[LG V40 Guides, News, & Discussion] EBRJR:
LG V40 Recovery/Bootloader

Has anyone else had the following experience with the LG V40: I obtained mine about a three weeks ago. It does have the latest Android already loaded. It's from AT&T. While i am no expert, I always root and am usually pretty successful at it and rooting does provide functionality that I have now come to almost need. It gave me comfort that there were already "How to" explanations all over the web on recovery, root, obtain the unlock code, flashing using Fastboot in bootloader mode, etc., specific for the V40. It gave me even more comfort that various explanations were more or less consistent. Other than the fact that the Developers are not yet releasing the .bin to unlock the Bootloader (which, in time, they probably will do), it seemed like the road to rooting would go fairly smoothly.

However, when I decided to perform some very simple tasks which would be necessary to install a TWRP or some other recovery in anticipation of eventually rooting, I discovered that with my version of the V40, there is no “recovery” at all. There is a mode where one can factory reset the phone which can be reached using the hardware buttons. However, from there, you cannot do anything other than reboot to a "factory reset" of the phone or back into the system. Again, I am no expert, but for someone at my intermediate level, I do know that I do need to be able to get into a usable recovery and, more importantly, bootloader mode in order to flash a custom recovery and, eventually, to root the phone. All of my efforts lead me to conclude that there is no way of getting the phone into anything but a "factory reset". Forget about bootloader or Fastboot mode. The "factory reset" recovery gives you two choices -- reset or reboot back into the system. There is no other avenue. When I used the ADB tools while in this particular "factory reset" recovery mode, and tried to reboot into bootloader mode from there, the phone would simply boot back into the system. So, that route ended in a place where I could never install TWRP or anything else, for that matter – including the inability to apply an unlocking code if one were available. Next, I tried get into recovery mode using the ADB tools, not the physical buttons. I was able to achieve something that looked more like a “conventional” recovery — with the picture of the little Android symbol, etc. However, there are no commands to use to get into Fastboot or bootloader mode. I have had this particular problem with other phones before and sometimes, using the physical buttons at that stage, I was able to reveal commands. However, with the V40, even here, no combination of physical buttons reveals any commands. Then, as a last ditch effort, I tried to use the ADB tools to boot into bootloader mode from that more "conventional" recovery. This merely brought me back to the system again! I played around with this for quite some time before contacting the Developer website. Evidently, they aware of it but cannot understand it. I really like the phone but, without a recovery, it's not marketable. Unless someone here has any ideas, I think I and the phone will be paying a little visit to AT&T soon!