Google, the internet search giant as well as the company which is responsible for maintaining Android has just announced the Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL smartphones earlier this year. Now, these smartphones are the successors to the Google Pixel and Pixel XL smartphones that were launched by the company around the same time last year. Also, the Google Pixel and Pixel XL became the first smartphone to be manufactured and designed by Google itself as the company released the Nexus smartphones in the previous years which were the flagship Android smartphones from Google that were developed in partnership with Android OEMs.
Now, the Google Pixel and Pixel Xl were marketed as Made by Google and the smartphones came with Stock Android along with Android 7.1.2 Nougat which was not released to the general public at the time of its launch. Also, we have known that the Google Pixel smartphones are the first smartphones to get the latest security patch updates as well as the Android updates and we have seen that the Android 8.0 Oreo and now the Android 8.1 Oreo updates have already been released for the Google Pixel and Pixel 2 series smartphones by Google.
However, there might be many users of the Google Pixel XL around the world who would have unlocked the bootloader and installed custom ROMs on their smartphone for some reason. This might be because many Custom ROMs have features that are not present on Stock ROMs which come pre-installed on the Google Pixel smartphones.
Now, if you have already installed any Custom ROM on your device and you want to go back to Stock Android as your smartphone is now receiving the update to Android 8.1 Oreo then we have you covered as we have put up a tutorial below so that you can return your Google Pixel XL to Stock Android even if you have any Custom ROM installed on your device. Additionally, you will also need to lock your bootloader in order to install the OTA update which has also been mentioned in the guide below.
Prerequisites
- This guide is for all the users who have already unlocked the bootloader, installed a custom recovery like TWRP and have any custom ROM installed on their Google Pixel smartphone.
- You will need to have at least 50% battery capacity or more left on the Google Pixel in order to continue with the following tutorial
- It is also recommended that you should take a backup of all the important files that are currently present on your smartphone so that you do not risk losing the files.
- You should have ADB and Fastboot installed on your PC. In order to do this, you will have to follow our tutorial to install adb and fastboot on your computer.
Downloads
Steps to Restore Google Pixel XL to Stock and Lock Bootloader
- First of all, you will have to carefully follow all the steps mentioned in the Prerequisites section above as they are very important.
- Also, it is assumed that you have unlocked the bootloader, installed a custom recovery like TWRP and have any Custom ROM installed on your Google Pixel XL.
- Once you have done all the steps mentioned above, you will have to download the factory image from the Downloads section above for your Google Pixel XL codenamed Marlin.
- Now, you will have to unzip this factory image on any folder on your computer.
- Now, you have to copy this unzipped factory image to the folder in which you have ADB and Fastboot installed as mentioned in the Prerequisites section above.
- After this, check whether you have all of the below-mentioned files present in the folder:
flash-all.bat
bootloader-marlin-9999-999999-9999999999.img
radio-marlin-9999-999999-9999999999.img
image-marlin-aaa9.999999.999.zip
- Once checked, you will have to now boot your Pixel XL to bootloader/fastboot mode by turning off your device and pressing Volume Down + Power button.
- After this, you will need to open a command prompt on your PC inside the folder which has the fastboot files as well as the factory images present that were extracted from above.
- Now, connect the Google Pixel XL via a USB cable and make sure that the device has been properly connected to your PC
- Now, you just have to enter a command that has been mentioned below in order to flash the factory images:
flash-all
- Now, in order to lock your bootloader once again, you will have to enter one more command at the command prompt that is already open:
fastboot flashing lock
- Press enter after typing this command and there will be some process that will take place which would take few minutes after which your bootloader will be locked once again
- After this, just reboot your smartphone normally into the system by long-pressing the Power button or else you can reboot the smartphone from the bootloader mode by entering the command as below:
fastboot reboot
- Once your smartphone has rebooted into the system, you will have the Google Pixel XL completed restored to stock and the bootloader of your phone will be locked.
Follow all the steps that have been mentioned in the tutorial properly and you will have your Google Pixel XL’s bootloader locked once again and it will be completely restored to stock software that was shipped by Google.
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