that are rooted and I change the Roms weekly and am constantly playing with them.
Perhaps I'm happier keeping this unrooted coz I'm getting my fix elsewhere.
My advice would be root your phone if you need it to do something that requires root other wise enjoy your phone.
John
Sent from my Honor 8 using XDA Labs
clsA said:
The beta's are actually pretty stable with very few bugs. And waiting on Huawei for the update is useless. Their updates are the slowest of any manufacturer I have ever seen. Use the Charles method and update as soon as possible. It's like a whole new phone.
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=69885525
Sent from my FRD-L04 using Tapatalk
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I'm still betting Huawei/Honor is faster than any Cell Provider's OS Update releases. They take forever to come out as they have to wait for the device manufacturer to release their updates before they can modd them even further.
If your reason for rooting would be that you want Nougat now I would say wait. Personally I rooted my phone yesterday, and my reason was that i can't stand EMUI one day longer. I came from a Oneplus One and before that I have always rooted my phones. This time I waited for 4 weeks before I rooted, but could not live with the limited config settings I could change, so I rooted. No regrets.
But if you are fine with EMUI than take it easy and wait for the official update to Nougat.
I don't know how this'll go.......
So all my past android phones I have rooted + installed recoveries and what not. Originally I did this because I heard of a way to increase the battery life of my HTC Incredible via rooting. Afterwards I found myself rooting my Inc2, DNA, Inc4G, and my One M8. This time I did it so I can get the latest versions of Android/HTC Sense (until Google finally made a good looking UI w. 5.0).
Today (technically yesterday at this point) I bought the Pixel in hopes of finally being able to receive consistent android updates. That being said, the idea of being able to get consistent and relatively quick android updates was the whole point of me unlocking + rooting my phone.
I guess the question remains: Should I continue running unlocked with the Pixel, or will the updates from Google be enough?
dkris2020 said:
I guess the question remains: Should I continue running unlocked with the Pixel, or will the updates from Google be enough?
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I like custom recoveries like TWRP because you can make nandroid backups. The downside of unlocking your bootloader is that Android Pay won't work and if someone gets ahold of your phone, like a thief, if the phone is unlocked then they can flash it and it will circumvent any protection on the device.
I like root because you can use apps that require root, like some Ad blockers and Titanium Backup, and because I can remove system apps I don't want on my phone.
It all depends on what you want to do with your phone.
Unless someone has a reason for unlocking the device, generally I don't see the point. There are some things that I want to do with my phone, which are easier to do unlocked, so personally I specifically wanted an unlockable phone. Depending on how much you've read about the Pixel, here are some things you may or may not know.
- Unlocking the device will wipe it, so if you decide later that you want to unlock it will wipe the phone.
- An unlocked stock device can still use the standard OTA updates.
- Some SuperSU users may be able to unroot and then use the standard OTA updates, and some rooted users have reported their phones automatically updating.
- After I started using root my phone fails to install the OTA updates, so I'd guess one of the checked areas on my phone has changed due to the root apps I've used.
- If the OTA notification shows up and the update will not install, with the stock ROM it's possible to burn through a lot of cellular data. When I didn't update my phone this month, it used about 1 GB before I shut off cellular data.
- Items like a computer, TWRP, or FlashFire are the sorts of alternate update routes for the stock ROM if a rooted phone cannot use the standard OTA.
alluringreality said:
some rooted users have reported their phones automatically updating..
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Isn't there a way to disable the automatic updates?
LoliSmith said:
Isn't there a way to disable the automatic updates?
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You can disable them in developer options. I've had my phone since early November (turned off system updates the day I got it) and have never been notified that an update is available. However, some have reported that they had system updates disabled in developer options and they still get notified an update is available. It seems to be hit and miss so I can't say for sure it would work for you or not.
Just addressing OPs concerns, unlocking your phone shouldn't have any impact on updates from Google. You can still get them, OTA or otherwise.
The only downside I'd say, are warranty related (unlocking the bootloader will void the warranty on Verizon models), and security. Google has pretty much decided that having an unlocked bootloader is not secure enough for Android pay, so you'll be without that (However, you can still use loaded gift cards/loyalty program cards. It's just credit/debit cards that won't work).
robocuff said:
You can disable them in developer options. I've had my phone since early November (turned off system updates the day I got it) and have never been notified that an update is available. However, some have reported that they had system updates disabled in developer options and they still get notified an update is available. It seems to be hit and miss so I can't say for sure it would work for you or not.
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On my motorola phones, there was an app that you could freeze using titanium back up. I wonder if there is anything like that with the pixel?
---------- Post added at 12:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:23 PM ----------
Soccerdude588 said:
The only downside I'd say, are warranty related (unlocking the bootloader will void the warranty on Verizon models),
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First, that assumes that Google has a record of you unlocking your bootloader, which they may since jcase is saying that the phones have to communicate with the Google servers to unlock the bootloader.
Second, there is a federal law on this and the way it works in this situation is that if unlocking your bootloader is not related to the warranty claim, Google can't deny your claim. For instance, if the charging port fails that is entirely a hardware issue unrelated to unlocking your bootloader. Google must honor the warranty for that.
If you were to brick your device flashing, that would be different but Google would have to have some proof that you not only unlocked your bootloader but that it was the unlocked bootloader that resulted in a bricked phone.
robocuff said:
I've had my phone since early November (turned off system updates the day I got it) and have never been notified that an update is available.
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Are you manually updating your device, or are you running months behind the current release? The reason I ask is that the OTA notices on my phone have been delayed my days or weeks from the initial release, but I think they have showed up eventually when I've stayed on a prior version and the developer option has been shut off.
LoliSmith said:
On my motorola phones, there was an app that you could freeze using titanium back up. I wonder if there is anything like that with the pixel?
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I was hoping the following link might work similar to the Razr updater, but unfortunately the change kept my phone awake and didn't allow deep sleep both times I tried it. The update notification can be shut off by long pressing it, which I think shows up as a notification block. Due to the cellular data drain, my current plan is to try FlashFire for updates, and if that doesn't work well I'll probably try a ROM to avoid OTA updates.
https://www.androidexplained.com/pixel-hide-ota-notification/
alluringreality said:
Are you manually updating your device, or are you running months behind the current release? The reason I ask is that the OTA notices on my phone have been delayed my days or weeks from the initial release, but I think they have showed up eventually when I've stayed on a prior version and the developer option has been shut off.
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I've been manually updating it. Usually within a week or so of the release. However, I skipped the January update all together and never got a notification about it. Maybe I got lucky. Don't know.
Thanks for the input guys.
So a lot of the stuff you guys are saying are things that I have had prior experience with so the actual process of unlocking I have no issues with. If unlocking the Pixel is anything like the Moto X Pure (which it should cause Google) it shouldn't be too much of a hassle.
That said I am with Verizon and I can say that in all of my years of owning rooted/unlocked HTC phones I only ever needed to use my warranty for hardware based claims. Like I said the main reason I unlocked/rooted was to get updated ROMs that Verizon/HTC wouldn't push out to the phone. I think I'll more than likely unlock it but I probably won't root unless I need to.
That's pretty much where I am. I did root, but a recent OTA update that I accidentally took unrooted me. Keeping the bootloader unlocked at least leaves that option available.
Can you breathe life into phones that no longer receive system updates? Lets say some time down the line where we're way passed Android Oreo, let say we're now at Android Watermelon. Lets say my phone stop getting updates at Android Oreo, but many of the apps I use have also started to require me to have Android Watermelon. Is there any workaround for this? I've never rooted a phone, but I hear the term a lot. Does part of "rooting" have anything to do with giving life to old phones?
While not directly helping, rooting allows you to easily install a custom rom which is usually the newest release of android