How to Root the LG G5 (Video)
LG G5 is yet another phone in the G series phones by LG and it’s the flagship phone of the year by the company. Last year’s G4 made many news due to the rocking features it boasted and this year’s G5 is no less.
The phone features a 5.3″ inch screen, Quad-core CPU, Adreno 530 GPU, and runs Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow on-board. On top of that you have the LG’s customized skin called LG Optimus UX 5.0 UI. The phone runs everything that is latest in the market and you don’t need to wait for anything to arrive for the phone as it does pack everything you want.
However, if you belong to that category of users who just can’t have enough of what they get, then you may try rooting your phone. By gaining root access on your LG G5, you’re allowing yourself to remove the stock apps from the phone, install a custom recovery (if one is available), flash a customized version of Android aka custom ROM, and do many more things that can’t be done on an unrooted phone.
T-Mobile and European variants of the LG G5 are the only variants that have been rooted so far, so if you’ve got one of these, you can have it rooted using one of the following sections that teaches how to root your specific variant of the phone.
Before You Begin
- 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.
- You must have a Windows based PC if you’re going to root the T-Mobile variant of LG G5. If you’ve got the European variant, you can do the procedure even on Mac and Linux.
- You should have done the How to Setup ADB tutorial on your Windows computer. Do that first and come back here when done.
- This should erase the data on your device. So, please backup everything that you wish to keep.
- You should only try this on the T-Mobile (H830) or the European (H850) variant of the device.
- You MUST have a MicroSD Card for this as you need to put the files necessary on it and into the phone for specific steps.
If you have the European variant of the device, please follow the following three sections to unlock the bootloader, flash a custom recovery, and root the device.
In case you have the T-Mobile variant, follow the last section that is for rooting the T-Mobile variant of LG G5.
So I can’t do this root on a Sprint LG G5 even if its unlocked?
my device wont boot into bootloader when i hold down the power and volume up button
What device do you have and for what carrier?
Device- Lg g5
Carrrier-Three (European version)
What step are you on exactly? If it’s bootloader mode you’re trying to get into use adb reboot bootloader command while plugged in and of you mean download mode you need to take out the battery first put it back in and hold volume up while plugging it in (no power button).
C:adb>fastboot flash unlock unlock.bin
error: cannot load ‘unlock.bin’
this is all I can get to ..
That means it is not in the right folder. Check here for someone who solved the issue for a different phone, otherwise, redo the tutorial and make sure you did everything EXACTLY. Good luck – https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1315947
its helps, and worked
! thanks so much!
Glad it worked and thanks for reporting back!
Hold down Volume UP and Power buttons together on your device.. don’t work for me 😕
Hiya I’m having some trouble with step 10 on “Flashing a Custom Recovery and Rooting the LG G5 (European)”. I have no problem flashing the TWRP recovery on my device, but when I type “fastboot boot XXXX.img” in to cmd, it does not reboot and says
“downloading ‘boot.img’…
OKAY [ 0.726s]
booting…
FAILED (remote: unknown command)
finished. total time: 0.750s”
Can you help me??
Thanks!
It may be helpful to you if I mentioned that the volume UP and power button combo did not put my phone in to bootloader mode, so I did it manually when it was connected to my PC using adb reboot bootloader command. I am using an EE (european) LG 🙂
i have the same problem how did you do pls….
same here too. flashing works, but no chance to boot it. unknown command…
At what step do you see that command? You mean fastboot boot twrp.img? Are you typing that or actually typing XXXX?
Thats right, at the fastboot boot twrp.img step. And no, I type “fastboot flash recovery twrp-3.1.0-0-h850”
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/010956bc56227dd78cdcbcc7175cac9d1e17bb08b021e5b29d7638916b6c0d11.jpg Once the recovery step has been completed, I type “fastboot boot twrp-3.1.0-0-h850.img” and in response it says “C:UsersJavidDesktop>fastboot boot twrp-3.1.0-0-h850.img
downloading ‘boot.img’…
OKAY [ 0.731s]
booting…
FAILED (remote: unknown command)
finished. total time: 0.753s”
And my device remains on the bootloader mode..
Rename the twrp file to twrp so you can type just twrp.img instead of the long name first. Then reflash it using the step before it then boot into it using the next command.
If that doesn’t work try the other versions of the recovery (renaming each as you download it to twrp) and see if that works.
Otherwise there isn’t much else I can do from here without physically being there. I’d recommend googling the error and phone model and see if anyone else had the issue and posted their solution.
Hi again,
I renamed the file, then retried the steps above as you explained, but the exact same issue has occurred 🙁
Could it be that I’ve done an earlier step incorrectly? I’ve copied and pasted the BETA-SuperSU-v2.74-2-20160519174328.rar file in to my internal storage so I dont know what is causing the issue. Thanks again for all your help!! https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/49ce7ad87127c82ff0f6c96161f6cf14763d3fe05cc1eeb7e515f304d18ca66d.jpg
Is this solved? I have the same problem…
me to
Will this root process work for android 7.0?
I don’t have the phone anymore so I wouldn’t be able to check. You can check where the developer posted the rooting files though and see if it mentions it there – http://forum.xda-developers.com/tmobile-lg-g5/development/root-h830-t3384526
My lg g5 model is F100L, its from korea, can u please tell me how to root this?
That is not a G5. It’s an Optimus Vu. You’d have to search for a rooting tutorial for that model.
Now my phone is done for.., cant reconnect it to my pc, stopts in that werid 3 step screen.., need to Unlock the OEM, but i’m not eveing getting to my home screen..
Do this… https://theunlockr.com/2016/11/23/how-to-unroot-the-lg-g5-all-models-video/
i’ve treid the reset that way, but still stuck at the thing that says i need to Unlock the OEM..
Sorry but you need to then do that using this tutorial there isn’t much else I can do for you without literally standing there with you. Just start over. Good luck.
Thanks btw, after some trying and pushiong myself a bit more i got it working, but thanks for the help you could give as much as you could!
So glad you got it to work! Enjoy!
Would the process be the same or different on Android Version 8.0.0?
how to do it on lg h850.toth file
Please help! I have an error
downloading ‘boot.img’…
OKAY [ 0.690s]
booting…
FAILED (remote: unknown command)
finished. total time: 0.710s
same for me wtf is happennig?