Manual upgrading Nexus 6 without wiping data.

A little how-to on upgrading your nexus phone without having to wipe your data if you rooted and installed some stuff onto system partition.

WARNING!
DO NOT USE THIS METHOD IF YOU ARE NOT GOOD AT USING COMMAND LINE! THIS HAS A POSSIBILITY OF BRICKING YOUR PHONE TO WHERE IT WONT BOOT.

Note:
You will loose the following when using this method:
-Custom Recovery
-Custom Kernel
-ANYTHING that is installed on the system partition including but not limited to: SU (root), Busybox, Xposed, etc.

What is needed:
-ADB (1.0.32+) and Fastboot
-Factory Image of Nexus 6 (https://developers.google.com/androi...s/images?hl=en)
-- MUST BE THE SAME BUILD VERSION AS YOUR CURRENT VERSION!
--- Check under System > About Phone > Build Number

Step 1 (Catch the update url):
Open up command prompt/terminal and type in

Code:

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adb logcat

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.
From here you will get a lot of debug lines, dont worry about any of it.
What we are looking for is the url to the update file.
When adb logcat is ready, start the update for your phone. (Dont worry about restarting or whatnot, you wont be using the file it's downloaded anyway).
From the url, use that to download the update file to your computer.

Step 2 (Backup):
This is important as a just in case **** happens thing.
BACK UP YOUR PHONE if you have a custom recovery.
Don't think that this update method is foolproof.
Don't even think.
BACK IT UP!

Step 3 (Restore to "Factory"):
This is where it gets hairy.
Using the factory image you downloaded open up the "image-shamu-<build>.zip" file and extract "boot.img", "recovery.img", and
"system.img".
Restart your phone to bootloader either with adb or pressing and holding power + vol down.
From here, in a command prompt/terminal, type:

Code:

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fastboot flash boot <boot.img path>

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Code:

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fastboot flash recovery <recovery.img path>

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Code:

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fastboot flash system <system.img path>

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System image will take the longest and will be streamed to the phone so just wait until it's finished.

Step 4 (Upgrade):
ok, now that we are in "Factory" settings, start up your phone in recovery mode.
From the recovery screen you should see the little android with the red exclamation point icon thing.
Press and hold power and click the volume up button. Release power button.
From here, select

Code:

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apply update from ADB

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now in command prompt type:

Code:

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adb sideload <update.zip path>

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Step 5: ???
Step 6: Profit!

I have done this method twice and haven't experienced any problems myself. As stated above, this does have the possibility of mucking something up so be sure to have backups.

After everything is done, you are using your phone in stock mode.
flash your custom recovery and custom kernel if you'd like. Also reinstall root via custom recovery (twrp will let you know) and busybox.

Troubleshooting:
- Update says system partition has unexpected contents.
-- Reflash system.img.
- Get adb sideload error (xxx)
-- Make sure you have the latest version of adb and that your drivers for your phone are installed. Sometimes you have to manually install the adb drivers when in sideload mode.