Owners of the LG G3 on T-Mobile, rejoice! It looks like the device is beginning to receive its official Android Lollipop update, but it’s not via an OTA update, like usual. Instead, you can plug your G3 into your computer and update it through LG’s mobile support tool. This isn’t the easiest way to update your G3 but it is official. Technically speaking, if you head over to T-Mobile’s Lollipop software updates page, it details that their G3’s Lollipop update is still in the final stages of testing.
Those of you with a T-Mobile LG G3 who are not patient enough to wait for an OTA update will probably want to update your device using LG’s mobile support tool. But, this process can seem rather daunting if you have never used LG’s mobile support tool to update a device before. Plus if you know anything about smartphone manufacturers software update tools, then you will know that they are notoriously sketchy and just plain bad. That is why we are going to help you out with the process. Just follow the steps below and you should be running Android Lollipop on your T-Mobile G3 in no time.
First and foremost, you will need to install LG’s mobile support tool onto your computer. You can download it by clicking here. Once that is installed and open on your computer, you will want to plug your LG G3 into your computer and get the drivers installed. If your G3 does not do this on its own when you plug it into your computer, you can always install them manually by clicking the “Install USB Driver” button on the top left of the support tool. After you click that you will need to select your device carrier and model number, which can be found in Settings. Although, since this is for the T-Mobile G3, the model number should be LG D851. Once your device is recognized by LG’s mobile support tool then it should prompt you to update your device to the latest version of Android. When you begin the download and install process of your G3 software update, make sure that you do not unplug the device or let your computer turn off during this process.
If everything above is done correctly then you should be running Android 5.0.1 Lollipop on your T-Mobile LG G3! Something worth pointing out is that some users are reporting that LG’s mobile support tool is telling them that their G3 is up to date when it is still running KitKat. So, if this is a problem you are encountering, don’t worry. You are not alone, but you will probably have to wait for T-Mobile to push the Lollipop update out via an OTA update to get it.