Curious FP4 update behavior (installation without confirmation)

I just wanted to briefly report on my very strange FP4 update experience this morning.

Situation as follows:

  • I was in my car having the phone in the holder. At no point during the drive did I notice the screen turn on as it would for notifications. There were also no update notifications last time I checked the phone.
  • I took the phone out of the holder and put it into my pocket, did not notice notifications at that point either.
  • I came back to the car and put the phone back into the holder about 10 minutes later. At that time it asked me for my SIM PIN and generally appeared freshly booted. I then received a message from my operator telling me that a significant data volume had now been consumed. Also, data roaming was turned off (usually on for me). This is when I realized that an update had just been installed and Iā€™m still baffled by the whole process.

My conclusions so far:

  • I was not notified of the update in any noticeable way
  • The update was downloaded via my mobile data without consent
  • The update was subsequently installed right away without consent

While this is not a deal breaker for me, it is also unlike any other update experience I ever had with FP2/4 or any other phone for that matter. Can anyone else confirm this behavior and/or does anyone have an idea what happened there?
Of course I cannot totally exclude the possibility of a notification having shown at some point. But it would have been short and just before the update was installed. Also, the phone was locked when it was in my pocket and should not let me confirm an update installation in that state, I expect.

PS: Even though the build date is 2022-01-12, the January security updates donā€™t seem to be included.

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As I triggered the update manually I canā€™t tell if and how it would have happened automatically.

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My FP4 also seems to have run the same update this night, without asking me. I found it locked asking for SIM-pin, indicative of a complete reboot. After entering the pin, there was a small message overlay, something like ā€œUpdate installed.ā€
It also shows the build number FP4.FP3R.A.099.20220112

Maybe coincidentally, Iā€™ve experienced first sudden reboots of the phone today and yesterday, maybe day before yesterday.

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I also triggered the update manually but the reboot was automatic. If I recall correctly, I had to press an extra button to reboot the phone after the December update.

I just experienced very similar behaviour from my own FP4. No notification of an incoming update. I first realized something had happened when it asked for my PIN, with a message about it being required after a restart. A few seconds later, a message about having successfully updated popped up. Iā€™m a bit concerned about that, it wouldnā€™t be great for that to happen suddenly if I was using my phone for navigation, for example.

Could this somehow be triggered by the provider? So what provider do those you where the update was installed automatically?

Dear all, thanks for raising this, we are already investigating it.

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My network is ā€œ3ā€ in the UK.

Iā€™m on dual SIMs: Congstar (:de:) and Proximus (:belgium:). Both are pre-paid and the phone came directly from Fairphone - no branding. So I really doubt that it was triggered by the provider if they can even do such a thing.

Just did a manual check for the update and for me it says that the update will automatically be downloaded and installed in 14 days and that my device will then be restarted. I havenā€™t ever seen such a prompt before so maybe it is related to the odd update behavior others are having.

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Itā€™s probably a good idea to have some sort of countdown to make sure people actually have security updates in some reasonable time frame. But it should notify first and the automatic install should be the last resort in my opinion.
Still, if something went wrong with this countdown, it could certainly explain the problem. Thanks for pointing that out.

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The 14 day message has been there for previous updates as well.

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Hello
Had the same strange update 2h ago.

  1. I donā€™t think so (pretty sure) :wink:
  2. None, and still got it.

Got my ā€œbigā€ FP4 today and just did the setup (including normal update) without SIM ! Suddenly the message and tone about the update discussed here, but no download, no reboot.
The notification (download, installation) was just gone, had the phone in my hand :thinking:

I have seen this 14-day message on previous updates, but in those cases I had actively searched for the update as well.

Same here, no notification. I had just plugged it in to charge and heard the boot vibration a few minutes later. I wonder if charging is related to the trigger.

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Here the same - Dual SIM Dutch KPN and Vodafone, update and restart without user interaction (from Wifi). No problems further, phone works great.

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Just did it now, seems fine. But no deeperinfos on what changes are done.
Just like ā€˜Kameraā€™ but what is improved?

Just for completeness: The current February patch level update worked as expected. I was notified before the installation and again after for the restart.

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