You may recall that when Microsoft began rolling out the Windows Phone 8.1 and Lumia Cyan firmware updates publicly last month that Developer Preview users—who had acquired Windows Phone 8.1 before this public release—were not able to get the update because of an unspecified issue. Well, that issue has been resolved. And if you are Developer Preview user with a Lumia 1520 or 1020 on AT&T, or a Lumia 920 on T-Mobile in Germany, you can now grab the Lumia Cyan firmware update normally, over the air.
Confused? I think I can straighten this out.
First, check out my article AT&T Rolls Out Windows Phone 8.1 to Nokia Lumia 1520 from late July. There, I noted the following:
- Windows Phone 8.1 is a free update for all Windows Phone 8-based handsets.
- Windows Phone 8.1 is being rolled out in tandem with the Lumia Cyan firmware update (and whatever carrier updates) for (almost) all Nokia Lumia handsets. So if you get Windows Phone 8.1 as a normal, over the air update from your carrier, you will Cyan too. (A few older handsets, like the Lumia 810 on T-Mobile, are not getting Cyan, but will still get Windows Phone 8.1.)
- Microsoft allowed enthusiasts to get the Windows Phone 8.1 update (but not Cyan) as early as April through its free Developer Preview program. The promise was that when the public release occurred over the summer—the exact release date varies by carrier—that Lumia users who performed this early update would still get Lumia Cyan on the day that their carrier publicly released Windows Phone 8.1.
- However, when Windows Phone 8.1 was initially released, Microsoft discovered an issue updating Developer Preview program users to Cyan. So it blocked the update for those users. I know this happened with the 1520 on AT&T in late July, and with other devices as well.
In that article, AT&T Rolls Out Windows Phone 8.1 to Nokia Lumia 1520, I also explained how the impatient—like me—could update to Cyan immediately. I had of course updated virtually all of my Windows Phone handsets to Windows Phone 8.1 via the Developer Preview program as soon as possible. So when the Lumia 1520 received the public release of Windows Phone 8.1 and Cyan, I of course wanted to get that immediately.
Here's how you do/did that: After ensuring that everything is backed up on the phone (Windows Phone 8.x includes great cloud-based backup functionality), you use the free Nokia Software Recovery Tool for Windows 7/8.x to restore your Lumia back to Windows Phone 8.0. Then, you use the public, over the air, update to upgrade to Windows Phone 8.1 and Cyan. Then, you reset the phone. This time, you restore from the last backup. So at the end of this process, your phone is back to where it was—all the apps, data and settings from before—and fully updated to the very latest versions of both the OS and the firmware.
Now, you don't need to do that.
If you waited, perhaps because the restore process seemed to daunting, Microsoft has begun reopening the public release of Lumia Cyan for those users who upgraded to Windows Phone 8.1 with the Developer Preview. Right now, it's only available for Lumia 1520 and 1020 on AT&T, and Lumia 920 on T-Mobile in Germany. But I suspect it will be made more broadly available to other Lumia devices and carriers soon. (If not, that restore process will always work fine. Seriously, it's not that bad.)
To upgrade, simply check the Update Your Phone settings app. It's just like any other update.
And when you're done, you'll get a nice little "welcome to Cyan" message too. I used this process to update my Lumia 1020—which had received Windows Phone 8.1 from the Developer Preview program—to Cyan this morning.
Now we can go through this all again with Windows Phone 8.1 Update 1 (which we should just start calling 8.1.1, I guess). Fun!
