OnePlus Kills Oxygen Updater App: No More Quick Updates

Updated (September 7): Updated information on OnePlus Policy + a workaround for the Oxygen Updater

OnePlus has been under fire yet again recently for bricking the OnePlus 9 and 10 Pro motherboards with software updates. The firm acknowledged the issue by speaking to The Hindu and said it’s “committed to resolving” it. However, the company seems to have taken a weird trajectory by ensuring no one can download the latest firmware update files for their OnePlus devices, temporarily killing a popular third-party app called Oxygen Updater in the process.

OnePlus seems to have pulled all the OxygenOS ROM/firmware files of all devices from their servers and rendered the Oxygen Update app useless for a whole day before the developer figured out a workaround. This left thousands of Custom ROM users on OnePlus devices stuck with their favorite third-party ROMs for a while.

It was first reported on the OnePlus 12 / 11 Series Telegram group that OnePlus is locking downloads via HTTP so that no third-party apps or users can download the firmware for OnePlus devices.

Is OnePlus Changing Its Policy?

According to Oxygen Updater developer, one of the reasons OnePlus has started preventing users from downloading firmware packages is because users were leaking closed beta builds. As a result, you will no longer be able to download the latest firmware for your OnePlus phone, unless you use the Oxygen Updater app, which has now been updated to version 6.4.0. Downloads seem to work again.

OnePlus changing its policy around downloading OTAs and full ROMs doesn’t bode well for a firm that started its journey with a Custom ROM and has always been in support of third-party ROMs.

It seems that OnePlus has started using user agents in browsers to prevent users from downloading ZIP files. A user agent basically tells the OnePlus server “Hey, I’m Firefox from a PC, can I download this?” to which the server that previously said “Yes“, now it says “Nope“.

The change made by the developer works because it serves the user agent the value of the default value that it accepts, allowing Oxygen Updater to download ZIPs with ease. That said, you can also use the same idea on a browser.

All you need to do is open Inspect > Network tab > 3-dots icon > More tools > Network conditions. Finally, uncheck the Use default browser option and enter the following in the text field below:

Dalvik/2.1.0 (Linux; U; Android 10; Pixel 3 Build/QQ3A.200805.001)

Now all you need to do is try downloading the update for your phone (e.g.: OnePlus 12R firmware) and it should start downloading right away.

What Does This Mean for Your OnePlus Device?

If you’re someone who always waits for a few weeks or months for the official OTA update to hit your device and doesn’t care about Custom ROMs, it doesn’t mean anything.

However, if you care about quick updates, updating Oxygen Updater to version 6.4.0 should allow you to download and install updates as soon as they’re available.

What are your thoughts on OnePlus axing third-party apps and preventing users from downloading firmware for their OnePlus devices? Let us know in the comments.