K92 is the last and only K series 5G device from LG. As LG is shutting down its cellphone division, we won’t see another LG K series smartphone in the future.
A few years ago, it was possible to root an LG smartphone in one click without using a computer. Rooting apps like Kingroot were able to root the phone even with a locked bootloader. This worked until Android Lollipop. Since Marshmallow, the android security is tightened.
To root my LG K20 plus running on Android 7 Nougat, I followed the long rooting procedure using a computer. In this process, we need to unlock the bootloader, install a custom recovery such as TWRP, and then flash a Magisk or SuperSu root file via TWRP to gain root.
Let’s follow the same procedure to root LG K92 5G –
How to root LG K92 5G
To unlock the K92 bootloader, we need to enable OEM Unlock & USB Debugging. These options are found on the “Developer Options” page.
Let’s open the “Settings” app to get access to “Developer Options”.
Open Settings and select “System”.
Now, tap “Developer Options” as shown above.
On the top of the page, you’ll find the “Enable OEM unlock” option. Tap this option.
A warning pop-up appears on the screen, hit “Enable” to accept this warning. Google’s FRP (Factory Reset Protection), won’t work as long as OEM unlock remains enabled.
Now, scroll down on the Developer Options page and enable “USB Debugging” in the same way.
Hit “OK” to Allow USB Debugging.
We have enabled OEM Unlocking & USB Debugging. Now, let’s connect our K92 5G to the computer using a USB-C cable.
An “Allow USB Debugging” request appears on the phone screen. To authorize this computer for USB Debugging, we need to accept this request.
Hit “Allow” to allow USB debugging.
Now, we need to wait for the ADB Interface driver to install. The installation status can be checked using the Device Manager.
On my PC, the LGE ADB Interface driver has installed successfully.
Now, for USB Debugging we are going to use the tool “Minimal ADB & Fastboot”. Let’s install and launch this tool.
The Minimal ADB & Fastboot tool has launched the CMD window. Let’s use it to write the ADB commands.
First of all, we are going to check the ADB connection. Let’s type the command adb devices and hit enter.
The command line output is LMQ920 device
If the output in your case is LMQ920 unauthorized you need to check your phone screen and accept the “Allow USB Debugging” request.
Now, we are ready to boot our K92 5G into fastboot mode for bootloader unlocking –
LG K92 5G Bootloader Unlock
The command line to access the fastboot mode is adb reboot bootloader
After writing the adb reboot bootloader command, the phone restarted and landed on the home screen. We didn’t get access to the fastboot mode.
Let’s try another fastboot command –
There is one more command for the fastboot mode.
Type adb reboot fastboot and click enter on your PC keyboard
We are now in the LG K92 Fastboot Mode.
In this mode, we need to use the volume rocker and power keys. The touch doesn’t work.
Let’s move down from “Reboot system now” to “Reboot to bootloader” using the volume down button.
Now, to “Reboot to bootloader”, we need to press the Power button once.
Unfortunately, the phone again rebooted to the home screen. The “Bootloader unlock” page is not accessible on the LG K92 5G.
Without unlocking the bootloader we cannot root K92.
You can see the LG Stylo 4 bootloader unlock page. After reaching this page, we need to write the bootloader unlock command – fastboot oem unlock
As we didn’t get access to this page on K92, we cannot root this phone as of now.
LG K92 5G TWRP Custom Recovery
Without unlocking the bootloader, we cannot flash a custom recovery. The command line to install TWRP is fastboot flash recovery recovery.img
The above command line can be used only after unlocking the bootloader.
LG K92 5G Custom ROM / Lineage OS
A Custom ROM offers improved performance and additional features over the stock ROM. A Custom ROM such as Lineage OS is in the form of a flashable zip file, similar to the Magisk/SuperSU root file.
It can only be flashed via a custom recovery such as TWRP. As we failed to install TWRP, we cannot flash a Custom ROM on LG K92 5G.
Now, that you’ve enabled USB Debugging on your K92, you may like to move apps to SD card as per the below tutorial –
How to move apps to SD card on LG K92
How happy are you with the LG K92 5G? Please share your experience in the comment section below.