[Xiaomi Redmi Note 7 Guides, News, & Discussion] alexpedroza:
I'm opening this topic because i was having a serious headache to solve my problem. You can find several tutorials on how to unbrick Xiaomi smartphones, but when the bootloader is locked it's another story. First of all, sorry for my english, i used Google Translator. That's said, lets go.

I bought my RN7 and it came with an UNLOCKED BOOTLOADER, GLOBAL version, and i decided to give a full wipe and LOCK the bootloader. That's when my headache started. After flashing using MiFlash and locking my device, when it booted, this message appeared: "This MIUI version can't be installed on this device". To my despair, the bootloader was blocked and i was unable to even install a custom recovery to try to reverse the situation. I spent an entire day without stop, searching on web how to solve this problem, even tried EDL mode + QFIL or EDL mode + MiFlash, but the same message remained when i tried to start my device: "This MIUI version can't be installed on this device ". For a few moments i thought i had lost my phone. Suddenly i remembered my Redmi Note 7 it came with a UNLOCKED BOOTLOADER, then i remembered something else: with an unlocked bootloader, you can install ROMs from all regions (China, Russia, Europe, India, etc). After trying the EDL + QFIL method with an CHINESE ROM, my device started.

In short: the seller gave me a Redmi Note 7 from CHINA region saying it was GLOBAL, he must have unlocked the bootloader himself and installed a global ROM to trick me, even the RN7 box says GLOBAL VERSION. When i tried to lock bootloader and wipe, the global ROM was not compatible because my device was Chinese, not Global, and the message "This MIUI version can't be installed on this device" appeared. Above i inform my steps and i hope it helps many people who are going through the same situation as me, without further ado, follow all the steps EXACTLY in the same way and sequence, as there may be a problem if they try one step before the other:

Pre Requisites:

- Download QFIL

- Download Redmi Note 7 "firehose" (or your device version), in case RN7 lavender is the file "prog_emmc_firehose_Sdm660_ddr.mbn"

- Download and extract a ROM for the region you want to test (chinese ROM in my case, search on Google "chinese image redmi note 7")

NOTE: remembering that the ROM and region may vary, if yours does not work in China, try in another region that will probably work

Steps:

1 - Install QFIL

2 - Move the extracted ROM image folder (after you extract the rom, will appear a folder like "lavender_images_V12.0.1.0.QFGCNXM_20200714.0000.00_10.0_cn", for example) to the QFIL "Bin" directory (eg "C:\Program Files (x86)\QPST\bin")

3 - Copy the firehose file (prog_emmc_firehose_Sdm660_ddr.mbn) to the extracted ROM/images folder (ex: "C:\Program Files (x86)\QPST\bin\lavender_images_V12.0.1.0.QFGCNXM_20200714.0000.00_10.0_cn\images")

4 - Open QFIL AS AN ADMINISTRATOR

5 - Select Build Type: Flat Build, Programmer Path: select firehose file (prog_emmc_firehose_Sdm660_ddr.mbn), click on "Load XML" and select the XML files that will appear (in my case "rawprogram0" and then "patch0")

6 - At this point, you will have to enable EDL mode on your smartphone, you will have to open, disconnect the battery and cause a type of short for the computer recognize the smartphone on USB port

NOTE: please search for a video that teach how to do this, unfortunately i can't post videos here. Also, open the device manager of the computer and keep an eye on the session of "COM and LTP ports" so that when the device is shorted and you connect the USB cable on PC, it will appears there

7 - Click on the "Download" button and wait for the procedure to be completed

NOTE: if you have an error such as "sahara fail, download fail", it was due to not having performed the steps in that order. Follow step by step the way i told you, if you connect to EDL before opening QFIL it can go wrong, or not run as an administrator.

That's it, i hope it helps a lot of people, unfortunately i can't help more than that because i'm not an expert, i just showed my step by step to get me out of this situation. If you don't have a Redmi Note 7, have another device on the same line, you can try these same steps, only with another firehose file and another ROM, to see if it works. Don't give up, you manage to unbrick you device!

Hope this helps!