How to Unlock Bootloader on LG V20 US996 (USA)

Although LG allowed bootloader unlock on its T-Mobile variant of LG V20, but other variants of the device in the country didn’t support bootloader unlock, and that did upset quite a lot of users.

Thankfully, LG USA has finally brought support for LG V20 US996 variant to its official bootloader unlock tool. LG V20 US996 is the US variant of LG V20 that’s factory unlocked for all carriers in the states.

NOTE: Unlocking the bootloader may completely wipe all data on your device. So be sure to backup all your pictures, videos, music and other important files on the device before you begin with the guide below.

How to Unlock Bootloader on LG V20 US996

1. Setup ADB and Fastboot on your PC.
2. Sign up on LG Developer website. Go to this link and register for LG Developer Member.
3. Login with your newly activated Developer account on LG website, and go to this link to fill in your Device information that is required to get the bootloader unlock.bin file from LG.
4. On the device information page, fill in your Name, Email, select your Phone model (US996 for LG V20), fill in your IMEI number and at last fill in the Device ID that we will discover in the steps into the Device ID field on the form.
   └ Tip: You can get your device IMEI number by dialing *#06# from your V20.
5. Enable USB debugging and OEM Unlock on your LG V20:
   1. Go to Settings » About tablet » and tap Build number 7 times to enable Developer options.
   2. Go back to Settings » select Developer options » enable USB debugging and OEM Unlocking.
6. Open a command window on your PC, connect your device to the PC using a USB cable and issue the following command to boot your V20 into bootloader mode:

   adb reboot bootloader

   └ You may get a request to authorize USB debugging on the phone, accept it.

7. Once your phone is in bootloader mode, issue the following command to get your unique Device ID code:

   fastboot oem device-id

   You’ll get your unique Device ID as shown in the example below:

   Example Device ID (DON'T try to use it for your device)
   (bootloader)-----------------------------------------------------------------
   (bootloader) Device-ID
   (bootloader) CD58B679A38D6B613ED518F37A05E013
   (bootloader) F93190BD558261DBBC5584E8EF8789B1
   (bootloader)-----------------------------------------------------------------

8. Combine the two rows of Device ID into one line and paste it into the form we left opened in Step 4 above.
   └ As per the example shown in Step 7, the combined Device ID will look like this:

   Example Device ID (DON'T try to use it for your device)
   
   CD58B679A38D6B613ED518F37A05E013F93190BD558261DBBC5584E8EF8789B1

9. Hit the confirm button on the form once you’re done filling the details. If your IMEI and Device ID details are correct, you’ll receive an Email from LG Developer website with the unlock.bin file attached.
   └ At this point you can close the command window on PC.
10. Download the unlock.bin file on your PC and save it a separate folder on your PC.
11. Now open a new command window inside the folder where you saved the unlock.bin file in the Step 10 above. For this, press and hold “Ctrl + Shift” and right click on an empty white space inside the folder, and then select “Open command window here” from the context menu.
12. Once command window is opened inside the folder, issue the following command to flash the unlock.bin file and unlock the bootloader on your LG V20:

    fastboot flash unlock unlock.bin

13. To verify if the bootloader has unlocked successfully, issue the following command:

14. fastboot getvar unlocked

    └ You should get “unlocked: yes” in return to confirm that bootloader is now unlocked. If not, maybe try after a reboot.

15. To boot your device into system, simply issue the following command:

     fastboot reboot

16. All your device data will probably be erased. So set it up again and have fun with the unlocked bootloader from here on.

That’s all. We hope the guide above help you unlock bootloader on your LG V20.

Happy Androiding!