[Certified] Android 13.1.0 for Teracube 2e Zirconia (SN:2020)

Teracube 2e
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#111

Thanks for another update…
With Duraspeed and a seemingly little performance boost.
However I’ve noticed a few things.

On my backup phone (upgradedfrom A11 to the first stable A13);

  • No Micro Recorder anymore.

On my main phone (Upgraded throught A13 alpha’s, beta’s to 13.1.0);

  • Boot looping was already since beta, no change and it bootloops longer (maybe 2 times, 3 cycles; gonna double check this) than my backup phone before booting. Also there is more data on this phone.
  • No Micro Recorder anymore.
  • Stuck on Google Play System update 90 MB update, and still on 2023 patches.

UPDATE 05/10/24;

  • After my phone has been in Sleepmode/Bed mode with dark theming on, the messages that were ‘blocked’ are still black (with black text) although my settings etc are white again = Difficult to read. I thought I could re enable sleep mode and than white text is back.

I am gonna try to do the instructions for Google Play System update this XDA Guide ([GUIDE] How to fix Google Play system update not updating or being stuck | XDA Forums) suggested.
Welp… @Sahil_Sonar, yes, Play System Updates loop on my main phone. I guess it’s a small bug to do with the alpha/beta’s. Gonna let it rest and eventually reinstall…

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#112

Are we taking about Play system updates looping here?

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#113

For some reason my zirconia is still on Android 10 and claims “Your device is up to date” when checked today. I’m not a technically affine but would like to proceed with updating to Android 13.1.0 as I’ve experienced bugs lately and hope an update will solve some of them. Hope the manual update will be straightforward enough even for someone like me. Not sure why my phone says the device is up to date when it clearly isn’t.
Before I proceed, anything specific I need to know for updating from Android 10? Thanks.

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#114

Some users have had to reset their device between Android 13 and older versions, though this has not hit everyone.

Please ensure all your important data is backed up prior to attempting the upgrade.

#115

Why only local updates and not OTA?
The installation of this update caused my Teracube 2e 2020 to loop with the Teracube logo spinning for 4 hours. I long-pressed the power button and it rebooted into bootloader mode. The only real possibility I had was to hard reset the smartphone.
This has obviously erased absolutely all data from the device.
Not ideal, but I’ve become used to poor experience with my Teracube 2e.

I won’t be buying another smartphone from this manufacturer who has let me and many others down with not keeping the promises of timely updates for 3 years and providing shoddy customer service.
Pleading that Teracube is but a small company is not acceptable when you make your own false promises to attract buyers.

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#116

I tried to upgrade from the original Android version, hoping that after 5 years things would work. Apparently I was wrong since the phone now is stuck on twrp loading screen, and when in Bootloader the device isn’t recognised by the PC…

#117

I believe we only offered OTA from 12 to 13, but not directly from 10 or 11.

I apologize that your device bootlooped after the upgrade. There were reports of that in the Alpha/Beta stages of Android 13 rollout, but yours is the first for stable.

Do you know if you have the phone rooted or with a different bootloader/recovery from stock?

#118

If you are using a modified bootloader/recovery, you might have to use SPFlash to go back to stock for the upgrade, and then sideload them again.

When you are in bootloader, are you issuing ADB or Fastboot commands?

#119

Really, Saijin! What you believe? Why not read what was actually written? The company has not kept its promises for Teracube 2e customers and you know it. If you don’t, then you should probably not be in a customer support position. You certainly don’t appear to have read customer comments.
What does “3 years of updates” mean to you exactly?
To all Android users, it means you get timely security updates for 3 years running. We certainly haven’t had that.
Oh yeah, I remember the excuse given before: “Please understand we’re a small company with limited resources…”.
Self-declared “small under-resourced” companies shouldn’t make big promises.

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#120

I replied to this part of your query with this:

So, for a number of folks, they may have to manually initialize the update by downloading to local storage, unless they were keeping up with the Alpha/Beta branch releases.

#121

You are right—some Zirconia units (SN:2020) are affected by an upgrade bug that requires a reset. This is why we are not releasing it over OTA and making it an optional upgrade.

More on this SN:2020 upgrade bug
We are not able to reproduce it in our testing. We did ask users to help us by providing logs, but we have yet to receive any.

In short, Android 13 is an opt-in manual upgrade for now.

2 Likes
#122

Ziconia, Android 11. The upgrade worked. Thank you. There was an issue with the upgrade. A big issue, kinda, for some people.

This is one of the original T2e phones you sold through the fundraiser (Indigogo, maybe). I had run the earlier upgrade from A10 to A11 a few years ago.

I was forced to reset my phone data during this new upgrade from A11 to A13. Not a massive issue and probably for the best given I hadn’t reset the phone since buying it.

Apart from the data reset, everything looks fine. My Google/Android backup restored perfectly.

FYI, to run the backup I needed my Google login, phone screen unlock PIN and a Google Backup Code (my SIM was in my restored phone so backup code was needed).

I probably won’t risk the next major version software upgrade. I will have a new phone by the time it is released.

If you do make another phone I will be interested to buy it.

Again, thank you so much for the phone and the work put into the software updates. You don’t get enough thanks for that.

1 Like
#123

Sorry you had trouble, but I am glad your phone is working properly and updating.

Subsequent upgrades should not have a reset/dataloss issue, so please don’t be wary of OTA upgrades from now on with that unit.

2 Likes
#124

No worries. This phone has lasted a long time.

I’ve noticed the battery life is better after this update. Maybe the reason the phone data was reported as corrupted by the update is that there was malware on the phone. Could be that others affected by the same issue also had the same malware on their phone.

Anyway, this is one happy customer who looks forward to seeing the future of Teracube.

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#125

Why is there the instructions to enable USB debugging and approve the connection when upgrading from Android 11?

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#126

Probably so that if there’s a problem, you can actually gather and pass along logs so that if it’s a fixable issue rather than something intrinsic in the data, they can actually try to patch it out for future builds?

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#127

What about canada? Most i can get is android 11 from updater.

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#129

You’ll need to manually download and install the update as it is not available OTA for Android 11 and earlier due to a possible data migration bug causing a reset:

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#130

I ran into the same corruption issue:

“Can’t load Android system. Your data may be corrupt. If you continue to get this message, you may need to perform a factory data reset and erase all user data stored on this device.”

I followed all the steps with enabling usb debugging and adb devices prior to the upgrade process, and confirmed that my computer connected sucessfully to my phone via adb.

Unfortunately, once my phone was at that “Can’t load Android system” screen, it was no longer connected, and following the instructions in the OP to choose “Try Again” and do adb logcat > logs.txt doesn’t do anything. adb just sits there saying - waiting for device - with no further output. Note that I first did those two steps in the order listed (first selecting “Try Again”, and then starting adb logcat > logs.txt), and when that did nothing I tried the other way around, leaving the - waiting for device - message sitting and waiting while I selected “Try Again” on my phone. In both cases, the phone just ends up back at the corruption screen and never connects to adb (and thus no logs are output).

More on this SN:2020 upgrade bug
We are not able to reproduce it in our testing. We did ask users to help us by providing logs, but we have yet to receive any.

My above experience makes me think that the reason you aren’t receiving any logs from people is because the instructions provided aren’t working to get the logs. Are the listed steps perhaps incomplete?

#131

Were you able to see the bootanimation after “Try again”?