By 
LG has been one of the odd souls out of the “let’s give depeer access to developers” party, but that looks to be changing soon. The company’s developer website has been updated with instructions for officially unlocking the LG G4’s bootloader.
There’s a catch here, naturally. It’s only possible to do this for one model of the LG G4, which is the European H815 variant. LG’s site says select “devices” will gain that ability eventually so you can bet there will be more.
We’re not sure if this courtesy will ever be extended to the likes of the LG G2, LG G3 or any of LG’s other models, but we’ll be looking to find out. In the meantime, if you’re the lucky owner of the necessary variant and have been waiting for an official bootloader unlock then LG has everything you need right here (note that it’s liable to void your warranty and that it’s a process which can’t be undone).
I’m listening… because I need a new phone and I want developer support
It’s not the end of the world if the bootloader is locked. My LG G3 has TWRP and CM 12.1 and the bootloader is locked. The trick is to have a good enough exploit to bypass it. :)
Good, No more of that “lokified” crap like what we had to deal with on the G3 and G Pro. As long as they don’t pull a Sony and remove features i’m definitely okay with this
Bad news…
If they’re convincing me to go with the G4 to succeed my GS4, then they’re doing a pretty good job. My experience hands-on with it, has really impressed me. But I have come to demand root on all my Android phones. My devices have always benefited from Titanium, XPosed and Greenify.
I’m in the exact same boat here…
Excuse my ignorance, but if I understand things correctly, a locked bootloader doesn’t prevent root, the installation of Titanium, Xposed, Greenify, etc.
What exactly is the down side of a locked bootloader? Why would I want an unlocked bootloader?
BTW, I’m on Verizon (upgrading from an S4), which I understand generally further complicates these processes.
A locked bootloader , won’t prevent root , since root’s only needed for the os. The bootlader comes into play, before the os loads, like a bios, before a pc loads it’s os. The upside is you can load roms, meant for that particular phone model, that have features the stock rom doesn’t have, customized recoveries( like the phone version of a pc’s bios settings screen). The downside, is hard bricking it, if you don’t unlock right.
From LG –
“2. Unlocking the phone will disable certain functions of your phone.
When unlocking the bootloader, the DRM protection of your phone will become untrusted.
Some applications which require DRM protection may not work anymore or block certain functions due to this untrusted DRM.
Common examples are applications which offer download/streaming of paid multimedia content like music and movies.”
Talk about epic failure and doing it wrong.
Look LG, Google and HTC manage to provide a user-unlockable bootloader with zero of this nonsense (apart from the very few providers that think a rooted Android is the same thing as a jailbroken iPhone).
Get your architecture together ok.
Wait what. That sucks….
I bet it’s easy to find a way around that.
Not sure. Sony removed access to their camera upon bootloader unlock, citing DRM concerns. Not sure but I don’t think that anyone got around that.
Hope you’re right.
Devs figured out how to backup and restore DRM keys on Sony Z2 but you still lose the functionality while unlocked. Luckily devs also figured out how to get full root without unlocking the boot loader on the z2.
Exploits should be a temporary step up, not a way of life.
The same thing with the DRM stuff happened with Sony(both with photo quality and DRM’d multimedia). The only thing I don’t like here is that the warranty is void if you unlock the LG G4 bootloader. That is truly weak.
You cite Google and HTC as companies who provide this feature with ‘zero of this nonsense’ but you also have horrendous photo quality on those two devices. It doesn’t seem as clear cut as you make it out to be
I didn’t mention Bluetooth performance, call quality, or front facing stereo speakers either – because none of it, including the camera, has anything to do with dropping DRM over a bootloader unlock.
Sony pulled that stunt as a disincentive and because like LG – poor architectural choices.
All Sony was trying to accomplish was preventing porting of an important feature.
Right? Why are Samsung devices able to be manipulated by its users without these adverse consequences?
Rooting your device is so 2012…
Does this add Qi charging to the stock covers?
Seriously? That is as random as a question as it gets as 1 literally has nothing to do with the other. It is like someone saying, “hey, lets go get some lunch” and then you respond “do you believe in the JFK conspiracy”. Or something equally random.
ohh… the answer to your question is clearly NO
hey, lets go get some lunch
Do you believe in the single bullet theory?
He takes the bait. I just won $5 from myself.
Heard that before from LG