How to get Android Pie on any Android smartphone

Google when announced Android Oreo 8.0 it also talked about something known as project treble, which later this year with the launch of Android P 9.0 showed us how faster could it become to update smartphones to the newest version of Android without the chipset vendor’s involvement. And then we saw, Android Pie beta developer preview not only being available on the Google Pixel devices but also on the Essential phone, Nokia, OnePlus and also Android OEMs such as Oppo and Vivo also took advantage of this and brought Android P 9.0 beta for its devices.

And now most Treble enabled devices can easily get the latest Android Pie 9.0 ROM on their smartphones. But do remember that this is currently only available for Android smartphones that run on Qualcomm’s Snapdragon processors.

Following are the devices on which the Android Pie 9.0 Beta is working

Android P 9.0 Motorola MotoZ

If you have the devices mentioned above, then start reading the requirements because you also need to fulfill them. On another note devices with Non-Qualcomm processor need not try this method.

Requirements

  • A base ROM that has in-built Treble Support be it Official or Unofficial
  • A custom recovery should be installed on your phone such as TWRP.
  • Your device should have an unlocked bootloader
  • At least 70% or more battery should be in reserve on your device
  • Back up all your valuable data

Whats’s A-only and A/B-only ?

Now you might ask, what’s the A-only devices and A/B-only devices, then the concept is like this, Android device which supports Seamless Updates have two partition slots which are A and B that’s why we call it A/B-only.

While the ones which do not support Android Seamless updates only have a single partition slot, hence A-only partition. So, depending on your device, you have to follow the A-only or A/B only method. So, download the files given below according to your device only, or else thing will go wrong.

Download Android P files for�A-Only partition Devices :

Download Android P files for�A/B-Only partition Devices :

How to Install Android P 9.0 on A-Only devices

  1. Firstly, you have to download all the required files from the given link.
  2. Now on your�Treble supported Android phone; reboot into recovery and perform a full System wipe, you must also include internal storage as this eliminates any force encryption and one of the tricks to avoid boot loops
  3. Next, you must connect your device and send all the needed files you downloaded in the first step on to your internal storage
  4. After that, browser to the�Install option, and Select the base ROM you want for your device and start flashing it.
  5. After you’re done flashing your base ROM, reboot into the system
  6. Once again reboot into the recovery, and Select and flash the Android P A-ONLY system image.
  7. Next, you need to go back to the main menu, now tap on�Mount�option within it and also see that Vendor�is Selected/Checked
  8. To finish things up we should now sequentially flash the given three GSI apps, the first GSI1 then GSI2 and lastly GSI3.

How to Install Android P 9.0 on A/B-Only devices

  1. Connect your device and transfer all the required files you�ve downloaded.
  2. Navigate to�Install, and choose the base ROM you wanted for your device and flash it.
  3. Once done, reboot to system, and set everything up (skip account login or creation).
  4. Reboot back to the recovery, and flash the system image for Android P�A/B.
  5. Head back to the main menu, tap on�Mount�and make sure�Vendor�is checked.
  6. Tap on�Install, and flash the three GSI files in order (GS1>GS2>>GS3) and reboot to system.
  7. To finish things up, you also need to flash Permissiver.zip along with FBE_Disabler zip.
  8. Now if you encounter the force encryption exception, conduct a full wipe again of your system and reboot.

The most common error you might encounter is about the Android P system image denying to install because most probably the base ROM you’re using is not treble enabled. So, do check if it has treble support or not.

Once, you get the latest developer preview on your device; you also need to start installing the Open camera, Google Play services and Incall 2 for you to use these essential things.

I am the chief editor of TheLeaker. I also maintain the backend stuff of the site. I’m a tech enthusiast and loves to do Python coding in my free time. I have worked at many giant publications like XDA Developers and NXTtech before starting TheLeaker.
You can get in touch with me at Garv[at]theleaker.com.

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