May 2, 2015

Nexus 5 OTA after rooted and TWRP installed

I have been using Nexus 5 for quite a long time, and it's great to frequently receive update notification from google to get me the latest version of Android OS. We often joke that as a Nexus user, we paid for the system and get the device for free.

The update is called OTA (Over The Air). But since google changed its policy of verifying whether an OTA can perform or not, our lives become hard. In short, most of Nexus users will root the device, unlock bootloader and flash third party recovery for instance TWRP. (With this, you have most of controls of the Android OS and install lots of applications.) After done these, the system files will be changed. Google now changed the OTA policy to not only check some of the files are original version but check the whole system partition, which means in our case the OTA check will definitely fail and cannot run the update.

Below is a sample error:
expects build fingerprint of google/hammerhead/hammerhead 5.0.1/LRX22C/160258:user/release-keys or google/hammerhead/hammerhead 5.1 LMY47D/1743759   user/release-keys 
this device has Android/omni_hammerhead/hammerhead:4.4.4/KTU84P/4ef4c299f5:eng/test-keys

When what to do?

I had a lot of pain trying different methods, each time failed by the phone cannot boot and I have to reinstall the whole factory image, which means I have a complete fresh OS and have to install all the applications! So each update I need to spend days to get my phone ready, this is really hard.

During this Labors' Day vacation, I decide to study this problem and luckily I found a solution.

First of all,
Don't try the sideload, don't try to use TWRP to install... I have tried all these and they failed. :)

Solution:

1. Download Nexus Root Toolkit and update it to the latest version
2. click

 3. Very importantly, very importantly, very importantly CHECK don't flash userdata



Then follow all the instructions to flash, after this is done, phone will boot and updates all the application. Last but not least, flash the latest custom recovery and the latest Super

Enjoy the latest Android!

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