the new policy brought that number down to a single device per year
I wish this is was China bad thing
I don’t have a phone from this brand. What system in place enforces this policy?
with xiaomi phones, unlocking the bootloader is not as simple as running
fastboot oem unlockor such from a PC. The reason for that is that manufacturers get to decide how to implement those fastboot commands, and xiaomi decided to restrict it quite a lot.my last experience was that to toggle on the switch on the phone that makes unlocking possible, you need
- a xiaomi account
- a SIM card in the phone that can send SMS
- unfiltered internet connection (more precisely it will want to connect to a specific xiaomi domain)
then, you need to install the xiaomi unlocker tool on a windows PC, log in with the same xiaomi account as on the phone, connect the phone over USB, start the unlock process, wait like 2 weeks, and finish the unlock process with the same tool.
the unlock tool most probably just retrieves a secret code from xiaomi and passes that to fastboot, but you can’t really get around it afaik, unless you want to risk rooting it through a vulnerability, which will still leave it locked
Neither do I, but you according to this you have to apply for and request an unlock code for the device, as well that the device must be online to authorize the unlock. Pretty stupid if you ask me.
online via a mobile data connection no less, presumably to allow them to reliably associate the imei to you.
They make you associate the device with a functional sim by forcing you to do the process over mobile data.
Presumably they take all the sims IDs, effectively making the limit 1 device per year per unique phone contract including data.
Going by my experiences with prepaid contracts (which got canceled due to low usage) I’d estimate that creates costs of 20€ per unlock in my region.
Well, better than no bootloader unlocking which was the rumour going around.
But this trend is certainly saddening, and it feels like it’s a matter of time before bootloader unlocking goes away altogether.
tldr:
While earlier Xiaomi allowed users to unlock up to three devices per year, the new policy brought that number down to a single device per year and applies to both China and the rest of the world.
