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It’s not the software update Nexus 9 owners were expecting, but Google’s 9-inch tablet is now receiving a small (23.3MB) update to 5.0.2. It’s definitely surprising. A few days ago the Nexus 9 was the only Nexus tablet that didn’t have Android 5.1.1 factory images posted by Google. This seemed to hint at something dire, but later a Googler mentioned on Google+ that Android 5.1.1 was, in fact, soon headed to the tablet, only delayed because of a few last minute bugs.
Buggy software isn’t fun and Lollipop has been plagued with them since the initial 5.0 rollout. So, waiting a little longer for a bug-free update was definitely in everyone’s best interest, no matter how frustrating. We know the Nexus 9 feels like the black sheep of the Nexus family and before you get too upset, it’s entirely possible 5.0.2 is simply a necessary pit stop on the road to to 5.1.1. If nothing else, this could mean that Android 5.1 update is even closer than ever.
mine and my wife’s N9s work great stock out of the box,
once i bought a MIFI to work around the fact that VZW will never OK them on their network what else is there?
as long as all the apps keep updating what compelling reason is there to update it?
The memory leak means it works great out of the box, but then a few days later you can expect to see pretty bad performance issues.
It’s probably for Wi-Fi only. I’ve lost faith in Google and Android. Nexus 9 just isn’t living up to the hype. Google needs to stop taking people’s money if they can’t update their devices in a reasonable time.
This is just another level of fragmentation. It’s disheartening that of the fourteen Android devices I’ve owned. This about that. It’s almost always been in the name of performance and the software, be it Google like this case, Samsung like Galaxy S, or the LG G4 which was a POS FROM THE DAY I bought it, but I kept forgiving LG because I had faith in an update that didn’t come for almost a year. If Android devices aren’t going to be usable, and I mean OS side memory leaks, oem drivers, oem modding. What really upsets me it’s they’ve completely blocked us from fixing the trouble ourselves with voided warranties, but the limited warranties on these devices runs out before they patch the bugs.
Mike, glad your Nexus 9a are going strong, sadly I’ll be praying mine it’d for awhile while despising its existence and go back to my Note 10.1 2014 which will NEVER see lollipop, especially OTA because Samsung’s official ROM, I’m done with modding, coding warranty.
I love Android, I hate to see what I’ve seen since in the last year or two.
In the grand scheme of things, your anger should be directed at the OEM’s that you’re purchasing your products from. In the case of the Nexus 9, I can see why you (or anyone else) would be disappointed, but there are ways to fix that. You could flash my ROM and have the life breathed right back into your Flounder, but it’s not for everyone as some do not desire to tinker at all.
However, my argument for that is.. why did you buy a Nexus if you had no desire to tinker?
Because the Nexus devices are the best devices to leave stock. It’s the other devices that are unbearable stock, with few exceptions.
Lol can’t edit … Sorry about the lack of format. I am doing this from said Nexus 9. It only took me an hour.
Oh, foot note, I know sometimes going to mention the memory leaks being in third party apps. It’s not. During the second month of ownership I factory reset my device to give it the benefit of the doubt … So I’m only running stock. No installs, still the worst performing device I’ve owned.
The update bricked my Nexus 9. It has been swirling for over an hour and still has not stopped. I am going to try to download and manually update.
Update: I cannot do a manual update as the boot loader has never been unlocked. Tried a Factory Reset, initialization screen has been swirling for over 4 hours. It looks like the 5.0.2 update to my Nexus 9 bricked it. Calling Google in the morning. I wonder if all these delays have to do with it being the only 64 bit O/S hardware out there? Maybe it has to do with the small amount of RAM HTC put in the Nexus 9? Either way, this has been one frustrating device! Google should consider a free replacement program for Nexus 9 owners as this has been THE WORST device experience I have EVER had to deal with. Even worse than Windows 95 screen of deaths when it first came out.
Mine has been on ‘swirling screen’ for nearly 2 hours now. How are you going to download and update manually from this status? Grateful for any advice to get my N9 working!