Google recently found their new Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL phones with more powerful hardware, highlighting updated and design software. Pixel lineup replaced the Google’s Nexus show a couple of years back, focusing on giving a flagship Android encounter. Like Nexus series, Pixel apparatus are also programmer friendly, already getting a lot of improvements from the Android community. In this tutorial, you can unlock the bootloader of your Pixel 3 / Pixel 3 XL using official utilities and commands. All the essential download links are provided below, read ahead and catch them.

But if the user needs, they can unlock it with some controls. Once unlocked, you’ll have the ability to alter the system partition in the direction you prefer. But also remember, unlocking bootloader procedure will perform a factory reset on your mobile phone. So, please back up your device before beginning the tutorial.

First, need to do:

  1. Make sure your phone has at least 80 – 85% charge. If not, please do charge it before starting the experiment.
  2. You need to enable USB Debugging mode to connect your Android phone to computer. (Settings > About Phone > Build number > Tap it 7 times to become developer; Settings > Developer Options > USB Debugging).
  3. Enable OEM Unlock: Settings > Developer options > Enable OEM unlock.
  4. You must install the Android SDK tool on your computer.
  5. Install Google Pixel USB driver on your computer.

 

Once you are sure that you have completely backed up your data, proceed to the tutorial below to unlock the bootloader on Pixel 3 and Pixel 3 XL using fastboot.

How to Unlock Bootloader on Pixel 3 / Pixel 3 XL

  1. Go to C:\adb folder where the ADB/Fastboot binaries are present.
  2. Press and hold the SHIFT key and do a right-click on an empty space inside the folder.
  3. You should Select ‘Open PowerShell window here’.
  4. Connect your phone to the PC with the help of the USB cable (preferably, the official one, provided by Google with the phone box).
  5. Now boot your device into the Bootloader/Fastboot mode using the following command: 
    adb reboot bootloader
  6. Make sure that your device is being detected properly using the following command: 
    adb devices
  7. The command will return a unique device ID right with the ‘fastboot’ message.
  8. For Pixel 3: Unlock Google Pixel 3 bootloader using the following command: 
    fastboot flashing unlock
  9. For Pixel 3 XL: Unlock Google Pixel 3 XL bootloader using the following command: 
    fastboot flashing unlock_critical
  10. Once you execute the command, your device will reboot. If not, type the following command and HIT enter: 
    adb reboot
  11. Your device will reboot and you are done!

You are done!