Tech Reviews, Tips, and Tricks

Upgrading the Nexus 6 from Android 6.0.1 to 7.0 (after the 7.1.x OTA problems)

April 10, 2017 Leave a Comment

This post chronicles my Nexus 6 upgrade from 6.0.1 to 7.0. It turns out, all went well 🙂 This took place on April 10 in 2017, all in one go.

PROLOGUE

My Nexus 6 (unlocked USA version purchased during an Amazon Gold Box special) was among the last it seems to get an OTA invite to upgrade from 6.0.1 to 7.0. Since the OTA invite came out, the whole kerfuffle broke out (see section below), so I hesitated. Then that OTA invite got pulled and replaced with a newer one. The one that got pulled was over 1GB big. The 7.0 was about half of that.

GOING from ANDROID 6.0.1 to 7.0

Since this was a big version upgrade, I did this while connected to AC power and had plenty of available space. The version I installed:

Once this was downloaded, the whole process took about a lucky 13 minutes! The major points:

  • pressed the Restart & Install (the clock is ticking)
  • 3 minutes in: the Installing Update screen, with the green robot belly animation
  • 10 minutes in: the “Android is updating” screen with 1/XX apps. I had 80 of them (and I’m actively trying to prune the app creep!)
  • 13 minutes in: confirm your choice of a default Home Screen (it didn’t remember or wanted a confirmation it was Nova) and the phone is ready to go!

And voila…

INSTALLING the APRIL 2017 SECURITY UPDATES

A few minutes later, after checking for more updates, the April 2017 security update became avaiable, a tiny 26.3MB file in comparison, and a six minute install. A glowy circle replaced the green robot innards animation. Very pixely 🙂 The four rotating color dots appeared three minutes in, and it was all said and done in another three minutes.

I keep prodding it for new updates since 7.1.1 is making the rounds, but that’s all the OTA servers have for me 🙂 Since I already got the April showers, the earliest I can OTA-get 7.1.1 may be May or later.

The ANDROID 7.x CONFUSION

As it turns out, the Nexus 6 has a bit of a complicated Android history. The Android 7.1.x OTA upgrade got pulled by Google after causing trouble, and since then, Google moved the Nexus 6 back to the Android 7.0 track and informed that it will not get Android 7.1.2 or later. Some people have received 7.1.1 OTA which was the version that caused trouble in the first place.

However, hope may not yet be lost! As of April 10, Android Headlines has spotted code commits for Android O for the Nexus 6 on Google’s servers. So who knows. The Nexus 6 is a Project-FI phone and one of the uber-carrier phones that works with all of them (the unlocked version).

EARLY BLUETOOTH TESTING

Since some of the Nougat issues with the Nexus 6 were bluetooth-related, I am paying extra attention. More on this when I publish the review of the Nexus 6 as a Nougat phone, but so far I’ve used it for a couple of hours connected to a Logitech K-series bluetooth keyboard, with the phone going in and out of sleep, and had no issues connecting and reconnecting. It worked as expected.

NEXT STEPS

Once I use this for a few days, I will post a review of the Nexus 6 as an Android 7 device, a parallel review of the Marshmallow review.

The Case reviews will continue, there’s at least five more plus a group review once they are done.

I had been planning to switch to Project-FI, but then Sprint launched their crazy unlimited plan with $50/month (plus taxes/fees) with 10GB of mobile hotspot, so now I am tempted. The Nexus 6 is one of the phones eligible Sprint BYOD. Expand the first FAQ, the one that says “How do I know if my device is eligible?”. Either way, I’ll post an update 🙂

Filed Under: phone upgrades Tagged With: nexus 6

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