Weird issues with restore and general update questions.

[n2audio]

Hi -- So I'm new to Android "management". I've been on WP for several years and recently switched over to Android.

My wife and I both got new phones at Christmas (LG G3's, t-mobile version to use with AT&T). We got them up and running w/o any problems. Hers went through multiple updates from 4.2 to 6.0.
Mine, however got stuck in 4.x. So I flashed it to the stock rom (which did NOT go smoothly). THEN after a series up updates it got to where it was supposed to be.

THEN -- My wife's phone's bezel cracked and the seller offered us an exchange. So I backed both phones up - restored her back up to my undamaged phone for her to use, wiped hers, and returned it (I'm using my old backup WP temporarily).

My concern is when I get my phone back -- If I wipe it (she has it cluttered up w/all kinds of garbage) before I restore it is there a chance I'll end up stuck back at 4.x and have to flash and start all over again?

Also - any speculation as to what might have caused my phone to hang up in 4.x?

 

[Hadron]

Doing a "factory reset" only deletes user-installed apps, data and settings. It does not undo operating system updates. "Factory data reset" would be a better name. So no, it won't put you back to 4.x.

I don't know why yours did not update. You say that the phones were new, but also that they were T-Mobile phones to use with ATT, so presumably unlocked and maybe not completely new. It is possible that if you were using T-Mobile handsets on a different network that is what caused problems with the update (since carrier handsets have carrier-specific updates), though that begs the question of why your wife's phone did get the updates. What stock ROM did you flash to get this going?

 

[n2audio]

What stock ROM did you flash to get this going?

If you're asking for something more specific than d85110c, I probably can't tell you.

You say that the phones were new, but also that they were T-Mobile phones to use with ATT, so presumably unlocked and maybe not completely new.

Yes, sold as unlocked and new. If they weren't actually new, their packaging and physical condition certainly was.

Doing a "factory reset" only deletes user-installed apps, data and settings. It does not undo operating system updates. "Factory data reset" would be a better name. So no, it won't put you back to 4.x.

When you do a restore from a backup, does it not do a reset during the process? Because after I backed up her phone and restored it onto mine for her to use -- my one drive kept getting "camera roll" uploads from EVERY stupid photo she took. That seemed pretty weird to me. One drive wasn't on her phone before. So the app and the password stayed.

 

[Hadron]

I'm not an LG person, so " d85110c" doesn't mean much to me. Was that a new copy of the ROM that was already on it, a later software version, or an ATT ROM?

A factory reset should wipe everything, removing any connection between your account and the phone. I wouldn't have thought that the G3 would have had Factory Reset Protection (which only came with phones that were originally released with Android 5), so can't think of any reason there would be anything left.

As for restoring a backup automatically doing a reset, that depends what you used to make the backup - there is no one "normal" way to make backups. Restoring a "nandroid" backup (an image backup made using a custom recovery) would erase all existing data, but I'm pretty certain that's not what you've done (not least because if you had a custom recovery you'd not be able to receive official updates). I would not assume that other backup apps would automatically do a reset when restoring. From what you say it sounds like whatever backup system you used did not do this anyway.

 

[n2audio]

I'm not an LG person, so " d85110c" doesn't mean much to me. Was that a new copy of the ROM that was already on it, a later software version, or an ATT ROM?

D851 is the phone model (for T-mo, ATT is D850, Vz is D855) 10c is the version of the original firmware the phone shipped with.
ATT's original version was D85021q.

So what I put on it was supposed to be what it shipped with at its original release.

 

[n2audio]

FWIW - The replacement phone is here. It's not updating either.
I installed root checker. It's rooted. I guess there's some tampering going on before shipment. Yay, I get to try to do another flash.