Newest update...

[rootabaga]

The Motorola has been just fine, and it's hounding me to apply the latest security updates:

Should I bother?

I'm not rooted, though I keep considering it (main reason: the extension of the SD card doesn't work well, so even with plenty of space I'm out of room...sigh).

I think my only real concern is the chance that the update will block the ability to root.

Thoughts?

 

[Member 1919122]

It's a security update, not a system update.

 

[acejavelin]

Thanks for the reply.

And right, I get that (it says it's a security update and I described it as such).

I recall, however, that in earlier versions they sometimes used security updates to patch security holes that were used to gain root, and that's my concern.

Admittedly, I may be overthinking this, my earlier phones were LGs. Maybe it's not an issue with the Moto?

Security vulnerabilities are not used to root this, or most other retail Moto devices. You can apply the update without worry about obtaining root now or in the future.

 

[acejavelin]

As it turns out, choosing to applying the update had me thinking of this...

...because the update sucked up the rest of my storage (not long after I purchased the phone I'd formatted a new SD card as internal, after that I quickly learned Moto doesn't really use it as internal, so it really doesn't help much) and the phone's been a mess since the update.

I've copied off my pictures and related stuff so I can use the Moto setting to reformat the sd card as portable, after which I'll unlock the bootloader and root the thing and go back to Link2SD, at least then I can tell Moto where to stick it ("it" being apps, of course). Well, I hope so.

One thing, though, since the process will wipe the phone: any easy/cheap way to copy sms off of it? I'd rather not lose the text history if possible.

Well, first off you only space for an update temporarily... updates apply to the /system partition and do NOT take space away from you. Even the temporary download is held in /cache not normal storage.

Once you adopt an SD card as internal storage (which I do NOT recommend) you need to Migrate your data for it to be used properly, this is a known issue in the adoption process of the Moto G. It should occur automatically, but needs to be done manually in most cases.

Link2SD should be used with a ext2/3/4 partition, you will need to partition your SD card with a FAT32 partition first and an ext4 partition second.

As far as backing up SMS messages, that is easy... there are lots of tools, but my favorite is Carbonite's SMS Backup and Restore, restoring backups is fairly simple as well. BTW, it does call history and it's free too.

Going forward I would suggest making use of online tools... SMS BU&R has an option to auto backup on a schedule to online storage, Google Photo will automatically backup your photos and videos to Drive, use Google Keep for notes, make use of Google PIM services (contacts, calendar, etc) and if you enable Google's Backup transport in the device it stores most app configurations online and they can be easily restored.

Honestly, if you do a little leg work ahead of time you could easily factory reset anytime and not worry about any data loss from anything, just some lost time...