@ziclaud That's definitely going to be one of the biggest problems going forward. It's 100% legal pretty much across the world for providers and OEMs to lock the bootloader and not let the users unlock them. Now Google is going to have incentive eventually to do their own part to lock them even further. (All they have to do is remove the OS option to unlock and it will require jumping through major hoops again — the unlocking function going through the OS was supposed to be a protection mechanism, but that will be gone again...)

It's going to be a real mess.

We may reach a point that the only way to get something third party onto a smartphone involves finding and utilizing hardware exploits and such.

@ziclaud

You need to make a xiaomi account and bind it to your device. It has a 24+h wait, allegedly. I have no idea how it works, though, I have never done it.

I'd recommend using something else than a phone. 🫠

@ziclaud depends on the device. My Redmi Note 11 took two attempts before I could finally unlock the bootloader, I had to wait 2 weeks because I clicked twice on the Mi Unlock tool.

You need a Xiaomi account, insert a SIM card into your phone, use that phone number for the Xiaomi account, then you can start the verification process. It's horrible, but it can be done.