Is there a recommended stick Google Rom load that is required/recommended before starting the installation process on a Pixel 8?
Thanks
Yes, you should install google’s android 15 last release: May build. I’m only saying what Lineage says in their installation instructions.
Obviously I don’t know what you have on the device at the moment but certain care needs to be taken with the Pixel 8 if it was on an older release than that May release because the bootloader has been updated. See here.. Basically it tells you to install the factory image first and then follow the instructions update with the same version.
Hi chrisrg! Thank you for responding quickly.
Here is my current phone environment and my requirements (wishes?) for a new phone. I have been using only factory unlocked phones for several years. My current phone is a Pixel 5. It needs to be replaced.
I have purchased an Amazon refurbished factory unlocked Pixel 8 (12gb ram, 256 gb storage) and this will be delivered in a couple of days. I assume that this will come with a fresh and current OTA ROM load.
Hopefully the Android 15 OTA load (15.0.0 - BP1A.250505.005, May 2025). I am concerned if it comes with the Android 16 OTA load as I may have to try to flash it back to A15 and I fear that I could hard brick the phone doing this.
Is it safe to assume that if the phone has the Google OTA load from May 2025 and Android 15 I can proceed with a load of iode?
Chuck
Hi Chuck,
Sometimes when purchasing refurb phones they come with an older android version; not possible to know exactly what.
When it arrives I would advise NOT connecting to wifi/don’t insert sim, so as to avoid automatic updates so that you can check the build number in Settings > About phone . You can then plan your installation strategy!
Yes, fingers crossed for that.
No, you’ll be OK. Google works for this. I’ve recently flashed my pixel 8 (spare phone) from android 16 to that android15 release, no problem. Although one can brick the pixel 8 by ignoring that problem I linked to earlier, for all other operations they are virtually unbrickable. You will normally get a warning when trying to flash something incompatible.
If that’s how it arrives I would still do the second installation via sideloading in the stock recovery as directed in the Google instructions linked above. You will not know what is on the other slot and it would be dangerous to try changing slots to find out! Also it is easy to do the extra step.
LineageOS wiki informs as follows:
… The required version is Android 15, which may be lower than the LineageOS version you are about to install - this is not an error!
If there are multiple updates of that version (e.g. security updates), make sure to use the latest! …
The latest isn’t always the best! Why? Well, the May 2025 update has at least two drawbacks:
1st, the app Battery Health Assistance (BHA) is designed to reduce the usable battery volume and throttle the charging speed. The app cannot be uninstalled or simply deactivated.
2nd, an Preformatted textAnti-Rollback protection has been implemented. This is intended to prevent downgrades to earlier versions.
You’ve lost me there.
Again thanks to both of you for lending me your help and the benefits of your experience.
I have been the victim of the May update as I’ve hard bricked a Pixel 7 attempting to re-lock the boot loader. So, I am currently hyper-paranoid about doing the same in the future.
I’ve read the instruction on the Google developers site and talks about side-loading the OTA to make sure that the same OTA is in the primary and in the recovery sides (partitions?). But I don’t see any specific instructions on doing this. It looks to me like I should simply load whatever OTA I see on the Build number contained at the end of About phone in settings. Am I missing something here?
I avoided the May '25 dilemma by installing Google stock firmware 15.0.0_(BP1A.250405.007.B1_Apr2025) on my Pixel 7 (panther)
The May update with the incremented bootloader, or whatever it is, only applies to the 6 and 8 series phones. Your problem with the 7 must have been something different.
The google instructions have within the text a link to sideloading the OTA. This takes you to a separate page with the OTA firmware and installation instructions for sideloading on google android.
Wait and see what you get before all this speculation maybe? There will always be help on hand.
You’re right about waiting. I have the IDE and SDK loaded on my Linux system and will be able to see exactly hat is loaded once I am in possession of the phone.
Thanks again
I just go back from my long Labor Day weekend and I’m looking at the new used phone. It is a totally unlocked Pixel 8 (G98QD). The build number is BP1A.250305.019
All I have done to the phone is to charge the battery and do enough setup to get to a “home screen”. No google account, never has been connected to a network (no Wi-Fi, etc). Just set a PIN with no other configuration done besides enabling Developer mode.
So it has the March 2025 OTA load. In your opinion, what would be the best way to proceed?
I am assuming that based on the documentation and previous responses:
I need to keep the pixel 8 off the internet (no SIM, no Wi-Fi).
I need to load the May 2025 Pixel 8 update. And it seems that I should side-load the OTA update 15.0.0 (BP1A.250505.005.B1, May 2025) and reboot the phone.
At this point in time, I should be able to start following the typical installation path for iodeOS.
Again, thanks in advance!!
Yes, that would be a good plan.
You will probably have to connect to internet to unlock the bootloader. You can try without first if you like…i can’t remember whether it works.
Follow step by step instructions on google page.
Just to be clear: you would install the May google build from the factory images page , followed by sideloading the same build number OTA from the OTA page.
As a retired Linux developer/administrator, I have a big bias towards using the command line commands. My experience is they are much more granular and more reliable overall.
I was reading the source.android.com page on unlocking and locking the bootloader using the adb reboot and fastloader commands on my laptop. Hopefully I will be able to get debug info if I run into an error this way.
So I do two loads? If so, I assume I load the factory image as outlined here. And then, if successful, immediately do the sideload of the corresponding OTA, All while the bootloader is unlocked.
Once this is done, should I relock the bootloader and make sure the phone is good? Or is it OK just to continue on to loading the iodeOS image?
Thanks again and my apologies for being so detail focused on the steps.
Yes you do two installations.
First flash the factory image as you correctly say.
Then boot the device so as to set usb debugging. Keep bootloader unlocked and no wifi at this point (you don’t want any updates downloading).
Now you can sideload the OTA image following instructions from OTA page.
After sideloading check thein the settings that you still have usb debugging enabled. No need to lock bootloader.
You should now be ready to install iode .
I am currently doing the sideload of the OTA image. I ran into a couple of glitches (nuances? bugs?) on the way.
First, I found it impossible to set the phone to unlock the bootloader. According to the error messages, the phone had not “checked in” and I needed to put it on the internet. After several tries to not connect it to the internet, I did and it immediately started to do an update download. I killed the download and shut off WiFi. But I guess the phone had “checked in” and I was able to unlock the bootloader in the Developer settings.
Second, I could not get the phone to take the adb sideload command. Then I realized that the Google documentation was having me do an adb reboot recovery command and I needed to do an adb reboot sideload command.
The OTA has loaded and the phone has rebooted and looks like it’s at 100%!!
Next stop, load iodeOS. I am planning on loading the latest load published for the Pixel 8 6.6 published on July 29).
The installation of iodeOS failed and I misread it and rebooted prematurely.
I can get the phone back into rescue mode. I hope I didn’t brick this one.
I assume you can get the phone into bootloader mode also, yes?
The March 2025 build is a good basis, as is the April 2025 image, as both builds run without the May 2025 restrictions.
Special instructions for updating Pixel devices to the May 2025 monthly release
Warning: The May 2025 update for Pixel 6 (6, 6 Pro, 6a) and Pixel 8 (8, 8 Pro, 8a) devices contains a bootloader update that increments the anti-roll back version for the bootloader. This prevents the device from rolling back to previous vulnerable versions of the bootloader. After flashing the May 2025 update on these devices you won’t be able to flash and boot older Android 15 builds.
Whichever build version you use, it is recommended to ensure that identical builds are installed on slot A + slot B.
With the bootloader unlocked, iodéOS 6.6 release can now be easily installed via the script flash-all.bat (Windows) or flash-all.sh (Linux). To do this, unzip the iode-6.6-20250729-shiba-fastboot.zip file.
The iodéOS script deletes the stock Android avb_custom_key and flashes the iodéOS avb_custom_key-shiba.bin, sets all necessary parameters and then flashes iode-6.6-20250729-shiba to both slots (A/B). At the end of the flashing process, you will be prompted to lock the bootloader or not (select using the device buttons on the Pixel 8 (shiba)). This is immediately followed by a restart into iodéOS 6.6.
That’s it! Happy flashing 
It tries to get into bootloader but it shows a message about being corrupt. And it does not show as being active if I issue an adb devices. I can get it into rescue mode where I can see the device via adb devices but it shows as being in rescue mode.
But rescue mode is the only mode that makes the device visible to adb commands on my linux system at this point in time.