It appears that Sony may have sorted this out; I have today successfully installed version 52.1.A.0.532.R1C [the last three digits are important in this], after having spent 20 odd days without a workable Xperia XZ2 despite numerous support requests – although the support responses were evident if not useful.
Today I have used – for the second time – the repair facility on the Xperia companion, but failed on the first attempt since it appears that my computer stored my initial attempt and so refused to work – advice is to use another computer to use the companion software (or perhaps uninstall the version that you had a first attempt on – care is advised here if you have backed up to the first iteration of the companion software).
Anyway, this is what I have done with what appears to be success…. (0) Backed up the phone to my Google account and then (1) Connected my XZ2 to a laptop that I did not use before to repair the software using companion. (2) Let the new Xperia companion download to the new computer. (3) Let the upgrade to Xperia companion complete. (4) Factory reset my XZ2 – not sure that this was necessary – but I did. (5) Did the Xperia Companion Repair software utility and then (6) Let the XZ2 completely restart and update without my Google credentials then (7) Connected the XZ2 to my WIFI to update completely before finally (8) entering my Google credentials to all the XZ2 to restore all my apps and content.
At the moment all appears to work; Speed/lag, Fingerprint, Tethering, battery condition….. I confess that this episode has impacted my confidence in Sony. I suspect that there may be some minor updates to Android 10 Sony version as things progress but issues like this damage a brand which is sad given the ‘middle class’ ground that Sony exists in. My Samsung S8 (which was my replacement given this debacle) remains my principal phone until I am sure that Sony have made proper repairs to their version of Android 10
