Fairphone 4 update to iodéOS 7.4

[enshu]

Option 2 worked well and restoring apps using Seedvault worked without a hitch too. Thanks for the information.

[pikta.antis]

Instructions state “Updating from version 6 to version 7.4 poses no problem if the bootloader is unlocked, and does not require formatting the data.”, but do I still need to follow the same instructions for OTA update? News article from 2026/04/03 has a point with text “Download the update for iodeOS 7 available here”, but the “available here” link is broken. Is there still any way to update the system directly from my phone if I have the bootloader unlocked?

[rik]

@pikta.antis

do I still need to follow the same instructions for OTA update? News article from 2026/04/03 has a point with text “Download the update for iodeOS 7 available here”, but the “available here” link is broken. Is there still any way to update the system directly from my phone if I have the bootloader unlocked?

With an unlocked bootloader, you should just be able to install the advertised update from the Updater app. I am getting confused with the scenarios of what shows and what doesn’t, if it doesn’t show, then the OTA file can be downloaded (link at the top of this thread) and in the Updater app choose “3 dots > local update”. No data reset needed.

[pikta.antis]

Thanks man, that worked great!

[Roland]

Hi folks,

I am trying to make that backup with seedvault. The seedvault app is now busy for 5 h and still not finished. I can see that it says “backup running/ [app name]”. And a bar, indicating a 75% completion. Well, that app name is visible for 3 h now. Battery level dropped from 85% to 60%. Am afraid that backing up with Seedvault is not quite practicle.

Are there any other options for backing up?

[MissPiggy]

@Roland

The seedvault app is now busy for 5 h

That does not sound good. My seedvault backup runs for maybe one minute (other model than Fairphone). Okay, I do not have much data on my device, but I think, even for heavy usage this should not run longer than 5 minutes.

Have you tried to run the backup without the apk files? (Just to test if that resolves the problem)

Have you tried saving to a usb stick instead of saving to a computer?

Which iodé version are you on atm?

[Roland]

I have tried seedvault 3 times now. Only one occasion did it properly finalize. That was about 2 weeks ago. Since I wanted to upgrade now from latest Iode 6 version to version 7.4, I wanted to use a most recent backup.

This is a phone with 133 apps. The yet available older seedvault is 26 GB, on a USB stick of 58 GB.

Anyway, as I was fed-up waiting so long, I disconnected the USB backup stick. And did the sideloading of Iode 7. Now restoring the older vault. That does work indeed.

Luckily I backed up all phone data using My Phone Explorer, as none of the data were backed up by seedvault.

So far, the operation went reasonably well.

[Roland]

Restauring some of the apps did not proceed properly.

Especially Aurora does not update nor install apps, … What might be the issue here?

Under the Downloads/ it list all my apps and for those that I tried to update and install manually it says: “Failed”

[Roland]

Got it, found a missing setting in MicroG self test….

Well that was sufficient for installing one app, but not for updating 4 existing apps..

Would the forum have any suggestions? (THX)

Next day…

For some reason, not understood, Aurora DID update the 4 remaining “failed”-to-update appafter a night’s rest.
Super.

[rik]

Just for others that are still stuck I am linking to a new thread to consolidate the current status and issues:

Fairphone 4 iodéOS `7.5` update clarification

There are several different threads discussing FP4 issues either going from iodéOS 6.x to 7.x and/or 7.4 to 7.5. I will try to make some baseline / clarification points here that consolidate the issues: then I will link here on the numerous threads and we can go from there depending on the specific case. First, the case still remains that if your FP4 is bootloader locked, you will need to either do a factory reset and update install from Recovery or instead do a clean install again: Fairphone …

[uobit]

@vince31fr

Type on computer adb sideload iode-7.4-20260405-FP4-ota.zip. At the end answer ‘No’ to the question asked (reboot to recovery to install additional packages).

où sur mon ordinateur, je tape cette commande ? dans quelle application ?

C’est un peu léger comme explication. Veuillez être un peu plus précis ? merci

[dnd]

Dans ton terminal, lorsque vous êtes sur un sytème linux

[jedie]

I have the same Problem on my Fairphone 4 with update iodeOS v6.14 to v7.6

I have used fixes/Updater-v6-to-v7.apk · master · ota / ota · GitLab

this updates the updater, so the v7.6 update can be run, but then i’m in in a boot loop with these errors:

Reason: init_user0_failed

ERROR: recovery: public: 179_2 failed to mount /dev/block/volmgr/public: 179_2: Permission denied

Thanks to the initial post here: Does FP have an issue with OS updates? - The Products - Fairphone Community Forum i also have boot the old system, just by click on “Try again” many times again and again… After some retries it just switch the Slot from B back to A here… The old installation looks fine…

There is really no way without backup/reinstall/restore ? Because seedvault can’t restore everything The whole backup topic on Android is just a pain see: Feature request: Backup solution

[rik]

@jedie

There is really no way without backup/reinstall/restore ?

Correct. If your bootloader is locked, then an unsolved Fairphone 4 firmware bug prevents moving to iodéOS 7.x without a reformatting of your userdata. Sorry.