Security is one of the aspects that most concerns users and in our Android phones it is something that we focus on. To maintain the levels of protection on our phone, Google releases a monthly mobile security update that allows us to search for Android patches and install them on our smartphone in a very simple way.
Little by little, the Android operating system has been improving in security, but it still has big differences in this aspect with iOS, as we find ourselves with an open system with countless brands that must adapt the security patches to their terminals. This can cause delays in the update of the security patch and, therefore, we are not totally safe.
However, this process could change slightly depending on the customization layer of our mobile, just as it happens to know what version of Android our mobile has.
Check for security patches on Android
In our mobile the process is very simple and we only have to follow the steps that we usually do when updating our mobile, we explain them below:
- First, we access the Settings of our mobile.
- Next, we look for Phone Info or System .
- Inside, we will find the section dedicated to System Updates , where we must enter.
- And finally, we will check if a new security patch appears.
Check which one you have on your mobile
To know what security patch we have on our mobile, we only have to access Settings > Security and we will see information about the date of the patch that we have installed. We can compare this information with that offered by the Android security center, as we have shown you previously.
Installing them is very simple
Once the new available security patch appears, you just have to click on download and install. The process does not usually take too long and we only have to worry about whether our mobile has more than 50% battery or is plugged into the power.
When the update is finished, the mobile will start and although we do not notice differences in most cases, we will find security changes that seek the greatest protection for the user.
Via OTA
The fastest way to get it is via OTA, although we have already explained it to you, since on all Android phones, we can quickly check if we have a security update available for our mobile. We will only have to go to Settings> Security> Security update. By clicking on this section, it will tell us if it is up to date or if we have a patch available for the smartphone.
With a PC program
There are not a few phone brands that have a specific PC program to update the Android mobile, for example, we find Xiaomi‘s Mi PC Suite, Samsung‘s Smart Switch or Huawei‘s HiSuite. Once we have downloaded these programs, or the one that is compatible for our device, we will only have to open the program> connect the terminal to the computer> tap on Update or Check for updates .
manually
In the event that no security patch appears on our mobile, we can enter a list of brands in the Android security center from which we will access the security patches published by each brand. Not all smartphone firms do a monthly release and they do it on a quarterly basis or otherwise.
Your data and information are not in danger
Unlike what happens when we update the operating system, in this case we do not have to worry about photos, videos or other content. At no time will they be in danger, although as always, precaution is our great ally in technology. That is why we recommend you to make a backup of photos and videos, as well as other important elements.
Google makes it as easy as possible for us with its 15 GB of free space , linked to each Android account. Therefore, we must go to Settings> System> Backup> click on create.
If the free 15 GB is not enough, we recommend you opt for one of the payment options that Google makes available to us:
- 100 GB: €1.99 per month or €19.99 per year.
- 200 GB: €2.99 per month or €29.99 per year.
- 2TB: €9.99 per month or €99.99 per year.
You can get it by changing the ROM
Unofficially, we will be able to get the latest security patch on our mobile with the help of unofficial ROMs , as is the clear example of LineageOS . To do this, you must make sure that your phone is fully compatible, you can quickly check it on its official website . Although there are other popular firmware modifications with which we will be able to have the latest version of the operating system on our terminal, as well as the latest Android security patch. Of course, before going on to do this method, we recommend you make a backup.
To achieve this, we will first have to unlock the bootloader of our smartphone and later complete the process with a ROM that has a large community behind it so as not to risk damaging our smartphone.
We must remember that, in case of following these steps, our smartphone will lose the manufacturer’s warranty and we will be solely responsible, for that reason we only recommend doing it on old mobiles that no longer receive updates and we are concerned that it will suffer some damage. Although, if we follow the official steps that any of the brands offers, we will not lose it.
If you don’t know how to do it, you should follow these steps:
- Unlock the OEM and turn on USB debugging. Settings > About phone > tap build number 7 times > go to main menu > System > Developer options.
- Install ADB and Fastboot on your PC from this link > Downloads > SDK Platform Tools. However, you will need to download the appropriate one for your computer’s operating system.
- Connect the phone to the computer and open a command window in Powershell or MS-DOS.
- In the command window type adb devices . With this we will check if the PC has detected the mobile. If so, it will show us your identifier in that window.
- Now, we type the adb reboot bootloader command.
- Then, to enter Fastboot mode we must type fastboot oem unlock . In the case of not working, we must put the fastboot flashing unlock command.
- Install a custom recovery mode on your mobile . Android phones bring their own, but it will be necessary to use a modified recovery such as TWRP . It will be important that the brand of your smartphone and model match. If so, download the .IMG file and save it to your computer.
- Then open the command window on your PC and put fastboot flash recovery TWRP.img . In this case, the .IMG file corresponds to the TWRP package that we previously downloaded and which we want to install, so we must put the file name.
- When we have installed the recovery. We can access it using the adb reboot-recovery command.
- Next, we are going to do a wipe of the system partitions, data and cache. If we are working with TWRP, we will do this from ‘Wipe > Advanced Wipe’ and checking the ‘System’, ‘Data’ and ‘Cache’ boxes.
- Go back to the command window and run adb push LineageOSinstallfile.zip (this .zip file should be the version of LineageOS that we downloaded for our phone).
- Now, we will proceed to install the packages that we have copied to the memory of the smartphone. Therefore, from the TWRP recovery we must click on the Install option and select the LineageOS installation file.
- Then, click on the ‘Add more Zips’ option. Next, select Google apps (make sure these files are selected and LineageOS is listed first). And finally, we will have to move the bar ‘ Swipe to confirm Flash ‘ for the installation to begin.
