By If you are among the many loyal HTC Hero owners in and around the UK, you no doubt have had your fair share of ups and downs waiting for the promised update to Android 2.1 We are now receiving reports that areas including the UK, the Netherlands, and Sweden are all seeing instances of Hero handsets being pushed the update. We even have word from Serbia that the update is rolling out. The guys over at CoolSmartPhone provide that little bit of “seeing is believing” proof for skeptics.
And while this is an OTA update that will be pushed to your phone (if it hasn’t check for a system update in the Settings menus), a reader has uncovered the image file for download directly from HTC. The wait is finally over! Install and enjoy, and be sure to let us know what you think!
[thanks to everyone who sent this in!]
Recieved 2.1 OTA on an unbranded Hero on O2 in the UK about 2 hours ago, and it is awesome!
Easy update, kept my apps, data and settings, just lost my Scenes… no big deal.
So much faster than the 1.5+apps I had earlier, sweet!
ps. Pauses during installation at 75% but wait it’s okay.
Just FYI:
IF YOU HAVE ROOT DO NOT FLASH THIS AS IT WILL WIPE IT AND YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO ROOT AGAIN!
If you don’t have root flash away…
You also need the part 1 to install part 2
OMG I got this in Sweden. The whole Europe is being updated! I hope.. Will it wipe my phone?
Can this go on a T-Mobile G2, or will it only work on a non network branded Hero?
JUST GOT IT ON UNBRANDED HANDSET ITS AWSOME!
Gave up on htc long ago. Had root 2.1 for months now and I’m not exactly a computer wizard just followed the guides. Nearly got froyo by the time htc got 2.1 here. Great phones, terrible service.
Also here in italy the update has been pushed. I’ll wait till wednesday (exams till that date) and i’ll flash.
It’s strange to me that is only 80 mb…
No one I know in the uk with a G2 has even received their 1st update.
This will wipe your phone. This may not work on a G2 because of your CID (ie you may have to wait for T-Mob) Unless you goldcard (www.roothtchero.co.uk/goldcard-2)
Just downloaded via OTA. Out of box has completed after 15 min of activity.
Rebooting…
and again…
HERO looks logo looks the same..
HTC flash screen…
green progress bar…
another 5 min wait…
you little beauty
colour background…
more updating.. 3 min
well worth the wait
Has anyone got this on Hero Orange? And if not, should I just download the file to a some random folder and execute the install thingy?
@SithSurfer
Hero on Orange will not work, I guess.. maybe I’m wrong. The phone might block the update if it’s wrong. Or it might brick the phone. Happy testing!
Downloaded in UK after running the update checker on the phone which appeared as an option after first update.
It installed within about 15 minutes and a couple of self reboots. Strangely it did not wipe the phone, any contacts, installed applications. so it went in as more of an upgrade. Impressed so far.
yep, update just finished! http://ajgago.wordpress.com/2010/06/28/breaking-news-android-2-1-now-available-for-european-htc-hero/
Funny, I just did the update and it actually did not wipe mh whole phone.
The widget/shortcuts were all out of place, the selected wallpaper, lockscreen background had been reset but all my downloaded programs were still there and my phone was already configured to access the internet in my home network over WiFi. I was already logged in to my Google account, etc…
In any case: Yay !!
@Wello – cheers buddy, feeling better already ;) I’ll wait for some Orange folk to do this first ;)
Updated in Netherlands.
After the update, it seems that applications, settings, SMS, contacts, bookmarks, and mail accounts are intact… probably still a good idea to back up first.
Absolutely painless, took around 30minutes in total including download.
Anyone know what I need to do once I’ve downloaded the file from htc as above?
Got mine UK unbranded…still not fixed my WiFi issues all of you users currently using WiFi at home sucessfully please let me know what router you are using so I can buy one…cheers
I’ve got the first update but nothing so far for the 2.1 OTA :( tmobile g2
Any clue whether this update will reach little old Ireland?
Once again orange customer left behind update not available to us yet! This Is a joke! We didn’t even get the interim update yet! Come on orange pull yer fingers out!
has anyone used the updated file as listed above?
@craig – I’ve got a cheap Netgear and it works brilliantly apart from loosing connection from time to time.
Update in progress… on OTA
French Guiana :)
TELUS needs to step up and get this.
hello I comes from sweden and I got andorid on my htc hero phone now:) I am verry happy:)
hello I comes from sweden and I got andorid 2.1 on my htc hero phone now:) I am verry happy:)
Anyone on 3UK got it? How do I check for updates? I got one of the first Heroes from 3UK and I suspect it is unbranded, how can I confirm? Help please!
Anybody in the world have a clue what’s going on with three? Starting to think I’m the only person with a hero on 3.
Up and running on 2.1 on Hero in Norway! :)
@ Craig – I just swapped my router, since I was only getting a few seconds connection before it dropped out for a couple of minutes, then another few seconds of connection. Old router was a Huawei HG520b as supplied by TalkTalk. New router is faultless – a Cisco / Linksys WAG120N.
@G: It’s two of us. I can’t even check whether there’s an update!
@ceppm, same! but apparently we need the first update to get that?!
It’s such a vicious circle, god forbid three or htc would shed a little light on the situation.
HTC Hero G2 – T-Mobile
had the preupdate, installed ok,
no full 2.1 update here though…
:(
A
Cool – how do you get the first update?
I phoned Orange UK last month asking about the update, they said it was nothing to do with them as its Google OS ie they know nothing about it and are having nothing to do with it!!!???? She said it would just come from Google.
Also on 3. No info whatsoever. Pretty annoyed. Anyone tried the Image that’s linked in the post?
cork, ireland: works on o2 pre-paid. progress bar stopped a few times for a few minutes in a few places. also long delay after entring SIM pin.
Make sure your battery has reasonable charge before starting upgrade.
Received the update this evening by asking the phone to check for updates. took 15mins. no data wiped but homescreens changed, easy to add widgets back on as normal. great new interface. loving google goggles!
Happy 2011!
Ran 2.1 update on unbranded no problems. Also have a g2, have done first update. but no 2nd update available. Downloaded the link but no idea how to run it, and don’t fancy rooting after waiting this long. Anybody done it on g2 yet?
Will this work on the Canadian HTC Hero since it’s the same as the European version?
If you have the first update install (one from a few days/week ago) then you will have a new menu option in settings…about phone regarding software updates. Go to that and you can do a manual check (Check Now) and it should find the 2.1 update.
If you haven’t had the first update then forward the date on your phone manually about a week.
This probably won’t work for branded phones until your provider releases the update.
Damn, so they die eventually keep their Q2 promise.
Well, I’m sticking to Stickman now. Think 2.2 is a lot closer by with root than with htc updates. However, not impossible, the only word we have is that of a Sprint rep isn’t it? Or did htc confirm not upgrading any further?
will this work on sprint hero?
I’m on 3 UK, tried to clock trick to no avail. I doubt their service as it is pretty bad though I would be annoyed if I am stuck with 1.5 forever!
Hello… it’s after 9pm here in the East Coast US. My phone is updating as we speak. It is an UNBRANDED phone that I purchased from the UK. I also have an ORANGE branded one, but I did not get any updates (first or second one) yet on that unit.
It takes a while (mine is still not done yet). Also, I set the date forward a year before checking for the update (not sure if that did anything) as a precaution.
Worth the wait I guess, I was about to buy a Nexus One because I was tired of waiting. By the way, looks like Android 3.0 will be the new standard, no more sense-UI no more waiting on HTC. Hope it’s not another rumor because I would love to get over 2.2 at some point without having to mess up my phone.
Anyone knows how to install it manually?
I’m on 3uk, I phone customer services to find out what going on, I was told to download the generic update (part one) on the htc Europe website. Will try it tomorrow when I get back from work.
Am downloading the update in Singapore! Was very envious of you guys in Europe, so I used the same trick of forwarding my date to August. And I received the notification…
Just received and installed the update on my HTC Hero (Netherlands Vodafone) Installation went painless, and everything seems to work fine. But I have something strange, I can see the addresses from all my contacts as links to google maps, but when I want to edit them, all my address fields are empty. And when I edit them ones in gmail, and synch them again, the address appears, but only on the first line (street). Does anybody else have this problem? And is there a solution for it to fix?
Many thanks..
As soon as someone has this on their HTC HERO on the ORANGE network, please post here. No update for ORANGE so far it seems, might have to debrand my handset at this rate! Come on HTC release update for all networks! Thanks.
OK just spoke to Orange UK who reckon they will be pushing it out within 3 days, of course they said within 1 month last week but as 3 days is within 1 month we could be nearly there, Of course I don’t see it happening till August!
I debranded my phone from Orange to generic, update applied flawlessly.
What wasn’t so flawless is the SIM locks kicked in and I now get to wait for Orange tech dept to phone me back who will probably tell me to do one as I flashed non Orange firmware.
So back to Orange 1.5 for me this afternoon no doubt, but will try get a proper answer from them as to when I can expect 2.1.
I just scrapped the custom rom I was running and re-installed the standard HTC cupcake version.
As soon as I hit my wifi, I got the first update and once that was done, the other one immediately initiated.
On a side note, this didn’t wipe all the bits on my phone either!
UK sim-free hero now (officially) upgraded!
“stormrider812”
The answer is no!
@stormrider81 I thought Sprint Hero got 2.1 months ago?
So, I’ve downloaded the image that’s in the link in the post. Do I have to rename it to update.zip, copy it in my SDCARD and wipe applying update.zip or how do I do this?
Chris, exactly the same thing happened to me. Was sweating about whether I bricked the phone and was going to call tech support. Instead I unlocked on-line. Will look out the website if you are interested. Cost about £18, but well worth it to get 2.1 and not be reliant on Orange for updates.
One thing was I couldn’t link up to my Google account afterwards, but read this was a common problem and did a reset to factory defaults and all is ok.
I’m using an unbranded Hero on O2 in the UK and still haven’t receieved the prepatory update, let alone 2.1. Have tried numerous things including enabling GPS, changing the date forward and rebooting, etc but to no avail.
http://www.htcheroblog.com/2010/06/29/3-uk-not-getting-android-2-1-hero-update-till-mid-july/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed:+HtcHeroBlog+(HTC+Hero+Blog)&utm_content=Twitter
3uk not getting it until mid july… whoppeee :/
@mike so just to check you paid £18 to unlock the phone then the updates came ota or did you download it from somewhere?
can you tell me who you used for unlocking, I keep being quoted £30 and 7-10 days
Anyone know how I get the FriendStream working after the 2.1 update? Or if it has even been included as a feature with this update?
Thanks.
G2 users who haven’t received the first update:
I’ve contacted T-mobile about this and they say (after MUCH prompting):
“I’d like to tell you that HTC has released the software but our technicians are testing it so that it doesn’t clash
with the services we provide”
Bizzare that some users have already received it (though I did read about yellow triangle issues, so maybe they released then withdrew!)..
We’ll see when T-mo get their act together on this, nevermind the second update!
@Mike Orange gave me 2 unlock codes though I suspect I needed something else. Waiting for a call back from tech support but will believe that when it happens.
@sithsurfer
@richuu
Thanks for the response I too am on talktalk with a huawai h520 router that drops connection every 5 mins or so – I will check out the wag120n
G2 T-mobile owners – bad news. Just had a tweet from the helpdesk at T-mobile and part 2 of the update won’t wont out until mid July. Great phone, bad on updates.
Come on T-mobile, why does it take so long to roll out the update.
just spoke to 3 uk and they said that HTC and them selves are working together to roll out the update as soon as they can there seems to be a problem with 3s app store plus i believe the update will be downloaded not over the air.
I sent an email to 3UK on Monday, on Tuesday they gave me a call to answer, I missed the call so I called back. The girl who answered me, pretty much, didn’t have a clue what I was talking about. She gave it away when I asked about an update for the Hero, she put me on hold for 5 mins and came back to tell me the Hero had a system version 2.7.
I then explained to her that she was talking rubbish and she didn’t have a clue what she was saying (with nicer words) and she took offence. She said she was going to investigate and call me back in 24 hours… those are long due and she hasn’t called back so I pretty much assume 3UK doesn’t have an answer.
Tired of waiting so this weekend I’m rooting. That’s it.
After going on the Market place I received a message saying a ROM update was available. I Okayed the update request which started OK, at the end of the installation process there were problems, It was saying I needed to make some space on the SD card, which I did. The install continued, then restarted, eventually showing a triangular error icon beside a phone! This stayed like this for some time, about 45 minuets, I decided to pull the battery, after powering up it shows the Hero logo and does nothing else?
I am in the UK but I bought mine in Hong Kong. Apparently I have to wait until Hong Kong issues the update. However, I did what several people have suggested and moved the date to August and immediately received the update.
I’ve just got the pre update on T-Mobile. All went fine – took about 10 minutes. Phone is noticeably faster already, so I’m hoping for even bigger improvements with 2.1! Woop!
2 weeks? Not long.
Hero – Vodafone – UK
Installed last week (by setting date on phone fwd 2 weeks).
Install fine, all settings remained :D
but…
2 days later, all data settings mysteriously wiped??
Mostly eventually restored (grudgingly by vodafone).
Can’t connect to Gmail now though – seem to remember you had to do this first, or the phone would never connect.
Not sure what to do now… need gmail connectivity badly!
Would a reset restore to the 2.1 upgrade? or back to old 1.5 setting? anyone know?
Greece has been updated since last week OTA. You don’t need to wipe it keeps your apps and settings you just loose the shortcuts on home screens.
i have a uk t-mobile G2 and am still on 1.5 and dont no how to update it im not very phone savvy and dont no how to get around this any help would be great please
Move your date forward, Lauren. Press menu – date & time – turn off auto time from network – move date forward a few days, and it should pick it up for you. When its finished, just turn auto time thing on again. Simples! :)
I have a T-mobile G2, after needing to reflash last Novembers ROM upgrade I got the first package yesterday and after searching for software I now have 2.1! And it seems to work just fine…….
My notice of an update came today (11-Aug’10) – screenshot as above – little delayed, but almost excited about it now…
(HTC Hero from Orange, UK)
Amazing. Reckon it was worth the wait for the official update as: all my settings / program data has been kept, :-)
A refreshed (and perhaps a tiny bit faster) phone, cheers
I have just received a new OTA update to my Orang UK Hero that I updated to 2.1 last year. Yesterday after accepting the OTA update it has been trying to download this 3.7MB update eversince and rebooting wont cancel it. Is anyone else experiencing this. I am outside of the UK now with an unlocked phone.