Just like that, ChromeOS 119 is back for most Chromebooks

ChromeOS updates have been a bit of a rollercoaster over the past few months. While 117 arrived with Material You in a pretty straightforward fashion, ChromeOS 118 and 119 have been anything but smooth sailing. With stop and go roll-outs, pulled updates, and not a lot in the way of clear answers for many users, the last two updates have been interesting to say the least.

With ChromeOS 118, I feel like it was understandable. 118 brought with it the Chromebook Plus upgrade for eligible devices, so that meant a few new features, a new boot screen, a new OOBE experience, and new underlying code that acts as a gatekeeper for which devices do and don’t get the Chromebook Plus upgraded features moving forward. That’s a lot to pack in one update for sure.

But ChromeOS 119 took things to another level, rolling out on time initially and then getting completely pulled down for about a week afterwards. While Google’s had no comment on the matter thus far, clearly ChromeOS 119 had some sizable issues that not only halted its roll-out, but forced them to pull the update altogether.

With a 4-week update cycle, this sort of thing is bound to happen from time to time. ChromeOS evolves at a wildly-fast pace when compared with something like Windows, MacOS, or Android. As the complexity continues to grow with Chromebooks, so too will the hiccups that come with these frequent updates. If a few rocky versions happen from time to time, I’m glad to take that if it means we get updates and features on a very regular basis.

ChromeOS 119 is available for update

And that brings us to today, where we’re seeing the vast majority of Chromebooks once again gaining access to ChromeOS 119. The version has changed a bit from what was rolled out earlier in the month, so even if you stayed on ChromeOS 119, you were likely on version 119.0.6045.158 before today. You can now check for an update and your device should move to 119.0.6045.192.

To get there, open the settings app and head to About ChromeOS > Check for updates and you should see the latest version begin to download and install. If it doesn’t, you may have one of the handful of devices still on 118. Again, we never know why certain Chromebooks get held back, but you can rest assured the ChromeOS team is working on it behind the scenes. From what we can tell, those devices still without 119 include:

• ASUS Chromebook C204 (Intel N4020)
• Acer Chromebook Spin 511 and 512 (Intel N100/N200, Celeron N4500)
• CTL Chromebook NL81/NL81T
• Lenovo 500e Yoga Chromebook Gen 4 (Intel N100)
• Lenovo Flex 3i Chromebook (Intel N100)
• ASUS Chromebook Flip CM5 (AMD Ryzen 3250C)
• ASUS CR11102F (Intel N100)
• ASUS CX1 (Intel N4020)
• ASUS Chromebook C424 (Intel N4020)
• Lenovo Chromebook Duet 3
• Lenovo Chromebook Duet 5

With a quick look at this list, we can see an emerging pattern. Sure, there are a couple Snapdragon 7c Gen 2 devices in there with the Duet 3 and Duet 5, but those Chromebooks are held back for a specific hardware issue. Apart from that, nearly all the devices still on 118 are in the same family and share one particular trait in common – they all have either last-gen or current-gen Intel small-core processors inside.

The only other outlier is the ASUS Flip CM5 with it’s Ryzen 3250C processor, but other Chromebooks with that same chip inside (like the Lenovo ThinkPad C13 Yoga) are getting the update, so I’m inclined to think there’s a specific hardware issue for this one as well that may or may not be related to the actual processor or base board.

Apart from these devices, however, all eligible Chromebooks should be able to update right away. I know the Lenovo Flex 5i Chromebook Plus I’m working from right now had the update availble as soon as I sat down at the desk, so there should be nothing keeping you from wading back into the ChromeOS 119 waters at this point. And if things go sideways, we have a guide on how to jump back a version of ChromeOS if you need it.