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Upgrade system on Pixel (3) to next Android version near the end of official support?

Started Oct 10, 2021 | Discussions thread
OP atigun Contributing Member • Posts: 854
Re: Upgrade system on Pixel (3) to next Android version near the end of official support?

atigun wrote:

vv50 wrote:

atigun wrote:

I am finding plenty of links though a search that indicates that the Android version is kept.

for pixel 3 and above, it states that factory reset allows original android version

https://support.google.com/pixelphone/answer/4596836?hl=en

Interesting, thanks for the link.

Holding off upgrading for now. For the record of the thread here is a link that describes a downgrade process from A12 to A11, fairly complicated, seems to be lot of work, and it seems that the need to wipe the device would create problems if one are using the phone for multifactor authentication as one would not be able to transfer it to a new device before wiping like one would when upgrading a phone to a new model:
https://9to5google.com/2021/10/21/how-to-downgrade-from-android-12-to-android-11-on-google-pixel/

There is a link to the factory images on Google play:
https://developers.google.com/android/images#blueline
There are factory images for all the update releases from the start the to latest, so one could for instance choose to revert to the latest A11 image from October 2021.

[Edit: And to answer my own question: Extrapolated from history of factory images for Pixel 2 on this page, Pixel 3 will receive the last and final A12 update in December 2021, and that factory image will be available for download in foreseeable future after that.]

Of course it would be interesting to hear from anyone that did the A12 upgrade. Searches indicate mixed (both good and not so good) experiences so far. Surprised there is not any chatter here about A12 considering the stable version is now available on all Pixel devices from Pixel 3 on, but apparently this is not a very active forum...

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