Video: How to Unroot the Nexus 6
Ok, enough messing around. There comes a time when you’ve had your fill of rooting, flashing custom roms, and general hackery and just need to unroot your Nexus 6 and get back to stock. If that time has come, then here’s how to undo all of the changes you’ve made and get your phone back to the way it was when it came out of the box.
First thing, we’re going to use the toolkit that I used for the how to root video (it just makes this all much easier and faster really), then we’ll flash a stock ROM to undo any changes you might have made to the phone’s system, and, finally, we’ll relock the bootloader so the device can accept regular OTA updates and everything is back to normal.
I. Before You Begin
1. You must use a Windows computer to do this tutorial as the toolkit we’re using is only for Windows.
2. This will erase everything on your phone so be sure to backup anything you hold dear and don’t want to lose.
II. Download the Nexus Toolkit and Set It Up
1. Download the Nexus Toolkit (if you don’t already have it from doing my rooting tutorial) and save it to your desktop.
2. Right-click the toolkit and select Run as Administrator.
3. Click Install.
4. Select your Nexus device and your build (you can find the build information under Settings > About Phone).
5. Plug the device in via USB to the computer.
6. Pull down the notification shade and tap the gear icon to get to settings.
7. Scroll to the bottom and tap on About Phone.
8. Scroll down and repeatedly tap on Build Number until it says you are a developer.
9. Hit back.
10. Tap on Developer Options.
11. Check Enable OEM Unlock & USB Debugging.
12. On the phone, tap always allow from this computer and tap OK (if this doesn’t appear see the video for troubleshooting the drivers).
13. Click Download and Update All File Dependencies.
III. Flash the Stock ROM
Now, we’re going to flash the stock ROM from Google to erase everything on the device and get us back to the way it was when it came out of the box.
1. Scroll to the bottom and tap on About Phone.
2. Scroll down and repeatedly tap on Build Number until it says you are a developer.
3. Hit back.
4. Tap on Developer Options.
5. Check Enable OEM Unlock & USB Debugging.
6. Plug the phone in.
7. In the toolkit, click Flash Stock + Unroot and select the Android 5.0.0 build (I tried the 5.0.1 but it caused the phone to lock up) and wait for it to flash.
IV. Relock the Bootloader
Next, we want to relock the bootloader so we can get OTA updates again.
1. In the toolkit, click OEM Lock and wait for the device to reboot and say locked.
2. Reboot the device if necessary.
That’s it. You are all set and now back to completely stock. You can go to Settings and check for updates to get to the latest firmware after that. Enjoy!
I have a 5.1 build that isn’t listed what would you recommend I do?