Android TV Box Update Guide – Comprehensive Help For Your Tv Box

This post gives you a complete Android Tv Box Update Guide, helping you upgrade your OTT tv box easily and quickly.

We all love our android TV box. But, continuous servicing is always needed for our beloved technology device. And, our TV boxes are not different. With time and advances in technology, we need to update the the hardware and our software of the device.

Android Tv Box Update Guide

Updates helps in enhancing the security and helping in increasing the performance of our android TV boxes. This is very important to keep up with changes in technology and fighting security concerns around us on the internet.

Our Android Tv Box Update Guide will help you in your quest to upgrade your android TV box pretty quickly.

Always ensure to buy TV box that comes with warranty and tech support to help your in strengthening you box TV streaming device. You can find best android tv box with 1 yr warranty and support. It also becomes inconvenient, in case a problem arise and you have no where to go.

Another interesting point here is to continuously update your Kodi app. Every time you buy an android TV box, you will get the stable Kodi app, already installed in the device. However, in most case, the latest version of Kodi just slips through and you have to make do with the available Kodi app on your TV box.

You can also read about the Best Android Tv Box Kodi Canada Edition – Buyer’s Guide 2018

Kodi is a very important part of our android box in helping us leave behind our very expensive cable subscription and accept freedom to watch every media content with ease. Kodi app undergoes every fixes in correcting their streams and sources, during their latest release. Hence, updating your Kodi app is very important and uttermost priority.

Updating Kodi on your TV box is very easy, since it is part of the Google PlayStore, and can be easily updated on-the-fly, without any backup, reboot, and going in the bootloader.

Our post today here consists of Updating your Android TV Box & Updating Kodi App.

Updating Android TV Box Firmware

Every manufacturer of an Android TV Box releases periodic fixes to upgrade the firmware of the device. This helps in fixing any issues/security patch for your device. In addition, the manufacturer may also release customized version of the latest Android software, that you can update for a added performance and security.

Updating Android Box through OTA – Safest Method

Occasionally manufacturer release updates through the OTA method. You’ll see a notification, indicating that an update is released and pending for download and installation. This is the most safest method, cause the device automatically fetches the correct firmware and version for installing.

Also, this is the most safest method for upgradation, since you do not need a backup to be maintained for the new version.

In case, you do not get a notification, you can manually check for updates, through the following steps:

  1. Ensure you are connected to WIFI.
  2. Go to Settings > About Device.
  3. Click Software Update or System Firmware Update.
  4. Click Check for Updates.
  5. Many device only show updates, specific to the device model.
  6. If there’s an update available, click Update > Install.

The update will be installed and your device will reboot after the update, so as to clean the cache and the unused installation data. This helps in smooth functioning of your device.

Update Android Box through Downloaded Firmware

The following steps should be done, only if your are sure in what you are doing. Every android TV device comes with a specific firmware and software, released by the manufacturer, just for that device.
Hence, always find the right firmware, software and version, before you can proceed with the following process. If done wrongly, your android TV box may brick and be renderless.

 

  1. Go to the manufacturer website and download the latest firmware for your specific model number.
  2. Push the firmware file to a USB drive.
  3. Plug the USB device into your android TV box.
  4. Next, go to Settings > System > System Upgrade.
  5. Select USB drive.
  6. Your TV box should select the requested firmware and begin updating your Android Box through the USB drive.
  7. Your upgrade should complete in few minutes.
  8. After successful update, your TV device will restart.
  9. If everything goes well, your android box should be good as new in performance.

Once you have installed the latest version, please do not try and flash the previous version. This will brick your device. In case you want to move to the previous version, contact your manufacturer.

In case, you brick your android tv device, read Android Tv Box Not Working – Tips to Fix Your Tv Box!

Updating Kodi App on Your Box

Kodi always needs an update. The developer is constantly updating the Kodi app to support more and more sources, and to fix an issues, relating to any addons, available in the repo.

You should go with the flow and update the Kodi app to help you get all the benefits of live streaming of media content.

The following section talks about the second part of our Android Tv Box Update Guide post, where we talk about updating the Kodi app.

Steps to Update Kodi

These steps will tell you the process to update the Kodi app. Meaning, it assumes that you already have the Kodi app installed on your TV box.

  1. Go to Google PlayStore Home screen.
  2. In you are logged in to your account, you should see three dots at the top, click the icon to go to the My Apps.
  3. All applications installed through the PlayStore will be displayed, and will show an update prompt for every application.
  4. Check the Kodi app and see if there is any update notification.
  5. Click the Kodi app and in the next screen, click Update.
  6. Your update process should start, and the if everything goes well, you will receive a notification that the update was successful.
  7. Open the Kodi app after the update, and check the latest version.

You can click the Update All under My Apps to update all the android apps installed on your TV box. Not only Kodi, you should also regularly perform the above same steps for every apps installed on your device. This helps in securing your device and increase in performance of your TV streaming box.

In case you cannot update Kodi using the Google PlayStore, you can also:

  1. Download the latest Kodi app at https://kodi.tv/download.
  2. On the page, select the correct version of Kodi, based on the type of android box you using (32-bit/64-bit).
  3. Next, un-install the Kodi addon. Before un-installing the Kodi app, ensure to take a backuo of all your addons. The guide here will help you – Backup/Restore Kodi Addons Data
  4. Install the new downloaded Kodi apk file. You can browse through your file manager to the Downloads folder and install the Kodi app using the file browser.
  5. The new version of Kodi will be installed successfully.
  6. Open the Kodi app and then use this guide to backup all the addons.

Backup/Restore Kodi Addons

Backup Kodi Addons Data

  1. Open the Kodi App.
  2. Go to System > Settings.
  3. Click Add-ons.
  4. Click Get Add-ons.
  5. Select the XBMC.org Add-ons repo.
  6. Select the Program Add-ons category.
  7. Select XBMC Backup.
  8. Click Install to install the XBMC Backup repo.
  9. Go to the main menu and click Programs.
  10. Select XBMC Backup add-on.
  11. Click Backup to start the process and backup the Kodi data.
  12. Click OK, after you receive an error saying “Error: Remote path doesn’t exist“.
  13. Click Browse Remote Path option.
  14. Select the folder, where you want to save your Kodi addons data.
  15. Click OK in the next consecutive screens to confirm the location of the build.
  16. Open the XBMC repo again.
  17. Click Backup option.
  18. You entire Kodi addons data will be stored into the folder, as you selected in the previous step.
  19. You can now copy the backup data to your USB drive for further use.

Restore Kodi Addons Data after Reinstall

  1. Open the Kodi app with the new version.
  2. Open the XBMC Backup repo.
  3. Click Restore.
  4. Select the folder, in which you have stored the backup data.
  5. Click the Restore button again.
  6. Select the Restore Build file.
  7. The restore process will begin and restore your addons data on to your new kodi app.
  8. Restart the Kodi app to complete the build process.

Android Tv Box Update Guide – Conclusion

We have summarized the post to give you a complete guide on updating your android tv box or your IPTV box, be it any make or model. This generalized version should help you quickly fix your device, in case of going to a manufacturer and saving time.

You can also read our post on 10 Tips – Android Tv Box | Increase KODI Performance by 70%

About Author - Sasha Montague

Sasha is a proud Canadian & blogger who reviews digital products and services, available in the Canadian market. Sasha loves exploring exciting electronic products in today's millennial age to help customers make the right decision in selecting the best and affordable internet product and service.

Sasha's Blog