A “gray” or used Xiaomi phone you bought may have the bootloader unlocked. There are easy ways to check this option. We’ll show them to you in this article.
1. Check in settings
This is the easiest step, which takes about 10 seconds. Unfortunately, in this case, the seller can forge it and give the impression that it is blocked. Here’s what you need to do to verify:
- Open “Settings”;
- Go to “Device Information”;
- Click “All Specifications”;
- Press the build number multiple times until a message appears stating that developer settings have been activated;
- Return to the main page of the Settings application;
- Go to “Advanced Options”, then go to “Developer Options”;
- Scroll down until you see Mi Unlock Status. Click on it. Here you can see if your device is unlocked or not. But, as already mentioned, this method can be faked. Therefore, we recommend that you use two other methods.
2. Check via Fastboot
To complete this step, you need a PC with ADB installed.
- Boot your phone into fastboot mode by turning it off;
- hold down the power and volume down button until the fastboot logo appears.
- Once you’ve done that, open a command prompt on your computer.
- Type “fastboot getvar unlocked” and press Enter. It will show you whether the smartphone bootloader is unlocked or not.
3. Download the logo lock icon
This is one of the easiest ways to know if the bootloader is unlocked. Unfortunately, it is not supported by all Xiaomi devices. However, it’s really easy to check:
- Restart your phone;
- Wait until the Redmi/Xiaomi/POCO logo appears;
- As soon as it appears, check if there is an unlocked lock icon on the screen.
- If so, it means that the device’s bootloader is unlocked.