Motorola Droid Bionic gets Jelly Bean Face Lift, Manual Download and Install Available

The Motorola DROID BIONIC has certainly been a rather interesting device since it was launched. It got pushed back because of software issues, then needed an update shortly after launch for software issues and took a beating in the headlines. Plenty of us thought that the Droid Bionic would quickly hit EOL and updates to it would stop. We are happy to report that assumption was wrong.

Verizon has begun rolling out Android 4.1 Jelly Bean to the troubled child on the network. We all know that means Google Now, Project Butter, expandable notifications and plenty more great new things. Heck, they even took out some of the bloatware.

Don’t go jumping up and down just yet though. As usual the update will be rolling out in stages. Some might already have it, while you might be waiting. You can attempt to prompt the system by heading in to Settings > About Phone, but it isn’t a guarantee. You will want to make sure you have over 50% battery life and a solid Wi-Fi connection when downloading the update.

For those of you that can’t wait for the OTA to hit your device, you can jump up and down now. The fine people over at XDA have pull it together and made it available for the impatient. There are a few steps to make it happen though.

 1) You can be rooted an install this. Please use OTA Rootkeeper and protect root before install. It is not necessary to “temp unroot.”

2) If you have SS or BS recovery installed that needs to be uninstalled. Simply open the app and click “uninstall recovery.” You do not have to delete the app just remove the recovery.

3) Download the file, then load onto external SD card. Use “SD-ext” or “SD-external”. This is the only way your phone will recognize the update. Once on the card reboot and it should pop up a triangle that an update is ready.

4) Enjoy official JB support.

We recommend you head over to the XDA Thread to check out the instructions and to download the file for yourself. It is a bit of a monster at 300MB’s.

Source: Verizon | Droid-Life | XDA