Google now offers downloadable OTA images for Nexus devices

Previously, if you wanted to flash an update to your Nexus device, it meant losing all of the data on your phone. This will no longer be an issue, as Google is now offering OTA images.

Rich Woods former Senior Editor for North America Neowin @TheRichWoods · May 11, 2016 17:42 EDT · Hot! with 4 comments

Google has always offered up factory images of its Nexus devices, and if you're an early adopter that just can't wait to get the latest updates, you've probably used those images to get the latest version of Android. Of course, this method meant erasing all data from your device and having to set everything up again, which could take hours.

Of course, you could unzip the file and flash the images manually, passing up the flash-all command. Instead, you could do each command manually, omitting the fastboot erase userdata command; however, this method is unreliable at best.

Luckily, Google has you covered, as the firm is now publishing OTA images for its Nexus devices, along with the Pixel C. Here are the devices that Google is offering up images for:

Nexus Player
Nexus 9 (Wi-Fi)
Nexus 9 (LTE)
Nexus 7 (2013, Wi-Fi)
Nexus 7 (2013, Mobile)
Nexus 6
Nexus 5
Nexus 5X
Nexus 6P
Pixel C

It's worth noting that the new OTA images were given their own site, so don't expect to find them on the same page as the factory images. As you'd probably expect, the only OTA images available are for Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow.

Source: Engadget