Help needed with Motorola Back Flip!!

About three months ago I purchased two Motorola Back Flip's. (1 for myself & 1for my wife) Before I made the purchase I researched online at AT&T's forum as well as Motorola's forum. I knew that in order for this phone to do everything I would need it to do I would need the promised upgrade to the 2.1. However, even though the upgrades to the 2.1! I only purchased these phones because we were promised (like both of the forums said) would be available in just three days time. Well in three days time the upgrades were pushed back almost 6 months, however AT&T promised to give us the upgrades free of charge & that it would take 24 hours to send the upgrade links to our phones. Well obviously it didn't happen. We waited 3 days & called back & they said they were sorry but promised this time that they would be sent within 24 hours, well once again the same thing happened. Well to try & make a long story short, AT&T blames the push backs on Motorola blames them on AT&T! Now we're hearing they might not even give anyone with a back flip the much needed 2.1 upgrade. These upgrade allows you to have a flash player among many other things. We desperately need these upgrades! Other Android phones even AT&T phones have 2.1. If anyone can help me figure out a way to get this upgrade for our back flips it would be much appreciated. Btw this my first time on this forum so if this issue has already been addressed then if you could please send me a link to that thread I appreciate it. We really do like these phones but with the much needed upgrade they would be amazing. Thanks again for any help or suggestions, Byron "Myrl" Cagle

Welcome to the forums Myrlin.

Unfortunately, the problem you describe is nothing new. The backflip should be getting an upgrade to Android 2.1 in Q3 2010. Technically, that could be tomorrow, or today even. The update process starts with Google releasing the Android 2.1 code, then Motorola takes it, tests it, and makes it work on their phones. Then AT&T takes it, and makes sure it works on their network and what-not, testing it as well. What's more, NO ONE should have to pay for an Android OS upgrade, so AT&T's promise that it will be free of charge is true, but if they actually did charge for it, that would be absolutely ridiculous.

As far as I know, Android 2.1 for the Backflip has not yet been released, so you are not being excluded specifically. It is definitely bad business practice by AT&T to continually tell you the update will come out in a couple days time, and then not push it out, but the phone companies like to use qualifiers like "soon" and "in a few days" and "shortly" which can mean most anything they want it to. When did you call them and get these responses from them?

Unfortunately, just because other Android phone on AT&T have Android 2.1, doesn't necessarily mean that yours is ready for Android 2.1 as well. Each phone is different, and needs a slightly different approach to get the OS upgrade working correctly, so you are just going to have to tough it out until it gets released...

There is one last hope, if there is an Android 2.1 ROM, and a process to root your Android phone. Rooting is a process that basically allows you to do almost anything possible (super-user abilities). An Android 2.1 ROM for your phone would basically be a different phone's Android 2.1 OS software, but changed by third-party programmers to work on your phone. This whole operation requires a deep understanding of your phone, and a willingness to accept that if you mess up while rooting, the phone may become permanently broken, or "bricked."

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I searched quite a bit online last night for a 2.1 "leaked" ROM for the BackFlip with no luck.. just a lot of rumored release dates for the official ROM.. most of which have come and gone.

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Even if there was a rom, would it work with at&t's network? I've never rooted so i dont know, but wouldn't the custom rom have to be made to work with att. Didn't you say that motorola sends the rom to att after they update it for att to make their changes to it for their network?

It would work I believe, as long as the person has a backflip on AT&T and made sure it worked there. I don't think every phone's OS is tweaked by the carrier, but a lot of phones are.

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Yeah, and I think it depends on the carrier a lot too, most rooted roms I see are for sim-card carriers.

backflip has been successfully rooted: http://phandroid.com/2010/08/27/backflip-rooted-using-droid-2s-method/

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Android 1.5 will be as far as it gets for the Backflip: http://bit.ly/fQnWUr

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they wont be sending an over-the-air update for the backflip. however you can go to motorola.com and get 2.1 there. just follow the instructions. should take about 30 minutes from start to finish. no need to find a rom that some random person made. I've got a backflip running 2.1 and aside from the extra battery usage, was well worth the time it took to update it.

That's good. It is also contradictory from what Motorola themselves said. I wonder why they couldn't have mentioned that users can update their phone themselves...

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not sure why they haven't told anybody. it does make good business sense, though, because I am sure they are going to start phasing out the backflips, if they haven't already. but I will say this: even though my phone does work perfectly fine on 2.1, it just does not have the processing power to go any farther. so, my thinking is that's most likely why. I hope they do not phase it out because I absolutely love this phone. only improvements I would make to is would be a bigger screen and more processing power. other than that I love the design and versatility. with that said, I do like 2.1 over 1.5. I think its a great phone. im definitely going to miss it when it comes time to replace it.