How to install the Android 12 Developer Preview on your Google Pixel smartphone

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It’s that time of year again! The first Developer Preview version of Android 12 is now available for supported devices starting today. It won’t give you the full Android 12 experience as it’s still a work in progress, but for the happy owners of Google Pixel 3, Pixel 3 XL, Pixel 3a, Pixel 3a XL, Pixel 4, Pixel 4 XL, Pixel 4a, Pixel 4a 5G or Pixel 5, you will be among the first users to see what the new operating system update has to offer.

If you have any of the aforementioned Pixel smartphones running Android 11 stable and are wondering how to install Android 12, just scroll down as we have a tutorial ready for you. Since Google won’t be providing regular OTAs in the event of a developer preview, the update can only be installed through OTA files or manually flashing factory images. This means that you will need a PC / Mac with ADB and Fastboot installed to successfully run the installation process, once you have downloaded the appropriate Android 12 Developer Preview files.

Warning: Updates are intended for developers only, so don’t install them on your daily driver. These versions are older versions and contain bugs and other system instabilities. Even though the flashing process does not necessarily erase your device, it is highly recommended that you back up your data before proceeding. Users are advised to exercise caution.

Method 1: Sideload Android 12 Developer Preview 1 via Recovery and ADB

To install the first Developer Preview, you need to load the correct OTA package for your device from recovery via ADB. This method will also work for devices with a locked bootloader.

  1. Download the update .zip file to your computer from here. For convenience, you can rename this file to a simpler name and place the file in the directory where ADB is located on your computer.
  2. Optional but recommended: Check the SHA-256 checksum of the file you downloaded to make sure the file downloaded completely and correctly.
  3. Activate USB debugging on your phone – Go to Settings> About phone> Press “Version number” 7 times, enter (optionally) your model, PIN or password to activate developer options, then go to Settings> Developer options> Enable “USB debugging”.
  4. Connect your phone to your computer. Allow your computer to connect to your phone when prompted on your phone, if this is your first time connecting to this ADB computer.
  5. On your computer, run the command: 
    adb reboot recovery
  6. Your phone should now be in recovery mode.
  7. On your phone, select the option “Apply update from ADB”
  8. On your computer, run the command: 
    adb devices

    This should return a serial device with “sideloading” next to its name, indicating that your device is connected to the computer in sideloading mode.

  9. On your computer, run the command: 
    adb sideload "filename".zip

    Where “file name” must be replaced by the name of the file downloaded in step 1

  10. The update should install on your phone. Once the installation is complete, choose “Reboot system now” on your phone to restart in Android 12.

Method 2: Flashing the full factory image via Fastboot

If you have an unlocked bootloader, you need to flash the full factory image of Android 12 Developer Preview 1 through Fastboot. Usually this is done via a flash-all.sh or flash-all.bat script file included in the downloaded file, but its default configuration also wipes the device completely. However, you can keep your data by removing the “-w” wipe attribute from the command in the script.

  1. Download the factory image .zip file to your computer from here.
  2. Optional but recommended: Check the SHA-256 checksum of the file you downloaded to make sure the file downloaded completely and correctly.
  3. Extract the .zip file and copy and paste the resulting files into your ADB and fastboot folder on your computer for convenience.
  4. Optional: the resulting files would contain a flash-all.sh or flash-all.bat Script file. Using a text editor, open the flash-all.sh if you are on macOS / Linux or flash-all.bat script file if you are on Windows. Find and remove / remove the -w flag in the fastboot update order. This will ignore erasing data from your phone. To avoid compatibility problems, however, data erasure is recommended.
  5. Activate USB debugging on your phone – Go to Settings> About phone> Press “Version number” 7 times, enter (optionally) your model, PIN or password to activate developer options, then go to Settings> Developer options> Enable “USB debugging”.
  6. Connect your phone to your computer. Allow your computer to connect to your phone when prompted on your phone, if this is your first time connecting to this ADB computer.
  7. On your computer, run: 
    adb reboot bootloader

    This will restart your phone in Fastboot mode.

  8. On your Mac / Linux PC, run: 
    flash-all

    This command executes the flash-all.sh script file, which will then install the necessary boot loader, baseband firmware, and operating system. If you are on Windows, you can simply double click on the flash-all.bat file.

  9. Once the script is complete, your device will reboot into the new operating system.

Be sure to follow our Android 12 tag for all the latest news on the next major Android release!

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