{"id":302454,"date":"2025-05-07T04:06:44","date_gmt":"2025-05-07T11:06:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sftarticles.wpenginepowered.com\/en\/?p=302454"},"modified":"2025-07-01T14:42:39","modified_gmt":"2025-07-01T21:42:39","slug":"google-updates-its-pixel-phones-better-security-bad-news-if-you-want-to-install-roms","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/google-updates-its-pixel-phones-better-security-bad-news-if-you-want-to-install-roms\/","title":{"rendered":"Google updates its Pixel phones: Better security, bad news if you want to install ROMs"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Google has released the&nbsp;<strong>May 2025 security update<\/strong>&nbsp;for its Pixel phones, introducing key improvements in system stability and bug fixes. But buried in the update is a change that may frustrate advanced users:&nbsp;<strong>it\u2019s now impossible to roll back to a previous Android version<\/strong>. This move tightens security, but limits the freedom of those who install custom ROMs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">May update enhances anti-rollback protection<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The new patch includes an update to the Pixel bootloader that&nbsp;<strong>raises the &#8220;rollback index&#8221;<\/strong>, a version counter that Android uses to block older software from being installed. Once the device has this update,&nbsp;<strong>you cannot flash or boot any build of Android 15 released before May 2025<\/strong>. The goal? To stop attackers from installing vulnerable versions of Android that contain known security flaws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Custom ROM fans may be disappointed<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">While most users won\u2019t notice this change,&nbsp;<strong>enthusiasts who experiment with custom firmware<\/strong>&nbsp;might run into trouble. Many custom ROMs are based on older builds, and&nbsp;<strong>those won\u2019t be accepted by the updated bootloader<\/strong>. This effectively blocks the use of some third-party systems unless developers update their ROMs to match the new anti-rollback version.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Security comes at the cost of flexibility<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Google\u2019s move aims to reinforce the integrity of the Pixel system, ensuring attackers can&#8217;t use downgrade tricks to exploit past vulnerabilities. But in doing so,&nbsp;<strong>Google limits user control and customization<\/strong>, a key appeal of Android. The update is already rolling out via system settings and can also be installed manually through Fastboot.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Google has released the&nbsp;May 2025 security update&nbsp;for its Pixel phones, introducing key improvements in system stability and bug fixes. But buried in the update is a change that may frustrate advanced users:&nbsp;it\u2019s now impossible to roll back to a previous Android version. This move tightens security, but limits the freedom of those who install custom &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/google-updates-its-pixel-phones-better-security-bad-news-if-you-want-to-install-roms\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Google updates its Pixel phones: Better security, bad news if you want to install ROMs&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9317,"featured_media":302457,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","wpcf-pageviews":0},"categories":[1015],"tags":[],"usertag":[],"vertical":[],"content-category":[],"class_list":["post-302454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9317"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=302454"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302454\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":307227,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/302454\/revisions\/307227"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/302457"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=302454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=302454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=302454"},{"taxonomy":"usertag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/usertag?post=302454"},{"taxonomy":"vertical","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vertical?post=302454"},{"taxonomy":"content-category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cms-articles.softonic.io\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/content-category?post=302454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}