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Root [Virgin Mobile/Sprint] Yes, fotakill does work, but you have to do it right

rootabaga

Android Expert
Aug 11, 2014
2,970
8,175
Crazyville, CA
Hi, folks.

This is being posted in the all things root forum because if you're not rooted, you don't care, you'll just get the updates and keep on truckin.' However, if you are rooted and the phone is working fine, this is how you can stop the FOTA notices on your phone.

This is my own personal experience with my F3 after seeing the posts about the V8 upgrade and then I started getting the notices on my F3 from VM.

There are a few discussions of using fotakill and some people saying it doesn't work.

Well, it's very likely that they perhaps have not followed the explicit directions (found on xda's site) because it's not a normal apk. You don't actually INSTALL fotakill.apk.

Rather:

[How-to] Disable OTA updates on Stock + Rooted ROMs

1. Download FOTAKill.apk* and copy to your Phone/SD
2. Use a root explorer (such as ES Explorer) to copy the file to /system/app
3. If the update already downloaded, use your root explorer to delete it from /cache
4. reboot

If the update notice is still in the notification bar after the reboot, simply swipe it away. That should be the last time you are ever prompted to update via OTA. Even if you manually go to system update and click check now it will no longer offer you the OTA. You can simply delete the apk from /system/app to reverse this mod.

*Credit for the apk goes to the CM team and or the folks who create the gapps packages!

Those directions are taken from this thread at xda, which also has the fotakill.apk that you can download.

Note that you (1) have to be rooted (duh) and (2) have a proper file manager installed (I used ES Explorer) and (3) that FM has to have root access. All you need to do is copy the fotakill.apk to your external microSD card, and then use the FM to copy it from the external card to the /system/app folder on your F3. DON'T try to "install" it! Then clear the cache if the update was already downloaded. Then reboot. That's it. After you reboot, you may have to dismiss the update notice one last time (I did) but after that, you're golden. I haven't seen the update for hours now, and I've rebooted a couple of times to be sure it's not going to come back.

I hope this helps those of you who, like me, don't really want to go to V8 (since there is no indication of any improvements so far) and want to get rid of the annoying (and potentially dangerous) update notice.

Good luck to all.
 
Hi, folks.

This is being posted in the all things root forum because if you're not rooted, you don't care, you'll just get the updates and keep on truckin.' However, if you are rooted and the phone is working fine, this is how you can stop the FOTA notices on your phone.

This is my own personal experience with my F3 after seeing the posts about the V8 upgrade and then I started getting the notices on my F3 from VM.

There are a few discussions of using fotakill and some people saying it doesn't work.

Well, it's very likely that they perhaps have not followed the explicit directions (found on xda's site) because it's not a normal apk. You don't actually INSTALL fotakill.apk.

Rather:



Those directions are taken from this thread at xda, which also has the fotakill.apk that you can download.

Note that you (1) have to be rooted (duh) and (2) have a proper file manager installed (I used ES Explorer) and (3) that FM has to have root access. All you need to do is copy the fotakill.apk to your external microSD card, and then use the FM to copy it from the external card to the /system/app folder on your F3. DON'T try to "install" it! Then clear the cache if the update was already downloaded. Then reboot. That's it. After you reboot, you may have to dismiss the update notice one last time (I did) but after that, you're golden. I haven't seen the update for hours now, and I've rebooted a couple of times to be sure it's not going to come back.

I hope this helps those of you who, like me, don't really want to go to V8 (since there is no indication of any improvements so far) and want to get rid of the annoying (and potentially dangerous) update notice.

Good luck to all.

LG Phones Can do an even easier process: Move /system/app/lgfota.apk to SD Card and reboot. this will permanently remove OTA updates and notifications.

I did this for one of my custom roms for the F3
 
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True, but the xda option is reversible if one were so predisposed. Off course, so is yours, simply moving the lgfota apk to a different location will suffice, because then it can be moved back.

Either way, options for avoiding the nagging by mama VM. :)

Hahaha! Yeah that is true! I just took it out of my ROM because it seems everyone does not like the OTA especially since VM and LG force it on you.
 
Upvote 0
LG Phones Can do an even easier process: Move /system/app/lgfota.apk to SD Card and reboot. this will permanently remove OTA updates and notifications.

I did this for one of my custom roms for the F3

i did this on my vm F3 and rebooted. got a playstore update and then got system update notification. funny thing.. the "install now" button was grayed out... i hit install later and cleared the notification...

i had already deleted the update from /cache and when i just looked it was there again with today's date. just deleted again...

just rebooted and still getting the notification... going to install fotakill.apk.. will update after that...
 
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so i employed both methods listed above and i've had no issues since removing lgfota.apk and installing fotakill.apk as per the detailed instructions.

it's weird to me that vm/lg never rolled out the 4.2.2 update as had been rumored for so long. methinks they came out with the tribute instead.

i think this phone has a bit more life in it... and i don't have many complaints... so i'm going to try to hold on to it a bit longer. i'm only using 36% of my internal memory thanks to link2SD... my apps open and respond quickly... i rarely have any crashes. pandora is funky when it's linking to my bluetooth head unit in my car... i've been through a million browsers and i still have problems with chrome but i've found it to be the most stable. i've uninstalled all updates to chrome btw and it seems to work the best that way.

still trying to decide if i should flash a custom rom. haven't really read up on the available roms for this phone. the only thing really i could conceiving of utilizing would be the overclocking and some other performance settings. so far the stock rom has done me fine. it seems to be more stable than the stock rom on the optimus elite which i had before this phone.

:smokingsomb:
 
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LG Phones Can do an even easier process: Move /system/app/lgfota.apk to SD Card and reboot. this will permanently remove OTA updates and notifications.

I did this for one of my custom roms for the F3

Just did this but still getting the update message.

A question - what file do I delete from /cache ?
I had a folder called /fota (or something similar) but was empty, but I deleted it.

Will put the fotaKill.apk too I guess
 
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