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

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”.

  1. Nathan
    November 10th, 2009 at 02:46 | #1

    Edit:
    Apparantly I hadn’t read ALL the reply’s here as the link seems to have been provided :-p

  2. Jonathan
    November 11th, 2009 at 15:26 | #2

    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!

  3. Kenny
    November 13th, 2009 at 15:15 | #3

    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.

  4. Kenny
    November 13th, 2009 at 17:45 | #4

    i got the same msg that jonathan above me got

  5. Matti Henshaw
    November 21st, 2009 at 15:47 | #5

    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

  6. Matti Henshaw
    November 21st, 2009 at 16:41 | #6

    @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??

  7. November 22nd, 2009 at 12:56 | #7

    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

  8. November 23rd, 2009 at 11:58 | #8

    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 :(

  9. Jeremy
    December 8th, 2009 at 19:24 | #9

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

  10. jorge
    December 11th, 2009 at 18:13 | #10

    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!

  11. rashod
    December 14th, 2009 at 18:58 | #11

    Where and what is the root directory?

  12. mike
    December 14th, 2009 at 19:40 | #12

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

  13. Chris
    December 21st, 2009 at 20:46 | #13

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

  14. Dane
    December 26th, 2009 at 16:50 | #14

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

    O would like to know this as well…

  15. gabe
    January 22nd, 2010 at 16:37 | #15

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

  16. morfin
    January 23rd, 2010 at 12:49 | #16

    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 ;)

  17. January 24th, 2010 at 12:06 | #17

    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!!

  18. January 24th, 2010 at 12:09 | #18

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

  19. me
    January 28th, 2010 at 14:22 | #19

    failure at line 2

  20. Napishi
    February 7th, 2010 at 17:53 | #20

    * 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.

  21. polo
    February 9th, 2010 at 20:12 | #21

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

  22. Rosa
    February 13th, 2010 at 07:04 | #22

    didnt worqk with mine :/

  23. roadster3043
    February 15th, 2010 at 06:27 | #23

    Can this be done with Samsung Behold 2?

    Thanks

  24. xmk817x
    February 16th, 2010 at 00:41 | #24

    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?

  25. millet
    February 17th, 2010 at 09:19 | #25

    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.

  26. josh
    February 18th, 2010 at 08:16 | #26

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

  27. chrispy
    February 22nd, 2010 at 00:23 | #27

    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…

  28. Paul
    March 5th, 2010 at 15:39 | #28

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

  29. Stephanie
    March 21st, 2010 at 16:36 | #29

    THANKS! this was a big help :D

  30. Karthik
    March 31st, 2010 at 20:07 | #30

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

  31. stucklikechuck
    April 11th, 2010 at 19:38 | #31

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

  32. stucklikechuck
    April 11th, 2010 at 20:27 | #32

    ok, now i get failure at line 2

  33. stucklikechuck
    April 11th, 2010 at 20:42 | #33

    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

  34. Johnnie
    April 28th, 2010 at 11:53 | #34

    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

  35. Steve-o
    July 13th, 2010 at 18:38 | #35

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

  36. Johnny
    July 23rd, 2010 at 12:29 | #36

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

  37. Johnny
    July 23rd, 2010 at 12:31 | #37

    never mind I cannot find the 1.6 update

    and those two links above do not work

    instead I get a NOT FOUND page

  38. July 23rd, 2010 at 12:33 | #38

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

  39. Johnny
    July 23rd, 2010 at 12:34 | #39

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

    to download anymore????

  40. July 23rd, 2010 at 12:39 | #40

    I don’t have an updated link for it. Check maybe some of the Samsung forums for the behold II update. Like maybe here: http://androidforums.com/samsung-behold-2/

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