November update

ExcuseTheN00b

Senior Member
Jun 21, 2011
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What is the best way to do the OTA with Magisk root and custom kernel installed? It has been a very long time since I have rooted a phone and did any OTA.
 

prgopala

Senior Member
Jun 10, 2010
475
113
0
Sydney
What is the best way to do the OTA with Magisk root and custom kernel installed? It has been a very long time since I have rooted a phone and did any OTA.
I followed the below steps. This is assuming you are already rooted on October patch level and want to maintain root.

1) Downloaded the factory images for the Nov update (https://developers.google.com/android/images) to the PC.

2) Extracted the zip file (make sure to extract the zip file inside the first one. That zip contains the .img file which we will need in step 4 ).

3) Edited the flash_all.bat file to remove '-w' parameter so that the data is not wiped.

4) Copied the 'boot.img' to the phone and used magisk manager to patch the boot file (https://topjohnwu.github.io/Magisk/install.html#boot-image-patching).
Copied the patched 'magisk_patched.img' from the phone to the PC.

NOTE: I also disabled all magisk modules before the next steps. This is just to ensure that custom module don't mess up the update (have seen this with the Oneplus 7 PRO android 10 update when i had that device)

5) Reboot phone into bootloder and connect to PC

6) Flashed the update by running the flash_all.bat file (make sure to remove the '-w' parameter before flashing so that DATA is not wiped). I did run into issue where the vendor.img failed at flashing but a change of USB cable fixed that (I have seen this issue before. some cables just don't work in fastboot/adb).

7) Once the flashing completes the phone reboots and does some update after booting up.

8) Again reboot into bootloader. Flash the boot with the 'magisk_patched.img' that was copied in step 4.
Code:
fastboot flash boot magisk_patched.img
I always flash it on both the a & b partitions by using below command.
Code:
fastboot flash boot_a magisk_patched.img
fastboot flash boot_b magisk_patched.img
9) Reboot the phone. At this point you have ROOT with Magisk and your custom kernel would be gone since stock/patched boot.img would have replaced it. You can re-flash your kernel (make sure the kernel has been updated for the November security update). Also at this point you can enable any modules that you may have disabled before the update.
 
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meek2100

Senior Member
Nov 2, 2010
212
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0
Salt Lake City
Does anyone know why the Pixel 4 has 3 update files? Is there a specific version need for a specific carrier or something?

These are all Nov 2019 Factory/OTA update files for the Pixel 4.
QD1A.190821.007.A3
QD1A.190821.014
QD1A.190821.014.C2

---------- Post added at 09:23 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:21 AM ----------

Does anyone know why the Pixel 4 has 3 update files? Is there a specific version need for a specific carrier or something?

These are all Nov 2019 Factory/OTA update files for the Pixel 4.
QD1A.190821.007.A3
QD1A.190821.014
QD1A.190821.014.C2
Actually I just found the answer here: https://support.google.com/pixelphone/thread/18553639?hl=en

Pixel 4 (XL):
  • US (ATT & Verizon): QD1A.190821.014.C2
  • US (TMobile, Sprint, Google Fi) & UK carriers: QD1A.190821.014
  • All other carriers (AU/JP/CA/TW/US): QD1A.190821.007.A3
 

sic0048

Senior Member
Jun 25, 2010
910
465
83
What is the best way to do the OTA with Magisk root and custom kernel installed? It has been a very long time since I have rooted a phone and did any OTA.
The post above (post #3) that says to use the factory image isn't wrong, but it isn't the easiest method either.

You can side-load the OTA image. You can do this on a phone with a locked or unlocked bootloader and you don't need to modify any files to prevent it from wiping the phone. It's just like the OTA update and will not wipe the phone.

You can find the files and directions directly from Google. https://developers.google.com/android/ota

Once the update is done, you will need to reroot the phone using the standard modified boot image method and then reflash your custom kernel (after making sure it has been updated to the latest OTA version). Just be aware that while the actual flashing time is much shorter than taking the OTA normally, it may have to optimize all of the apps during the initial boot. Unfortunately it doesn't give you any indication this is going on (unlike during a normal OTA update) and therefore people tend to get impatient and reboot during the initial boot. Don't do this. Just be patient and let the phone do it's thing. My phone took about 20 minutes to boot initially after side-loading the Nov update because I have a decent number of apps that it had to optimize.
 
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Spookymyo

Senior Member
Dec 12, 2007
907
214
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45
Morristown, TN
How do I get into bootloader mode? I can get into fastboot mode fine. But when I execute the command 'fastboot flashing unlock' the command prompt just shows waiting for device.
 

sic0048

Senior Member
Jun 25, 2010
910
465
83
Anyone experiencing "improved camera quality" that was listed in the change log? What are we looking for specifically?
Pure speculation on my part, but I wonder if Google didn't tweak the auto-white balance due to the complaints about how the phone handled white balance in pictures with a predominantly red color.
 

BubbaGumprc

Senior Member
May 11, 2010
83
4
0
Apparently Google killed the manual update your phone function again. At least on my pixel 4. Seemed to happen to me all the time on the pixel 3 too. Anyone else have the same issues?

Sent from my Pixel 4 using Tapatalk
 
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atlp99

Senior Member
Jul 12, 2007
346
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Apparently Google killed the manual update your phone function again. At least on my pixel 4. Seemed to happen to me all the time on the pixel 3 too. Anyone else have the same issues?

I had the same issue, the check update function did not work on my P4. It was working great on my P3.
 

sn0warmy

Senior Member
Jul 26, 2010
3,371
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Boulder, CO
Ugh! I got antsy and manually flashed the November factory image and now my face unlock is completely broken. I've tried rebooting, deleting face data + creating a new one in different lighting environments 5+ times now. No matter what I do the phone will not recognize my face anymore. It was working flawlessly on the October patch.

Now I'm afraid broken face unlock is one of the reasons Google delayed the role out of the November patch. Not a happy camper right now.

EDIT: I had to revert back to the October patch (full wipe) to get face unlock working again.
 
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ahsank128

Senior Member
Oct 19, 2013
325
46
48
New York City
Ugh! I got antsy and manually flashed the November factory image and now my face unlock is completely broken. I've tried rebooting, deleting face data + creating a new one in different lighting environments 5+ times now. No matter what I do the phone will not recognize my face anymore. It was working flawlessly on the October patch.

Now I'm afraid broken face unlock is one of the reasons Google delayed the role out of the November patch. Not a happy camper right now.

EDIT: I had to revert back to the October patch (full wipe) to get face unlock working again.
that's, odd, i updated to november, and my phone is spot on, I've yet to face an issue, or if i have i havent even noticed
 

thehartk

Member
Jan 12, 2014
18
2
23
Ugh! I got antsy and manually flashed the November factory image and now my face unlock is completely broken. I've tried rebooting, deleting face data + creating a new one in different lighting environments 5+ times now. No matter what I do the phone will not recognize my face anymore. It was working flawlessly on the October patch.

Now I'm afraid broken face unlock is one of the reasons Google delayed the role out of the November patch. Not a happy camper right now.

EDIT: I had to revert back to the October patch (full wipe) to get face unlock working again.

Make sure you picked the correct image for your phone variant.
My phone came with build 007, installed a different one and it broke the face unlock. Installing back 007 restored it.

Im on November and face unlock works just fine
 

sn0warmy

Senior Member
Jul 26, 2010
3,371
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Boulder, CO
that's, odd, i updated to november, and my phone is spot on, I've yet to face an issue, or if i have i havent even noticed
hm... When I flashed the November image I did full wipe. Mybe this time I'll try without wipe and see if it retains proper face unlock from the October image.

Make sure you picked the correct image for your phone variant.
My phone came with build 007, installed a different one and it broke the face unlock. Installing back 007 restored it.

Im on November and face unlock works just fine
Yeah, I was on 10.0.0 (QD1A.190821.007, Oct 2019) before clean flashing 10.0.0 (QD1A.190821.014, Nov 2019). I'm now back on 10.0.0 (QD1A.190821.007, Oct 2019) to get face unlock working again.

I wonder if I should be flashing 10.0.0 (QD1A.190821.007.A3, Nov 2019), instead? That ".A3" is giving me pause though.

Google really needs to label/identify these factory images better like they used to with (unlocked US) or (verizon) etc.. This is confusing.
 

brandon5491

Senior Member
Oct 23, 2014
51
18
8
Colorado Springs
hm... When I flashed the November image I did full wipe. Mybe this time I'll try without wipe and see if it retains proper face unlock from the October image.



Yeah, I was on 10.0.0 (QD1A.190821.007, Oct 2019) before clean flashing 10.0.0 (QD1A.190821.014, Nov 2019). I'm now back on 10.0.0 (QD1A.190821.007, Oct 2019) to get face unlock working again.

I wonder if I should be flashing 10.0.0 (QD1A.190821.007.A3, Nov 2019), instead? That ".A3" is giving me pause though.

Google really needs to label/identify these factory images better like they used to with (unlocked US) or (verizon) etc.. This is confusing.
Yes flash the .007.A3 if you were on the .007 before. I went through the same problems with the .014 too but .007.A3 fixed it.
 
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