Hello!

I'm very interested in the BV9500 Pro, and I know a lot of potential customers are in the same boat as me--

I'm not able to buy or use any device I don't fully own and have full control over (ie. OEM unlock, ROM flashing, root/magisk, etc).  I commit to my devices for a *long* time (in fact, I'm still using a Samsung Note 3), and customize every aspect of its behavior.  I'm running a locally built LineageOS 14.1 ROM currently, and would like to experiment with LOS on the BV9500 Pro.

I recently purchased a Huawei MediaPad m5 and it was a nightmare to unlock.  So bad, in fact, that I can never, ever purchase a product from Huawei again, and am now quite nervous about investing in a new phone.

So, that brings me to my question:

What is Blackview's official stance on 3rd party ROM development, bootloader locking, and root?  I fully understand that it may void warranty, but before I take the plunge and buy a 9500 Pro, I'd just like some kind of reassurance from Blackview that there aren't any intentions to cripple our devices and, for example, block fastboot oem unlock.

Thanks!

Hi there, rooting can't be officially supported for obvious reasons (and will void the warranty as happens to other phone brands) , but it doesn't mean it can't be done

One user that I've seen has reported root, and of course to use his tutorial you have to be a member of some forum I've never heard of, to download a special file, ....     not for me.

BUT

You can find, easily enough, documentation that shows how to unlock the bootloader.
Then you can find, again easily enough, the tool that allows you to flash to the partitions of this device.
Trick is, you need the one for MediaTek devices.  I think it's called "SPFlashTool" but I could be mistaken.
You then need the ROM.  There are stock ROMs available (I was e-mailed a MediaFire (IIRC) link to one older ROM by Sophia@blackview and was able to flash it, successfully, to my phone, but I don't know the first thing about customizing them or what kind of security checks are done by the system when flashing or booting them).

However,

Once you unlock the bootloader you will have a reminder that you've altered your phone (you dirt, rotten, scoundrel HACKER, you!) written across the screen every time you reboot.  Then, you won't be able to re-lock your bootloader.  At least, I've not been able to. 

Like Admin says, it doesn't mean it can't be done

Good luck!  I'd love to have a more generic, vanilla ROM and the ability to map the SOS button to camera shutter, but I don't want to risk giving up the ability to use the 2-way radio which was the reason I bought this phone in the first place.

Once you unlock the bootloader you will have a reminder that you've altered your phone (you dirt, rotten, scoundrel HACKER, you!) written across the screen every time you reboot.  Then, you won't be able to re-lock your bootloader.  At least, I've not been able to.  

That's not true.  I've relocked the bootloader on my BV9500 successfully. It erases all data on the phone again, but keeps the custom recovery. I don't expect the BV9500 Pro would be any different.

csewell wrote:

Once you unlock the bootloader you will have a reminder that you've altered your phone (you dirt, rotten, scoundrel HACKER, you!) written across the screen every time you reboot.  Then, you won't be able to re-lock your bootloader.  At least, I've not been able to.  

That's not true.  I've relocked the bootloader on my BV9500 successfully. It erases all data on the phone again, but keeps the custom recovery. I don't expect the BV9500 Pro would be any different.

Great news!   How did you manage that, though?  I'd love to have a recovery where I can back up the current ROM before a ROM upgrade in case I need to revert.  And do I assume correctly that you have root access?  If so, how did you manage that, as well?
Thanks for the info!

csewell wrote:

Once you unlock the bootloader you will have a reminder that you've altered your phone (you dirt, rotten, scoundrel HACKER, you!) written across the screen every time you reboot.  Then, you won't be able to re-lock your bootloader.  At least, I've not been able to.  

That's not true.  I've relocked the bootloader on my BV9500 successfully. It erases all data on the phone again, but keeps the custom recovery. I don't expect the BV9500 Pro would be any different.

That's great news!   How did you manage that, though?  I don't recall what commands work in fastboot, but I recall "oem_unlock" or something similar, so I tried "oem_lock" and it didn't work.  Obviously I had the wrong command.

I'd love to have a recovery where I can back up the current ROM before a ROM upgrade in case I need to revert.  And do I assume correctly that you have root access?  If so, how did you manage that, as well?
Thanks for the info!

csewell wrote:

Once you unlock the bootloader you will have a reminder that you've altered your phone (you dirt, rotten, scoundrel HACKER, you!) written across the screen every time you reboot.  Then, you won't be able to re-lock your bootloader.  At least, I've not been able to.  

That's not true.  I've relocked the bootloader on my BV9500 successfully. It erases all data on the phone again, but keeps the custom recovery. I don't expect the BV9500 Pro would be any different.

Could you elaborate? What files did you use? What build, stock version, update version, etc did you use? I'm having trouble with the custom recovery. It appears to flash but never boots, just boot loops back into normal mode. Or If possible/preferred for you, PM me all of your resources

OK some of this stuff you probably already know, but I didn't, so it might seem like too much.

I started with info from this site: https://4pda.ru/forum/index.php?showtopic=908095&st=3660 (I'm not russian so google translate was indispensable). You can get the stock ROM from there, which you can flash using SP_Flash_Tool_v5.1844 if you run into problems. Complete instructions on rooting and the TWRP recovery can be found at: https://www.needrom.com/download/bv9500pro-bv9500-root/.

- install an SD card in the phone and put Magisk and encryption unlocker zips on it. Set up the SD card for file transfer, not as an extension to the phone's memory.
- allow OEM unlock in the dev-settings (hit 5 times build number to see)
- allow usb debugging
- reboot to fastboot
- send "fastboot devices" command to make sure the phone is seen
- send "fastboot oem unlock" -> acknowledge
- send "fastboot flashing unlock" -> acknowledge
- flash the twrp image "fastboot flash recovery name_of_the_image.img"
- reboot into twrp by power off the device
- after that press vol+ up and power buttonto get into twrp
- now u need a sd-card (micro) put no verity opt encrypt on it and magisk
- Backup all partitions u find (I didn't bother)
- format data partition to get the size (Didn't do this either)
- install Magisk
- install no verity opt...
 - reboot

Of course unlocking or relocking the bootloader will erase everything from the phone so back it up first. Apps, some settings, SMS messages, and phone call history are backed up into google and can be restored easily since you are basically doing a factory reset and setting up the phone from scratch. To back up all the other stuff, things in the download folder, photos in the DCIM directory, data from other apps, etc, I  installed and payed for the OneSync app in the android store which you can use to sync folders on the phone to cloud storage of  your choice. Before rooting, I synced everything I wanted to keep to the cloud, saved the OneSync settings and transfered the OneSync backup to the SD card. After rooting, I transferred the backup back, restored the settings, and it will copied everything back to the phone since I set 2-way mirror for the synced folders. Very handy utility and well worth the price. Alternatively, copy everything you want to keep to the SD card and copy it back afterward.

There are more recent versions of Magisk and Magisk manager available which I used (18.1 and 7.0.0).  Before restoring everything, relock the bootloader (fastboot oem lock ) and flashing (fastboot flashing lock) to get rid of the warning and delay when booting the phone. I've found that Magisk Manager reports Magisk not installed sometimes, just boot to TWRP recovery and re-install it.

It's important to install the disable encryption, otherwise you get prompted for a password every time you boot into TWRP.  Also, TWRP recovery is in Russian, and your language and timezone choices won't be saved if the data partition is encrypted.

Hope this helps.

If we unroot the phone, uninstall any custom ROMs we had on it and relock the bootloader, can we use the warranty again?

Also, from what part of what I said do we lose the warranty? From the point we unlock the bootloader? (I know by rooting we lose it) Is unlocking the bootloader fine with Blackview like it is with OnePlus? Does it not matter and if we try to install custom ROMs we lose the warranty? How does this work with Blackview?

Thanks in advance.

I saw that in a lot a forum and it is claimed by a lot of phone company commercials.
By law, changing the SOFTWARE of your phone will NOT void your warranty.
The same goes with any hardware that includes a software.

To be clear, if the manufacturer can prove that the software modification actually causes the damage (changing cpu voltage, emitter power...) your warranty claim will be rightfully denied. But the manufacturer must prove it.

Be aware that the seller can give you a hard time but the law (in UE) and case law (in US) are on your side.