FYI: LG Revolution Software Not Updating - Solution Found

[keger123]

For those of you that have not been able to get software updates over the air (OTA) (you get "No New Software Update Available").  I have a possible solution:

• You may need a new SIM card from the Verizon store programmed with your current phone number.

My wife, son, and I all got new phones late last year.  These came in the mail, so I had to go through activation with each, then get Verizon to change the preset phone number that came with 2 of the phones for my wife and I to have our old cell phone numbers.  All this was done at home OTA.

Apparently, this works just enough that you can use the phone with the new phone number, but then that new phone number shows up in the tech database, but little of the phone technical information is there, it’s all under the original phone number that was programmed into the SIM card.

Therefore, your phone will not get any automatic OTA updates, nor will you get any updates if you manually try to update OTA.  When the request goes out to the tech servers, the phone information does not match and/or is not all there, so no update.

Unfortunately, I had to figure this out after 3 days of talking with Verizon and LG tech support and many hours trying different fixes.  Only today when I called back in and was bumped up to a higher level tech support, as soon as I explained what I though was wrong, I was lucky enough to get a tech support person that new exactly what was happening.  She said the new 4G phones have SIM cards that are very much locked down, there is little they can do over the air without physically having the SIM card.  Once the phone numbers where changed, the phone number and some other account information appears in the technical database, but very little else, hence no updates.

When I first called tech support, and they had me try the remove the battery and SIM card, wait, put it back in, which did not work.  Then they had me go to the LG web site and download the mobile support tool, which would not ever "see" the phone, and LG tech support could not get it to work (even if it could find the phone, I saw other forums that said sometimes the software will update, other times the LG tool says your model is not supported and stops).  Lastly, they had me do a factory reset, which did not solve the problem.  Still V6, and no software updates found for the phone.

Yesterday, tech support said heck with it, and they mailed out a new phone.  Last night, I checked my wife's and son's phones, and found that my son's had updated, and my wife's did not.  The only thing different about the three phones was 2 of them had the phone numbers changed OTA from what was originally programmed on the phone.

It would have been nice if the other tech support people had known this, since when they pulled up the phone information, lots of stuff was missing.  Also, since this seems to be a common problem, it would be much cheaper for Verizon to fix the problem on their side with their technical database updating correctly when a phone number is changed, and not waste their tech support time and mine trying different "fixes" that won't work.  Also, not to mention the expense of Verizon mailing me a "new" refurbished phone, which I will need to take the time to mail back.

I'm looking forward to the software update, since my son has very little of the standard LG Revolution issues, like slow performance, freezing up and having to pull out the battery, the phone rebooting by itself 3 or 4 times per day, the battery suddenly getting really hot, so you have to pull the battery,etc.  They would be nice phones if they would only work right.

[vzw_customer_support]

Hello to you Keger123!

Wow, I can't express how much I appreciate your time and patience in all of this.  Changing out the sim card is at times a very valid troubleshooting step.  At this time it isn't generally the first thing we jump to, but if it's something that can better value our customers time I will absolutely send your feedback to our leadership!

Please let us know if this corrected the software update difficulties!


Thank you

MelissaM_VZW
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