The root and ROM tinkering crowd should take note: Today Google has published the first factory and OTA images for both of its latest phones. The Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5 were both recently added to download pages for each category, so if you run into trouble unlocking your bootloader and mucking around flashing modified system images, now you can quickly and easily restore your phone back to defaults.
Files for both redfin and bramble (the hardware names for the Pixel 5 and 4a 5G, respectively) were posted earlier today. As sometimes happens, the Pixel 5 has two, divided up by carrier: One for almost everyone, and another image for KDDI subscribers in Japan. The Pixel 4a 5G escapes that fate.
As usual (at least, since June), you can also flash the factory images directly from your browser with a single link, which is pretty snazzy. Whether you’re hoping to dig into these for development/modification purposes, or you just need something to fall back on when that new ROM flashes bad into a soft brick, now you’ve got the images to do it.
