Products & Services

When things go wrong with updating your device software

By Charlie on 24 April 2008

It’s not fun if a device you cherish stops working after a software update. Unfortunately, this is exactly what happened to Amy Gahran.

Amy recently posted articles on her experience trying to recover her device after a failed software update. She upgraded her N95, which ended up incapacitated after the process.

We’ve been looking into this, contacting folks from Nokia Care and Nokia USA. We want to know what users are supposed to do to avoid these problems and what to do if it happens.

It’s great that we have these devices that can do amazing things. But that also means that if one comes back to us, say to get its software updated, then there might be a number of variables out of our control.

We try our best to make sure nothing goes wrong. And, for the most part, people agree that it’s safe to do software updates if done with care.

Still, as exemplified by Amy, there is always a chance that something will go wrong. In those instances, the Support Discussion Boards are a good place for info. People who’ve had issues with the firmware update have solutions for resetting the phone and some have tips on things
to avoid.

Beth Kanter has posted some things to keep in mind when updating, and she talks about her software updating experiences on her N95 site.

One more thing: Amy has written a bunch of other thoughtful comments about Nokia USA. We’re now trying to find out what is happening around those topics, and what we can do about it.

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Amy Gahran Says:
April 24th, 2008 at 6:08 pm

Charlie, thanks for raising this issue here. As I’ve written on my own blog, I really do want to see Nokia succeed in the high-end US phone market, mainly because I think your N-Series products offer the best potential so far to serve as an all-in-one mobile journalism/blogging tool. I know a lot of US journalists and bloggers who could use those tools RIGHT NOW. Getting those people what they need to do what they do is my core concern, because we need the info they produce.

So to clarify, this isn’t a “help Amy” thing. As much as I’d love a new N95, I know it would only lead to more frustration unless Nokia USA gets its act together on service and support.

I’m encouraged that Nokia seems willing to address this in public. I think the combination of your blog and discussion boards is a good place to focus this conversation.

What I’d suggest is that Nokia make it easier to track discussion and progress on its current US problems. For instance, why don’t you set up some issue-related categories on this blog (with their own feeds) called:
- Firmware updates
- US service/support
- US distribution
- US pricing

You could set up similar directories in your support forums to make these topic areas easier to track there. Currently, your forum offers a section on N Series and S60 devices (http://snurl.com/25m59), which is global and mostly technical. You also have a forum for software updates (http://snurl.com/25m5q)

But none of your forums have a US focus, and nothing about your service, support, and distribution issues

Categories and forum directories are powerful tools for focusing online conversations and communities aimed at consensus, collaboration, and problem-solving. Plus, they can be implemented quickly and inexpensively. Maybe focusing this conversation would be a useful first step toward both building goodwill with the high-end US market, documenting progress and setbacks, and making improvements happen.

It might even be worthwhile to start a separate blog for US N-Series users aimed at engaging this community in enhancing the overall service, support, distribution, and pricing experience. I think if your potential market here was more aware of what Nokia is trying to do to solve these problems, and that their input counts, then together we might find solutions that could help Nokia succeed in this market.

That’s the nice thing about online media — there are always lots of options for collaboration, as long as your goal isn’t to control the conversation.

- Amy Gahran

Amy Gahran Says:
April 24th, 2008 at 6:28 pm

Also, to clarify, the point of my posts on Contentious.com about the N95 (http://urltea.com/34d9 and http://urltea.com/34db) were not really about difficulties with your *product,* as your post today might imply.

As I’ve said many times, I think your N95 product is fabulous. It’s definitely far superior to your main US competition, the Apple iPhone.

Rather, my point is that Nokia USA’s poor business practices (inadequate warranty, too-long service turnaround time that requires shipping, lack of local distribution and replacement, inconsistent answers from support, and too-wide discrepancy in pricing between buying from Nokia vs. other outlets like Amazon) are sabotaging your own efforts to gain headway in the US high-end phone marketplace.

Before high-end US consumers are going to trust Nokia enough to pay premium prices for your premium products, they need to know whether you’ll really be there for them if they need you. Frankly, right now it’s not clear whether you’re really serious about serving the high-end US market. With mobile devices, service (in every sense of the word) is at least as important as product quality. So far, Nokia USA gets a B- on product (it would be an A+ except for the firmware update problem), but you’re definitely flunking on the service front.

Nokia could fix its clunky and risky firmware update process (which *does* badly need fixing) and STILL not succeed in the US high-end market because of these larger problems. That’s the 800-lb gorilla in the room, and that’s what you really need to be handling — ideally with transparency and public engagement.

Antony Pranata Says:
April 24th, 2008 at 6:34 pm

Also… please make NSU works properly on Windows Vista. There have been some reports about problem on Windows Vista – http://www.s60tips.com/2008/04/20/nokia-software-updater-problem-on-windows-vista/

charlie Says:
April 24th, 2008 at 8:26 pm

@Antony I’m a Mac user and would love to have it working on a Mac, too. Alas, it won’t work on Parallels, so I keep a Windows XP box around for the updates.

charlie Says:
April 24th, 2008 at 8:37 pm

@Amy You rock. I forward (and be sure to follow-up on) your comments to the US and Care folks. I’ve had plenty of discussion with Care about how they can get deeper into interacting with customers. The Discussion Boards were way more successful than any of us expected and we’re elated with how they tuned out.

Also, in no way we want to (or can) control the conversation. As you say, it’s the transparency and engagement that are the ways to work here. And totally agree with your assessment of the kinds of fora we could work around.

But we don’t want to be the only place to have this conversation. I want the conversations to happen where they happen best.

For example, if Beth’s N95 site becomes a place for everyone (incl. us) to discuss things (or Darla’s or Howard Forums or All About Symbian), we’re fine with that. Indeed, there should be existing sources that all they miss is someone from Care to fill in the gaps. Right? Can we identify some of those? I don’t participate personally in gadget tips and tricks and discussions, so am not sure what are the ‘in’ sources.

There’s more than one way to skin this kitten (no offense to you as a kitten lover). So, let’s see what can be done.

Amy Gahran Says:
April 24th, 2008 at 11:52 pm

Thanks, Charlie

Yep, there’s definitely room to have this conversation in all kinds of places. However, if the goal here is to improve the situation for current and would-be US Nokia N Series users (and, from Nokia’s perspective, building trust and credibility in that market) it would make sense for Nokia to take a leading role in hosting this conversation. Not only does that look good for Nokia — it’s the logical place for people to look to have these kinds of questions answered.

alberino Says:
June 24th, 2008 at 4:45 am

In light of what has happened to me in the last few days, I find Amy’s comments spot on. My N95-3 shuts itself off every few days. Prior to shipping it to the service center, I was surprised to see that many N95 users have smiliar issues (and are frustrated with the “flash and return” response from Nokia), but the information is scattered over different forums (such as Howard forums). Does anyone at Nokia read those? My phone was back in 4 days, but it shut itself off 48 hours after arriving, even though the battery was charged. I buy cutting edge technology and don’t mind paying the premium, but did not expect issues with this phone since it has been out for a while. If I’m getting crappy support why would I try another Nokia product ever again?
Alberino