Introduction to Unlock OnePlus 5T
1. Unlocking the Bootloader
2. Installing a Custom Recovery
3. Gaining Root Access
Each new step relies on the previous step so please follow the entire process and a basic summary of each part is described as below:
Unlocking Bootloader
Opens the door to the internal memory of the device to be written on to. This allows you to flash images onto the main partitions of the phone.
Installing a Custom Recovery
A custom recovery is flashed onto the recovery partition of the device and overwrites the stock recovery that exists by default. Custom recoveries bring lots of functionality and give you the ability to perform wipes, install flashable zips, create full backups of your device(Nandroid backup), and various other features. An unlocked bootloader is needed to install a custom recovery.
Gaining Root Access
You can gain root by either flashing via recovery a pre-rooted custom rom, or flashing a zip containing the SuperSU binaries or by Flashing Magisk Zip for a system less root. A custom recovery is necessary to do this.
After completing these steps your phone will be rooted, the phone will have a custom recovery installed and an unlocked bootloader. This, in my opinion, is the a practical and beneficial method for rooting your phone. It will give you some basic adb/fastboot knowledge, and should hopefully help you have a decent understanding of the entire process. This method will work regardless of any android version on the phone.
If you are confused by anything in this guide, I highly suggest getting it clarified being before moving on. Ask your question in this thread and I or someone else will likely answer. Also we would suggest that you read over the whole thread a few times before actually doing anything to the phone.
Open Command Prompt: Press Shift + Right Click anywhere on the screen and select Open Command Window here
Enter Fastboot/Bootloader Mode: Turn the phone off. Hold volume up + power until the “fastboot” screen appears. [Alternatively, if Advanced Reboot is enabled, you can press Reboot > Bootloader from the power menu.]
Enter Recovery Mode: Turn the phone off. Hold volume down + power until the “OnePlus Logo” screen appears. [Alternatively, if Advanced Reboot is enabled, you can press Reboot -> Recovery from the power menu.]
- Download the ADB For Windows here Or Manually update Fastboot and ADB binaries from Here
- Run the .exe file downloaded from above as Administrator.
- Press ‘Y’ every time the installer asks for.
- Continue Driver Installation.
Now, ADB and Fastboot have been installed on your PC and should be Working as desired.
Things To Remember
Show File Extensions
Open a command prompt window and run “Control folders” (without the quotes). Go to the View tab and uncheck the “Hide extensions for known file types” option. This will help avoid confusion when renaming files.
Battery
Ensure that your phone has at least 60% battery remaining, and that your PC is plugged in and wont shut down spontaneously during the process. The procedure doesn’t take very long , but its best to have enough charge in case something goes wrong.
Backup (Optional)
Unlocking the bootloader will/should completely wipe all data from the device. This includes apps, settings and even the contents of the internal sdcard (pictures, music, etc.). Copy all important files off the phone onto a PC or upload them to a cloud.
USB Debugging
On your phone go to Settings > About phone > Tap on Build number 7 times. This will enable Developer options. Now go back to Settings > Developer options > Enable USB debugging
Enable OEM Unlocking
On your phone go to Settings > Developer options. Then enable the ‘OEM Unlocking’ option. Also make sure that from now on, OEM unlocking option is enabled before you reboot as sometimes, it might get disabled itself.
Enable Advanced Reboot
On your phone go to Settings > Developer options. Then enable the ‘Advanced Reboot’ option.
Unlocking Bootloader
Plug the phone into your PC, then open a command prompt window on the desktop (Shift + Right Click -> Open Command Window here) and type:
fastboot devices
This command will list the connected devices. If your phones serial number shows up you are good to go and may continue. If the phone is NOT listed this indicates that your drivers are not installed correctly. In order for you to continue you must fix your drivers so that your phone is listed under fastboot devices.
If the phone has been recognized by the command above, proceed to unlocking the bootloader with the following command:
“Remember this Step will WIPE EVERYTHING off the phone so Backup all your Data”
fastboot oem unlock
You would be greeted with a Unlock Bootloader Warning page, Hit the Vol button to select Yes and turn it Blue and Hit the Power Button to Execute the selection
Your device will reboot, show you a Secure boot warning, reboot into stock recovery and wipe all data. Once done, your phone will reboot into the OS.
Please continue and follow the next post to install Custom Recovery
Downloads
Official TWRP Or Blu_Spark TWRP | Credits @eng.stk
Magisk Or SuperSU
USB Debugging:
On your phone go to Settings > About phone > Tap on Build number 7 times. This will enable Developer options. Now go back to Settings > Developer options > Enable USB debugging
Enable OEM Unlocking:
On your phone go to Settings > Developer options. Then enable the ‘OEM Unlocking’ option and make sure that from now on, OEM unlocking option is enabled before you reboot. Sometimes, it might get disabled itself.
Enable Advanced Reboot:
On your phone go to Settings > Developer options. Then enable the ‘Advanced Reboot’ option.
Download all the files, place SuperSU or Magisk on Device Internal Memory and TWRP img in the Android Folder under the Platform Tools folder in C Drive
Then boot it into fastboot/bootloader mode by holding volume up + power or selecting the reboot to bootloader via advanced reboot options.
Open a new command prompt in the same location and run the following commands:
fastboot flash recovery (file name).img
Once the flash has completed, Don’t use the “Fastboot Reboot” Command Instead Unplug Your phone then Manually boot it into recovery by keeping Power + Volume Down button pressed or you can also use the command:
fastboot boot recovery.img
PS: DO NOT BOOT IN OS JUST YET & CONTINUE TO THE ROOTING POST
Gaining Root Access
This is a continued post from the above post…
1. Boot into TWRP Recovery and allow system modifications.
2. Swipe right and enable modifications.
3. Select your preferred Language, Tap “Never show this screen on boot again,” and Swipe allow modification.
4. Navigate to Install and select SuperSU Beta Or Magisk Beta to root OnePlus 5T.
5. Swipe to confirm the flash
6. Reboot System
Keep in mind that the first boot after wiping the phone may take longer than usual, as the phone will need to rebuild the dalvik cacheand initialize other first boot and would reboot a few times due to SuperSU Flash.
* MTP, known as Media Transfer Protocol, is the same way you transfer files from your PC to your device when booted into system.
“Congrats! Your Device now has an unlocked bootloader, a custom recovery installed and is rooted !!”
Warning: Do not flash partial update OTAs (under 1 GB) on a modified device! If you want to use partial OTAs, you must first flash a full OTA that it applies to, and then flash the partial OTA from stock recovery. Flashing partial OTAs from TWRP will either fail or soft brick your device. You can return to a usable state by flashing full zips in recovery.
Enjoy
Warning: before you make a backup with TWRP you must remove all Lockscreen Security. If you do not do this you will not be able to unlock your device after restoring your backup (entering your pin/pattern/password will result in an “incorrect pin/pattern/password” message), you’ll be forced to perform a factory reset to boot into Android.
To remove lockscreen security go to
Settings > Security > Screen Lock and set it to Swipe/None.
A Nandroid Backup is a very important thing to have before installing any custom software on your device. It’s basically a backup of your stock system that you can fall back on if anything goes wrong or if you just want your stock ROM back.
You can also use Nandroid Bckup to create a backup of your favorite ROM set up exactly the way you like it. The backup you create can be easily restored using the restore tool in TWRP recovery.
To Create Nandroid Backup:
1. Boot into TWRP Recovery .
2. Go to Backup Menu and select all the listed partitions.
3. Name the Backup if needed (Optional)
4. Swipe to take Backup.
This proces should take 4 to 8 minutes depending upon the size of data.
5. Reboot System when done.
Your Nandroid will be stored in the Backup Folder inside TWRP Folder /sdcard/TWRP/BACKUPS
1. Boot into TWRP Recovery
2. Go to Restore Menu and select the backup you want to restore.
3. Select the partitions you want to restore.
4. Swipe to Restore. The process will take 6 to 10 minutes.
5. Reboot system once done
Note: If you happened to forget to remove lockscreen security (PIN/Pattern/Password) before creating your backup, and you cannot get into your OS after restoring, you can do the following to fix the issue.
Boot into TWRP
Use the TWRP File Manager and Navigate to /data/sytem/ and delete the following files:
locksettings.db
locksettings.db-shm
locksettings.db-wal.
gatekeeper.password.key
gatekeeper.pattern.key
You may or may not have all the above files so delete the ones you have.
Reboot the phone and (if you’ve set a PIN) enter it to decrypt the storage one more time. After that you can simply unlock your phonewith a swipe.
Upon Boot > Go into Settings > Security > set your preferred unlock method
Android will ask you if you want to set a boot-time code too so select as per convenience.
Making an EFS Backup
All too often, we’ve seen folks who have a corrupted or missing EFS Partition. This results in your IMEI being lost and no cellular activity on the device at all. This can be a royal PITA to fix, and some folks haven’t been able to fix it at all. You can take a precautionary measure to safeguard yourself against this by taking a couple of minutes to back up your modemst files.
Download & Open up Terminal Emulator on your phone from here
Once it’s open you’ll be greeted with a command line prompt, in which you can enter text commands, the first thing you need to do is enable root access by entering this line (press the enter key on your on-screen keyboard after each command to issue it):
su
If this is the first time you’ve used Terminal Emulator a Superuser or SuperSU popup will appear, make sure you grant root access.
Now enter these two commands:
dd if=/dev/block/sdf1 of=/sdcard/modemst1.bin bs=512
dd if=/dev/block/sdf2 of=/sdcard/modemst2.bin bs=512
This will place two files (modemst1.bin & modemst2.bin) on your internal storage.
Make sure you copy them to your PC and Cloud immediately so that you have a backup there to use if you need to restore it in future.
That’s it !! In case you ever need to restore Nanroid or EFS Backups, please continue and follow the next post…
If by chance you end up with a corrupt EFS partition all you need to do is flash the files back to your device using fastboot.
Boot into fastboot mode (power + volume up) and connect your phone to your PC via usb cable.
Keep modemst1.bin and modemst2.bin (backed up earlier) on your desktop and open command window there.
These fastboot commands will restore the files:
fastboot flash modemst1 modemst1.bin
fastboot flash modemst2 modemst2.bin
Reboot your device.
fastboot reboot
Now disconnect phone from PC. Your IMEI should be back.
That’s it for this guide, Enjoy
