# Electron OTA updating system firmware to 0.5.0 fail

**URL:** <https://community.particle.io/t/electron-ota-updating-system-firmware-to-0-5-0-fail/21939>\
**Category:** Troubleshooting\
**Created:** [April 9, 2016, 7:02am UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/electron-ota-updating-system-firmware-to-0-5-0-fail/21939 "2016-04-09T07:02:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 13\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![sbright33](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/community.particle.io/sbright33/32/9179_2.png) [@sbright33](https://community.particle.io/u/sbright33)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2016, 7:02am UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/electron-ota-updating-system-firmware-to-0-5-0-fail/21939/1 "2016-04-09T07:02:45Z")

</div>

I’ve done  
particle flash YOUR\_DEVICE\_NAME system-part1-0.5.0-rc.1-electron.bin  
Put into safe mode again or it will fail  
particle flash YOUR\_DEVICE\_NAME system-part2-0.5.0-rc.1-electron.bin  
Both success

Powered off/on  
reset

Still:  
On the device: 0.4.8  
in the IDE

Please help?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ScruffR](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/community.particle.io/scruffr/32/6952_2.png) [@ScruffR](https://community.particle.io/u/ScruffR)\
**Post date:** [April 9, 2016, 8:29am UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/electron-ota-updating-system-firmware-to-0-5-0-fail/21939/2 "2016-04-09T08:29:11Z")

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You don’t want to do that system update OTA - that will suck some big chunks of your monthly data allowance 😉

Rathet go via USB with

```auto
// put device into DFU mode
particle flash --usb system-part...
// if your device still is in DFU Mode after part 2, flash some app code like
particle flash --usb tinker

```

Then go to Web Build IDE set the target for 0.4.8 and flash, after that you should see your device system version updated (that’s a quirk that will be solved some time)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![KevinW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/94ad74/32.png) [@KevinW](https://community.particle.io/u/KevinW)\
**Post date:** [April 22, 2016, 8:45pm UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/electron-ota-updating-system-firmware-to-0-5-0-fail/21939/3 "2016-04-22T20:45:19Z")

</div>

I’ve tried and failed to do OTA update to 0.5.0 as well without success. I’ll update over USB when I can, but when the units are remote, sorta need that OTA update to work.

Is it expected to work? I had the same problems as sbright33 at first and when I just tried again, the flash call failed entirely.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![hwestbrook](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/5f9b8f/32.png) [@hwestbrook](https://community.particle.io/u/hwestbrook)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2016, 12:12am UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/electron-ota-updating-system-firmware-to-0-5-0-fail/21939/4 "2016-04-27T00:12:27Z")

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+1 on knowing if OTA is expected to work for upgrading Electron from 0.4.8 to 0.5.0.

As for data allowance, I understand it could take up a large chunk for some users, but defaulting to that mode of thinking for all users seems overly simplistic. For example, my Electron’s are mostly in the field, and require me to drive and then walk to them. I am happy to pay an extra $0.99 for data if I don’t have to do this.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![mdma](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/community.particle.io/mdma/32/1924_2.png) [@mdma](https://community.particle.io/u/mdma)\
**Post date:** [April 27, 2016, 5:03am UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/electron-ota-updating-system-firmware-to-0-5-0-fail/21939/5 "2016-04-27T05:03:26Z")

</div>

You can download the system firmware and flash it yourself OTA using the CLI if you prefer to use OTA updates.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cstites](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dbc845/32.png) [@cstites](https://community.particle.io/u/cstites)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2016, 9:48am UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/electron-ota-updating-system-firmware-to-0-5-0-fail/21939/6 "2016-04-28T09:48:37Z")

</div>

I also can’t get to my devices physically to update via USB, and I am having this problem as well. Has anyone else been able to get this to work?

I flashed part1 and part2 OTA from the CLI, got “Flash device OK: Update started” for both. Tried flashing my code (from Particle Dev, presumably targeting 0.5.0 by default) and the Electron went into safe mode so I reset and reflashed system binaries OTA and got the same responses and then, as @ScruffR suggested, I flashed Tinker from Build with 0.4.8 (On device) targeted but it has not updated to 0.5.0 and again when I flash my code it still goes back to safe mode.

I’m not really sure how to look into this any further, is there any way to get verification that the system firmware is updating from the OTA flash? It doesn’t seem that the update is actually happening even though the flash call from the CLI returns a success message.

Thanks

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ScruffR](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/community.particle.io/scruffr/32/6952_2.png) [@ScruffR](https://community.particle.io/u/ScruffR)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2016, 9:52am UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/electron-ota-updating-system-firmware-to-0-5-0-fail/21939/7 "2016-04-28T09:52:53Z")

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> [@cstites](#):
>
> I flashed Tinker from Build with 0.4.8 (On device) targeted but it has not updated to 0.5.0

Have you hit CLEAR CACHE in Build properties drawer after you did that?

BTW, what did [Particle Console | Build your connected product](https://dashboard.particle.io/user/logs) report while you were doing your OTA update?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cstites](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dbc845/32.png) [@cstites](https://community.particle.io/u/cstites)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2016, 10:11am UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/electron-ota-updating-system-firmware-to-0-5-0-fail/21939/8 "2016-04-28T10:11:25Z")

</div>

The logs show status started events but nothing more. One of these for each system OTA flash:

 ![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/particle/original/2X/b/bde2607611250ec2e02111233742253a32c129ce.png)

Flashing the tinker at the end failed first but on the second attempt gave me:

 ![](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/uploads/particle/original/2X/a/a2f9713af0385384a805f52a88cabaf689d5782b.png)

And then clearing the cache didn’t change anything in build, but it seems like from this that the problem is before that.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ScruffR](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/community.particle.io/scruffr/32/6952_2.png) [@ScruffR](https://community.particle.io/u/ScruffR)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2016, 11:49am UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/electron-ota-updating-system-firmware-to-0-5-0-fail/21939/9 "2016-04-28T11:49:32Z")

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This doesn’t look like a system firmware update?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cstites](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dbc845/32.png) [@cstites](https://community.particle.io/u/cstites)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2016, 8:14pm UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/electron-ota-updating-system-firmware-to-0-5-0-fail/21939/10 "2016-04-28T20:14:47Z")

</div>

I wasn’t really sure what I was supposed to see upon flashing the 0.5.0 parts OTA but, since I saw a ‘started’ event but not a ‘success’ event, I assumed that indicated that the system update hadn’t been fully completed. Is the ‘started’ event all I am supposed to see when doing the system firmware update?

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![ScruffR](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/community.particle.io/scruffr/32/6952_2.png) [@ScruffR](https://community.particle.io/u/ScruffR)\
**Post date:** [April 28, 2016, 8:35pm UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/electron-ota-updating-system-firmware-to-0-5-0-fail/21939/11 "2016-04-28T20:35:06Z")

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Yup, there is no more than two `spark/flash/status started` responsed on the dashboard, so I flashed this simple sketch to see what I’ve got

```cpp
void setup() 
{
    Particle.publish(System.version());
}

void loop() { }

```

Which should report `0.5.0` if your update succeeded.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Falcon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/49beb7/32.png) [@Falcon](https://community.particle.io/u/Falcon)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 12:17am UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/electron-ota-updating-system-firmware-to-0-5-0-fail/21939/12 "2017-04-13T00:17:12Z")

</div>

@mdma Could you please provide step by step instructions on flashing system firmware OTA using CLI. We have a device shipped to a customer and we really need flash system firmware OTA.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bko](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex026/user_avatar/community.particle.io/bko/32/20704_2.png) [@bko](https://community.particle.io/u/bko)\
**Post date:** [April 13, 2017, 2:21am UTC](https://community.particle.io/t/electron-ota-updating-system-firmware-to-0-5-0-fail/21939/13 "2017-04-13T02:21:17Z")

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Hi @Falcon

The files are on the github firmware releases page here:

> **[particle-iot/firmware](https://github.com/particle-iot/firmware/releases)**
>
> firmware - Firmware for Particle Devices

The instructions in general are on github too, but here are the specific Electron instructions:

[https://docs.particle.io/reference/firmware/photon/?fw\_ver=0.6.2-rc.1&cli\_ver=1.21.0&electron\_parts=3#programming-and-debugging-notes](https://docs.particle.io/reference/firmware/photon/?fw_ver=0.6.2-rc.1&cli_ver=1.21.0&electron_parts=3#programming-and-debugging-notes)
