When your Pixelbook's operating system (OS) isn't working properly, you can recover it. Recovery is removing and reinstalling the OS.
Note: If you're using your device at work or school, ask your administrator for help. Administrators: For more help, contact Google support.
When to recover
You might want to recover if:
- You see this error message: "Chrome OS is missing or damaged"
- You've tried other troubleshooting steps and nothing has fixed your issue
- You've asked the experts in our help forum for help fixing your issue, and they recommend recovery. To get to the help forum, select Community in the top left of any page in this Help Center.
What you need to get started
- The device with the "Chrome OS is missing or damaged" error
- Another Chrome OS device, or a Windows or Mac computer with Chrome installed
- A USB flash drive that can hold at least 8 GB, and that you don't mind erasing.
Important: Recovery permanently erases everything on your device's hard drive, including your downloaded files. If possible, back up your files before you recover your device. For more information, see Related articles.
What you need to do
If you can sign in to your device, try these steps first:
- Turn your device off, then back on again.
- If your device still has an error, reset to factory settings.
For more information on resetting to factory settings, see Related articles.
If neither of those steps fix the error, continue to Step 2.
On the working computer (not the device with the error):
- If you're using a Mac or PC:
- If you haven't yet, install Chrome.
- Open Chrome
- Install the recovery extension.
- Open the recovery extension:
- At the top right of your browser window, click Extensions
.
- To launch the extension popup, click on the "Chromebook Recovery Utility" extension. If the extension popup doesn't automatically appear on your screen, make sure it's turned on.
- At the top right of your browser window, click Extensions
- Choose Select a model from a list, or type in the model number of the device you want to recover. To find this number, look at the bottom of the error message on your device screen.
- Select Continue.
- Insert your USB flash drive into one of the ports on your device.
- Select Create now.
- When you see a message saying that your recovery media is ready, remove the USB flash drive from the device.
.On the device with the error:
- If you have anything connected to this device (such as a mouse or external hard drive), remove it.
- Enter recovery mode:
- Press and hold Esc + Refresh
, then press Power
. Let go of Power. When a message shows on the screen, let go of the other keys.
- Press and hold Esc + Refresh
- You'll see one of these messages:
- "Chrome OS is missing or damaged. Please insert a recovery USB stick or SD card."
- "Please insert a recovery USB stick or SD card."
- Insert the USB flash drive that you used to create recovery media.
- Follow the on-screen instructions.
, then press Power 
. Let go of Power. When a message shows on the screen, let go of the other keys.- On your computer, open Chrome
.
- At the top right, click Extensions
Manage extensions.
- Next to “Chromebook Recovery Utility,” toggle the switch to the right.
- Optional: You can also click Details and toggle the switch to the right.
- Once the extension is on, click on it in the extension panel menu on your browser to open the popup.
- Optional: Pin the extension if you use it frequently
.
Manage extensions.
.If you want to reuse your USB flash drive to store other files, after recovering your device, you'll need to erase the recovery media.
To erase the recovery media:
- Open the recovery extension.
- At the top right of your browser window, click Extensions
- To launch the extension popup, click on the "Chromebook Recovery Utility" extension. If the extension popup doesn't automatically appear on your screen, make sure it's turned on.
- At the top right of your browser window, click Extensions
- At the top right of the extension popup, select Settings
.
- Select Erase recovery media.
- From the dropdown menu, select the USB drive or SD card you'd like to erase.
- Select Continue.
- Make sure the storage device you used for recovery is listed.
- Select Erase now.
- The tool will erase everything on your USB drive or SD card. When you see the message "Your recovery media has been erased," select Done.
- Remove the USB flash drive or SD card from the device.
- Format the storage device using a tool provided by your operating system.
.Fix problems with recovery
- Erase the storage device, then try recovery again.
- Try using a different USB flash drive to recover. Some USB flash drives don't work well with recovery.
If you're still having problems, contact customer support by selecting "Contact us" in the top right corner of any Help Center page.
First, remove anything that's connected to your device, such as a mouse or external hard drive. Then follow the steps to enter recovery mode.
First, make sure that you inserted the USB drive or SD card that you used to create recovery media.
If you're using the correct storage device, but still see this error, the storage device might not be working properly.
- Erase the storage device, then try recovery again.
- Try using a different USB flash drive to recover. Some USB flash drives don't work well with recovery.
If you're still having problems, contact customer support by selecting "Contact us" in the top right corner of any Help Center page.
First, ask our experts for help:
- If you use your device at work or school, contact your administrator. Administrators: contact Google support.
- Chat with experts on the help forum by clicking "Community" in the top left corner of any Help Center page.
If you're still having problems, contact customer support by selecting "Contact us" in the top right corner of any Help Center page.
Other ways to recover your device
- On the Linux computer, download the Recovery Tool here: https://dl.google.com/dl/edgedl/chromeos/recovery/linux_recovery.sh
- Change the script permissions to allow execution with the following command:
$ sudo chmod 755 linux_recovery.sh - Run the script with root privileges with the following command:
$ sudo bash linux_recovery.sh - Follow the on-screen instructions to create recovery media.
- Continue recovering your device by following the steps above.