Motorola finally decided to skip the Android 8.0 Oreo update and roll the Android 8.1 Oreo update for Moto G4 and G4 Plus. The Moto G4 and Moto G4+ were launched back in May of 2016 with Android Marshmallow out of the box. It has received the Android Nougat update last year and now the company has started testing the Android 8.1 Oreo on both devices. Today we have just received the first soak test leak build which brings the build number OPJ28.128. Now install Moto G4 and G4 Plus Android 8.1 Oreo Update by following our guide.

Thanks to XDA Senior Member rajatgupta1998 for sharing the leaked build on XDA forum. Now you can manually test the soak build on your device. Follow this guide to install Moto G4 to Android 8.1 Oreo Update. The update brings the latest Android 8.1 Oreo update and features along with a couple of improvements in performance and stability.

Before following the instruction to update the Motorola Moto G4, let’s brief about what is new in this Android 8.1 Oreo OS:

What’s on Android Oreo?

Android Oreo is the latest iteration of the Android Operating system. This is the 8th major version of the Android mobile operating system after the release of Android Nougat. The latest features of Android Oreo includes New app notifications, notification dots on app icons, picture-in-picture mode,  Instant App, Auto-fill API, Faster Android behind the scenes, Better battery life etc. Android 8.1 Oreo is an incremental update that builds out some of the new features found in the first version of Oreo. Android 8.1 Oreo is an improved version and shortcomings of Android 8.0 Oreo – This doesn’t mean Android 8.1 doesn’t include the new feature because it does. Here are all the features of Android Oreo [8.0/8.1]

Features of Android Oreo:

  • Notifications Channels (8.0)
  • Picture In A Picture (8.0)
  • Multi-Display Support (8.0)
  • Keyboard Navigation (8.0)
  • Background Limits (8.0)
  • New Wi-Fi Features (8.0)
  • Better Icons (8.0)
  • Autofill (8.0)
  • Cheeseburger Emoji (8.1)
  • Neural Networks API (8.1)
  • Pixel Visual Core co-processing technology to third-party developers (8.1)
  • and many more

In case you didn’t receive the OTA update for Android Oreo, and you can’t wait, then you can check for the Moto G4 and G4 Plus Android 8.1 Oreo Update manually by following the below steps.

How to Check Software Update on Moto G4

  • Make sure your device is fully charged and connected to Wi-Fi.
  • Swipe down from the Notification bar, then tap the Settings icon.
  • Scroll to and tap About phone > System updates.
  • Follow the on-screen prompts to download and install the update.
  • Tap Restart Now after the software installs to automatically restart your device.

To verify the software update

  • Swipe down from the Notification bar, then tap the Settings icon.
  • Scroll to and tap About phone.
  • The device has the latest software if the Android version, Build number, and Baseband version matches the current update details.

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Before proceeding to download, make sure your phone has enough battery backup with at least 50% battery. Also, check if you have enough storage to download and install the latest update on Motorola Moto G4 We suggest you to choose a Wi-Fi or a 4G connection to download it. Also, don’t forget to take the data backup to avoid any problem in case things go wrong. After following the procedure mentioned above, you can now start downloading the new OTA update on Motorola Moto G4.

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Either you can wait for the OTA update, or you can manually grab the download link from the Motorola OTA Link Generator Tool. If you still not received the update on Moto G4, then check our article on How to force download latest OTA updates on your Android device.

Download Firmware

Steps to flash Moto G4 and G4 Plus Android 8.1 Oreo Update

Before following this, make sure you have installed all the drivers and tools on your PC. If you did, then make sure to follow the steps one by one to achieve 100% success on the installation process.

Pre-requisite :

  • Charge your phone up to 80% or 70%
  • You need a Laptop or PC.
  • Working USB Cable.
  • Charge your phone for at least 70% Battery.
  • GetDroidTips.com is not responsible for any damage to your phone while installing this Update.
  • Make sure that you have Motorola USB drivers installed.
  • Download the ADB Fastboot tools.
  • Take a complete backup of your phone and then proceed.

Instructions to Install

There are two methods to install the firmware on Moto G4/G4+. The first method is via TWRP Recovery. To do that. you need to download the OPJ28.128 TWRP Recovery backup file. 2nd method is to install the OPJ28.128 soak build via adb command. Well, as per the XDA member ADB command method will update your partition table, bootloader and the firmware, efs and modem partitions to Oreo and you can’t downgrade to a lower version. You will have to wait for a stock ROM higher than or equal to the build number of the OTA. (OPJ28.108). If you try to downgrade it will result in a permanent brick. So it is better to try the TWRP Backup if possible.

1st method: via TWRP:

  • You need an unlocked bootloader on Moto G4 or G4 Plus.
  • Download and install TWRP Recovery on Moto G4 and G4 Plus.
  • Now download the twrp backup zip and extract it onto your PC.
  • Boot your device into TWRP Recovery and take a backup of your EFS and move it to your external_sd or your PC.
  • You need to format data via TWRP recovery. [Remember this will wipe the entire internal storage]
  • Now reboot to recovery once again.
  • Now move the extracted folder to InternalStorage>TWRP>BACKUPS> .Path: /sdcard/TWRP/BACKUPS//
  • In TWRP, choose Restore and then restore the oreo backup.
  • Wipe Caches and Reboot to system. Booting will take time up to 5-10 minutes.

2nd method: via ADB command:

NOTE: This method will update your partition table, bootloader and the firmware, efs and modem partitions to Oreo and you can’t downgrade to a lower version. You will have to wait for a stock ROM higher than or equal to the build number of the OTA. (OPJ28.108). If you try to downgrade it will result in a permanent brick. So it is better to try the TWRP Backup if possible.

  • Make sure you are on NPJS25.93-14-18 build number.
  • Perform a factory reset.
  • Download the block_delta file and place it into the root directory of the internal storage.
  • Give Motorola Update Services app the storage permission and the phone will now detect the update package. Press OK to continue. OR Reboot to stock recovery –> choose update from SD Card –> Choose the zip and install it.
  • If not, you can install Android 8.1 Oreo via ADB sideload it.

I hope this guide was helpful to Download and Install Motorola Moto G4 and G4 Plus Android 8.1 Oreo Update. Enjoy!