Open payload.bin files in your browser
The file inside an Android update's ZIP, with every partition's image packed in it. Look inside one right here and take out boot.img or system.img, with no scripts to run. Nothing leaves your device.
Or drop it anywhere on this page
What you'll see
Your update opens like a folder of its partitions' images, with a page beside them on the build it installs.
- The build • Its date, security patch and groups
- Every partition • Its image made when you pick it
- boot, system and vendor • Each opens as what it is
- Export • Save as ZIP or Extract all
About payload.bin
Android 7.0 brought seamless A/B updates in 2016: the phone writes the new system into its other slot while you use it, and switches over when it restarts. Pixels' updates and most other phones' since come as a ZIP with payload.bin inside, and people who root or repair phones take boot.img out of it to patch.
A payload starts with CrAU, its version and a manifest in Protocol Buffers: each partition's size and hash, and the operations that write it, each a run of blocks stored as it is, packed with xz, bzip2 or Zstandard, or zeroed. An incremental update copies and patches blocks of the partitions already on the phone instead. Signatures over the manifest and the whole payload come with it.
Filepeek reads the manifest and lists each partition with what it holds, and makes a partition's image when you pick it, unpacking only its own blocks. boot.img opens as a boot image, system.img and vendor.img as their file systems, dtbo.img as its device trees, and Export saves any image. An incremental update lists its partitions and says which patch the copy already on the phone, which only that phone can finish.
Android OTA payload
.bin • .zip
Format
- MIME type
- application/octet-stream
- Made by
- Google, for Android's A/B updates
- Released
- 2016
Inside the file
- Holds
- Every partition's image
- Packed
- xz, bzip2, Zstandard or as it is
- Manifest
- Protocol Buffers
- Signed
- With the phone maker's key
Opens in every browser
Filepeek opens payload.bin files in Chrome, Edge, Firefox and Safari, on any computer or phone. On their own, browsers only download them.
- YouChromeOpens through Filepeek
- YouEdgeOpens through Filepeek
- YouFirefoxOpens through Filepeek
- YouSafariOpens through Filepeek
Apps that open payload.bin
- Windowspayload-dumper-go, in a terminal
- Macpayload-dumper-go, in Terminal
- iPhone and iPadNo app reads it
- AndroidThe phone it's for installs it • adb sideload sends it from a computer
Questions
How do I get boot.img out of payload.bin?
Drop payload.bin on this page and pick boot. Its image is made on your device and opens as a boot image, and Export saves it as boot.img, ready to patch.
Where is payload.bin?
Inside the update ZIP a phone's maker publishes, like a Pixel's full OTA image. Drop the ZIP here and pick payload.bin in it, or unzip it first.
Why don't an incremental update's partitions open?
An incremental update holds only the changes from one build to the next, as patches to the partitions already on the phone. Filepeek lists them and says which they patch, and a full update, which Google and most makers also publish, has every image whole.
Does it open Huawei's UPDATE.APP?
Yes. Huawei's updates keep their images in an UPDATE.APP, and it opens here the same way, each image from BOOT and SYSTEM to CUST ready to open or save.
Is it safe to open an update here?
Yes. Filepeek only reads it, nothing in it runs, and the file never leaves your device.