Motorola Cliq update doing more harm than good

A recent over-the-air (OTA) update for T-Mobile's Motorola Cliq appears to be adversely affecting users who've installed it on their phones. Many customers are taking to both T-Mobile's and Motorola's forums to voice their anger.

The update (1.3.18) aims to improve the battery life, touch-screen sensitivity, GPS, and more. This is not to be confused with an update to Android 1.5, which is the OS beneath the MotoBlur interface.

Reported issues affect text messaging, the virtual keyboard, Bluetooth, and the display. For some users, the phone's date resorts to December 31, 1969, and the phone has difficulty with background sync for contacts and calendars immediately after the update is installed. Users are also having a difficult time logging into their MotoBlur accounts.

Though a master reset of the phone is a typical response to such issues, in this case it actually worsens the situation. In fact, the problems with the update are apparently serious enough to have elicited a semi-official response from T-Mobile on the matter. A moderator going by the handle of Meriah is advising against the master reset and adds that the carrier is passing the information and experiences along to the "appropriate people and are working hard on them."

This isn't the first time Motorola and T-Mobile have run into issues with this Cliq update. The very same release was accidentally sent out in January to a handful of users and abruptly pulled back. Apparently, it was considered a "test version" of the release.

A few weeks later, Motorola took to Twitter to confirm that such an update existed and that it would arrive in mid-February. I've spoken with a few CLIQ users who told me that they would rather wait on Android 2.1 and bypass this update altogether.

Though CNET has not experienced any issues with the Cliq following the update, we advise users to hold off installing any updates for now.