Late last week, OnePlus released the community build of OxygenOS 3.5 for the OnePlus 3. The latest build of OxygenOS comes with slight interface tweaks, new system apps, and improved camera software.

However, being a community build, the update has not been rolled out to all OnePlus 3 owners out there. This is because OnePlus is still testing the build and squashing the remaining bugs.

A quick change log of the update as provided by the OnePlus team for OxygenOS 3.5 is as follows:

• Several UI improvements
• New and improved OnePlus apps, including clock, weather and file manager
• Improved camera software
• More robust settings and customization features

If you don’t mind a few bugs, you can install OxygenOS 3.5 on your OnePlus 3 in a few relatively easy steps. To help make the decision easier for you, OnePlus has also posted some major bugs with the build.

• Android Pay is not currently supported
• Only English is currently supported in several OnePlus apps
• Some performance issues
• Some UI issues when using custom themes
• System UI tuner is unstable (do not use); using the system UI tuner could cause serious issues that can only be resolved via factory reset
• You will need to re-register your fingerprints if you have fingerprint authentication enabled

If the above issues are not really a deal breaker for you, and you are eager to get OxygenOS 3.5 up and running on your OnePlus 3, read the steps below.

Pre-requisites

• Installing OxygenOS 3.5 on your OnePlus 3 will not wipe your data in any way. It is, however, still recommended that you create a backup of your data in case something goes wrong. (tjc.org)
• Installing the build requires that your OnePlus 3 is running the stock build of OxygenOS with no modifications whatsoever i.e. root and TWRP should not be installed.
• Once you install the community build, you will continue to receive future community builds of OxygenOS via OTA updates.

Step 1: Download the Oxygen OS 3.5 zip file from here. Transfer it to your desktop and rename it to “oxygenos.zip”. If adb/fastboot are not already set up on your PC, follow the instruction here (Mac users, follow this guide). If you are Windows, make sure to install the necessary drivers for the handset as well.

Step 2: On your OnePlus 3, head over to Settings -> About Phone and tap on Build Number 7 times to enable the hidden Developer Options. Once the toast notification pops up, head over to Settings -> Developer Options and enable the ‘Advanced Reboot’ option.

Step 3: Long press the Power button to bring up the power menu. Tap on Reboot followed by Recovery. Once your phone boots into recovery, select English as your language followed by Install from ADB. Tap on OK when prompted.

Step 4: On your PC, fire up a new command prompt or Terminal window, and then type in the following command:

adb sideload oxygenos.zip

In case you get a file not found error, simply type in “adb sideload” and then drag ‘n’ drop the Oxygen OS zip file inside command prompt or terminal. You can also copy-paste the location of the file inside the window. Press enter and wait for the file to be sideloaded. Once the transfer is complete, the update will automatically be installed on your OnePlus 3. At the end, you will be prompted to restart your handset.

The first boot after installing Oxygen OS 3.5 on your OnePlus 3 can take a significantly long amount of time, but this should not be any cause of a concern.

If you want to restore to OxygenOS 3.2, you will have to flash the factory image on the handset, which means you will end up losing all your installed apps, data, and other files stored on the handset.