I know that the Android M preview was announced and released a while ago, but I am still asked how someone should go about installing Android M.
In response to these numerous requests, I felt that there is a need for a quick guide on how to install the preview.
Honestly time. I don’t have a Nexus Player. I would love a Nexus Player, but I just don’t have one, so I don’t know how much the steps vary for that device. However, these steps will work on the other Nexus phones and tablet just fine.
Requirements
- Nexus device with Android M preview
- adb tools installed
- adb debugging enabled on device
- A way to extract TGZ files (I use 7-zip)
Step One – Downloading the factory images
You can download the official Android M images for your Nexus branded device(s) here, or you can follow the direct links below.
Nexus 5 (GSM/LTE)Nexus 6Nexus 9Nexus Player
By downloading the images for the above links, you are agreeing to Google’s Terms and Conditions. Let’s be honest though, you weren’t going to read through those anyways.
Step Two – Extract the files
Extract the .tgz file with whatever program, methods you prefer.
For me, I installed 7-zip and used that to extract the files.
After that, you will want to extract the .tar file. I did that the same way.
Finally, extract the .zip file at the end of the trail.
Hopefully, you will be greeted with the following files
- android-info.txt
- boot.img
- cache.img
- recovery.img
- system.img
- userdata.img
Step Three- Boot into bootloader
There are two ways to do this.
Option One – adb command
If your device is already booted up normally, then this is rather easy.
Make sure that ADB debugging is enabled and your drivers are installed.
If you can’t handle this on your own, you really should not install the Android M preview. While the preview is mostly stable, if you can’t manage to get adb commands functioning properly, you are going to absolutely hate yourself for installing the preview. Things will crash and not everything will work.
If you still want to continue on, you can follow this guide to install ADB and Fastboot tools.
Anyways, all you have to do at this juncture is open in a command window and type in the following command and press enter.
adb reboot-bootloader
Option Two – button combination
This one is easier, but I prefer option one to make sure that I have adb installed correctly.
All you have to do is when the device is powered completely off, press and hold volume down and the power button.
That’s it, you’ll boot into the bootloader!
Step Four- Wipe the device
Some people claim that this step is optional, but I find it 100% necessary. I actually tried to install Android M on top of stock 5.1.1 without a wipe, and I got nothing but trouble. Force closings everywhere.
For this step, it is just another command. Once again, just open a command window/terminal if you don’t already have one open and type in the following command and press enter.
fastboot erase userdata
if you are using a linux distro, you are going to have to add “sudo” to the start of the command and type in your password when prompted.
Step Five- Install system images
Just like you did for step three, just execute the following commands. IN ORDER!
Except, this time, you need to make sure that your terminal is opened to the same location as the files that I had you extract previously.
In Windows, you can just open that file location in the file explorer and right click while holding shift. This will allow you to select the option “Open command window here”
I am sure that there is a similar process that can be followed in Linux and on Macs.
fastboot flash boot boot.img
fastboot reboot-bootloader
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
fastboot flash system system.img
fastboot reboot
Step Six – WAIT
Now, you should see a recovery Android.
Something similar to this
What this screen is showing is your phone’s recovery partition clearing everything out and getting things ready for you.
You don’t need to know exactly what it is doing, all you have to do is sit tight and wait. This will take a while. So long to the point that you think you did it wrong.
Don’t worry, just wait it out and your phone will boot normally. Then congrats! You should be booted into Android M!
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