How to Manually Update your Nexus One to Froyo

Today I said to myself, “I’ve had enough of the delays in receiving the over-the-air (OTA) Froyo (Android 2.2) update to my Nexus One phone!” My friend Aileen got hers weeks ago and it makes me wonder why because we got our phones only a week (or two) apart. Another buddy of mine Winston prodded me to update mine manually like he did. I hooked up my phone to my PC, did this and that, and presto… my Nexus One is *finally* up-to-date.

Here’s what I did.

1. I downloaded this 44mb Froyo update file to my PC and renamed it to “update.zip”.
2. I copied the file to the root/main/first level folder of my Nexus One’s SD card.
3. I turned off my phone.
4. I booted my phone to recovery mode by holding down the trackball, and pressing the power button.
5. Using the power button, I chose Bootloader from the menu.
5. Using the Volume button I scroll down and chose Recovery from the menu.
6. The phone will restart. The Android mascot appears on my screen beside a street sign with a big exclamation mark. I then press the Volume Up and Power buttons at the same time.
7. Using the trackball, I chose Apply sdcard:update.zip.
8. The phone will start updating itself. I waited about 5-7 minutes for it to complete.
9. The Android mascot will appear about two times more before the phone finishes the update and restarts.
10. When that happens, congratulate yourself for successfully updating your phone. 🙂

Now, the funny thing is during the initial power on, some applications will not work correctly. When I tried to use the Camera and Calendar, I got an error saying these apps are not installed. I also noticed that their icons were all wrong. I panicked, but I thought perhaps the update was still happening. And I was right. I waited a bit more until the apps got their old icons back, and they worked perfectly. I love the new camera. Its options are now onscreen, rather than in the clunky old side menu that I hated. The main interface didn’t change much, except for the Phone and Internet icons docked beneath the home screen. I noticed that the response of the touchscreen is snappier. I was expecting more live wallpapers, but didn’t find any. Too bad. I’m loving this update though. Hope you will too.