Google‘s mysterious Android 5.0.1 release has now landed on its Nexus smartphones after a brief period of exclusivity on their larger tablet kin. This maintenance release, build number LRX22C to be specific, is now available for the Nexus 6 and the Nexus 4. Strangely, no image is up for the Nexus 5, and Google continues to be rather silent about this particular release.
Google somewhat sneakily brought out LXR22C last week, which was first spotted on the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) code repository. And almost immediately, that exact version was made available in factory images for the Nexus 9, the 2013 Nexus 7 WiFi model, and the Nexus 10. No changelog yet on what’s new.
It was a bit puzzling that Google only pushed the update to tablets, but there is one less thing to wonder about now that the smartphones are also getting their fair share. The last two mysteries that remain are about the update itself and why the Nexus 5 has not been granted the same treatment at the same time.
In any case, the factory images are already up, but do note that these are full device images. Meaning that these are meant to be flashed on a device, wiping it clean of any previous installation. The OTA updates have also started rolling out to these devices. If you’re a bit impatient and more adventurous, you can also download the OTA file and sideload it to your device yourself.
As a bonus, owners of the Google Play Edition of the Moto G are also getting an update, and you can grab the OTA as well if the update hasn’t reached you yet.
Just remember that to manually flash these images on your device, you will need to use the Android Debug Bridge tool or adb. Reboot your device to the bootloader (manually or via adb) and select recovery. From there, you will see the supine Android mascot with a red exclamation mark floating above. Then from your computer, issue the command
adb sideload [filename].zip
replacing [filename] with the actual name of the OTA file.
Hope they are going to update the Nexus 5 too. I am kinda disappointed in the Lollipop release for Nexus 5.
Good luck, it’s dissapeared for Nexus 6 users.
N5 got many bugs at least for me, wish they change something sooner than later…battery drain is a no go!