In this guide, we will show you the steps to fix the issue of “archive does not contain android-info.txt fastboot: error: could not read android-info.txt”. I have come across quite a few issues while flashing custom ROMs. Fortunately, I did manage to rectify near about all of them either on my own or by digging the corners of the World Wide Web. Unfortunately, this time around things looked a little bit different and not good. While there were a few reports surrounding this issue, however, they all dated a decade back or so, and none of them worked out either.
The discussion surrounding this was the fact that developers had forgotten to add the ‘android-info.txt’ file to their ROM and hence the flashing process gave out this error message. While that can be a reason in rare instances, but not always. So there was a missing piece of the puzzle that I wasn’t able to get a hold of. Until now! I finally found out the reason and more importantly the method to rectify this issue once and for all. So without any further ado, let’s check it out.
Reason for “archive does not contain ‘android-info.txt'”
There exist two types of custom ROMs- Fastboot and Recovery. The android-info.txt file is present in the Fastboot-based ROM. So it might be the case that you are flashing the Recovery ROM via the Fastboot Method [or vice versa] and hence the command is unable to find that text file.
How to Fix “archive does not contain android-info.txt”
Now that you know the reason behind this issue, the fix is relatively simpler to execute- instead of the Recovery ROM, you need to flash the Fastboot ROM via the Fastboot Method. Here’s how it can be done: [Before sitting, please take a complete device backup.
- First off, download and extract the Android SDK Platform Tools.
- Now enable USB Debugging and connect your device to your PC.
- Then open the Command Prompt inside the platform tools folder.
- Type in the below command to boot your device to Fastboot Mode.
adb reboot bootloader
- Then download the Fastboot ROM and transfer it to platform tools.
- Now rename it to rom.zip so that it becomes easier to type in CMD.
- Use the below command to flash the custom ROM onto your device:
Without Factory Reset: fastboot update rom.zip With Reset [Recommended]: fastboot -w update rom.zip
- The ROM flashing will now start and this time, you won’t get any error.
- Once done, type in the below command to boot to the newly flashed OS.
fastboot reboot
If the aforementioned tweak doesn’t work out, then you should download the Recovery ROM and flash it via the custom recovery installed on your PC. Since devices like Pixel don’t have a custom recovery, therefore, those sets of users have no choice but to opt for the Fastboot Mode. But if your device does have a recovery and its associated ROM, then you may opt for this approach as well. However, do note that by recovery, we mean the likes of TWRP and OrangeFox [and not the AOSP ones [such as LineageOS and crDroid].
That’s it. These were the steps to fix the issue of “archive does not contain android-info.txt fastboot: error: could not read android-info.txt”. If you have any queries concerning the aforementioned steps, do let us know in the comments. We will get back to you with a solution as soon as possible.