I read somewhere android pie takes double the internal storage; is this true?

[BenMargoza]

And if so, is it the first version to do it, or if not what's the first version to start this doubling? Tablet not being used during updates is fine; but seems it would defeat the purpose of purchasing a 32gb for more app storage.

 

[chanchan05]

Nope. Not true.

 

[B. Diddy]

Maybe you're thinking of seamless updates with dual system partitions? https://source.android.com/devices/tech/ota/ab. This is something that is dependent on the device, not on Pie itself.

 

[Rukbat]

And is a good thing, not a bad thing. If the battery dies or the phone crashes for some other reason, during an update, all you've lost now is time. The phone will still be running the pre-update version. The next day, when you get the update again, and it installs properly, you'll be updated.

In the past, if an update crashed while installing, the phone was useless, since there was only one copy in the phone, and it was corrupted. And, in some cases, there was no recovery that cost less than a new phone.

I'd been complaining about updating the live version for years (we stopped doing that in another, non-cellphone product, back in 1989) before they finally caught on. (Rule of website maintenance - NEVER work on the live version of the site. The same should hold true of anything running software that should keep working. In 1991, I went to work for a company that maintained 2 complete mainframes - 1 for testing changes, the second one for use. Aside from one power failure [the backup supply system failed during its monthly test], they were never down for a moment. For a few decades. Even when updating hardware [then the backup system was brought up to date hardware- software-wise, became the main system, and the old main/new backup system was updated.)

It's the same reason that, unless there's something on your phone that you don't need, you should always have everything backed up. The question isn't whether the phone will totally fail, it's when it will. But at least, now, if an update failes, you'll never know unless you look. The phone will keep working. (Backups are done in the background now.)