Android users have complained of booting issues after installing over-the-air (OTA) preview firmware as part of Android N Beta Program. Now Google has addressed the problem and issued a fix.
Android lovers had thought that Google will discuss about the next Android operating system at the Google I/O in May. However, the Internet company surprised fans with the roll of the developers preview for the next operating system.
"By releasing the first preview and asking for your feedback now (in March!), we'll be able to act on that feedback while still being able to hand off the final N release to device makers this summer, so they can get their hands on the latest version of Android earlier than ever," says Hiroshi Lockheimer, Google's senior VP for Android, Chrome OS and Chromecast.
However, many users complained that the preview has resulted in soft bricking of their devices.
"Enrolled in the Android N preview update. I got the OTA update and started the process. It got to the Android logo and it said 'system updating' or something similar. After a while I see an Android logo on its back and the word ERROR! underneath it. It rebooted itself after a couple minutes but it stays stuck at the Google logo," complained an Android user.
Google is aware of the issue and has laid down procedure, which may be helpful in recovering devices that received the OTA preview and now do not start after the update was installed.
Google suggests that for installing the OTA package successfully to an affected device, customers should follow the below steps:
1) Download the device specific image from Google.
2) Customers should then reboot their device in Recovery mode.
3) Select ADB sideload on the device.
4) Users should connect their device to a computer system with the Android development environment loaded and the Android Debug Bridge (adb) tool installed.
5) Run the below command:
adb sideload
The above procedure will fix the soft bricking issue.
Google suggests that developers can expect an update each month and expect the final release of the operating system in Q3 of 2016.
The latest Android 6.0 Marshmallow was known as Android M for many months. It seems that Google will not confirm the name of the upcoming operating system at least for the next few months and fans will have to refer it as Android N.
Developers may not be bothered much about the name of Google's upcoming mobile operating system. For now the developers will be happy that Google has swiftly issued a fix for the booting issue.
