How to Capture OTA Update Link on Android

Device manufacturers roll out OTA updates regionally or in batches and due to their incremental nature, the update could take a bit of time before it is available for each and every device. That means your friend or someone else in the community may have received an update on his device, but you haven’t. You can simply ask them to capture OTA Update Link of the latest firmware so you can manually sideload the OTA zip on your Android device.

Normally, only the device that receives the OTA notification can update, but there is a way to Capture Android OTA URL so that users can share the link in online forums and social communities to help other members in downloading and updating their device at that time, without having to wait for the notification.

Once you’ve obtained the URL, enter it into your computer’s browser to download the package. This way, you’ll have the update file ready to go on your PC. The main purpose of this article is for developers or users who want to distribute the update to other people who haven’t yet gotten it. You may easily obtain the OTA Update URL of the newest firmware update by following the procedures below.

How to Capture OTA Update Link on Android

Here are two approaches for obtaining the URL from an OTA package. The first needs the use of a computer. The second is done only using your device. Both strategies are described in detail below. Choose the one that is more convenient for you.

Requirements

You must have the OTA update notification on your device in order to capture the OTA update URL.
Before starting the process, do not download or install the OTA update. If you do, you will be unable to obtain the update URL.
Method 1 involves using ADB to fetch the system log. Make sure ADB and Fastboot are up and running on your device. Check our detailed guide on How to set up ADB on your PC.
Enable USB Debugging on your Android Device. Go to Settings > Developer Options and enable it from there.

Method 1: Get OTA Update Zip Download Link using Mobile

The best method to Capture OTA Update URL on Android is using the ‘Take bug report’ Option. This is the easiest way to download and capture OTA Update URL from an Android device.

First, make sure you have Developer Options enabled on your device.
Tap on the System Update notification and start downloading the software update.
Tap on Take bug report -> Select Interactive report.
Now tap on Report to capture OTA update link of the latest firmware.
This will automatically take the complete log of your system including the OTA Update activities and the OTA Update URL.
Once the report is completed, tap on it and share it via the file manager to save the bug report.
In the saved file, search for keywords such as “ota” or “zip” to find the OTA update file link.

Method 2: Capture OTA Update URL using ADB

With this method, you can use the ADB Logcat command-line tool to fetch a log of the complete system. The command simply debugs all the processes currently running on the system. Check the below steps to capture OTA update link using ADB commands.

1. Connect your phone to the PC with a USB cable.
2. Open the platform-tools folder or the folder where ADB is installed on your computer.
3. Press Shift + Right Click on the blank space inside the folder and select the option Open command window here or Open PowerShell window here.
4. In the Command Prompt window, enter the following command to initiate the ADB connection.
```
   adb devices
```
5. You should see a prompt to allow or deny USB Debugging access.
6. Select the Always allow from this computer option so that you will not have to go through this process again and tap OK to confirm.
7. Once your connection is established, enter the below command to capture OTA update URL on Windows PC.
```
adb logcat > ota_link.txt
```
8. As soon as you execute this command,
9. Once you execute this command, grab your device and open the system update window on your device and start downloading the update.
10. Wait for 15-20 seconds and then pause or stop it.
11. Go back to the command prompt and press the Ctrl+C button.
12. Next, navigate to the platform-tools/ADB folder and look for the ota_link.txt file.
13. In the text file, Search (Ctrl + F) the text file for keywords like “.zip”, “ota”, or “googleapis”.
14. This will help you locate and capture OTA URL from the update file.
15. Once you have the URL, paste it into your browser’s address bar and download the file.

Wrapping Up: Capture Android OTA URL

The primary goal of this article is to help people with capturing the download URL of an OTA update. So they may publish the link in online forums and social networks to help other people who wish to manually upgrade their devices.