Yet another company makes flashing custom ROMs more restrictive

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Credit: C. Scott Brown / Android Authority

• It appears Xiaomi has changed its bootloader unlocking policy.
• The new policy limits users to one unlock on one device each year.
• Years ago, there was no limit, and only recently, Xiaomi had limited it to three unlocks per user per year.

Years ago, if you had an Android phone, you could unlock its bootloader. You could do this on virtually any device and do it as much as you liked. Over the years, though, some companies have tried to prevent users from doing this, whether through hardware/software on the device itself or through company-owned systems that “license” an unlock to the user.

It appears that Xiaomi recently changed its policy for unlocking device bootloaders. As first spotted by XiaomiTime, the company’s new policy is that users may unlock up to one device each year. Xiaomi is able to enforce this through an unlock licensing system.




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