Unable to enter recovery mode for Marshmallow manual OTA update on Nexus 6

Question

I am sharing this piece of knowledge for the folks who might face the same problem.

Scenario

I am manually upgrading a rooted Motorola Nexus 6 device, for which OTA update is not available due to system ROM modification. A populare guide can be found here or by following Nexus Root Toolkit's wizard.

Problem

Android reboots in recovery mode with a "No command" message. NRT and guides say that this is the pre-screen to recovery. I need to enter recovery and enable download from ADB. The problem is that when I do the PWR+Volume+ sequence I only get the device rebooted into Android

Answer 1

Solution

First press the PWR button, then quickly press once the Volume+ button and release the keys.

Explanation

It could be tricky for some people to enter the combination right.

Nexus 6 does not allow direct Recovery boot using PWR+Volume+ combo on powered off phone. Instead, you have to go through the bootloader.

Once you are in the recovery pre-screen (in my case, of ROM MOB30O), holding the PWR button will force the device's power cycle. If you press Volume+ before PWR, recovery will ignore the sequence, and then if you hold PWR a power cycle will start.

The power cycle then will simply ignore that you are holding Volume+ button, bringing you to Android OS with a normal boot