How to Root the Google Pixel & Pixel XL (Video)

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Unlocking the Bootloader on the Google Pixel & Pixel XL

  1. Open the ADB folder located in C:/ drive on your PC and hold down Shift on your keyboard and right-click anywhere on your screen and select Open command window here.
    cmd
  2. Type in the following command into the command prompt window and press Enter.
    adb reboot bootloader
    reboot-bootloader
  3. It’ll reboot your device into the bootloader mode.
    bootloader-mode
  4. Type in the following command into the command prompt window and hit Enter.
    fastboot oem unlock
    oem-unlock
  5. Follow the on-screen instructions on your device to unlock the bootloader.
    IMAGE

The bootloader on your Pixel or Pixel XL should now be unlocked. Here’s how you can flash a custom recovery on it to then be able to flash SuperSU to gain root.

Flashing a Custom Recovery and Rooting the Google Pixel & Pixel XL

  1. Connect the USB Stick to the computer.
    usb-stick
  2. Copy the .zip version of TWRP Recovery over to the USB drive (not in any folders just on the root of the storage).
    copy-files
  3. Copy SuperSU .zip from your desktop over to the USB drive (not in any folders just on the root of the storage).
    copy-files
  4. Copy the .img version of TWRP Recovery over to the ADB folder in the C:/ drive of your PC and rename it to twrp.
    rename
  5. Head to Menu > Settings > About phone on your device and tap on Build number for 7 times and it will unlock the developer menu for you.
    build-number
  6. Head to Menu > Settings > Developer options on your device and enable USB debugging.
    usb-debugging
  7. Unplug the USB drive from the computer and plug in the phone via USB.
    plug-in-phone
  8. Open the ADB folder on your PC and hold down Shift on your keyboard and right-click anywhere on the screen and select Open command window here.
    cmd
  9. Type in the following command into the command prompt window and press Enter.
    adb reboot bootloader
    reboot-bootloader1
  10. When your device enters the bootloader mode, type in the following command into the command prompt window and press Enter. It’ll reboot your device into the TWRP recovery mode fter that.
    fastboot boot twrp.img
    boot-twrp
  11. Once it does, unplug the phone from the computer and plug in the USB Drive into the OTG Adapter and then that into the bottom of the phone.
    plug-stick
  12. Tap Cancel to get past the encryption menu if it comes up.
    cancel
  13. Swipe to Allow Modifications.
    swipe
  14. Tap Mount and tap the OTG option.
    mount-otg
  15. Tap Select Storage and tap on the OTG option.
    otg-storage
  16. Tap back to get to the main menu and tap on Install in the recovery menu.
    install
  17. Select the twrp.zip to be flashed on your device. This is the file that you have copied to your device in step 2 above.
    twrp-zip
  18. Tap on Swipe to Confirm Flash to begin flashing the file on your device.
    flash-twrp
  19. When it’s done flashing TWRP .zip, tap back then tap Reboot and select Recovery to boot into the newly flash recovery (instead of the one we booted from the computer).
    reboot-recovery
  20. When the phone enters the recovery mode, tap on Mount and tap the OTG option again.
    mount-otg
  21. Tap Select Storage and tap the OTG option again.
    otg-storage
  22. Tap back to get to the main menu in recovery and tap Install.
    install
  23. Select SuperSU .zip to be installed on your device.
    supersu-zip
  24. Tap on Swipe to Confirm Flash to begin flashing SuperSU on your device.
    flash-supersu
  25. When SuperSU’s flashed, reboot your device by tapping on Reboot and wait for it to boot up normally (you can then unplug the USB and OTG from the bottom of the phone).
    reboot-system

And there you go, your Google Pixel or Pixel XL should now be rooted with a working TWRP custom recovery on it and you should see SuperSU in the app menu.

If you need to unroot the device, head here for how to unroot it.

Let me know how this worked for you!

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  • Austin Baker

    for some reason the dePixel8 file will not download it redirects me to a weird ass encryption page. is this file still downloadable
    please help

  • Peyton whtford

    at the last step when i pressed reboot it doesn’t reboot normally

    • Peyton whtford

      nvm

  • Michael Young

    Does this work with 7.1.1?

    • That’s what my phone was on when I did the video. If you have Verizon though check with the developer of depixel to make sure that part works though.

      • Michael Young

        Yes I’ve gotten Verizon. I’ve been told it’s impossible if you are on 7.1.1 but please tell me there is a way.

        • Sorry but you’ll have to check with the developer of depixel for more info on that.

          • Stovall

            dePixel has stated that they are not looking to update the program and that we’re basically sol unless someone else figures it out

  • Josemi

    So this is the systemless method or the normal one?

    • Systemless. Sort of the only method I know of thanks to the new partition layout, unless you know a newer method that doesn’t use systemless?

      • Josemi

        I dont. But do you know if I can uninstall system apps that come with the pixel or I cant modify anything in the system folder?

        • Not sure since I’ve never tried to remove any of the apps since there isn’t much bloatware in my opinion. You’ll have to check with the developer of the systemless root (chainfire) and see.

          • Josemi

            Could you try and see for me, please? I say that because if it doesnt work I will not take the risk and root my device for nothing. I would be really glad. Thanks

          • Sorry but I can’t do the research for you. Good luck though.

          • Josemi

            I mean if you tried on your rooted pixel

  • Dino Zambaftis

    I followed all the steps, which were really easy to follow by the way, thank you, and when the phone rebooted supersu was not in my app drawer. The version I used was the newest one they had which is SuperSU-v2.79-201612051815. Does that one not work properly with this phone for some reason or did I do something else wrong? Thanks again for the tutorial and the help.

    • If you did the steps and it worked it should be fine. Did you use the same version of SuperSU I linked here in the video? Ended up using a USB stick etc etc?

      • Dino Zambaftis

        That was exactly the problem. The correct file is SR3-SuperSU-v2.79-SR3-20170114223742. Just in case someone has the same problem I had and is searching for a solution. Thanks for the help

  • Stovall

    This information is outof date for Verizon Pixel phones as of Nougat 7.1.1

    • It’s not out of date, the creator of dePixel just needs to update their app and this will work.

  • Piyush Hansda

    i got root access successfully. Running android 7.1.1 with 5th march security patch update. Though unlocking the bootloader factory resetted the device. everything else worked out fine.

    • Yeah it does that. Mentioned it in the Before You Begin Section. But glad it worked for you!

      • Piyush Hansda

        Thanks for the great tutorial man.

        • Thanks! Glad it could help!

          • duum

            I am not reading about anyone else with the march 5 update being able to unlock thier bootloader – is this confirmed to work with the march 5 update

            thank you

          • If you have a noon Verizon version the update shouldn’t matter since Google let’s is unlock the bootloader still but check the developers page linked above to see if he mentions anything or ask him for help there with his program.

          • duum

            unfortuneatly I have a verizon phone – is there any hope?

          • Not unless someone fixes DePixel, sorry!

  • Keegan Kuhn

    Is it possible to “un-root” this to “un-void” your warranty?

  • JDredd

    The process says all of my data will erased. Will I still be able to recover it via backups once the process is over?

    • So long as you save things OFF of the phone you can put those things back. Anything on the phone will be erased.

      • JDredd

        Thanks! I feel so stupid asking this but…how do I save data off the phone I guess, “properly”? I know it’s a n00b question but I don’t want to screw anything up.

  • uvdevnull

    This does not works with 7.1.1 or newer. Apparently it was patched and dePixel8 doesn’t support it.

    • Only for Verizon. It’ll still work for normal pixels I believe.

  • I’m getting a black screen after running ‘fastboot boot twrp.img’. ADB is still active so I can run ‘adb reboot bootloader’ to get back to the regular bootloader. But I can’t seem to get into TWRP. Any thoughts? Regular Pixel with unlocked bootloader.

    • Check the twrp.img file (redownload it as well in case it was corrupt), make sure it’s also in the correct folder with adb in it and try again.

      • Thanks for your fast reply! I followed the whole tutorial, but didn’t set up the phone again after unlocking the bootloader. I already enabled USB debugging before unlocking the bootloader, so I thought I could skip step 5-8 of the Flashing section. However, unlocking the bootloader wiped everything, so I had to start it normally and enable USB debugging again. Successfully rooted now! 🙂

        Maybe you can update the text before the Flashing section to something like the following so users don’t forget to reboot.

        • Ha, well that’s what you get for skipping my steps ;P
          Going to feature your comment instead of changing the tutorial as I think that’ll help people, too.

          Thanks for responding with the solution and glad it all worked out!

          • Sure! Thanks again!

          • Christopher Thomas

            @TheUnlockr:disqus i ran into the same issue as @Flitskikker:disqus but i followed all your steps exactly. i just keep getting a blank screen after the fastboot boot twrp.img command. I even redownloaded the img file twice but still no difference. usb debugging is enabled as well. Thanks in advance.

  • William Fugere

    doesn’t work. when i do fastboot oem unlock, it fails. does android 7.1.2 work?

    • Try this instead of fastboot oem unlock and let me know if it works?

      fastboot flashing unlock

  • Luke Priddle

    Hey i’m not sure what im doing wrong, but as soon as I installed the first zip file and rebooted the phone in recovery it wont boot back up. Theres no way for me to reboot my phone right now. I can pull up the bootloader and run twrp again but my phone still wont boot into its normal state.

  • Ayomiposi

    Hey i’m not sure what im doing wrong, but as soon as I installed the first zip file and rebooted the phone in recovery it wont boot back up. Theres no way for me to reboot my phone right now. I can pull up the bootloader and run twrp again but my phone still wont boot into its normal state.

    • Do the unrooting tutorial to get back to stock – https://theunlockr.com/2017/02/01/unroot-google-pixel-pixel-xl/

      • Luke Priddle

        Hey man, thanks for the reply, I got it back to stock and it works fine. I do still want to root it, however im not sure why the root went sideways, I am on the Bell network in Canada, would that have something to do with it?

        • No problem! And that shouldn’t matter but I don’t have a version to test with so just check online for rooting the Bell Pixel and see if anything comes up that might be different. Also check the featured comment above in case that’s part of your issue. Good luck!

          • Luke Priddle

            Yeah I followed all the steps the same and as soon as I complete step 19 it just gets stuck on an endless boot cycle, it wont load into twrp recovery. It just brings you to the please lock bootloader screen then flashes the google start screen then repeats itself.

          • Well at least the urnooting tutorial is working to get you back to stock. You’ll have to look online and see if there is maybe a different version of recovery for your specific model. Good luck

  • SuperGoldGamer

    Hey dude, I am getting stuck on the most likely obvious part, I can’t seem to find out how to download the dePixel8 file! I hope you can respond!

  • Lily Gee

    stuck at bootloop when i reboot recovery! please help!

  • Vernon Lumpkin Jr.

    1st off thanks for this tutorial, worked great for me.
    Until 3 hrs ago when twrp, super super, and a few meaningless apps… Facebook Google drive, keyboard, etc.updated. Now I have lost root. Not sure if it was the actual updates or it said it had to update binary. So to get root back I’m guessing I have to delete twrp and super su, and redo tutorial? What about a few root app? Titanium, a disabler to stop updates etc. I’m still on April 7.1.2 verified n settings. Thanks

    • That’s odd. Did you update the OS or just apps in the play store?

      • Vernon Lumpkin Jr.

        Lol just the playstore updates

        • Vernon Lumpkin Jr.

          Now root checker root not properly installed

          • Vernon Lumpkin Jr.

            Root has been functioning great for 4-6 weeks since install and system update freeze. Oh no. Hope system update don’t re awake

      • Vernon Lumpkin Jr.

        Ok. Turn off fone and held power+ vol down, twrp is intact and fictional. Some how it’s just the root part of super su and SuperSU pro + binary code update. Guess I’ll get hold of them and should just HV to rework root part of tutorial. Thanks

      • Vernon Lumpkin Jr.

        Ok. According to SuperSU forum, they screwed up an update 2.8, newest. Don’t take it! All who did lost root. I’m rolling back to previous. And make sure if I take next it’s 2.81

        • Ha, OK well hopefully that’s all you need to do and they’ll patch the next version of SuperSU. Thanks for reporting back what happened to help others out!

  • Jesus Lango Jr.

    Will this work on Verizon 7.1.2?

    • I don’t have a Verizon phone anymore so I can’t test but you can try and worse case it’ll just fail. Also maybe check with the DePixel site linked above as it’s needed for Verizon and if he didn’t update it, none of this will work.

      • Jesus Lango Jr.

        Alright thanks ill give it a try and see what happens

        • Check with DePixel first actually, cause if he never updated it there’s no point in going through the headache. Good luck!

  • John Augustus Folger

    anyword if it works with 7.1.2? Verizon?

    • So it works with 7.1.2 not Verizon version for sure, but the Verizon version no one has reported back. You’ll have to check with the DePixel creators over on XDA. Good luck.

  • Jakke Hamm

    This will be my first time ever trying to root a phone so I am certainly nervous about doing so. My question is what are the direct links to all the downloads that I need because I am getting confused on the correct versions. The phone I am getting is a Pixel XL direct from Google and it will be used on the Verizon network. So a follow up question is should I activate the phone before I root it or after? Any other advice for a first time rooter would be greatly appreciated as well. Thank you for your assistance.
    UPDATE: Got stuck in a boot loop after trying to flash the TWRP.ZIP file. and adb isn’t recognizing my phone. Any suggesting? It’ll loop a few times then stop, I’ll then hold the power button and i get a message at first
    “[Ramdump] Writing to EXT4 file…
    Please press VolUP+ VolDown to stop”
    Then i’ll get the “Please lock the bootloader” message.
    Then the Google logo will flash and it’ll restart into the “Please lock bootloader” a few times and then nothing.
    Please help.

  • Aamir Ashraf

    I have a huge problem. After rooting I tired factory resetting to restore my data.
    Now, its pretty much stuck on a bootloop.
    Something like “writing to ext4 file” comes up

    Can someone help me fix this?

  • Sean G

    i have a pixel and i was attempting to flash this…and once i fastboot boot twrp.img it reboots and it hangs on the “teamwin” screen right before the screen where the option to “swipe for modifications” anybody experience this and if so …how did you fix this? also i was on DP3 O i unenrolled and then reflashed all the way stock….

  • Sam

    Just wondering what updates there would be to doing this on Android 8.0. I like the detail of this tutorial, but the others I’ve looked at involve installing SUhide. Any tips or information would be much appreciated!