As we all now jellybean started rolling out for the Nexus branded devices and the Galaxy Nexus was the first one to get it after the Nexus 7. Sadly; while most of the users in USA and Europe are enjoying the excellent experience of jellybean- users in Asia, Africa and other parts of the world are still waiting on it. We have devised a method that will force the Jellybean over the air (OTA) update on your phone without rooting or hacking but it will require you to flash a stock ROM via installer. What you are doing is that updating your phone to the version which received the OTA update already. This method works only if your device runs the yakju/takju of the Galaxy Nexus ROM. We are going to convert yakjuxw/jp versions to the mentioned above.

Disclaimer: This might void your warranty.
Note: It will erase everything from your phone, so make sure you have everything backed up.
We are not responsible for any bricked/broken devices, do it at your own risk

Things you need:

Check which version of ICS you are on,  Download and install the Android system info app from play store, select system tab then find the information of your firmware, it will have the string yakjuxw or /jp. If you have the version yakju/takju then proceed to step 9.

  • First thing first you will need to set up your adb drivers because we are going to put the GNEX in fastboot mode to flash the GNEX with Stock ICS.
  • For that, download the GNEX toolkit from here, it is a big package but we need the drivers, you can go ahead and do it manually but it is a much better way in my opinion.
  • Download the package, run the file. There will be a command line interface, answer different on screen questions and when in main interface select “install drivers for galaxy nexus” or some option like that.
  • Once you have downloaded the drivers, download the ICS flash package from here.

Great, now you have all the things you need, all that remains is that for you to flash the package.

Moving towards Jellybean

Follow these simple instructions to guide your GNEX to Jellybean update:

  1. Now let’s begin the flashing process, Put your GNEX i.e. I9025 in download or boot loader mode, do that by first turning your phone off and then powering it on with volume down key pressed.
  2. Release it when you see an android and a vivid green start button on the top.
  3. Now you are in fastboot mode.
  4. Connect your device with USB cable to your computer and open up the firmware package you downloaded.
  5. It will have an executable file, double click it and an installer will pop up.
  6. A green light will indicate if it detected your device and will show the communication port name.
  7. Now press the “Start button”, if you have installed the drivers correctly the process will start and will take around 5-10 minutes to complete.
  8. After the process is finished enter your device, skip the information entry process. You are still on ICS, in fact you downgraded from 4.0.4 (if you were on it) to 4.0.1, don’t worry there are a few steps left.
  9. No go into Settings > Apps > All apps and select Google services framework app, clear data and force stop it.
  10. Now go to about phone > system Updates > Check for software update
  11. It will prompt you to download an 8 MB file, go ahead with it and download it
  12. Repeat steps 9-10, now it will prompt you 23 MB update to 4.0.4, yes go ahead download it and install it
  13. After installing it repeat the process 9-10 for the last time, and now you will see Jellybean update being downloaded.

Congratulations, now you are on your way to Jellybean goodness. Again it is a good practice to back up everything before you perform any software modification and the first flash will wipe all of your data. So make sure you have synced Google account with your phone and have all your contacts backed up along with everything else you need.

Rest of the process will take around 20 minutes and you will be good to go. This method has only been tested for GSM version I9025 which was on ICS 4.0.4.