OnePlus Nord is the most hyped mid-range phone of the year 2020. It is now one of the most pre-booked phones on Amazon. And the best thing is the root method for OnePlus Nord is already available. Till now the OnePlus Nord is not even available on most of the market. The device is popular enough to attract many custom developers for its upcoming developments like Custom ROMs. Here you will know how to Root OnePlus Nord and how to unlock bootloader on the OnePlus Nord.

First of all the device is a mid-range phone with 5G capable chipset. It features a big 6.44-inch fluid AMOLED display with a 90hZ refresh rate. This could be a good move by OnePlus after so many negative reviews on OnePlus 8 Pro. The latest OnePlus Nord comes with a Snapdragon 765G processor with 5G support. And the other important feature is that the Nord comes with up to 12GB RAM onboard which we only get on flagship devices.

Similar to other OnePlus devices it also runs on OxygenOS which is everyone’s favorite. It does not have customization options like the OneUI but it is stable and better in performance. And rooting will also remove the customization gap on your OxygenOS as you get a lot of advanced customization options. Some of the notable features of rooting OnePlus Nord is that it brings support for custom fonts, custom boot animation, third party themes, and more. You can also enable other hidden features on your phone. In this guide, we will also share how to unlock the bootloader on OnePlus Nord along with its root guide.

How to Root OnePlus Nord

OnePlus Nord was previously going to be the OnePlus Z at least according to rumors. But OnePlus had a completely different name in their mind. They named the device as OnePlus Nord. The straight forward reason for a lot of OnePlus custom development is the popularity which is because of good specifications under affordable and reasonable prices. Of Course, most users trust Samsung and Apple in the flagship range but those are out of budget for many users.

OnePlus phones have always been user friendly when it comes to modifications like rooting and installing custom ROMs. And the same we can expect for the OnePlus Nord. You can root your OnePlus Nord as early as you receive the phone in your hand. But first, we have to unlock the bootloader of the OnePlus Nord to make your device eligible for rooting. So let’s first check the unlock bootloader guide.

OnePlus Nord Unlock Bootloader

If you have rooted your phone earlier like between 2-3 years then you may already know about the bootloader. All the Android phones come with locked bootloader, except for some devices that go on sale with unlocked bootloader in some regions. If your device is locked then you are not allowed to make changes in any of your phone partitions. It means you can not even root your device before unlocking the bootloader. Luckily, OnePlus allows its users to unlock bootloader on their OnePlus phones. And if you are not aware of the method then here we will share the guide to unlock bootloader on OnePlus Nord.

1. To unlock the bootloader, the first step should be taking the backup of your phone as it will erase all data from your device.
2. Make sure to update your phone to the latest OxygenOS (as for now 10.5.2).
3. After the initial setup, go to Settings on your phone.
4. Scroll down to the end and open About Phone. In the About phone tap 7-8 times on build number. It will show ‘You are now a developer’.
5. Now the developer options are enabled, you can access it through Settings > System > Developer Options.
6. In the Developer Options, enable OEM Unlocking and USB Debugging on your OnePlus Nord.
7. Install ADB & Fastboot drivers on your computer. You can use the Platform Tools file in case you have Mac or Linux.
8. Now open the command window on your computer.
9. Boot your phone into Fastboot mode (you can enable advanced reboot in developer option to easily reboot into bootloader)
10. Once your phone boots into fastboot/bootloader mode, connect it to your computer.
11. Now enter the below command to initiate the bootloader unlocking process.

    • fastboot oem unlock

12. If the above command asks for your permission then select yes using volume buttons and power button.
13. It will unlock the bootloader of your OnePlus Nord. After that reboot and setup your device.

Once you have the bootloader unlocked of your OnePlus Nord, your phone is ready for modification. You can now root your phone or even install custom ROMs on your device. Remember you do not need root access to install custom ROMs on your phone. Let’s now check the method to root OnePlus Nord after a small but important to-do list.

Prerequisites

• Take a full backup of your phone
• Charge your phone to at least 50%
• Make sure bootloader is unlocked
• Install ADB & Fastboot driver on your computer (Skip if already done)
• Download latest Magisk Manager app by Topjohnwu
• Download the boot.img file for the same OxygenOS version that you are using (India & EU)

Steps to Root OnePlus Nord

1. In case if the boot.img for the same OxygenOS version is not available then you can extract the boot file from firmware.
2. Copy the boot.img to your OnePlus Nord internal storage.
3. Now install the Magisk Manager app on your phone.
4. Open the Magisk Manager app and then click on Install > Install.
5. Now tap on ‘Select and Patch a File’ in the pop up screen.
6. Then browse and select the boot.img from the internal storage.
7. It will now start patching your file. After patching, the file will be saved in the Download folder with name magisk_patched.img.
8. Copy the patched file to your computer to the location (C:\adb) and rename it to boot.img. Copy inside the Platform Tools folder if you are using it instead of drivers.
   
9. Again boot your OnePlus Nord into bootloader/fastboot mode. Follow the steps given in the unlock bootloader section.
10. Connect your phone to PC and open the command window from C:\adb or platform tools folder.
11. Now you need to check the currently active slot so enter the below fastboot command

    • fastboot getvar current-slot

12. The above command will show a or b as an active slot. In below commands follow the first one if the previous command gives a. And follow second if it gives b.

    • fastboot flash boot_a boot.img

    • fastboot flash boot_b boot.img

13. The above command will flash the patched boot image file on your OnePlus Nord.
14. Reboot your phone and enjoy all the root features on your OnePlus Nord.

After rooting your OnePlus Nord, you are free to perform any activity on your phone without restrictions. Such as you can install Ad Blockers to remove Ads from your phone. Also you can uninstall system apps that come pre-installed but you don’t use them. And you can install a powerful Xposed framework for various Xposed modules on your OnePlus Nord.

So there you have it the complete guide on how to root OnePlus Nord. This is the common method that you can also use for other OnePlus phones. In case if you have any questions then let us know in the comments section below.

Also Check:

• Download TWRP Recovery for OnePlus 8 Pro & Install Custom ROMs
• How to Enable Always On Display on OnePlus Phones [Detailed Guide]
• How to Unbrick OnePlus 8 Pro with Unbrick Tool [MSMDownloadTool]