The question isn’t how is the update working in some aspects for some, but can the 0016 be done without doing the 0013
So it’s fine to do the update**, is not a comment on the update. If you want to discuss that there are a few topics on bluetooth, NFC etc, that some people have with the 0016
There is a topic that includes a download link for 4.A.0013.4, but that would be a fastboot installation from a computer to your FP3, and frankly I am out of the loop right now how that exactly works and how it affects existing data on your phone. The file can not be just downloaded to the phone and be installed from there – that will just not work.
There is no way to install a version other than the most recent one OTA.
P.S.: I’m just noticing Fairphone also currently offers the penultimate update 4.A.0013.4 for manual installation (fastboot):
In case the bootloader is not already unlocked, a factory reset is required and all data lost
It’s not even technically correct, because it’s potentially misleading. I’d prefer to stay with the version, the Opener has over the new version every time, since that new version is simply buggy. No way of putting it nice. At least a warning would be appropriate before telling someone that updating to the newest version is safe. Simply, because the update-process might work, the consequences of that update are nevertheless shit. Why not giving that hint in your answer?
However, thank you @urs_lesse, for the link. It would be now of interest if updating to 13.4 has the same issues as downgrading from 16 to 13.4, especially losing all data.
Well apart from you rude tone and words, the reason is I’ve never had a serious issue with an update so I am not in a possion to sya what will have to another.
However out of the maybe 200,000 users this forum does record well less than 1% who have a problem. Maybe you are one of those and you are free to explain your problems but that is not a warning just your experience.
There’s always some small inconvenience for most I image, like ambient display brightness but that all the issues I have and it seems to come and go with various undates. It gets a mention from me when it happens but that’s it.
On updating, it has been explained above. That is if you do a manual install. An OTA is safe.
Good to know, thanks for your answers.
(How sure (in percent) are you, @anon9989719, that you are right with your answers?)
The 0016 says “Update size: 98.46 MB”.
The older one, 0013, had an “Update size: 303.62 MB”.
So naively, I would assume that 0016 changes less than the 0013 did. Right?
After then having done the 0016, would the new system notice, that 0013 still has NOT been done yet? Probably THIS is the most important question here, and a possible implicit feature request for a better future solution to issues like this?
Why no good reason?
The 0016 updates much less (in MB) than the 0013 would have updated - right?
How to manually install?
Ouch, that sound bad. Solution for me please:
How can I only update the 0013, without updating the 0016 ???
I guess that would solve this for me, right?
That is a HUGE flaw in the fairphone updating system.
Hello fairphone devs - please read all this, and help us: …
second part of the same message following here:
…
… second part …:
For now, I will refuse to install ANY update, until there is a SIMPLE way to first install 0013.
BUT: 
The person who is going to inherit my FP3 is NOT a technical person, and if the first thing she encounters is a broken update system where she always has to say “NO PLEASE NO UPDATES” whenever an (increasingly escalating) update demand pops up … 
… she will likely have a very bad first impression of FAIRPHONE in general.
So, please find a quick solution, even if it is a quick’n’dirty solution.
third part coming up: …
third part …
SOLUTION
Suggestion: Publish a 0017 (ASAP, preferably this week, it’s urgent),
which combines 0013 with the good nonbroken parts of 0016.
Then we can ignore 0013 and 0016 - and directly go for 0017.
Good idea?
Thanks
Andreas
Good for you.
This forum here exists for a reason though, and I am always / often checking first whether other users have had issues with the latest update - before I let that update overwrite my ususally perfectly working previous state.
If my phone had been working just fine before, then upgrading the basic system software is always a risk. Right?
The issue that this thread here points to is a different one though:
How to still install an older update when already there is a newer update?
A better, future Fairphone needs a solution for that simple problem.
No option for me. Not gonna unlock the bootloader, just to fix a problem in the basic update delivery process.
Please find a different GOOD solution, for example:
a >300 MB new update 4.A.0017 (which makes all prior updates obsolete) ASAP 
Thanks.
This is not official support so asking multiple times is like demanding of a brick wall.
Just go to Settings > Advanced > System updates and take it from there or
Do a manual install.
I imagine you had an option to do an OTA for the 0013.4 which you declined, that’s not a Fairphone issue so why ask them to help, not that you are as this is a user forum.
If you are going to pass the phone on you will surely do a factory reset to provide a clean phone, so unlocking to bootloader to install 0013.4 isn’t going to change or compromise any data.
not gonna pass on a phone with an unlocked bootloader, no.
That is so untrue, and it’s such a malicious distortion of what I had really said … that I am actually wondering what YOUR agenda is in all of this.
Why are you spending much time here, to fight against us users who have reasonable demands, real problems, and most of all: Their valid point of view? Your whole act pretends that your view is superior. It is not. You even misunderstood the very basics of my request here.
Get a life, do something useful, be constructive. Because: You are actually hurting my issue here - because you think you can devalue and contradict my view point.
Instead of wasting my time with you, I would like HELP and IMPROVEMENTS - and not someone unimportant telling me “YOU DO NOT NEED HELP” and “ALL YOUR SUGGESTIONS ARE USELESS”.
I politely ask you to leave this thread, and never come back. Harm other threads please.
To reiterate, and show you how wrong your assessment can sometimes be … I wrote this:
That means … I first check … wait a few days or weeks … and then I do the update.
I never “declined” the update, just postponed it, until I had enough data.
I do now - but now the suboptimal fairphone updating procedure … blocks me from updating to 0013 (simply because 0016 is in the way). Not my choice, but a bad design of the updating procedure.
I am sending an email to support@ now, for them to have a look at this REAL ISSUE.
You unlock to install a clean 0013.4 if that is what you want, then update to the more recent OS then you can relock the bootloader before you pass it on. ??
It is not a huge problem, you just have to want to do it.
I’m sure you said you chose not to install 0013.4 I’ll re-read to see if I mistaken.
My agenda is to respond to your comments
It seems it was a decisiion you knowing made as it was available. There was no reason to assume it would &^(&^(&^ you up. Not doubt some people found an errant issue, but not critical to the extent you want to swear/sweat about, which is rude given you hadn’t tried and most people don’t seem to have complained. It seems you’ve taken a extremly risk averse view not to update based on a few topics whilst you waited for others to take the risk.
Don’t forget the OS updates also contain security updates which arguable are more likey to cause serious damage to your mental health than maybe an adaptive brightness issue which occured in 0016 not 0013
To be honest: Even if that’s true, with the different descriptions of the issues with the 16-version a warning would still be appropriate. The words you used are not suitable for stating a purely private experience. If it had been your goal to share only your own experience, there would have been words for it, i.e.: “Though throughout the forum some users describe one or more issues with the update, I did not experience one. So, from my perspective, the update might well be save.”
That’s technically an untrue conclusion. You have no statistics on users who experience the mentioned issues but simply not writing those down here. And yes, I experience the massive lack of quality control shown in this update – and I’m not alone. Though there is indeed a hotfix for the NFC-issue, there is no thouroughly tested update available. And yes, that is an issue in itself, too.
That bt-issues is a lot more than an inconvience for me, because I have bound several functions around a working bt-capability. So, you conclude something from your limited private perspective on user behaviour and extrapolate that as general opinion on the significance of the issues with the update. Normally, I’d say, that’s ignorant. And because you set me on that track, alone the fact that issues with the software had been patched and are coming back with a later update, is again a telltale on how quality control at fairphone works.
Not if the updates would be tested thouroughly… it simply makes no sense to install an older version with all the security issues which are patched in an available newer software version.
Yep. Same here.
How can there be a warning when no one has a problem, and when a few do it’s too late for a warning. For example: There was/is an issue with some users connecting to a diabetes ‘monitor’ via NFC.
The devs are not able to test how every device will work with each update and if they had noticed that I’m sure there would be a warning.
Users have discovered
I do some of the testing but don’t have a diabetes monitor and the Bluetooth works fine for me. Only issue as mentioned was the ambient light. All of which I have read are fixed with the next release along with security patch Oct 11.
A few people can make a lot of noise especially when everyone else is quiet.
Where do you see a conclusion other than I am saying that I note there is always/often some inconvenience.
Regarding the unlocking. That wasn’t directed at you as I have no idea what you want to do.
Although there are errors in many updates, they are only huge to those people you have specific expectations, and as for testing thoroughly that’s a personal value.
This topic is about installing thr 0013 which has been answered.
This, your last post and others are just perifieral to how upset some people get and offer no help in regards to the features and faults therein of the phone. It has become more a hand hold for those who seem very upset and I don’t see I can offer you any more support.
Have a nice day and take care.
All the best
You’re kidding me… I suppose, you look at the timeline, like: When has that topic been opened and when came the first topics regarding issues with the new update. Likely, you find the reports on the issues came first. And then, yes, a warning would have been the correct way. There simply as not been no-one without a problem at the time this topic had been opened.
As I said this is all about easing the concerns of distraught users, not the topic matter.
I will not continue your off topic arguments here.
If you want to argue about quality of updates as a personal problem I would be happy to respond in a new topic, if you would like to start one, but I think I made it clear that I wish you all the best and will not reply to such arguments again here.
Official answer - from support@ :
I have forwarded your request to our technical department and they confirm it’s not possible to make the 4.A.0013.4 available.
and:
We do not make older software version available, particularly due to potential security issues. If they are available, the only way to install them is manually, which includes unlocking the bootloader.
and
You can install the newest software update, there is no disadvantage to not having installed the version before that,
and in the meantime also 4.A.0016.6 is outdated and you will have “skipped” 2 OTA updates