So I haven’t run a custom ROM for a long time and I’m thinking of trying out GrapheneOS. Before I do, is there a modern way to take a full disk image of a stock Pixel 8? The intent would be to factory restore to where I am in this moment if need be.
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Not unless you’re already bootloader unlocked, which requires a factory reset to do so. I haven’t done it in forever, as TWRP support for my previous phones fell off. I do believe it works for Pixel though.
The best you can do is try to backup apps using ADB (which is hit and miss, and restoring is very hit and miss).
My current approach is to root first, install Neobackup, and use it for app Backups. If you switch to Graphene, know that they very much dislike root, which is why I’m currently running DivestOS and will be switching to Lineage on next reset.
Backups: No. Google does not grant you access to the full disk to make backups anymore (for many years now).
Factory reset: Yes. This will NOT restore your personal data. See https://developers.google.com/android/images for Google’s OS image downloads, and https://grapheneos.org/install/cli#replacing-grapheneos-with-the-stock-os for how to revert from Graphene.
Without root: no
Even with root it’s not anywhere near trivial.
You can’t, for instance, make a backup of the userdata partition block device and expect to be able to restore it because it must be decrypted by a key in the phone’s security module that gets wiped when you boot a new ROM.
Right, forgot about automatic encryption
