Apart from its usual Pixel lineup, it also runs an affordable A series. In this regard, the fifth iteration has just gone live. From the outside, you wouldn’t notice much difference in comparison to its counterpart. But it does have some noteworthy changes, such as an ultra-wide sensor, Snapdragon 765G chipset, and a massive 4620mAh battery. Apart from that, it has managed to maintain its legacy of being among the most active players in custom development. But before you could try out any of these tweaks, there’s one requirement that you need to check-mark off the list- an unlocked bootloader. And in this guide, we will help you with just that. Given here are the detailed instructions steps to unlock the bootloader on Google Pixel 5A.
Perks and Risks of Unlocked Bootloader
Unlocking the device’s bootloader allows you to flash customized firmware (Custom ROMs) and recoveries like TWRP. Along the same lines, you could gain administrative privileges by rooting your device via Magisk. This in turn will make it possible to flash a plethora of mods. These include the likes of Magisk Modules, Xposed Framework, Substratum Theme, Viper4Android. However, this is just one side of the coin. Carrying out these tweaks does bring in a few risks as well. For example, the unlocking process will wipe off all the data on your device and could also nullify its warranty. Widevine L1 will be degraded to L3 which would result in the inability to stream Netflix in HD. Moreover, Safetynet will also be tripped which will make it quite difficult to run banking apps. If that’s all well and good, then let’s start off with the steps to unlock the bootloader on Google Pixel 5A.
How to Unlock Bootloader on Google Pixel 5a (barbet)
The below instructions are listed under separate sections for ease of understanding. Make sure to follow in the exact same sequence as mentioned. 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.
STEP 1: 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.
STEP 2: Enable USB Debugging and OEM Unlocking on Pixel 5A
Next up, 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.
STEP 3: Boot Pixel 5A to Fastboot Mode
STEP 4: Unlock Bootloader Pixel 5A
So with this, we conclude the guide on you could unlock the bootloader on Google Pixel 5A. If you have any queries, do let us know in the comments section below. We will get back to you with a solution at the earliest.
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