Update Nexus 4 To Android 8.1 Oreo Easily With Official LineageOS 15.1 – Tutorial

If you are a Nexus 4 user and really feel awkward when other using latest Android but you stuck into an older version then here is a good news. Android 8.1 Oreo based LineageOS 15.1 for Nexus 4 is now available for download. Upgrading your Nexus 4 to Android 8.1 Oreo isn’t a big deal now if you have a custom recovery installed. As we said earlier, LineageOS 15.1 custom ROM is build using Android 8.1 Oreo as a base and have a lot of customization that we once saw on CyanogenMod ROM.

About the specification, Nexus 4 was the flagship phone released back in 2012. This device comes with a 4.7 inches IPS Plus capacitive touchscreen display with a screen resolution of 768 x 1280 pixels. The display comes with Corning Gorilla Glass 2 protection. To power the device it has a Qualcomm APQ8064 Snapdragon S4 Pro Quad-core SoC as well as 2GB of RAM. The phone available with 8GB and 16GB internal memory. Nexus 4 features an 8MP rear camera and 1.3MP front shooting camera. The smartphone packed with a non-removable Li-Po 2100 mAh battery and running on Android 4.2 Jelly Bean out of the box. Officially, the phone can be updated to Android 5.1 Lollipop.

If you don’t want to stuck at Android 5.1 Lollipop and like to have a little more customize platform on your device, can check out LineageOS 15.1. You won’t regret sure. However, since this build is still under development and becoming better day by day, you may find some bugs and force close here and there which will eventually get fixed in the next update. If you interested to update your Nexus 4 to Android 8.1 Oreo base ROM LineageOS 15.1 then continue reading.

Android 8.1 Oreo comes with various useful features including multi-window multitasking, better notification management, faster device with better battery optimization, more human emoji, improved security, instant app and much more. Top of all LineageOS custom ROM comes with various additional features that surely improve your using experience.

Warning!

This tutorial is only for Nexus 4. Don’t try this guide on any other Android device. Also, we (True Android Team) are not responsible for any damage caused due to the instruction is given in this page. Try this at your own risk. However, it is very unlikely that your device will be damaged if you follow all the instructions as it is which are mentioned in procedure.

Pre Requisites:

1. Backup your device data. You can follow our ultimate backup guide.

2. Make sure your device have at least 60% battery power. You can install an app like Battery Notifier BT Free on your Android device to check it easily.

3. You already have USB Driver Installed for Nexus 4 in your PC. [Download USB Drivers]

4. Make sure USB Debugging is enabled otherwise you won’t able to transfer file between PC and Nexus 4. [Guide].

5. Your device have latest TWRP recovery 3.x or higher installed. [Guide]

If you done everything that we mentioned above then you are ready to follow step-by-step guide on how to install Android 8.1 Oreo based LineageOS 15.1 ROM on Nexus 4.

File Required(Download by clicking on it)

1. LineageOS 15.1 ROM For Nexus 4 [Filename: lineage-15.1-20180925-nightly-FP2-signed.zip]*
2. Google Apps [Filename: open_gapps-arm64-8.1-micro-20180923.zip] or any other Android 8.1 Oreo GApps

* You should always download latest available ROM file.

How to Install Android 8.1 Oreo based LineageOS 15.1 ROM on Nexus 4

1. Connect your device to PC using the USB cable and then copy downloaded files to the SD card of your device. Important: Don’t extract any files.
2. Disconnect USB and then turn off your Nexus 4.
3. Boot into recovery mode. To do so, hold Volume Down + Power until the bootloader appears, then release the buttons. Use the volume buttons to scroll to “RECOVERY” and press Power to select. You should see the recovery screen now. Alternatively try this: Recovery Mode without Key Combination.
4. Create a Backup using TWRP Backup Option.
5. Perform a Factory Reset (this will delete all apps and their settings and game progress). To do this, Tap on Wipe, then at the bottom of the screen do a Swipe on the ‘Swipe to factory reset‘ option.
6. Now its time to add zip file for flashing. Tap on Install, then browse to the location where you saved the files and tap on the LineageOS 15.1 Zip file. Then tap on Add More Zips, and add open_gapps-arm64-8.1-micro-20180923.zip. Now at the bottom of the screen, do a swipe on the Swipe to confirm flash option to begin flashing.
7. When the installation is completed, go back to the main recovery menu and tap on Reboot and then, tap on System to reboot your Nexus 4 and boot up into Android 8.1 Oreo ROM LineageOS 15.1.
8. Returning to Previous ROM: To go back to your previous ROM, boot into recovery, select Backup then through Restore option, restore your previous ROM by selecting it from the list.

Congrats! Android 8.1 Oreo firmware based custom ROM LineageOS 15.1 is now installed and running on your Nexus 4. Let us know your using experience in the comment.