Install /e/OS on a Sony - Xperia 1 III pdx215

This guide installs /e/OS on your pdx215. Read it through once before you start, so you don’t hit surprises partway in. Downgrading from a newer OS version than the /e/OS build you’re about to install can cause instability or brick some devices — check your current OS version first. Flashing is done at your own risk: /e/OS builds are provided as best effort, without any guarantee, and the /e/OS project takes no responsibility for the consequences.

Requirements

  • Back up your important data to an external storage device — some of the steps below format the phone, wiping any backup left on it.
  • Charge your phone above 50%.
  • Enable adb and fastboot on your PC — setup instructions .
  • Download every file listed in the Downloads section below before you start.
  • Use a real data cable — some cables only charge and can’t transfer data.
  • Enable USB debugging on your device — instructions .
  • Confirm your exact model in the Device Selector : where shown, hover the device name for the supported model number, and check it matches yours exactly.
  • Boot the stock OS at least once and check everything works — SMS, calls, and both over WiFi and LTE if available (some devices need VoLTE/VoWiFi used once on stock to provision IMS). Whatever’s broken on stock stays broken on /e/OS.
Warning: Log out of any accounts (Google, Samsung, Mi Account, etc.) set on the stock ROM before proceeding. Most vendors enable Factory Reset Protection (FRP): after a factory reset, a device that's still signed in will ask for the credentials of that account before it can be used again. Also remove any screen locks.

Downloads for pdx215

community /e/OS A16

Each of these pages also lists a separate /e/OS Recovery file where available — grab it from there when the install steps below ask for it.

Not sure which one to pick? See official vs. community builds .

  • Before following these instructions please ensure that the device is on the latest Android 13 firmware.

  • If your device is currently using a newer or older version than the required version, please upgrade or downgrade to the required version before proceeding with your /e/OS installation.

  • The required version is Android 13 , which may be lower than the /e/OS version you are about to install - this is not an error! If there are multiple updates of that version (e.g. security updates), make sure to use the latest!

  • If you need to upgrade or downgrade your device, please search online for guides. We are unable to provide specific instructions here and on our support platforms.

Unlocking the bootloader

These steps only need to be run once per device. Not sure what unlocking changes on your device? See Bootloader relocking .

Warning: Unlocking the bootloader will erase all data on your device! This also includes your DRM keys, which are stored in the Trim Area partition (also called TA). Before proceeding, ensure the data you would like to retain is backed up to your PC and/or your Google account, or equivalent. Please note that OEM backup solutions like Samsung and Motorola backup may not be accessible from /e/OS once installed. If you wish to backup the TA partition first, you can find tutorials related to your device on the internet.

  1. On the device, dial *#*#7378423#*#* (*#*#SERVICE#*#*) to launch the service menu.

  2. Go to service info > configuration and check rooting status - you can only continue if it says Bootloader unlock allowed: Yes.

  3. Connect the device to your PC via USB.

  4. On the computer, open a command prompt (on Windows) or terminal (on Linux or macOS) window, and type:

    adb reboot bootloader

  5. Follow the instructions on Sony’s official unlocking website to unlock your bootloader.

  6. Since the device resets completely, you will need to re-enable USB debugging to continue (Settings->About Phone->Build version, and then you can go to Settings->Developer options to enable USB debugging).

Flashing additional partitions

This platform requires additional partitions to be flashed for recovery to work properly. The steps to flash the partitions are given below.

The partition files will be available in the /e/OS build or /e/OS recovery zip folders. Look for the file name starting with the partition name. For example, the vbmeta.img file may be named vbmeta-e-x.y-aX-YYYYMMDD123456-channel-codename.img. You can rename it to vbmeta.img if you want to — the part after vbmeta is just an indicator of the build date when it was compiled. If the files are not found in these zip folders, users can download them from the LineageOS wiki install page specific to this device and OS build.

Tip: If you encounter an error such as "No such file or directory" when executing a fastboot flash command, it is because fastboot cannot locate the image file. You can resolve this by either specifying the full path to the file (e.g., C:\Users\YourName\Downloads\boot.img) or by typing the first part of the command followed by a space (fastboot flash boot ) and then dragging and dropping the file directly into the terminal/console window.

  1. First unzip the /e/OS Recovery file linked in the section marked Downloads for pdx215 . The following files would show up in the location where you unzipped the contents of the eRecovery zip file

    • dtbo.img
    • vbmeta.img
    • vendor_boot.img

  2. Next we manually reboot into bootloader or download mode

    • With the device powered off
    • hold Volume Up and connect the USB cable. The notification light should turn blue.

  3. Flash the downloaded image files to your device by typing (replace <...> with the actual filenames):

    fastboot flash dtbo <dtbo>.img
fastboot flash vbmeta <vbmeta>.img
fastboot flash vendor_boot <vendor_boot>.img

  4. Reboot to bootloader mode

    fastboot reboot bootloader

Temporarily Booting a custom recovery using fastboot

  1. Connect your device to your PC via USB.

  2. On the computer, open a command prompt (on Windows) or terminal (on Linux or macOS) window, and type:

    adb reboot bootloader

  3. Once the device is in fastboot mode, verify your PC finds it by typing:

    fastboot devices

  4. Flash a recovery image onto your device

    fastboot flash boot recoveryfilename.img

    Replace the recoveryfilename with the name of the recovery image you downloaded in the previous section

  5. Manually reboot into recovery mode

    • With the device powered off
    • hold Volume Down + Power
Tip: Outdated fastboot releases dropped legacy A/B support, so it might attempt to flash to boot__a / boot__b rather than boot_a / boot_b if you try to flash boot. In this case, you must update fastboot to a release newer than or equal to 31.0.2. Alternatively, you can manually specify which slot to flash to based on what slot fastboot failed to flash to. For example, if fastboot fails to flash to boot__a, you must flash to boot_a.

Ensuring all firmware partitions are consistent

Tip: The steps below only need to be run once per device.

In some cases, the inactive slot can be unpopulated or contain much older firmware than the active slot, leading to various issues including a potential hard-brick. We can ensure none of that will happen by copying the contents of the active slot to the inactive slot.

To do this, sideload the copy-partitions-20220613-signed.zip package by doing the following:

  1. Download the copy-partitions-20220613-signed.zip file from here . It should have a MD5 sum of 79f2f860830f023b7030c29bfbea7737 or a SHA-256 sum of 92f03b54dc029e9ca2d68858c14b649974838d73fdb006f9a07a503f2eddd2cd.

  2. Sideload the copy-partitions-20220613-signed.zip package: * On the device, select Apply Update, then Apply from ADB to begin sideload. * On the host machine, sideload the package using: adb sideload copy-partitions-20220613-signed.zip

  3. Now reboot to recovery by tapping Advanced, then Reboot to recovery.

Steps to install /e/OS from recovery

Use Volume to navigate and Power to select — to go back to the main screen, use Volume Up to choose the arrow at the top. If your PC can’t detect the device over adb, tap Advanced » Enable adb from the /e/OS recovery main screen.

Format the device

On /e/OS Recovery main screen:

  1. Select Factory reset

  2. Select Format data / Factory reset option

  3. Next screen will display a warning that this action cannot be undone

  4. Select Format data to proceed or Cancel if you want to go back

  5. If you selected Format data, the format process will complete

    You’ll see text in small font on the lower left side of the screen showing format progress, similar to this:

    Wiping data
Formatting/data
Formatting/cache
Data wipe complete

  6. Display will now return to the Factory Reset screen

Install /e/OS

In /e/OS recovery main screen:

  1. Select Apply Update and in next screen Apply update from adb

  2. In the next screen, the device is now in sideload mode

    Note at this point the Cancel option is highlighted that does not mean you have canceled the action. The device is in adb sideload mode.

  3. On your PC begin adb sideload. Type the below command in a console

    adb sideload downloaded_file_name.zip

    Replace downloaded_file_name.zip with the name of the /e/OS file you downloaded in the previous section

  4. Press enter key on the keyboard to start the sideloading The screen will show the progress percentage…This might pause at 47%

  5. Give it some time

  6. The PC console will now display Total xfer: 1.00x

  7. The phone screen will now display some text with a message similar to:

    Script succeeded result was [1.000000]

    This means that the install was successful.

Reboot the device

In /e/OS recovery main screen:

  1. Select Reboot system now

    The reboot process may take 5 - 10 minutes

Success: Congratulations! Your phone should now be booting into /e/OS.
To find some troubleshooting tips… click here

adb

  • Getting a Total xFer ':' 0.01x message - Try to upload the /e/OS to internal storage and retry to install
  • adb ':' sideload connection failed ':' insufficient permissions for device error - Try to execute the commands adb kill-server and adb start-server and retry
  • Getting an insufficient permissions error - Try the solution given here
  • When running "adb devices" in bash a device is shown as "unauthorized" - Try the solution given here

Connectivity

  • Trying to troubleshoot mobile connectivity issues - Read this guide


Please share your experience , suggest tips or changes to this install guide documentation by visiting the Xperia 1 III specific topic on our community forum . To report issues in /e/OS please refer this guide

This documentation “Install /e/OS on a Sony - Xperia 1 III - “pdx215"” is a derivative of “install LineageOS on pdx215” by The LineageOS Project, used under CC BY .