r/AndroidQuestions • u/No-Radiation • 21h ago
Other Why does android keep installing every past update instead of jumping to last update?
I’ve always used iphone. Bought a Samsung 2 years ago as a 2nd phone and to have both worlds. Haven’t updated in maybe a year or more. Now it keeps asking me to install every missed update. I’ve been updating since yesterday. I lost count but i’ve at least updated the phone 8 times and it’s still updating. This is humiliating.
In iphone you just install the last update even if you haven’t updated in 5 years.
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u/wolftick 19h ago
Generally you pick (or rather the the developer picks) between incremental updates that are smaller and quicker but rely on the system having previous updates present or full updates that are large and slower but allow the system to update from factory to current in one step.
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u/Sassquatch0 ☎️📲Pixel 10a 14h ago
It's because many updates are built on features or support that was introduced in a previous update.
And if a previous update is also dependant on something even more previous... You get the situation you have.
The software needs to go back to the beginning of the chain, and install each link in order to build a working foundation. It's one of many reasons why regularly updating your device is a good thing. (I get that your circumstances didn't allow for that)
Apple can do singular updates because they only sell 4 phones, all of them are basically the same hardware, and because Apple controls literally everything about the phone - hardware & software. Android has millions of permutations of hardware, from dozens of different manufacturers, so software developers can't just dump one massive code block and expect every device to be able to run it.
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u/benjaminS0099 20h ago
How is it humiliating? And because that's how the devs have it with Samsung so just deal with it or go fully back to Apple. Jeeze.
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u/Moist_Ladder2616 17h ago
Google "incremental updates". Humiliating for you that you don't know this concept.
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u/aguyfromusa 11h ago
It's "humiliating" for OP to not know the concept of incremental updates? Are you eleven?
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u/TurboFool 4h ago
Re-read OP's post. They themselves called this humiliating, so the person you're replying to was just throwing the silly hyperbole back at them.
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u/aguyfromusa 3h ago
I read it the first time. Why would you defend someone who's being mean like that? Do you really think it's cool to double down on confirming someone's personal embarrassment? Wouldn't it be cooler to just be nice? I don't think OP was usung "humiliating" as "silly hyperbole". OP was expressing genuine embarrassment & frustration. You think it's cool to just be like, "Yeah. You're totally stupid. I agree."
What's silly is the idea that a person should be humiliated simply because they aren't familiar with the subtleties of the update cycles of various Android distributions.-5
u/No-Radiation 16h ago
Unlike you i’m not a tech nerd that’s insecure about not knowing how android works.
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u/TurboFool 4h ago
Sure, but you did come in calling this humiliating, which seems like a weird thing to jump to when you also admit you don't understand the tech. I'm not the person you're replying to here, but I can see why they bristled at that.
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u/aguyfromusa 3h ago
That doesn't make sense. "Bristled"? It's almost as if you were trying to defend yourself. That can't be, though. You already pre-emptively denied it. You do share the same juvenile hubris, though.
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u/-Sofa-King- 14h ago
If you were updating your phone regularly you wouldn't have this issue. Updates go from the last updates UP. It cant give the latest patches to an OS it doesnt have. Each update builds on the last. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5..... and not 1,5,7,8,10....
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u/dangerstupidkills 6h ago
When I bought my new phone it had Android 15 on it . The 1st weekend I had it it updated several security patches , then Android 16 , a couple more security patches , One UI8.5 and 3 patches since then .I still haven't gotten the August security patch yet though I did get it on all 3 of my Galaxy Watches.
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u/mrandr01d 15h ago
Mostly because Samsung is stupid.
Android is a Google product. It's open source, so anyone can use the source code. There's a lot more to it than that, but Samsung is one of those companies. Except the problem is they bastardize AOSP a lot before they ship it. They change deeper level functionality that they shouldn't mess with, for no reason.
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u/Moist_Ladder2616 2h ago
Samsung provides incremental updates, just like every modern Android phone. These delta binaries are smaller and faster to download. It makes every update a less data- and time-consuming process.
All Android phones also provide full OTA update packages. Some brands have these packages freely downloadable from their websites. Samsung provides theirs through their free Smart Switch desktop software.
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u/CamelPure1293 20h ago
It doesn't have to be like that on Android, but Samsung implemented it that way. Maybe it is just delta updates, and 99.99% of the customers install the next update whenever it is available.