Nokia

Guide – How to root the Nokia 7.2 and Nokia 6.2 using Magisk

How to root Nokia 7.2 and Nokia 6.2 header

Nokia 7.2 and Nokia 6.2 come with an unlockable bootloader. The thing that compliments unlocked bootloader best is root access. So, this guide will help you in rooting the Nokia 7.2 or Nokia 6.2. You have a choice between Magisk patched boot images and TWRP recovery. I’d recommend going the Magisk boot images route, but if you are familiar with how A/B devices work, then you can use TWRP.

First of all: Before continuing, make sure that you have unlocked your bootloader. Learn from the links below:

Option 1: Root Nokia 7.2 or 6.2 using Magisk patched image

In this root method, we will be patching the boot image with Magisk and then use it to install Magisk. We will provide boot images with Magisk installed, so, you will only need to boot them and do the direct install of Magisk. Here are the details:

  1. On your phone: Enable USB Debugging (Settings > System > Advanced > Developer Options > USB Debugging).
  2. Open Settings > System > About phone > Android version.
  3. Note down the Android security patch level (this is important).
    Check ANdroid security patch level
  4. Download and install the Magisk Manager app on your phone. Download Magisk Manager.
  5. On your PC: Download the Minimal ADB and Fastboot if you do not have it already.
  6. On your PC: Download the Magisk boot image as per the installed security patch on your phone. For example, if you have the October Security patch installed on the phone, then download the October boot image.
    Download Magisk Boot Image
  7. Reboot your Nokia 7.2 / Nokia 6.2 to bootloader or fastboot mode. For that, open a command window in your ADB folder on your PC, or double click on Open CMD here if you are using the Minimal ADB and Fastboot provided by TechMesto. After that run the following command in CMD Window.
    adb reboot-bootloader
  8. Now from fastboot mode, boot the Magisk boot image relative to your currently installed Android security patch. For example for December release:
    fastboot boot December-2019-magisk-patched.img

    You can also drag and drop the .img file into the CMD window after typing the initial command.

  9. Wait for the phone to start up.
  10. Now open the Magisk Manager app. You will be prompted for additional setup. Please press on NO.
  11. Press on the “Install” button next to Magisk is installed. Then tap on “Direct Install (recommended)”. This will install Magisk into your stock boot image.
    Magisk install for Nokia phones
    Do Direct Install in Magisk

    Tip: If the Install button does not appear, then make sure that your phone has internet access (WiFi or Mobile Data).
  12. Reboot the phone after Magisk has finished the flashing process.

Congrats! Now your Nokia 7.2 or 6.2 rooted with Magisk. You can start using your root apps or Magisk modules. Let the customization game begin! ๐Ÿ˜‰

Do note that any kind of tampering will break OTA support. Then you can only install a full system update (around 1.3GB). Full updates do not rely on existing data on the disk; they can overwrite all key partitions. To install incremental updates, you will have to revert any modifications that you make, and an upfront backup is recommended before making modifications.

Common issues:

Stuck on the Nokia logo after booting patched image

If the phone is stuck on Android One or Nokia logo for too long, then you have booted the wrong image or the image is not compatible with your region. There’s nothing to worry and your phone is still fine.

Just force reboot the phone by pressing and holding the Power key for about 20-25 seconds.

Option 2: Root Nokia 6.2 and 7.2 using TWRP recovery

TWRP, the classical method of flashing Magisk is still possible. However, we do not have a bootable TWRP and flashing the boot slot without backup can have complications. So, go with the TWRP method if you are not able to root using Magisk boot images.

  1. Download the TWRP image for Nokia 7.2 or Nokia 6.2 from XDA. Remember to download the TWRP based on your current Android security patch.
    Download links: Nokia 7.2 | Nokia 6.2
  2. Flash the TWRP file to your boot slot.
    fastboot flash boot TWRP-File-Name.img
  3. Use the volume keys to select “Recovery Mode” and then press the Power key to boot to TWRP.
  4. Select ADB Sideload mode in the the TWRP.
  5. Send the Magisk.zip to the phone by using the following command:
    adb sideload Magisk.zip
  6. Wait for the process to complete. Then you can reboot to Android system.

That’s it. Now you have a rooted Nokia 7.2 or Nokia 6.2. Remember to be careful while flashing anything. You can brick your device if anything is wrongly flashed.

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  • How do you extract the boot image from the update file? The patched image for the April patch is not updated

    • Hi, I will upload it today. You can check back after about 30 minutes after this comment is posted ๐Ÿ™‚

        • You cannot take it from incremental OTAs since the full file is never there. For full OTAs, you can use payload dumper to dump the payload.bin and extract the boot image out of it ๐Ÿ™‚

  • Hi, thanks for the great tutorial.

    I have an unlocked nokia 7.2 previously rooted on android 9 using this tutorial. Everything was working fine. I decided to reset the phone and upgrade to android 10. When I started the process to root the phone, after booting the Magisk boot image, I cannot access wifi anymore. If I switch it on, it just switch back off automatically. I cannot perform step 11 because of that. If I boot normally, wifi works again.

    Also, I am stuck on the June 2020 security patch. I tried to upgrade in order to try another patched boot image, but the install systematically fail (Couldn’t update / installation problem). Even if I factory reset the phone, I cannot install the update.

    Any idea ?

    • Updates will fail to install in 2 cases:
      1. You have modified some partiton and hence the hash verification fails. If you have flashed, modified, tampered anything since the Android 10 update, then that’s the reason.
      2. The Android update received by you doesn’t match the one currently installed. This would be a case of wrong OTA received due to device detected as belonging to different region or wrong region file currently installed which mismatched with the OTA received for your region.

      As for booting the image, that’s okay. You can finish the direct install part using Mobile Data and then do the reboot. Your WiFi will once again start working and you’ll also have root access available. The WiFi breaks because different regions get different OTA updates and hence WiFi driver fails to load when booting the image.

      • Thanks a lot, it worked indeed and I got wifi back after reboot.

        Regarding the update part, do you have some suggestions to fix case 2) ?

        • Well, nothing other than finding the right full package for your region and flashing it to the device.
          I’ll recommend taking a logcat just when the update starts installing and shows error. It will show what is actually happening and which partitions failed to match the hash. Remember to uninstall Magisk to reverse the modification to the boot image caused by Magisk. Or maybe avoid the pain and wait for a future full update, which will come whenever HMD does an MR (bug fixing) update or when a major Android update rolls out (Android 11). Full updates should install fine and not rely on existing data on the disk.

  • can anyone give me a factory image i cont boot to the normal boot i rooted it but it is not leting me boot i say no os installed pls help

    • That’s strange. Just to check, is your phone on Android 10? And which image are you trying to boot?

  • Have Somebody the patched June Update? Have someone managed it to restore Stock, update and patch it? For me it worked on every update, expect the June one. ???

  • do the 5 december 2019 nokie 7.2 bootloader unlockable ?
    me are 00WW_1_390 and I really want to install the lineageos….

  • Any chance there is another link to the altered Mgisk img file? The google drive link isn’t working

      • At this point, I’ve given up on the Magisk app. It didn’t show the “Install” button at all for me. I’ve tried to root using the second method. I am unable to get twrp.img to flash to the phone. I keep getting a “Writing ‘partition’ Failed (remote failure) error”. I’ve tried on both a and b partitions. I’ve wiped both partitions (probably not a good thing). Also, I can’t seem to get ADB to operate properly. It worked once (ONCE), but the many attempts since that one “devices” check command, I can’t seem to get it to respond.

        Too bad this isn’t as straight-foward for n00bs as all the websites claim it to be. But it should be noted that I don’t think it’s anyone’s fault but my own. I’m very thankful for your write-up. I just need to figure out what I’m doing wrong. This is my very first time trying to root a phone. Aside from a small interest in HTML/5, this is my first in-depth attempt at command line anything since C++ back in college (2002). I just went cold-turkey Ubuntu last week from Windows. I’m never looking back. (Well, with the exception of this old laptop with 2.0 USB ports I’m trying to root this phone with). Thank you for your response. I was very surprised to see it.

        • Woops. Wrong error. I keep getting

          Writing ‘recovery’ Failed (remote: ‘(recovery_a) no such partition’)
          fastboot: error: Command failed

          when trying to flash the twrp.img file.

          • The response is right because there’s no such partition named “recovery”. A/B devices do not use a recovery partitition.

        • It’s weird because the “Install” button is always there. Maybe you did not get the “Direct Install” button. That will only show up when you’re booted using a patched boot image (as shared in this post). On a Nokia 7.2, you can also flash these boot images to your boot slot (fastboot flash boot ). And in such a case, you will not need to perform the Direct Install step. You’ll be already rooted ๐Ÿ™‚

          • I missed the part about Wi-Fi and/ or data needing to be on. I was hoping to do this all without having to be connected to the internet. I have all the files downloaded (drivers, Magisk 20.3, etc.). But that was my issue with the app. Once connected to Wi-Fi, the install button appeared. I had to select the download option (even though I already had the Magisk zip file downloaded). I did that, followed the prompts, and now I get a black screen (a part of the app), that says “Failed” (at the top), and continues:

            -Device platform: arm64-v8a
            -Copying image to cache
            -Unpacking boot image
            ! Unsupported/Unknown image format
            ! Installation failed

            Now what am I doing wrong?

            • Looks like you didn’t do “Direct Install” instead you have selected some file from the phone’s memory. Please try to follow the article as much as you can. When you press on Install, do “Direct Install (Recommended)”. If you do not see that entry, then boot the Magisk image for that month from fastboot and then retry.

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