To get the most out of your OnePlus Pad, you would have to root it.
Fortunately, rooting OnePlus Pad is easier than the latest Samsung Galaxy Tab S9 that won’t even boot after flashing custom ROM. Make sure you have the ADB drivers installed. You would also need a windows computer and must have bootloader files downloaded onto their computer.
First, let us unlock OnePlus Pad bootloader.
Enable developer mode (Settings > About > tap Build number 7 times)
In Developer Settings
Enable USB debugging
Enable OEM unlocking
Connect a USB cable and authorize adb
adb reboot bootloader
fastboot flashing get_unlock_ability # verify device can be unlocked
fastboot getvar unlocked # verify bootloader is locked
fastboot flashing unlock # unlocks the bootloader
fastboot reboot # if required
Rebooting the device will wipe all data
Proceed to complete the new device setup
Repeat steps 1-3
Get the patched boot.img from the first post OR get a copy of the full OTA from OxygenUpdater, and extract using Fastboot enhance tool – payload dumper doesn’t work correctly for newer firmware for OOS 13+.
adb reboot bootloader
fastboot devices
fastboot flash boot_a ./magisk_patched-26100.img # insert your real image file name after the "./"
fastboot flash boot_b ./magisk_patched-26100.img # insert your real image file name after the "./"
fastboot reboot
And you’re done. You have successfully unlocked bootloader of OnePlus Pad.
After that, whenever you download and install an update, you must fire up magic again and try doing the install to the second slot after OTA and then, if you get an error, follow these steps to ensure root is maintained.
Download OTA update and install via built-in updater. This will fail three times, then it downloads and installs the FULL update.
Reboot the Pad (after reboot, you are unrooted.
Download Magisk patched boot.img from the previous post of the latest firmware you installed now.
Repeat the step 9 above with the corresponding magisk patched boot image
Done