12th April 2016, 4 min read

Upgrading from OxygenOS 1.0.3 to 2.1.4 on the OnePlus One Smartphone

This short guide describes how to upgrade your OnePlus One Smartphone from OxygenOS version 1.0.3 to 2.1.4. In this case the initial version of your OS is of no relevant importance -- you can also upgrade from version 1.0.0, but see Installing OxygenOS 1.0 on the OnePlus One Smartphone and Upgrading from OxygenOS 1.0.0 to 1.0.3 on the OnePlus One Smartphone.

Before start we need adb and fastboot. On ArchLinux these programs are in android-tools:

pacman -Syu android-tools

Copying the OS image to the phone takes almost three minutes.

adb devices

time adb push OnePlus_Bacon_OxygenOS_201601190107.zip /sdcard/
4842 KB/s (767726302 bytes in 154.821s)

real    2m34.909s
user    0m0.007s
sys     0m0.683s

Upgrading from OS 1.0.3 to 2.1.4 is apparently not possible by using TWRP. OxygenOS 2.1.4 for the OnePlus One says

Please note you will lose all your data. Also, do not try to flash this build through TWRP. You will most likely lose your radio and IMEI which means a trip to our customer support.

The following list of commands was extracted from [MAC] Flashing OxygenOS 2.1.4 on OnePlus One (dead link):

fastboot devices
fastboot oem unlock
fastboot reboot
fastboot devices
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
fastboot flash aboot emmc_appsboot.mbn
fastboot boot recovery.img

The above mentioned files recovery.img and emmc_appsboot.mbn are in Mac Package (dead link) and can be extracted by 7z; the files are located under the sys subdirectory.

mkdir onePlus
cd onePlus
7z x ../OPO2.1.4_Patch_Mac.zip
find . -ls
 55051453      4 drwxr-xr-x   3  un  gn     4096 Mar 31 15:50 .
 55051457    188 -rwxr-xr-x   1  un  gn   189440 May 13  2013 ./fastboot
 55051456   6388 -rw-r--r--   1  un  gn  6538856 Mar  3  2015 ./AndroidFileTransfer(OSX).dmg
 55182739      4 drwxr-xr-x   2  un  gn     4096 Jan 22 07:57 ./sys
 55182742      4 -rwxr-xr-x   1  un  gn       31 Jan 22 07:45 ./sys/bs.sh
 55182747    188 -rwxr-xr-x   1  un  gn   189440 May 13  2013 ./sys/fastboot
 55182743      8 -rw-r--r--   1  un  gn     6148 Jan 22 07:45 ./sys/.DS_Store
 55182740    448 -rw-r--r--   1  un  gn   457632 Jan  7 07:31 ./sys/emmc_appsboot.mbn
 55182749      4 -rwxr-xr-x   1  un  gn       46 Jan 22 07:36 ./sys/br.sh
 55182746      4 -rwxr-xr-x   1  un  gn       35 Jan 22 07:30 ./sys/ub.sh
 55182744      4 -rwxr-xr-x   1  un  gn      105 Jan 22 07:36 ./sys/ra.sh
 55182748   1228 -rwxr-xr-x   1  un  gn  1256228 May 13  2013 ./sys/adb
 55182745  14584 -rw-r--r--   1  un  gn 14934016 Jan  6 10:56 ./sys/recovery.img
 55182741      4 -rwxr-xr-x   1  un  gn       34 Jan 22 07:15 ./sys/dc.sh
 55051455      4 -rwxr-xr-x   1  un  gn     1115 Jan 22 07:44 ./All-in-One.sh
 55051454   1228 -rwxr-xr-x   1  un  gn  1256228 May 13  2013 ./adb

In above listing adb and fastboot are Mac executables!

With all these prerequisites boot into OnePlus recovery (power-button and volume-down pressed) and proceed as follows (as given in [MAC] Flashing OxygenOS 2.1.4 on OnePlus One (dead link)): · Select the language of your choice · Select “Wipe data and cache” · Select “Wipe data and cache” again · Select “Yes” · Select “done” · Select “Install from local” · Select the OxygenOS zip that you downloaded and copied before. · Select “Yes” · Click “Install” · Select “Yes” · Select “Reboot” · Select “Reboot” again

I exercised "Wipe data and cache" three times. Only the last exercise was a success. The previous wipes just booted into my "old" OS. I have no idea why this happened. Sometimes perseverance pays off.

OxygenOS 2.1.4 features:

1. Android 5.1.1
2. 3.4.0-perf+OnePlus@ubuntu-56 #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Jan 19 01:15:39 CST 2016 armv7l GNU/Linux
3. A0001_12_160119 build number

See screenshot with the versions:

So far my experience after two weeks of usage is positive: the phone works flawlessly. Battery life is as before, i.e., the battery lasts for one day.

Unfortunately the problem with SIP got even worse: You could not call outside with OxygenOS 1.0.3; now you cannot even get called and have acceptable voice. The VoIP functionality in the phone is now completely broken. For "best" results I used:

1. Make calls with: Ask first
2. Use SIP calling: For all calls

See screenshot in "Phone account settings" menu: If you rely on VoIP this OxygenOS release is not for you, or you have to install a separate VoIP app.

What is striking when you go to the settings menu is the so called "dark mode", which I switched off:

There is a new "Shelf" application from OnePlus which I first did not activate during initial configuraton, but later activated, just to see what it does: "Shelf" is somewhat similar to Google Now cards but less fancy.

MKBHD makes some comments on OxygenOS 2 in his review of the OnePlus Two, starting at about 10:00:

Added 15-Jun-2017: Henrik Binggl commented on this post in "Flash my OnePluse One with OxygenOS 2.1.4 over existing CM13".