Stories about short software/ security updates as barrier to repair?

Right to repair: policy & activism
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Hi all,

I’m guesting on a Which? podcast next week about the length of software updates for smart products.

It’d be great to get some input from the community to bring this issue to life.

Is anyone seeing an increase in smart products being brought in to repair cafes - and challenges fixing them because of software?

Also any anecdotes about products that have failed prematurely because of software, and whether they were fixed or not would be brilliant.

Thanks,

Fiona

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Hi Fiona,
One that’s just bitten me is that my Android phone (only a few years old) has recently started refusing to do contactless payments (see popup below).

The popup is a total lie: my phone isn’t rooted and all the software on it is from the Google Play Store, so Google and/or the vendor have somehow broken contactless payments with a software update :angry:.

Cheers,
Dave.

Screenshot_20240718-165639
Screenshot_20240718-165639592×642 40.4 KB

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Hi Fiona, this can go in anecdotal stories, as we would not likely see it brought in on repair events :face_with_hand_over_mouth:. I’m sure most have heard it but there is a new twist in the story:

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Hi Fiona,

I recently had a printer in that had done an automatic firmware update and then stopped recognising third party cartridges, that had previously been working.
https://talk.restarters.net/t/today-i-fixed-2024/19164/45?u=paul_lopez

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Hi Fiona,

We don’t see an increase as such but we see a steady stream of problems because of software. 2 examples.

  1. A laptop from Apple that could not install an HP printer because the laptop is apparently not updating anymore (I may be wrong, it could be something else, but this is the conclusion we came to). Not fixed.
  2. an older ipad that won’t turn on anymore because “activation server is temporarily unavaiable” all the time. Not fixed.
  3. iphones that don’t properly because of no more updates - I guess that’s a pretty well known issue but we do see this regularly. Not fixed.
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Thankyou!