Didn’t get your Donut 1.6 update yet? Here’s how to manually update

961 days ago by 90

T-Mobile has started their OTA rollout of the Android 1.6 Donut update. We’ve all been anxiously waiting, but if you don’t feel like waiting anymore, here’s how to do the update manually:

  1. Download the update file here for the G1. And here for the myTouch 3G.
  2. Rename the file update.zip and copy it to the root directory of your SD card. If you are on Windows and have file extensions hidden, then just name it update.
  3. After the file is copied, unmount the SD card and turn off you phone. Turn it back on by holding HOME+END.
  4. It will boot into a special update screen, then press Alt+S to apply the update from your SD card.
  5. Wait till it finishes, then hit HOME+BACK to reboot
  6. The bootup will take longer than normal, just let it finish.
  7. Enjoy some tasty Donuts!

A quick note, you do not have to have your phone rooted to update, but if you are rooted, this update will lose your root access. Questions, comments, issues? Let us know in the comments.

UPDATE: A reader wrote in with the process for myTouch owners:

There is no need to root or flash from a computer and upgrading is just as easy as with the G1. Put the update.zip file on the SD card, hold home+power until you get to the screen with the exclamation mark in a triangle. Once at that screen just press home+power again. It will take you to the recovery screen where you can use the trackball to to select “update from sd card”.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,


Ben is the owner/editor of The Android Site, as well as the main writer. He has been writing about Android related news since 2009 and obsessed with everything Google and Android related. You can find him on Reddit, Twitter, Google Plus and most other websites under the username benmarvin

Share This Post

Related Articles

← Older Comments
  • Jonathan

    My Phone Is Jail broken i did all the steps you said an when i hit ALT+S It says

    E:No signature (302 file)
    E:Verification failed
    Installation aborted

    Please Help!

    • http://www.theandroidsite.com Ben Marvin

      If your phone is rooted, you will have to use a rooted image to update. Or you can unroot, install 1.5, then upgrade to stock 1.6

  • Kenny

    i have the google ion (mytouch3g) that i got from a friend who went to the google conference. i was wondering how i would be able to upgrade to 1.6? i am on tmobile, but have not received a notice to upgrade OTA yet. i tried this method, but it did not work.

  • Kenny

    i got the same msg that jonathan above me got

  • Matti Henshaw

    Hi.

    I really need some help, my phone received the 1.6 update, but then it had to go back to T-Mobile for a repaire on the screen. When i got my phone bck it had the 1.5 update on it. Now i have followed the instrution from above, but i am haing no such luck getting my 1.6 bck. It says that it cant open the /sdcard/update.zip (no such file or directory)

    As you can tell im not very good with this stuff lol

    Can anyone please help, i hate the 1.5 lol

    Thanxz

  • Matti Henshaw

    @Matti Henshaw

    I have just retried, following the instructions again, and once i press the alt+s buttons, it starts to load, but only get half way and returns to the ! screen??

  • http://www.twitter.com/tifis Tifa^

    I can’t update my google ION (from google IO conference) phone to donut 1.6 yet. I’ve tried this method but it doesn’t work for me :(

  • Jeremy

    Try renaming the file to update only….no zip at the end.

  • jorge

    okay well i just did mine took me a while to figure this out ^_^ but this is how it went it turned out my phone was rooted.. went to unroot it back to factory stage.. and once it was back to normal came back here and dowloaded the file renamed as update (only) and followed the instructions worked for me!

  • rashod

    Where and what is the root directory?

  • mike

    What does the error Cant open/cache/recovery/command mean? What did i do wrong?

  • Chris

    Your amazing this works great and very easy to follow…i love it

  • Dane

    mike :
    What does the error Cant open/cache/recovery/command mean? What did i do wrong?

    O would like to know this as well…

  • gabe

    in my boot screen i pressed alt+s and nothing happened.

  • morfin

    hi,to update you need to rename the file UPDATE,,,,, NO UPDATE.ZIP IF YOU DO THAT YOU GET the error Cant open/cache/recovery/command ;)

  • http://none bill

    ok… this doesnt help.. none of it… i hold HOME & POWER button on my mytouch 3g phone and it gives EXCLAMATION MARK screen and just sits there… i named file UPDATE.zip.. thats not the problem… what the he!!

  • http://none bill

    nevermind… i got it… just had to read threw this whole THREAD again…. thanks! :)

  • me

    failure at line 2

  • Napishi

    * don’t forget to UNMOUNT the SD card before turning off your phone :)
    * If you get an error “Cant open/cache/recovery/command” – proceed wit the update, it’ll install.

  • polo

    ok guys try UPDATE for those using tmobile mytouch 3g rename it UPDATE in caps it worked for me

  • Rosa

    didnt worqk with mine :/

  • roadster3043

    Can this be done with Samsung Behold 2?

    Thanks

  • xmk817x

    ok so i up loaded the 1.6 version to my phone but its been on the mytouch 3g green screen for like 5 minutes now does it take that long?

  • millet

    listen follow the instructions above but i repeat do not rename it to update.zip only the following: (update) no .zip just update, and i will work.

  • josh

    I will still get future OTA updates using this method correct?

  • chrispy

    I’m trying to update to 1.6, and when I install update from SD card it goes to:

    Installing from sdcard…
    Finding update package…
    Opening update package…
    Verifying update package…
    Installing update…
    E:Failure at line 2:
    assert file_contains(“SYSTEM:build.prop”, “ro.build.fingerprint=tmobile/kila/dream/trout:1.5/CRC1/150275:user/ota-rel-keys,release-keys”) == “true” || file_contains(“SYSTEM:build.prop”, “ro.build.fingerprint=tmobile/kila/dream/trout:1Installation aborted.

    Press Home+Back to reboot

    Soo what do I do now? Wait for T-Mobile to bump the update to me? Please shoot me an email at chrispysaid@gmail.com if you can help me out with this issue…

  • Paul

    I can’t get the special update screen, instead I’m in Safe Mode

  • Stephanie

    THANKS! this was a big help :D

  • Karthik

    Hi. while i’m trying to upgrade it gives signature verification as failed… what to do

  • stucklikechuck

    ok, it says something about no signatures. what now?

  • stucklikechuck

    ok, now i get failure at line 2

  • stucklikechuck

    ok i got it. there seems to be two different files that can be put on your phone. one UK the other US i guess

  • Johnnie

    Just what I’m looking for. Perfectly unrooted back to 1.5 factory and then updated it to 1.6 easily with your steps. THANKS!!! -Johnnie

  • Steve-o

    Does any know know where to find this MyTouch 3G link? The one on the article is no longer there?

  • Johnny

    um will that 1.6 update work on my samsung behold 2 ?????

  • Johnny

    never mind I cannot find the 1.6 update

    and those two links above do not work

    instead I get a NOT FOUND page

  • http://www.theandroidsite.com Ben Marvin

    @Johnny
    Yeah, those links were for the G1 and MyTouch when 1.6 first came out. And the links have since been changed.

  • Johnny

    @Ben Marvin
    does that mean its no longer available??

    to download anymore????

← Older Comments
© 2012 The Android Site. All rights reserved. Site Admin · Entries RSS · Comments RSS
Powered by WordPress · Designed by Theme Junkie