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How to Bypass Anti Rollback Mechanism in Pixel 6A/6/6 Pro

In this guide, we will show you two methods to bypass the Anti Rollback Mechanism while performing a downgrade from Android 13 to Android 12 on your Pixel 6A/6/6 Pro. The Silicon Valley giant has just rolled out the stable version for the thirteenth iteration of the OS build. But upon going through their firmware page, I noticed a rather concerning warning message-

The Android 13 update for Pixel 6, Pixel 6 Pro, and the Pixel 6a contains a bootloader update that increments the anti-rollback version. After flashing an Android 13 build on these devices you will not be able to flash older Android 12 builds.

What it means is clearly indicated in the warning prompt itself- you won’t be able to downgrade your Pixel 6 series devices from Android 13 to Android 12. Since it is only affecting the latest Pixel devices, all of which have the new in-house Tensor chipset, it might indicate that this rollback could be linked with this chipset as well, apart from the Verified Boot.

Bypass Anti Rollback in Pixel 6 Pro

Just to recall, This anti-roll mechanism isn’t something new, and Xiaomi has done so in the past as well, with its Redmi Note 5. With that device, a downgrading would usually result in a hard-bricked state. Fortunately, there haven’t been any such incidents with the Pixel 6 series, at least at the time of writing [if we get hold of any concerning news regarding the same, we will update this post accordingly].

In the meantime, I did some under-the-hood tests and found out that you could still bypass the Anti Rollback Mechanism while performing a downgrade from Android 13 to Android 12 on your Pixel 6A/6/6 Pro. Let’s check out how this could be carried out.

How to Bypass Anti Rollback Mechanism in Pixel 6A/6/6 Pro

Bypass Anti Rollback in Pixel 6 Pro

Going into the depths, and I found out that you cannot downgrade the bootloader from Android 13 to Android 12, but there’s no stopping you from downgrading the OS. In other words, you cannot flash the Android 12 bootloader while flashing the Android 12 firmware. Rather, you will have to remain on the Android 13 bootloader while downgrading to Android 12. So while you could flash the Android 12 firmware, the bootloader should still be of Android 13. Regarding which, there are two ways through which could be carried out-

  • Edit the flash-all.bat file from the Android 12 firmware and remove the bootloader.img flash command.
  • Replace the Android 12 bootloader.img flash command with the Android 13 bootloader file’s flash command [and course, replace the file as well].

Let’s now understand boththese methods in depth. Do note that both these approaches will factory reset your device, so take a complete device backup beforehand. 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 to bypass the Anti Rollback protection on Pixel 6A/6/Pro.

METHOD 1: Remove the bootloader.img flash command

  1. To begin with, download and extract the Android 12 firmware file.Bypass Anti Rollback in Pixel 6 Pro
  2. Then right-click on the flash-all.bat file and select Edit. It will open in Notepad.Bypass Anti Rollback in Pixel 6 Pro
  3. Now delete the bootloader flash command from the file. The command would be something like this-
    fastboot flash bootloader bootloader-raven-slider-1.2-8318357.img
  4. Do note that the name (raven-slider) and version (1.2-8318357) might be different for your device. Bypass Anti Rollback in Pixel 6 Pro
  5. Once done, hit Ctrl+S to save the changes.
  6. Now boot your device to Fastboot and run the flash-all.bat file to start the downgrade.
  7. Once done, your device will automatically boot to the Android 12 firmware without any issues.

METHOD 2: Flash Android 13 Bootloader on Android 12

  1. To begin with, download and extract both the Android 12 and 13 firmware files.

    Bypass Anti Rollback in Pixel 6 Pro
    Android 13 Firmware
  2. Then delete the bootloader.img file from the Android 12 firmware folder. It will be named something like
    bootloader-raven-slider-1.2-8318357.img

    Bypass Anti Rollback in Pixel 6 Pro

  3. After that, go to the Android 13 firmware folder, copy the bootloader.img file, and transfer it to the Android 12 firmware folder:
    bootloader-raven-slider-1.2-8739948.img

    Bypass Anti Rollback in Pixel 6 Pro
    Android 13 Bootloader file
  4. After that, right-click on the Android 12 flash-all.bat file and select Edit. It will open in Notepad.
  5. Now replace the Android 12 bootloader file name in the bootloader flash command with the Android 13 bootloader file name.Bypass Anti Rollback in Pixel 6 Pro
  6. In my case, the rename will be as follows:
    fastboot flash bootloader bootloader-raven-slider-1.2-8318357.img 
    will be renamed to
    fastboot flash bootloader bootloader-raven-slider-1.2-8739948.img
  7. Once done, hit Ctrl+S to save the file.
  8. Now boot your device to Fastboot and run the flash-all.bat file to start the downgrade.
  9. Once done, your device will automatically boot to the Android12 firmware without any issues.

That’s it. These were the two different methods to bypass the Anti Rollback Mechanism while performing a downgrade from Android 13 to Android 12 on your Pixel 6A/6/6 Pro. We will be updating this guide with more information as and when we get hold of the same. In the meantime, if you have any queries concerning the aforementioned steps, do let us know in the comments. We will get back to you with a solution at the earliest.


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  • This doesn’t bypass anything. Rolling back the bootloader is not possible, and this guide describes reflashing the Android 13 bootloader before attempting to flash Android 12…which will fail, because it’s not possible to install Android 12 on the 13 bootloader without the –force argument. If the installation is forced, APEX and DRM errors will result.

    Please, do your research.

  • Chloe Ramirez

    failed to load ‘image-raven-tpbb.220414.015.zip’ error on flashing.
    and also unable to extract android-info.txt ??
    please help?