We've heard from a number of you today that the Sprint Evo 4G's update that was pushed out this morning has left your phones pretty inoperable. And while the odd brick happens, this one appears to be a bit more common. And as such, Sprint has pulled the update, telling MobileCrunch:
While the vast majority of consumers successfully downloaded and installed the most recent HTC EVO 4G software update, we have received a handful of reports from customers having some issues with the update. In light of this, HTC and Sprint have decided to temporarily halt distribution of this software release until we can investigate further. We expect to be able to resume software updates shortly.
There's more than one thread in our Evo 4G forums detailing the carnage, but we've got our fingers crossed that this will all be made good soonest. [MobileCrunch]
Reader comments
Evo 4G update pulled over problems
Update is back up and being sent out again. Just downloaded it and installing now.
Non-rooted, one week old EVO. Updated yesterday around noon. Took about 10 minutes, during which the phone rebooted 3-4 times. All is well now. Responsiveness seems slightly better, battery life seems about the same, but need more time to test. Didn't notice a difference in my G wi-fi signal strength and didn't have time last night to try N. Looking forward to giving that a shot tonight to see what this puppy can do.
what pisses me off I never recieved the update even when it was released yesterday it kept checking and checking etc and that sucks :'(
wow, I don't even know how these people with Sprint deal with their noob like services. now if this phone was on verizon it would be on point. it just seems like sprint has been screwing up non stop with this phone
I updated at around 7:45am without any problems....My Evo is even faster.
My non-rooted EVO is bricked. Radio Shack has none to replace it with and did not give me a time frame for when it would come in. Is that their normal procedure? I hope I'm called when they get any in stock, not just one specifically sent to me.
Mine updated this morning. No issues. Battery Better
Absolutely no problems with the update. I had unrevoked on the phone as well as the WiFi tether. Just to be safe, I rebooted the phone FIRST (to make sure unrevoked was not running in the background). I did the OTA update. The phone rebooted perhaps 4-5 times making me think it was in an endless loop. I stayed patient and after about 10 minutes later, I saw the familiar yellow 4G logo and was back in business.
Sadly, Unrevoked doesn't work anymore. Hope they get an update to this!
One positive is that my battery life is surely better as I am able to go through the full day today without changing batteries - and I had the Google navigation on for about 2 hrs. straight with the screen on.
So what do I do if I already successfully download the update?????? please help??!!!
another bricked evo here.
I had trouble with my rooted and different ROM but I used the stock RUU thanks to XDA to restore my phone and updated it from there.
http://wiki.xda-developers.com/index.php?pagename=HTC%20Evo%20ROMs
No problems here, other then some widgets had to be re-added to the home screens. Which really wasn't a "problem". My battery is lasting longer, and my wifi is better. Plus to top it off, my phone is running faster. I even tested it against someone without the update yet. We turned off all apps. Then just started opening things. Mine opened faster then his. Not by much, but we both noticed.
I had similar issues with widgets, even my stock Voicemail icon was not working til I replaced it. The big thing that pisses me off is that ShootMe won't run now. Looks like they fixed the security hole that let it work on EVOs without root access. :( Would it kill them to come up with an app that replicates this function without requiring root or the worthless SDK solution? Jeezy creezy!!!
I have had no problems with my update. WiFi appears to be faster even though I don't have an 802.11n router yet the signal bars remain the same. Battery life has improved. 9.5 hours and still have 33 percent left. I would say I had moderate use.
My update went fine, phone is working, and never got the second notification... I didn't even get a first notification, I chacked manually.
I didn't notice ANYTHING different after the update... my battery life still sucks, phone isn't faster or slower, and wireless signal still sucks... I was about 12 feet from my router and it kept cycling between 1 and 2 bars... guess for some people the update was worth it.
Agreed about wireless, battery was a little bit better. May be it did not update?
I got the update this morning, it took a while but installed just fine. After installing though I hit the check now button and it started downloading the same update again. Good thing I stopped it before it finished. After I stopped it I hit check again and it said "no update available". Very interesting, hopefully it gets fixed for all those that had trouble with it.
To the poster who mentioned something about "most of us should have insurance anyway" I couldn't disagree more. That's not what insurance is for.
If the manufacturer or sprint decides to release an update that f..cks up your phone, then it's on them, not on the user who didn't do anything wrong except press "yes" to authorize a genuine, official system update.
We shouldn't have to buy insurance to cover for manufacturers' defect.
I pulled the OTA update early this morning, then when update was completed, 1 native Sprint widget looked dead, said "problem loading". Rebooted device, problem persisted. Uninstalled widget and re-installed. Problem gone as far as I can tell.
I'm not seeing significant changes in the battery life, phone seems to work fine as far as I can tell.
Non-rooted EVO.
Android/HTC/Whomever need to take a clue from WebOS and make a phone restore program. It is impossible to "brick" a Palm Pre/Pixi, because if something went horribly wrong (which is never did for me in the year I used it, although I have heard of it happening) you can just download WebOS doctor (for ANY OS) press a button on the phone while turning it on, and blindly/automatically re-image it with a known, working ROM.
It is unreal that you can't do such a basic thing with an Android phone (or perhaps just the HTC?) and end up having to take it in for service or exchange it for another. (Of course, also this whole "rooting" thing is unnecessary on WebOS... I do miss some things about my Pre).
I am very glad my update worked perfectly and feel very sorry for those for whom it did not :( I bet a huge portion of the phones were updated before they pulled it.
android does have that its called an sbf. their not as prominent as webos doctor but their out their. used it a few times for my droid nice tool
Granted, I am new to Android, but this sbf stuff looks like it requires you to hack and root the phone, is hard to get, and is not officially supported.
Wouldn't mind a "preware" for the evo also
Can we start a thread that says:
No the "bricking" was NOT caused by our phones being rooted and it was NOT caused by messing with the phone while it was being updated.
Oh but people don't seem to be reading the other threads anyway.
I'm so tired of people assuming these things.
Did I mention I am really pissed about being "bricked"??
From what i can gather the people bricking their phones are mostly people that downloaded and installed once, then got another message saying here was another update and they updated again.
I didn't update cause i'm rooted and ... most of these "bug fixes/features" I've had for a couple of weeks :-D but just pointing out a pattern I've noticed on several forums.
No wonder I never got the update... :-)
Hope they figure this out right quick. If my phone got bricked, I would not be happy.
Mine wasn't rooted either. I did two updates like a Fool. Luckly I already have a "New" one!!! I was actually wondering where the Update was? I had been trying since 7pm & curious why my phone didn't find an update.
*and of course Sprint will take care of all of "US" that have this phone. For the most part everyone should have the Insurance anyways..
And people thought the Incredible was dead because of stupid rumors.
Verizon may be slow to release updates (and they're far from perfect) but this is what happens when you rush a product to market (also, see iPhone 4)
I updated my phone yesterday morning with no significant problems so far. My phone was unrooted. The only problem I've had so far were widgets not loading properly so I had to re-add them to my home screens.
Hopefully they will get this all fixed up soon and so I'll be able to enjoy the update soon. I didn't update because I was afraid that it would break the free wifi tethering over 4G but then I realized that the Market has free tethering options, which I am using right now. :) Android is the best. So easy to make your phone an awesome..... toy and productive tool.
This will probably push Froyo out even further now. They are going to be skittish about updates now. I hope I am wrong, I really do.
Nope. You're spot on. Gingerbread will be out for months on the N1 before we see FroYo on the Evo. I'm not exaggerating either.
Sad, but true.
mines a paperweight
and no it wasnt rooted (since its constantly being asked)
I updated at around 11am without any problems
Just wanted to add my 'me too' to those who upgraded without problems. I did it first thing this morning after seeing the previouse story about the update being available.
I am getting better wifi reception (higher signal strength further from my access point). It does also seem faster and my battery does seem to be keeping its charge better - but this is just my perception, don't have hard data about the improvement I'm seeing.
It did take a while to install the update (after downloading it) and it did reboot a couple of times during the process. I'm almost wondering if some people bricked themselves by being impatient and removing the battery part way through.
Also, my Evo was/is 'stock' with no root/custom rom/unrevoked.
Never rooted. No issues with the update.
Dang it!!! My EVO is totally bricked. None of the Sprint stores in my area have new ones to replace it with. I was offered a refurbed EVO but I refused it.
I am quite disappointed. Actually, almost to the point of straight up returning my EVO. I never rooted my EVO. Add all of the apps on it came from the Android Market accept the app for Audible.com. Maybe the Audible.com app was the problem since was not in the Android Market.
I called Sprint customer care. They were helpful as they could be by finding a store with EVOs being shipped in almost daily; but I had hoped that they could ship me one over night or within a few days.
Fortunately, I kept my Palm Pre as backup and the I have a Google Voice number that I usually give out instead of my regular number.
Hopefully, Sprint will come through for those of us that have not rooted or done something funky to their EVOs.
just for reference, did you install the update twice? thats what its looking like the problem was. i did it once and the update worked perfectly, and my idol battery drain is greatly reduced. im so happy about the update myself right now.
hockey4life0099,
Yes, I installed it twice. Hmmm? That must have caused the problem.
I am glad it worked out well for you. I hope Sprint takes care of all of us that it did not go so well with.
Thanks for the reply.
I took off UnRevoked before I did the update, noticed that everything is just better. Wireless N is now activated, and scrolling between menus is just faster. People need to realize that rooted phones comes with problems if you do OTA updates. Everyone was so fast to make their Evo better that they didn't think that so is HTC. But so is life.
I never rooted my EVO and I still got bricked.
Unrevoked is not "rooting" the phone, it is just a temporary sudo
Stock here. Uninstalled Unrevoked et al a few days after installing. No issues here. Nothing really positive or negative. Wifi seems a little better but nothing big. Guess it's good to pull if there are bugs that need to be worked out but so far I am OK. Probably holding off on a full root until the official Froyo ROM comes out and someone puts out a rooted version. Until then good luck all.
Well, wifi sucked before, still sucks now- same bar amount. Battery life seems better.
Stock here and all is well. I'm noticing better battery life and the notification pull down is supper fast. I can even now put it on my couch and pull it down with my knuckle without touching the phone with other hand.
The picture scrolling is faster, too. The WiFi is good, but I wasn't having trouble with it before either way. Going to keep checking for improvements and can't wait for Seidio to put out the 3500 mah battery. That's gonna be sick!
WCM
>I'm noticing better battery life and the notification pull down is supper fast.
I dinner even notice. (Sorry, couldn't resist)
Same here all went peacefully and I'm hitting 8 hours with about 80% battery left.
You have 80% after 8 hours? WOW!! That is amazing!
How did you do that? Are you NOT using the phone?
My update was fine
No problems...
Hopefully there won't be any...
Wonder if they were rooted then tried to update... Mine is stock and all is well.
In response to yours and EVERYBODY's same exact question...NO the phones were not rooted, and even if they were it would make no difference!!!
Everybody keeps asking and no it wasn't this that made the phone "brick".
Please read responses to the forums before you make a blind assumption like that.
Sorry...I'm just really pissed about this whole thing and am out a phone until HTC restocks ANY of the Sprint stores. And it's hotter than hell over here so that doesn't help either.
It must be that time of the month. Oh wait.... you're a guy :\
or is he?
Rule 31: there are no women on the internet.
I never rooted my EVO and I still got bricked.
I have a completely different theory that isn't mainstream yet but i suspect a majority of these bricked EVO's are people that updated, then got another message that there was an update available and tried to install again causing the brick.
Again, just a working theory.
Well, most people (but not all) that bricked their phones reported exactly that- that there was a second notification for an update and they chose to install it. Now, what caused the second notification is a mystery.
Yes, this is exactly what happened. I wish it wasn't so, but it is.
No warning (as of that moment) and nothing in the forums that said "Don't get that second update!!!" or else I would have nixed it.
But had you chosen not to install the "second" update, it probably would have constantly nagged you to death to, I bet...
True that...
Well website warnings or forum warnings aside, most people don't constantly watch forums and websites and would have gladly downloaded the second update so any warnings would have slightly limited the impact but not by much.
Seems like a simple fix for those who didn't download two updates, they are now fine. For the person who questioned if your phone would nag you, ask all these people commenting here who don't have a problem. Although its highly unlikely they are being nagged otherwise everyones phone would be dead.
For those who did download and install two updates, no way in h3ll is Sprint taking all these phones back to simply reflash and send out as refurbs so id imagine a procedure will be created. I doubt this procedure will be something you can do at home but will probably require a trip to the Sprint store tomorrow ... just a guess.
Well Sprint may be going through some sort of hell because according to the "Manager" I spoke to today, there isn't nor will there be a way to "fix" it, so they have to be replaced. Supposedly I am on an escalated list to get a replacement phone...we'll see.
Wow that sucks for Sprint huh? Also sucks for all the people on waiting lists for EVO's because I think the people who were bricked by the update should get preferential treatment IMHO
:-( RIP My Evo 4G. It died after going through the update process a second time, as it still showed an available HTC update.
I had a little bit of an issue so I cancelled the update. I went back to the former software version so I'll just wait til HTC and Sprint get this all situated.