Background
Finally it has arrived, Android 2.2 Froyo to HTC Desire. When I installed it I run into several problems and this is my guide how I solved it. It was a rather frustration experience and took a long while to solve. I ended up with a phone where almost everything was gone and I have to reinstall all my apps and configurations again.
I have not rooted my phone or changed anything that HTC or Google allow, so no rooted phone. I’m probably a poweruser but there is no obvious reason why I ended up with all these problems.
During this process I tried to find any information at HTC support site but I could not find anything that helped me. The best source of information is to use different user forums. My opinion is that HTC support web is crap.
This guide shows how I solved the problems I run into, I guess there is better way of doing it because this was a cumbersome and painfull process. I do not take any responsiblity if you end up with a bricked phone or loss of data.
Happy reading!
Installing, first try
Roumors on a swedish site, swedroids.se claimed that Froyo was out. My Desire had not given me the message that an update was available automatically as it should. Probably it just do not check with a high enough frequency to detect it.
I did a manual check and yipii, there was a system update available.
I choosed to do the update over the air, meaning that I used the phones update function.
After downloading and installing approximatly 30 minutes, the phone just showed the HTC logo and after that rebooted over and over again.
My conclusion was that the update has failed.
Recover, first try
I pulled out the battery and put it back again, pushed vol- and power and keept vol- pushed. Then I get into a menu where I could do some choices, I picked recover.
Now the phone managed to get passed the HTC logo and started up. It gave i progress bar starting from 0%and counting up to 92%, after a while it showed an error message "Sorry! Process system is not responding" with 2 options "wait" or "force restart" (or similar). Independent of which I pick or none, after a while the phone restarts with the same progress bar and error message.
Install, second try
At this moment a couple of hours has passed and I was getting real frustrated. Google and swedroid forums showed me that alot of people seemed to have the same problems as I do.
I find the following guide that seemed to helped alot of people:
1. Download the Android 2.2 firmware for the Desire http://liveimage.htc.com/OTA_Bravo_Froyo_HTC_WWE_2.09.405.8-1.21.405.2_release4dua3bcrut4wrv30.zip
2. Rename the file update.zip and copy it to your microSD card via USB. I used an USB 3G dongle with an microSD reader.
3. Power down your Desire
4. Hold down the “Volume Down” button as you power the phone back on.
5. A screen should appear showing your phone’s system searching for various files. Scroll down to “recovery” and press the “Power” button.
6. When you see the triangle with an exclamation point symbol, press the “Power” and “Volume Up” buttons at the same time.
7. From the menu that appears, select “Apply sdcard:update.zip.”
8. When the screen displays “Install from sdcard complete” select “reboot system now” and wait for the phone to power back up.
It looked very promising, with text and progressbars showing that an installation was taking place. After a while the phone restarted and stoped with a triangle and exclamation mark. I tried it again and again and again…. With the same result.
Calling for help
At this point I get real desperate so I went to HTC supportweb and wrote an email describing my problems. After 1½ days I have got an email that told me to send the phone to repair.
Then I tried to call HTC support, they answered very fast but the support only told me to send the phone to the reseller to get it fixed. No trouble shooting at all and no questions what I have done.
Because I have important data, like logins to mail account, sip PBX, monitor solutions, facebook account and so on I decided that I would not send in the phone until I have waited a couple of days to see if something new shows up on different forums.
Install, twentieth something try
At this point I realized that all my settings will be lost I did a clean cache and a factory reset and did a new try with manual installation and this time it looked all right. The phone started up normally and asked for email accounts, facebook credentials and so on.
All my personal settings and data was gone but the phone seemed to work. I started to download a app and the phone rebooted again, sic. Everytime I installed a new app it rebooted and the app did not install.
But I remembered that I read that this was a common problem I searched the forums and did some Googling. Some people has solved this issue by do a "factory data reset" from menu->settings->SD & phone storage->Factory data reset.
So I tried that and everything was gone again, I entered the credentials to my accounts and did some setup. And tried to install a new app, and YES it did not reboot.
Conclusions
This behavior by a product that I have not hacked in any way is not acceptable. I work at a software company and know that there might be bugs but these bugs was so big and costed me so much time that it should have been tested better.
Even worse is that HTC support website give no hints what-so-ever how to solve these issues I had and HTC telephone support did not even try to help me. I think HTC has a lot todo to get a better and more professional support.
In this case enthusiasts and helpfull people that publish their knowledge helped me and probably many others, thanks. Especially swedroid.se which is an excellent site where swedish speaking people can get help with thier expensive Android phones.
I also think that HTC should encourage enthusiasts by be more open and support the possiblity to root the phones. I think that they will make more money in the long run, compare it with Linksys routers and OpenWRT.
Update-Aug 8:th 2010
I was contacted by HTC UK to get more feedback to their support site. It always make me happy when a company listen to the customer and try to improve the customer experience. Hopefully the HTC support web will contain enough info in the future so I could resolve the problems I had by going there. Good work HTC!
August 6th, 2010 at 1:28 am
I have had the same problem with a brand new (unrooted) HTC Desire (imported to Australia from Hong Kong). Have sent it back for repair under warranty, my response from HTC having been similarly unhelpful.
Many fora say that installing the update using a ‘goldcard’ is necessary. But I can’t see how this should be required for an unmodified consumer electronics device.
I wish I’d bought an iPhone now!
August 6th, 2010 at 9:28 am
I have also seen some forums mention “gold card”, well I managed to totally reinstall my Desire without any so my guess is that it is not necessary.
I do not regret that I did not buy an iPhone, what I regret is that I did not buy a Nexus One instead.
August 7th, 2010 at 12:11 pm
thanks for the zip file. My download was corrupted and I did not get the update possibility so I was stuck. I decided to use openDesire it worked nice but I was not really happy with it.
Luckily I have found your post and download the update and apllied it. All process worked very fine.
All i need to do is to use unrovoked’s program to have root access one can get it http://unrevoked.com/.
then i made backup using nandroid.
then i wipe cache and user data
then i applied to update.zip
Finally I have the Androiod 2.2 working normally.
August 9th, 2010 at 11:42 am
HTC Desire bought in Slovenia, did FOTA here on 2.8.2010 over wifi in cca 10 minutes, no problems, only two reboots, all apps and data inatact; in everyday use no big differences in speed & all, probabaly only with games which I don’t use
October 1st, 2010 at 11:41 pm
I’ve had the same problem in the UK today, yours is one of the first pages vie found that describes recovery options, so here goes!!! Thanks for taking the time to put this online.
January 5th, 2011 at 6:10 am
nice article…I have difficulty to upgrade android become Froyo , I am very interested to subscribe the latest articles from your blog.