By 
The Motorola Milestone is chugging along while the Motorola Droid falters, at least in terms of Over-The-Air updates. Last week Milestone users were able to plug up their devices and grab an updated 2.1 ROM and now that process has gotten even easier – a 2.1 OTA has been made available. At least that’s what some forum members are reportedly receiving.
There are anxious Droid owners who probably feel like they’re passing a kidney stone after having the Droid launch first and seeing Milestoners grab the live-wallpaper, 9-homescreening, voice-to-text everywhere-having 2.1 update with little effort. If you’re still waiting for it you can always do the manual download, but this is good news for Milestone owners across the board.
Hey you, Milestone owners, have you gotten your 2.1 OTA yet? Time to faithfully refresh that About Phone > Check For Updates section every 10 seconds!
Hey, good news…
but for the moment the update server do not respond anymore…waiting to be @t home to do the manual update with motoralo tool !
I can’t wait to see if their phones start having problems cause almost everyone on Google’s Nexus One “Support Forums” thinks that all the 3G and Touchscreen problems are a software problem. I guy wrote yesterday that HTC said it was a hardware problem with the Nexus One that could be fixed with an OTA, I am still waiting because I just got a new replacement and within the first 2 minutes my new phone already had the same problems as my old one. Also HTC said they check every phone for problems before they send it to you, some people have gone though 6 so I call bullshit. Phandroid should do a story on this I know there are a lot of people in the forums that would gladly give you all the information you need so you don’t have to read through 5,000 posts.
No OTA update and no Motorola Software Update for Milestone yet (UK, Expansys).
2.1. only in a few places at the moment.
The UK IS NOT one of those places.
I am getting a message along the lines of cannot connect to server so am unable to check if there is an update or not! (UK – T Mob)
and that is exactly why I haven’t bought a nexus one yet. it is also really sad that it has a sub-par display and multitouch issues. why can’t they include a multitouch display that at least matches the iphones.
What about the Telus Milestone? Is that included? If I use the published SBF will I lose 850Mhz 3G in the US?
Zed I get the same message with T-Mobile in the UK.
Very frustrating to see the update is out but not in the UK.
As a Droid owner I think this is bullshit. We have been waiting for 2.1 since they said it would be released “soon” like within a few days. This sucks.
No OTA update for the german milestone as of yet (I live in Denmark)
I wonder what would happen if a Droid tried to use that manual download….. Hmm. I’m sure someone will dare to soon enough.
Anyone tried the manual update link yet from the UK??
If you are on verizon, just root your phone. Install whatever you want and quit complaining about the lack of ota updates. The custom roms generally work better as well .
I have rooted, but how stable are the custom roms? I want to be able to do everything that the official one will be able to do.
I really hope they get it soon.
No sign of OTA update for me, I am a Canadian Milestone owner on Telus.
Please keep us posted with comments people!
Fingers crossed!
I was wondering the same thing Mark is. Has anyone tried the manual update? Im tempted, but kind of hesitant.
As for rooting my Droid, Im tempted, but I dont know that I want/ need all that control over my phone…
Did I miss something? Did the original post say 9 screens, or am I just going crazy. I thought the droid/milestone update wasn’t going to get the added screens. Anyone want to shed some light on this for me?
Minja – for the most part more stable than the actual rom depending on which one. Cyanogen has a nice Droid rom from what I’ve heard. Worst that happens is you have to reinstall a new rom. most roms can’t brick your phone. it just adds extended functionality
Shouldn’t the droid get 9 homescreens as well as the Milestone. Its the same phone. I use Home++ now but I would really like that as a default option with live wallpapers and all the updates. The rumored specs never said how many homescreens, but we all know that the droid can handle it, because the milestone handles it well.
Depending on how they do their accounting, it is either now Q2 2010 or will be later this week and still no 2.1 update for Droid. 9 Home screens? Is there a way to turn some of those off? Or does it at least give some sort of helicopter view? I’ve been doing just fine with 3 and feel I could get some use out of 5, but I think I’ll just end up getting lost a lot with 9 (or double tapping Home a lot).
Also, people with 9 home screens, does it still use the 960×854 resolution wallpapers?
Wait… are you saying that 2.1 will come with 9 homescreens? I haven’t seen that info anywhere else. If so, that is sweet!
There will be an option to chose anything from 3 to 9 homescreens. But I’m speaking strictly about the Milestone and I have no idea about the droid. Cheers!
Aaaaaaahhhhh, what the balls!? c’mon!
What would happen if I tried to open the Milestone update on my Droid?
Am I seeing that I can install the update on my US Droid with that link to the firmware? Or am I just being ignorant?
I spoke with Verizon as I’m sure many people haveshe told me that some of her fellow employees have already got it but that’s hard to believe since not one confirmation has surfaced
Motorola is shooting itself on the foot with the release (or lack of) of 2.1 for the Droid. This will look very bad for future Motorola products. I love my Droid, but if Motorola will keep having these software upgrade issues with their future products, me as well as others will think twice on getting another Motorola product again. Even if there was a Motorola Droid 2, I will think twice about purchasing it.
Here in France, the update is available via moto software update. But no OTA so far.
what about DROOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOID?
The fact that the 2.1 update is happening all over the world apparently, on EXACTLY THE SAME PHONE, makes me think Motorola isn’t the problem for those of us using the Droid in the US. So, if it’s not Motorola, then who is it? Big Red, I’d wager.
I gave up on the OTA update, went to droidmod.org and installed their 2.1 version. It was scary at first, but was an amazing transformation for me. I have simce showed lots of others do the same.
It has 5 screens guys I know I’ve had a nexus one for 3 months.
So guys.. all day passed and no one said in a single comment that they got 2.1 t
oday, I say this is skeptical at least!
I have a rooted droid, still useing 2.0.1. will I still be able to get the over the air update if I’m rooted?
Motorola Milestone in Switzerland: Your system is currently up to date.
Last check: March 30 2010, 08h40 UTC+2
So not ready yet here…
@ryan OTA is not yet rolling in Germany. Apparently France started first and it will roll east from there.
The reason the OTA 2.1 for Milestone was announced is that our Motorola Phone Tool Updaters popped up telling us a new firmware for our devices is available. Also the 2.0.34 ROM’s for DACH are available now which means they are a small step ahead to the recent published 31’s. So OTA will happen in the next few days according to Motorola.
Cheers from germany
I got a milestone from the uk.I live in holland. still the same message, phone is up to date.
Dunno if anyone else feels this way too but I can’t help feeling that only N1 owners should get the latest and greatest updates since we’re the ones carrying the flagship device torch…
It’s like buying a Toyota Prius for $23,000 and then Toyota coming out with a hybrid kit for any car for free which seems to cheapen the N1 experience…
N1 owners are way more important than any random Hero, G1, or Droid customers.
We are the ones that carry Google’s flagship device and should be treated accordingly… compared to the other random devices that just have android on it and aren’t really Google devices.
So where is the Maual Update Installation Instructions?, and how stable is this manual update?
Hi!
No OTA in Sweden yet. Could people just please stick to the questions asked instead of askingt the same, over and over and over again.. Waiting answers from somebody who made the manual update.
The MILESTONE 2.1 update is now available for France Retail, DACH Retail (Germany Austria Switzerland), and Hong Kong Retail at the Motorola Software Update site:
http://direct.motorola.com/hellomoto/support/update/
still up to date, uk milestone user in holland.
And i thougt this was a milestone post, nothing to do with the n1:S
no one asked you for the comment, we only want to know if the ota update is released
The update is not available on German Milestone yet.
Still no update for German Milestone, I tried now.
same here still no udate for uk version
Still no OTA update for Brazilian Milestone
Germany DACH (unbranded) update availible via Computer-Udate
Germany O2DE (o2) update not availible
Germany VFDE (vodafone) update not availible
o2 rom should have been released on april 5… still waiting
Issues. Seen on EMEA Milestone with Android 2.1
1. Remove headset and music starts automatically.
2. Sometimes phone refuses to charge. Power off and
On and it starts charging fine.
3. Some have reported issues with Alarm Clock.
UK milestone,
Still waiting, they said it will be lauched before mid april, couple of days to go.
Expansys bough motorola Uk 12/4/10 update not available yet, it’s unveliable and a real pitty!!
No update… still waiting. German Milestone.
Hi,
If you connect your Milestone from the downloaded manual application from the Mororola site I am guessing you are seeing messages that there are no updates available even though people say that the update is available when updating the phone manually via the USB cable.
I can tell you that I am successfully running 2.1 on the milestone within the UK. I purchased the phone from eXpansys before Christmas. It is much smoother, quicker and so far I have had no problems at all with the update.
I will not post links, but I did the following.
1) Get a complete SBF for the European version of the Milestone (try googling “and-developers.com/motorola_milestone:sbf” top link).
2) Look for European 2.1 update SHOLS_U2_02.31.0
3) Follow instructions for flashing phone via RSDLite
Make sure you backup the elements of the phone you need to restore this will completely wipe the device and installed applications. I just did a backup of my text messages using ‘SMS Backup’ from the App Store and restored them afterwards. Contacts should be present in Gmail account if you use one.
It may also be worth taking note of the applications that you had prevously installed on the phone as you will also need to re-install them afterwards.
Please note that Motorola have not included the animated launcher in their ROM. They have done this for a reason as this application causes the phone to crash and reboot and they also claim for performance reasons. No matter what anybody online says, the following application draw launchers do not work on the Milestone:
1) Helix Launcher 2
2) App Launcher 2 from the NEXUS
3) ClockWorkMod Launcher (Droid version only)
Helix Launcher 1.2a from Apps store works fine on my device, but I prefer the standard one with NexusMod live wallpaper from the Apps Store.
Do any of this at your own risk, but this is working beautifully on my device and is 100% stable.
I have also seen reference to updating the phone from memory card on Droid-life via update.zip etc. I did not try this method, but this may be worth looking at if you do not want to wipe the device.
Also if Motorola have posted the update in the UK since 4th April I do apologise. One other thing, if this is the European version of the Rom, I have no idea if UK updates will work on this version of the Rom afterwards. This does not bother me as I tend to update my phones manually anyway, I have gone into the settings menu and done check for updates which returns none available which is a promising sign.
Regards.
UK Milestone update 2.1 available over the air. Finally.
Good to know! Finally as you say. I guess I could have waited a bit longer but impaience got the better of me. Same version from what I cn see to the one I downloaded.
Please note the applications that I mentioned above do not work consistently and there is not much point trying them yet. You will get random resarts and FC’s on the device.
Genie Wdget, Gallery 2.1 from Droid-Life seem to work very well however.
but this is build .31. I thought they would release build .34???
From the research I was doing .34 was the German build that people had simply mixed up on forums as a version to be released in the UK. At the end of the day if you look at the model number under that battery the phone available in the UK is the European version of the phone, hence I flashed with this version as recommended after doing a lot of research. For more information look at the following URL under section 2.1. This is the original source that I got the updated SBF for my Milestone about ten days ago. People that have not done their homework have flashed with .34 and wonder why the keyboard etc is no longer qwerty.
URL I forgot to paste!
http://and-developers.com/motorola_milestone:sbf
There is mention of .34 in the attached link and what appears to be APK downloads to switch between QWERTZ and QWERTY. Not sure why you would want to do this, but just a reference point.
http://www.droidforums.net/forum/motorola-milestone/31296-how-get-2-1-your-milestone.html
Thnx for the info about the build. I am new in the Android scene, jumped from winmo to Android. Love it.
I thought i seen something about the 31 build is the older version then the 34 build. didnt now its for germany. Anyway i dont update trough computer i only update over the air.
And the 3D style menu, what about that. Cant find it anywhere on the milestone 2.1. I still have the same menu and the same lockscreen as 2.01.
As I said above……
No matter what anybody online says, the following application draw launchers do not work on the Milestone:
1) Helix Launcher 2
2) App Launcher 2 from the NEXUS
3) ClockWorkMod Launcher (Droid version only)
These are the 3D style launchers. None of them work stably enough to run on 2.1 at the moment. Trust me I have tried them all. They apparantly left the launcher ou for performance related reasons. Live wallpapers do work, which is enough for me. If you feel strongly enough, look for Helix Launcher 2 v.07 Beta 2. I am testing this version which is fairy stable with some active wall papers. Do not run with the NexusOneMod Live wallpaper. The combination of the two seems letahl. Phone will randomly reboot all of the time.
I manually updated using RSD, all working fine. Couple of niggles, mainly CoPilot has a crashed screen, apparently that’ll take a while to sort?
Is this available OTA yet in the UK? Still can’t connect to servers on mine.
OTA still not available as far as I know in the UK. As stated in post 55 I also updated manually.
I am running Copilot downloaded from the Android market and it is working without any problems so far.
Nothing here for us in Canada yet :(
Canadian users, visit motorola’s webpage on your computer and download the update manually. Took me about 15mins to download and install, didn’t lose any data or apps, running 2.1 on a Milestone through Telus and it works great.
No official release in the uk yet:/
i’m on o2
If you are looking for a 3D style launcher, LauncherPro from the Apps Market is rock solid and remarkably smooth. This is the only stable 3D launcher I have found so for the Live Wallpaper/3D Launcher/Android 2.1 combination on the Milestone. Helix Launcher (V1) also works very well.