Google releases Android 4.4.3 factory images for Nexus devices

New Android version brings redesigned Phone app along with anticipated bug fixes

In an effort to create a balance in the force, Google has dropped the Android 4.4.3 image for the Nexus 5, Nexus 7 2013 (excluding the LTE version at present), Nexus 7 2012, Nexus 4 and Nexus 10 on their downloads page. It's a 440-465MB download, and you'll need fastboot set up to install it. We've not yet seen any OTA updates, but we imagine they are coming if you'd rather wait. More details and download links after the break.

So far the only major change we're seeing is a visual refresh to the Phone app, bringing a card-based view for "Speed Dial" contacts along with a new accent color. The update is also expected to fix bugs relating to CPU usage and the Nexus 5 camera that were acknowledged by Google a couple months back.

Download the Android 4.4.3 factory images for your Nexus devices

Thanks, Seth!

Jerry Hildenbrand
Senior Editor — Google Ecosystem

Jerry is an amateur woodworker and struggling shade tree mechanic. There's nothing he can't take apart, but many things he can't reassemble. You'll find him writing and speaking his loud opinion on Android Central and occasionally on Twitter.

102 Comments
  • Not only for Nexus 5 but also for Nexus 4, Nexus 7 both generation and Nexus 10. Posted via Android Central App
  • I am on Nexus 4 (currently kitkat 4.4.2) and I'm still waiting for the update. My battery drains in 4 to 6 hours my phone reboots and I'm having wifi problems I need the update! Somewhat patiently waiting lol!
  • I thought all the nexus 4 and 5, had all been updated with 4.4? Posted via Android Central App
  • Maybe it's 4.4.3 Posted from my Motorola Moto G
  • I checked the source. It's 4.4.3. Is that the newest?? Posted from my Motorola Moto G
  • Yup that's the latest update Posted via Android Central App
  • The Nexus 5 comes with 4.4.2 .... which currently is the latest. This update is to 4.4.3. And of course ... Nexus gets the goodies first!
  • Didn't it come with 4.4.1 or are they now shipping with 4.4.2? Mine took it's sweet ass time updating when I was trying to activate it on Sprint right before leaving for a bachelor's party trip, so it definitely didn't come with the latest! And the Sprint activation was a bit of a PITA, tho I guess I'm lucky in that I got the SIM card w/o any issue whatsoever (or UIUC or whatever they call it).
  • Yeah they are 4.4.2 before this update Posted via Android Central App
  • Nice 4.4.3 is out.
  • So what's in the change log? All my Nexus seem pretty happy with 4.4.2 :) Is it really 0.0.1 louder?
  • I think just mainly bug fixes. Posted via Android Central App
  • I have used four different 2013 N7 and using a bluetooth headset/mouse makes hangout video calls freeze without fail, print spooler force closes often when I select a google cloud printer, and I have to reboot sometimes because of "camera has failed" error. So I hope this is a whole lot of bug squashing. Improvements to ART would not hurt either haha
  • Got to get to WIFI to download quick! Nah, I'll just wait and see what's up with this update before I install. Posted via Android Central App
  • how do I update to 4.4.3 without loosing data? Downloaded the factory image but what next?
  • I think the only way to not lose data is to wait for the OTA file and either let the phone finally get it or download the incremental update and sideload it with adb.
  • Guess I'll wait for the OTA file or try to sideload it when available.
  • If your bootloader is already unlocked you can manually flash the individual zips or edit the bat file so it doesn't wipe your data (might work with a locked bootloader, not sure). Go on now little bird, fly off to the forums. Fly, fly, fly. Fly, fly, fly. Posted via Android Central App
  • I don't think it will work with a locked boot loader, because unlocking the boot loader wipes the phone.
  • Me neither, but I'm thinking if you edit the batch file so that it doesn't wipe data, then flash using the batch file it may work with a locked bootloader because AFAIK you don't need an unlocked bootloader to flash a factory image. It may not work because MD5 checks and such. I don't know, I've never tried. Posted via Android Central App
  • You do need an unlocked boot loader to flash a factory image. You will need to wait for an OTA update to sideload.
  • Well, now I know. I've always unlocked mine on day one, so I've never run into an issue. I should've known better really, as last time I flashed a factory image it didn't re-lock it. Posted via Android Central App
  • if you omit flashing the recovery and userdata you will keep your custom recovery and all your data. All you have to flash is system,boot,radio and cache. I have always done this with no issues at all. To regain root all you have to do is flash the superuser zip.
  • how do you flash specific files?
  • You could do a backup of things. Mainly pictures music contacts and messages. No point in doing app data unless its for a game. Posted via Android Central App
  • Finally!!! I need this for my Moto G Battery Life Sucks!!! Posted via Android Central App
  • It's for Nexus devices. Also battery life on your Moto G should not suck. :/ I get a good 2 days of moderate to heavy use before I need to plug in. Posted from my Motorola Moto G
  • Everyday for me. Posted via Android Central App
  • I find that the screen is the biggest drain. My brightness is what many would consider too low but I like the extra juice I get from it. Posted from my Motorola Moto G
  • Either way, I've never this good battery life from any phone I've had before. Moto G is awesome. Posted via Android Central App
  • Is the leaked dialer included?
    http://www.androidpolice.com/2014/04/24/leaked-screenshot-shows-alleged-...
  • Yup its there in the Nexus 5 update. Don't know if it's there in Nexus 4. Posted via Android Central App
  • It's there. Period. It's awesome!
  • i dont have a nexus, BUT this makes me more excited to see what they are going to give us at IO. I honestly thought they would be releasing this at IO.
  • 4.4.3 seems like too much of an incremental update to be worthy of I/O.
  • 4.5 at I/O would rock. Posted from my Motorola Moto G
  • 5.0 would be better but I think they will save that when Android Silver launches. Sent from my Nexus 5 :-D
  • 5.0 and a new name tag. Posted from my Motorola Moto G
  • Thats what i was thinking too but the closer we got to IO without the 4.4.3 release made me wonder! Now i am PUMPED
  • 4.4.3 are just bugfixes. At Google I/O they are releasing 4.5 or 5.0! If 4.4.3 would be their only topic, the keynote would be over in 5 mins top ;)
  • I dont care about version number BUT... i want something significant, and a jump to 4.5 doesnt seem worthy of a significant UI change... its gotta be 5.0.... lol!!
  • There will be no Android update at I/O. This seals that deal. They wouldn't bother with this update to push another one a few weeks later. Maybe this update contains preparations for a larger update, but I think that is unlikely. We will probably see a new version of Android with the Nexus 8 in July.
  • New nexus and new android are usually launched together. Of course the new nexus might be called something else this time. With so much functionality in Google play services these days they can release big updates without bumping the os version. Posted via Android Central App
  • Already updated my N5 to 4.4.3
  • Did you lose any data? Posted via Android Central App
  • yep.
  • Thanks Posted via Android Central App
  • How is Battey and camera performance
  • Is it safe to upgrade if you have custom recovery installed and will there be any problems with losing root or getting root back?
    I'm getting leery of any updates anymore especially since there's rumors about google trying to block root exploits once and for all. Posted via Android Central App
  • I'm guessing the update will fail if you try to update using a custom recovery.
  • If you do a straight flash of the factory image you'll lose root and your custom recovery. You can extract the individual files and omit flashing the new recovery image and that *should* work. (I say should because I haven't flashed it myself yet.) Posted via Android Central App
  • correct if you omit flashing the recovery and userdata you will keep your custom recovery and all your data. All you have to flash is system,boot,radio and cache. I have always done this with no issues at all. To regain root all you have to do is flash the superuser zip.
  • hi, im new to this, do you not have to flash the recovery? only system, boot, radio and cache? and where can i get the superuser zip
  • I hope the OTA hits soon, don't feel like losing all my data, Posted via Android Central App
  • Just remove the -w in the flash-all script
  • And hope your boot loader is unlocked...
  • Guessing it won't flash if the bootloader is locked.
  • it won't
  • I'll wait for CM11 to release a 4.4.3-based nightly - that's when it becomes "official" for me (yes, even on my Nexus devices - they run CM11 too).
  • How long do you think before the nightlies make it to CM/Carbon?
  • I think a week or two.
  • Darn, sold my Nexus 5 last week...I guess I will see how it looks on my Nexus 7...
  • What'd you upgrade to?
  • Why did you sell it?
  • I just need an OTA.zip!! Posted via Android Central App
  • why? you can flash properly with the full image and not lose your data.
  • how do you do this without losing data?? please help me out here
  • Thank you to all the Nexus Beta Testers.... The rest of us appreciate your sacrifice...
  • You're very welcome. Posted via Android Central App
  • This troll right here Posted via iPhone 30 Running iOS 33
  • Thinking you is trolling? Posted via Android Central App
  • We poor peasants appreciate the truthful gratitude that thou dost bestow upon us poor Nexus users who know nothing of the laggy software, slow updates and bloated phones that thou dost proclaim throughout the land. We will forever live with the faster software, lower prices, and unbloated phones until the mighty Google dost remove them from our presence. We hail thee, as the great and mighty fanboi who dost loudly proclaim against the poor Nexus peasant who happily uses their 'crippled' devices: unknowing of the far greater land of bloat, lag, and exploitable SD cards. /EndOfWeirdRant/ Posted via one of my Nexus devices
  • aw....living in the past I see.... Yes I like my phones with features, exceptional battery life, newer hardware, LTE, and most of all, a Camera that is not "good enough" or "ok" but one that stands out. Not since my Droid Charge or maybe my HTC Rezound have I had a phone that you are describing. The G2, HTC One, S4 and S5 that I had in my hands last year had any of those issues that your talking about... Sorry you choose....poorly... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ubw5N8iVDHI
  • All these arguments are kinda silly, it all comes down to personal preference... All those things are a moving target. N4 didn't have LTE but the N5 is actually one of the better connected phones you can get for carrier hopping for instance, battery life is behind larger phones but still better than similarly sized flaghships from previous years, etc etc. For some people great phone camera is important, for others it's just an annotation device or an emergency stand in for their other cameras (me). Frankly I haven't missed much of anything from Sense or my past HTC phones, but I do wish I had a couple highlight features from other current flagships; namely Moto X's always-listening and SGS5's water resistance. Shoot, I'd take those things OVER better battery life or a better camera, who's to say that's any more/less valid? I'd also like a smaller phone if I had my druthers... But that last bit seems to be the 'least likely wish to get granted in a flagship or Nexus device. Maybe the Silver program will be all things to all people... I find stock a LOT more predictable and reliable than Sense/Touchwiz though, but I'd probably find those a lot more bearable now that Google has decoupled even more of the stock apps from the core OS updates (Calendar, Hangout/Messaging, etc). I also jumped from an HTC EVO LTE to a N5 so I jumped unto stock at it's very best and away from Sense as it was still transitioning into something sleeker and less of a hog.
  • You say "Sorry you choose....poorly"! Depends on one's perspective. Personally my Nexus 5 is my favorite phone ever. No matter how you slice it ..... and an argument you will never win is this .... The nexus 5 is the best value in a top phone. It's $350. The undisputed king of value. It doesn't have the best camera ... it's decent. Audio is just passable. Battery life is average. But one can buy a Nexus 5 and buy a really nice tablet for what you pay for a S5 or M8. The Nexus is fast powerful and with a nice display. And when we are on the next version of Android ....... you can read about it when we are using it. But let me say ... The Nexus is a great device .... not the best device. But it is for me. I like the plain Kit Kat expereince. Just being truthful! I live in reality .... there are alot of very nice devices in the market today. It is fun talking about though .... don't you think?
  • Yes it is personal; preference and without a doubt it is great fun to talk about. Its the reason we come to sites like this... Here is my biggest issues with the Nexus. Google had the chance to make them truly exceptional devices. top processor, top storage (32 GB as a start), and more. They also had the money to still do it at a great price. They could have, and should have, turned the industry on its ear driving prices down for everyone while jumping tech head at a cheetahs pace instead of that of a snail. The Nexus 4 was an abomination that never should have seen the light of day. The Nexus 5 is much improved (and I do not put it down all that much) but still isn't what it could be, nor is it as great as the purists on this site make it out to be. You have the right attitude, it is a good value proposition without a doubt, but it does not compare favorably to the M7/S4/G2 in almost every category...
  • Your right about what could have been. And it's ashame because it is very possible. Makes you wonder what some of the reasons are for not doing it. Ever wonder? Why didn't they?
  • One of the problems will always be the camera. There are so many patents on digital photography that us makes it difficult to compete (even with equal or better hardware; sensor, lens, interface,etc...) without needing to pay for licences. By starting open source/Google patents means that other companies that have our are willing to pay for those image processing/ rendering/etc. patents will likely have better images produced from the camera. Posted via Android Central App
  • Not buying that for a minute. They got the patents from Motorola, and they have a cross licensing deal with Samsung. They are already making parts of AOSP closed source and they can do the same with some of the camera app. They choose not to. Posted via Android Central App
  • Making the camera work optimally in as many situations as possible is really more about endless fiddling and testing than any industry secret... It's kinda like screen calibration, only amped up by several orders of magnitude. Even camera makers that have been at it for decades still don't have perfect auto modes or perfect color profiles that everyone can agree on, nevermind the other side of the equation that is actual JPEG compression... Why do you think most pros and photography enthusiasts still use manual modes? For really critical stuff and/or tricky shots the auto modes just never cut it... Doesn't mean they go full manual tho, that's why cameras have pseudo auto modes (sorta like driving aids on a racing sim), e.g. shutter priority mode or aperture priority mode or manual with auto ISO etc. Even if they're shooting in P and barely adjusting parameters most of those people will still shoot RAW which allows them to later sort out a lot of things that are usually determined at the point of JPEG conversion. Having a RAW file gives you a lot more latitude to adjust things like white balance or noise suppression, which are things a human (or even a PC with some preset profiles) still does better than any camera's auto metering. Point is, it's hard to nail the software side of a camera, even for companies that have been at it for over a decade, nevermind for someone building a smartphone in 12 months. Doesn't mean Google can't, just means others are investing more in it and/or have more expertise in house
  • Cause, you know, those skinned versions of Android are oh so bug free upon release.
  • what about my Sony Z Ultra? Where are the factory image files for GPe devices?
  • That's not on Google, that's on Sony Posted via Android Central App
  • But where can I get the factory image files? Posted via Android Central App
  • They are not ready yet. Sony has to put their stuff on it. Posted via Android Central App
  • Yes great, just after I did a full flash of 4.4.2, setup all my apps and locked my bootloader.
  • Finally!!! Dang! Now just for the OTA on Sprint. But can I download it from the link without root? If so it says GSM but I bought mine from sprint so I guess since mine uses CDMA it wouldn't work anyways. Posted via Android Central App from a Nexus 5
  • All US Nexus 5s are the same. The Sprint version is identical to the one Google sells on its site and as such receives updates just the same. Posted via Android Central App
  • All US Nexus 5s are the same. Posted via Android Central App
  • Are their going to be any UI changes with this update?? Posted via Android Central App
  • doubt it..
  • Dialer looks a little different Posted via Android Central App
  • I'm noticing that apps download while other apps install in 4.4.3. I never noticed that before, only download, then install, then next. Nothing at the same time.
  • Thank god for this update, this has fixed my internet connection. It no longer drops out every 5 minutes Posted via Android Central App
  • I wonder if the moto g would ever get the new dialer
  • any hope we will see wifi calling on tmobile with the Nexus 5 soon? Apple just announced ios8 will have it built in for tmob.
  • Is the changelog out yet?
  • In recovery what version number do you see? KOT49H or the new one?
  • Have they fixed the damn Hangouts wake-lock bug?! It is ridiculous that this bug has not been fixed yet. They update stuff that isn't broken (Google+) yet still have this outstanding bug.
  • I didn't get the update 4.4.3 on my nexus 4 while my friend get the update on his nexus 4...pleas help me
  • hey nexus users, I have a question, I'm on 4.4.2 unlocked bootloader on franco kernel is there a way to update without losing my data? I've done some research and all I know is that you can flash certain parts to keep data and then just re-root but I don't know how to flash certain parts, one of these "parts" is the system.img but doesn't doing that erase all data?
    please help me out here :D
  • Hi, I have updated my nexus 5 to 4.4.3. Since then my mobile data (3G) is not working :(
    I dont know exactly what to do now?