the recovery image did not start. Did you use the one from 4.5 or 4.6?
If I run fastboot boot hybris-recovery.img the prompt on windows exactly looks like the screenshot in the documentation, but the device seems to run a regular startup, but then ends with a black screen
4.5 as 4.6 wasn’t available during EA, did you flash both parts? boot_a and _b (Recovery Mode | Sailfish OS Documentation)
I have an XA2 Ultra, for that the documentation is different I think
recovery 4.6 doesn’t seem to work. Unfortunately I don’t have a copy of the 4.5 recovery, only 4.4. Can it cause more harm if I try a too low version?
In this state, you can only guess which version is on it. But since it definitely said “Sailfish could not be updated. Please try again later.” - I assume that I still have the previous version (4.5.0.25) active. Here on my hard disk I only have version 4.5.0.16. Would that also be a “forbidden” downgrade?
I figured it would be easiest to flash newly since I have a backup. The script ran through completely for 4.6 but then after restarting at the end it displays the device is corrupt and can’t boot with a red warning sign. Does this mean it is a permanent brick or is the 4.6 image broken?
Edit: I tried next to flash version 4.4 for which I found image on my PC, but this also lead to a non-booting state. Is there anything else I could try?
Update: I reverted to Android (8 lol) with Emma tool and was able to boot again. Then I retried to flash 4.6 and was successful (I guess the problem with flashing before was that I messed up the partition scheme)
New problem: I guess now the user is defaultuser and no longer nemo. What do I have to do to load my backup? Can anybody give me advice here? Thank you in advance
I have 44 packages? How to remove them??
You can create a symlink with this command
devel-su ln -s /home/defaultuser /home/nemo
that sounds not too complicated, but how do I create a symlink?
Edit: Thank you, should have read properly. I guess I need a restart after that. Or do I have to reload the backup once more?
Downgrading over-the-air is “forbidden” as it may break there system. Flashing an earlier release is okay. After that, over-the-air upgrade(s) bring the latest OS to the phone.
The warning about incompatible packages when starting an OS update may be a false one, unfortunately. System packages (e.g. qt5, kf5) should not be removed. The warning should be ignored in that case.
Using zypper requires root rights. Use devel-su to get them. After that, you can install/use zypper.
Fu*kit, I delete most of the packages… 
This problem is caused by this very bug that Jolla for years has been neglecting to fix.
ssu re is set to the new release version as soon as an OS update starts downloading. If the user then does not apply the downloaded update right away but quits the GUI updater, the device is left with the incorrect release version, which is the source of all those issues. Starting the update at some later time causes this very problem, i.e. request to remove lots of system packages.
See e.g.
Come on @jovirkku.
I know it’s Nordic midsommerfeast, and I am as drunk as anybody else 
, but there is several threads in forum saying that OTA update failed if not removing those packages and I’m actually one of the victims.
Upgrade failed, leaving those packages, but went smoothly through when removed.
The ones with opt prefix may cause issues, the ones without are system’s
OK, thanks for the clarification! I’m pretty sure there where none without opt prefix.
Try to load it again, if you end up with duplicates, then probably reset and load on fresh
I would like to try a restore according to these instructions (Link ) first and not flash directly. Would the hybris-recovery.img from the 4.5.0.16 image be suitable for this, even if I have 4.5.0.25 as the latest version?
If I had to flash, I would use the latest 4.6 directly. However, since I have backed up some accounts with 2FA, a restore would of course be worth a lot to me.
So this could also be my fault, because I also interrupted the update. But before I try your solution, I have to restore it somehow, as I don’t have access to the phone at the moment. Although this may now point to a higher repository, restoring the old image is probably the best method, but I’m taking my time and not doing anything up now.
I also changed the partition volumes years ago. This is not consistent when flashing, that’s true. But I would prefer a restore and I didn’t have your experience. It is still booting and the warning “No apps running” is also displayed in my German language (“keine Apps gestartet”).