Reasons why your phone hasn't received new Android update yet

Most common question we get through our social media channels is "Why my phone hasn't received the new Android yet?". So, we try to answer this question in this article as well as we can.

1. Your phone model doesn't have an update - at all

Most obvious answer is this. Maybe your phone simply doesn't have an update available to it. Your phone might have reached the end of its support life and will not get a new Android - ever.

Another option is that your phone still has some support lifeline yet, but the manufacturer hasn't created an update for your phone yet. For some manufacturers, building a new Android update might take months - or even more than a year - after Google has released the first official new Android build.

Best way to determine if there actually is an existing update for your phone, is to go through our website and to use our search. By searching your specific phone model, you should see what the current status for your phone is.

2. Only unlocked phones are getting the update for now

Very often manufacturers roll out the latest updates in batches. First batch is usually for those ones that use unlocked phone - i.a. a phone that is not purchased from an operator/a carrier and can be used in any network without separate unlocking process.

3. Updates aren't available to your region yet

Another typical way to split the update process is to deliver updates country-by-country. This means that some countries get the update much sooner than others.

There is absolutely nothing you can do about this, as phones sold in different regions (say, Americas and Asia, for example) are actually slightly different - they support different networks and might even have some different internal components. So, installing an Asia-specific update to a U.S. phone normally just can't be done.

4. Your operator is acting as a gatekeeper

This one is annoying. Some operators are pretty nuisance to the Android ecosystem and wont let the updates go through to their customers. This happens more often in North America and South America than in other regions.

Operators do this mostly to ensure that their own bloatware that your phone shipped with when you purchased from your operator, will work with the new Android, too.

Again, there's absolutely nothing you can do about this in most cases, other than to complain to your operator's customer service.

5. You have installed a beta version of Android

This happens every now and then. It has happened to us, too. You have been excited about the prospect of getting a shiny new beta version of Android operating system to your phone. You got it, you installed it and you enjoyed the flashy new Android well before your friends got it.

But... Very often installing a beta will also stop the phone from receiving official Android updates, too. So, once the new, stable and official version is out, your beta version of an Android just wont receive the update. At all.

Only way to remedy this is to visit your phone manufacturer's page and seek for instructions on how to "exit" the beta and go back to the "regular Joe" schedule.

Hope this little guide explained why your phone isn't receiving the latest Android update, even tho our site clearly says there's one available for it.