How to Root the LG V20

Not so long ago, LG launched the LG V20 phone that featured a 5.7″ inch screen, Dual 16MP camera, 32/6GB internal storage with support for a microSD card up to 256GB, and last but not least – Android 7.0 Nougat running on-board.

With all that specs on-board, it was obvious for the phone to be praised by its owners. However, the only thing that wasn’t so great about it was its price. It was a little too much for what you were getting from the phone but that just couldn’t stop the LG fans from getting the phone and enjoying whatever it had to offer.

If you’re one of those people who’ve purchased an LG V20, then there’s a great news for you. A root method and a custom recovery are now available for your phone meaning you can now add more features to your phone without paying a penny. With root-access on your phone, you can install root-only apps, remove the stock apps you don’t like, and even flash a custom ROM using the custom recovery on the phone. There’s so much of fun when your phone is rooted and the guide below is all about gaining root on the LG V20 and getting a custom recovery flashed on it.

So, if you think it’s time that you root your device, here’s what you need to do:

Before You Begin

1. This could void the warranty of your device. We won’t be held responsible for anything that happens from doing this tutorial so please proceed at your own risk.
2. You should have ADB installed on your PC before doing this procedure.
3. Download and install the LG USB drivers on your PC if they aren’t already.
4. This should erase all the data stored on your device. So, please backup everything that you wish to keep or it’ll be gone for good.
5. This should also flash a custom recovery on your device.
6. This procedure works for the following models of the LG V20 – H918, H830, and US996. Please do not do this procedure on any other model or you’ll end-up bricking the device.

How to Root the LG V20

To root the device, you’ll first unlock the bootloader, flash a custom recovery, and then flash SuperSU to obtain the root access. Here’s how to do that all one by one:

Downloading Required Files

1. Download Recowvery files and save them on your desktop.
   Recowvery (Download all of the files in there)
2. Download TWRP Recovery and save it to your desktop.
   TWRP Recovery (Download the one that is for your device from the first post)
3. Download SuperSU and save it to your desktop.
   SuperSU

Unlocking the Bootloader on the LG V20

If your model of the device is US996, then please head over to the official LG bootloader website to get the bootloader unlocked on your device. The following steps should only work for the H918 and H830 models of the device.

1. Head over to Menu > Settings > About phone > Software info on your device and tap on Build number for 7 times and it’ll unlock the developer menu for you.
2. Head to the newly unlocked menu at Menu > Settings > Developer options and turn on OEM unlock.
3. Head to Menu > Settings > Developer options and enable USB debugging.
4. Plug in your device to your PC using a USB cable.
5. Open the ADB folder located in the C:/ drive of your PC and hold down Shift on your keyboard and right-click anywhere on the screen and select Open command window here. It’ll open a command prompt window in the ADB directory.
6. When the command prompt window opens, type in the following command and hit Enter:
   adb reboot bootloader
7. Your device will reboot into the bootloader mode.
8. When the device enters the bootloader mode, type in the following command and press Enter:
   fastboot oem unlock
9. Follow the on-screen instructions to unlock the bootloader on your device.
10. When the bootloader’s unlocked, reboot your device by typing in the following command into the command prompt window and hitting Enter:
    fastboot reboot

Your LG V20 should reboot and it should be now bootloader unlocked.

The next step should be to flash a custom recovery on the device but you can’t do that before running Recowvery as that’s what will allow a custom recovery to run on your device. Here’s how to run it and then flash a custom recovery and root the V20:

Flashing a Custom Recovery and Rooting the LG V20

1. Copy all the Recowvery files from your desktop over to the ADB folder located in the C:/ drive of your PC.
2. Right-click on TWRP Recovery .img on your desktop and select Rename and enter twrp.img as the new name. Make sure it’s now twrp.img and not twrp.img.img.
3. Copy twrp.img from your desktop over to the ADB folder located in the C:/ drive of your PC.
4. Open the ADB folder and hold down Shift on your keyboard and right-click anywhere on the screen and select Open command window here to open a command prompt window in the ADB directory.
5. Head to Menu > Settings > About phone > Software info on your device and tap on Build number for 7 times to enable the developer menu.
6. Head to the newly enabled menu at Menu > Settings > Developer options and turn on both USB debugging and OEM unlock.
7. Plug in your device to your PC using a USB cable.
8. Copy SuperSU .zip from your desktop over to the internal SD card storage on your device.
9. Type in the following commands into the command prompt window hitting Enter after each:
   adb push dirtycow /data/local/tmp
adb push recowvery-applypatch /data/local/tmp
adb push recowvery-app_process64 /data/local/tmp
adb push recowvery-run-as /data/local/tmp
adb shell
cd /data/local/tmp
chmod 0777 *
./dirtycow /system/bin/applypatch recowvery-applypatch
./dirtycow /system/bin/app_process64 recowvery-app_process64
exit
adb logcat -s recowvery
adb shell reboot recovery
adb shell
getenforce
cd /data/local/tmp
./dirtycow /system/bin/run-as recowvery-run-as
run-as exec ./recowvery-applypatch boot
run-as su
10. Now transfer the TWRP Recovery image to its desired place by typing in the following command into the command prompt window and hitting Enter:
    dd if=/sdcard/twrp.img of=/dev/block/bootdevice/by-name/recovery
11. The recovery should now be at its correct place. Use the following command to reboot into the newly installed recovery:
    reboot recovery
12. Your device should now be in TWRP Recovery mode.
13. When the recovery asks you to allow system modifications, hit Yes and let it do that.
14. Tap on Install in the main menu of the recovery.
15. Navigate to the internal SD card storage on your device and select SuperSU .zip to be installed on your device.
16. Tap on Swipe to Confirm Flash to begin flashing SuperSU on your device.
17. When SuperSU’s flashed, reboot your device by tapping on Reboot followed by System in the main menu of the recovery.

Congrats, your LG V20 is now bootloader unlocked, has a working custom recovery, and is rooted to allow you to load your favorite root-only apps on it.

You’re now just a step away from getting a custom ROM loaded on your device and you can learn how to do that by following our very own David’s guide that teaches how to load a custom ROM on an Android device. Also, check out our huge custom ROMs repository to see all of the custom ROMs available for your device.

Let us know how this worked for you!