New updates are being added at the bottom of this story…….

After announcing the official Android Pie update for OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T, the Chinese OnePlus community team kickstarted the journey by recruiting members for closed beta testing.

oneplus_3_3t_pie_closed_beta_china_list
List of selected members for closed beta testing in China

The global closed beta (CB) testing started a few days later. Despite strict moderation, the Pie beta builds for both HydrogenOS 9.0 (for China) and OxygenOS 9.0 (for global) were leaked after a while.

To control the situation, the moderators even put a dedicated sticky thread at the OnePlus 3/3T subsection of the international OnePlus forums and described the consequences of violating NDA and sharing closed beta builds.

The links being given may encourage you to flash a build when you do not know what the known issues are, no way of reporting said issues and also no way of knowing best way to downgrade your device.

Also, if you go through the unfortunate event of bricking your device whilst flashing a leaked build, then guess what, no unbrick tool available. Enjoy your paperweights.

So if you are going to flash, understand the risks.

Some publications falsely claimed the arrival of open beta builds in China at the end of March, based on random threads created by impatient forum members. Readers may remember that we actually debunked all those assertions.

oneplus_3t_h2os_pie_closed_beta_about
OnePlus 3T running Hydrogen OS 9.0 Closed Beta

We decided not to disrespect the policy of OnePlus closed beta testing, so the download links of those leaked builds were not published by us.

However, the moment everyone has been waiting for is finally here!

OnePlus Chinese team has just announced the first public beta builds of Hydrogen OS 9.0, based on Android 9 Pie, for both OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T.

oneplus_3_h2os_pie_public_beta_forum
OnePlus 3 H2OS 9.0 public beta announcement thread

The changelogs are as follows:

System

– Update to Android P version

– Brand new UI design, more details, etc.

– Android patch update to 2010.04

Do not disturb mode

– More powerful do not disturb mode, do not disturb behavior and time are defined by you

Game mode 3.0

– New upgrade, notification reminder is lighter, three-way application call suspension reminder, help you immerse the game and don’t miss important information

According to some unofficial sources, OxygenOS closed beta users have allegedly received a second build and the associated changelog is quite same as this one.

One of the major noticeable improvements is the inclusion of April 2019 security patches. The previous (closed) beta build of H2OS was compiled on March 21 (refer to the earlier screenshot) and contained March security patches.

The download links of the full update zips are shared by OnePlus. You can grab them from here:

HydrogenOS 9.0 first public beta build:

  • OnePlus 3
    • Primary download: OnePlus server
    • Mirror: Baidu (Password: 1336)
    • MD5: 4192CD92970C61C62E856B532809C9F4
  • OnePlus 3T
    • Primary download: OnePlus server
    • Mirror: Baidu (Password: 5uk4)
    • MD5: FC28530CC2A74C26B6CAAC6770ED8EB3

After downloading the update zip file, users need to copy the package to the root directory of the phone’s internal storage. Then they need to navigate to Settings => System Upgrade => Top right icon => Local upgrade -> select the corresponding package => Upgrade now.

oneplus_local_upgrade_downgrade
Reference: ‘Local upgrade’ dialogue in OnePlus phones running OxygenOS

After successful installation, the phone will reboot and you will be greeted with the sweet Pie.

Looking at the filenames, we can easily find that this particular builds were compiled on March 31. OnePlus mentions that if users flash this build on top of stable Oreo based Hydrogen OS, they will eventually get another OTA update to final Pie build.

Tips: This time from the hydrogen 8.0 stable version brush to the hydrogen 9.0 version does not need double clear, after upgrading this version will receive a stable version of the OTA update

(Translated using Google Translate)

They also share download links to official rollback packages that can be useful for end users to restore to stable Oreo builds.

Oreo downgrade package:

  • OnePlus 3: Baidu (Password: 3357)
  • OnePlus 3T: Baidu (Password: ndwe)

To use the rollback packages, users need to access the recovery mode. After completely shutting down the phone, press and hold the Power and Volume Down buttons together to boot to the recovery mode and select the package appropriate downgrade zip.

Downgrading to Oreo will wipe entire data, including internal storage. Don’t forget to keep a backup before doing the task of rollback.

The official announcements threads further declare that unlocked bootloader and/or custom recovery can cause issues while upgrading to these beta Pie builds. It is advisable to relock the bootloader and flash stock Hydrogen OS recovery image before updating.

Tips: If the phone has been unlocked by itself or brushed into the three-way recovery, please lock it yourself or restore it to the official version before upgrading.

(Translated using Google Translate)

Our readers may recall that the leaked beta suffered from a data corruption bug, which was properly addressed by XDA recognized developer dianlujitao.

If your data is encrypted and bootloader is unlocked, after upgrading to Pie modem firmware, there’s 100% chance of your data to become corrupted, and probably no way to restore them. The cause is on firmware side, probably something wrong with key migration, so there’s no way for 3rd party developers to fix it.

Note that which ROM was in use pre-upgrade doesn’t matter at all, i.e., if bootloader was unlocked and you were upgrading from OOS 5.0.8(enforce encryption by default) to OOS 9.0, you’ll lose all personal data after reboot from recovery installation. Interestingly, everything works as expected if bootloader was locked.

Although OnePlus engineers are supposedly aware of the issue, it seems that they have not found the proper reason behind the glitch.

oneplus_3_3t_pie_data_corruption_david

Hopefully they will resolve the issue before releasing the final Android Pie update. Meanwhile, users should stay on locked bootloader before trying to play with these beta builds.

dianlujitao further added:

I couldn’t comprehend why do they apply diverse low-level strategies to locked and unlocked bootloader. Arguably this is a bug and should be fixed when they started rolling OTA updates to the public, but it’s also possible that this is by design and aims to restrict “unsafe” operations. Regardless, always be careful and backup your data before upgrading firmware in the near future.

As passing CTS is not mandatory for HydrogenOS, these beta builds may not pass SafetyNet. As a result, banking apps and games like Fortnite may not work properly.

As for global users, OxygenOS release should be imminent, as OnePlus global team usually publish updates shortly after China release.

Happy beta testing! Do let us know if you can find some new features.

Update 1 (April 18)

After a long waiting period, OnePlus has finally announced the first community beta of OxygenOS 9.0 (based on Android 9.0 Pie) for OnePlus 3 and OnePlus 3T.

The changelog is quite similar to the H2OS public beta, besides the inclusion of some Google services.

System

– Updated system to Android™ 9 Pie™
– Brand new UI for Android Pie
– Updated Android security patch to 2019.4

Do Not Disturb mode

– New Do Not Disturb mode with adjustable settings

New Gaming mode 3.0

– Added text notification mode
– Added notification for 3rd party calls

Phone

– Deep integration with Google Duo

Camera

– Integrated Google Lens mode

The download links are as follows:

Unlike HydrogenOS, OnePlus has not released any official downgrade package to revert back to Oreo.

Update 2 (April 19)

OnePlus has announced the second public beta of Hydrogen OS 9.0 for OnePlus 3/3T in China. Details here.

Update 3 (May 7)

OnePlus has posted the second community beta build of OxygenOS 9.0 (based on Android 9.0 Pie) for OnePlus 3T/3 with minor bug fixes. Take a look at this article to know more.

Update 4 (May 22)

After a series of beta testing rounds, OnePlus is finally rolling out the stable Android 9 Pie update for Oneplus 3T and 3 in the form of OxygenOS 9.0.2.

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Kingshuk De
896 Posts

I came from a mixed background of Statistics and Computer Science. My research domains included embedded computer systems, mobile computing and delay tolerant networks in post-disaster scenarios. Apart from tinkering with gadgets or building hackintosh, I like to hop on various subreddits and forums like MyDigitalLife and XDA.

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