Microsoft 'oops' - Fast ring gets 'borked' with bogus 16212 build

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It was all going so well on the Fast ring for mobile too - but there's a bogus build, 16212, which has slipped out today, as I write this. Even if it auto-downloads on your Fast ring Windows 10 Mobile device, do not restart to install this build, as it will apparently not work properly.

This is a developing story and I'm working through this one on a test phone. This is the Phone update screen - with an oh-so-tempting build name but one which you should avoid:


But for now, two tweets of interest:

and

Which begs the question as to what to do if you're device has already downloaded this update. Obviously, avoid hitting 'Restart now' and set about back-stepping in Settings to Backup/'More options', and then do a new complete backup to the cloud. Then, if the phone decides to restart anyway at some point, at least you know that you can get most of your stuff and set-up back, even after moving through the Device Recovery Tool procedures.

I'm experimenting with different ways to NOT install this, including keeping my test phone below 40% until a valid new build comes along. But it's all rather frustrating and annoying.

Zac Bowden (of WC) wisely suggests:

Which is another idea, and one which seems to work on my test phone. When restarted, there was an update error shown:


And after resetting the date/year to 2017, updates are checked for and downloaded all over again. So err... wait for the bogus build to be pulled before finishing this dance!

When a valid replacement build arrives, will the new build overwrite the current bogus one that was downloaded? We should be told...

If you have Windows 10 Mobile devices that are critical to you then I'd suggest leaving them off for a few hours from the timestamp of this story, just in case - until Microsoft has definitely pulled the bogus update.

Update: the build has now been pulled and there's a Microsoft statement up about the situation. Dona Sarkar suggests:

Many of you discovered that earlier this afternoon, builds from some of our internal branches were accidentally released for PC and Mobile. This happened because an inadvertent deployment to the engineering system that controls which builds/which rings to push out to insiders. The team was quick to revert the deployment and put blocks in place to stop these builds from going out to more people. Our analysis shows only a small portion of folks got these builds. For those of you who received one of these builds on your devices – please read the following:.

If you received this build (from RS_IoT) on Mobile: This build will *not* install on your device. If you installed this build, your device will be stuck in a reboot loop and the only way to recover is to use the Windows Device Recovery Tool and re-flash. After re-flashing, you can join the Windows Insider Program again on your device and choose your ring and be back on the right update path.

If your device has downloaded this build but has not installed the build (you see either a “Install” or “Restart now” button under Phone update) – you will have to do a device reset via Settings > System > About (Do a backup via Settings > Update & security > Backup FIRST) and then check your Windows Insider Program settings to ensure you’re on the right ring.

If you are not a Windows Insider, your device may have seen one of these builds offered. However, these builds will not install on devices that are not joined to the Windows Insider Program (a.k.a. “retail”).

I'm not convinced that a reset and restore is necessary, thanks to the 'date' trick above. But I guess we'll find out when the next proper build arrives, for each affected device/ring/status? Or maybe you'd like to go through the reset/refresh sequence anyway, to give your phone a 'fresh' feel?

That this destructive internal test build escaped into the wild (and appeared on multiple rings) is very irresponsible of Microsoft, of course, and clearly human error. It's not clear yet just how much chaos this will cause. 

I know that Microsoft will say that being on the Fast ring means accepting that things go wrong and that you wil have to do the odd reset, but I don't think we've EVER seen things go this wrong before...

Comments welcome!