[International / GSM] How to delete partially downloaded System Update?

[tbessie]

Hey all...

My Galaxy Nexus (unrooted) started downloading the latest update (JellyBean), but I had spotty connectivity on wifi, and it started/stopped a bunch of times.

I'm sure the System Update process knows to validate the download once it gets the whole thing, but is there any way I can REMOVE the partially downloaded System Update? I can't find a mention of how to do that anywhere. I want to delete any pieces of the update that have been downloaded already and start from scratch, basically.

- Tim

 

[Petrah]

I don't think you can do that. At least, not to my current knowledge. Perhaps someone else will have some options for you to try. Not sure if factory resetting would help or not (assuming you are not rooted since you have to unroot and relock to obtain a successful update).

 

[tbessie]

Oh well, it didn't matter too much anyway - when I tried later, System Update said that the last one had failed, and started from scratch anyway. There was probably a time-limit on any given download attempt.

Thanks for your suggestions anyway!

- Tim

 

[scary alien]

Sorry I'm a little late to this party, but I thought I'd chime-in real quick about how OTAs (system updates) work (or at least how I think they work ).

The OTA is really just a .zip file that gets downloaded by Android to your /cache partition. If it fails, it'll replace the one that's currently there (or maybe is smart enough to know it was a partial download and add to it...dunno).

When it thinks the download is complete, you'll get prompted to install it. If you give permission, the phone will shut down and reboot into whatever recovery is currently installed on your device.

An OTA installation actually happens via the recovery image installed on your recovery partition. Typically, only a stock recovery will successfully install the OTA .zip file (I think custom recoveries could do this, but there's kind of an assumption that if you've installed a custom recovery that you don't want to take an OTA update; it could also be that there are asserts checks in the OTA's .zip file that double-check to see if you've got a stock recovery installed).

Anyway, if you've got a stock recovery installed, AND a full / complete / non-corrupt OTA .zip file downloaded, AND you haven't deleted/renamed/moved any system files that the OTA .zip file might reference and want to update/replace (that's what the assert checks are for in the installation script--to make sure that you've got a system that's compatible for updating--remember, you're not typically installing a whole new OS here, just the pieces and parts that have changed, so everything's got to be stock (extra files like the su binary and the Superuser.apk won't throw him off, though)), then the OTA installation will proceed to update your system.

(sorry for the very long, run-on sentence above )

So, downloading a partial OTA / system update is not a bad thing...he'll protect you and won't do a partial installation.

Hope that helps!

Cheers .