How To Install Android On A Nook Color

(Update 01/2019– I have posted a review of the new Nook tablet ten.1, if anyone is interested.)

Synopsis: This is a quick guide on how to install Android seven ('Nougat') on a Barnes and Noble Nook HD device. (If yous want to upgrade a Nook HD+ instead, please await at my other weblog postal service, hither.)

Y ou don't need to be a full-fledged hacker to do this, not at all, and if you take 30 minutes to spare you can breathe new life into your tablet. Read on to learn how. I also have a video tutorial of this on youtube, which you can see here

Do you accept a Barnes and Noble Nook Hd and are wondering what to do now that B&N has essentially abased support for information technology?

The problem is, the Bone on the device is a customized version of Android 4.0, several years sometime and which is speedily beingness phased out. If you go to the Google Play store on the Nook y'all'll observe more than and more than apps that claim they're 'not supported' on the device.

That'due south not because the hardware is obsolete. The Nook Hd has a dual core chip and 1 GB of RAM, roughly comparable to what the latest Kindle Burn down Hard disk drive uses today. It may not have all the bells and whistles as the latest Android tablets just it has plenty of horsepower to run most apps. So if y'all take one laying around, what to practise?

It turns out you can upgrade the Nook to the latest (as of February 2022) Android OS, version 7.1 ('Nougat'). To do this y'all'll demand a microSD card, at least 8 GB in size, and a card reader that lets y'all read/write to it from a PC. These items are very inexpensive these days.

At that place'south a very active community that makes electric current custom 'images' of Android that run on a diverseness of devices. Luckily, the Nook Hard disk is one of them. It so happens that Android is an open-source platform, which means Google releases the source code for anyone to modify. Some enterprising folks accept therefore ported the code to the Nook Hard disk drive and Hd+. If you see the term 'cyanogenmod' bandied effectually, that's one group that ports Android to diverse devices.

This web log postal service is for people who want to move their Nook HD device to Android 7 rapidly and with every bit fiddling fuss as possible.

Allow's commencement by downloading three files from my dropbox folder. They're curated from diverse Android forums, and are:

cm_hummingbird-ota-NMF26Q.161222.zippo — this is Android 7.1, in a nix format, courtesy of a gentleman named Andrei Măceș, someone very active and respected in this sphere.
NookHD-bootable-CWM-6027-for-emmc-stock-4GB-rev3-(02.03.13).zip — this is a 'bootloader', something that lets y'all get the whole procedure started. You unzip this, install/wink it on a microSD card and put information technology in your Nook Hd and boot from it to get the installation going. Nosotros'll go over how to practise all this.
open_gapps-arm-7.1-pico-20170203.zip — this is a package that contains the Google Play Store for Android 7. With Google Play on the device you can install all sorts of 3rd party apps (Netflix, etc.) Google Play is your gateway to the full Android ecosystem.

Be aware that these files total 400 megabytes combined, so downloading them will have a few minutes on a practiced net connectedness. (Over again, these files are for the Nook Hd. If yous're upgrading a Nook Hard disk+ you demand to get to my other blog post, hither)

Using these three files and the steps below, you tin can upgrade your Nook HD to Android 7.

Outset by unzipping NookHD-bootable-CWM-6027-for-emmc-stock-4GB-rev3-(02.03.13).zilch to a temporary folder on your difficult drive with whatever unzip program you like, 7-Zip or WinRar or take your pick. Note that the file extracts from 9 MB to a 'img' file 3.8 GB in size– that's some serious compression, so brand sure yous have room on your hard bulldoze.

What is this image file that came out of the nix? Information technology's the bootloader we're going to use to start the Android tablet with and go the ball rolling.

With the img file unzipped, yous'll need to write information technology to a microSD card. (Again, you tin buy these cards and USB adapters for them to plug into your PC very cheaply these days.)

The way I wrote the img file to the carte du jour, and the manner discussed in the tutorial I linked to in a higher place, is to apply a free program called win32 disk imager. This will wipe the microSD carte du jour and excerpt the img file to information technology in such a way that you tin can boot from the menu. (If you don't use Windows, Mac and Linux software is out there that does the same thing.)

Install win32 disk imager on your PC and burn it upwardly and you'll see a dialog. Cull the img file you only unzipped and brand sure you write it to your microSD bill of fare, and _not_ one of your hard drives.

2017-02-26_13-39-01

Hit the 'Write' button and it'll take a minute or ii to extract the paradigm to your microSD bill of fare. Proceed in mind this volition wipe out anything on the card, so make sure you don't take any files on there you need, and in one case again make sure the drive alphabetic character (G:\ in my example) is that of your SD card, and not a hard drive!

When the image file is written to your microSD carte du jour you can but copy the other two zip files ( cm_hummingbird-ota-NMF26Q.161222.nulland open_gapps-arm-7.1-pico-20170203.nix ) to it, just drag and drop them to the root directory with all the other extracted files.

Once y'all've extracted the bootloader and copied both goose egg files to the microSD card you're ready to install Android seven on the Nook.

Before you start, brand sure your Nook is fully charged, as the Android seven installation can take thirty minutes or so and running out of ability halfway through isn't much fun. You'll also want to save any ebooks, videos or other files you want from the Nook to a safe location before starting, as the procedure we're using here is a fresh showtime, clear-the-decks installation that volition wipe out whatsoever information y'all have on the device.

Once the device has a full battery, plow information technology off, insert your microSD carte du jour and turn it on. You should see a 'cyanoboot' splash screen, which means the bootloader is doing its affair:

WP_20160803_10_48_17_Pro[1] — This epitome is of the Nook HD+, simply the install works fine on the Nook Hd as well

I'll note here that sometimes you may need to reboot the device two or three times in society for it to kick from the microSD card, so if y'all go direct to the onetime Nook interface, same as ever, just close the device down and effort once more. Eventually you should hit the cyanoboot screen.

(If you're really having trouble booting from the microSD card, believe information technology or not y'all might endeavor your luck with a dissimilar one– Nooks tin can be *very* picky about the cards they'll kicking from. Try an older card, perhaps a grade iv vs class x one. It sounds ridiculous but others have had success going this way. An eight GB microSD card is only virtually $viii.00 shipped from ebay, and so no harm trying.)

Once the splash screen fades y'all'll be presented with a kicking bill of fare and options like to the below.

WP_20160803_10_53_00_Pro[1]

The way to navigate around the menu is to:

Use the volume buttons to motion up and downwardly,
Use the Nook home push button to select the currently highlighted choice
Printing the power push button to go up one menu

The first footstep is to wipe the device and starting time fresh. Again, that ways copying whatever files you want off the Nook to a safe place beforehand and choosing the ' wipe data / factory reset ' choice. Wiping the device volition take a moment and you'll see some progress text at the lesser of the screen equally it goes through information technology.

Assuming you've wiped the information and done the factory reset, you'll desire to restart the tablet past going upwardly to the root menu and selecting " reboot system now ". (If, after selecting the reboot option you're asked any questions or warnings most 'root', just say no to them and go the reboot going.)

When the device reboots you'll render to the root carte du jour. This fourth dimension, choose the ' install zip ' option and from there choose the external_sd binder. In there, y'all'll want to install the cm_hummingbird-ota-NMF26Q.161222.null file:

WP_20160803_10_54_28_Pro[1]

Requite that a minute or two, then return to the aforementioned menu surface area and this time cull to install the open_gapps-arm-7.1-pico-20170203 null file. This will install Google Play on the device.

With that done, go alee and reboot the device, this time with the microSD menu removed.

The initial kick sequence may take ~10 minutes the first time through as it calibrates in the background, so get a cup of coffee at this point.

Yous may have to ability down and reboot 1 or twice to get things moving– this is not unheard of, so don't worry if the procedure seems a fiddling slapdash.

When all is said and done, subsequently 10 minutes and/or a reboot or two y'all should be in proficient shape and looking at an Android 7.1 device, with Google Play installed, and you'll be ready to become.

Update half dozen/2017– apparently Netflix is at present blocking any rooted android tablet from downloading their app from the Google Play store, considering of location-specific content restrictions, which is annoying. However, you tin still install Netflix on the tablet easily plenty, as discussed in this article amongst many.

This also applies to the Barnes and Noble reader app, which is likewise 'blocked' on the Google Play store from any device / Bone combo they don't approve of. The way to get around that is to become to a site such equally apkpure.com and look up the Nook reader, download the apk file and install it via Chrome.