How To Unlock Poco F1 Bootloader and Install Custom Recovery

Poco F1 has been a massive success for Xiaomi since the launch from last year, and the popularity has increased over time.  I recently purchased POCO F1 due to the Snapdragon 845 Soc, which undoubtedly is a good investment of mine. As soon as I got the device in my hand, I wanted to unlock the bootloader and install Custom ROM on it as I am a big fan of it.

You can unlock Poco F1 bootloader after 72 hours of applying it, so you will have to count the time, and it is worth the wait. Unlocking bootloader helps you to install custom recoveries like TWRP, Pitch Black, etc. which allows you to install Magisk and root your device. I hope you all know about the benefits of rooting an Android device already.

What Is Bootloader & Why Unlock it?

A bootloader is an interface/loader that is responsible for booting the system. It also helps in launching the recovery.
Unlocking bootloader enables you to install custom recovery that helps you to format and install the system quickly. It also lets you install various patches, kernels, add-ons that improve the system and create/restore backups.
Xiaomi locked the bootloader of Poco F1 because it is a requirement of Google for the safety of your data if your device is lost. A piece of good news is that unlocking Poco F1 bootloader doesn’t void the warranty.

How To Unlock Poco F1 Bootloader

To unlock the bootloader on Poco F1, you need the following things:

Pre-Requisites

1. Keep your smartphone charged above 75%
2. USB Drivers For Windows (not required on Windows 8.1 and above)
3. USB Type C (provided in the box)
4. MI Account (the account id should be the one on your Poco F1)
5. Enable OEM Unlocking on your device
   • Go to Settings > About Phone and tap MIUI Version 5-10 times until it shows Developer options enabled.
   • Now go to Additional settings under the Settings menu and then open Developers options.
   • Find the OEM unlocking option and slide it to enable. Alternately you might notice below that the MI Unlock Status shows “locked”.

Instructions

1. Go to MI Unlock website and download the MI Unlock Tool.
2. Now Turn off your device and press the Power button + Volume Down button together for 5-10 seconds until the POCO logo is shown. You will be taken to fastboot screen on your Pocophone.
3. Connect your Pocophone to your laptop or computer and open the MI Unlock Tool.
4. Log in with your MI Account credentials and click the unlock button on the MI Unlock Tool Application.
5. If this is your first time then a message will pop up displaying “Wait for 72 hours”.
6. Do the same procedure after the mentioned period and you will unlock Poco F1 Bootloader.

Now that you have unlocked the bootloader on your device, you can install custom recovery on it and then root it using Magisk.

How To Install Custom Recovery On Poco F1

Once you have unlocked the bootloader of Poco F1, you have the full liberty to use the phone. Now you have multiple choice of installing the official TWRP, Pitch Black Recovery Orange Recovery.
I would recommend you to go with the Official TWRP as they provide updates frequently. But it is an individual choice of going with other custom recoveries as well.

Pre-Requisites

1. Keep your Pocophone charged above 75%
2. ADB and Fastboot
3. USB Type C (provided in the box)
4. Custom Recovery TWRP/Orange Fox/Pitch Black – download any one of them (make sure you extract the file if it is in zip format and after extraction, you will get a .img extension file which you need to rename it as recovery.img)

Instructions

1. Turn off your smartphone and press Volume Down Button + Power Button until you see the Poco logo.
2. Now connect your smartphone to the laptop or computer
3. Go to C:Program Files (x86)Minimal ADB and Fastboot and right-click on cmd-here and run as administrator
4. Now type list devices (It will display your device on the ADB  and fastboot tool window
5. Type fastboot flash recovery recovery.img and hit enter. You will see the write successfully message.
6. Now press and hold Volume Up and Power button together to enter the custom recovery mode.

How To Root Poco F1

Rooting Poco F1 is quite easy, and it requires just 2 minutes only if you have a custom recovery installed on your device. The best method to root Poco F1 these days is using TWRP and Magisk, which has no bugs at all.

Remember that rooting your device might alert few banking applications which do not allow to run on an Android device, but there is a fix around for this which we will discuss later.

To root Poco F1 you need to download a stable version of Magisk and the latest Magisk Manager APK.

Instructions

1. Download and copy the Magisk stable or beta version on your device.
2. Reboot to Custom Recovery on your Poco F1
3. Tap the install button on the recovery interface
4. Locate the downloaded Magisk zip file and slide to install
5. Reboot to the system and find the Magisk App (if it is not there then install the Magisk Manager APK from the downloaded folder)

Congratulations! Now you have successfully unlocked the bootloader of your Poco F1 and also installed a custom recovery, you can now install custom ROM. If you have any doubt or query then you can comment down below and let us know. If you have bricked your device by any chance then you can restore it using any MIUI based custom ROM through fastboot method.