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Moto OTA Unbricking?

Hi, are there any known methods for unbricking after an OTA update with an unlocked bootloader? This is my first Motorola, I haven't found anything related to this yet. FOTA unbricking is available for other phones, take a look here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1126358
Is it a question of dev? Flash and fastboot are common to all Androids, no? What do you do if your Moto doesn't respond to RSD lite - e.g. can't get into fastboot mode? On other phones, you can flash when fastboot isn't working, as well as manufacturer software for completely restoring the phone, some devices are seemingly un-brickable. Nobody I've chatted with in Motos yet have ever seen flashing (green LED) in this case.

just for testing have you tried the DROID Utility you can find here ?
also if its dead now and you cant charge it this cable can come in handy.
hope any of that helps.

[Soft Brick? Help PLS] I bought an HTC One A9 recently and allowed it to update. . .

I hope you like stories because I like telling them.
So, I've been trying to get this phone to work for several weeks now and I'm hoping someone here can help. The backstory is going to make me sound really stupid, but here you go. I bought this phone initially to replace my old Nokia Lumia 710 which is still *functioning*, but lets be honest it needs to be replaced. It cost me $150 if I remember correctly. Well, it worked fine for about a week and then I dropped it and shattered the screen through the LCD layer. I backed up the contents while there was still enough LCD fluid for me to see what I was doing before the whole screen went black.
I then proceeded to take the phone to a repair place where they charged me $200 dollars to replace the screen. Yes, I know I could have just as easily bought one brand new, but the half-off sale was over and I've always been one to fix things instead of replacing them. Of course maybe that will change with this experience. Anyway, when they finally got it back to me and when I turned it on it said there was a software update available. So, I followed the standard procedure and allowed it to download and restart. . . but it got stuck in a loop on the restart. At this point I knew very little about the phone, so I left it at home to die and switched the SIM card back to my Nokia.
Later that day I researched how to 'reset' it, which gave me the instructions for how to put it into bootloader/download mode, and I thought "Well, it still works, I bet they can fix this at the phone repair place". So I charged it, brought it there and showed them that it still worked -sort of- and they told me they would fix it in a day for $30.
A week later they called and said "We can't fix this thing, take it back free of charge". It didn't make any sense to me because the internet made it sound like a 'soft brick' was easy to fix. So I took it back and decided to try fixing it on my own. I downloaded the HTC drivers and got to work. The first thing I found was the HTC official RUU.exe and I tried using it to fix the phone. However, it returned with a 'signature error', which I researched and as far as I can tell it's because the official RUU is nougat and my firmware has the key for marshmallow.
I looked for a RUU.exe that was a marshmallow version, but HTC took down all the downloads that I found links to and no ones seems to have saved it anywhere. Instead I found directions to update manually using a combination of ADB/fastboot/htc_fastboot. I set them up to work on the command line and they all recognize that the phone is connected. I downloaded a marshmallow RUU.zip and tried to flash it, but it failed with the message "main version NOT ALLOWED". I searched around and supposedly it's because the only zips I could find are lower versions than the broken version installed on mine. (something about s-on?)
I then thought that maybe I could update the firmware and then use the official RUU to get it working again. From what I could tell getting a TWRP recovery on there would give me enough access to the phone to allow firmware to be updated. I searched all over for ways to install TWRP, but it failed to flash also. Supposedly I need the bootloader unlocked.
I got an account on HTCDev and started following the directions but the command:
fastboot oem get_identifier_token
Returns an error "last byte is 0x00, disable unlock"
So I guess I can't unlock the bootloader either. . .
The current state of the phone is:
Software Status: Official
Locked
S-ON
Which seems to be the worst case scenario for trying to fix it. Also, just some other info, the OS version is 1.55.617.4
and it's a USA Unlocked version, if that wasn't already described by the OS version. . .
Oh and it's encrypted.
So yeah, I'm giving up today. I already ordered a new phone, however I still think it would be really satisfying to get it working again. You guys are the pros and I am in posession of the most defiant piece of non-functional silicon to ever exist, so if you can tell me how to beat it into submission I will be very happy. Thanks!
-Corneilius

Corneilius said:
I hope you like stories because I like telling them.
So, I've been trying to get this phone to work for several weeks now and I'm hoping someone here can help. The backstory is going to make me sound really stupid, but here you go. I bought this phone initially to replace my old Nokia Lumia 710 which is still *functioning*, but lets be honest it needs to be replaced. It cost me $150 if I remember correctly. Well, it worked fine for about a week and then I dropped it and shattered the screen through the LCD layer. I backed up the contents while there was still enough LCD fluid for me to see what I was doing before the whole screen went black.
I then proceeded to take the phone to a repair place where they charged me $200 dollars to replace the screen. Yes, I know I could have just as easily bought one brand new, but the half-off sale was over and I've always been one to fix things instead of replacing them. Of course maybe that will change with this experience. Anyway, when they finally got it back to me and when I turned it on it said there was a software update available. So, I followed the standard procedure and allowed it to download and restart. . . but it got stuck in a loop on the restart. At this point I knew very little about the phone, so I left it at home to die and switched the SIM card back to my Nokia.
Later that day I researched how to 'reset' it, which gave me the instructions for how to put it into bootloader/download mode, and I thought "Well, it still works, I bet they can fix this at the phone repair place". So I charged it, brought it there and showed them that it still worked -sort of- and they told me they would fix it in a day for $30.
A week later they called and said "We can't fix this thing, take it back free of charge". It didn't make any sense to me because the internet made it sound like a 'soft brick' was easy to fix. So I took it back and decided to try fixing it on my own. I downloaded the HTC drivers and got to work. The first thing I found was the HTC official RUU.exe and I tried using it to fix the phone. However, it returned with a 'signature error', which I researched and as far as I can tell it's because the official RUU is nougat and my firmware has the key for marshmallow.
I looked for a RUU.exe that was a marshmallow version, but HTC took down all the downloads that I found links to and no ones seems to have saved it anywhere. Instead I found directions to update manually using a combination of ADB/fastboot/htc_fastboot. I set them up to work on the command line and they all recognize that the phone is connected. I downloaded a marshmallow RUU.zip and tried to flash it, but it failed with the message "main version NOT ALLOWED". I searched around and supposedly it's because the only zips I could find are lower versions than the broken version installed on mine. (something about s-on?)
I then thought that maybe I could update the firmware and then use the official RUU to get it working again. From what I could tell getting a TWRP recovery on there would give me enough access to the phone to allow firmware to be updated. I searched all over for ways to install TWRP, but it failed to flash also. Supposedly I need the bootloader unlocked.
I got an account on HTCDev and started following the directions but the command:
fastboot oem get_identifier_token
Returns an error "last byte is 0x00, disable unlock"
So I guess I can't unlock the bootloader either. . .
The current state of the phone is:
Software Status: Official
Locked
S-ON
Which seems to be the worst case scenario for trying to fix it. Also, just some other info, the OS version is 1.55.617.4
and it's a USA Unlocked version, if that wasn't already described by the OS version. . .
Oh and it's encrypted.
So yeah, I'm giving up today. I already ordered a new phone, however I still think it would be really satisfying to get it working again. You guys are the pros and I am in posession of the most defiant piece of non-functional silicon to ever exist, so if you can tell me how to beat it into submission I will be very happy. Thanks!
-Corneilius
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are still several option to fix this phone.
might want to try flashing a newer ruu that is still Marshmallow version like this one https://androidfilehost.com/?fid=24459283995314374 or his one https://androidfilehost.com/?fid=24399994186368579
htc_fastoot oem rebootRUU
htc_fastboot flash zip 2PQ9IMG_HIA_AERO_UL_M601_SENSE7GP_1.56.617.1_signed.zip
htc_fastboot reboot
and there is still the possibility to update your firmware to 2.xx.617.x using a singed firmware.zip file making your phone accept the new ruu signature implemented in Nougat ruu.
Btw you can't unlock your BL because the "allow oem unlock" option was not previously turned on from the "developer option" (this requires a booting OS).

Sweet, you found a Marshmallow ruu!
I'll try it, thanks!
-Corneilius

Google repair shop re-locked my bootloader... wtf now?

OG Pixel from Verizon, had it for years, battery has been really ****ty lately. So I had to send my phone in to get a new battery, and the cost was similar to go thru google store, so I did. Wiped the phone, restored to stock android, but left bootloader unlocked. Got the phone back today and version of android was downgraded and bootloader was locked.
How ****ed am I and what are my recourses? Tried google support, they're nearly useless.

If you never booted the device yet you can try "fastboot flashing unlock" and it will just re-unlock. Other than that I don't think you will ever see a unlock status on that phone. This is why I do my repairs myself.

Fastboot flashing unlock was unsuccessful, but I suspect that was because the phone was booted up for "troubleshooting" with Google "support."
I assume then there's no way to return it to the post-flash pre-boot state without some closely guarded hardware and software?

Before updating in any way... Search Verizon unlock Pixel and see if that process will unlock. If you allow update past a certain level stuck with no options then if Verizon locked.

Oh, would never allow an update. I'm not crazy. Tried the unlock method with uninstalling the phone app before you get internet access the day I got it, still no dice. Thanks tho.
I just did a credit card chargeback as they sent me back my device in an unusable condition and refused to compensate for it. We'll see how it shakes out in a few weeks probably. Bought a refurb Pixel 3 in the meantime and it was already unlocked, so all is well.
Thanks for the replies though.
-N

n8lee said:
Fastboot flashing unlock was unsuccessful, but I suspect that was because the phone was booted up for "troubleshooting" with Google "support."
I assume then there's no way to return it to the post-flash pre-boot state without some closely guarded hardware and software?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Can you tell me what security patch you are on? If you are somewhere around Android 9 patch (potentially Android 10 early patches) you can re-unlock. If you try ticking the OEM unlock option in Dev options or if i heard correctly the phone wont boot? If you know your exact version you can try flashing it through recovery, or trying "fastboot unlock" after ticking the oem unlock. Also remember those old workarounds of removing android.phone and such? Yeah try those. Good luck. We'll try and get you unlocked again.

Question Flash stock firmware and lock bootloader

HHello, I wanted to consult something before getting into a problem. I have the moto g100 with the challenge channel, since the Android 12 ota did not come out for this channel, I decided to install the Android 12 retail ota, Everything worked correctly, but now I want to install my original firmware which is RETAR and block the bootloader, so my question is the following, can I flash my original firmware and lock the bootloader?.

Yes if you flash ORGINAL ROM (Android Version) for your device you can LOCK bootloader for your device.

Lock the bootloader at your own risk, this forum has a thread full of people who have bricked their device after relocking.
Phone wouldn't boot into the system after bootloader locking back...
I wanted to help someone whose phone wouldn't boot into the system after bootloader locking back, phone hangs on a red warning. And in the process of experimenting myself got confused and got into the same situation. Unlocking the bootloader...
forum.xda-developers.com

The stock roms found on lolinet won't boot after relocking and you'll loose the ability to flash anything else. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! Also, you can't downgrade the bootloader. What this means is that if you flash older Android 11 stock image it may result in bootloop.

I have a G8 doha that was hard bricked a few years ago.. It did not show up in device manger at all, no matter how i tried. Not even the Qualcomm mode. This did happen after locking bootloader or change slot A/B. (Don't remember, sorry). The phone was totally dead, so it was just "archieved for later use".. Then one month ago i found a description on how to wake it up to qualcomm mode by shorting two points on pcb. I tried, and it did work. Phone showed up in device manager, and i flashed blankflash. After that i flashed stock rom. Phone is now working again. I had to do several tries to get it up running. The description on how to do it was not accurate, but i found a sequence to start it. Unfortunately i don't remember exactly. It is something with pushing/holding a button when connecting USB or shorting points on pcb.. Youtube link show how to do it..
GT

Somebody try relock bootloader on g100 and have succes ? I back to stock rom with Rescue and Smart Assistant tools but I am slightly afraid that the phone will not get up after relock the bootloader. :|

sp6ina said:
Somebody try relock bootloader on g100 and have succes ? I back to stock rom with Rescue and Smart Assistant tools but I am slightly afraid that the phone will not get up after relock the bootloader. :|
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I relock my bootloader on the Moto g100 the North American version. Right after I did it I tried to set up my phone and it wanted my last four digit Google pin code and if you didn't do it fast enough it kept rebooting so for a half hour I tried everything under the sun Google kept asking me I want to try another way. But I have two step verification on my Google account so it couldn't send me the code over my telephone number so after a couple tries using the recover my account option underneath which asked you like personal information like your name and everything it finally gave me three options of three different Google emails I have. I got my unlock code and unlock the bootloader without using a PC or a computer. I used bugjaeger. The premium app is well worth the $10 it works super easy and super efficient

sp6ina said:
Somebody try relock bootloader on g100 and have succes ? I back to stock rom with Rescue and Smart Assistant tools but I am slightly afraid that the phone will not get up after relock the bootloader. :|
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I relock my bootloader on the Moto g100 the North American version. Right after I did it I tried to set up my phone and it wanted my last four digit Google pin code and if you didn't do it fast enough it kept rebooting so for a half hour I tried everything under the sun Google kept asking me I want to try another way. But I have two step verification on my Google account so it couldn't send me the code over my telephone number so after a couple tries using the recover my account option underneath which asked you like personal information like your name and everything it finally gave me three options of three different Google emails I have. I got my unlock code and unlock the bootloader without using a PC or a computer. I used bugjaeger. The premium app is well worth the $10 it works super easy

sp6ina said:
Somebody try relock bootloader on g100 and have succes ? I back to stock rom with Rescue and Smart Assistant tools but I am slightly afraid that the phone will not get up after relock the bootloader. :|
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I relock my bootloader on the Moto g100 the North American version. Right after I did it I tried to set up my phone and it wanted my last four digit Google pin code and if you didn't do it fast enough it kept rebooting so for a half hour I tried everything under the sun Google kept asking me I want to try another way. But I have two step verification on my Google account so it couldn't send me the code over my telephone number so after a couple tries using the recover my account option underneath which asked you like personal information like your name and everything it finally gave me three options of three different Google emails I have. I got my unlock code and unlock the bootloader without using a PC or a computer. I used bugjaeger. The premium app is well worth the $10 it works super easy

[SOLVED] "FAIL" trying to fastboot Unlock Code to Moto One 5G Ace

I got the Unlock Code from Moto with no problem, but can't get the phone to take it. FAIL, over and over again. I've tried several times, rebooted the phone, powered off, even tried an FDR. I keep getting a 'FAIL" message trying to push the code to the phone.
Just got the phone (used) today and I do have Unlock enabled in Dev Options. CID is 0x0032, obviously unlockabled since I did get the code from Moto. Twice. I redidthe Unlock request with a new string and got the same code again. Nothing is working. I've unlocked 15 or more Moto phones and never had anything like this happen before.
Using "fastboot oem unlock UNIQUE_KEY [20-character unlock code string]". Copied it, typed it manually, etc etc. FAIL FAIL FAIL.
Frustrating. Any clues/suggestions?
- - - - -
Edit to add: This phone has (I presume) the newest firmware on it, QZKS30.Q4-40-95-9 (RETUS), which has not been uploaded to lolinet yet.
Could this newest update be the problem? If so, can I safely roll back to 95-6 or even something older?
= = = = = = = = =
SOLVED. There was apparently an issue with the first phone I tried. Bought a second XT2113-2 relatively cheap (64GB) which came with the same 40-95-9 firmware, and it took the unlock code without a hitch.

I recall that I experienced something similar to this as well. A little bit of searching lead me to believe my issue was an older stock firmware bug. My stock firmware was initially from Jan 2021 and I did ota updates until it got to about Aug 2021 and then the phone unlocked. Can't say for sure that the deviced just needed time to "phone home" before allowing unlocking tho (I've read rumors).
If there is a ota update available, try that. I do know that I am able to relock/unlock on the 40-95-6 (Feb 2022) RETUS stock firmware.

notmyrealhandle said:
I recall that I experienced something similar to this as well. A little bit of searching lead me to believe my issue was an older stock firmware bug. My stock firmware was initially from Jan 2021 and I did ota updates until it got to about Aug 2021 and then the phone unlocked. Can't say for sure that the deviced just needed time to "phone home" before allowing unlocking tho (I've read rumors).
If there is a ota update available, try that. I do know that I am able to relock/unlock on the 40-95-6 (Feb 2022) RETUS stock firmware.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for replying. This phone has 40-95-9 firmware (March 1, 2022) which looks to be the latest OTA.
I have wondered if I'm stuck in another one of the newer Moto's (or Android's) mysterious holding patterns. Maybe it'll work in a few days. I will certainly post here if that's the case. . . . But why give me the Unlock button plus the Unlock Code, but then hold me back from actually pushing it to the phone? That wouldn't make a lot of sense.
This is the exact message returned by the bootloader every time:
(bootloader) usage: fastboot oem unlock < unlock code >
FAILED (remote failure)
I believe I'll try reflashing the 40-95-9 firmware, downloaded this morning via Rescue and Smart Assistant.

Reflashing firmware didn't help.
Edit to add:
I should probably stress, I flashed the entire firmware with no problems at all.
Should that suggest that this bootloader unlocking failure is not a hardware problem? . . . because if broke hardware is a possibility, I would definitely want to return this phone to the seller.

Moondroid said:
Reflashing firmware didn't help.
Edit to add:
I should probably stress, I flashed the entire firmware with no problems at all.
Should that suggest that this bootloader unlocking failure is not a hardware problem? . . . because if broke hardware is a possibility, I would definitely want to return this phone to the seller.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Two other things you can try:
1. make sure you are using an up to date fastboot exe (I'm using fastboot version 33.0.1-8253317 on ubuntu linux).
2. Try from both the bootloader mode and fastbootd mode on the device - I forget how to get to fastbootd from stock `adb reboot fastboot` might do it.
EDIT I'm pretty sure you want to be in the bootloader mode. Just thought I'd mention it as fastbootd was new to me and some fastboot commands seem to like the device to be in one mode or the other.
HTH

notmyrealhandle said:
Two other things you can try . . .
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Still nothing.
I found some newer adb & fastboot utils (2021 vs 2018) and tried those. That just changed the error message a teensy bit (replaced "remote failure" with a couple of bare quote marks).
I also uninstalled & reinstalled my Motorola drivers before trying the newer adb & fastboot. That didn't help either.
Trying to boot twrp gives me a "permission denied" error.
So all I can think to try now is to run another firmware reinstall via LMSA (Rescue and Smart Assistant), just to see if that hiccups anywhere as much as anything. (I manually flashed all the files the first time.)
I think it's past time for me to say something like "this doesn't just suck, it SUPER-sucks." Moto gave me the phreaking Unlock code, but the phone won't let me use it.

Moondroid said:
Moto gave me the phreaking Unlock code, but the phone won't let me use it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It will only work 48 hours after the unlock email is sent, as per this thread <https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/oem-unlocking-grayed-out-on-moto-g-play-2021.4259833/page-2>
I recently went through this myself. It was really baffling because the customer service / tech support would not tell me anything about it. Maybe it's some kind of hyper secret security measure?
Just keep the phone online and wait it out.

slipchicken said:
It will only work 48 hours after the unlock email is sent, as per this thread <https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/oem-unlocking-grayed-out-on-moto-g-play-2021.4259833/page-2>
I recently went through this myself. It was really baffling because the customer service / tech support would not tell me anything about it. Maybe it's some kind of hyper secret security measure?
Just keep the phone online and wait it out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I tried the unlock code 5 minutes after I got it. Why would I wait 48 hours? Lol . . .
If this is another "time-delay" thing it doesn't make any sense at all. OEM Unlock was already enabled, the phone gave me an unlock string to send Moto, and I got the unlock key from Moto with no delays at all. Within an hour after unboxing the phone I was trying to push an unlock code to the phone.
I also tried getting another code from Moto, generated a new string and all, but the second code Moto sent me was exactly the same as the first. I did try it (again) on the phone but got the same "FAILED" message as before.
This is just nuts. Unless the latest OTA 95-9 is in fact the culprit. Moto's unlock-code process might still send unlock codes that possibly will no longer work after a certain point? Hopefully I'll get a definitive answer on this aspect soon.

Moondroid said:
Moto's unlock-code process might still send unlock codes that possibly will no longer work after a certain point? Hopefully I'll get a definitive answer on this aspect soon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I meant that it will only start working once 48 hours have passed. Leaving internet active may be a requirement, and a restart may be a requirement too.
For instance if you get the first code email at 8:00am on June 7th, the code will only work after 8:00am on June 9th.
EDIT: Also I have tried manually changing the time in the phone's settings and it didn't work. I had to wait the full 48 hours for it to start working.
I do agree however that it is absolutely nuts of Motorola to do this without any sort of explanation. That's why I assume it's some kind of secretive or misguided anti-theft measure.

slipchicken said:
I meant that it will only start working once 48 hours have passed. Leaving internet active may be a requirement, and a restart may be a requirement too.
For instance if you get the first code email at 8:00am on June 7th, the code will only work after 8:00am on June 9th.
EDIT: Also I have tried manually changing the time in the phone's settings and it didn't work. I had to wait the full 48 hours for it to start working.
I do agree however that it is absolutely nuts of Motorola to do this without any sort of explanation. That's why I assume it's some kind of secretive or misguided anti-theft measure.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was in that thread you quoted and I don't remember anything about having to wait AFTER getting the unlock code. Wait for OEM Unlock to show as enabled in Dev Options, yes, I'm thoroughly familiar with that. But I have never-never-never had to wait for an unlock code to work after receiving it from Moto. If that's in there somewhere please point more specifically? because I've unlocked a whole bunch of Moto phones and as I said, I've never heard of being able to enable OEM Unlock, getting the unlock code from Moto and then having to wait to use it.

See bottom of top post. The phone had some kind of problem that wouldn't allow it to accept the unlock key.