When you should NOT update your Nexus 4 to KitKat 4.4

[Sicily1918]

Perhaps we should sticky this for the next few weeks?

Seen a lot of threads lately on this -- YOU MAY NOT WANT TO UPDATE THROUGH THE GOOGLE OTA SERVICE if any of these is you -

1. You have a rooted (SuperSU, SuperUser, etc.) phone.
2. You have installed CWM recovery.
3. You have installed TWRP recovery.

- because there's a good chance you can soft-brick the phone. If the above applies to you, then you need research before applying the upgrade -- at least grab the latest KitKat images from Google and familiarize yourselves with flashing a Nexus back to stock in case you do soft-brick your device. While some people have had no issues, a good number have gotten stuck in boot-loops.

If you do have a soft-bricked phone, you can go here -
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2010312
- to return it to stock -- you'll probably wipe everything on the phone, so I hope you made a backup. The next post has a great link as well, much easier to follow.

P.S. If all you've done is unlock the bootloader, you're more than likely OK to do an OTA, as the phone's OS is still stock.

 

[someguy01234]

Since you posted here, you should refer to the guide from Android Central instead, which is also better written and easier to understand.

http://forums.androidcentral.com/ne...3923-guide-nexus-4-factory-image-restore.html

We get about 25+ threads a day in each individual Nexus device forum section at XDA on people bricking their devices due to these reasons. If you done anything to change to your system partition (ie. rooting or flashing) at all the OTA update will not flash correctly.

 

[Waterdroid]

1. You have installed TWRP recovery.

- then don't do an OTA, even if your phone says it's downloaded the update and you're ready to go... 9 times out of 10, you'll soft-brick the phone.

Been incredibly lucky then.. I had TWRP on my Nexus 4 while installing the OTA from -O to -S.

Thanks for the summary.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using AC Forums mobile app

 

[someguy01234]

Been incredibly lucky then.. I had TWRP on my Nexus 4 while installing the OTA from -O to -S.

Thanks for the summary.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using AC Forums mobile app

It work if the system partition is unmodified. If something like the gps.conf or build.prop or a preloaded app is missing it would fail. Also flashing using CWM will fail also.

 

[DS1331]

Wtf is your Icon

Q10, HTC One, Nexus 7, Moto X

 

[someguy01234]

It's my bravatar.

 

[Rizy7]

Perhaps we should sticky this for the next few weeks?

Seen a lot of threads lately on this -- DO NOT UPDATE THROUGH THE GOOGLE OTA SERVICE if any of these is you -

1. You have a rooted (SuperSU, SuperUser, etc.) phone.
2. You have installed CWM recovery.
3. You have installed TWRP recovery.

- then don't do an OTA, even if your phone says it's downloaded the update and you're ready to go... 9 times out of 10, you'll soft-brick the phone.

If you do have a bricked phone, you can go here -
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2010312
- to return it to stock -- you'll probably wipe everything on the phone, so I hope you made a backup.

P.S. If all you've done is unlock the bootloader, you're more than likely OK to do an OTA, as the phone's OS is still stock.

You really should not post things that are not true. OTA works fine even if you are rooted and have TWRP. I myself and others have updated perfectly fine while running stock rooted with TWRP.

 

[someguy01234]

Maybe so, but that's a very specific scenario to have it update successfully. There are lots of chances things can go wrong and it usually does, evidence by the large number of threads posted by people who brick their device and losing data in the process. (Don't make me prove this to you, just browse the web.) I have enough knowledge to flash it using TWRP, but I've done OTA flashing trials to confirm this myself that it's very easy for the OTA to fail if you make system changes. Most people don't know what they're doing and run into problems.

The bottom line is Google released these OTA specifically for official Google devices running their stock softwares. They aren't taking out their time and worry about making their OTA work with unofficial custom recoveries and rooted devices. Security is a big deal that is why they put checks in the OTA. I said this in another thread, but due to security I think Google should set the OTA package to flat out refuse to install at all if it detects root or custom recoveries or any system changes.

If you were to ask a Google engineer about this, I'm sure they'll recommend similar things posted by the OP.

 

[Sicily1918]

You really should not post things that are not true. OTA works fine even if you are rooted and have TWRP. I myself and others have updated perfectly fine while running stock rooted with TWRP.

You're very lucky, then -- the OTA usually loses it if you're missing system files or of there's stuff there that "shouldn't" be (like a root package) -- but as I wrote, 9 times out of 10 it fails. I installed CM10.1 using an old, unsupported version of CWM -- v5.2.x.x (no-no #1) and used the darkside wipe scripts (no-no #2) and it still installed flawlessly... sometimes, Android just wants to work

 

[Rizy7]

Maybe so, but that's a very specific scenario to have it update successfully. There are lots of chances things can go wrong and it usually does, evidence by the large number of threads posted by people who brick their device and losing data in the process. (Don't make me prove this to you, just browse the web.) I have enough knowledge to flash it using TWRP, but I've done OTA flashing trials to confirm this myself that it's very easy for the OTA to fail if you make system changes. Most people don't know what they're doing and run into problems.

The bottom line is Google released these OTA specifically for official Google devices running their stock softwares. They aren't taking out their time and worry about making their OTA work with unofficial custom recoveries and rooted devices. Security is a big deal that is why they put checks in the OTA. I said this in another thread, but due to security I think Google should set the OTA package to flat out refuse to install at all if it detects root or custom recoveries or any system changes.

If you were to ask a Google engineer about this, I'm sure they'll recommend similar things posted by the OP.

You're very lucky, then -- the OTA usually loses it if you're missing system files or of there's stuff there that "shouldn't" be (like a root package) -- but as I wrote, 9 times out of 10 it fails. I installed CM10.1 using an old, unsupported version of CWM -- v5.2.x.x (no-no #1) and used the darkside wipe scripts (no-no #2) and it still installed flawlessly... sometimes, Android just wants to work

Guys all I am saying is that to say something will not work when it does in my opinion is completely wrong. Yes the situation to update through TWRP must be very specific but it does still work. Most of the time the users have done other things with their device but have no idea what they have done because they lack knowledge or refuse to even learn or have read conflicting things on the internet. Which brings me back to my point of you really should not recommend things unless they are 100% correct as this confuses people. I mean the OP has put if you have a bricked phone look at this thread. The correct terminology would be a soft bricked phone after a bricked phone would indicate a phone that is not usable at all. Many a time have I seen threads when a person is panicking because they think they have bricked their phone because that is what they have been told. Yes, by all means warn people that the OTA might not work but the way I see it even people that have a locked, non rooted phone have had bootloops from the OTA, even people flashing the factory images have had bootloops, so do we say no one should OTA or update at all? There are probably loads of people that have updated successfully with whichever methods they have chosen but no one is going to come onto a forum just to say they have updated successfully, so no I do not consider myself lucky.

 

[pjc123]

Seen a lot of threads lately on this -- DO NOT UPDATE THROUGH THE GOOGLE OTA SERVICE if any of these is you -

1. You have a rooted (SuperSU, SuperUser, etc.) phone.
2. You have installed CWM recovery.
3. You have installed TWRP recovery.

You can't make a blanket statement like this. There are just too many variables with different peoples phones as to whether the OTA will work or not (Programs installed, versions of programs, what was changed from the stock install, etc.).

 

[Sicily1918]

You can't make a blanket statement like this. There are just too many variables with different peoples phones as to whether the OTA will work or not (Programs installed, versions of programs, what was changed from the stock install, etc.).

and Rizy7...

Agreed. I changed it up some to have it sound less 'end-of-the-world' -- make better sense now? I'm just seeing a lot of threads about soft-bricks from people -- hopefully we can make people aware before they mess their devices up.