Whether it’s because you need to apply a security patch, update an app or download a new operating system on your mobile, you always have the opportunity to go to the data network to download the installation file. However, this is not entirely recommended, as we explain below.
Is it recommended to do it?
Well, everything will depend from the prism with which you look at it. As usual, update Android without being connected to a Wi-Fi network It is not recommended at all because a new version of the operating system usually takes up a lot of time. The normal thing is that the weight of the package is between 1 and 3 GB. It is clear that, depending on the data plan that we have contracted with our telephone company, it will mean more or less effort. Basically because it can consume all the gigabytes that we have established in our monthly contract.
However, today there are fees for unlimited data that make you not worry about the consumption of GB, so it is another good option to download large files without fearing possible ‘blows’ on the telephone bill.
In addition, we must take into account what type of update we are talking about. If it’s an operating system, we’ve already said that it’s too heavy to download with a ‘short’ data plan, but if we’re talking about a security patch, which usually takes up a few MB, there’s no problem downloading it to your mobile and install it without being connected to a Wi-fi connection.
Ways to update your Android
Once you know all the risks to which you expose yourself, it’s time to try the alternative downloads that we can find for Android phones.
Use your data plan
Depending on the type of device you have, you can use mobile data to update android in one way or another. Some manufacturers do not allow this, but you will usually need to enter the system update or Wi-Fi settings to be able to download large files such as an Android package without having to be connected to a wireless connection.
- Option A: Go to the Settings app and select Wi-Fi at the top of the screen. Then select Advanced settings or Wi-Fi settings and activate the option ‘Switch to mobile data automatically’, which will allow you to use mobile data when your wireless network does not have access to the Internet
Once enabled, swipe down from the top of the phone, turn off your wireless connection, and download the update.
- Option B: Go to the Settings app and select System or About phone at the bottom of the screen. Once inside, select the System Update option. The pending update or if the device is up to date will appear here. Click on the settings icon in the upper right corner and inside indicate that you want to download the package without Wi-fi.
Download the package manually
This option is quite similar to the previous one, only that instead of working on the OTA update of the mobile, you can download the software package to your phone to install it manually. To do this, you must first download the official software for your device from the manufacturer’s website:
Then you must follow this step-by-step guide to manually install a new operating system on each mobile. However, before we get to work, there are a number of important points that we should take a look at before installing an update on the device manually:
before daring to update the mobile It is important that we take several aspects into account, such as:
- Manual ones can erase data from the phone. For this reason, it is of vital importance that we save the files on other devices or in a cloud service known as Google Drive, Dropbox or similar.
- During this process, errors and problems may appear.
- Keep in mind that only official methods keep us protected by the manufacturer’s warranty for our terminal.
How to install it manually
If you want to manually install an update manually on your Android mobile, you will only have to download the firmware of your model and ROM on one of the websites of the brand of your smartphone as we have shared with you previously.
To carry out the process, we must bear in mind that the steps will vary depending on the manufacturer. So we will give you some general steps with which you can guide yourself to perform manual installation of the new version of the software on your own.
From the phone
The steps that we must follow will depend on whether our phone is capable of downloading and installing the update file without resorting to a computer. To do this, we must do the following:
- Download the firmware for your phone.
- We move the file to the root folder with a file explorer.
- Then we go into Settings > System > Updates so that it detects the firmware (in the case of Xiaomi we will do it from Settings> About the phone> MIUI> tap on the three points> select the update package).
from PC
On the other hand, there are smartphones to which we can only install a new version from its official computer tool. As is the case with brands like Samsung or Huawei.
- Install the program on your PC.
- Connect the mobile to the computer.
- download the firmware for your smartphone on the computer.
- Open the tool and wait for it to detect the new software version you have downloaded. Finally, update the device.
And what about the apps?
If what you want is update play store apps, and not the system or apply a security patch, you do not need to touch the mobile settings, but you do need to touch the Android store settings. In this case, you must choose to have the updates applied using any network, not just Wi-Fi.
Open Play Store, click on the upper left button that displays the side menu and, below, select Settings. Inside go to ‘Application Download Preference’ and select ‘On any Network’.