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I am going to buy a phone soon and I would rather buy an Android than an iPhone. However, I do not want to run any Google software on the phone, and I am planning on installing one of the custom ROMs LineageOS or /e/ (which is based on LineageOS).

How high is the risk of bricking the phone by installing one of these custom ROMs? Just to be clear, I do not plan on rooting the phone and I will install the phone on a supported device, probably the OnePlus 5.

user440774
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  • Possible duplicate of Bootloader/BIOS, flashing ROM and correlated risks. Why Android devices are more brickable than PCs? – Irfan Latif Mar 14 '19 at 18:16
  • That depends on the phone. If it officially supports "unlocking" (OEM unlock) you can install a matching custom recovery for your device. From that point on it is rather hard to brick the phone by installing a well maintained custom ROM. – Robert Mar 14 '19 at 18:50
  • I don’t think my question is a duplicate of the other one because I am asking about how likely it is that the device will get bricked, rather than why this could happen. – user440774 Mar 14 '19 at 18:55
  • @Robert Thank you for your response. I am not sure if it does officially support unlocking, or how to tell if it does, because I am new to this kind of stuff. These are the directions for installing /e/ on a OnePlus 5. https://gitlab.e.foundation/e/wiki/en/wikis/device/cheeseburger/install – user440774 Mar 14 '19 at 18:59
  • Every where you read fastboot oem unlock the device needs to support unlocking. If the manual is specific for a certain device this usually indicates that this device can be unlocked. – Robert Mar 14 '19 at 19:03
  • I did this a lot in the past as well as some porting myself and didn't brick anything at all but I know what I was doing so close to 0. If you don't know what you're doing, you might think its bricked when its not or actually do something that bricks it so somewhere above 0 to 100 depending on what you do and what knowledge you have or what help you get. – CmosBattery Mar 14 '19 at 19:04
  • @CmosBattery Are there any specific precautions I should take or anything that might lead to bricking it to avoid? – user440774 Mar 14 '19 at 19:06
  • Technical ones like don't disable anything that checks to make sure the rom is being flashed to correct device, etc. Follow what good devs have instructed to the T, double check everything before flashing, make sure users are actually using it as often devs might post something that doesn't actually boot yet (if ever). Make sure you understand and are comfortable with the process before doing it. – CmosBattery Mar 14 '19 at 19:14
  • @CmosBattery Thank you. What does “T” mean though? – user440774 Mar 14 '19 at 19:15
  • https://grammarist.com/usage/to-a-t/ – CmosBattery Mar 14 '19 at 19:18
  • @CmosBattery Ohhh I thought T itself meant something. Okay, thank you. I will try to keep these in mind when I download and install the ROM. – user440774 Mar 14 '19 at 19:22

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