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Self Upgrade between minor versions

F

flamer

Member
I bought an android phone from china, running 2.3.4 I then bought the exact same phone for a mate when they sent it, it was running 2.3.5. Normally I wouldn't be too caring, but two things I like, in the newer version the network icons are way cooler (they say 3g/2g with bars rather than just a box with bars in it) and also the google location service works in the newer version, where as the older version, google can not find my location using wifi/gps at all. (newer phone picks it up in seconds)

I have both devices rooted, I am fairly competent in what I am doing. How should I go about upgrading, I don't want to loose any data such as sms, apps and settings, what's the best method?
 
flamer said:
I bought an android phone from china, running 2.3.4 I then bought the exact same phone for a mate when they sent it, it was running 2.3.5. Normally I wouldn't be too caring, but two things I like, in the newer version the network icons are way cooler (they say 3g/2g with bars rather than just a box with bars in it) and also the google location service works in the newer version, where as the older version, google can not find my location using wifi/gps at all. (newer phone picks it up in seconds)

I have both devices rooted, I am fairly competent in what I am doing. How should I go about upgrading, I don't want to loose any data such as sms, apps and settings, what's the best method?
Click to expand...

If the phones are rooted do not accept any OTA updates. This tends to bork things because you removed the phones ability to accept OTAs by installing a custom recovery. :eek:

Once you are rooted you never need to accept any OTA's again because you can just flash the new android version that is available for your phone and you are good to go. :)

What phones do you have?

Once we have a little more info we can get you hooked up with folks that have your phone. They will have more knowledge and will be able to assist you the best. :)
 
Its a Chinese no brand.. or also goes by the name 'star a3'.

as far as I know, there are no OTA updates for this phone anyway.

I guess I am trying to figure out if I should be just copying across the files I want to update or try to upgrade properly using nandroid.
 
You want to upgrade properly, certainly. There's no telling how few or how many things have really changed.

Unless you're willing to get full dumps on both adb and determine from there which files have changed to transfer. Make a nandroid backup first, naturally. ;)
 
EarlyMon said:
You want to upgrade properly, certainly. There's no telling how few or how many things have really changed.

Unless you're willing to get full dumps on both adb and determine from there which files have changed to transfer. Make a nandroid backup first, naturally. ;)
Click to expand...

Don't particularly want to do that :P

Is there a way I can dump the new rom onto the phone then dump all my user files on top of it? or do I need to start from scratch?
 
Titanium Backup or MyBackup Root (pretty good actually) your stuff to SD, then flash rom, then restore your apps and data. :)

Now, the problem is to find a rooted version of that same rom. Hmmmm.

So - guess what I found? No guarantees, but this looks right. I took the liberty of translating the page, let me know if it's not readable via this link.

Google Translate

Make a nandroid, don't hold me responsible, but do let me know how it works out for you. :)

With luck that one is not set to Italian - if it is, the menu layout should be the same until you find/change localization to English. (Not that I know how to do that personally any more... sorry.)
 
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