Flash Pixel 5A Firmware Via Fastboot Commands Unbrick It

Along the same lines, you are guaranteed three years of software upgrades. Not to mention the fact that you are getting among the best camera quality in the smartphone industry. To extend it even further, these devices are among the most active players in custom development. From flashing a plethora of mods to trying out custom binaries such as Custom ROMs and recoveries, there’s a lot to try out. However, these tweaks might prove to be a little bit risky as well. If you flash an incorrect mod or flash it to the wrong partition, then a soft-bricked or boot-looped device. Fortunately, you could easily rectify this issue. and this guide shall help you with just that. Given here are the detailed instruction steps to flash the stock firmware on your Pixel 5A via Fastboot Commands and hence unbrick it. Follow along.

How to Flash Pixel 5A Firmware via Fastboot Commands

The below instructions are listed under separate sections for ease of understanding. Make sure to follow in the exact same sequence as mentioned. Moreover, these instructions are valid for both- a bricked Pixel device as well as a completely working one. 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.

Install Android SDK

First and foremost, you will have to install the Android SDK Platform Tools on your PC. This is the official ADB and Fastboot binary provided by Google and is the only recommended one. So download it and then extract it to any convenient location on your PC. Doing so will give you the platform-tools folder, which will be used throughout this guide.

Enable USB Debugging and OEM Unlocking

[For Working Pixel 5A] You will also have to enable USB Debugging and OEM Unlocking on your device. The former will make your device recognizable by the PC in ADB mode. This will then allow you to boot your device to Fastboot Mode. On the other hand, OEM Unlocking is required to carry out the bootloader unlocking process.

So head over to Settings > About Phone > Tap on Build Number 7 times > Go back to Settings > System > Advanced > Developer Options > Enable USB Debugging and OEM Unlocking.

Unlock Bootloader on Pixel 5A

[For Working Pixel 5A] Since you are flashing the IMG files to their respective partitions, you will have to unlock the device’s bootloader. Do keep in mind that it will factory reset your device. So take a backup beforehand and then proceed with the steps to Unlock Bootloader on Google Pixel 5a (barbet).

Download Pixel 5A Stock Firmware

Boot Bricked/Unbricked Pixel 5A to Fastboot Mode

Rename Pixel 5A Firmware Files

So here’s the thing: I have downloaded the 11.0.0 (RD2A.210605.007, Jun 2021) firmware, so each of the firmware files would have the said date associated with it. For example, my Image ZIP file is named image-barbet-rd2a.210605.007.zip, which would be different from yours (if you are not on the June update). So for the sake of uniformity, let’s rename these files as follows (where x is a numerical value):

First off, rename the bootloader-barbet-bx-x.x-xxxxxxx.img file to bootloader.imgThen rename the radio-barbet-gxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxxx-b-xxxxxxx.img to radio.imgFinally, rename the image-barbet-rdxa.xxxxxx.xxx.zip to image.zip.

Once the renaming is complete, you may proceed with the below steps to flash stock firmware on Pixel 5A and hence unbrick it.