Bypass Huawei's Channel to Obtain Unlock Code and Unlock BootLoader
Flashing carries risks, so proceed with caution. If your phone becomes bricked and cannot boot due to various reasons, this tutorial is not responsible. Please be aware of this.
Introduction
Because Huawei officially closed the unlock code application channel in July or August of this year, it has become extremely difficult, if not impossible, to obtain an unlock code. Although some tutorials claim that you can use Huawei's overseas channel, it has been personally confirmed that this no longer works.
Getting an unlock code and unlocking the bootloader is crucial, but I will not go into further detail here. Just know that if you want to flash third-party ROMs, official modified ROMs, or recover a phone that cannot boot due to non-hardware faults, unlocking the bootloader is usually the first step.
This tutorial is based on the experiences of others, summarizing the entire process, providing some tips, and helping those who are new to avoid common pitfalls. It also provides some tools that might be useful. If you're an experienced user, feel free to skip ahead :)
Before starting the tutorial, you need to decide whether to use the万能的某宝 (万能淘宝, a popular online store in China) to pay 8-10 RMB and get the unlock code in under five minutes, or to follow this tutorial, which may take a lot of time and may not guarantee success in getting the unlock code. If you choose the former, you can exit this page.
Applicable Models
- Mate8, P7, Honor 6 Plus, Play 4X... (These are just a few models reported to be successful on forums and Huawei's fan club, but the list is not exhaustive)
- Huawei Mate Series (Mate10, Mate9, Mate8, Mate7)
- Huawei P Series (P10, P10 Plus, P9/P9 Plus, P8, P8 Youth Edition, P7, P6)
- Huawei Honor Series (Honor V10, Honor V9, Honor V8)
- Huawei Nova Series (Huawei Nova, Nova2, Nova2 Youth Edition)
- Huawei Play Series, Huawei Enjoy Series, Huawei Maimang Series
(Devices with Huawei HiSilicon and Qualcomm processors, excluding P20/P20 Pro and Honor 10 models, can obtain the unlock code. MTK chip models cannot.)
The bolded section refers to the supported models of a particular store on淘宝, for your reference. Some people online claim that Qualcomm devices may not work, while HiSilicon Kirin devices are supported, but based on the supported models listed on淘宝, we can conclude that the likelihood of success decreases with newer models. For example, the Kirin 970 may not be supported, as both the P20 and Honor 10 use this chip.
Finally, note that upgrading the firmware may lock the bootloader again, but the unlock code will be universally applicable to all versions of the device (for the specific device).
Actual Operation
Before starting, please back up your personal data.
- ROOT
This is probably the most difficult and time-consuming part of the entire process because you need to root the device without unlocking the bootloader and roll back to try rooting with different versions.
Some models can successfully root using 360 One-Click Root on EMUI 4.0 B197 (like Mate8, and P7, although the exact version is unknown).
For my device, Honor 6 Plus, on EMUI 4.0 - Android 6.0, it failed; rolling back to EMUI 3.1 - Android 5.1 also failed; rolling back to EMUI 3.0 - Android 4.4 succeeded.
You will need to try with each "major version." Based on experience, the highest success rate is with 360 One-Click Root, followed by ROOT Master and Kingroot. Both 360 and Kingroot have had success stories, and you should try both desktop and mobile versions. Try about 5 times; if it doesn't work, switch to another tool.
- Obtain the Unlock Code
Enable USB debugging (Settings About phone Build number (not system version number), tap continuously to enable developer options). After that, you can connect the phone to the computer (select PC Suite (HiSuite) for USB connection mode on the phone).
(The detailed connection method is also prompted on the phone’s screen, and I will not go into further detail here. Anyone attempting this should be familiar with the process.)
Open cmd and run
The files in the red box need to be modified according to your actual setup. For example, storage/sdcard1 refers to creating PartitionBackup on the SD card. You can change it to sdcard0 if you want to create it on internal storage.
if=/dev/block/platform/ff1fe000.dwmmc0/by-name/nvme refers to the red box portion in the diagram. The path ff1fe000.dwmmc0 should be modified based on where your nvme is located. You can install a root file manager to check the root directory. Start from the root directory /dev/block/platform/, and note that different models have different paths (e.g., /by-name/nvme).
As for the grep WVDEVID -B 1 command, if it returns a 16-digit number, that’s the unlock code. If it shows not found as in the diagram, that’s fine as well.
After executing the three dd commands, you will find three files—nvme, oeminfo, and recovery—in the PartitionBackup folder you created (which could be in storage/sdcard1 or storage/sdcard0, depending on where you created the folder). These files should be saved because they may be needed for relocking the device later (if you require it).
The unlock code we need is in the nvme file. Copy it to your computer and open it with WinHex (WinHex is provided in the cloud storage link shared above). Press Ctrl+F and search for WVLOCK to find the unlock code, as shown in the image below:
The rectangle red part is your bootloader unlock code.
- Unlock bootloader
Restart your phone to fastbook mode.
Now exit cmd and reopen again. Type in
Replace <bl code> with your bootloader unlock code and you should be done.