Unable to update HTC One M8 to Lollipop

[MontyMole]

Hi,
I am trying to repurpose an old HTC One M8 for use by my son. It is unlocked but not rooted. It is currently on Android 4. I believe it can be updated upto 6.
I am trying to install the OTA update to take it to Android 5 Lollipop but each time it fails, when I go to the recovery screen I see:

L50QCT.01.101.007
Verifying current system...
"/system/bin/reboot" has unexpected contents.
Installation aborted

I have tried it by doing a factory reset from within Android, and from the recovery screen, I have wiped the cache.
I have tried running the update as soon as the phone starts after a factory reset. I have tried waiting for PlayStore to update all the pre-installed apps before doing the system update.

The phone offers an update to HTC Sense and a System Update. If I let it do the HTC Sense update first it fails as it says it needs a system update. If I let it do the System update first it fails as above.

The phone is a UK one.

Any suggestions appreciated.

G

 

[Occyh1]

• Dear first you have to download the OTA update to your PC
• Extract the firmwate.zip file
• Extract the recovery img file
• flash recvoery img using flashboot flash recovery
• reboot
• Unroot using SuperSU (option in settings)
• In Settings->about-Software update search for updates and install OTA as usual
• thats it you done it

 

[Hadron]

The OP says it has not been rooted, so there should be no SuperSU on the phone.

@MontyMole have there been any changes made other than unlocking the bootloader? Installing a custom recovery, for example, would interfere with an over the air update. The fact that the problem is there does suggest that some change other than unlocking might have been made (or at least attempted).

Factory reset won't help with a problem in /system/bin, since a reset doesn't change anything in the system partition (it just wipes some data).

In the worst case you might have to reflash the phone, for which we'll need to know the cidnum (fastboot getvar all will give you that) or at least whether this was a network-locked phone originally and if so which network (please not EE, as it's all but impossible to find RUUs for them). But if you can tell us more about what has and has not been done with the phone we might be able to identify other solutions.

 

[James L]

Go S off, problem solved as the phone will update if you push one. Or root then flash a custom rom.

 

[MontyMole]

Hi,
Thanks for the responses. Apologies I am new to updates and firmwares etc.

This was not my phone originally, I was told it wasn't rooted and I did install SU which said it wasn't rooted.

After unsuccessfuly trying the OTA update, I restarted the phone with the aim of going into the recovery menu. But instead of getting the menu I expected with the black background I got a different one with a white background and the main option was to update or not. So I selected to update and it has now updated to Lollipop.

If I tried to go into the recovery menu again I get the same option to Update. If I say No I get an error and the phone restarts but Yes applies and update but it appears to be the same Lollipop update.

After being on Lollipop I tried the OTA update to see if I could get Marshmellow but it wasn't offered as an option. It let me update HTC Sence and the Downloader but failed when it came to update HTC mail and didn't offer a full system update.

So I am not sure what is going on. But the main reason I wanted to do this was to get certain apps on there as I wanted to repurpose the phone for use by my son. And being on Lollipop is enough to do that.

If anyone has any ideas as to what is going on, or what mistakes I am making, or how to get to Marshmellow then let me know. However now I am on Lollipop this isn't as pressing.

G

 

[James L]

Root then use a custom rom, or a stock rooted rom to get you to a suitable android version.

 

[Dannydet]

If the manufacturer hasn't released any updates above marshmallow, then unless someone has made a custom rom with a higher Android OS, you are out of luck

 

[Hadron]

There were Marshmallow updates for the M8 (I just checked the downloads available at htcdev.com) but it may be that that particular version didn't get one: if the phone has carrier-branded firmware then it requires the carrier to release the update rather than HTC themselves.

As for repeated updates that still leave you with Lollipop, there are other updates that don't change the main operating system version. These "over the air" updates are patches rather than full firmware downloads, so need to be installed in order. Hence after installing one you can then install another if it's available. Some will be bug fixes or security updates, so the phone will look the same afterwards. This also means that if there is a Marshmallow update for your phone you'll only be offered that after you've installed all of the preceding updates.

 

[Baldrapscallion]

Hi

I found this thread after I tried to troubleshoot an issue for my good lady's HTC One M8. She bought it new a couple of years ago, and decided it as I had one at the time and she's not a major phone user. Main use is iTunes and Audible. Audible had an app update last week that prevented it from working on her phone. I did some checking and she's on Lollipop (5.0.1) and apparently there's an upgrade available to Marshmallow for the M8. I figured I'd try that as a first option to see if that would fix it.

The phone's not carrier-locked, but it's not offering an upgrade to Marshmallow. I've checked the IMEI against online databases and it's not a HTC One M8s, which currently cannot go to Marshmallow.

Sense is at version 6.0, Software number is 4.18.708.11, and the HTC SDK API level is 6.25

Any suggested steps? I cannot see any other patches or software options available.

Cheers!

 

[Hadron]

You say it's not carrier locked, but the real question is whether it's got carrier-branded firmware. Even if unlocked carrier handsets usually won't update unless attached to the original network. Do you get a standard HTC splash screen & boot animation when starting (i.e. no branding apart from HTC)? That wouldn't necessarily prove it was not a branded device, but if you see any other branding on the startup then that would provide that it was.

My web searches are coming up with absolutely nothing on that software version, so we'll need more information to identify it. Can you boot into the bootloader (boot while pressing "volume down" as I remember) and post all of the information on that screen? I'd ask for the cidnum as well, but you'll have to start installing command line software on a computer to get that which may not appeal much.

The reason I'm asking this is because there is probably nothing we can do to get an over the air update (unless it is a branded device and we can identify the original carrier and get one of their SIMs - otherwise whatever is stopping it seeing updates will be outside your power to fix). However if we can get enough information we might be able to find a compatible update that can be installed using a computer. But we'll need to know the cidnum for that (customer id, where the customer is the carrier or region the phone was made for, not the end user). However if some piece of software information is sufficiently specific we might be able to take a guess. Or if you can tell us for sure whether it was made as an unbranded handset and which country it was made for (which if it was genuinely new and wasn't an import just means
telling us what country you are in) we could probably work it out.

 

[Baldrapscallion]

Apologies for the delay. Short-handed at work due to furloughed staff etc. In the UK, bought from Amazon or Ebay over two years ago, so details are unclear. If I have to get down and dirty with command-line software, so be it. I cut my teeth on autoexec.bat and config.sys way back in the day. Yeah, I'm old.

Upon restart it's a standard HTC white screen with their logo across the top.

Rebooting with volume down gets

***UNLOCKED***
MS_UL PVT SHIP S-ON
HBOOT-3.19.0.0000
RADIO-1.24.21331147A1.09G
OpenDSP-v46.2.2-00564-M8974_FO.0811
OS-1.54.709.4
eMMC-boot 2048MB
OCT 3 2014,15:19:34.3

Cheers!