Droid mercifully gets a manual 2.1 update option

As is pleasantly often the case with Android devices, it turns out there's already a quick, easy, nearly painless way to circumvent the phased rollout of Android 2.1 to Verizon's Droids out in the field. Anyone who's already been through this will feel right at home with the process: grab the binary straight from Google (so you know it's legit, which is always nice), rename the file, transfer it to your microSD card, and reboot to the recovery mode screen. The rest is pretty self-evident, and when all is said and done, you'll have a Droid equipped with the very latest and greatest that Google has to offer. Let us know how it goes, y'hear?

[Dick Lynch Posted Mar 31st 2010 3:59PM]

Technically the manual update option has been around for some time.

[inertone Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:10PM]

@Dick Lynch
better late than never

[Dick Lynch Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:29PM]

@inertone A great man once said that.

[Exbloder Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:53PM]

@Dick Lynch Mustn't have been that important if you don't remember his name ;)

[Mr Blue Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:55PM]

@Dick Lynch

Can anyone (coming from a custom rom) comment on the performance/stability? I've been on BB and/or cyanogen since I purchased my Droid and I'm not sure I want to head down this official road just yet..

[SGlavan Posted Mar 31st 2010 3:59PM]

Can confirm this works. BTW if it says that you need to take out the sd card you dont actually have to do t, just mount the phone and transfer the files that way. A few button presses and its done. piece of cake.

[ircmaxell Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:12PM]

@SGlavan Or you could just download it from the phone browser, and use a file manager to rename/move it to the root of the SD card (That's what I did). No computer required...

[cbrum Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:26PM]

@SGlavan
Have used 2.1 for about 3 hours now...works like a dream...cept swype doesn't want to place nice...and vzwsupport on twitter doesn't like the idea
http://twitter.com/VZWSupport

[drywaller79 Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:52PM]

@ircmaxell

Just curious, what file browser did you use? Mine won't let me access the very root of the SD card. It says its read only.

[ircmaxell Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:57PM]

@drywaller79 I use OI File Manager, and like it. It's very light weight and free...

[owen66 Posted Mar 31st 2010 6:03PM]

@SGlavan i downloaded it on my desktop (coz the phone browser was trying to open it and was failing), renamed it to update.zip and then emailed it to my gmail account (with the nice 25MB attachment allotment). then on my phone i downloaded the attachment and copied it to the sd root folder using Astro File Manager. shut down and hold the x key while rebooting, then when you get the ! triangle hit the camera and the volume up buttons together. select install update. everything seems fine.

[TekWarrior Posted Mar 31st 2010 7:10PM]

More then don't like, they will void your DROID's warranty....

[PJE66 Posted Mar 31st 2010 8:20PM]

@cbrum I had issues with Swype too. I Just uninstalled and reinstalled, and everything seems back to normal.

[MechEMark Posted Mar 31st 2010 9:44PM]

@PJE66 Same here. Swype seems to be working fine after I reinstalled it. I do wish I could use that new voice to text with it though.

[Sohip Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:00PM]

Too bad that Milestone can't join the fun.

[pishmish Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:21PM]

@Sohip

Huh, I thought the milestone got the update like last week?

[ConradOBrien Posted Mar 31st 2010 5:39PM]

@pishmish
Yeah, but only in the European variety.
The US will get theirs soon enough.

[origininnisfree Posted Mar 31st 2010 6:03PM]

@ConradOBrien

That's not soon enough

[zkolev Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:03PM]

Hope it works with rooted Droids.
I'm worried it might clash with the kernel update I had to do for wifi tethering.

[SGlavan Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:09PM]

@zkolev shouldnt be a problem it just usually unroots the phone so ur gonna have to wait for someone to exploit it again on 2.1

[MichaelF Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:09PM]

@zkolev
Wi-Fi tethering? What device would you need to tether if you had Wi-Fi available? (just curuious).

[MichaelF Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:12PM]

@zkolev

BTW, here is a tether app for Android that doesn't require a rooted phone. Just DL and install from your SD card. Works great.

PdaNet
http://bit.ly/9CdH8n

[nwndarkness Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:18PM]

@MichaelF

PdaNet doesn't have wi-fi tethering. The rooted app is miles better.

[zkolev Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:18PM]

@MichaelF
I fell in love with the wifi tether app back on my G1. It works flawlessly and its just like having a MiFi.

[zkolev Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:21PM]

@MichaelF
The free version of PdaNet doesn't allow access to https sites. And its a bit more of a hassle than the wifi tethering.

[KidRobotXXIV Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:29PM]

@zkolev What's the name of the WiFi tendering app? I tried searching, but came up with 0 results. Appreciate the help!

[zkolev Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:31PM]

@KidRobotXXIV
http://code.google.com/p/android-wifi-tether/

[slayton Posted Mar 31st 2010 5:14PM]

@MichaelF
Wifi Tethering is when you tether your computer to your phone over wifi. It turns your phone into a wifi hotspot while using your phones radio to get on the internet.

[normanb20 Posted Apr 1st 2010 12:35AM]

@MichaelF
You tether your own and others laptops to the 3g on your phone, creates a wifi hotspot.

[ready2mosh Posted Apr 1st 2010 3:00PM]

@MichaelF A laptop would be the first thing I would think.

[MichaelF Posted Apr 1st 2010 4:30PM]

@normanb20
So you're saying it's for when there is no Wi-Fi available. I would have called that "3G tethering" since you're tethering your computer to a 3G connected device. That's where I got confused.

And PdaNet works perfectly for me. It's Bluetooth or USB, not WiFi, but for my purposes it works great. I guess it just depends on whether or not you want to root your phone.

[redhandeddenial Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:05PM]

did it and so far things are smooth like buttah.

only 3 homescreens, live wallpapers are cool, new weather/news widget is nice,gallery is SO much better and pinch and zoom works well.

[RealGame22 Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:07PM]

Staying Rooted...makes me feel free.

[Mrwirez Posted Mar 31st 2010 8:01PM]

@RealGame22
Me too... root shall set you free..lol
I am waiting for the new bugless beast..

[TheGM Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:08PM]

The manual updates always been around; you just had to wait for someone to get it OTA and have them upload it. I know people who did that for the 1.6 update on the G1 instead of waiting for T-Mobile to finish rolling it out to everyone over the next 2 days.

[gjl6378 Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:09PM]

For some reason I cannot push the update, following the instructions EXACTLY, I keep getting an error that looks like this:

assert failed: apply_patch_check("system/app/email.apk",
"00c4d1167e54a6af19c2c6cf6e691116b65b8688", "908f4d4763f1fd04378481c353a76f6207ec0790")
E:error in /sdcard/update.zip
(status 7)
installation aborted

[Rick James Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:58PM]

@gjl6378 I get the same message man.

[Rick James Posted Mar 31st 2010 5:08PM]

@gjl6378

The problem is that when you rename the file, don't put the .zip at the end. I think its different depending on the OS you're using--I'm using XP pro at work.

[thedroidgeek Posted Apr 1st 2010 12:50PM]

@gjl6378 if you are getting the assert failed error visit http://www.thedroidgeek.com/2010/03/manually-update-droid-to-21.html I have a way to fix the issue

[IVER23 Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:12PM]

If google really wants to address the fragmentation issue, they would require every skinned android phone come with the option to boot up stock android, not as a dual boot thing but rather as an operating system change, with the same relative ease as this manual update process.

[fpad77 Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:30PM]

@IVER23 that's not the same thing...

[TomSawyer Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:13PM]

so much easier than an iTunes update....

[who said what Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:33PM]

@TomSawyer

Why do you always have to try to start an iPhone OS vs Android discussion/argument/flame war? Can't you just enjoy a nice new feature/discovery?

[lolcopter Posted Mar 31st 2010 5:04PM]

@TomSawyer iTunes is a steaming pile of crap

[IvanP91 Posted Mar 31st 2010 5:04PM]

@who said what

Dude, thank you. Thank you so much. I wished someone would say something like this.

[gjl6378 Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:15PM]

The worst part is I did a factory reset after about 5 failed attempts, and it STILL DOES NOT WORK. I was contemplating using nandroid, but I will just wait for Verizon to push the OTA one to me =/

[ixianradeon Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:16PM]

What do i rename the file?

[gjl6378 Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:18PM]

@ixianradeon
You are supposed to rename it "update.zip"

make sure you just call it "update" if you are on win7 because it will show up as "update.zip.zip" if you do it incorrectly

[ECH Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:19PM]

@ixianradeon
update.zip

[JoshuaF Posted Mar 31st 2010 4:23PM]

@gjl6378 Thats not a Windows 7 issue, that is a setting that affects all versions of windows. Change under folder options.