Hi

I am tired of having an outdated android operating system and having to buy a new phone every time a new version of android is out. It is not practical and a waste of good money.

Is there a way I can upgrade my android phone myself and how?

I am currently using kit kat 4.4.2. I want to upgrade to a lollipop or marshmallow if possible. Thanks

This would probably be a better question to ask at androidquestions.org, since that site is dedicated to Android. But short answer, maybe. You'll need to root the device, find an image that's compatible, and install the updated image. So it'll depend highly upon what model your phone is.

Search your device and "custom ROM" - if someone has made the effort you may be ok. Not trivial, but educational to install one the first time.
When I ran into this a while back I decided to get a Nexus 5 - guaranteed to get images from Google, and probably also something like Cyanogenmod always not far behind. I use the developer images to get Android releases early - it it doesn't work too well, I can live with it. Marshmellow was available (GA) in the first week of October.

Cyanogenmod doesn't support my device.

Can I download an official image from google/android's website and then install it?

What I mean, is when we want to upgrade our linux distro, we go to the website and download the iso. Does google/Android has something similar to that to upgrade any android phone?

In a real technical sense you can upgrade the phone most likely. The problem is you have a number or hurtles to cross.
One is the carrier letting you do it.

Yes, you can go to android.com and get the sdk and all the tools you need and most of the source you need to make a custom install of android.

A problem might be something like the 2013 moto x that has a special chip in it to convert speech. The vendor isn't supplying a driver for the lollipop version yet.

You could easily bork the phone too.

I too sit in disbelief that the android market lets users wallow in old OS's forever. They don't really want to update your OS, they don't seem to mind you walking around with security issues.

At least Windows lets you update to the latest on unlocked phones. I have no idea how apple sells any of their iphones. As far as I can tell they are light years behind both android and windows in terms of ease of use and logical presentation. Where the heck is icloud anyway?

1 members found this post helpful.

It's always about the money with these vendors. They rather sell new phones than providing continued support and OS updates.

At least windows and IOS phones don't suffer this fragmentation like android does.

I would buy an iphone, but it doesn't play nice in linux.

Nope.
Google release image for (some of) their own devices. It is a base build with some Google add-ons - like Play. The other vendors take that and add their own candy on top. If they can be bothered.

Google also release the AOSP - which is where Cyanogenmod and friends come from. But it ain't just a matter of compiling the code - there are a bunch of mods in the custom ROMs.

Thanks for the new info.

I do wish that one day google/android would make it easier to upgrade our dated phones on any phone using their images.

Again, thanks to all...

always assuming you are not locked in by your provider/carrier/contract partner:

what you want is most probably possible, but not sanctioned (by google).

take a look at http://forum.xda-developers.com/ , find your device, and marvel at the jungle that unfolds.
most probably including tons of unofficial custom roms and tweaks and updates and whatnot.
the art is to find the good ones.

If you buy the right phone, Geeksphone is good just stay away from the FireFoxOS!

My phone is a non-contract type. I am using ting as my carrier.

I heard about custom ROMS and such, but I don't trust them as I don't know what is being installed besides the OS upgrade. I was hoping I could use an official image from google/android to do an OS upgrade. It's a bumper.

It looks interesting. The phone on the site has average specs. The 1GB of ram is quite low, it would have been nice if it had 2GB of ram or more.

However, the site says it will give updates to their phone, so that is a BIG plus. I might just consider it as a possibility when shopping for a new phone. Thanks

Blackphone 2...
https://silentcircle.com/products-an...tions/devices/

https://www.adafruit.com/products/1946

When you mentioned geeksphone in post #10, I went to this site
http://www.geeksphone.com/

It's an average phone with average specs. Doesn't say what version of android is installed.

Sorry, I'm vague nice to meet you... My Geeksphone-revolution started with (I think) Jelly-bean?.? but it has settings to switch; Cyanogenmod is the one I <3 and that's why I say don't try the FF-OS it takes away that setting. Blckphone is from the same maker I think? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GeeksPhone