Vodafone Smart 4 Mini - software update problems

[vern336]

HI not sure if this is the right place to post this... but here it is

Hi, my young son has the Vodafone Smart 4 Mini, he is being advised (by the phone) to update the software package.

The new update to download is 240HEG1 (it has 120HEG1 installed at the moment).

The first few times I downloaded it, it kept stopping at 90 odd percent (and it took forever to dowload each time via BT Infinity wifi 78Mb).

When I did finally get a complete download, it says something like "Phone software is checking" (this also takes forever), the then phone shuts down and comes up with a screen saying "installation stopped, Update zip cannot be found", I then have to reboot the phone with the top option on this screen. I have done this at least 5 times every times the same thing. I have searched the SD card and the file is there but I cant point the phone to the location when installing, so no joy there.

I read somewhere it may be an SD card problem, so I unmounted and removed the SD card.

I then tried the download/update process again, after many failed attempts at getting a full download without a "Data error, Try to download again" message, I finally got another full download, off it goes doing its "Phone software is checking" message (this time for about an hour), only for it to come up with "Data Error Please Try again".

I have now tried about thirty odd times in all and although I am a laid back, nothing really gets to me, sort of guy, this is really starting to (Removed according to House Rules), to the extent of the phone going through the window very soon.

Any help or advice (apart from throwing it through the window or something along those lines), would be very much appreciated

Regards

Vern

[hrym · Accepted solution]

I think the next thing to try would be a factory reset on the phone (don't forget to back up the content and make sure the contacts are sync'd somewhere first).   It could be a resource issue and this may free things up.

[vern336]

Ok, thanks very much, I'll give that a go tonight

[vern336]

Although I would'nt think it was a resource issue as there is very little downloaded on the phone and the one small game on that is on the SD card

[hrym]

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@vern336 wrote:

Although I would'nt think it was a resource issue as there is very little downloaded on the phone and the one small game on that is on the SD card

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I wouldn't disagree with you, but some of the budget devices are less well-endowed in that area (it's not as bad as it used to be).  I certainly never had and problems when I had a Smarft 4 Power, and I was trying to get it to fail!

[vern336]

Right finally got it sorted using the advice from Hrym (thank you Hyrm).

First I backed up everything I wanted to keep to my PC.

I unmounted and removed the SD card (turn phone off to remove SD card) and then restarted the phone. I followed this by doing a factory reset. I went through setting the phone up again (I think there was an option to download the backup saved on google drive, I selected yes, which was a mistake, as I will explain), when this was all done I tried the update again, it downloaded and done the "Software is checking" scenario again which failed with the "Data Error, Please try again" message (which is obvious to me now, as the downloaded backup from google drive had put the phone back to where it was before the factory reset)....Start Again!!!!!

As phone has very little on it, I turned off the backup to google drive (which also wipes the backup saved there),

done another factory reset and started again, this time there was no option to download the backup from google drive(obviously), I finished, the setup process then tried the "Software Update" again (it still took a good while to download) but when it finished downloading, it went straight to "software is checking" and low and behold the phone rebooted and done the update (YEEEEHAAAA), I went through the phone setup process again, put the SD card back in and downloaded the apps and games that my son had on it before the update.

All is good and everything runs fine, (it seems a little faster now but that could be my imagination).

There may be a better way (one that doesnt lose all the settings and I'm sure there is someone on here who would know how), but this worked for me.

I hope it helps someone out who had the same problems as me

Vern

[vern336]

I am very sorry Hrym,  I misspelled your name in my last post

[hrym]

Glad it worked for you.  Removing the sd card was a good call (I missed that) as the reset process does often clear that, especially if it's part of the phone's memory system (even if it's only set a default storage for the camera).

I'm surprised the restore from Google option failed.  It doesn't do a lot, apart from restore wallpapers, possible wifi settings and re-load your apps.   The device may well be a bit quicker, either because the update has improved performance, or because a few caches that power-cycling misses have been cleared.