Pixel 10’s May update blocks Android downgrades, recovery issues remain unresolved

Google has rolled out the May Pixel update, bringing with it a change to the Pixel 10 series that prevents users from downgrading their devices to older Android versions. This was expected to happen, and now it’s officially in place.

A warning on the company’s developer page confirms that the update includes a bootloader change that increments the anti-rollback version. This means that after installing the May update, Pixel 10 series devices can no longer flash and boot older Android 16 builds.

The move builds on Android’s existing anti-rollback protection, part of the Verified Boot framework, which is designed to prevent devices from running potentially harmful or vulnerable software. While this isn’t new for Pixel phones, the rollout has once again highlighted a long-standing issue for developers and advanced users.

The problem isn’t just about losing the ability to downgrade to an older Android build. Users say that if a Pixel enters certain deeper recovery states, the phone can effectively become unusable. This can happen in various scenarios, like when you’re flashing a factory image or an OTA, and something breaks midway.

Internal Google teams have recovery tools or signed recovery images needed to restore devices from these states, but external, regular users don’t have access to them.

As a Telegram leaks channel, Mystic Leaks points out, complaints about this limitation have been raised on Google’s Issue Tracker for a while, but Google hasn’t taken cognizance of them.

So while the May update for the Pixel 10 series improves security by preventing rollbacks to older software, it also reduces flexibility for some users and increases the risk of ending up with a device that can’t be recovered easily.