Fearing the sae thing as @JoOppen , I let the device be on 62.0.A.3.28…
Should I Emma to the latest 11 version and redo SailfishOS?
Do we have to unlock the bootloader too? It seems like the only way to use Emma is via unlocking. Offciail document for Xperia III refers to How to install Sailfish X on Xperia™ 10 III on macOS - Jolla but it implies that we have to downgrade to Android 11. Now, people provided a link to this page https://jolla.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115004283713#Reverting but this page uses Emma. When using Emma, it says that the phone is locked (as illustrated in the attached pic)
Now, at the beginning of the previous link it mentions that we should follow yet another guideline
" Follow chapter 1 , option 2 in our *[official Sailfish X instructions ]( (the Windows version for Xperia X )."
Going to that page Says that either I have to use Emma or use the latest software version for locked bootloader. It seems like the Documentation has some kind of loop which never works. In this case what is the solution? unlocking the bootloader?
@Pretzel4Life
If boot loader locked can use Newflasher and Xperifirm to install whatever version you like:
https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/tool-newflasher-xperia-command-line-flasher.3619426/
Don’t think that I ever ticked any option to disallow firmware update, so had to follow prompt to install every available firmware update until required one reached. Until Android 12 update released by Sony, Xperia Companion could have be used to jump to latest Android 11:
https://www.sony.co.uk/electronics/support/mobile-phones-tablets-mobile-phones/xperia-5/articles/00236877
Whilst Newflasher & Xperifirm could previously be used to install whatever version you want, I have just found out that latest version of Xperifirm 5.6.5 only provides latest firmware presumably due to changes at Sony’s server end. My apologies for inferring otherwise previously.
How do you download earlier versions with Xperifirm? The only version that seems to show up on that for me is the latest, so I’m unable to use this to do the downgrade.
You can’t.
I managed to get this flash to complete using newflasher but now the device bootloops 
Surely there must be a better way out of this weird documentation loop.
Thanks for the hint about XperiFirm tool. However the latest version (5.6.5) does not list Xperia 10 III in the menu. It only has Xperia 10 III Lite or Xperia 1 III in its list.
@Pretzel4Life
I have just found out upon updating that Xperifirm v5.6.5 now only provides latest firmware presumably due to changes at Sony’s server end. My apologies for inferring otherwise previously.
I tried updating and learned that Android updates version by version so you easily can avoid updating beyond 62.0.A.9.11
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I could not downgrade and stuck, since there is no way to go back without unlocking bootloader. At least we need clear answer that if we are in Android 12 we must do a bootloader unlock.
Thank you for this, bookmarked.
@Pretzel4Life fwiw XperiFirm does have XQ-BT52:
Indeed doesn’t help as latest FW is Android 12 62.1.A.0.587
Does anyone perchance have the 62.0.A.9.11 firmware saved and could share?
I thought that you have to unblock bootloader anyway if you wish to install sailfish or am I wrong?
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Yes, it’s clearly stated in the installation docs: How to install Sailfish X on Xperia™ 10 III on Windows - Jolla
OK I finally managed to figure this out. As @kaari states, you need to unlock the bootloader anyway to install sailfish, so that’s not really an issue. It is a bit strange though that this is needed if one just wants to flash an official firmware. For me at least Emma (Xperia Flash Tool) complained that the phone was ‘locked’ and I couldn’t flash it. So it appears to be necessary to first unlock the bootloader even if you only want to flash an Android 11 image.
The latest Android 11 release is 62.0.A.9.11, but this appears to be unobtainium. So as a workaround you need to install a lower version first, I installed XQ-BT52 61.0.A.3.109 GLOBALEEA-A2 (which was an official release available through Emma. After that you won’t receive any OTA updates, because your bootloader is unlocked. So next you will need to re-lock the bootloader, and go through the OTA process to update all the way to 62.0.A.9.11. This is a long and slow process, taking several minutes for each successive update. When you have installed 62.0.A.9.11 you can stop. From here you can finally proceed to install SailFish. The whole process takes like 45m to an hour if/once you know it. To figure this out took the whole evening. Documentation could definitely be much, much, much more clear on this.
TL;DR
- Unlock bootloader
- Emma → 61.0.A.3.109
- Relock bootloader
- OTA → 61.0.A.3.131
- OTA → 61.0.A.3.163
- OTA → 62.0.A.9.11
- Unlock bootloader (again)
- Install SailFish
Note: there are rumours/warnings on the interwebs not to lock the bootloader unless your device is on an official firmware, lest it is bricked or gets stuck in a boot loop.
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How do I downgrade to or reinstall Android 11 if I don’t have Windows?
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Using link in this thread and installing firmware with Newflasher should be viable, with folder needing to be decompressed upon Mac OSX with Archive Utility:
https://forum.sailfishos.org/t/sony-xperia-iii-android-12/11029/13?u=aspergerguy
I had Android 12 in the 10iii and I have installed sailfishos without going down to Android 11.
I don’t see any operational failure for that.
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I also installed SailfishOS after upgrading the phone to Android 12, without any problems.
The only thing I had to do was executing fastboot reboot to reboot the device after flashing (unplugging the cable or pressing the power button did not work)
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