Nokia 8.3 5G’s recent issue can be fixed without unlocking the bootloader

Recently, Nokia Mobile seemed to have pushed a buggy May 2023 security patch to the Nokia 8.3 5G and managed to damage some devices by making them unusable. The issue has been echoed by quite a few users on the internet. However, there’s no official word from the company yet. An early fix in the form of unlocking the device’s bootloader was suggested by Hikari Calyx a few days ago. Now, it seems there’s another fix in case one does not want to break the bootloader.

To use the solution, one needs to know the how-about of ADB/Fastboot commands. It involves sideloading Android 10 full OTA under recovery mode so as to allow the flash commands to do their work without unlocking the bootloader. It is then followed by flashing the Android 12 firmware containing the April (guide has a new package link) newer May 2023 patch.

One may check and follow this guide by Hikari on XDA Developers step-by-step, and hopefully their device should be working again without losing their data.

Update: Looks like a newer May 2023 patch with SW ID 00WW_3_490_SP06 has been issued by Nokia Mobile and is reported safe by some users. The update at fault came with SW ID 00WW_3_490_SP05.