[Q] Unlocking Lumia 520 - Windows Phone 8 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I have a Lumia 520 and am wondering if I should unlock it. I want to know what the negative and positive effects will be of unlocking the device.
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First of all, you're in the wrong forum and by a good distance. This is about Windows RT, which is the ARM version of Windows 8; it is not about Windows Phone 8 or any Lumia device.
With that said, by "unlock" do you mean SIM unlock, developer unlock, or something different? SIM unlocking lets you use other cellular networks if you swap SIM cards (many phones already come this way). Developer unlocking lets you install "sideloaded" (not from the store) apps, but there are some pretty severe restrictions.

Err sorry for the wrong forum. I mean dev unlock.
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Farzan Hussain said:
Err sorry for the wrong forum. I mean dev unlock.
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Still wrong forum. Now its in windows 8. Not windows phone 8.

SixSixSevenSeven said:
Still wrong forum. Now its in windows 8. Not windows phone 8.
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Click to collapse
Facepalm. This time the moderator moved it.
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There's no inherent downside of dev unlock, aside from the fact that the developer license required to use the unlocking tool typically costs money. However, right now, we don't have a lot of advantages to dev unlock either. People are still working on getting any meaningful homebrew to work. As is, you'd be able to run XAPs that people have not yet published in the store but decided to post here, and... well, that's about it.

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Swap&bootloader

I know all you have heard about the milestone lockedbootloader issue stopping us from getting a swap space. But I don't understand what is it stopping people from unlocking the bootloader. Is it as simple as getting a key? And would a motorola employee have access to it?
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Please just google this. There is a lot of information on this already. I suggest this topic be closed.
But will a Motorola employee have the key to unlocking the bootloader??? That's my question and I've Googled this topic plenty. I'm not stupid
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There is a huge chance mate!
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choudu1, join Andoinc
Cos I know a few people who work at moto but they are hardware engineers. I'm gonna check to see if they know any of this
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choudu1 said:
But I don't understand what is it stopping people from unlocking the bootloader. Is it as simple as getting a key? And would a motorola employee have access to it?
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For our freedom...
- replace the bootloader itself with an unlocked version suitable for milestone (no one knows if this piece of code even exists)
- the private key for signing custom images which would allow to work in harmony with existing bootcode (this key for sure exists)
Perhaps you might join an internship at motorola
Good luck!!!
scholbert
choudu1 said:
Cos I know a few people who work at moto but they are hardware engineers. I'm gonna check to see if they know any of this
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Usually, decent companies have the keys stored in a safe place and those can't be accessed by employees, they only have means to access it remotely to request something to be signed by that key. In that safe place, that could either be owned by the owner of the key or leased in some specific digital security company (like Verisign), security measures are taken that only few people have access and those are properly identified, so, any leak would be easily spotted and that person would be charged.
But, is Motorola a decent company? There is always some hope that they have the signing application lying around in a network share that is not logged, but, I would imagine if that was true, that piece of software/keys would already be released by someone.
Hmm. Maybe ill tie a moto employee to a chair and beat the bootloader keys out of him :L
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Accent colors

Ok guys just a question an yes I did a search. So here goes, is there a way to change the accent colors to custom colors with the phone being unlocked?
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Question worded wrong I meant if the phone is not unlocked.
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no, requires registry access.
An there is no possible way to get registry access without the phone being unlocked.
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bigjrocc27 said:
An there is no possible way to get registry access without the phone being unlocked.
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that is correct.
What a bummer!!!!!!!

Custom Rom/Theme?

To make a long story short I once had the HD7 which had many custom roms, then went back to android and now once again coming back to WP7 with the Focus S. Something about the fluidness of WP7 that brought me back .
Anyway I dont see anything on XDA or the interwebs in regards to custom roms and or theming this phone. Is there a good please to read up on what can be done with the Focus S from a customization perspective? I see you can interop unlock but no access to registery edit to actually make it worth while.
What is possible with this phone today?
Sorry if this should have been posted in general.
Thanks!
yuo ayr a dum but!
I'm looking for a custom or unbranded ROM too as AT&T resolutely refuse to push out any updates for the Focus S :-/
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zarn1w00p said:
I'm looking for a custom or unbranded ROM too as AT&T resolutely refuse to push out any updates for the Focus S :-/
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You can unbrand it, hook it up to zune and you can update it to 8107...

Focus S tied tethering

Hi,
I own a Focus S in the UK but I cannot get Internet sharing working because it's tied to AT&T. Is there a Registry key that can be deleted or modified so it can be used here in the UK please?
Regards
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zarn1w00p said:
Hi,
I own a Focus S in the UK but I cannot get Internet sharing working because it's tied to AT&T. Is there a Registry key that can be deleted or modified so it can be used here in the UK please?
Regards
Sent from my SGH-i937 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
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assuming you have the device unlocked
search for, download and install WP Root tools and WinTT, make sure WinTT gets root privileges and then in WinTT there is an option to turn on Wifi ICS
you know there is a post I made on this very site telling you want to do, in fact, im fairly sure there are several on this site
Here
Hi,
Thanks for response. I have done this but each time I enable IT it asks me to contact AT&T. There must be a reg key somewhere which does this, but finding it....
Regards
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Please post in appropriate section
Thread moved to general
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[Q] Unlock Phone network/SIM

Hi Guys, just want to ask about unlocking SIM or Network. sorry I know nothing about these things and want to unlock my phone (Xperia 8 sim to use with different mobile service provider? how can I do that?
There aren't free options, only paid (Omnius, for example).
RoberGalarga said:
There aren't free options, only paid (Omnius, for example).
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OK, so what should I do.
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You decide, dude. In my case, I unlocked my phone because Omnius had a promotion (all a weekend, months ago, unlocks for free). I think you'll need save some money

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