Backup Pixel 3 before erasing phone with TWRP

Question

I am attempting to take a recovery/backup of a Pixel 3 using TWRP. I do not need to flash TWRP, just boot from it to perform the backup. Meaning, I don't care if TWRP is installed permanently.

The problem I am running into is that I need to unlock the bootloader before I can boot TWRP. And if I unlock the bootloader, the data on the device will be erased.

My question is: If I unlock the bootloader, will I be able to boot back into fastboot mode, and thus boot into TWRP, before the erasure occurs? And if to, how do I perform this? (I presume that if I hold the volume down button it will before rebooting it will go back into fastboot mode.)

I am trying to obtain a backup of the phone before the erase script is activated.

I have searched around and have not been able to resolve this question as of yet.

Thanks in advance for any assistance provided.

Does this answer your question? FBE encryption bootloader state in keys — alecxs, May 15 '22 at 05:46
in other words, even if you could unlock without erasing userdata, still it's impossible to decrypt because of bootloader state is involved in encryption — alecxs, May 16 '22 at 08:01
Does this answer your question? Is there some way to move apps and settings from an Android phone to another? — alecxs, May 16 '22 at 08:12
Thanks @alecxs, appreciated. Really what I am trying to do is get a full nandroid backup of the phone. If erasure is unavoidable, I'll go with that. But I am trying to first get the nandroid backup before erasure occurs. — Mikolaj, May 16 '22 at 18:06

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered May 16 '22 at 18:45

1

This appears to be the answer to my question:

Pixel 3 (blueline) immediately wipes the data partition upon unlocking the bootloader. It appears there is no way to boot it back into fastboot before erasure occurs.

answered May 16 '22 at 18:45

Mikolaj

131
5

Backup Pixel 3 before erasing phone with TWRP

1 Answers1