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Hi guys,
Longtime iPhone user here, looking to defect. After being inspired by a poster over at The Verge, I embarked on a 30 day trial of a One X yesterday. I've been wanting a nice big screen for a while, and the One X is just all kinds of hot.
Anyhow, I'm still on the fence with a straight up stock device. I suspect I might change my tune with a custom ROM, but I'm now under the impression that a custom ROM is not possible without first unlocking the bootloader. Is this a correct statement? Things have been changing so much over the last week or two with the One X, I'm having a hard time deciphering a clear answer to this.
I'm comfortable with rooting (did this last night) and perfectly comfortable with the process of unlocking the bootloader. But the unlocking scares me a bit, as it doesn't appear to be completely reversible. This doesn't jive to well with my "30 day trial" plans if I decide to return the phone. Seems best I can do is get it back to a "Re-locked" status, which I'm thinking might not be ideal if I decide to return the phone. Who knows, AT&T may not care (or even check), but I wouldn't be surprised if they did.
Bottom line, I want to dip my toe into the custom ROM pool, but without having to commit to an unlocked bootloader. Possible?
Pretty sure it's not possible, but im not 100%. You need a custom recovery (CWM or TWRP) to flash roms and in order to replace the stock recovery I'm pretty sure you need to be bootloader unlocked.
Stiggosaurus said:
Hi guys,
Longtime iPhone user here, looking to defect. After being inspired by a poster over at The Verge, I embarked on a 30 day trial of a One X yesterday. I've been wanting a nice big screen for a while, and the One X is just all kinds of hot.
Anyhow, I'm still on the fence with a straight up stock device. I suspect I might change my tune with a custom ROM, but I'm now under the impression that a custom ROM is not possible without first unlocking the bootloader. Is this a correct statement? Things have been changing so much over the last week or two with the One X, I'm having a hard time deciphering a clear answer to this.
I'm comfortable with rooting (did this last night) and perfectly comfortable with the process of unlocking the bootloader. But the unlocking scares me a bit, as it doesn't appear to be completely reversible. This doesn't jive to well with my "30 day trial" plans if I decide to return the phone. Seems best I can do is get it back to a "Re-locked" status, which I'm thinking might not be ideal if I decide to return the phone. Who knows, AT&T may not care (or even check), but I wouldn't be surprised if they did.
Bottom line, I want to dip my toe into the custom ROM pool, but without having to commit to an unlocked bootloader. Possible?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Correct you will need to unlock the downloader. But if you check your bootloader right now, it already says tampered due to rooting. In my experience at&t wont check the status, but more to the point you can unlock the bootloader being it already shows the tampered flag.
Sent from my HTC One XL using Tapatalk 2
kleeman7 said:
Correct you will need to unlock the downloader. But if you check your bootloader right now, it already says tampered due to rooting. In my experience at&t wont check the status, but more to the point you can unlock the bootloader being it already shows the tampered flag.
Sent from my HTC One XL using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It does show tampered but when run an RUU that goes away.
@OP- Odds are the rep at the AT&T store isn't going to know to check the bootloader to see if it's been unlocked. I'm fairly confident that once you unlock and try out some custom ROMs (CleanROM SE is my recommendation), you won't be going back to iOS any time soon.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
Plus, with fastboot on, it's "harder" to get to bootloader.
Sent from my HTC One XL using Tapatalk 2
kleeman7 said:
Correct you will need to unlock the downloader. But if you check your bootloader right now, it already says tampered due to rooting. In my experience at&t wont check the status, but more to the point you can unlock the bootloader being it already shows the tampered flag.
Sent from my HTC One XL using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
True, but I got the tampered flag to clear last night by flashing the stock RUU back. That did freak me out last night when I noticed it though, and it's the only reason I went back to complete stock last night just to make sure I wasn't already screwed.
_MetalHead_ said:
It does show tampered but when run an RUU that goes away.
@OP- Odds are the rep at the AT&T store isn't going to know to check the bootloader to see if it's been unlocked. I'm fairly confident that once you unlock and try out some custom ROMs (CleanROM SE is my recommendation), you won't be going back to iOS any time soon.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
kleeman7 said:
Plus, with fastboot on, it's "harder" to get to bootloader.
Sent from my HTC One XL using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting! This probably explains why I haven't been able to get into the bootloader for the last 10 minutes! That did the trick though, so thanks for that.
But seriously, I sure wasn't able to get into the bootloader with fastboot enabled. Knowing that, I feel a little more comfortable just going ahead and unlocking now.
I returned a ROM'd up HOX to at&t and they didn't even turn on the screen. You'll be good, they don't ask questions if you're in your 30 days.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
I'm now rooted, bootloader unlocked, and running CleanROM SE 3.0. Thanks for the info everyone, really appreciate it! Now we'll see how the next 30 days goes...
Any other tips/suggestions/ideas for things I should do for an iOS switcher?
Awesome! You're going to love that ROM. Aside from downloading Titanium Backup to keep all your crap backed up should you decide to switch ROMs, I'd say just play around with what you've got for now. I spent 4 months on an iPhone 4S and loved it, but as soon as I got back to Android with my HOX, I haven't missed a minute of my iOS experience. If you get frustrated with anything, just chock it up to learning a new OS and don't be discouraged. I think by the end of your 30 days you will find that Android is actually MORE intuitive and user friendly than iOS, and you won't have to jump through so many hoops to accomplish simple tasks. You are going to love it. Welcome to the wonderful world of Android
_MetalHead_ said:
It does show tampered but when run an RUU that goes away.
@OP- Odds are the rep at the AT&T store isn't going to know to check the bootloader to see if it's been unlocked. I'm fairly confident that once you unlock and try out some custom ROMs (CleanROM SE is my recommendation), you won't be going back to iOS any time soon.
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They've never checked any phone I've returned that was bootloader unlocked or rooted. I do try to go back to as close to stock as possible tho.
Sent from my HTC One XL using XDA
SkizzMcNizz said:
They've never checked any phone I've returned that was bootloader unlocked or rooted. I do try to go back to as close to stock as possible tho.
Sent from my HTC One XL using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, I've returned 2 with relocked bootloaders and they didn't check either phone.
I was on an iphone for 2 1/2 years before taking the plunge into android with the HOX...to be honest I don't miss iOS one bit. I've found that everything I can do with android and this phone stock, I needed a jailbroken iphone to accomplish...
Only reason I rooted and unlocked my HOX was because I'm a "tinkerer" and love customization and the ability to do whatever I want to my device. I haven't flashed any ROM's yet, mainly because I'm still learning this stuff but I'm sure it won't be long..
A friend is coming by, she bought a used one X on At&t, bought a sim for simple mobile. Worked great but she decided to reset her phone due to previous owners content. She says the phone is not working correctly, wants me to root it for her. Her resetting phone should not have effected the phone in anyway, or am I missing something?
Sent from my SGH-T889 using Xparent Skyblue Tapatalk 2
Warrior1975 said:
A friend is coming by, she bought a used one X on At&t, bought a sim for simple mobile. Worked great but she decided to reset her phone due to previous owners content. She says the phone is not working correctly, wants me to root it for her. Her resetting phone should not have effected the phone in anyway, or am I missing something?
Sent from my SGH-T889 using Xparent Skyblue Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
most likely she did something else to it, but there are many procedures to unbrick the one x (if that i the casE)
Warrior1975 said:
A friend is coming by, she bought a used one X on At&t, bought a sim for simple mobile. Worked great but she decided to reset her phone due to previous owners content. She says the phone is not working correctly, wants me to root it for her. Her resetting phone should not have effected the phone in anyway, or am I missing something?
Sent from my SGH-T889 using Xparent Skyblue Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what exactly is not working correctly?
i dont suggest rooting the one xl for someone. This phone is a bit quirky compared to others.
factory reset shouldnt have hurt anything..
you can try running the ruu. just bear in mind 3.18 is not rootable.
Im not sure what's not working, sorry for being so vague. She wasn't very explicit. She just said it wasn't the same after doing a master reset. I thought maybe APN settings, but from what I've read it doesn't seem that you need to modify them.
I'd rather not root her phone, but I have rooted HTC before, sensation to be exact. My luck, ill brick the damn thing. I'm not as familiar with HTC as I am with Samsung, but I could figure it out.
¤Tweaked 1.4¤
Warrior1975 said:
Im not sure what's not working, sorry for being so vague. She wasn't very explicit. She just said it wasn't the same after doing a master reset. I thought maybe APN settings, but from what I've read it doesn't seem that you need to modify them.
I'd rather not root her phone, but I have rooted HTC before, sensation to be exact. My luck, ill brick the damn thing. I'm not as familiar with HTC as I am with Samsung, but I could figure it out.
¤Tweaked 1.4¤
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is'nt hard, as long as you do not have the JB update (3.18 like exad said)
If you can unlock the bootloader, and install another room, then go for it. If not, just take exad's advice, and install the RUU. Kind of like restoring an iDevice in iTunes
She has android 4.0.3. I will check boot loader, she is stuck on edge service though.
¤Tweaked 1.4¤
The HOX isn't operate on same bands as T-Mobile, (simple mobile) unless she's in a new 4g area she's only going to get edge speeds
Sent from my HTC One XL using xda app-developers app
Does the T-Mobile HTC One S always come S-Off or was I lucky on my trade today? I traded my mint Sony Xperia Play (AT&T) this morning for a HTC One S, also mint. I've traded, bought and sold to the guy before and I know he gets his devices new by special means and knows nothing about rooting, bootloaders or S-Off.
Anyways I got curious in snooping around the bootloader menu and to my surprise found it to be S-Off...
Was this luck or do all/most/many come this way?
...nobody knows??? Just curious...
Crossvxm said:
...nobody knows??? Just curious...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most come with S-ON, although some are sold S-off and Supercid (International use, I'm pretty sure)
tivofool said:
Most come with S-ON, although some are sold S-off and Supercid (International use, I'm pretty sure)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh okay. I was surprised to find it S-Off when I got this thing. I couldn't believe my eyes. That will save me a load full of work, especially the part were some of the tools require a Linux OS instead of Windows. Now ofcourse Linux is a download and installation away, but my "temporary" (now permanent) laptop is so old it only packs 128mb of ram (max can ONLY reach 512mb) and any type of Linux installation just hangs and never installs no matter how many hours you leave it running.
Not to mention some of these devices require the "hotwire" trick, and every time i need something (such as a paper clip) it is nowhere to be found.
Crossvxm said:
...nobody knows??? Just curious...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
htc wil never ever give you a s-off device for free.
you have several situations. here are a few.
1: the previous owner of the device,
A was so kind to leave the device s-off, sold it
B he wasnt able/willing to get the s-on back properly, sold it.
C he ****ed up the device, was able to get it running again, left it as is, sold it.
D...
when i sell my devices i always ask you gonna customize it, if yes i leave it s-off. if not full stock
tivofool said:
Most come with S-ON, although some are sold S-off and Supercid (International use, I'm pretty sure)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
all the devices come with s-on.
real187 said:
htc wil never ever give you a s-off device for free.
you have several situations. here are a few.
1: the previous owner of the device,
A was so kind to leave the device s-off, sold it
B he wasnt able/willing to get the s-on back properly, sold it.
C he ****ed up the device, was able to get it running again, left it as is, sold it.
D...
when i sell my devices i always ask you gonna customize it, if yes i leave it s-off. if not full stock
all the devices come with s-on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nah trust me his knowledge on rooting and so on is VERY LOW. It once took me nearly an hour to show him how to flash a rom on a device I sold him and in a day or two he already messed things up since the rom would wipe many key apps when given an old fashion factory reset. ANOTHER good hour wasted explaining to him the process over phone. If he were to buy these devices used already then sell them to me I would believe that perhaps that person did it instead of him. He gets them brand new in a store he works in, instead of commissions/bonuses for his many sales his boss lets him pick a free phone of his choice as long as its not 100% modern (e.g. a Nexus 5. wish I had that type of boss) in which he gets the opportunity to make more money off of that but remember, his boss doesn't have to pay cash, and he's basically stuck with selling it himself.
If he cant flash a simple rom, or even use a simple app to root a device, I doubt he will ever be able to S-Off an HTC. Also if he were younger (lol) I'd consider the possibility. I honestly believe that this thing may have mistakingly been left S-Off or something by the factory. Or maybe it served a purpose back at HTC.
Whatever the case, it was a big surprise to me.
real187 said:
htc wil never ever give you a s-off device for free.
you have several situations. here are a few.
1: the previous owner of the device,
A was so kind to leave the device s-off, sold it
B he wasnt able/willing to get the s-on back properly, sold it.
C he ****ed up the device, was able to get it running again, left it as is, sold it.
D...
when i sell my devices i always ask you gonna customize it, if yes i leave it s-off. if not full stock
all the devices come with s-on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would have to dig through old posts to find it, but I was talking to one guy who had just bought one from a store and they were S-off supercid. He said there were about 3-4 more there. Now this guy was from the middle east, I cannot remember which country he said.
I just assumed they had to sell them to that area that way so they could be used with their particular carrier.
I'll search and post it if I can find it.
Edit: found it, he was from Pakistan
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2483636
tivofool said:
I would have to dig through old posts to find it, but I was talking to one guy who had just bought one from a store and they were S-off supercid. He said there were about 3-4 more there. Now this guy was from the middle east, I cannot remember which country he said.
I just assumed they had to sell them to that area that way so they could be used with their particular carrier.
I'll search and post it if I can find it.
Edit: found it, he was from Pakistan
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2483636
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hey now that you mention it I think thats the race his bosses are. But whats a supercid? Never heard of that before?
Nah definitely not as lucky to have a supercid. I assume CID = Carrier Identification seeing mine is T-Mobile related.
Sent from my LG-LS970 using xda app-developers app
I recently bought a htc one x on ebay not lost or stolen, but it is locked by the previous owner. The bootloader is locked, and I can't do the typical factory restore. so what I would love to know is how do I get into the bootloader and start a factory restore without being one able to debug the phone or with the phone off. I have used adb to do this on other phones but this seems difficult for some odd reason.
This seems a bit dodgy, the fact that you felt compelled to say it isn't stolen seems suspicious to me. When you say the phone is locked what do you mean? Can't you just contact the seller?
Sent from my Evita
timmaaa said:
This seems a bit dodgy, the fact that you felt compelled to say it isn't stolen seems suspicious to me. When you say the phone is locked what do you mean? Can't you just contact the seller?
Sent from my Evita
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am starting to question that too, it sucks because I bought the phone and fixed it. The seller hasn't replied yet.
I remember reading an artical not to long ago listing the steps needed to get back into a phone that you forgot your password for. It involved using adb fastboot and sending various commands to unlock the phone or something along those lines. I just hope you came across the phone in a legal manner.
Sent from my HTC One XL using xda app-developers app
We don't allow discussions about this because even if the op got the phone legitimately any information provided could potentially be used on illegally gained phones.
Thread Closed
How would they know this?
I had to chat with their online CS about replacing my phone that seems to have a defective digitizer (sometimes it registers inputs when I'm not touching it and inputs in places other than where I touch it). They asked me what software number I'm running, which is 1.55.605.2. I'm guessing that number somehow denotes if my bootloader is unlocked?
They didn't seem to care though and told me to just re-lock my bootloader before I send the phone back to them. I'm just curious as to how they knew since that's the only info I gave them about the phone.
No just that number alone doesn't tell them that your bootloader is unlocked. You must have told them other information as well like say you radio versions, etc. If say you flashed a 1.55.605.2 based stock rom but DIDN'T flash the most current radios then you would have mismatching versions. If they by chance asked what radio version number you had then that could give it away. Cause the only way you could have mismatching radio/software versions is if your bootloader was unlocked and you were flashing stuff. But there are other indictators too. You might have unwittingly told them other stuff that could give it away. I wouldn't worry about it though. HTC is generally pretty cool about it. They know for example that a dead pixel in a screen has absolutely nothing to do with an unlocked bootloader or SOFF so they still honor the warranty. Unlike companies like Verizon.
I had a similar conversation with Motorola when I had the Droid RAZR MAXX HD. After trying to do a factory reset to sell the phone it got hung up in the cache wipe. I contacted Moto, explained the problem and told them that the phone was not rooted. The csr told me that she could see that the phone was not rooted, and set up the rma to get it fixed. I too was surprised by this info from Moto. Moto had built in a root checker into their software and apparently it sent back info to Moto without my knowing. So I wouldn't be too surprised if other oems have followed suit.
Sent from my HTC One M8.
nicholi2789 said:
No just that number alone doesn't tell them that your bootloader is unlocked. You must have told them other information as well like say you radio versions, etc. If say you flashed a 1.55.605.2 based stock rom but DIDN'T flash the most current radios then you would have mismatching versions. If they by chance asked what radio version number you had then that could give it away. Cause the only way you could have mismatching radio/software versions is if your bootloader was unlocked and you were flashing stuff. But there are other indictators too. You might have unwittingly told them other stuff that could give it away. I wouldn't worry about it though. HTC is generally pretty cool about it. They know for example that a dead pixel in a screen has absolutely nothing to do with an unlocked bootloader or SOFF so they still honor the warranty. Unlike companies like Verizon.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, I'll post the transcript later (at work right now) if you want. It was literally the only thing she asked me about the software before she confirmed with me that the bootloader was unlocked. Maybe it was social engineering..? Lol
Yeah, I'm not worried about it, as she didn't even hesitate to warranty the phone for me still. I was just curious as to how she knew that.
NSA I tell ya. Oh and HTC knew you met that hooker on your lunch break too so watch those texts.
T4rd said:
No, I'll post the transcript later (at work right now) if you want. It was literally the only thing she asked me about the software before she confirmed with me that the bootloader was unlocked. Maybe it was social engineering..? Lol
Yeah, I'm not worried about it, as she didn't even hesitate to warranty the phone for me still. I was just curious as to how she knew that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well for all we know HTC apps could be logging information about our phones. There's no way we could know except for reading days and days worth of logcats. It is interesting though.
Yeah I recently had the worst customer service experience with HTC ever. They confirmed my bootloader was unlocked and i sent it in for a screen repair since it was cracked. They made me pay full price for the repair because they said it voided the warranty.
Then when I asked the customer support person if i paid for the repair out of pocket would they send me the phone still unlocked and S-off'd. The support person said specifically that if i didn't escelate the problem then they would just repair the screen. So i didn't escalate the problem and when i got the phone back i found out i was no longer unlocked or S-Off'd.
Then when i spoke to customer support again they quoted the previous tech and said that if i escalated the problem they would have likely done the repair for free and left my phone unlocked. I also found out what i paid for was a new board and the screen repair. They refused to help me in any way. I even asked if i could escalate the problem and if there was a way i could be refunded for the main board replacement since i only requested the screen be repaired. They said nope your SOL.
Litterally don't understand how anyone has had a good experience with HTC support :/
TLDR: Bootloader unlocked, sent phone for repair. Was lied to by customer support and offered no help from HTC.
T4rd said:
Yeah, I'm not worried about it, as she didn't even hesitate to warranty the phone for me still. I was just curious as to how she knew that.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it was social engineering
Or
HTC allows most every phone to be unlocked EXCEPT Verizon does not. So they are probably working with the rest of the world and thinking Remember to lock your bootloader!
scrosler said:
I think it was social engineering
Or
HTC allows most every phone to be unlocked EXCEPT Verizon does not. So they are probably working with the rest of the world and thinking Remember to lock your bootloader!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
They are saying they knew it was unlocked from the phone call, does this mean make sure it is relocked before making the call? This kinda scares me, I have never had issues with warranty replacements but I am new to Verizon. Will Verizon know I am unlocked and reject me or can I simply relock if needed? Hopefully I will never have to use warranty but this does not sound good lol.
While I am here I have a quick question without opening a new thread, why does this Verizon M8 forum's phone description show us having the 2.5ghz processor? I thought we had the 2.3Ghz version from Verizon? Thanks
LibertyMonger said:
They are saying they knew it was unlocked from the phone call, does this mean make sure it is relocked before making the call? This kinda scares me, I have never had issues with warranty replacements but I am new to Verizon. Will Verizon know I am unlocked and reject me or can I simply relock if needed? Hopefully I will never have to use warranty but this does not sound good lol.
While I am here I have a quick question without opening a new thread, why does this Verizon M8 forum's phone description show us having the 2.5ghz processor? I thought we had the 2.3Ghz version from Verizon? Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well do have the 2.3 ghz version. And you can re-lock your bootloader with a fastboot command. Verizon is not that strict on their phones. Noone even looks. I've sent 2 M8s back to Verizon for warranty replacements. One still said s-off, the other said unlocked and s-off. Noone every said a word to me. Not to mention all the warranty replacements in the past I've done with other devices.
Just do everything you can to lock it back up and get it as close to stock as possible since it doesn't take that much effort. But I wouldn't sweat it too hard. I don't think they even look aside from powering it on and making sure it isn't water damaged.
They can tell because of the HTC DM and the HTC Checkin Services
These apps occasionally check in with HTC servers and send log files
Sent from my HTC6525LVW using XDA Free mobile app
my HTC story:
well here goes.... I bricked my my M8...BAD, to the point of no boot, no hope. So i worked with HTC tech support via chat, and told them i had rooted & SOFF'd my phone, and i was willing to pay to get the phone fixed and back. So they sent me an email explaining the mail in procedure. I sent the phone, the tech conversation transcript, and a letter stating the specific problem with the phone, also explaining root & SOFF. And i got a refurb phone from them a week later, free of charge. But this one had terrible scratches all over the camera lense. So i sent it back, and i got sent another refurb, this time with a good lense. By that time, i had paid my edge contract buyout, and gotten a new M8, so now i have 2 M8's. Customer service wasn't bad for me.
FragmentedLogik said:
They can tell because of the HTC DM and the HTC Checkin Services
These apps occasionally check in with HTC servers and send log files
Sent from my HTC6525LVW using XDA Free mobile app
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Maybe time to see what happens if they are renamed,removed, or froze with TB.
I recently cracked the screen on my VZW M8. I chose the $19 option with HTC Advantage. I first sent my unlocked, s-off device to HTC. They received the device in 2 days, and shipped out a replacement device the same day, free of charge. I guess I'll call it "luck".
sfobrien said:
Maybe time to see what happens if they are renamed,removed, or froze with TB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HTC DM you can disable in the app mgr.
Do you have the HTC Quick Guide app installed from the market?