Android risks when upgrading from Gingerbread to Jelly Bean?

[SoupOrMan]

I'm very tempted to see just what can be done to upgrade my current phone firmware (Samsung SCH-I510/ Droid Charge). I'm currently running Android 2.3.6 and can't seem to find if it's worth the risk to upgrade it to 4.1 or above. Google hasn't been completely helpful with bringing me information on such endeavors so I thought I'd ask here. Can the upgrade be done on an older phone like mine, and what are the chances of bricking said phone?

[SoupOrMan]

Risks? Same as any device that you're doing a major OS upgrade on.

The real question is, is there a build for you.

Droid Charge... Maybe Cyanogenmod?

Just checked... nope...

There is an official jellybean 4.1 rom from Verizon, apparently pushed as an OTA... that should be as little risk as is possible for an OS upgrade... but that was released over a year ago... how did you not get that yet?

I have no idea, but it stopped at 2.3.6.

[SoupOrMan]

To make it more fun, Verizon's site hems and haws about it.

[SoupOrMan]

That's why I was wondering if it would be possible. Every time I check for updates the phone tells me that none are available.

[SoupOrMan]

2.3.6

There have also been questions about whether or not the Droid Charge has the memory needed to run Jellybean that I've been seeing in old Android forum posts. Some say it's too big to run, others say it's okay to run.

[Greg]

2.3.6

There have also been questions about whether or not the Droid Charge has the memory needed to run Jellybean that I've been seeing in old Android forum posts. Some say it's too big to run, others say it's okay to run.

Well that's the Android version you're running. The build number is something different, it's the identifier of the particular OS image your phone is loaded with. Being able to identify specific OS images is often useful...

There appears to have been a new update this year:

http://phandroid.com/2013/03/19/droid-c ... p8-update/

(you should be able to tell by looking at your build number if you have this) but it's still Gingerbread, just with a few extra ICS-like features baked in.

Apparently a full blown 4.0+ build with TouchWiz is just too much for the devices storage:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Droid_Charge

(there was a lot of that going around in that time frame, with a lot of devices never getting past Gingerbread due to a lack of resources - RAM and especially internal storage. Happened to my G2)

[SoupOrMan]

I've got I510.FP8 which looks like it's the last build, then.

[SoupOrMan]

Well, I'm definitely glad I didn't try anything like upgrading to Jelly Bean on my phone. It has started it's own death spiral early this morning. The phone is constantly powering off, and when I do get it to turn on, it's reset itself to factory defaults....

The phone is pissing me off something fierce.

[Greg]

Well, I'm definitely glad I didn't try anything like upgrading to Jelly Bean on my phone. It has started it's own death spiral early this morning. The phone is constantly powering off, and when I do get it to turn on, it's reset itself to factory defaults....

The phone is pissing me off something fierce.

I think it's trying to tell you something....

[SoupOrMan]

Yes. It's time for a new phone. The phone has reverted to default settings. My applications are still there, but when I try to open them I get an error that requires a force close for each one.

I can only imagine how much worse it would be if I'd actually gone ahead and attempted the upgrade like I wanted...