How to Unroot the OnePlus 3 & Get Back to Stock (Video)

Perhaps you want to sell your OnePlus 3, send it in for warranty or, you know, give it away. Regardless of the why, they how involves unrooting the OnePlus 3 and getting it back to stock.

In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through installing the stock ColorOS ROM, then flashing the stock recovery, and, finally, relocking the bootloader so we can get OTAs and hide any sign that it was ever rooted in the first place.

Here’s how.

I. Before You Begin

  1. This will erase the device, so make sure to save things to your computer you might need.
  2. I’m using Windows to do this tutorial but you can use Mac if you are familiar with Mac terminal commands.
  3. I’m going to assume you did my rooting tutorial. If you didn’t please just use my setup ADB tutorial and do that so you have the proper tools on your computer and in the right places (don’t worry, it’s a 60 sec tutorial).
  4. Enable USB debugging (if it isn’t already enabled) by going to Settings > About Phone and tapping on Build Number until it tells you you are a developer. Then hit back and go to Developer Options, and turn on USB debugging.

II. Flash the Stock ROM and Unroot the OnePlus 3

So first we’re going to unroot the phone and flash the stock ROM to get back to a close to out of box state.

  1. Download the stock ColorOS ROM and save it inside the adb folder you should have from doing my how to setup adb tutorial above.
    Download OTA
  2. Plug the phone in via USB and hold Shift and right-click in a blank area in the adb folder (where adb and the new ROM .zip file is) and type the following with hitting enter at the end of the line:
    adb push ota.zip
    adb reboot recovery
    ADB Reboot Recovery
  3. After it transfers the file and then boots into recovery, on the phone, select Wipe > Factory Reset (this will erase the phone FYI).
    Wipe Data
  4. Then tap Install and tap on the ota.zip file and swipe to confirm.
    Install OTA
  5. Tap Wipe Cache/Dalvik.
    Wipe Cache
  6. Tap Reboot System and wait for it to reboot.
    Reboot System
  7. After it boots up, go through the normal setup process until you get to the home screen.
    Setup the Phone
  8. Reenable USB debugging by going to Settings > About Phone and tapping on Build Number until it tells you you are a developer. Then hit back and go to Developer Options, and turn it on.
    Allow USB Debugging

III. Flash the Stock Recovery

Now that we have the stock ROM, we need to replace the recovery with the original.

  1. Download the stock recovery and save it inside the adb folder like we did with the stock ROM.
    Download Stock Recovery
  2. Hold Shift and right-click in a blank area in the adb folder (where adb and the new ROM .zip file is) and type the following with hitting enter at the end of the line:
    adb reboot bootloader
    fastboot flash recovery stockrecovery.img
    Flash Stock Recovery

IV. Relock the Bootloader

To finish it off and be completely stock, we need to now lock the bootloader.

  1. Still in command prompt from the last step, type the following into it with hitting enter at the end of the line:
    fastboot oem lock
    fastboot reboot
    Fastboot OEM Lock
  2. Use the volume buttons on the phone to select and power to choose Yes.
    Lock Bootloader

There you go! All stock and like the OnePlus 3 was when you first got it. You can now send it in for warranty, sell it, or whatever else you wanted to do with it. Let me know in the comments below if you had any issues.

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53 thoughts on “How to Unroot the OnePlus 3 & Get Back to Stock (Video)”

  1. Hi there, I’ve followed all your steps and have successfully unrooted my OnePlus 3. However, now I have an OTA update but halfway through installation it terminates and makes me reboot. Do you know how I can fix this? Thank you.

    1. Trevor Proffitt

      I am having the exact same problem. Any fix for this yet? I tried the factory reset from settings but it looks like I’ll have to try unrooting all over.

  2. Hi, I tried following your video to unroot my phone. Downloaded the 1.2G stock file and placed it in the adb folder.

    I followed this step no. 3 “After it transfers the file and then boots into recovery, on the phone, select Wipe > Factory Settings”. However, as I followed the ‘wipe’ step in the video, this error message was displayed and it wiped off the file that was to be installed as well. The image of what the error message looks like as it wipes is shown here: https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/bf0cfd021648050c239df8dc79bb0b39d6728b6e93eb08faeb42bb9d2245d1b6.jpg

    Please help me with the further steps. 🙂

    1. Did you put the file in the sdcard folder like in the video? Make sure that’s where you put it as it shouldn’t get wiped in that folder, then try again. Then ignore that warning it’s fine, as it continues to wipe the things needed in there, then go to the next step of flashing it via Install.

  3. I followed your video about rooting the oneplus3 and successfully completed it. Though now i am having a doubt on what to do with the supersu file installed during rooting it, as i want to unroot the phone. Should i uninstall it from the phone itself or continue unrooting the phone as it still remains installed?

  4. Hey! So here’s my problem…I did everything as you said except the fact that i used the latest OTA available(4.0.2). Everything seemed good until I locked the bootloader. After i did that, it reboots and enters a screen where it asks me for a password to unlock my android. I also can’t enter recovery mode. Can you please help me ?

      1. I didn’t have that option. I unlocked the bootloader again and now I got in but I still can’t go into recovery mode even after I’ve flashed another one.

          1. Hello, It happend to me too.
            i’ve done alll the steps. After setup the ota.zip phone opened and said “Android is upgrading” after that it asked me password for open the Android and i tried all the possible passwords that i could set. But all of them was incorrect. And phone opened but it said “Your data is corrupted. And needed to factory reset my phone.” And now there is nothing i can do. i restart the phone and same things happend all over again. Can you help me ?

      1. I have Oneplus 3 device with the latest rom “OnePlus3Oxygen_16_OTA_041_all_1702081756_f9fb218af59d4aa6” and I am being ask for a password during startup

        1. i faced this problem but i got to recovery mode and wiped cache and data it worked for me it didnt ask for any password while startup
          .

  5. HI im getting worried now i don’t want to be in this position anymore i done everything you said but a on a 3t using the OTA for a 3t not the 3 that you provided and the recovery for the 3t but i am getting this message when i restart my phone “the dm-verity is not started in enforcing mode and may not work properly”

    1. That warning happens if you don’t have the stock firmware. Try again and make sure you used the right firmware for your version of the phone and that you go all the way through and lock the bootloader at the end.

          1. dude its displaying like “this package is for “OnePlus3” not for device “oneplus3”, how can change o and p to capital

          2. am using oneplus3 but it is not installing in twrp recovery its displaying message as mentionedd above.

          3. If this is an issue with rooting please post in the comments on the rooting tutorial instead of here so I can reference files/links there for others who might have a similar issue.

          4. am performing unrooting of oneplus3. I want to go back to stock rom and i lost by back up files.

          5. Then you’ll just have a totally stock stock or of box device when you’re done with this tutorial and will have to set it up manually. Good luck.

          6. Then you either need to redownload it or Google Error 7 and it night be that you have a different version of Android and need to find the correct OTA.zip for your device. Good luck

  6. I have a problem. I made a mistake and mistakenly typed the word fastboot oem unlock and clicked yes. What should I do when the phone is turned on and off?

  7. HI,
    looks like i brick my one plus 3.
    I already had stock OS rooted so started from the step 3 “Flash the Stock Recovery”.
    And now it does not boot anymore. Have tried the down volume and power button, but no luck.

    Please need your help.

    1. When i hold only the power button for a while, the oneplus logo keeps flashing. This i guess is the boot loop it is stuck in, the it loops in less then a second time.

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