Video: How to Unroot the Nexus 5X

So maybe you’re done messing around with the Nexus 5X or maybe you just need to sell it. Either way, here’s how to unroot the Nexus 5X so you can get it back to stock before handing it off.

Unrooting is the process of flashing the stock firmware back onto a rooted device, like the 5X. Thanks to Google, and how it treats its Nexus line of devices, the firmware to flash back to stock is readily available and, thanks to WugFresh a developer over on XDA, there is even a toolkit to help us download it & flash it quickly and easily.

If you need to unroot the Nexus 5X or just want to to get it back to stock so you can root it all over again, here’s how:

I. Before You Begin

This will only work on Windows as it requires a toolkit to make it a lot easier that requires Windows.

This will wipe your device so please back it up before beginning.

II. Download & Install the Toolkit

1. Head to the toolkit developer’s site here and download the latest version of the toolkit and save it to your desktop (donate to him if, after all of this, you find this toolkit helpful).
2. Right-click the exe that you just downloaded and select Run As Administrator and install it.
3. When it opens select your model and build number and click Apply (you can find this info in the Settings > About section of your device).

III. Enable USB Debugging

1. On the phone, head to Settings > About and then continuously tap on Build Number until it says you are a developer.
2. Tap Back then tap the new Developer Options menu that appeared and scroll down to USB Debugging and enable that, then enable OEM Unlock as well.
3. Plug the Nexus in via the USB cable to your computer (for this phone, since it didn’t come with one, you will most likely need to buy a USB C to USB Male adapter in order to connect it to your computer. You can get one of those for around $9.99 here if you need it).
4. A dialog should pop up on your phone at this point saying “Allow USB Debugging?”. When it does check Always Allow and tap OK.

If that dialog didn’t pop up, head to my How To Setup ADB tutorial and follow those instructions to get the drivers working, then return here when that’s done to continue.

After that, the toolkit will tell you need to download some files, click “Download + Update All File Dependencies” and wait for that.

IV. Unroot the Nexus 5X

1. Click Flash Stock + Unroot in the toolkit and follow the prompts for it to download the appropriate stock firmware and then it’ll flash it to the device.
2. Once done, the device will reboot and you’ll be back to the stock firmware, but if you want to also relock the bootloader, you can do so below.

V. Relock the Bootloader

1. Click OEM Lock in the toolkit and follow the prompts. It’ll reboot the phone into bootloader mode and relock the bootloader.
2. After that, it should reboot the phone and you’re all set.

There you go all set. You can now go through the normal setup process to start reusing the phone or you can leave it as is if your are ready to sell it.

Let me know if that helped or if you had any issues in the comments below!