Please help me flash factory image of Pixel 3?

[PistolSlap]

[EDIT:] I actually ended up solving this, as mentioned in the lower post, but I'm still having a bit of trouble with the part below where trying to flash twrp gives the error "FAILED (remote: Not allowed to flash (recovery))" so I'd still like help with that if possible. Thanks!

Hello,
I have a Pixel 3 that I got when it first came out, there was only one custom rom for it which I installed with TWRP, but the rom was kind of broken, so i just used the phone as a media player for a couple years, until I thought to check for new roms, and there are lots now. So I'm following the PixelDust installation instructions which say I absolutely must start by reverting stock rom. On my Samsung I used Odin, but there's nothing like that for this, except sources pointing to Android Flash Tool website, but after I tried flashing with that site, it just went into bootloader and said "no valid slots to boot", so it evidently failed. So my next thought was to flash it manually, so I downloaded the latest Blueline image from here. I'm using this guide, but it says to extract the zip and use the flash-all command, but when I extract this image I only get these files (see screenshot attachment). Another guide says there will be a file in that folder that I should extract that too but the only one that makes any sense is payload.bin and 7zip doesn't recognize that. And I haven't been able to get anything really comprehensible through Google searches. So I'm at a dead end. :/

So basically I'm hoping someone can give me a step-by-step instruction how to flash this rom. I'm not really a tech guy but I have a basic understanding, I've used ADB and fastboot before, following instructions though. If you can take the time to give me an idiot-proof instruction I'd really appreciate it because at the moment the phone's useless

Thanks!

EDIT:
I actually tried to at least flash TWRP so I could try to restore my nandroid of the other rom, but when I tried, I got the error:

D:\D Backup\Misc\nandroid\adbfastboot samsung a5>fastboot flash recovery
 twrp-3.4.0-0-twrp.img
target reported max download size of 268435456 bytes
sending 'recovery' (4560 KB)...
OKAY [  0.255s]
writing 'recovery'...
[B]FAILED (remote: Not allowed to flash (recovery))[/B]
finished. total time: 0.317s

And searches on that said it was because the bootloader is locked... but it's not. So I don't know why I can't even do that. :/ I'd like to at least get to something functional. >.< So I'd appreciate any help. Thanks!

 

[PistolSlap]

Okay, well good news, I figured the main thing out by accident. I didn't realize there was a difference between factory image and ota image and I guess I got the ota, not the factory, which was when I unzipped it it just had meta-inf and not flash-all. But I also discovered how to sideload that ota and i did that, and now the phone is back to stock, hooray!

But I'm still having trouble getting TWRP back on it for the same reason listed above, so can you guys help me with that part?

lol thanks ^^;

Hello,
I have a Pixel 3 that I got when it first came out, there was only one custom rom for it which I installed with TWRP, but the rom was kind of broken, so i just used the phone as a media player for a couple years, until I thought to check for new roms, and there are lots now. So I'm following the PixelDust installation instructions which say I absolutely must start by reverting stock rom. On my Samsung I used Odin, but there's nothing like that for this, except sources pointing to Android Flash Tool website, but after I tried flashing with that site, it just went into bootloader and said "no valid slots to boot", so it evidently failed. So my next thought was to flash it manually, so I downloaded the latest Blueline image from here. I'm using this guide, but it says to extract the zip and use the flash-all command, but when I extract this image I only get these files (see screenshot attachment). Another guide says there will be a file in that folder that I should extract that too but the only one that makes any sense is payload.bin and 7zip doesn't recognize that. And I haven't been able to get anything really comprehensible through Google searches. So I'm at a dead end. :/

So basically I'm hoping someone can give me a step-by-step instruction how to flash this rom. I'm not really a tech guy but I have a basic understanding, I've used ADB and fastboot before, following instructions though. If you can take the time to give me an idiot-proof instruction I'd really appreciate it because at the moment the phone's useless

Thanks!

EDIT:
I actually tried to at least flash TWRP so I could try to restore my nandroid of the other rom, but when I tried, I got the error:

D:\D Backup\Misc\nandroid\adbfastboot samsung a5>fastboot flash recovery
 twrp-3.4.0-0-twrp.img
target reported max download size of 268435456 bytes
sending 'recovery' (4560 KB)...
OKAY [  0.255s]
writing 'recovery'...
[B]FAILED (remote: Not allowed to flash (recovery))[/B]
finished. total time: 0.317s

And searches on that said it was because the bootloader is locked... but it's not. So I don't know why I can't even do that. :/ I'd like to at least get to something functional. >.< So I'd appreciate any help. Thanks!

 

[dcarvil]

Okay, well good news, I figured the main thing out by accident. I didn't realize there was a difference between factory image and ota image and I guess I got the ota, not the factory, which was when I unzipped it it just had meta-inf and not flash-all. But I also discovered how to sideload that ota and i did that, and now the phone is back to stock, hooray!

But I'm still having trouble getting TWRP back on it for the same reason listed above, so can you guys help me with that part?

lol thanks ^^;

If you flashed the latest image, you are on Android 11. TWRP will not work with Android 11. There is not even an official Pixel 3 TWRP for Android 10.

 

[droidbot1337]

If you flashed the latest image, you are on Android 11. TWRP will not work with Android 11. There is not even an official Pixel 3 TWRP for Android 10.

THIS! theres no functional twrp and it looks like there may not be one at all. i recently reverted to android 10 so that i could go back to DirtyUnicors. i recommend waiting awhile longer for stable R ROMs.

 

[PistolSlap]

Ok but this happened with Android 8. I didn't flash the latest image but actually the earliest. And come to think of it it happened even before the flash when there wasn't even an OS at that point. (The phone was wiped but no OS was installed.) so I tried it both then and after I got Android 8 installed and same disallowed error.

If you flashed the latest image, you are on Android 11. TWRP will not work with Android 11. There is not even an official Pixel 3 TWRP for Android 10.

 

[dcarvil]

Ok but this happened with Android 8. I didn't flash the latest image but actually the earliest. And come to think of it it happened even before the flash when there wasn't even an OS at that point. (The phone was wiped but no OS was installed.) so I tried it both then and after I got Android 8 installed and same disallowed error.

Are you sure you are on Android 8? The Pixel 3 shipped with Android 9. There is no Android 8 for the Pixel 3 listed in the link you gave in your original post.

If you really are on Android 8, or even Android 9, try the instructions on the Pixel 3 TWRP website at https://twrp.me/google/googlepixel3.html. The instructions you listed in your original post are for a Nexus 6, not a Pixel 3.

 

[PistolSlap]

Are you sure you are on Android 8? The Pixel 3 shipped with Android 9. There is no Android 8 for the Pixel 3 listed in the link you gave in your original post.

If you really are on Android 8, or even Android 9, try the instructions on the Pixel 3 TWRP website at https://twrp.me/google/googlepixel3.html. The instructions you listed in your original post are for a Nexus 6, not a Pixel 3.

Ah sorry I meant Android 9.
Okay, cool I followed those instructions and it worked. Thanks! I'm not sure what I did wrong before.

One other question: My older phone is a Samsung Galaxy A5, which doesn't have A/B slots, and I've looked into it but I'm still not exactly sure how they work. Is it correct that they're both system images? So if I have stock in slot A can I install a custom rom in slot B and switch between them? Or have I got that wrong?

Also, when I was first flashing a rom onto this Pixel 3, I tried to do a nandroid backup, which for some reason failed to restore properly, and someone mentioned it was because it was a slot device? So does that mean nandroid backups don't work on the PIxel 3?


Thanks for your help. I'm not a compsci guy or android dev, so this stuff takes a bit more for me to quite understand. :")

 

[dcarvil]

Ah sorry I meant Android 9.
Okay, cool I followed those instructions and it worked. Thanks! I'm not sure what I did wrong before.

One other question: My older phone is a Samsung Galaxy A5, which doesn't have A/B slots, and I've looked into it but I'm still not exactly sure how they work. Is it correct that they're both system images? So if I have stock in slot A can I install a custom rom in slot B and switch between them? Or have I got that wrong?

Also, when I was first flashing a rom onto this Pixel 3, I tried to do a nandroid backup, which for some reason failed to restore properly, and someone mentioned it was because it was a slot device? So does that mean nandroid backups don't work on the PIxel 3?


Thanks for your help. I'm not a compsci guy or android dev, so this stuff takes a bit more for me to quite understand. :")

I have no experience with TWRP on a Pixel 3, so I can't answer your question about nandroid backups. Perhaps someone else can answer. The question on the A5 should be asked in a different forum.

The difference in the instructions for the Nexus 6 and Pixel 3, is that you boot TWRP, then install from TWRP for the Pixel 3.