[Redmi K20 Pro / Xiaomi Mi 9T Pro Guides, News, & D] JBB303:
Like many, I was overwhelmed with information when trying to unlock, flash, and root my phone. After many failures, I decided to compile the good information all in one place.

I hope this helps. If it does, please consider buying me a beer...

Bitcoin Address: 17p3sW8hG5ndZqAuoDQiUE99iHwBZss6UK

Bitcoin QR Code:

________________________________________

MY SPECS

I'm using the Redmi K20 Pro running Android version 9 PKQ1.181121.001 (patched July 1, 2109) and MIUI Global 10.3.5. I am in the United States and I have Verizon as my cellular service provider. On the Redmi K20 Pro in the United States, Verizon is compatible with LTE/GSM (and CDMA, but I learned that Verizon is phasing out CDMA).

BOOTLOADER & UNLOCKING

Let me start by thanking Jumundz who saved my ass when I bricked my phone. More on that below...

"ALL IN ONE" TOOL

The following guide details how to root your phone manually. If you already understand the process, or want to tweak some of the steps, I recommend using:

ALL IN ONE tool. / (mediafire alternative link)

...or...

Xiaomi ADB Fastboot Tools (this is the current version, 2.3.1)

DEVELOPER MODE & USB DEBUGGING

To start, we need to enable Developer Mode.

Go to Settings and then click on About phone.

Then tap "MIUI version" several times (5-7 taps) until a notification reads "You are now a developer."

Go back into the main Settings menu and scroll down until you see Additional settings.

Click on Additional settings and then scroll down until you see Developer options

Click on Developer options. Here you will find a number of options that are not commonly available. If you have not unlocked your device yet, you will notice that OEM unlocking is turned off and also greyed out so that you cannot click on it. Instructions for unlocking your device can be found below.

Scroll down and tap USB debugging.

** Optional ** I also tap Install via USB just in case I want to use that down the road.

After enabling Developer Mode, connect your phone to your computer with a USB cable. (*NOTE* Some USB cables only charge your device. Make sure your USB cable is designed to permit data transfer as well.) A notification will pop up on your phone asking if you would like to allow the connection for USB debugging. Press "YES" so that the computer and phone will recognize each other in the future.

OFFICIAL MIUI UNLOCK

As many of you know, Xiaomi created obstacles for those wishing to unlock the bootloader. Xiaomi claims they created the waiting period to "deter resellers from loading shady firmware into their devices" (LINK). So, I created a Mi Account and then made the unlock request with the official MIUI unlocking tool Mi Unlock. The program that downloaded (at least for me) through the official site was miflash_unlock-en-3.5.719.27.zip

MI ACCOUNT BYPASS TOOLS?

Since unlocking my device through the official pathway, I read that you can bypass this process using other tools. ** Disclaimer ** I have not personally used these tools! XiaoMiTool (version 1) is discussed in this XDA article, but recommends using XiaoMiTool V2(Download link to the latest version of XiaoMiTool V2). XiaomiBuzz suggests using the Mi Account Unlock Tool. Here is a link to the Mi Account Unlock download file (the password required to unpack the .rar file that downloads is ourflashfile.com).

JUST IN CASE: THE MOST IMPORTANT TOOL

** Disclaimer ** You may not need this section, but if you run into problems (like I did) this is your salvation.

After a few failed attempts at rooting my Redmi K20 Pro, I flashed my device and found myself needing to unlock the bootloader (again). However, when I tried, I ran into an error message that read "you must wait 30 days before unlocking another device." Some of you have run into this problem if you accidentally lock your device while using Xiaomi ADB/Fastboot Tools or TOOL ALL IN ONE (discussed later in this guide). Luckily, I found a thread by Jumundz (LINK) that indicated that an older version of MiFlash Unlocker (version 2.2.406.5) would still unlock my device. Thankfully it did!

GET THE STUFF YOU NEED

There are several sites that suggest to offer the best way to root your device. I have tried many of them and very few have worked (it's possible that I messed up the process somewhere). Whatever... this worked for me...

Generally, I followed this guide posted on AndroidInfoTech.com. I am, however, making some recommended changes.

XIAOMI USB DRIVERS

Start by getting the USB drivers. XiaomiBuzz has a pretty comprehensive list of all Xiaomi phones and their respective USB drivers (HERE). But, here is a link to the Xiaomi Redmi K20 Pro USB Driver Package for Windows 7/8/8.1/10 (32/64-bit). Scroll down and select the download link.

Alternatively, you could download the Xiaomi Mi PC Suite through mi.com and install the drivers through that program. The version I used was 2.2.0.7032_2717.

Go ahead and install the Xiaomi USB drivers.

ADB & FASTBOOT

Next you'll need to setup ADB & Fastboot. You must have USB Debugging enabled for either of these platforms to work properly. See above for instructions on USB Debugging. Both ADB and Fastboot are utilized through the command line, so I was confused me for the longest time on when to use each one. In fact, I had trouble getting ADB to work, but Fastboot worked fine. Turns out the reverse is more common (people tend to have problems with Fastboot, but not ADB).

Here's the difference:

ADB: This is the platform that you can use when your phone is turned on normally (booted into the system). So, if you can see your your normal phone screens, then ADB will work.

FASTBOOT: Note that you can still use Fastboot when your phone is turned on normally, BUT you cannot use ADB when your phone is in Fastboot mode.

Get the latest ADB Driver Installer from miui.blog. This will install ADB and Fastboot. The current version of the ADB Driver Installer (for me) was 1.4.3. (Alternative download through Mega.nz).

Alternatively (and

I recommend this instead

), you can get the Android Platform Tools Pack for Windows which comes with the Google USB drivers, ADB, Fastboot, and the ADB/Fastboot drivers. Download it from miui.blog here, or through Mega.nz here.

Go ahead and install the file package you have chosen. Once installed, ADB and Fastboot should be able to be used universally (from anywhere on your PC). Just know that many installation guides suggest installing ADB into a special folder on your C: drive which is fine too. We will come back to this folder to run some commands later in the guide.

TWRP

You'll need TWRP which is a recovery (or "temp") operating system that will run on your phone when you're attempting to root your device. However, TWRP doesn't have an official version specific to the Redmi K20 Pro. Luckily, XDA Member madsponge26 has a list of TWRP options that will work for the Redmi K20 Pro in this thread. I recommend going with the TWRP Auto Install option. You can also download a compatible TWRP image from androidfilehost.com. Here's a link to version-3.3.1-13-raphael.

Once downloaded, extract the .zip file. It should contain 5 or 6 files. Copy all of the files and paste them into the ADB folder (if you're sticking with my recommendation, it will be the "platform-tools" folder). When you copy-and-paste these files, it may ask you if you want to replace some files with the same names. That's fine (they're the same). Just click "Yes." If you downloaded the TWRP image separately (say, from androidfilehost.com), just copy the twrp.img file into the same folder.

MAGISK

Next download Magisk.zip from the official Magisk github.com page. The latest version (for me) was Magisk v19.4. Don't bother unzipping it. This .zip file will be placed (as a .zip file) onto your phone.

DISABLE FORCE ENCRYPTION TREBLE

Also download Disable-Force-Encryption-Treble.zip. Like Magisk.zip, don't bother unzipping this file because you're going to place it (as a .zip file) onto your phone. Here's a Dropbox link to directly download the file. Otherwise you can download it from Androidfilehost.com.

FLASHING TWRP & ROOTING

Alright, you got all the software tools and now we're ready to proceed with flashing TWRP and Magisk.

With your phone powered on normally, plug your device into your computer with the USB cable.

Pull down on the screen to display the notifications. One of them should read "Android System" and indicate how the phone is interacting with your computer as a connected device. Switch it to "File Transfer." Your phone should now show up as a drive on your computer.

Open the "Redmi K20 Pro" drive on your computer and then open the "Internal shared storage" folder (it should be the only folder).

Drag and drop the Magisk.zip and the Disable-Force-Encryption-Treble.zip into that folder.

**SIDE NOTE: Some guides suggest that you wait until you're in TWRP to transfer these files. That's fine. To do so, wait until you're in the TWRP interface and then select "Mount" and "Enable MTP." Your phone's internal storage should appear as a device on your computer and you can then transfer the .zips.

Once transferred, unplug your phone from the computer and power it off.

Enter into Fastboot mode by pressing and and holding down the Volume Down button and the Power button at the same time. It may take several seconds. It will vibrate and then boot your phone into Fastboot mode.

Next, connect your phone to your computer with the USB cable.

Once you connect your phone to the computer via USB, you should hear the computer recognize the phone but you may not see it show up as a drive. That's okay.

Go to your computer and open a command line interface in the ADB folder (if you're sticking with my recommendation, it will be the "platform-tools" folder).

**NOTE: If you chose the Auto Install option of TWRP, you can simply double-click the file "flash_twrp.bat" and then skip to the next section (TWRP INTERFACE).

**TRICK: Go to the folder where you have the ADB file adb.exe and click in the file pathway (where it says "C:\Users\Username\Downloads\platform-tools_r29.0.4-windows\platform-tools" or whatever). Highlight and delete that file pathway, and instead type "cmd". Hit enter and it will open a terminal window already in the proper directory.

**SIDE NOTE: If you installed ADB/Fastboot universally, you can simply open the command line interface by clicking on Start and typing "cmd" to open a terminal window. Once in the terminal window, you can "cd" or change directory to the one where you have ADB. Also, you can use Powershell, but you may need to preference each Fastboot command with "./."

In that terminal window, make sure you're in the folder with adb.exe and then type this command:

fastboot devices

​

This command looks to make sure that the Fastboot platform recognizes your device. Next to "Fastboot Devices," you should see a series of numbers and letters. That series of numbers and letters is your phone identifier.. If you do not see any numbers/letters, then Fastboot does not see your phone and you need to troubleshoot the situation.

Next, type in the following command:

fastboot flash recovery twrp.img​

What this is doing is identifying what platform to use (fastboot), telling it what you want to do (flash), in which directory you want to perform that action (recovery), and what file to use to flash it (twrp.img). It is important to note that, depending on how you installed TWRP, the .IMG file may be called "recovery.img" or "twrp.img" or some variation of the TWRP version number. You can either rename the file to "twrp.img" or you can type in the entire filename.

Once you hit enter, it will read something like:

target reported max download size of 805306368 bytes

sending 'recovery' (65536 KB)...

OKAY [ 1.437s]

writing 'recovery'...

OKAY [ 0.254s]

finished. total time: 1.696s​

Once it's finished, enter this command to boot into the temporary TWRP recovery operating system:

fastboot boot twrp.img​

Once you hit enter, it will read something like:

downloading 'boot.img'...

OKAY [ 1.428s]

booting...

OKAY [ 0.138s]

finished. total time: 1.566s​

TWRP INTERFACE

Unplug your phone from the USB. The screen will go black and you may see the "Redmi" logo come on the screen. After a few seconds, the TWRP title page will appear. Once the TWRP operating system powers on, you may be presented with the option to enter a PIN code (if you previously had one on your phone) or a passcode. Enter the PIN or code to get into the TWRP interface.

Once in TWRP, you will have several options. Click "Install" and scroll to the bottom of the file list to find the magisk.zip that you transferred onto your phone. Go ahead and swipe right to install it. Once the installation is complete, click "Reboot System" to power the phone back on normally.

That's it. Your Redmi K20 Pro should now be rooted.

If there are any problems, start the process over from the Fastboot interface on your computer (where you flashed TWRP onto your phone with "fastboot flash recovery twrp.img"). Go through the same process, but before you install the Magisk.zip, first install the Disable-Force-Encryption-Treble.zip.

If this was helpful, please consider buying me a beer!

Bitcoin Address: 17p3sW8hG5ndZqAuoDQiUE99iHwBZss6UK

Bitcoin QR Code:

________________________________________

ALL TOOLS FROM THE ABOVE GUIDE

ALL IN ONE Tool: ALL IN ONE Tool

Alternate Download: (mediafire alternative link)

Xiaomi ADB Fastboot Tools:Xiaomi ADB Fastboot Tools v2.3.1

Mi Flash Unlock: miflash_unlock-en-3.5.719.27.zip (just the version that I used)

Mi Flash Unlock (latest version): official download site

XiaoMiTool V2 (link to download latest version): (https://www.xiaomitool.com/V2/#download).

Mi Account Unlock Tool: mediafire download (password: ourflashfile.com)

MiFlash Unlocker

2.2.406.5

: mediafire download

Alternate Download: androidfiles.host download

XIAOMI USB Drivers: Xiaomi Redmi K20 Pro USB Driver Package for Windows 7/8/8.1/10 (32/64-bit)

For ADB/FASTBOOT get...

Android Platform Tools Pack for Windows: download from miui.blog (includes: Google USB drivers, ADB, Fastboot, and the ADB/Fastboot drivers)

Alternate Download: Mega.nz download link.

TWRP Auto Install (Mega.nz link): TWRP Auto Install

TWRP 3.3.1-13-Rapheal: androidfilehost.com link

Magisk.zip: Magisk v19.4

Magisk.zip (latest version): official download site

Disable-Force-Encryption-Treble.zip: "]Dropbox direct download link