When a slew of Samsung users in South Australia and “two other” states found their phones seemingly bricked and not booting up after upgrading to One UI 5.0 and Android 13, there were problems with the Not OK software bead, so what happened ?
Failed software updates are one of the true horrors of modern times. While horror movies have their monsters, and there’s plenty of sci-fi horror too, the horror of seeing your digital twin murdered by friendly fire is truly horrifying with real-world traumatic consequences.
Of course, backups have been available for quite some time, whether you use Google’s or Samsung’s backup systems, or both, or those of third parties and other cloud services to have multiple copies of your system, documents, files and media available, whether a phone is lost, stolen or damaged.
However, the fact that such backup systems are widely available does not mean that the end user will actually use them, pay for more storage if needed, and make sure things are backed up properly .
So many people updated and then got stuck: a malicious disconnection of the digital twin from their device ensued. Robbed of their banking apps, unexpectedly free from Facebook, unbothered by Twitter, deleted from email inboxes and no longer receiving notifications, this was a digital detox from hell, with seemingly no way to recover all that data after the allegedly suggested factory reset procedure was undertaken.
In my previous article on this subject there were forum reports of users successfully downgrading to phone to Android 12 using the ODIN app on your PC, but the best advice was that if you haven’t updated yet, by no means should you start the update.
So, what did Samsung determine that caused the problem?
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The statement from Samsung Australia is as follows: “Samsung has identified a technical issue affecting a small number of customers, primarily in South Australia. Following the release and installation of the Android 13 update on Samsung devices running Android 11, a small number of phones were locked in boot mode . ”.
“A revised firmware update has been developed that will not be affected by this issue and will be rolled out to customers in the coming weeks.
“If your device is currently locked in boot mode, please visit a Samsung service center or call our team on 1300 362 603 to have your phone assessed. You can find your local service center at https://www.samsung.com/au /support/service center.”
So it seems that people on Android 11 who hadn’t updated to Android 12 the entire time it was available were offered the update to Android 13 instead, and they decided to do so.
What is at issue is why users in South Australia and from media reports. Two other unnamed Australian states got caught in the “stuck in boot mode” bug, and why that only affected a tiny fraction of users, compared to the tens of millions around the world who had no issues – and what’s next? done to avoid causing such an upgrade failure in the future.
It also seems that Samsung really needs to educate users about backups, digital hygiene, cybersecurity and take it all seriously, while also simplifying the experience for end users so that they are at least backed up and protected if they lose their data. device, have it stolen, or accidentally damage it in any way, either by water or other physical damage.
Another potential learning point for Samsung is to be much more open about the beta process, what is being tested, how it is being tested, how the app upgrade process has been tested and more, to give users interested in more information an official place to to do it.
Losing the most up-to-date digital information about yourself is something very traumatic that happened to you in the 2020s, and suddenly you’ve been disconnected and you can’t even use the phone to call or message for help because that not the case. to turn on.
So – it’s a shame the update isn’t actually out yet and will instead be delivered “in the next few weeks”, but at least we know an updated version that won’t cause the problem is definitely being worked on, as obviously should be.
Presumably the offending update has been withdrawn in the meantime so no one else could accidentally update themselves in the same situation simply because they hadn’t heard of the issues, but the above statement didn’t mean that,
As always, it’s a lesson to check our backups and make sure they’re up to date and see if they’re working – can you restore them to another device you own if necessary?
And it’s also good to check Google News to see if the update you’re about to install has feedback from other people who’ve already updated to see what their experience was like.
Whatever happens – I hope you enjoy the ever-changing digital landscape, with the rise of generative AI via ChatGPT and other solutions that will make the rest of this decade even more amazing than it has been so far.
May all your updates be successful and safe!