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Let me paint the scenario: you are in the car (not driving, of course) or in a coffee shop with faulty Wifi and you need to take an update on your Chromebook. Maybe you are waiting for that update that could get Android on your device or you are switching from Dev Channel back to Stable because there’s a bug you simply can’t work around.
I’ve been in these and other situations where I need to download and apply the latest Chrome OS update when on the move and the Chromebook simply won’t begin the download process while you are on a mobile network.
There can be a variety of reasons why you need that update to download and apply, and when it won’t work it can put you in a bit of a pickle.
Luckily, the fix is quite simple, and we want to be sure you have this in your back pocket if/when you need it.
The Easy Solution
First, you need to open up a terminal screen. If you’ve never done this kind of thing, don’t worry: you won’t break anything.
Just hit CTRL + ALT + T and you’ll see a window pop up that looks like this:
Now you just need to type this in: update_over_cellular enable
Hit enter and you should see this message afterwards: When available, auto-updates download in the background any time the computer is powered on. Note: this may incur additional cellular charges, including roaming and/or data charges, as per your carrier arrangement.
[0404/084609:INFO:update_engine_client.cc(335)] Current update over cellular network setting: ENABLED
That’s it! You are now ready to smash that update button again and watch your Chromebook commence the upgrade.
You can now close the terminal window and ignore the pop-up warning. We hope this helps some of you out of a bind.
