Huawei Honor 6 (H60-L04): How to unlock bootloader, flash custom recovery, and root the device

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It’s been a while since I settled into a new Android daily driver, and I’d like to bring all the apps and most importantly its data from my old Nexus to the new device. There are a ton of other great phones out there, sure, but the [Huawei] Honor 6 is what I happen to own right now and I intend to migrate everything over. Third party support for Huawei’s devices are not as great as the Nexus community, but it’s there (mostly in Chinese, which I can’t read).

There are basically just three things we need to do in order to get root access of the phone: unlock bootloader, flash custom recovery, and root the phone. After flashing the recovery, we can also flash a custom ROM that already has root access, but here, I’m sticking with the original firmware, and just needed root access for Titanium Backup and DriveDroid, among other apps.

The whole process I went through was done on a Mac, but I’ll be including the commands for Windows as well. As always, the following requires a bit of technical know-how, and we won’t be held responsible should you brick your device.

Update (October 29th): I figured I should also point out that by tampering with the bootloader and the ROM, you’ll most definitely void the warranty. But you already knew that.

Prerequisites

You’ll just need to download four things in total; it is the steps that are a bit complicated, prompting me to write this how-to. Do note that this is a Malaysian Honor 6, with model number H60-L04, and I’m not sure will the exact files and steps work with, say, the L02 SKU. Also, do not try other versions of ClockworkMod because they soft-bricked my Honor 6’s recovery. The CWM version below is for the only version that I know that works with my Honor 6. The SuperSU version I used was v2.02, but the latest should work just fine.

Download the following files:

• HiSuite: http://www.huawei.com/minisite/HiSuite_en/
• Android SDK: https://developer.android.com/sdk/index.html
• ClockworkMod Recovery 6.0.5.0 for Honor 6: https://yadi.sk/d/ZSMX1_FwXUy4e
• SuperSU: http://download.chainfire.eu/578/SuperSU/UPDATE-SuperSU-v2.14.zip

The CWM Recovery is compressed in a RAR format, and you could use the following applications to extract it:

• 7-Zip (Windows): http://www.7-zip.org/
• RAR Extractor Free (Mac): https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/rar-extractor-free/id646295438

Preparing the phone

1. On Honor 6, Enable ‘Developer options’ (Settings > About phone > tap on ‘Build number’ until it’s enabled)
2. Go to ‘Developer options’ and enable ‘USB debugging’
3. You’ll have to plug in the phone to a computer via USB to boot to the following three modes. Long press on all the said buttons until the Honor 6 logo appears.
4. To go to Download mode (similar to Samsung’s Odin mode): Press volume up + volume down + power buttons
5. To go to Fastboot (& Rescue) mode (boot to bootloader): Press volume down + power buttons
6. To go to Recovery mode (stock or CWM): Press volume up + power buttons

Unlocking the bootloader

This is actually the hardest part, believe it or not. Unlike the Nexus where unlocking the bootloader is encouraged, or other devices from manufacturers such as Samsung where it is not even allowed, Huawei sits somewhere in the middle. Unlocking the Honor 6’s bootloader is actually allowed, but an unlocking password is required (similar to HTC’s implementation). The problem is, on the ‘Unlock Bootloader’ page, Honor 6’s model isn’t even listed (yet). But there is a workaround.

Surprisingly, unlike the Nexus, unlocking the bootloader on the Honor 6 doesn’t factory-reset my phone, but it should, so remember to back it up before doing any of these steps.

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1. Install HiSuite to get necessary drivers for Windows (not required on Mac)
2. Launch Google Chrome
3. Go to: http://en.club.vmall.com/emotiondownload.php?mod=unlock&action=pre
4. Pick the ‘Product type’ (Smartphone)
5. Right-click on page and select ‘Inspect Element’
6. Scroll down and expand drop-down until the ‘Product model’ element is highlighted
7. Pick one model in the list; the first one currently is: <option value=”HUAWEI C8812″>HUAWEI C8812</option>
8. Change it to: <option value=”H60-L04″>H60-L04</option>
9. Enter product serial number and IMEI (Settings > About phone > Status)
10. Enter Product ID (dial *#*#1357946#*#*)
11. Enter verification code (the code displayed in the image)
12. Click submit to get the 16-digit ‘unlocking password’

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1. On Windows, unzip Android SDK, run SDK Manager and install all the updates
2. Back to the SDK folder, navigate to the ‘platform-tools’ folder, and make sure ‘adb’ and ‘fastboot’ files are there
3. Shift + right-click and select ‘Open command window here’
4. Connect Honor 6 to PC via USB (make sure USB debugging is enabled earlier)
5. On the Command Prompt window type ‘adb devices’, and it will list down the device, if everything is done right thus far
6. Type ‘adb reboot bootloader’ to kick the phone into Fastboot mode, which you can achieve through the button presses shown earlier
7. Type ‘fastboot oem unlock unlockingpassword’, where ‘unlockingpassword’ is the 16-digit number you’ve obtained earlier
8. If successful, the phone’s screen will now show ‘PHONE Unlocked’ in red

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1. On a Mac, unzip Android SDK, open the folder, then ‘sdk’ > ‘tools’ > double-click ‘android’ to launch SDK Manager. You’ll be prompted to install the latest Java SE Development Kit, if you haven’t already. After launching the SDK Manager, install all the updates
2. Open the folder, then ‘sdk’ > then ‘platform-tools’ > make sure ‘adb’ and ‘fastboot’ files are there. Launch Terminal, and navigate to the ‘platform-tools’ folder by typing in the command that follows this format: ‘cd /Users/<yourusername>/<downloadlocation>/<mainfolder>/sdk/platform-tools’
3. In my case, it is: ‘cd /Users/reubenthum/Downloads/adt-bundle-mac-x86_64/sdk/platform-tools’
4. Remember to add the “dot-slash” if you’re on a Mac
5. Type in ‘./adb devices’, and it will list down the device, if everything is done right thus far
6. Type ‘./adb reboot bootloader’ to kick the phone into Fastboot mode, which you can achieve through the button presses shown earlier
7. Type ‘./fastboot oem unlock unlockingpassword’, where ‘unlockingpassword’ is the 16-digit number you’ve obtained earlier
8. If successful, the screen will now show ‘PHONE Unlocked’ in red

Flashing a ClockworkMod Recovery

Once the bootloader is unlocked you’ll now need to flash the custom ClockworkMod Recovery which will replace the stock version. It will also deactivate the Download mode. This process is irreversible, unless if you have the factory image, which I don’t. Make sure you’re using the exact CWM Recovery version I’ve used, because the official version I’ve downloaded from Koush’s site doesn’t work; it’ll just soft-brick the recovery partition.

1. Before going anywhere, stay at the Command Prompt / Terminal to continue flashing the CWM Recovery
2. Remember the downloaded RAR? Extract it and copy the ‘recovery_h60.img’ file into the Android SDK’s ‘platform-tools’ folder, where adb and fastboot also reside in
3. On Windows, type in the command ‘fastboot flash recovery recovery_h60.img’
4. On a Mac, type in the command ‘./fastboot flash recovery recovery_h60.img’
5. If successful, you’ll get a ‘finished’ confirmation with the time it took to complete the process. If it fails with an error message, there could be an issue with the connection (make sure the USB drivers are installed for Windows, cables properly connected, and the phone’s in fastboot mode)
6. To confirm a successful flash, go to Recovery mode (stock or CWM): Press volume up + power buttons

Rooting the Honor 6

The most difficult process is now behind us and to root the device is super-easy. Essentially you’ll just need to download Chainfire’s SuperSU ZIP file into the phone’s internal SD card, boot the device into Recovery mode, navigate into the ‘install zip from sdcard’ option, find the downloaded SuperSU ZIP file, and flash it. Once done, reboot the Honor 6 and launch the SuperSU app, install the binaries, and reboot the phone again. Congratulations, your device is now rooted.

Closing

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Besides getting root access, there are two other side effects after completing the whole process. The first, as mentioned, it’ll replace the stock recovery with CWM, and the Download mode is no longer available as far as I know. Secondly, if you initiate a factory reset from Settings > Backup & reset > Factory data reset, even if you check ‘ Erase internal storage’, it will just boot to CWM. From there, you can use the ‘wipe data/factory reset’ feature, but it won’t delete the Honor 6’s internal SD storage. To do that, you’ll need to go to ‘mounts and storage’ and ‘format /sdcard’. Do not format anything else, and also remove the external SD card before performing this process, just in case.

Over at the EMUI page here http://www.emui.com/plugin.php?id=hwdownload, the factory image H06-L04 has yet to be published, so I do not know of a way to restore the phone to its original firmware, stock recovery and all. Your best bet is to do a NANDroid backup (from CWM Recovery) right before rooting it, which will save an ‘unrooted’ image of the Honor 6 into the SD card, so that you can unroot the device later if you so choose. But why would you?

There is so little good custom ROMs at the moment for the Honor 6, so I’m sticking with EMUI for now. Emotion UI 3.0 beta was released for China Mobile devices around July 12th, and soon we should be able to see more custom ROMs all tricked out for the Huawei Honor 6.

If you’ve noticed any errors in this how-to, please feel free to chime in, so that I’ll fix it as soon as possible. Happy flashing.

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