Xiaomi Phone unlock requirements and procedure

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Most Xiaomi phones come with a bootloader that might be able to unlock, but unlike the Android's default unlocking procedure, Xiaomi had the following requirements in 2022:

• The user must create and link a Xiaomi account to their phone
  • This requires accepting the EULA for creating an account
    • Stated directly in the EULA is the following

      6. Modification of this Agreement Xiaomi may need to revise this Agreement and various rules from time to time in accordance with the promulgation of laws and regulations, the development of the Internet, and the adjustment of the company's operating conditions and business strategies. We will notify you of the new agreement in an appropriate manner, and you may view the latest version of the terms of the agreement on the relevant service page. Once the revised agreement and rules are announced, they will take effect immediately and become an integral part of this Agreement. If you do not agree to the modified terms, you shall immediately discontinue your use of our services. Your continued access or use of our services shall be deemed as your acceptance of the modified agreement.

• The user must use the official Mi Unlock app (only available for Windows)
• For certain devices, Xiaomi requires users to

  Click on Unlock » Unlock anyway. On your first attempt, Mi Unlock will flash the message Couldn’t unlock. Please unlock 168 hours later. Follow the timer / waiting period to unlock successfully.

• Effective January 2025, Xiaomi has updated its bootloader unlocking policy to make it difficult for users to unlock the bootloaders on their devices. The updates include but are not limited to:
  • Limiting users to only one device bootloader unlock per year, down from three
  • Bootloaders need to be re-locked for MIUI users to update to HyperOS
  • Only 2,000 devices per day can be unlocked across the world. People are using bots to login at midnight (Chinese time), when the 2,000 slots are released — making unlocking practically impossible.
  • An attempt to unlock the bootloader of a device made for the China market will show as error 20045, as shown on xdaforums. This is unavoidable unless you have a Chinese Xiaomi account and you are in China.

    

    What the 20045 error looks like (account location not matching vendor location).

Ways around the limitations

On some MediaTek-based devices, users with advanced technical skills can try unofficial means such as using mtkclient to try and unlock the bootloader without going through the official Xiaomi procedure. This should be done at the users' own risk, as it voids the warranty, may brick the device and/or lock the device out from all official means of unlocking.

As of 2025 there is still a way to get round the limited number of authorizations for the many Xiaomi devices with Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, which was working with devices running HyperOS 3 in 2025. Other ways published in the past no longer worked.