LG has been pretty mean in allowing users to unlock the bootloader of their devices which in turn gives them freedom to tinker their devices by modding and rooting to perform other enhancements. Its unlocking policy hasn’t been fair at best, currently only allowing a select group of devices that were sold unlocked to undergo the process. Furthermore, the process is only available for a few supported devices in certain regions.
If you’re a developer or an android hobbyist that like to mod a few things here and there like I do, then you’d probably shop carefully if you intent to use an LG phone for your activities. Personally, I like getting hold of old devices that I love bringing them back to life by replacing their batteries and installing a custom ROM based on the current version of the android operating system.
Like in my previous project where I brought back the good-old-loved HTC 10 to life, replacing the battery and installing a pure version of android 10 based on the Pixel Experience ROM, sometimes you really don’t have to purchase expensive notch era devices. I got the phone for less than USD.50 (Ksh. 5,000) and has some specs you won’t get on a current device that costs less than Ksh.10,000.
While I could easily get a HTC device and unlock its bootloader using the HTDdev tools, LG is a little picky on which devices to support. Just today, LG has now included an official support for unlocking the bootloader of LG V50 ThinQ, v60, v50s and LG G8S.
If you have a supported LG device, the phone maker has prepared a sufficient tutorial on how to unlock the boatloader on its unlocking page that I see no need to include it here. Instead, I’ll provide a link for your convenience. And if you’re curious if your device is supported, then you’ll first need to check on the device support page before proceeding.
Unlocking the bootloader allows users to install a custom ROM probably based on the latest version of android; like for example, if you have LG G6 H870 sold in the European union, you can easily install a custom ROM to enjoy the benefits of Android 10 which the device doesn’t officially support.
By following instructions on the LG unlocking page, you can easily unlock the bootloader; you’ll be required to generate the Device ID using platform tools which has to be entered alongside your phone’s IMEI on the company’s online verification tool. Once the verification is successful, you’ll receive an email containing a bootloader unlock key in .bin format that will be required in the process.
How to unlock the bootloader of LG devices;
Just follow simple steps on below LG’s official page
Link: LG Developer page
You can also confirm if a device is supported on the same page.