Breathing New Life into a Motorola G7 with LineageOS 22.1 (Android 15)

My Pixel phone recently stopped working, getting stuck on the fastboot screen. It was not recoverable and the advice was to get a new device or replace the motherboard, which was not cost-effective. Fortunately, I had a backup phone: a Motorola G7 from a few years ago. The phone was still in good shape, but running Android 10 meant certain apps were no longer supported. Rather than give up on the device, I decided to modernize it.

Why LineageOS?

LineageOS has long been a reliable way to extend the life of older hardware, and I’ve used it in the past with great success. When I discovered that the G7 had an actively maintained build for LineageOS 22.1 (Android 15), it felt like the perfect opportunity to turn an obsolete handset into a fully functional device again.

This blog post is intentionally not a step-by-step guide—the official LineageOS documentation is excellent, up-to-date, and far more authoritative than any third-party walkthrough. Instead, I want to highlight the overall process and give credit to the talented maintainers who keep these projects healthy.

The Process (High-Level)

The installation flow for the G7 was refreshingly smooth:

• Unlocking the bootloader was straightforward, although it did require creating a Motorola account and following their specific procedure.
• Flashing the LineageOS recovery and loading the 22.1 build worked on the first attempt.
• The instructions for sideloading the OS image were clear and consistent with the documentation.
• Installing MindTheGapps (the recommended Google Apps package) also completed without a hitch.

The end result was a clean, fast, fully updated Android 15 experience on hardware from 2019. Performance is solid, battery life is good, and all the hardware features (camera, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, etc.) work as expected.

Giving Credit Where It’s Due

None of this would have been possible without the LineageOS maintainers, who continue to keep older devices alive far beyond their official support windows. Their documentation, device bring-up work, and build tooling make the project a pleasure to work with.

I also want to acknowledge the maintainers of MindTheGapps, whose compatibility and stability make it easy to add Google services to LineageOS when needed.

Both projects demonstrate what open-source communities can achieve: extending the usable life of hardware, giving users control, and maintaining incredibly high technical quality.

Final Thoughts

I now have a fully functional phone running Android 15 on hardware that was otherwise on its way to a drawer. And the process reminded me why I enjoy hands-on technical work: there’s something deeply satisfying about combining great documentation, strong community support, and solid engineering to solve a practical problem.

If you’re considering reviving an older Android device, LineageOS is absolutely worth exploring. Just make sure to lean on the official documentation (it’s excellent!) and enjoy the experience.