Finally, almost all Chromebooks are getting the ChromeOS 118 update

The update to ChromeOS 118 has been a strange, staggered affair. On October 17th, we knew the update to Chromebook Plus via ChromeOS 118 was set to begin, and it arrived roughly on time. But a week later, there was still a rather large contingent of devices that were still waiting on the update, and nothing was changing.

Clear issues with ChromeOS 118

A few days ago, though we didn’t report it, something shifted again and nearly 20 devices were actually reverted back to ChromeOS 117. Now, that reversion would only apply upon a Powerwash for those that had previously updated to ChromeOS 118 already, but it was a clear sign that something was not quite right with ChromeOS 118 across the board.

And that is to be expected with a release like this one. ChromeOS 118 didn’t just bring a few new features: it began the Chromebook Plus movement and is the first update that not only delivers the security updates and bug fixes we all expect, but also adds new features to the set of Chromebook Plus certified devices that meet the new spec requirements set by Google.

The Lenovo Chromebook Duets are still exempt

This update strangeness also highlighted the fact that the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 5 was still stuck on ChromeOS 116. We talked about this last week and had a few folks reach out to say that they were on ChromeOS 117, but as I mentioned above, reversions don’t typically force your device back to the prior version. Instead, a device starting from scratch (usually via Powerwash) would ping the server, grab the ChromeOS 116 image, and be on that version until an update was delivered. That was the case with our device in the office, and we’ve been on ChromeOS 116 since I posted that article.

Two weeks later, we’re basically all on 118

That being said, as of this morning, it looks like basically everyone is on ChromeOS 118. Looking at cros.tech, it seems that all devices still getting updates are all on ChromeOS 118 (118.0.5993.124 or 118.0.5993.123) except for the Lenovo Chromebook Duet 3 and Duet 5. We’ve reached out to Lenovo about this and will update if we hear back.

This new version of 118 should be an incremental update for everyone, so check your device for that latest version and an update should be there. And with it, every eligible Chromebook (again, except the Duet 3 and Duet 5) is now on 118 at the same time. With the Beta channel showing everyone on the same version of ChromeOS 119 (119.0.6045.38) – including the Duet 3 and Duet 5 – I’m hopeful that the next update will be a bit more calm this time around. We’re all set for that to happen on November 14, so in just a couple weeks we can put the messiness of 118 behind us and look forward to all the new goodies on the way in ChromeOS 119.