How to Unroot OnePlus 6 in Bootloop/Hard-Brick!

There are times where your rooted OnePlus 6 may be in a permanent bootloop situation.  No matter what you do, including trying to unroot using TWRP or even trying the fastboot unroot method, it may still be in a bootloop or in other words, “hard brick”.   Before crying on your mom’s shoulder or your wife’s shoulder, continue reading as your day is about to get better.  Here’s how to fix it.

Luckily, OnePlus provides us with factory flashing tools, which allow users to unroot or un-brick a completely hard-bricked OnePlus 6 using its MSM tool, which is probably the same tool they use to flash new firmware at OnePlus factory.

Before using this tool, obviously we recommend you to try the following unroot methods first:

If above 2 unroot method fail and you are still in a bootloop state(and believe me, it can happen as it happened to me last night), you will want to use the hard-brick unroot method outlined here:

Step 1. You need to put your phone in Qualcomm MSM mode.  To do that.  Power off your phone then connect a USB cable from your OnePlus 6 to a Windows computer first.

Then hold down Volume Up and Power buttons together and you won’t see anything but a blank screen.  If done correctly, you will hear your Windows computer making a sound like when you connect a USB device.  If you have trouble, just reboot your device using fastboot menus then immediately hold down Volume  Up and Power buttons.  Now, you can check that you are in the Qualcomm MSM mode by unplugging your phone and plugging it back into the computer and your Windows computer should make a beeping sound like shown in my video tutorial.

You can double-check also in your Windows Device Manager, and you should see something along the lines of “Qualcomm HS-USB” with a random COM number.

Step 2. Download the two firmware unroot files on our OnePlus 6 stock firmware page.

Then unzip the OnePlus 6_Hydrogen5.1.3_hardbrick.zip and you should get a new folder.

Step 3. Go into the new folder and double-click on the MSM EXE program to run it.

Step 4. You should see “Connected” under “Status of Connection”.  If you don’t see it, try rebooting your OnePlus 6 by holding down the Volume Down and Power buttons for about 20 seconds until it vibrates then immediately hold down the Volume Up and Power buttons again to enter the Qualcomm MSM mode.

Then hit “Start”.

Once flashing starts, it should take around 5 minutes.

You should see “Download Complete” when it is done unrooting your OnePlus 6 from the hard brick state and your phone will automatically reboot.

Step 5. Your phone will reboot into the HydrogenOS ROM.  The boot splash screen will look drastically different but don’t worry, we are going to reload OxygenOS ROM.

Once booted, go ahead and sign in.

Step 6. Enable USB file transfer mode by following the pics below:

Step 7. Then copy over the OxygenOS stock firmware.   You can copy over any of the OxygenOS stock firmware you want to install, just in case you are reading this in the future.

Step 8. Go into Settings->System updates.

Tap on the settings icon on top right.

Choose “Local upgrade”.  This option allows you to install ANY stock firmware on the OnePlus 6(or any OnePlus devices for the matter).  Anytime you want to install a stock firmware, you can do it right from your phone without TWRP or stock recovery.

Choose the stock firmware zip file.  Make sure you copied it into the root directory of the OnePlus 6 internal storage.  If you don’t see your stock firmware zip file here, that might be why.  You can go ahead and use the File Manager app to move it to the root directory if that is the case.

Tap on “Install Now”, grab a coffee or a smoke break as this will take about 10 minutes.

When done, tap on “reboot”.

Step 9. When rebooted, your phone should be 100% stock, just like if it came out of the factory!  Congrats!  You’ve unbricked your hard-bricked OnePlus 6!  Pat yourself on the back and make sure to bookmark HighOnAndroid.com for more cool OnePlus 6 and Android tutorials.

If you reboot into recovery, you will even see that the bootloader has been locked(if you had it unlocked).  This is because the MSM flashing tool is the same tool used at OnePlus factory!  Yey!  I love the OnePlus because they provide tools like this just in case your OnePlus phone goes south.  Have a great day and again, pat yourself on the back one more time!

 

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Max Lee

Max Lee is the founder of HighOnAndroid.com. Max makes Android tutorials and review videos for people who want to get high on Android over at his YouTube channel and Korean YouTube channel.