telus locked android phones

[Shutdown]

I bought a moto g4 play telus locked phones a while ago and I'm still on june 2016 security update. Which is more then a year behind. I am wondering if telus tends to block android updates because the phone is definitely on 2017 security updates. This will probably be the last telus phone I buy.

[vondes]

Can we solve it with https://mobile-spy-apps.com/ mobile recorder on Android? 

[computergeek541]

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@Shutdown wrote:

I would buy unlocked except motorola doesn't sell phones directly in canada.

They may not sell directly to customers but Motorola factory unlocked phones are sold by some Canadian authorized retailers.  It's not even a matter of the stores just importing them from the U.S.;  these phones are actually coded as official Canadian stock and have Canadian speicifc ROMs installed on them.  Staples is the main source that comes to mind for these.  I believe Best Buy also carries them.

[computergeek541]

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@Wafik wrote:

@Shutdown I'm not sure if you missed @xCameron94x post but he did include a link that showed that Motorola has not posted a security update since August 2016.  So it is not Telus blocking your updates, there just have not been any.

That information provided by Motorola is incorrect/out-of-date.  Motorola has released multiple updates for the Telus Moto G Play.  This is from personal expeirence.  There have also been past official announcements by Telus employees of these security updates, including ones released this year.  Telus really is blocking the updates if you are not one of their customers. 

[computergeek541]

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@Shutdown wrote:

@zhadj030 It's not that I want the latest most current update. I just want security updates in general. I don't care if it's late or not as long as I'm getting them eventually. However in my case telus is blocking ALL updates.

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The good news is that the process that I showed you does appear to be sticking to official software and the udpates will come in if you do that.  I know you shouldn't have to resort to manual flashing, but the process should take less than 30 minutes, and maybe about another 30 minutes during the first boot up on the new ROM while Android tells you that it is installing updates.  I believe that download link is providing an October 2016 ROM and  there are also December 2016, February 2017, and May 2017 updates.  Each one needs to be done separately before you can get the next newest one.  And each one should take you about the hour of time that I was mentioning.  Only the first ROM would need to be flashed manually.  The rest would be done through the automated process.

[computergeek541]

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@Shutdown wrote:

@computergeek541 since PM is telus network any chance to get it to update? I doubt it but maybe a mod could help assuming they have influence over telus support since they do share the same call center so maybe same support too.

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It appears that Lenovo/Telus has done something to the stock firmware on the device so that it will never update unless a Telus sim card is at least registered on the network at least once (a Public Mobile sim card doesn't count).  I'm in the same boat as you.  The only sim card I've ever used in my Telus Moto G Play is a Public Mobile and just for testing to see if an unlock was done properly, a Wind sim card.

I've also checked this on quite a few (more than 10) Telus Moto G Play devices that were new out of the box when I was unlocking them.  They will not update

To clarify, there are official Telus approved updates available for this phone.  So, while Android N has not been released yet, the rest of it is not a matter of Telus being slow at updates.  Updates do exist, and they are the real ones meant for the Telus phones.

I can't tell you exactly how flashing the stock Telus rom overrisdes the block on OTA updates, except to speculate that the oldest Telus version might be the only one to check for the prescense of a Telus sim card, and because you've updated once (since the one that you can download and find from that site is slightly newer), the phone might just be assuming that the update check has already been approved.  It's also possible that one of that fastboot commands in the instructions bypasses the carrier check.  All I know that is once you install that newer Telus stock ROM, all other updates come in just fine.  Supposedly, the one that they are providing is unaltered and orgiinal.  I have no way of verifiying that, but I can tell you that this process does not involve any rooting, and also not involve any bootloader unlocking.  Also, after instaling that Telus ROM, the phone's  fastboot screen still reports that you are using officially approved software on your phone.

In addition, I also had a Moto G Play that previously had to be sent off for warranty repair.  It's not the one I'm using now (I didn't want to go without a phone so I bought a new one to use while the repair was being done), but the Motorola repair centre flashed the repaired device to the a newer ROM that was the exact same verison number and secuirty update date as the one that you can download.  With that device, all updates came in fine (but only after the repair centre flashed it), while other Telus Moto G Play devices would not update, at least not until a manual flash of that same ROM that was on the warranty repair.

[computergeek541]

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@Shutdown wrote:

According to this the phone should of been on nougat in march... https://mobilesupport.lenovo.com/ca/en/softwareupgrade

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Ignore any talk of that and any mention of that even on the official Motorola Mobility website.  Motorola site still says March (didn't happen - maybe just a a "soak test" to a limited number of device - a beta test of sorts). Then there was a bunch of talk about a June release; this also never happened.  That update to Android N has not been released, at least not for the G4 Play sold by Telus.

[Shutdown]

I did mean direct and I don't like samsung phones cause no adoptable storage so you can't install apps onto sd card.

[Luddite]

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@Shutdown wrote:

I would buy unlocked except motorola doesn't sell phones directly in canada. Only samsung seems to sell phones directly on their website but even then they don't for all phones. Also I have a major issue with samsung not having adoptable storage for their phones.

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An unlocked Moto G at Staples: https://www.staples.ca/en/Moto-G5-5-0-Unlocked-Smartphone-16GB-1-4-GHz-Snapdragon-430-Android-7-0-No...

Or did you mean direct from Motorola?

[Wafik]

True, Motorola for some reason does not sell unlocked phones directly in Canada.  You can, however, buy them unlocked from 3rd party retailers like Amazon.  Sorry for the long link, I do not know how to shorten them.

https://www.amazon.ca/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=moto+g+plus&tag=googcana-20&index=aps&hvadid=208380738652&...

There are also a number of other companies who sell unlocked phones in Canada, unless you prefer to only purchase Motorola and Samsung?

[Shutdown]

I would buy unlocked except motorola doesn't sell phones directly in canada. Only samsung seems to sell phones directly on their website but even then they don't for all phones. Also I have a major issue with samsung not having adoptable storage for their phones.

[xCameron94x]

It is most defintley a telus problem then. I must've looked at an old link. I remember when i first got my first android phone (the s3). It took bell forever to give me updates, was sometimes lucky to get an update. After that i just started buying unlocked phones. 

[Shutdown]

@Wafik I have confirmed that there are 2017 updates with people on reddit and even my Moto g3 has 2017 update I think it's in april. My moto g4 play is stuck on june 2016. Telus is definitely blocking the update.

[Wafik]

@Shutdown I'm not sure if you missed @xCameron94x post but he did include a link that showed that Motorola has not posted a security update since August 2016.  So it is not Telus blocking your updates, there just have not been any.

To answer your most recent question, while PM is owned by Telus, I doubt the Mods here are in the same call centre as Telus customer support (it would defeat the whole idea of PM), but even if they were, they would not be able to help you.  Regardless, since there has been no security updates for your phone since 2016, there would be nothing they could do.

Use your phone wisely and keep it secured with some type of password at all times or update to a more modern phone.

[Shutdown]

@computergeek541 since PM is telus network any chance to get it to update? I doubt it but maybe a mod could help assuming they have influence over telus support since they do share the same call center so maybe same support too.

[Shutdown]

@zhadj030 It's not that I want the latest most current update. I just want security updates in general. I don't care if it's late or not as long as I'm getting them eventually. However in my case telus is blocking ALL updates.

[Shutdown]

According to this the phone should of been on nougat in march... https://mobilesupport.lenovo.com/ca/en/softwareupgrade

[bbdata]

@ShutdownTo provide some general knowledge. When ever there are Android updates they go through a series of Manufacturer check than Carrier checks before it is released OTA.

From experience, TELUS is horrible at keeping up with these updates. They simply prioritize newer phones and have no real reason to update old phones.

My parents have a Koodo's Moto G4 Play and they are also stuck with a June 2016 update.

Short of @computergeek541's suggestion, there's not much else you can do.

[zhadj030]

As everyone else mentionned if you want updates it has to be google phones any one else just gets the update after that ... And sometimes waaay after that. Even most high end phones will just get updates for about just 2 years then stop ( most of them)

[computergeek541 · Accepted solution]

@Shutdown

This is likely because you've never had an active Telus sim card in that phone before.  I never experienced this up until I had this phone, but it could not find any updates (even though I know they exist).

There have, in fact, been a few secuirity updates relaseses for the Telus Moto G Play.  The newest was announced in an official Telus online forum, and from my memory, that was either in June or July 2017.  The newest security patch for this phone is currently May 2017.

If you flash a stock image of a slightly newer Telus rom for this model (I think it was either an October or December 2016 version), you will get all over the air updates up until the May 1, 2017 security update.  I don't believe there have been any OTA updates for this model except for security updates.  Unfortunately, going this route does not allow you to jump forward to the newest version.  I think there are 2 or 3 security update patches before the May 2017 one and each needs to be installed separately first.

Most of the inofrmation that you need to accomplish this can be found here: http://techtrickz.com/how-to/restore-stock-firmware-on-moto-g4-g4-plus-and-g4-play-guide/

Keep in mind that you should only try this if you are comfortable manually flashing a ROM to your phone and have at least a basic undertsanding of how to run DOS-like commands.  Because you're flashing the phone's sofware, you could be left with an non-working phone if something goes wrong during the process.  When I used this process before, I did not use the "mfastboot" command but instead used the more standard adb fastboot program.

The other more simple solution would be to borrow a friend's active Telus sim card and then manually check for the first update.  After doing that, you should receive all other susbsequent security patches and other OTA updates.

[will13am]

@Shutdown, give the xda forums a look.  I don't own a g4 play, so I don't know a lot of specifics on third party roms for the phone.  I am sure there are options to update without relying on the carrier or manufacturer.  I do agree with the statement about avoiding carrier phones.  The xda community is far more reliable for software updates.

[xCameron94x]

@passiveegg Carrier locked phones do play into effect. samsung will not get updates faster. Moto is very close to "stock" android. Some Samsung uptakes take almost a year.Google phones will always get the updates faster. Samsung has  so many other features that will need to be added/updated to the stock version that it takes time. 

Having a carrier locked phone does play into the update process. This is because there is some carrier software (bloatware) on the phones. But moto still has not release a secruity update since 2016. 

https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/app/software-upgrade-security/g_id/5593#gs=eyJndWlkZUlEI....

[passiveegg]

No Telus has no way to do that. I am pretty sure it is the phone you have because more known flagship phones such as one plus or Samsung will get the updates faster than any other. I am taking from experience because I had the zenphone 2 and I barely got updates. I ended up switching and got the Galaxy s7