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Transcript

Please excuse any grammatical errors. I used a tool to generate the transcript and haven’t had a chance to read through it yet.

So, without fail, every couple of weeks I either see an email, a forum post, or a comment on a YouTube video where someone says they want to try GrapheneOS but they’re afraid they’re going to brick their device. The general consensus is that with the web installer, it’s nearly impossible to brick your device. But instead of just saying that, I wanted to make a video showing that things can go terribly wrong—and you still will not brick your device.

Here we have a Pixel 7 running stock Android OS. This isn’t going to be an instructional video, so I’m going to fast-forward through a lot of parts. The first step to install GrapheneOS is to put the phone into Fastboot mode. So, let’s restart it. Just ignore the pop-up on the screen—I’m running macOS, and that’s part of the OS.

Step 1: Unlock the Bootloader

Even if you unplug your device right now, everything is still happening on the device. The actual unlocking of the bootloader doesn’t require the computer to stay connected. So, let’s unlock the bootloader. Again, these are things you should not be doing—I’m just showing you that they still work.

Once the bootloader is unlocked, it’s worth mentioning that all existing data on your device will be erased. This happens regardless of how the rest of the installation goes. Once you unlock the bootloader, all your data is gone. Now, let’s move on to the second step.

Step 2: Download the Release

I’ve already downloaded the release earlier, so it’s cached in my browser. Again, this step happens in the browser, not on the device yet. Now, we’re at the part where we flash the release to the device.

Let’s flash it. And just for demonstration, let’s unplug the device during this process. Why not? The device is restarting, the computer has lost connection with it, and we’re back to the Fastboot interface. I’ll plug the device back in, and our browser picks it up again, resuming the process. Now it’s writing some files to the device.

Let’s unplug it again. We see an error in the browser—no big deal. Let’s restart the phone and see where we’re at. It’s just a warning that our bootloader is unlocked.

Testing the Worst-Case Scenario

While that’s loading, let me quickly mention my new podcast, In the Shell. I launched it two months ago, and it’s about hackers, malware, and the people shaping tech. If you’d like to check it out, head over to InTheShellPodcast.com.

Now back to the phone. At this point, it’s not booting—it’s stuck on the Google splash screen. This is likely the worst-case scenario you’ll encounter, but it’s easily fixed with a forced reboot. Hold the power button and the volume-up button for about 15 seconds, and then hold the volume-down button to boot into Fastboot mode. Now we’re back in Fastboot mode. Let’s plug the phone back in and continue the installation.

Back on the screen, I’ll click Flash Release again. The phone is still connected, so it’s continuing the process. So far, our phone is not bricked.

What Happens if You Lose Internet?

Another concern people have is losing internet during installation. Let me turn off my laptop’s Wi-Fi. As we can see, the internet is gone, but the installation is still continuing. This is because the installation doesn’t require an active internet connection once you’ve downloaded the factory image. You’re fine to proceed without the internet.

Now, let’s unplug the device again. There’s an error, so let’s restart the device and see where we’re at. At this point, we have a different screen. It says, “Your device is corrupt. It can’t be trusted and may not work properly.” Again, this is another worst-case scenario.

To fix this, press the power button to continue past the bootloader warning. As we saw before, it’s stuck on the Google splash screen. Let’s do another forced reboot—power button and volume-up button—and hold the volume-down button to go back into Fastboot mode. Here we are, back in Fastboot mode. Let’s plug in the USB cable again and click Flash Release. The phone is detected again, and the process starts over.

Refreshing the Page During Installation

Now let’s test what happens if you refresh the page during installation. I’ll refresh, and as expected, it seems like everything is messed up. But this could happen to you, so let’s fix it. Press Flash Release again. It doesn’t seem to find the phone, so let’s unplug it and plug it back in. That reset the connection, and now it’s continuing the process.

Finishing the Installation

This time, I let the flash complete. Let’s move to the next step: locking the bootloader. That’s done. The bootloader is locked, so let’s restart the device.

We now have the GrapheneOS welcome screen. The installation was successful—even after unplugging the USB cable, doing hard reboots, refreshing the web page, and turning off the internet. We were still able to install GrapheneOS without bricking the device.

Conclusion

As long as you can do some basic troubleshooting—like unplugging and plugging back in the USB cable if the connection doesn’t work or doing a forced reboot with the power and volume-up buttons—you’ll have no problem installing GrapheneOS using the web installer. You will not brick your device.

If you have any questions or comments, feel free to leave them below. See you next time!