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Google borks Nexus 6 with screwy over-the-air Android 7.0 downgrade

A meltdown week for the Chocolate Factory

Google’s bad week continues with an emborkened Android update pushed to some Nexus 6 users.

A serious cockup at the Chocolate Factory caused an over-the-air (OTA) downgrade to people who had side-loaded Android 7.1.1, dropping them back to Android 7.0 and sending their phones into meltdown.

“It makes no sense," complained someone calling themselves the Crazy Android Monster. "[My phone] was on 7.1.1 – it had been sideloaded a couple months ago. The update said 7.0. The update went through and nearly everything in the OS now crashes. I am going to have to sideload the latest factory image.”

The crashes aren’t surprising: the correct downgrade path on a ‘droid is wipe and factory reset, not, well, a weird OTA.

Google finally chimed in on Wednesday to ‘fess up: “There was a recent OTA update for Android 7.0 that is causing confusion for some Nexus 6 users. For those of you that want to guarantee future OTA updates, you will need to get back on the 7.0 supported track. If you are experiencing issues after accepting the 7.0 update, please factory reset your device to help resolve any problems.

“For any Nexus 6 users that want to continue flashing/sideloading future builds, you can stay on 7.1.1 and continue to do so.”

Unpicking Google’s contribution: having accidentally sent an OTA for 7.0 to users on 7.1.1, those who blinked at the wrong moment and pressed “install” now have to run a factory reset; and if they want to get future OTAs, they need to be good children and stick with the 7.0 track.

However: if this Google blog post from January was correct, Nexus 6 isn’t on the list for future OTA upgrades.

Either way, the screwed-over and irritated fandroids have to factory reset, choose whether they’re going to re-install Android 7.0 or 7.1.1, and remember not to press “install” on future OTA upgrades that they probably won’t receive. ®

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