Why Is My Android Phone Not Receiving Any Updates?
I always advise people to update their favorite devices to the latest versions of everything they can get: operating systems, firmware, security updates, etc. This is the best way to make sure you play with the latest features and expose yourself to the least amount of vulnerability. So what happens if your device won’t let you update it at all?
In this week’s Tech 911 – a weekly Q&A column about Lifehacker tech support – a BleuWater reader asks:
“I was wondering if you can shed some light on something that has upset me for a very long time. I bought a Samsung S4 phone from Walmart. After a while, I started to notice that my phone was not updating itself, although it said everything was updated whenever I checked it in my settings function.
When I began my research to find out why and what was causing this, it seemed like the more I dug into what I read about my problem, I found out that Walmart phones are selling block upgrades. Any suggestions on how to solve this would help me a lot.
First, I’m not sure if Walmart is doing anything to block updates on your device. This is a retailer not interested in the game. This is in contrast to the smartphone manufacturer, which can determine its own time frame for when (or if) it will release the latest Android updates to your device (no matter how individually it should do it).
Or, to put it another way, Walmart is not Samsung. Samsung has to make its own effort to incorporate major Android releases into its devices – as opposed to Google’s cleaner Pixel phone, for lack of a better way to articulate it. Walmart, however, is not selling its own branded version of the Samsung S4, nor is it going to fiddle with the phone, or control how and when it gets its update cycle. It’s just not Walmart’s business.
It’s more likely that your phone, which debuted in April 2013, is simply too outdated to receive any updates. It is, after all, a six-year-old device; The chances are slim that Samsung will still give it any support. As described in other articles , your phone officially stopped working in November 2015 with the release of Android Lollipop or version 5.0.1 of its operating system.
In fact, I don’t even see the Galaxy S4 on the list of Samsung devices that get regular or periodic security updates – and to be honest, I didn’t expect that. Typically, you will receive security updates for a flagship device within three to four years. After that, the company moved on. Presumably, most people switched to another device as well, since your smartphone’s battery was probably dead by then too (or close to that).
With that said, you now have three options. You can leave your phone as it is, provided that you don’t have any problems and you don’t mind that your outdated device, which is unlikely to be the target of any major jailbreak or exploit attempts, is no longer will be updated. …
Second, you can have a little fun and install the latest possible Android version that your device can run through LineageOS , a customizable operating system. Install LineageOS 16 on your Galaxy S4 and you have Android Pie as close as possible to your old school smartphone, although I do not promise that the process will be simple, and the end result will be completely free of errors.
Third, you can ditch your Galaxy S4 and buy a new smartphone. Walmart still sells this six-year-old phone for $ 100, which seems like $ 90 too much to me. If you’re still concerned about budget, you can buy the Nokia 3.1 for about $ 110, which will keep you updated for the next year. This Android 9 Pie smartphone is overall better than yours right now, although it only has a 720p display. The Nokia 6.1 is slightly better at around $ 180, and the Google Pixel 3a is an upgrade I personally recommend if money isn’t an issue (but you don’t want to spend a fortune).
So here’s the thing. Your phone is too old to receive updates in the usual way; hope is not lost if you don’t mind getting into the weeds and installing a third-party OS. Otherwise, if you are worried that the process is beyond your technical skills, you can keep what you have or opt for an update that will give you more playability.