Android: can't install updates over mobile data?

[carrierPigeon]

I have the Moto e6, was brand new out of the box. Android 9.
I went through the standard setup screens and did not sign into a gmail account.
I also chose not to connect to wifi.

Staying disconnected from wifi, the phone would not
1) download the security update from Motorolla
2) sign into a gmail account (an organization-hosted gmail)
3) download app updates (expected because of #2 on this list)

I never made a selection to only download software over wifi (I read that some people have made that selection on their phone). I turned off wifi.

I called Motorolla and told them that I don't want to download over wifi.

They said cannot download without connecting to wifi. That didn't sound right to me since I know that there are a fair number of people out there that ONLY have mobile data, and no other internet subscription.

The thing that surprises me the most is that I couldn't log into the gmail hosted email.
I even reset to factory settings and tried to connect to the gmail during setup.
The only thing that's unique about the organization-Gmail is that it has 2 factor authentication, but it never even go that far..

Once I connected to wifi, everything worked.

The only explanation that I can think of is that the data connection was very bad. But, I tried the Motorolla security update for several days, several different times of the day/week. So, doesn't seem like you can blame that all on congestion.

Can anyone make sense of what happened? Is the Motorolla rep correct?

Edit 3/31: web browsing would work all along.

 

[DrLobotomy]

Sounds like the mighty Catch-22. You need some patches for it to work proper but you can't connect to the server to get the patches.

Goto local library and download the patches then go home and use it how you like.

 

[carrierPigeon]

Sounds like the mighty Catch-22. You need some patches for it to work proper but you can't connect to the server to get the patches.

Goto local library and download the patches then go home and use it how you like.

So basically what you are saying is that it's a bug/ glitch with mobile data. But, there is probably a fix somewhere along the way.
On a different note, I wonder how long library wifi will work (where libraries are closed).

 

[DrLobotomy]

You might be able to cruise around in car and wardrive near doctors offices, motels etc. to find a hotspot.

 

[kirbyrj]

It's not congestion. It's a conscious choice by Moto to "protect" ignorant customers of using all their allotted mobile data for the month.

I mean no offense, but the E6 isn't exactly geared toward high end users. More likely the people who are generally capped at 5GB/month or less. If your system update download is 1GB (new Android version, not just a monthly security update), some unsuspecting and ignorant user is going to blow through 20% of their data for the month in 20 minutes.