Recover a bricked device

If a flash goes wrong, work through this page from the top: most “it won’t boot” cases are a wrong-partition flash or a skipped reboot, not a real brick. A true brick (no Android, no bootloader) still recovers with a full factory re-flash.

dm-verity / AVB, do you need --disable-verity?

Normally no. Patching init_boot/boot only changes the boot ramdisk, not the verity-protected system/vendor partitions, so Magisk handles the AVB flags for you and you flash only the patched boot image, leave vbmeta alone. Magisk’s own docs list the vbmeta patch as optional, and it can wipe data, so don’t run it unless you actually need it. Only if a first boot after flashing bootloops do you fall back to explicitly disabling verification (this wipes the device):

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fastboot --disable-verity --disable-verification flash vbmeta vbmeta.img

If it bootloops after flashing

Almost always one of three things, in order of likelihood:

  • Flashed the wrong partition. The patched image is init_boot on the Pixel 8a and boot on the 6a, flash it to that partition only. Flashing an init_boot image to boot (or both) is the #1 cause of a “Boot Failure”.

  • Didn’t reboot once after unlocking. After fastboot flashing unlock, let the phone boot to Android once before flashing the patched image.

  • Recover without wiping: the other A/B slot is still stock, so switch to it and boot, then re-patch cleanly.

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    fastboot --set-active=other && fastboot reboot   # boot the stock slot
# or re-flash the STOCK boot/init_boot.img you kept from the factory zip:
fastboot flash init_boot init_boot.img           # Pixel 8a (boot for 6a)

Keep the stock init_boot.img/boot.img from the factory zip, it’s your one-command way back. Never restore vbmeta to stock on a patched device.

Recovering a bricked device (full factory re-flash)

If the quick fixes above don’t help - or the device won’t boot Android at all - restore it completely to stock by flashing the full factory image. As long as you can still reach fastboot (fastboot devices lists it), the device is recoverable. Two equivalent routes:

Route 1 - flash-all (terminal)

Every Google factory zip ships a flash-all.sh (flash-all.bat on Windows) that flashes every partition back to stock. This is the surest full-reset.

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# 1) Download the factory image that matches your device from
#    https://developers.google.com/android/images  (akita = 8a, bluejay = 6a),
#    then unzip it.
unzip akita-<build>-factory-*.zip
cd akita-<build>

# 2) Boot into the bootloader and run flash-all (this ERASES the device).
adb reboot bootloader            # or hold Power+Vol-Down
./flash-all.sh                   # flash-all.bat on Windows

flash-all wipes user data and rewrites bootloader, radio, and both A/B slots - so it also clears a bad inactive slot. If you edited flash-all to keep data with -w removed on a previously bricked device, don’t: on a brick, take the clean wipe.

Scripted: root_pixel.sh --recover does the whole route for you - it re-downloads the correct factory zip (via Google’s Flash Tool API), verifies its SHA-256 prefix, unzips it, and runs flash-all (typed confirmation unless --yes):

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automation/scripts/root_pixel.sh --recover            # auto-detect build, confirm, flash-all
automation/scripts/root_pixel.sh --recover=<build-id> # pin an exact build
automation/scripts/root_pixel.sh --recover --yes      # unattended

Route 2 - Android Flash Tool (GUI fallback)

If you don’t have platform-tools set up, or flash-all errors out, use Google’s official web flasher - it drives fastboot from Chrome/Edge and needs no local install:

https://flash.android.com/

  1. Unlock the bootloader if it isn’t already (Settings → Developer options → OEM unlocking, then the tool walks you through flashing unlock).
  2. Connect the device in fastboot/bootloader mode over USB.
  3. Pick your device’s current build, keep “Wipe device” checked for a brick, and let it flash. It handles both A/B slots and the bootloader.

Still nothing? If the device won’t even enter fastboot, use EDL/fastbootd recovery per the device’s community guide - but for Pixels, a fastboot-level flash-all recovers essentially every soft-brick.

Once you’re back to stock, re-root from Root with Magisk.