[Onetouch Idol 3 General] famewolf:
2015/10/07 The information below will be kept to help folks make backups and for linux/mac users to have some images to restore but if you have bricked your phone the recommended solution now is to install Alcatel's Mobile Q software version 4.9.2 or newer and use it to restore your phone to factory condition. Basically turn off the phone..plug it up to the pc via usb and run the software...it should prompt you from there. The link to download the software is here: http://alcatelonetouch.com/global-en/support/download/pixi_3_7_4g.html

*****Warning***** Recent updates from Alcatel have REMOVED the fastboot commands that allow root and custom recovery for some models of the 6039. Before updating read the details here: http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=3173598 and make sure the new update doesn't do the same!

You should also be aware that if your phone hangs on boot and you are rooted don't do a factory reset or you will lose adb access if you had it enabled which can be used to restore your phone

Table of Contents

Post #1: Intro

Post #2: Backup Instructions http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=62006344&postcount=2

Post #3: System Images http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=62006344&postcount=3

Post #4: Restore Instructions and firmware issues http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=62006344&postcount=4

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Folks, OTA updates for Lollipop check if your system has ever been mounted read/write (which is required to root) and if it has they do not allow the update to install. What that means is before you root you need to first go into fastboot and do a fastboot boot of TWRP (this boots twrp on your phone without installing it) then go into twrp and backup your system directory so you always have something to restore to if you want future OTA updates.

The bad news is that for folks who have already rooted, we need TWRP backups of the system partition for each model of the idol 3 BEFORE someone has rooted. 6045i, 6045k, 6045y...are there more?

If you have NOT yet rooted your phone and are willing to help out please post here with your model number(It shows in settings, about phone as Model Number). I'll add some instructions on how to take a backup then the backup needs to be uploaded online somewhere we can access it. The system partition is normally read only so it contains NONE of your personal information.

This paragraph from the TWRP documentation is taken from: https://twrp.me/site/update/2015/06/22/twrp-2.8.7.0-released.html

System read only option: Devices that ship with 5.0 and higher as their initial OS are using block level OTA updates. With this style of OTA update, the update script checks to see if the system partition has ever been mounted read/write. Further, the script also usually runs an SHA sum of the entire system partition to detect if any changes have been made. If any changes have been made, the OTA update will refuse to install. Since not all OEMs and devices have factory images available, we have created a new feature in TWRP that detects if the system partition has ever been mounted read/write. If not, you will be prompted asking if you want TWRP to mount system as read/write. If you choose not to allow TWRP to mount as read/write, TWRP won’t prompt to install SuperSU and TWRP won’t try to patch the stock ROM to prevent TWRP from being replaced by stock recovery. The goal of this option is to hopefully allow the user to make a raw system image backup that they can use to get back to a state where they can take OTA updates again.]

Here's an article that explains it better than I can: https://www.androidpit.com/android-5-0-lollipop-ota-update-fail

20150810 - Turns out all thats required to get updates at least for now is doing a FULL unroot. (That may not be the case with a major jump such as from 5.0.2 to 5.1.1)

Failure to do a full unroot can result in boot loops after applying updates that currently DO NOT HAVE A SOLUTION because the default recovery for the 6045i and 6045Y do not have the reboot to bootloader option that IS present in the 6045K and all models of the 6039 Idol 3. Thanks Alcatel!

An easier solution is to flash an already upgraded firmware if it is available. Canadian users have also found it useful to flash USA firmware (both have a 6045i) to get updates sooner than being released by the cell providers in canada.