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HTC One M8 and M7 Google Play editions will receive Android 5.0 Lollipop this Friday, Nov 21st

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HTC One Google Play Edition DSC01017

It’s safe to say the road to Android 5.0 Lollipop has suffered from its share of road bumps along the way. Although Google never actually came out and said the update was delayed, last minute bugs and over-the-air updates could have been the reason for the hold up. Maybe that’s why we nobody was too upset that the HTC One M8 and HTC One M7 Google Play editions still haven’t received their Lollipop upgrades.

For the few who purchased one of these 2 devices, you wont have to wait too much longer before you too can partake in Lollipop goodness (hopefully with less bugs), HTC’s VP of Product Management Mo Versi revealed on Twitter that the update is scheduled to roll out this Friday after suffering from some last minutes delays. Now that’s the kinda transparency we like.

Ironically enough, we think the people most concerned with the new update are those with rooted, carrier branded HTC One M8/M7s. As soon as the update is issued they’ll finally have a new mostly “stock” Android 5.0 Lollipop ROM to flash onto their devices vs the mostly buggy AOSP ROMs compiled from source. Anyone out there with with an official Google Play edition HTC One M8 or M7?

Chris Chavez
I've been obsessed with consumer technology for about as long as I can remember, be it video games, photography, or mobile devices. If you can plug it in, I have to own it. Preparing for the day when Android finally becomes self-aware and I get to welcome our new robot overlords.

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34 Comments

  1. wow, very happy for these users. if you’re reading this, you’re gonna LOVE lollipop :)

    1. I got Lollipop on my Nexus 7 (2012). The tablet went from slow to unusable.
      Clearing the cache and excess kid games helped, but only a little. I hope my M8 fares better.

      1. oh dang that sucks dude, i’m sorry to hear that. i’m sure your M8 will handle it just fine

    2. Definitely enjoying it on the nexus 5 . got ota last night and w a master reset and wiping of cache I’m on lollipop .. Got tired of waiting :)

      1. woah, i would never do that, but hey, at least it got you that lollipop

        1. Yeah I don’t recommend it. But with effort and patience it works. You got yours just from ota or did you side load it?

          1. i got the OTA, but when it was rebooting, it stayed on the boot animation for a couple of hours so i had to do a factory reset

  2. When can my N5 get it without me side loading it?

  3. Were is the rest of the pack.

  4. I’ll believe it when I see it on mine.

  5. While I still wait on my damn Nexus 7 to update OTA!

    1. Me too! N7 2013. Hopefully you don’t do a lot of media consumption because it apparently mostly breaks streaming video. Even YouTube. Luckily I have several other Android slates and an iPad for video. I just want to play around with Lollipop!

      1. I got lollipop on all my nexus devices nexus 7, nexus 10 , nexus 5 I am not seeing any video streaming issue on YouTube or netflix. Must be a FUD as usual if you all stock shouldn’t be any issue

        1. It’s supposedly specifically the Nexus 7. Android Police have an article about it. Maybe you lucked out :)

          http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/11/16/some-nexus-7-2013-units-are-having-video-playback-issues-after-updating-to-lollipop/

    2. Looks like not the only one

  6. Woo hoo cant wait. Rather it be a bit late and perfect, than early and buggy. Its Wednesday already…Friday not far.

  7. I’m definitely going to be flashing a port of this on my vzw m8. Can’t wait :D

  8. I have a HTC One M7 (Red) and M8 (Grey) converted to GPE so it can do the OTAs. Being from UK, this is the only way for me to get these.

    Patiently waiting… Even started following Mo Versi on twitter for these updates.

    I love HTC phones, coupled with vanilla android, they are better than the Nexus series IMHO. (I also own both the Nexus 4 and 5)

    1. By converted, do you mean that you initially go Sense 6 but rooted and installed the ROM on the M8? I’ve got an M8 with Sense 6 and was wondering if you can provide some dos/don’ts before I convert mine to GPE. I’ll appreciate any help. Thanks.

      1. I mean full conversion to GPE. This requires turning “s-off” HTC’s bootloader security.

        Biggest issue is getting S-OFF. I had to use TheRoot Ninja’s “sunshine” app as my bootloader was to new for “firewater”.

        “Sunshine” costs $25 per device, so i had to buy that twice (for both devices) as all other routes failed. Also to use “sunshine” you still have to root, so you need to sign up for HTC dev’s site and ticket etc to get root.

        1. Great thanks. So rooting the M8 would be more involved than something like a Nexus device?

          1. Sorry, i assumed you already gained root.

            Gaining root is only half the work.

            Requires you to make a HTC dev account, fastboot etc.
            http://htconeroot.com/htc-one-root/how-to-root-htc-one-m8/

            If your confident in following those instructions, gaining s-off is easy, as long as your willing to pay $25.

            Once you have s-off, it is simply flashing a rom image.

            Nexus devices, for you to get bootloader unlocked for flashing images, root etc, is one line command using fastboot. Really easy!

            XDA forums have all all the answers.

          2. Sunshine no longer requires HTCdev.com unlock and root first.

            Rooting an HTC is very much like a Nexus except you need an unlock token for the bootloader.

            Unlock bootloader, install custom recovery, install SuperSU or a stock rooted rom.

            Not difficult.

          3. I am unaware if any other way of rooting without htcdev,com, but he may be right.

          4. From the Sunshine changelog –

            Version 1.6
            SunShine no longer needs TowelRoot, WeakSauce or for the device to be HTCDev unlocked. SunShine will gain root on it’s own, and unlock/s-off your device. It will not install su, you will still need to install su and recovery yourself if you wish to do so,

            That’s how Verizon M8 users (below 4.4.4) have been getting root love. Those on Verizon 4.4.4 have to wait for the Sunshine 3 revision.

          5. My only recommendation to anyone converting their Sense M8 to GPE is to make sure you perform a Nandroid backup using the custom recovery. In case things don’t work out with the new ROM (like me), you don’t want to have to hunt around for a stock ROM (again, like me).

          6. This. Always make a nandroid before changing your rom.

          7. @EarlyMon:disqus or @haydorkhan:disqus, I installed the stock rooted 4.4.2 on the M8 and then got the 4.4.3 and 4.4.4 OTA updates. But the wifi doesn’t start now, nor does the camera. Have you seen anything like this before?

          8. Yep. Go into TWRP, wipe cache and Dalvik – that usually fixes those sorts of things. And if you like to go with the stock rooted Sense rom, you’ll love the ViperOneM8 rom.

          9. Thanks for your insight. I will try converting my M8 to GPE. I love the pure Google experience of a Nexus 5, but the speed and camera of the M8. It would be great to get both in one device.

        2. I wanted to thank you once again for pointing me in the right direction.

          With the info you shared, I was able to S-OFF, root, etc. and convert my M8 to GPE. I did try the Firewater method but that didn’t work so I used the Sunshine app also, which worked like a charm.

          I soft bricked my phone once so had to go into recovery and re-flash the ROM.

  9. Great! I have a rooted HTC One and will flash this ROM as soon as it’s available :)

  10. I have an AT&T branded M8 but I flashed the RUU for GPe so I should be good to go on Friday. Just flashed stock recovery last night from TWRP. So excited!

  11. I have an HTC One M7, originally standard but completely converted to GPE so I now receive the OTA updates. Fingers crossed the updates start rolling out today as planned!

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