Android Oreo update for the LG V30/V30+ accidentally allows unsupported models to unlock the bootloader

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The community had mixed feelings about the LG V30 as many were hoping the company would stick with the secondary screen the series had become known for. Others were also upset that LG went with a design style that makes the device look so similar to others on the market. That being said, the LG V30 is regarded by some in the community to be the best smartphone of 2017 with its only drawback being LG’s bootloader unlock process. However, XDA Member TxanMoe stumbled on a method that allows us to unlock the bootloader of unsupported LG V30 models such as some U.S. carrier versions.

Things are still early in this discovery process but we’re to the point where we can see that it works for a majority of the LG V30 variants on the market. Interestingly enough, this method will not work with the T-Mobile LG V30 model due to the fact that it has different RSA encryption than the other methods.

This process requires you to download either the Android Oreo US998 KDZ or Oreo H930 KDZ firmware (depending on the phone you have) and then grab the Oreo-compatible version of TWRP. With that done, grab the unlock.bin file from the thread, Magisk or SuperSU, the encryption disabler, and the root checker disabler. LG V30 US998 or H930 variants that are on Android Oreo already can skip to the next step but other models will need to use the Frankenstein method to convert to Oreo US998. This actually requires you to flash Nougat US998 first and then over to Oreo. European H930G or any region H930DS devices will need to convert over to open market H930 using LGUP.

With that done, you’ll want to enable OEM Unlock and USB Debugging Mode and copy the new_unlock.bin file to your device. Boot the LG V30 into fastboot mode (aka bootloader mode) and then you’re going to flash the new_unlock.bin file using fastboot. Those who have unlocked their LG bootloader before are likely familiar with this process but the unique part of this whole thing is the unlock.bin file we’re using actually comes from a Huawei Mate 8 device.

There seems to be some kind of bug in the LG V30’s recent Android Oreo update that allows this to work as it has been shown to not work on older versions of the firmware. With all of that done though, you can then proceed to install TWRP and gain root access to your device if you’d like. The user who discovered this crazy method has created a video showing off the process below and XDA Recognized Contributor ChazzMatt has put together a lengthy text guide based on the process. Check out both below.

Unlock the bootloader of the LG V30/V30+