Where are we all with security patches?

[Graham Thomas]

My partner's E4 has just had a security update from Oct 17 to Jan 18. Better than nothing, but why isn't it updated to at least April? She's in the UK and bought her phone from a retailer, so she's on the 'retgb' software channel.

I know from my experience that the UK is generally behind other, bigger markets for Motorola, such as Brazil and India. So I was wondering what the situation is around the world. I saw in this forum that a phone bought from Verizon (presumably in the USA) was updated to March 18 in April. How up-to-date is your phone?

You can see this via Settings.. About phone. The same page also shows which software channel you're on and it would be helpful if you could include this in your post.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Inundated]

March 2018 security update here, on the Verizon prepaid variant. Received April 4.

 

[Inundated]

Just got the May patch, yesterday.

 

[onnad]

yes got a patch today

 

[Graham Thomas]

Thanks for that info. To illustrate my point about different rates of update for different regions, my partner's E4, bought in the UK and on the 'retgb' software channel, yesterday received the first security patch since the one I mentioned above, which happened in May but updated her phone to the January patch. So, on August 13th her phone was updated to - tada! - April.

At least Lenovo is consistent. One update per quarter, with the update lagging four months behind. Better than nothing - but not great.

I bet people in other regions are more up-to-date.

 

[Rukbat]

It's not the regions, it's the manufacturer and the carrier if it's a carrier-branded phone. Google releases updates to us at the beginning of each month - but to the manufacturers about a month before that - so while we wait another week and a half for the September update, Lenovo got it almost 3 weeks ago. (The idea is that in 3 weeks they can do their things, the carrier can do their things, and they can still release the update to the user when Google does.)

Some manufacturers choose to not join the agreement to release monthly but, as you said, one per quarter is better than once per year. (Google is probably making too much money on Android to say "hey guys, either you release to the public when we do, or you can't use Android any more". It's what would happen in a perfect world.

 

[Graham Thomas]

There's been a slight improvement. My partner's E4 ('retgb' software channel) got another security update today, September 6th (the second update within a month - amazing!). It's been updated to the June security patch, so there's now only a three month lag.