Goal
Going back to a fully working OxygenOS ROM on a OnePlus 6T after an installation went really wrong (brick / fastboot loop / Qualcomm crash dump mode)
Disclaimer
THIS IS A LAST RESORT “HOW TO”
During this “how to”, you will be performing dangerous actions on and for your phone that could make it as useful as a paperweight. I can’t take any responsibility if this doesn’t work.
But since your phone is already stuck in fastboot loop / already bricked… Well, that’s your choice!
I performed this operation on a Manjaro Linux laptop, but they should be working on Mac and Windows too
Pre-requisites
DO NOT PANIC
Know how to go in fastboot and recovery modes (if you aren’t already) and how to hard reboot your phone (dangerous):
Fastboot: Hold volume up + power until the “fastboot” screen appears
Recovery: Hold volume down + power until the “OnePlus Logo” screen appears
Hard reboot: Hold volume down + volume up + power until your phone shut down
Download adb and fastboot tools (they are included in the zipped ROM for Windows, and you can get them from an official Google link)
On Linux and Mac: add them to your shell $PATH and know if you need to perform the operations as sudo
On Windows:
perform the operations from the unzipped folder if you use those binaries, or make sure you added them to your environment PATH variable
download the Windows OnePlus drivers
DO NOT PANIC
Steps
Unzip the downloaded stock ROM in a new folder (let’s name it stock for this tutorial)
Go inside this unzipped folder named stock
Unzip “images.zip” inside a new folder (let’s name it images for this tutorial)
Open a command line inside stock
Go in fastboot mode on your phone
Check if your device is visible from your computer with fasboot devices (as sudo/Administrator if required by your OS)
Perform the following operations as sudo/Administrator, if required by your OS, one by one, waiting for the previous to finish before executing the next:
Invalid sparce file format at header magic is not an error
Some image flashing will take more time than others (depending on images size)
Last .img file to flash is in the stock folder, not the images folder
If you named your folders differently, don’t forget to modify them in the script
Finally
Use volume buttons to navigate in the fastboot mode, go on the “reboot to system” action and press the power button to validate.
Your phone should take some time to reboot, like if it was a first boot.
Remaining issues troubleshooting
if you plug your device to a computer, and it can’t access the phone internal storage, try downloading anything from your OnePlus (for example, an image from Google Images in Google Chrome). If it says that an error occured, and that the file can’t be saved on your device internal storage, go in Settings > System, and factory reset your phone
If you still have issues on your phone (mine had emojis missing…), copy the downloaded stock ROM ZIP on your phone internal storage root, go in Settings > System > System updates, touch the settings icon in the top-right corner, and perform a local update. Select the stock ROM ZIP and apply update.
At this point, all my troubles were gone. If you still have issues, do not hesitate to reply in this thread, and I’ll do what I can to try and help you!
Hey @martoni !
Actually, your thread was my main source of information when I tried to install /e/ OS on my OnePlus 6T, so thanks a lot!
But sadly, it seems it wasn’t enough… I did succeed to install TWRP with your information, but then, when I installed /e/ OS, I got the infamous fastboot boot-loop…
I think a better understanding of A/B partition may be the key to successfully install this OS in one shot.
I would be glad if you could write the full installation process, for I could check if I didn’t miss anything.
In the meantime, I’m gonna read stuff about A/B partioning, and maybe try those two threads:
This last thread is about a OnePlus 6, but has a well detailed installation process for A/B partitioned device.
Yes, that was what you explained on your other thread, but it didn’t work on my phone
I don’t know why… But I won’t stop trying to get rid of Google in my life
I will try again later!
Could you do a checksum about your img ? Is it correct with the md5 where you download it ?
Or download other one and checksum after.
Or try to install lineageOS, it’s an android 10.
I did a checksum validation, everything was okay.
I did try to install an older pi/e/ OS version, it didn’t work either.
I didn’t try installing a LineageOS ROM because I didn’t see how it could help me, though.
I could do that, and try installing /e/ OS then.
Be careful, as this is the T-Mobile version, which is not compatible with the global version.
Global MSMDownloadTool is easily findable on XDA Developers, though. And it is, indeed, a wonderful tool to save tour phone if you are on windows (not so much on unix systems )
I actually hardbricked my oneplus 6t . It is stuck in bootloop … not going in fastboot and recovery mode and msm is also not detecting my phone. Please help or otherwise im in a big trouble
Once properly in EDL, your screen will turn completely black (there’s no text saying it’s in EDL mode as if the phone is off) and automatically reboot in 10 seconds if not connected properly to MSM tool. Don’t panic if you don’t see anything on the screen and the phone reboots. This is normal.
I have seen it reported that EDL mode may persist much less than 10 seconds — so be sure to stand by to apply the next step – and to “try again”.
I keep getting the below error and I’ve not found any way to get around this. I’ve seen several posts online saying that it’s not possible to flash these partitions…
how can I get around this and flash the default OS?
> fastboot flash aop_a aop.img
Sending 'aop_a' (180 KB) OKAY [ 0.008s]
Writing 'aop_a' FAILED (remote: 'Flashing is not allowed for Critical Partitions
')
fastboot: error: Command failed
)
