Last Updated on July 4, 2022 by Mathew Diekhake

Customizing a Lenovo smartphone can be fun provided you know what you are doing thanks to some clear guidance and sound advice. Sometimes the hardest part is not following the guide itself but knowing whether you need to have an unlocked bootloader or not to get things under way. It’s important information that is often left out.

For what it’s worth, there are smartphones out there that do not need to have the bootloader unlocked before they can be rooted or have a custom recovery installed. We see this all the time with Samsung devices and getting rooted with the CF-Auto-Root tool. Furthermore, we see it with Samsung when people go to install TWRP Recovery.

Lenovo Vibe X3 Row

We can tell you that the Lenovo Vibe X3 ROW smartphone does need to have the bootloader unlocked before you can start thinking about things like installing a custom recovery or rooting the device.

Here is everything you need to unlock the bootloader on the Lenovo Vibe X3 ROW smartphone so you can get stuck into some other guides, including installing a custom recovery and rooting the device:

Files You Need

  1. Download the Windows 10 bootloader unlock tool from here.
  2. Download the Windows 7 bootloader unlock tool from here.
  3. Download the secure boot disabled boot images file from here.

You must use a computer that is running either Windows 10 or Windows 7 to use this guide according to the developer. The tools won’t work on any other operating system, including the Windows 8 operating system.

Make sure you uninstall any drivers that are associated with other smartphones or tablets not from the Lenovo brand. They have been known to cause issues with this guide.

How to Unlock Lenovo Vibe X3 ROW Bootloader

  1. Enable the USB Debugging Mode on your Lenovo Vibe X3 ROW smartphone.
  2. Enable the OEM unlocking option from the Developer Options menu.
  3. Extract the BootloaderUnlock ZIP file to any folder and make sure the complete path has no spaces.
  4. Copy the boot.img file from Windows bootloader unlock firmware zip files and paste it in BootloaderUnlock > ‘BootloaderUnlocker’ > ‘files’ folder.
  5. Open the Drivers+QFIL folder in the BootloaderUnlock folder and run the drivers bat file to install the latest Lenovo drivers on your computer.
  6. Navigate to the Start menu or Cortana menu and run the QFIL program.
  7. Confirm the Flat Build option from the build type area.
  8. Click on the ‘Browse’ button and upload the ‘prog_emmc_firehose_8992_ddr.mbn.’ file from the ‘Modded_QFIL_Images’ folder in BootloaderUnlock folder.
  9. Click on the ‘Load XML’ option and select the ‘rawprogram0.xml.’ file, followed by the ‘patch0.xml.’ file.

In conclusion, that’s all you need to unlock the bootloader on your Lenovo Vibe X3 ROW X3a40 smartphone so you can start modifying your device.

Now you can find out how to root and install a custom recovery on the Lenovo Vibe X3 ROW X3a40 smartphone to run your rooted applications or install a custom ROM.

The QFIL part of the guide has caused a few people problems. Any people facing the same QFIL issues should reply to this thread and not the thread that is made for the rooting guide.

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