[Google Pixel 3 XL Questions & Answers] xavierre0:
Hi,

today, I received an OTA update for my Pixel 3 XL (I had rooted and unlocked it before). The phone boots up, but right before the PIN/fingerprint screen appears, the UI flickers a few times and apparently crashes, causing the device to reboot infinitely. A similar problem is reported here:

Does anyone have a serious bug in the Lock Screen since android 12 was installed? Using Pixel 5 - Google Pixel Community

I guess the problem would be solved if I flashed with -w (a full factory reset), but I do not want to wipe before saving some important data such as WhatsApp backup. I have my WhatsApp backup at Google, but on Google Drive it shows me a gray triangle with an exclamation mark next to the entry for WhatsApp (see attachment) and according to some users on Reddit, restoring the backup did not work for some people who had that gray triangle. Can somebody confirm that the backup did work despite having that gray triangle? (In Google Drive, click the gear symbol on the right top and go to "Applications", then scroll down to WhatsApp).

I tried re-flashing the factory image of android 12 (without -w) without success.

I also tried flashing the factory image of android 11, but after that I only get an infinite google logo loading screen.

I also downloaded the most recent TWRP and flashed it (fastboot flash boot twrp.img), but it is always stuck at the splashscreen. In this state, however, I can at least enter the adb shell. I have root access to the system, but I cannot mount the data partition (probably it is encrypted somehow). "twrp mount" fails with the error message saying that TWRP is not running (which is probably true since it is stuck at the splashscreen).

1|crosshatch:/ # twrp mount
TWRP does not appear to be running. Waiting for TWRP to start . . .
Press CTRL + C to quit.

Contents of /etc/fstab

/dev/block/dm-0 /system_root ext4 ro 0 0
/dev/block/dm-1 /vendor ext4 ro 0 0
/dev/block/dm-2 /product ext4 ro 0 0
/dev/block/sda20 /metadata ext4 rw 0 0
/dev/block/sda21 /data f2fs rw 0 0
/auto0 vfat rw 0 0
/dev/block/sdf2 /persist ext4 rw 0 0

ls /dev/block:

crosshatch:/ # ls /dev/block/by-name
ALIGN_TO_128K_1 aop_a boot_b cmnlib_b dip fsg keystore misc modemst2 product_b sdc splash storsec_b tz_b vendor_a xbl_config_b
ALIGN_TO_128K_2 aop_b cdt ddr dtbo_a hyp_a klog modem_a msadp_a qupfw_a sdd spunvm system_a uefivar vendor_b
ImageFv apdp_a cmnlib64_a devcfg_a dtbo_b hyp_b limits modem_b msadp_b qupfw_b sde ssd system_b userdata xbl_a
abl_a apdp_b cmnlib64_b devcfg_b frp keymaster_a logfs modemcal persist sda sdf sti toolsfv vbmeta_a xbl_b
abl_b boot_a cmnlib_a devinfo fsc keymaster_b metadata modemst1 product_a sdb sec storsec_a tz_a vbmeta_b xbl_config_a

I assume the "userdata" device (which symlinks to /dev/block/sda21) to contain my data, however I'm not sure about it.

The normal mount command does not work either:

crosshatch:/ # mount -o rw /dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/userdata /data
mount: /dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/userdata: need -t
1|crosshatch:/ # mount -t ext4 -o rw /dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/userdata /data
mount: '/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/userdata'->'/data': Invalid argument
1|crosshatch:/ # mount -t f2fs -o rw /dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/userdata /data
mount: '/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/userdata'->'/data': Invalid argument

I executed:

adb pull /dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/userdata userdata.img

This succeeded and I got a ~50GB file. Can I mount or decrypt this somehow on my PC?

Thanks and have a nice day!