[Guide] Pixel 4 XL (Unlocked from Google Store) - Root and Bootloader Unlocking

[Jake81345]

Not knowing how you got out of your bootloop or what caused your bootloop in the first place, in my opinion it would be a good idea to either factory reset or fastboot flash the latest factory image so you can start fresh (back up any files you need to save first). After doing that you shouldn't have to specify which slot, it should flash the patched boot image to the slot you are on automatically.

Since the Beta Magisk was updated yesterday to 21.2 make sure you when you enter the command "fastboot flash boot <name> that you use the name of the patched boot image. When I updated yesterday the name of the patched boot image found in the downloads folder after patching changed from "magisk_patched.img" to "magisk_patched_aE2Jx.img". So double check to make sure you use the actual name of whatever you ended up with. Not sure if this was this case for others who updated.

So for instance, yesterday I had to use the command "fastboot flash boot magisk_patched_aE2Jx.img" (without the quotes).

EDIT: Apparently their was a commit added to Beta 21.2 where the name of the patched boot image will change every time you patch your stock boot image.

All is done and everything went perfectly that time, I appreciate it man. I'm thinking I wasn't properly updated before. either way Hell Yea!!

 

[Lughnasadh]

All is done and everything went perfectly that time, I appreciate it man. I'm thinking I wasn't properly updated before. either way Hell Yea!!

Great! Glad you got it going

 

[Jake81345]

One last question. Is there anything special I need to do now when system updates come in?

 

[Lughnasadh]

One last question. Is there anything special I need to do now when system updates come in?

My preferred method for updating is as follows:

1. Turn off "Automatic system updates" in Developer options
2. Disable all Magisk Mods and Substratum overlays
3. Fastboot flash the new factory image with the -w removed from the flash-all.bat file to keep data
4.Patch the new stock boot image with Magisk
5. Fastboot flash the patched boot image

Here is a good guide: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/guide-root-pixel-4-xl-android-11-r.4160441/

 

[100kaa]

I have lost GooglePay yesterday. Does anyone knows or have experienced the same? I have tried to do same thing which helped me first time after rooting the phone, but none of the settings are changed.

 

[Lughnasadh]

I have lost GooglePay yesterday. Does anyone knows or have experienced the same? I have tried to do same thing which helped me first time after rooting the phone, but none of the settings are changed.

Check over in the new safetynet fix thread. Google made some server-side changes the other day and you probably need to flash the safetynet fix mod as well as clearing cache/data from Google Pay and Google Play Services. https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/magisk-module-universal-safetynet-fix-1-1-0.4217823/

 

[100kaa]

@Lughnasadh

Thanks a lot. It should be working now.

 

[madmartian]

First time I went through the process last year it worked great. But I forgot to turn off automatic updates. No biggy, I thought, I'll just patch the boot img of the new version and I'll be back to working. Nope. I get the "G" screen with endless loading animation. I have tried both of the following commands (on different tries):

fastboot flash boot magisk_patched.img
fastboot flash boot --slot all magisk_patched.img

Same endless load screen either way. I know I am using the correct boot img and when I flash the phone with the unpatched boot img to get my phone working again, it boots just fine. I still get the warning message on boot that my bootloader is unlocked so I know my bootloader is still unlocked.

Note that I also tried removing magisk modules via adb as some people advised:

adb wait-for-device shell magisk --remove-modules

Sadly, that stops the phone from booting entirely (keeps booting back to bootloader) and I have to reflash the patched module. Which then gets stuck on the G screen as usual.

Any idea what I can do to get root working again? I definitely have the latest Canary build of Magisk, loaded just yesterday. Stock ROM I am working with is 11.0.0 (RQ1A.210105.003, Jan 2021). I've been rooting and playing with custom ROMs for more than a decade and this is the first time I've been stumped.

 

[Lughnasadh]

First time I went through the process last year it worked great. But I forgot to turn off automatic updates. No biggy, I thought, I'll just patch the boot img of the new version and I'll be back to working. Nope. I get the "G" screen with endless loading animation. I have tried both of the following commands (on different tries):

fastboot flash boot magisk_patched.img
fastboot flash boot --slot all magisk_patched.img

Same endless load screen either way. I know I am using the correct boot img and when I flash the phone with the unpatched boot img to get my phone working again, it boots just fine. I still get the warning message on boot that my bootloader is unlocked so I know my bootloader is still unlocked.

Note that I also tried removing magisk modules via adb as some people advised:

adb wait-for-device shell magisk --remove-modules

Sadly, that stops the phone from booting entirely (keeps booting back to bootloader) and I have to reflash the patched module. Which then gets stuck on the G screen as usual.

Any idea what I can do to get root working again? I definitely have the latest Canary build of Magisk, loaded just yesterday. Stock ROM I am working with is 11.0.0 (RQ1A.210105.003, Jan 2021). I've been rooting and playing with custom ROMs for more than a decade and this is the first time I've been stumped.

Recently someone had a similar problem and solved it by using PowerShell instead of Command prompt. Worth a try. Also, they mentioned they ran it either as administrator or not as administrator (can't remember which one), so may be worth trying it both ways as well.

EDIT: Additionally, make sure your Platform Tools are up-to-date. If the above doesn't work may have to try fastboot flashing the factory image or doing a factory reset and then trying again.

EDIT 2: Are you using the new name of the patched boot image in the command instead of magisk_patched.img ? There is now a suffix added.

 

[madmartian]

Recently someone had a similar problem and solved it by using PowerShell instead of Command prompt. Worth a try. Also, they mentioned they ran it either as administrator or not as administrator (can't remember which one), so may be worth trying it both ways as well.

EDIT: Additionally, make sure your Platform Tools are up-to-date. If the above doesn't work may have to try fastboot flashing the factory image or doing a factory reset and then trying again.

EDIT 2: Are you using the new name of the patched boot image in the command instead of magisk_patched.img ? There is now a suffix added.

Yes, I am using the full name with the suffix. Just left it off the post for simplicity. Platform tools are the latest. Culprit is likely allowing the factory update to happen without first clearing all the modules. I will try Powershell with the module removal command and see if it makes a difference. The problem with starting over with a clean wipe is I can't use Titanium Backup until it's rooted again.

 

[madmartian]

First time I went through the process last year it worked great. But I forgot to turn off automatic updates. No biggy, I thought, I'll just patch the boot img of the new version and I'll be back to working. Nope. I get the "G" screen with endless loading animation. I have tried both of the following commands (on different tries):

fastboot flash boot magisk_patched.img
fastboot flash boot --slot all magisk_patched.img

Same endless load screen either way. I know I am using the correct boot img and when I flash the phone with the unpatched boot img to get my phone working again, it boots just fine. I still get the warning message on boot that my bootloader is unlocked so I know my bootloader is still unlocked.

Note that I also tried removing magisk modules via adb as some people advised:

adb wait-for-device shell magisk --remove-modules

Sadly, that stops the phone from booting entirely (keeps booting back to bootloader) and I have to reflash the patched module. Which then gets stuck on the G screen as usual.

Any idea what I can do to get root working again? I definitely have the latest Canary build of Magisk, loaded just yesterday. Stock ROM I am working with is 11.0.0 (RQ1A.210105.003, Jan 2021). I've been rooting and playing with custom ROMs for more than a decade and this is the first time I've been stumped.

I FIXED IT!!!

So the command "adb wait-for-device shell magisk --remove-modules" continued to cause the same problem, even after the February update and a new version of Magisk Manager. I read something about booting in safe mode automatically telling Magisk to disable all modules AND THAT WORKED!!!

So, once you experience the module-induced boot freeze at the G screen, do the following:

1. Hold the power button until the screen blacks
2. If it reboots into fastboot, boot again. If you can't get out of fastboot, flash the magisk patched file again and reboot
3. As soon as the Google logo appears, press and hold Volume Down. Keep it pressed until the "safe mode" logo appears in the lower left.
4. Wait for boot to finish. Give it an extra minute to be sure. Now reboot.
5. This time it will boot normally. Turn off airplane mode!
6. Run Magisk Manager and you will see all modules have been disabled.
7. Make sure you have the latest version of each module.
8. Enable one at a time and reboot until booting hangs again.
9. You have found the module causing the problem,. Repeat the safemode thing and remove the bad module.
10. Yippee! Problem solved! Root works again!

 

[mattwheat]

my bootloader is unlocked but im still getting this

target reported max download size of 268435456 bytes
sending 'boot' (65536 KB)...
OKAY [ 1.491s]
writing 'boot'...
FAILED (remote: Failed to write to partition Not Found)
finished. total time: 1.570s

why

 

[mattwheat]

my bootloader is unlocked but im still getting this

target reported max download size of 268435456 bytes
sending 'boot' (65536 KB)...
OKAY [ 1.491s]
writing 'boot'...
FAILED (remote: Failed to write to partition Not Found)
finished. total time: 1.570s

why

Ive extracted the boot.img from the exact build that my phone is on. I transfered it to my phone from my pc. Then opened Magisk and patched it. Then transfered back to my pc. Then did the
"fastboot flash boot magiskpatchedboot.img"

I didn't actually type magiskpatchedboot.img. I typed the name that Magisk named it after it patched it.

But I keep getting an error failed to write to remote to partition. Not found.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[madmuthertrucker]

Ive extracted the boot.img from the exact build that my phone is on. I transfered it to my phone from my pc. Then opened Magisk and patched it. Then transfered back to my pc. Then did the
"fastboot flash boot magiskpatchedboot.img"

I didn't actually type magiskpatchedboot.img. I typed the name that Magisk named it after it patched it.

But I keep getting an error failed to write to remote to partition. Not found.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Some of these guys know a lot more than me. Are you on canary version? I would flash stock boot.img to both slots then come back and try again. I say that because that is all that I know to try. But it's worth a shot.

fastboot flash boot boot.img --slot all

 

[Lughnasadh]

Ive extracted the boot.img from the exact build that my phone is on. I transfered it to my phone from my pc. Then opened Magisk and patched it. Then transfered back to my pc. Then did the
"fastboot flash boot magiskpatchedboot.img"

I didn't actually type magiskpatchedboot.img. I typed the name that Magisk named it after it patched it.

But I keep getting an error failed to write to remote to partition. Not found.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

First thing would be to make sure your platform tools are up-to-date.

 

[mattwheat]

Some of these guys know a lot more than me. Are you on canary version? I would flash stock boot.img to both slots then come back and try again. I say that because that is all that I know to try. But it's worth a shot.

fastboot flash boot boot.img --slot all

Yeah I didn't have the correct rooted boot.img. I still had an older patched version on my phone from when I rooted a while back. And was pulling that one from my phone to flash thru adb. I had to just clean up my inventory from all the old stuff and start over to ensure I was using all the up to date recently patched .img's. Thanks for the replies.

 

[madmuthertrucker]

Yeah I didn't have the correct rooted boot.img. I still had an older patched version on my phone from when I rooted a while back. And was pulling that one from my phone to flash thru adb. I had to just clean up my inventory from all the old stuff and start over to ensure I was using all the up to date recently patched .img's. Thanks for the replies.

I clear out all my old factory images and patched files before I start so I don't get mixed up. Glad you got it straightened out.

 

[elotan]

Hi all
Since it has been 2 years since the guide was published:
1. Does root (Pixel 4 XL) require opening the bootloader?
2. Does opening the bootloader erase / format the device and all its data?

 

[Lughnasadh]

Hi all
Since it has been 2 years since the guide was published:
1. Does root (Pixel 4 XL) require opening the bootloader?
2. Does opening the bootloader erase / format the device and all its data?

If by "opening" you mean unlocking, then...
1. Yes
2. Yes

 

[elotan]

If by "opening" you mean unlocking, then...
1. Yes
2. Yes

This was what I meant, yes (bad English).
Thank you very much for your answer. Unfortunately, I'm afraid it means no root for me. I'm 18 months with the device and cannot (or at least don't want to) start from scratch after a complete wipe / factory reset.