Very recently, Xiaomi announced two new smartphones in the Mi series of devices in China. These are the Xiaomi Mi 9T and Mi 9T Pro respectively. Most of you might know these phones by their rebranded names for markets like in India – The Redmi K20 and Redmi K20 Pro. Apart from the different names, these devices have everything in common.

The Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro is the more powerful offering, aimed at the people who want the best performance possible out of an Android device. It sports a fully bezel-less 6.39 inch AMOLED display with a popup camera in place. Packed inside is the top of the line Snapdragon 855 with up to 12 Gigabytes of RAM. While the Mi 9T Pro is fully packed to the brim with specifications, the Mi 9T also comes with the Snapdragon 710 which is a great deal considering its price point. Nonetheless, both the smartphones are champs at gaming and high intensive tasks.

Coming now to the topic of today’s article, and that’s how you can unlock bootloader on Xiaomi Mi 9T and Mi 9T Pro. Both these smartphones have the same unlocking procedure, similar to any other Xiaomi device. In our experience, unlocking a Xiaomi phone is quite a painful task since you need to wait for verification and furthermore for the bootloader unlocking process to execute. However, we have a detailed guide down below to assist you through the entire procedure. Read on to find out how you can easily unlock the bootloader on your Xiaomi Mi 9T or Mi 9T Pro!

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What does Unlocking your Bootloader mean?

Before we proceed to unlocking your device’s bootloader, let’s take a quick second to hover over what unlocking a bootloader really means. When your device comes from the OEM, it is deprived of any console control by the user. This means you cannot tamper with the software and the things inside the UI on your own just yet. However, by unlocking the device’s bootloader, you are granting yourself access to parts of your phone that were otherwise impossible to get to previously. This process requires a Windows computer with an ADB interface that can talk to your device in the fastboot mode. The most common ways of unlocking a bootloader include using a tool, or using fastboot commands directly to ingest the codes inside of your phone.

Why should you Unlock your Bootloader?

There are a plethora of reasons as to why you might want to unlock your device’s bootloader. For instance, you can install custom recoveries like TWRP or CWM on your phone’s recovery partition which grants access to a lot more things furthermore. You can easily root an Android device with an unlocked bootloader, and as we know, a rooted device has many cool features you can play around with. Lastly, you will need a fully unlocked bootloader to flash any custom ROMs or zips on your device. Basically, you are granting yourself system rights by tampering with the state of your device’s bootloader – in a good way.

Unlocking your bootloader also means you can troubleshoot a lot more issues than ever before. For example, if your device goes into a bootloop, or a soft brick, then the first step to revive it requires you to unlock its bootloader. Moreover, you can use powerful root applications like Magisk and Xposed Framework to sideload some really amazing third party extensions that will boost your device’s capabilities.

With everything out of the way, let’s begin with our guide. You will be needing a few prerequisites in order to unlock your phone’s bootloader first. Make sure you have everything that you need up and running. Without any further delay, let’s have a look at how you can unlock the bootloader on your device.

Disclaimer

How to Unlock Bootloader on Xiaomi Mi 9T and Mi 9T Pro

Prerequisites

  • You need ADB and Fastboot installed on your PC for this to work. If you haven’t already, follow our comprehensive guide to learn how you can ready up ADB and Fastboot on your Windows PC.
  • Make sure that you backup everything there is on your phone. Unlocking your device’s bootloader will wipe everything on your phone, including media. We recommend a thorough backup before beginning this process.
  • Ensure that your phone has at least 60% of the battery prior to beginning this process to avoid any unforeseen shutdowns in the middle of the task.
  • You will also need the Xiaomi Mi Unlock Tool installed on your PC.
  • Lastly, you need a data transfer cable to connect your phone to your Windows PC.

Procedure

  • First off, you need to enable Developer Options and USB Debugging on your phone. Click on the following links to enable USB Debugging on Xiaomi Mi 9T or Mi 9T Pro :
  • Enable USB Debugging on Xiaomi Mi 9T
  • Enable USB Debugging  on Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro
  • Secondly, you need to prepare your Xiaomi Mi 9T or Mi 9T Pro to unlock its bootloader. For that, learn how you can Enable OEM Unlock on Xiaomi Mi 9T and Mi 9T Pro.
  • Now, open the folder where you had extracted the Mi Flash Unlock Tool. Launch the executable file to open the tool.
  • Read the disclaimer, then click on Agree. Proceed to Log in using your Mi Account. If you don’t have one already, sign up for it.
  • Once logged in, a screen displaying the message “You device isn’t supported by Xiaomi Unlock” will pop up. Don’t worry yet, and click on Go. This will take you to the Mi Unlock page.
  • Click on the Unlock Now button on the blue web page. You will be asked to log in to your Mi Account once again. Enter your credentials and proceed to enter your mobile number.
  • You shall now receive a One Time Password or OTP on your phone. Enter the code to verify.
  • You are now registered in the bootloader unlocking program! Your application will be verified in 3-5 days, so take a break and you should receive an email or text when it’s all over.
  • Once your application has been approved, you will receive a new OTP on your phone. Return to the Unlock Page and enter the OTP to verify.
  • Back on the Mi Unlock Tool, you can now proceed to unlock your device as it is now supported. Simply connect your Xiaomi device to your PC and press the Unlock button.
  • The process will take a few seconds, and you should have an unlocked bootloader soon enough!

That’s all folks! Now you can proceed to install custom recoveries and enjoy Custom ROMs on your Xiaomi Mi 9T or Mi 9T Pro. If you have any queries or problems regarding the guide, do let us know in the comments below, we’d be happy to help!