This month, Google announced the Pixel 9 Pro Fold as its second foldable phone. The company made it part of the Pixel 9 lineup instead of advertising it as the “Pixel Fold 2.” Google even temporarily discontinued the original model to focus on selling the new model. Before the Pixel 9 Pro Fold is available to buy, Google has released its factory images. The phone will hit stores on September 4.
Android users with some experience installing ROMs will know that there are a few different ways to do this. Options include factory images and full OTA images. The latter was already available for the Pixel 9 Pro Fold, but now you can download the factory images as well. Google says it’s “usually easier and safer to sideload the full OTA image” rather than using factory images. However, having all the options available is always good news.
You can now download the Pixel 9 Pro Fold factory images
The Pixel 9 Pro Fold factory images make it easy for you to reinstall your device’s software to its factory state. This is very useful if your system gets corrupted for some reason. Google’s developer page offers three versions of factory images for the device: 14.0.0 (AD1A.240530.030, August 2024), 14.0.0 (AD1A.240530.030.A1, August 2024, India only), and 14.0.0 (AD1A.240530.047, August 2024). Just check the OS settings to see which one matches your device’s build number to find out which one you can install.
Flashing a factory image requires unlocking the device’s bootloader. This will disable several AI-powered features on your Pixel 9 series device. Thankfully, though, you can fix this by re-locking the bootloader after the process. Interestingly, the dev site confirms “Comet” as the codename of the Pixel 9 Pro Fold.
Remember, the Pixel 9 series is still running Android 14. A recent report revealed that the first stable build of Android 15 will arrive later than expected. All indications point to an October launch.
