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CW Larson
Gay, Liberal, Tech Geek that loves Starbucks, Zombies and the Paranormal with an Android core!

Nexus 9 OTA Update — No Command

This story takes place on a warm, sunny day in July after Google started pushing out the usual OTA updates out to Nexus devices. Only this time, my poor Nexus 9 decided to not take it so well. After a simple download and alerting me to install, I went ahead, as a 14.4 MB install package shouldn’t take long. After a quick “install” of the update and a reboot, I find myself in a state of shock while looking at a poor Android with its chest open and a red exclamation mark above it, with some nice red text below stating “No Command”.

First instinct is to just reboot, no dice. No wanting to reset my device just yet, how about contacting Google Nexus support. The person was very courteous and we go through these steps;

No Command
  1. Boot into recovery mode
  2. Wipe the cache (didn’t work)
  3. Wipe data/factory reset (didn’t work)

The support person jumps off before we perform the device reset to assist other users which is perfectly fine since that part takes a while, but sent me an email to reply to once it is complete so they can help further if needed. I reply to that email saying it hasn’t work but start researching this issue more. After much research, I found the method that worked for me;

  1. Install the SDK tools for Android (comes in two flavors; with or without Android Studio depending on your needs)
  2. Download the OTA update file you are wanting to install, most likely the latest. Once downloaded, move that file into where your adb.exe is located in the last step.
  3. Open a command line where those tools are installed. The easiest way in Windows is to hold Shift while right-clicking in the directory (most likely here; C:\Users\<INSERT YOUR USERNAME>\AppData\Local\Android\sdk\platform-tools)
  4. Connect your device to your PC
  5. Get your device into fastboot/recovery mode. Since my device didn’t have USB Debug on, I couldn’t use ADB to boot there.
  6. Select the option Apply update from ADB which puts the device into a waiting mode to receive the OTA update zip from your PC.
  7. Back on your command window, type adb sideload (ota file from step 6’s name.zip)
  8. Now play the waiting game while it does its magic, and then reboot your device on completion.