The Chinese New Year delayed the company’s initial response
In 2022, Samsung may have taken the cake for delivering Android updates at an impressive pace after rolling out One UI 5 so quickly. Meanwhile, even Google struggled to deliver the January Play system update to the Pixel 6 and 7. Unfortunately, attempts by OnePlus to get its older flagships up to date with modern software have gone awry. The company had to halt the release of its latest OxygenOS 13 firmware upgrade for the OnePlus 9 series because some devices refused to boot after applying the OTA.
The stable version of OxygenOS 13, based on Android 13, originally rolled out to the OnePlus 9 and OnePlus 9 Pro in November. It was an incremental update after this that caused problems — version number LE2111_11.F.19 for the 9 and LE2121_11.F.19 for the 9 Pro. When these firmware patches began to roll out in late December, they prevented some phones from booting. A software team member in the OnePlus community forum has since advised that users should not install either of these upgrades.
The representative attributed the delayed announcement of this issue to Chinese New Year celebrations last week. OnePlus has already halted the rollout to limit the damage, but affected users can reach out to their nearest service center or use the OnePlus mail order repair service if a physical location is unavailable. The company promises to revert the changes with no data loss. If you were curious, the F.19 update included the January 2023 security patch, stability improvements in system apps, and bug fixes related to Quick Glance, the automatic brightness setting, and cellular connectivity.
While the software update is an immediate concern for thousands of OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro owners, the company is also saddling up for its OnePlus 11 launch. On February 7, the Chinese brand will also reveal a whole arsenal of products to the world — the new 11R, the company’s long-rumored tablet called the OnePlus Pad, its first mechanical keyboard designed in collaboration with Keychron, and the Buds Pro 2. Weekday blues may be a thing, but the coming weekend holds promise for OnePlus.
