[Xiaomi Redmi Note 3 Guides, News, & Discussion] Sudeep Duhoon:
Unlocking bootloader, Flashing TWRP, Flashing 7.2.5 OTA, Rooting

It is particularly focused on rooting latest (at writing this) version of Miui i.e. 7.2.3

How to Root?

For rooting we have to flash SuperSu from custom recovery i.e. TWRP. So, obviously we need to flash TWRP first in Redmi Note 3.

But, to flash TWRP we need to unlock bootloader first

Unlocking Bootloader:

Downloads from post one:

1. Download and Install Mi Flash Tool

2. Download and Extract 7.1.8 Fastboot Rom (You can also use latest fastboot rom, just skip OTA part from this guide)

3. Download, Extract and Replace unlocked_emmc_appsboot.mbn in the extracted rom folder

4. Download and Install Minimal ADB and Fasboot Tools

Instructions:

1. Turn Your Phone On and Connect USB Cable to the phone and the Computer

2. Go to settings-about phone and tap Miui versoin five times.

3. Go back and go to Additional settings-Developer Options and enable USB debugging (if disabled) and Enable OEM Unlock (if disabled)

4. Open Device Manager in PC and check to find your phone Installed as ADB Device

5. See if there is any pop up in phone asking to Authorization (Allow USB debugging). Check Always allow from this Computer and tap ok.

6. Run the Minimal ADB and Fastboot From the Start Menu

7. Check if your Device is Detected in ADB by typing this command

adb devices

You should see the output like this

If not, then you have to install drivers. Go to topic #5. Then try again.

8. Type the following command to Reboot the Phone to EDL mode

adb reboot edl

9. Check the Device Manager you should see the Phone as shown in the Screenshot below

NOTE: The Driver can be Either the one Shown in the Image (which is a default driver loaded by windows)

or

can be from Qualcomm which will read as

Note that there is a possibility that You might End up in

But Don't Panic and Follow the Steps from Step No. 1 again

10. Now Start the MI Flash Tool and Browse to the Location Where you have Extracted the Fastboot ROM

11. Go to Advanced (arrow in front of browse) and Select:

Flash Programmer, Raw XML File and Patch XML File

from the Fastboot ROM\Images folder and press enter on keyboard

12. Press Refresh in MI tool and You should see you phone in the MI Flash tool With the same COM# as in the Device Manager

13. Press Flash and wait. It would take some time to flash about 170-250 seconds or more ( if Miflash shows a error on clicking Flash , please restart Miflash and try again)

14. After the Miflash fastboot is completed successfully, hard boot phone to Fastboot mode by pressing and holding Volume Down+Power On. You will see mi bunny on screen.

15. Again run Minimal ADB and Fastboot from start menu (as Administrator)

16. Type:

fastboot oem device-info

It will show you the current Bootloader Status .

17. Now again Type:

fastboot oem unlock-go

Optional: Type in the previous command again to check if the status of Bootloader had changed or not.

18. Type:

fastboot reboot

to reboot the phone.

Bootloader is unlocked now but do not disconnect the phone from pc yet.

Credits:

http://en.miui.com/thread-253680-1-1.html

http://en.miui.com/thread-261019-1-1.html

Flashing TWRP:

Downloads from post one:

1. TWRP recovery

Instructions:

1. Once done with bootloader unlock guide, without disconnecting the phone, restart phone in fastboot mode (use steps 1-8 from unlocking guide and replace edl command with fastboot, i.e. write fastboot instead of edl in cmd) or Press and hold volume down+power to hard boot it to fastboot.

2. Go to Minimal ADB and Fastboot directory

and copy/move downloaded twrp-3.0.2-2-kenzo.img here.

3. Type following in cmd once the phone is in fastboot mode.

fastboot flash recovery twrp-3.0.2-2-kenzo.img

4. Once done, hard boot phone to recovery by Pressing and holding Volume Up+Power On. TWRP should boot.

Note: When asked to mount system as read only or as read/write select read only in TWRP. This step is important otherwise you will face bootloop after flashing ota.

Flashing 7.2.3 OTA and then 7.2.5 OTA:

Downloads from post one:

1. Miui 7.2.3 OTA and Miui 7.2.5 OTA

2. unlocked_emmc_appsboot.mbn

Downloads from internet

1. 7zip Or WinRAR

Instructions:

1. Download the OTA in your PC or move it in your pc from phone after downloading.

2. Open the OTA file in Windows with Winrar/7zip

3. Locate the emmc_appsboot.mbn in firmware-update folder and delete from the zip (it will take a while for the deletion please be patient)

4. Drag and drop the (unlocked)emmc_appsboot.mbn to the firmware-update folder of the OTA

5. Navigate to "META_INF/com/google/android/" and extract the updater-script file and then delete it from the zip.(make sure to keep a backup of the zip)

6. Open the file in a text editor, (I prefer Notepad++) and delete the following lines and save the file

(Edit the 7.2.5 OTA the same way or use updater-scripts provided for both OTA's from post 1)

7. Now again navigate to "META_INF/com/google/android/" and drag and drop the modified updater-script file inside the folder

8. Move this modified OTA zip to your (internal/external sd) and flash using TWRP.

9. Once done, make a system+boot bakcup in twrp, name it "7.1.8 stock"

10. Apply future updates like this and make backup with naming. Delete old backups.

Example: Make a backup named "7.2.5 stock" just after flashing 7.2.3 and 7.2.5 updates. Then root it and flash patched boot.img. If the phone starts up normal, reboot to recovery and delete 7.1.8 stock backup and keep 7.2.5 stock backup to use it for flashing future OTA.

Rooting:

Downloads from post one:

1. SuperSU zip

2. 7.2.5 boot patched.img

Instructions:

Note: Now change the mode to read/write for system partition from mount option in TWRP. Otherwise these zips will not flash.

1. Copy/Move/Download SuperSU zip and patched boot.img in your phone.

2. Extract the .rar containing the patched boot.img.

3. Reboot to recovery and Tap on Install in the TWRP main screen.

4. Select SuperSu.zip

5. To flash boot.img, the default mode is to flash zip files, you will need to toggle the mode to images.

6. To do so, tap on the Images… button on the bottom-right of the screen

7. The recovery will now only see the image files, select the patched boot.img

8. Once you select, you will be prompted to select the type of image it is, select Boot or Recovery. Select Boot.

9. Finally, swipe the button on the bottom of the screen to start the flashing process.

10. Once complete, you can go to Reboot > System.