How To Get Android 4.4.3 On Nexus Devices [OTA + Manual Update]

It was a busy night all around with Apple announcing the latest OS X and iOS instalments, and Android 4.4.3 finally rolling out to Nexus devices OTA. Android 4.4.3 is not huge in terms of features and mostly has bug fixes but that’s no reason to not want to update to it. For those that are receiving the update OTA, getting it is super simple but those who keep checking to see if an update is available only to find it isn’t, getting the update now is only slightly complicated. Here’s a how-to for both manual and OTA updates...

Disclaimer: Although we personally test all procedures we write about, something can still go wrong. Follow this guide at your own risk. We take no responsibility for bricked devices

Update OTA

Open the Settings app and scroll all the way down to About Phone. Tap the very first ‘System Updates’ option. On the next screen, tap ‘Check Now’ and your phone will check if an update is available. If it is available, your device will download and upgrade it without needing any assistance from you. Your device does not need an unlocked bootloader or root to receive the update.

 

Manually Update To Android 4.4.3

Prerequisites

1. A Nexus device with an unlocked bootloader
2. Android SDK Installed on your system, download here and install it.
3. Android 4.4.3 Factory image for you device. Download it here and make sure it’s the correct one for your device. They are sorted by device name so it shouldn’t be a problem to identify which one you need to download.
4. Back-up your files, pictures, etc. This will delete everything on your device.

Set-up

1. Set-up involves extracting files and moving them to the right location on your computer. Extract the factory image (it is a tgz compressed file). Go to the sdk>platform-tools folder in the Android SDK folder and copy the extracted files to it.
2. Enable USB Debugging on your device. USB debugging is enabled from the Developer Options.

Procedure

Open the folder you just pasted the extracted files to [Platform-tools]. Hold down the Shift key and right-click. In the context-menu you will see an Open command window here option. Click it.

Execute the following commands;

adb devices

You should see the serial number of your device. Your phone might prompt you to allow USB debugging so when/if it does, tap Yes.

In the Command window, type the following command;

adb reboot-bootloader

Your phone will power down and reboot into the booloader

Execute this command in the Command window

fastboot devices

You should again see the serial number for your device

Last command to execute now is

flash-all.bat

And let your system take care of the rest. Do not do anything until Command prompt gives you the ‘Press any key to exit’ message. This can take 5-10 mins.

You will set your phone up anew. I noticed with this update I wasn’t asked to set up my Google Account until I needed to access the Google Play store. Here’s the new dialler app looking nice and clean.