What it means is clearly indicated in the warning prompt itself- you won’t be able to downgrade your Pixel 6 series devices from Android 13 to Android 12. Since it is only affecting the latest Pixel devices, all of which have the new in-house Tensor chipset, it might indicate that this rollback could be linked with this chipset as well, apart from the Verified Boot.
Just to recall, This anti-roll mechanism isn’t something new, and Xiaomi has done so in the past as well, with its Redmi Note 5. With that device, a downgrading would usually result in a hard-bricked state. Fortunately, there haven’t been any such incidents with the Pixel 6 series, at least at the time of writing [if we get hold of any concerning news regarding the same, we will update this post accordingly]. In the meantime, I did some under-the-hood tests and found out that you could still bypass the Anti Rollback Mechanism while performing a downgrade from Android 13 to Android 12 on your Pixel 6A/6/6 Pro. Let’s check out how this could be carried out.
How to Bypass Anti Rollback Mechanism in Pixel 6A/6/6 Pro
Going into the depths, and I found out that you cannot downgrade the bootloader from Android 13 to Android 12, but there’s no stopping you from downgrading the OS. In other words, you cannot flash the Android 12 bootloader while flashing the Android 12 firmware. Rather, you will have to remain on the Android 13 bootloader while downgrading to Android 12. So while you could flash the Android 12 firmware, the bootloader should still be of Android 13. Regarding which, there are two ways through which could be carried out-
Edit the flash-all.bat file from the Android 12 firmware and remove the bootloader.img flash command.Replace the Android 12 bootloader.img flash command with the Android 13 bootloader file’s flash command [and course, replace the file as well].
Let’s now understand boththese methods in depth. Do note that both these approaches will factory reset your device, so take a complete device backup beforehand. Droidwin and its members wouldn’t be held responsible in case of a thermonuclear war, your alarm doesn’t wake you up, or if anything happens to your device and data by performing the below steps to bypass the Anti Rollback protection on Pixel 6A/6/Pro.
METHOD 1: Remove the bootloader.img flash command
METHOD 2: Flash Android 13 Bootloader on Android 12
That’s it. These were the two different methods to bypass the Anti Rollback Mechanism while performing a downgrade from Android 13 to Android 12 on your Pixel 6A/6/6 Pro. We will be updating this guide with more information as and when we get hold of the same. In the meantime, if you have any queries concerning the aforementioned steps, do let us know in the comments. We will get back to you with a solution at the earliest.
How to Install Android 13 via Android Flash ToolHow to Install Android 13 via ADB SideloadGuide to Install Android 13 via Fastboot MethodHow to Install Android 13 GSI on any Project Treble Device
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