{"id":1536,"date":"2020-05-22T19:05:03","date_gmt":"2020-05-22T17:05:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bergs.biz\/blog\/?p=1536"},"modified":"2020-05-22T19:05:03","modified_gmt":"2020-05-22T17:05:03","slug":"flashing-android-firmware-upgrades-using-android-flash-tool","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bergs.biz\/blog\/2020\/05\/22\/flashing-android-firmware-upgrades-using-android-flash-tool\/","title":{"rendered":"Flashing Android Firmware Builds using Android Flash Tool"},"content":{"rendered":"

As a long-time Android user (since the days of Android 2.0, if I remember correctly), I have seen many things already, especially as I was involved in the development of mobile phones, and also fiddled a lot with CyanogenMod, LineageOS, and other custom ROMs. Still, I recently discovered something new for myself, and this is something I really find spectacular. It’s a new mechanism to flash Android firmware builds, and it’s called “Android Flash Tool<\/a>” (AFT).<\/p>\n

Let me elaborate…<\/p>\n

Usually, to reflash a device you need to install a program on your workstation, like a vendor flashing tool, or the Android Debug Bridge<\/a> (adb) command-line tool. With the Android Flash Tool, this is no longer required. The only thing you need is your WebUSB<\/a>-capable (browser). \ud83d\ude42 Currently, only Chrome or Edge support it. (Firefox currently doesn’t support it due to security concerns.)<\/p>\n

Also, the number of devices which support the AFT is very, very limited. Basically, it’s just the Google Pixel<\/a> series of phones, plus a few development boards.<\/p>\n

But if you have one of those devices, it’s pretty cool.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

To flash your phone, when using Windows you need to install a customized driver<\/a> for your phone, so that it will be properly recognized. Then, enable the developer options and USB debugging<\/a>. You also need to enable “OEM Unlocking” there.<\/p>\n

Now you’re ready to start the flashing procedure.<\/p>\n

Launch https:\/\/flash.android.com\/ in one of the above browsers. The tool will now communicate with your phone, the same way like adb<\/code> does, so please accept the connection request. AFT should now show your device:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Now click on the button “+ Add new device” to add it to the list of devices to be flashed, and select a build you want to install on your device. Then you have the following screen:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

If you are fine with your selection, click the “Install” button to proceed to the following screen:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

You better read (and observe!) the notice in red, and then you’re ready to do the final confirmation by clicking the “Confirm” button. Now the actual flashing process starts:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Briefly later the device wants to reboot into the bootloader:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Confirm this by clicking the blue “Reboot into Bootloader” button. Now the download of your firmware binary begins:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Once downloaded, the installation (flashing) begins:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

After a while, the flashing will be (hopefully ;-)) successful, and you get the following message:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Now you are back to the initial view, and you see the firmware build version you just flashed:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

I hope this was interesting for some of you — as many of you may never see this in real life (for now — maybe in the future there will be more devices supporting AFT?!).<\/p>\n

Let me know if you liked it…<\/p>\n

Thanks for reading, and stay safe and sound.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Flashing Android Firmware Builds using Android Flash Tool<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[276,122],"tags":[321,322,323,324],"class_list":["post-1536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-android","category-english","tag-aft","tag-android-flash-tool","tag-firmware","tag-pixel"],"yoast_head":"\nFlashing Android Firmware Builds using Android Flash Tool - Ralf's Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/bergs.biz\/blog\/2020\/05\/22\/flashing-android-firmware-upgrades-using-android-flash-tool\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Flashing Android Firmware Builds using Android Flash Tool - 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