New Android 2.1 Updates Locking Down Droids?

Over the last few days, anyone still running Android 2.0.1 on their Motorola Droid should have received another 2.1 OTA update notification.  And why is that significant?  Because the users that are receiving this new notification had previously blocked it using SPRecovery.

We’re still not 100% sure what this new update does to your device, but if you are running a 2.0.1 ROM, continue to have SPRecovery or Clockworkmod Recovery installed as your recovery image or you may see your root access taken away without an easy return method.

Some are speculating that this new 2.1 update includes a new baseband for phones whose did not update initially and possibly blocks the method we used to flash the SPRecovery SBF to change the recovery image on a stock 2.1 Droid.  Like I said, we’re not 100% sure.

It should also be noted that this 2.1 update is 69MB while the originaly update sent a month ago was only about 15MB.  This definitely looks like an entire system image rather than a simple patch.

Update 5/5 8:02AM: Vulcan1600Rider over at DroidForums.net has tested the new update and was able to gain root access.  Definitely not locked down.  (Yay!)

You can download the file here.

The word from DroidMod earlier today…

Another OTA update has appeared. Users who have rooted, but are not using SPRecovery should take extreme care, as this update contains a complete /system image, which means that it will not break the way the previous one did; it will simply erase /system and flash a complete image. If you already have SPRecovery flashed, you can safely accept the update as you did with the ESE81 update.

Let’s just say that it would be a great disappointment to hear that Motorola or Google would be attempting to lock down this device.  A big sector of their users are committed to this device simply because it is easy to customize and I would hate to see them lose it.

Anyone receive this notification?

Cheers OldNuc!