Just a few months ahead of Google I/O, Google has launched the latest version of Android, dubbed the Android N. If you’re an Android enthusiast like me, you would definitely want to try this version out on your smartphone before it hits for the public use. Well, then let’s get started on this method of flashing Android N to your Nexus device on a Windows computer.
Before be move any further, you should have any one of the following devices, the ones that have a developer preview for Android N. It will work on Nexus 5X, Nexus 6, Nexus 6P, Nexus 9, Nexus 9 LTE, Nexus Player, Pixel C. Head over to the official Google website and download the developer preview for your device by clicking here.
Next, you need to make sure that you device has an unlocked bootloader because that is required for flashing a ROM on your device. If you bought an unlocked device, it will be unlocked but in case, it is not, make sure you find out if it can be unlocked or not.
Now, also, make sure that you have the latest version of SDK tools or you would not be able to flash the Rom in this way. You should start by downloading the latest version of SDK from the Android Developers page by visiting here and just downloading the SDK Tools for Windows. After that, install them in a convenient location.
And the last thing before we start with the process of flashing Android N, make sure that you take a backup of your data on the phone and within the apps on your phone because when you use this method, all your data on the phone will be wiped.
Steps to Flash Android N Rom on Nexus Devices
- I am assuming you have downloaded the necessary files and installed the Android SDK tools on your computer. Now, unzip the ROM that you have downloaded for your Nexus device, and move it to the platform-tools folder in the SDK folder that you just installed.
- In your phone settings, go to Developer Options and turn on Developer Options. If you can’t find the Developer Options, tap on the build number in About Phone a couple of times and then you will have access to it.
- Next, connect your smartphone to the computer via a USB Cable.
- Open up the command prompt and change the directory to the folder where you have SDK installed by using the “cd C:\Path-To-SDK\platform-tools\” command.
- Now, in the command prompt, type adb devices. This should bring up a list of connected Android devices on the computer. It will show your device ID there and then list its status.
- Now, type in adb reboot bootloader in order to boot your phone into the bootloader mode.
- Type the fastboot oem unlock command in the command prompt. This will unlock your bootloader and delete all the data on your smartphone. You will have to do additional steps on your phone to confirm this unlock.
- Now, there are two ways to do it, the easy way and the more detailed way. If you want the easy way, simply type flash-all in the command prompt and hit enter, and proceed to step 10.
- If you want to do this in a detailed way, you will have to enter a flash command for the three different files that you will have to flash for your device. Along with this, you will have to reboot your device after every flash. Enter the following commands one by one, by replacing the file names with the ones that are specific to your device. The ones listed below are for the Motorola-made Google Nexus 6, codenamed Shamu.
fastboot flash bootloader bootloader-shamu-moto-apq8084-71.16.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader
fastboot flash radio radio-shamu-d4.01-9625-05.34+fsg-9625-02.111.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader
fastboot -w update image-shamu-npc56p.zip
- Now, just wait for your device to reboot after it has flashed all the images required.
- Finally, when the device boots, you will have the latest Android N Developer Preview installed on your smartphone. Just enter your details, and configure the device as you would for a brand new device.
Well, there you have it. You just installed the lastest version of Android N Developer Preview on your Nexus smartphone. If you face any problems in flashing the ROM here, feel free to comment below. I would be happy to solve those problems for you.
