šŸ‡¬šŸ‡§ šŸ‡«šŸ‡· No FP OS on updater app for back to Android

Oh sorry, my badā€¦ :pensive: @Corentin and @Conatus are trying to return to FP OS with GMS. They did try with method 1, but it didnā€™t work. So I told them to try method 2 ! But for Windows commands, I have to guess or the make researches, as I donā€™t know the Windows Command Prompt at all (I am on Linux).

As you seem to be a Windows user and to know cmd, I thought you could help them to navigate through the files with this tool.

@Corentin : you need to navigate to the folder in which the ZIP file is located, for example ā€œDownloadsā€, and then type the command. Did you download the drivers for your Windows installation ? There you see that youā€™ve got two links to follow depending on your installation : https://forum.fairphone.com/t/pencil2-adb-on-the-fairphone-2-windows-driver/11529/15

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No problem! :slight_smile:

Wouldnā€™t TWRP be able to apply the update?

Normally yes, because I used it for Lineage OS :slight_smile: But Iā€™m not really sure, as there is ā€œotaā€ in the filenameā€¦ Nevertheless, it is a ZIP file and it should work with TWRP. Iā€™m doubting too much :wink:

I think that OTA simply means that you donā€™t get separate *.img files, but a ready to flash *.zip.

Oddly enough, the official guide recommends this method. Iā€™m not sure whether it does a wipe of user data, which would mean youā€™d need an SD card or this sideload approach.

Edit: I read over the big red warning box (see below) - data is wiped, which would take out the update file that youā€™re trying to apply, unless you have it on a SD-card. As not everybody will have one, sideload is recommended.

:warning: Warning:
If you switch to Fairphone OS, all your data (including apps, messages and pictures) will be erased. Make sure to backup first!

Are you sure the word sideload is actually in the error messages?
If the word sideload isnā€™t in the error, then adb is just saying it doesnā€™t know the file youā€™re pointing to. Two ways to fix it: copy it (FP2-gms76-1.13.0-ota_from_open.zip) into the folder where youā€™re running adb (probably the easiest option), or modify the command to have the full path for the file name (for example adb sideload 'C:\Downloads\FP2-gms76-1.13.0-ota_from_open.zip')

For the console to find a programme, it needs to be installed and in a place where the console knows to check for programmes. The console will always check the folder in which you are currently working, so it is perhaps easiest to:

  • navigate to the folder where you installed adb
  • copy FP2-gms76-1.13.0-ota_from_open.zip into the folder
  • hold shift and right click on some empty space in the window (not on a file), select open terminal here (or your language equivalent).
  • continue as before
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I donā€™t think you need the full Android SDK. Iā€™m not familiar with the universal adb driver, so it may install adb somewhere, but based on this topic (step 2), it doesnā€™t. The guide in that topic recommends minimal adb.

I do think that the file gets cached by TWRP if you try to install it. I expect TWRP to be smarter than erasing a file that it is supposed to install.

@conatus Note that adb devices says ā€œunauthorizedā€. You need to unlock your phone.

Probably this helps:

You may need to start the phone normally (so not in TWRP) and authorise access from there (and then restart into TWRP to continue).

Iā€™d hope so. Iā€™m still wondering whether a manual download of the ota file, and then opening that with the updater app wouldnā€™t also work. Presumably the way the updater works (and TWRP should as well) is to copy the update file into the cache partition.

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Itā€™s running now ! Thank you so much !

But now, something is wrong. It start, with the Fairphone and the Android logos, next it make the animation with the ā€œstart a mouvementā€, next again it say ā€œLoadingā€ and next it optimise apps. But now tiā€™s blocked here ā€¦

And I try to wipe factory settings / data but it do the same. Now Iā€™m just waiting if it can unblock of ā€œLoadingā€.

That can take up to half an hour (30 mins). Just leave it there. (Google Apps need a lot of optimizing because they invade your system very deeply.)

Now, itā€™s blocking on ā€œAndroid is starting ā€¦ starting apps.ā€

If it doesnā€™t fix itself, see if there are options in recovery mode to wipe Dalvik cache and normal cache, then reboot. Or perform a factory reset.
Iā€™m not as familiar with the FP2 side as I am with the computer side of working with adb etc, so Iā€™m not sure whether there are any other tricks.

I tried it. And itā€™s the same again.

Does it reboot itself, or does it just stay on the screen forever?

It just stay on ā€œstarting appsā€

I donā€™t recall anyone on the forum posting a similar issue, so Iā€™m not sure what could be causing it.
If you have an SD card in the phone, try removing it and seeing if it does start then.

If that doesnā€™t work, the only thing I can think of would be flashing new firmware using fastboot. You may want to see if anyone else has a better idea first though. If you do decide to try, the method is described under method 4 on the manual instructions page. You can skip installing drivers and adb/fastboot as you already have those. The .bat file included with the images calls fastboot, so you may need to move the unpacked files to where youā€™ve installed adb/fastboot.

I needed to remove the SD card. Thank you very much ! :smiley:

Iā€™m curious: did you get the SD card to work with the phone again?

Hum, the phone was fonctionnaly with but had sole bugs. So I stay again
without the SD card and now itā€™s great !

It might be worth copying the files from the SD card onto a computer, then formatting the SD card in the phone and finally copying the files back onto the card. Sometimes this helps, but sometimes the underlying cause is a defect in the SD card (which a format wonā€™t solve).