[LG V60 ThinQ Guides, News, & Discussion] Cirrus9:
Crimson,

Incredible. As far as I can tell, this is the only legitimate write-up for rooting a V60 on the internet. THANK YOU for all the time you put into solving this for people world-wide to benefit from.

I was able to (finally) Root my T-Mo USA V60, after three attempts and one totally dark bricked phone. There are a lot of very bright programmers like yourself on this forum, but there's actually a good percentage of average guys like myself who just visit once in a while to upgrade their phones, but don't make a living at it.

So, my gift to you - for helping me out with my new phone - is a slight re-write of your excellent post so that normal guys like me might understand the process a little better. This (I hope) might also cut down on all the "Help me!" responses you receive on this thread, which take up your time and make you wish you never posted anything! I hope that you see this as a supplement - all of the original knowledge in the post is still all yours. It may be helpful to edit your original post with any sections of the following (you'll need to work around the images), which you are welcome to do without needing to give any credit - you gave plenty already!

Here you go:

Please backup your data beforehand as this does wipe the phone. Also please note that if you are on android 11 LG Backup will not work after unlocking, neither does the LG Bridge tool.

***IF YOU WANT ANDROID 12, UPDATE BEFORE ROOTING, I HAVE CONFIRMED IT WORKS FINE***

All the tools you need are listed below:

Get QPST Here and install it to your Windows PC

Get the FIrehose Here

Engineering Bootloader Here

Adb and Fastboot are Here, run and install the .exe files as administrator.

Qualcomm Drivers are Here, install them making sure to select wwan.

Frp with oem unlock bit set for Verizon Here Not for demo units!

Slight knowledge of the command line

This will be a two-step process.

To unlock the bootloader (required for root), we are going to use software included in the QPST Suite to replace two abl files in the Partition Manager.

Once the bootloader is unlocked, we will use Magisk to modify two boot files, and then flash those modified files over the originals on your phone using Fastboot. That’s it!

Steps to Unlock bootloader:

Set up Developer Options and USB Debugging on your phone.

If you already have it unhidden, go to Developer Options under Settings -> System and enable OEM Unlock as well as USB Debugging. If you don't see Developer Options go to Settings => System => About Phone => Software Information and tap Build Number until it either asks you for your password or says you are a developer at the bottom. Verizon Users: You will not see the oem unlock option, we will fix this later in this guide.

Put your V60 into 9008 (EDL) Mode: (This may take several tries)

Make sure the phone is connected to your computer via USB (Original LG USB cable preferred)

Hold Volume Down and Power until the phone shuts off.

As soon as the screen turns off, immediately start tapping volume up quickly, but do not let go of volume down and power. If you did it successfully you will see your screen is off but the phone appears either in Device Manager, or Windows plays the Device Connected sound.

Let’s confirm that the phone has installed with the correct driver for EDL

Open Device Manager on your PC by tapping the Windows button + X and clicking Device Manager.

Your V60 should be listed as “Android Device” at the top, or in USB ports. Check that is installed with the “QD Loader 9008” driver.

The QPST program you installed is actually a suite of different softwares. In your Windows Start menu, click the down arrow next to QPST and find QFIL. Open QFIL and click “Select Port” on the top right. In the window that opens, select your phone and click Okay. If there is no phone listed, you either have a connection problem (cable?) or a driver problem.

Now, at the top of the window, click Configuration=>Firehose Configuration. Set up your Download (Firehose) configuration as follows:

When you’re done with that, click okay, and in the original window, select “Flat Build” under “Build Type”. Then click Browse and select the Firehose you downloaded earlier.

Now we are going to have QFIL read the contents of the phone so we can find and modify two files. Click on the Tools menu at the top and select Partition Manager (If this errors please reboot back into EDL using the steps mentioned above!)

You will see a log file created in the “Status” box at the bottom of the window, then a new window will pop up labeled “Partition Manager”. Scroll through the list until you find “abl_a” and “abl_b”. Right click on each individually and click “Manage Partition”.

A new, smaller window will pop up labeled “Raw Data Manager”. First thing you want to do for each is click Read Data. This will back them up in case anything goes wrong. The backed up file location will be at the bottom of the “Status” box, so make note of it after reading each file. Then for each, click Load Image, and select the Engineering Bootloader you downloaded from before.

If you chose the wrong file or delete something, you can restore the original file by going to Raw Data Manager=>Load Image and replacing your mistake with the original file that was backed up (Read). The originals will be stored in C\Users\[your username]\Appdata\Roaming\Qualcomm\QFIL\[the comport you were plugged in to]. If you hover over the filename, it will give you a time saved, which will help you to locate the one you’re looking for. (Don’t ask me how I know this) :)

Once you get that done for both abl_a and abl_b, click close on both the Raw Data Manager and Partition Manager and wait for QFIL to say “Finish - Reset to EDL” in the logs at the bottom. We are done with QFIL, but keep it open for the next step.

Now it's time to get our phone into Fastboot.

Staying connected to your PC, press and Hold Power and Volume Down for 9 seconds

Once you either see the phone disappear from QFIL or you hear it disconnect from your PC, let go of power, until you see Fastboot Mode on your Phone's screen.

Open the command prompt on your computer as administrator.

Verify that fastboot can see the phone by typing “fastboot devices”, (don’t type the quotation marks in the command line). If fastboot can communicate with your phone, it will return with a line describing the V60 model. If it can’t see your V60, we need to:

Check your USB Connection

Check that you installed the adb and fastboot stuff from earlier in the post

Go to your Device manager again.

You may find your phone under “Android” at the top, or in Unknown Devices, or listed in USB ports.

When you find it, right click on it and select Update Drivers.

Select Browse my computer for drivers.

Select Let me pick from a list of available drivers.

Select Android Device.

Select Android Bootloader Interface.

Click Ok on the pop up

Now here comes the fun part, unlocking!

Please make sure you have your data backed up!

If you are on Verizon (and it's not a demo unit)

Make sure you downloaded the file from above for the unlocked frp

In the command line, type “fastboot flash frp frp.img” (no quotes)

Then type “fastboot reboot” and let it boot into android once, no need to set it up.

Reboot the phone back to Fastboot using step 9.

Type “fastboot oem unlock”.

On your phone, select “Unlock the Bootloader” using the Volume Down and Power buttons; your phone will wipe and reboot

On any other variant

In the command line, type “fastboot oem unlock”

On your phone, select “Unlock the Bootloader”; your phone will wipe and reboot

You’re unlocked! Rooting guide will be on post 3.

Steps to Root the V60 Once it’s Unlocked:

Rooting with Magisk:

You need to have already done the unlock mentioned above

Go back to the bootloader unlocking guide and go all the way to the Partition Manager part, but don't flash anything.

Now find and right click on boot_a, click Manage Partition Data, and click Read Data. Do the same for boot_b. This will save each file to a folder on your PC.

After each “Read”, note the filename and location at the bottom of the Status box. Again, they will be saved to: C\Users\[your username]\Appdata\Roaming\Qualcomm\QFIL\[the comport you were plugged in to]. The saved filenames will be unrelated to abl_a or abl_b, but if you wait a couple of minutes between each Read, you will also be able to tell which was saved first by hovering over the saved files and seeing the time they were saved.

Copy each saved file to an easily accessible folder on your PC.

Rename the extracted files “boot_a.img” and “boot_b.img”.

Either use an existing device with Magisk installed, or restart your V60 with Magisk on it (make sure you have the most recent Magisk-v2x.x.apk). We’re just going to use Magisk to modify the abl files and then transfer them back to our PC, so Magisk does not have to be on the V60 you are rooting.

Transfer the boot_a and boot_b images from your PC to a convenient folder on the Magisk-equipped device.

In the top half of the Magisk App, where it says Magisk, click “Install”, then choose “Select and Patch a File”. Locate the boot_a and boot_b img files you saved to your device and select one. Magisk will modify the file, and write the new modified file to the same folder the original is in. Make sure to patch both boot images separately!

When both files are modified, transfer the patched images back to the same folder as the originals on your PC . To make it easier to identify the patched images, you can rename them to something like MagiskPatchedBoot_a.img and MagiskPatchedBoot_b.img

Now, get the V60 that we are rooting into fastboot mode by either:

Shutting the phone off, and holding volume down while plugging in the usb cable, or

Type “adb reboot bootloader” in the command line if you have adb debugging setup.

Check your device manager again on your PC to confirm that the V60 is communicating with your PC via an Android Bootloader Interface driver as in step 12 in the Unlocking instructions.

Open the folder in which you have saved your Magisk patched boot images. In the directory path at the top (underneath the File-Home-Share-View tabs), click on a white space and then type “cmd” and Enter. This will open a command prompt window already set to the folder you are in.

Type “fastboot flash boot_a MagiskPatchedBoot_a.img” (use whatever filename you named YOUR patched image to) and “fastboot flash boot_b MagiskPatchedImage_b.img” (no quotes). You’re telling the Fastboot program to re-write the boot_a and boot_b files on your V60 with the modified files you created in Magisk.

That’s it! Before you unplug your phone, type “fastboot reboot” and let your phone reboot to a normal lock screen. You are ROOTED! After all this, don’t go bricking your phone by deleting the wrong things!! :)