Can you disable automatic OTA updates?

[notslow]

Hi Guys,
I've got a Droid 3 on 2.3.4, rooted and bloat apps froze by Ti backup pro. I'm concerned that a later ota update may auto install and mess up the phone due to the apps being froze. Is there a way to stop automatic ota updates?
Is this something to worry about at all? Can an ota mess up my phone if it installs with apps froze?

Note: nothing has been deleted, just froze.

 

[ndoren]

Hi Guys,
I've got a Droid 3 on 2.3.4, rooted and bloat apps froze by Ti backup pro. I'm concerned that a later ota update may auto install and mess up the phone due to the apps being froze. Is there a way to stop automatic ota updates?
Is this something to worry about at all? Can an ota mess up my phone if it installs with apps froze?

Note: nothing has been deleted, just froze.

The simple answer is that you have nothing to worry about. The last OTA installed just fine with frozen apps (but not if they're deleted... the update will fail then, so freeze but don't delete frozen system apps). Whatever apps you have frozen should stay frozen after the update. I have a few frozen apps that still have a market link, and they update just fine from the market, too, and they stay frozen.

The complicated answer is as follows:

Once an OTA hits your phone from the server, it's probably a good idea to install it. They're usually bug fixes, and from the early days of the Droid1, I don't recall an OTA breaking anything, but instead just providing improvements. So go for it without worries.

However... if for whatever reason you just don't want the OTA update, for example, if you're afraid of losing root, then you can block the OTA. In this situation, if you don't install the OTA, it'll keep bugging and bugging until you give in and install the OTA.

To get around this (if for some reason you don't want the OTA), then here's some advice. The OTA server probes your phone's current update status by reading the ro.build.fingerprint setting in your /system/build.prop file. That setting is simply a string (a list of text characters) that indicates your current update status. Once the OTA is installed, this string is updated to indicate you have the new OTA, and hence the server stops bugging you to update. If you don't want the update, simply ask someone (on here) who has allowed the update to post the new string that is assigned to ro.build.fingerprint. You can then go in and edit the build.prop file and change the string to the updated string, and then the OTA server will be tricked into thinking you have the update. It'll quit bugging you then.

The only real reason to block an OTA is if you fear losing root, but there is a rootkeeper app in the market that will protect your root after the update. There is also a trick for giving yourself "permanent root," and it's elsewhere in the forums.

Of course you have to be rooted. If you're freezing apps, clearly you already are. Hope this helps. Neall

 

[AlienIlluminati]

What if the update just absolutely sucks and you don't want it and you don't have root? I forceclosed the updater. I even went into the Google play store and set it so that it would only update over wifi (though I don't think this has anything to do witth OTA updates). What else can be done other than putting my phone into airplane mode while I'm sleep and constantly watching my phone!?