A clear guide to Upgrade your /e/OS to a new Android major version without loosing /data

[piero-e]

(it is always recommended to first take a backup of your things in case)

every months comes a new /e/OS version update, it is automaticaly applied “OTA” (Over The Air), but every years AOSP publish a new major android version, generaly /e/ toke a year to integrate it (they fisrt wait for LineageOS developpement and then apply their changes and make tests).

If you are using a build from the “official” branch, AND if you are patient, you will receive the new android major version also OTA.

BUT if you are not patient, or use a build from the “community” branch or from the “unofficial” branch, it won’t be applied automaticaly OTA, you will need to apply the upgrade manualy !

to upgrade your /e/OS, without loosing /data you have several options :

1. download the file on the phone, go to “→ settings → system updater” and use the feature called “locale update” (if you have it in the “3 dot menu” at top right of the screen), (work on Fairphones).

or

2. download the file on the phone, reboot it into the recovery mode and use “apply update” then “from internal storage” (if your “recovery mode” have the feature), (don’t work on Fairphones).

or

3. download the file on a SDcard, reboot the phone into the recovery mode and use “apply update” then “from External SDcard” (if your “recovery mode” have the feature), (don’t work on Fairphones).

or

4. Universal Method, download the file on a computer, reboot the phone into the recovery mode and use “apply update” then “from ADB” : (work on Fairphones).

download the latest /e/OS build for your device

it must be named like
e-3.2-a15-20251022539003-official-FP6.zip
But visible on their website, you will only find something named like
IMG-e-3.2-a15-20251022539003-official-FP6.zip
→ you will need touse the right clic to copy the link, and, paste it into the adress bar of your browser,
→ then remove the 4 IMG- carracters and press enter to download the right file

or take the direct download link from the OTA server :

FP2 : UNOFFICIAL (e-2.3-a11-20250113)

FP3 : community - official OTA
FP4 : community - official OTA
FP5 : community - official OTA
FP6 : community - official OTA

[piero-e]

the Universal Method détailled

DO NOT APPLY FACTORY-RESET → do not format /data

Install the platform-tools on your computer :

Install adb and fastboot on a computer running macOS or Linux
Install adb and fastboot on a computer running Windows

On the computer,

download the latest /e/OS build for your device as seen before in post 1
and put it into the platform-tools folder

Boot the phone into recovery mode.

Select Apply Update,

then Apply from ADB

The screen should now change and the output at the bottom ask you to send the package from your computer.

On the computer,

Use the right clic to open a terminal from the /platform-tools folder, and
issue the command to sideload the latest /e/OS-T installation zip.

adb sideload e-3.2-a15-20251022539003-official-FP6.zip

the phone screen will be mostly blank with just the output at the bottom showing progress.

On the computer the sideloading shows progress as a percentage figure that will stop at 47%.
For a long time…
The phone will still be installing though it might feel like nothing is happening
and you can expect to see the following screen

For a very, very, long, long time…

Then
success message comes on the computer : Total xfer: 1.00x
success message comes on the device screen : install completed with status 0.

Tap Reboot system now to boot into your newly upgraded /e/OS.

Tip :

if not properly "installed in your path” as explained in Installing adb and fastboot on Windows PC, or in Installing adb and fastboot on macOS or Linux PC,
simply add ./ at the beginning of all your adb or fastboot commands,
it will use the version included into the relative folder (the latest) instead of the one installed on your system (that can be outdated)