Back on September 2nd it was discovered that the Motorola website was only offering factory images for the Moto G4 with all other devices having been removed, and it now looks like the website has included additional devices which users can pick from if they need to grab a factory image for their device. Initially there was only one model of the Moto G4 which had factory images available, but now there are more models listed under the Moto G product family, including the devices with model number XT1541, XT1543, and XT1548 alongside XT1624. There are also two new product families to choose device factory images from with options to select the Droid Maxx and the Moto X.
As it was pointed out by Android Police, the Motorola website swapped out the system that was used for downloading these factory images, moving from a Google Drive-based implementation to a more simplified direct download system that allows to more easily grab the factory image downloads they’re looking for. It appears that a big factor in why the Moto G was the only product family available before was because of this system switch, having moved back to the Google Drive system periodically and then again back to using direct downloads, only this time with more device families included in the list.
There are about nine different models in the Moto X product family as well as one model of the Droid Maxx, which should make perfect sense given that this it’s a Verizon exclusive phone. Having said that, the Droid Maxx product category should grow as there is the Droid Maxx 2 that released last Fall, unfortunately for those with this device, it isn’t listed just yet. If you’re unfamiliar with the idea of factory images then you likely won’t have to worry about whether or not your device is listed with the new direct download system that the Motorola website is using, but having the factory image on hand can be very useful for anyone who likes to tinker with their device and flash software, as if something goes wrong they can simply flash back to the stock version of the factory image in hopes of fixing the issue.