[Samsung Galaxy Tab A series Questions & Answers] retiredtab:
@Schaagi, thanks for the feedback on the BETA image.

I will likely make another January 2021 T550 BETA image once the January security patches are released and open it to everyone after I do some initial testing of my own on the P550. This is assuming there are no problems with the 2021 January security patches and all the changes that go along with it. More on this later.

Just to give you an idea of my own build and test process as not everyone does the same for the roms they release. It's a long read, but something I will probably add to every FAQ in my rom builds in 2021 so people can understand and appreciate what it takes.

1. I test and verify each of my posted builds for basic functionality such as wifi, GPS, external audio, deep sleep, etc. For each working build that I post publicly, I probably have 30 builds that failed and will never share. They fail because of stuck at boot animation, boot loops, or some major functionality that doesn't work. Usually these problems occur when moving from one major Android release to another like 9 to 10. And yes, I'm having problems building Android 11 despite my efforts for the last 3 months with stuck at boot animation and boot loops.

Each build takes a minimum of 15 minutes if I'm lucky and sometimes a clean build takes around 10 hours. Most of the time, it's somewhere in between depending on what I need to change.

2. After I get an image that functionally works, I use that build for a couple days to make sure there are no random reboots or crashes. However, while it functionally works, I cannot test stability and reliability.

An example of stability is, I might use wifi for 2 hours with no problems, but someone else using wifi for 24x7 might run into memory leaks which causes the tablet to lockup or reboot.

An example of reliability is, I might use GPS once in my car for 20 minutes with no problems, but a food delivery person might use GPS 20 time a day and GPS might fail on the 21st time.

Stability and reliability are virtually impossible for me to test. This is where the BETA testers can help. Even then, my builds will never be bug free when you consider the scope and scale as I write below.

3. Monthly security builds include refreshing over 1,500 repositories, 70,000 files and probably over 1 million lines of code. Most of the time, the monthly build goes well and before I post a public image, I test each build for the same basic functionality. Again, I can't test stability and reliability.

For the P550, I was only able to make 2 public posted 16.0 builds because something changed in one of the 1,500 repositories, 70,000 files and probably over 1 million lines of code that caused the build to not boot properly. I tried troubleshooting for several weeks, but I gave up and luckily found another source where I can get a working 16.0 and 17.1 P550 build. So I spent a few weeks really testing my P550 before I felt comfortable to even begin asking for T550 BETA testers. For the P550 build, I probably made over 100+ failed builds.

Obviously, I can't test features that I never use or have access to. And there will always be someone who is going to be unhappy no matter what so that's why in all my FAQs I state that if you are unhappy with this rom, go back to the old one. Or they can build their own version as all the code I use is open source and all my fixes are documented, open source and free for everyone to use.