Earlier this month, Google released its latest flagship phones, the Google Pixel 7 and Google Pixel 7 Pro. The new phone series comes with several upgrades including top-class cameras. As one would expect from a Pixel phone, the Pixel 7 comes with a seamless experience. However, if you want more features, you can root your phone. Here you will learn how to root Google Pixel 7 Pro and how to unlock bootloader of Pixel 7 Pro.
Before we move on to the root and bootloader guide, let us first check out its important specifications. Both the phones come with a new finish in the camera bump which looks cool. The vanilla Pixel 7 is a 6.3-inch device while the Pro version is a 6.7-inch device. Pixel 7 Pro supports 120Hz refresh rate and QHD+ display resolution.
Both phones have the latest Tensor G2 chip with improved AI capabilities, Security, and more. The Pro variant has RAM options up to 12GB whereas the base variant has up to 8GB RAM. Pixel 7 has two rear cameras of 50MP wide and 12MP ultrawide sensors. And the Pixel 7 Pro has 50MP main camera, 48MP telephoto, and 12MP ultrawide camera. These are some great specs even for a flagship phone. Now let’s jump into the detailed guide.
How to Root Pixel 7 Pro
This guide will work for both Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro. As mentioned earlier the Pixel 7 series comes with powerful hardware and amazing performance there are always some other ways to make the device better or even customize the phone. And rooting is the most advanced process that gives full control to users over their phones. But to achieve the rooting process, you must first unlock the bootloader. And so let’s first see how to unlock the bootloader of the Google Pixel 7 Pro.
Unlock Bootloader of Pixel 7 Pro
By default, all the phones come with locked bootloader that restricts users from modifying the device at the root level. The restriction includes installing custom ROMs, custom recoveries, rooting, and more. Luckily Google allows unlock bootloader at the users risk. So if you want to root your Pixel 7 Pro, you can do that after unlocking the bootloader. Let’s jump into the steps to unlock bootloader on Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro.
- Take a backup of your Pixel 7 as unlocking bootloader will wipe all data. Make sure to install adb and fastboot drivers on your PC.
- On your phone, open Settings and go to System > About Phone, and tap Build Number 7 times. This will enable developer options.
- Now navigate to System > Advanced > Developer options.
- In developer options, enable OEM Unlocking & USB Debugging.
- Boot your Pixel 7 into Fastboot Mode. To do that Power off your phone then hold Volume Down + Power buttons together. Then connect your phone to the PC using a USB cable. You can also use adb reboot bootloader command.
- Open Command Window/CMD on your PC.
- Enter the below command to initiate unlock bootloader on Pixel 7.
fastboot flashing unlock
- It will show options on your phone. Use the volume buttons and navigate to ‘Unlock bootloader‘ and press the Power button to select it.
- This will unlock the bootloader of your Pixel 7 Pro and erase all the data.
- After unlocking bootloader enter the below command to reboot to system
fastboot reboot
- Now you have unlocked bootloader of your Pixel 7 Pro.
After unlocking the bootloader of Google Pixel 7, you have completed one main step. Now one more main step remaining to achieve the root access. Here are some points that are useful for rooting process.
Prerequisites:
- Install Magisk on your phone
- Take a full backup of phone’s data (To restore if anything goes wrong)
- Install ADB & Fastboot drivers on PC
- Download latest Android SDK Platform-Tools
- Download Factory Image for Pixel 7/Pixel 7 Pro (Version should be similar to that running on your phone)
Steps to Root Google Pixel 7 Pro
- Extract the boot image from the Factory Image you downloaded. Copy the boot.img to the phone storage. Don’t copy it in any folder.
- Extract the platform tools zip on your PC and remember its location.
- Open the Magisk app and click on Install.
- Now choose the option ‘Select and Patch a File’ and select the boot.img.
- The patched output file will be saved in the download folder.
- Copy the patched boot image to the extracted platform tools folder and rename the patched boot image to boot.img. Also, copy the vbmeta.img from extracted firmware to platform tools folder.
- Now open CMD in the platform tools folder (type CMD in the address bar of file explorer and press enter).
- Turn off your phone and boot it into fastboot mode. Press & hold Volume Down + Power button together to boot into Fastboot Mode.
- Once your Pixel 7 phone is in fastboot mode, enter the below command to flash vbmeta.
fastboot flash --disable-verity --disable-verification vbmeta vbmeta.img
- If it asks for a data wipe, do it. After that boot your phone into the patched boot image using the given command
fastboot boot boot.img
- This command will make your phone boot into the system. Open Magisk app and click on Install > Direct Install.
- Once the installation process is done, click on Reboot.
- Your Pixel 7 phone will now boot with permanent root access.
So that’s all you have to do to get root access on your phone. You can check for root access using any third party root checker app. If you have root access, you can use any apps or features that ask for root permission. With root access, you can also use various Xposed Modules after installing Xposed framework.
So there you have it, the complete guide on how to root Pixel 7 Pro and how to unlock the bootloader of Pixel 7 Pro. In case of any queries, do let us know in the comment section.
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