Hi everyone. Great to be a member of your community which I have just joined after purchasing the original Jolla phone. I am so excited to be aboard the Sailfish (after enjoying the Blackberry (BB10) for the last 6 years). The previous owner did a full factory reset on it. Can you give me some basic advice as to the first steps I should take when I turn it on for the first time. I would like to have the best experience with this phone and realise that I am at the tail end of the “fish” whilst many of you are up towards the head in terms of experience! Thanks.
First of all, set up your Wi-Fi connection and Jolla account, go to Settings -> Sailfish OS, check for updates and install the update, and keep doing this until you’ve finally installed Sailfish OS 3.4.0.
Then start configuring everything else, like accounts, applications, etc.
Enable installing software from third parties, then install Storeman from OpenRepos, which will let you access, well, OpenRepos, where you can find many more applications than on the Jolla Store.
Use Storeman to install Patchmanager 3, then go to Settings -> Patchmanager and take a look at the web catalog to see if there’s anything that interests you.
There are native Sailfish applications for many things, and there are alternative/improved applications to several of Jolla’s default applications. Feel free to ask if you’re looking for something in particular, because it’s not always easy to find if you don’t already know about it. Of course, you can also still run Android applications, although the amount of Android applications that still support Android 4.1 is dwindling by the day.
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Thank you for your clear and concise advice, Enough, I am sure, to get me started!
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I recently ordered my first phone with Sailfish OS and also need advice on the first steps, so I hope you don’t mind that I add some questions here:
- How can I move contacts from an old phone running Android to the new phone and what do you think is the best way? (Can I leave Google out of the process?)
- If I start with the free version of Sailfish OS and want the commercial version (to run Android apps), at what stage is it best to install the commercial version (what should I do first with the free version, will anything be deleted from the phone when installing the commercial version, etc)?
- Are there different ways to install and run Android apps and what would you recommend a beginner, in this case from Sweden? Like most people in Sweden, I would need Mobilt BankID and Swish (BankID and Swish (swedish users) - together.jolla.com).
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re 2: you can start with free and update anytime but …
re3: as you need android apps you need to switch to commercial
re 1: not sure, nextdev account ? or create a google account on phone, sync contacts down then disable account ?
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Re 1:
Simply send via Bluetooth (if not too many!)
Or create an export in VCF format of your phone book, transfer to Jolla (mail, Bluetooth, SD card…) and import it
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As for point 1, you should be able to export your contacts in most android versions as a VCF file and copy it over to your Sailfish OS phone and import it over there. I believe the contacts application prompts you the first time you open it to import your contacts, otherwise you can go to the Settings application → Apps → People → Import from contact file. On Android phones, I believe the option to export contacts is located in one of the overflow menus in the contact application, but I haven’t used one in a while.
If you’ve already synchronized your contacts to Google, you should be able to download your contacts from https://contacts.google.com/ and clicking the export button on the left if you do not wish to set up an Google account on your Sailfish OS phone.
If you already are synchronizing your contacts to a CardDav server, such as Nextcloud, Sailfish OS has built-in synchronization support for that as well. These can be added by going to the Settings application → Accounts → Add a new account.
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If you already got the information in Google Contacts just signing in from Setting syncs those. You can also leave all services out, or use a different one, I would recommend doing it manually like someone already suggested.
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Well the short answer is upgrade from the free as soons as you are ready. Because it gets you access to system upgrades. Nothing gets deleted, things just are added, but some chances you have made could make installing SailfishOS upgrades slightly unpleasant.
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Android apps can be installed in so many ways but this is what best works for me:
3.1a Get https://f-droid.org/ installed
3.1b Alternatively you could skip F-droid and microG going straight to https://files.auroraoss.com/AuroraStore/Stable/ (this I’ve never tested)
3.2 Add Download - microG Project as a F-droid-repo
3.3 Get GmsCore installed & working
3.4 Install https://f-droid.org/en/packages/com.aurora.store/
3.5 From that https://auroraoss.com/ client you get those Swedish and other Play Store apps you so desire
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Thank you all for helpful replies. Regarding my question number 1, I was on my old phone able to back up my contacts as a VCF file, which I could move my computer (where I could also edit it with a text editor). Next step will be to import the contacts on the new phone.
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Does Aurora Store get official versions of apps direct from Google Play Store?
Aurora Store technically is the Google Play Store, it’s basically a different front-end for Google’s servers, so every application you download in Aurora comes directly from Google.
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Shouldn’t this be pinned somewhere? 
I nearly got robbed using a local transport app. Luckily, my bank saw the un2FA’d €100 charge as suspicious. Moovizy app from APKPure, penultimate version.
Now I’m trying Sailfish for the first time. It is a wonderful experience. Jolla-Devices.com did a great job preparing the phone with the free version (4.2). I could start using it right out of the box, without any problem. Regarding the user interface, I suppose it helps that I used a Nokia N9 some years ago.
To help other new Jolla Phone owners, I thought I would here describe some of the first steps I’m taking to get going.
To continue what I last wrote about (point 1), it was easy to transfer the VCF file from the computer to the new phone via Bluetooth. To import those contacts, it worked to under Settings → Apps → People directly select “From contact file”. (For some reason, I didn’t have success with “Start import wizard”.)
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Regarding point 2: After I had only done some basic things with the phone, I purchased the commercial version on shop.jolla.com using the same Jolla account that I use on the phone. Then I restarted the phone. On the phone, I went to Settings → System → “Sailfish OS updates”, pulled down to select “Check for updates” (twice?) and downloaded version 4.0.1.24. However, I’m afraid to install it, because I have read that downgrading the OS could break the device (I now have 4.2 free).
Strange, that definitely shouldn’t happen. Do you know how to use the terminal, and if so, could you post what the command ssu re says?
Do you mean 4.1.0.24?
The currently state of the paid version of 4.2.0.19 is “Early Access”. That means that advanced users get a chance to test the new OS version. Sometimes it’s working well, sometimes some hiccups occur.
Maybe you’re offered 4.1.0.24 because you’re not logged in to Early Access.
There are two options. You wait until 4.2.0.19 is available to all users, or you sign in to Early Access and try again for updates.
For this log in to your jolla account on https://account.jolla.com/ , scroll down to ‘Early access to Sailfish OS releases’ and check in.
Welcome abord.
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Yes, I mean 4.1.0.24 (made a writing mistake before).
In the Settings, I enabled Developer mode. Then I could find Terminal among the already installed apps. Started it and wrote the command suggested above. Then I could read:
Device release is currently: 4.2.0.19
This is not so strange, because I asked to have the early release 4.2 installed when I purchased the phone.
So now I have in my account selected “Early access to Sailfish OS releases”, as suggested above.
However, on the phone, 4.1.0.24 has been downloaded and is waiting for installation. When I in the Settings go to “Sailfish OS updates”, it seems like I can only select Install. Does anyone have a recommendation what to do to get 4.2 commercial? Could I for example delete previous download?
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Sorry for my confusion. Seems like 4.2 commercial is already active on the phone, because in the phone’s Store app I could install Android App Support. I suppose that is a sign of having the commercial version, or is there a better way to tell?
I would still like to delete the previous download, so I don’t install 4.1.0.24 by mistake, but don’t know how to detele it.
Regarding point 3: After installing Android App Support, I tried to follow steps 3.1a, 3.2, … as described by jwnz above. I installed F-Droid from the Store. In F-Droid Settings, I under Repositories simply added microg.org/download
However, I could not figure out what to do about GmsCore (step 3.3), so I went directly to step 3.4 and installed Aurora Store from F-Droid. In Aurora Store, I had to select an installer, so I picked “Session installer”. Also granted “External Storage Access” and “Installer Permission” (“External Storage Manager” was already granted). When asked about “Install unknown apps”, I selected “Allow from this source”. Logged in as Anonymous.
After that, I could install Android apps like Signal, my bank’s app, Mobilt BankID and Swish from Aurora Store (step 3.5). They all seem to work, except for some minor details. (In the bank’s app the OCR function doesn’t seem to work. Mobilt BankID compalins about missing Google Play services, but I just tap the back arrow, and it works anyway.) A big THANK YOU to all of you who made this possible.
However, I’m a bit curious. Am I missing something without GmsCore?
And could someone tell me how to get rid of the previously downloaded (but not installed) update/downgrade to 4.1.0.24?
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You could just wait till 4.2 is released as final version. Then it might be able to check again for the newer version.
I do wonder if it works out okay though. I remember downloading an EA release, and when the final release was released, I could only install that EA, not the final. So it might be that it is not quite correct in the way the updater deals with updates. In the worst case you will have to enable developer mode and update on the command-line. Or maybe the app Sailfish Upgrade might help.
But first, just wait till the final is released, only then do you want to update 