Database Develop

[Q] Trying to fix phone using adb or fastboot

My Verizon Wireless Droid 3 stopped booting normally on Tuesday evening. It has not been rooted or anything like that. When I boot it now, once the boot sequence has finished instead of displaying the home screen it stays stuck on the red animated boot screen for a little while and then goes completely blank. I cannot do anything with the phone - none of the buttons work. I can hear some audio notifications however so it seems to be booted completely, but locked to any user input. I get the same behavior when booting it in safe mode. If I call my cell phone from a landline, it receives the call, displays the incoming call on the screen, and I can accept or reject it using the normal screen swipe motions. When the call is answered, I can talk/hear as well as use the in-call dial pad. I cannot, however, use any of the 4 buttons at the bottom of the phone or access the notification bar at the top of the screen. As soon as the call ends, the screen becomes unusable/blank again.
Once booted in this state, after a couple of minutes it sort of resets, in that it sounds/displays the "Droid" message, followed by the red animated boot screen. However, if connected to my computer when this happens, the two external drives do not disappear, which seems to indicate that the phone is still at least semi-booted during this time? If left alone, that cycle repeats and repeats (every few minutes it sounds/displays "Droid" then the red animated boot screen).
When I connect a USB cable to my computer while the phone is up in this state, it displays two empty external drives.
Through research on this forum and others I have downloaded/installed adb and the Android SDK. I cannot get adb to recognize the phone, presumably because I'm quite sure USB Debugging was not enabled on my phone before it started acting up.
When booting via FastBoot and connecting via USB it recognizes a "Android ADB Interface" device in device manager, however adb itself still does not recognize the device.
Doing a factory reset is not an option at this point due to encrypted files/photos on the phone/sd card. I had to turn encryption on in order to use my corporate e-mail on the phone.
The boot menu gives me these options:
Normal Powerup
Recovery
AP Fastboot
BP SBF Flash
BP Only
BP HW Diag & Boot AP
BP Tools
Can anyone give me some advice on gaining access to the phone via adb or anything else? I've seen mention of Early USB Enumeration on some other androids, but am not seeing this option on my phone anywhere.

Forgot to mention that I also tried wiping the phone's cache via the recovery menu, but to no avail.

jessman1128 said:
My Verizon Wireless Droid 3 stopped booting normally on Tuesday evening. It has not been rooted or anything like that. When I boot it now, once the boot sequence has finished instead of displaying the home screen it stays stuck on the red animated boot screen for a little while and then goes completely blank. I cannot do anything with the phone - none of the buttons work. I can hear some audio notifications however so it seems to be booted completely, but locked to any user input. I get the same behavior when booting it in safe mode. If I call my cell phone from a landline, it receives the call, displays the incoming call on the screen, and I can accept or reject it using the normal screen swipe motions. When the call is answered, I can talk/hear as well as use the in-call dial pad. I cannot, however, use any of the 4 buttons at the bottom of the phone or access the notification bar at the top of the screen. As soon as the call ends, the screen becomes unusable/blank again.
Once booted in this state, after a couple of minutes it sort of resets, in that it sounds/displays the "Droid" message, followed by the red animated boot screen. However, if connected to my computer when this happens, the two external drives do not disappear, which seems to indicate that the phone is still at least semi-booted during this time? If left alone, that cycle repeats and repeats (every few minutes it sounds/displays "Droid" then the red animated boot screen).
When I connect a USB cable to my computer while the phone is up in this state, it displays two empty external drives.
Through research on this forum and others I have downloaded/installed adb and the Android SDK. I cannot get adb to recognize the phone, presumably because I'm quite sure USB Debugging was not enabled on my phone before it started acting up.
When booting via FastBoot and connecting via USB it recognizes a "Android ADB Interface" device in device manager, however adb itself still does not recognize the device.
Doing a factory reset is not an option at this point due to encrypted files/photos on the phone/sd card. I had to turn encryption on in order to use my corporate e-mail on the phone.
The boot menu gives me these options:
Normal Powerup
Recovery
AP Fastboot
BP SBF Flash
BP Only
BP HW Diag & Boot AP
BP Tools
Can anyone give me some advice on gaining access to the phone via adb or anything else? I've seen mention of Early USB Enumeration on some other androids, but am not seeing this option on my phone anywhere.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Since you said you can receive calls, during a call, place in speakerphone mode and hit the HOME button. It should background the call to the notification bar and unlock sliding down the notification bar and take you to the home screen. (using AT&T I can do this to stay in call and browse/do whatever on data while in a call).
Have someone (or you) call the phone, press home, then hit Menu > Settings > Applications > debugging and enable USB debugging. This should get you ADB, do NOT hang up during this just in case.

Skreelink said:
Since you said you can receive calls, during a call, place in speakerphone mode and hit the HOME button. It should background the call to the notification bar and unlock sliding down the notification bar and take you to the home screen. (using AT&T I can do this to stay in call and browse/do whatever on data while in a call).
Have someone (or you) call the phone, press home, then hit Menu > Settings > Applications > debugging and enable USB debugging. This should get you ADB, do NOT hang up during this just in case.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can place the call in speaker mode, but the home button (plus the other 3) still do not work, nor does the notification bar (although I can see the notification bar). At some point it did delegate the call to the notification bar (although not immediately after placing it in speaker mode), but at that point the rest of the screen went black and only the notification bar was visible (but not accessible). I did receive a message this time, right before answering the call, that process Home Screen was stuck or something and it prompted me to either force close or wait. I told it to wait. And now it just initiated a partial reboot, even though I was still in-call.

Also, in case it's relevant, I am using LauncherPro as my home screen.

jessman1128 said:
Also, in case it's relevant, I am using LauncherPro as my home screen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like something may have happened to LauncherPro, and since it's your default launcher, the home button isn't going back to regular motorola home. Try booting the phone and (hoping) if it has a data connection, on your PC go to https://play.google.com/apps login, it should display your devices, click on your Droid 3, find LauncherPro, and uninstall remotely. It should be the small trash-can next to where it says 'installed'
OR you can try installing another launcher, such as ADW, Go Launcher, etc. and remotely installing it, then hitting home, which SHOULD reprompt for default launcher/home.
Maybe do a combination of the two, just to insure you're not stuck without a launcher at all, though not rooting, MotorolaHome shouldn't have been affected.

Skreelink said:
Sounds like something may have happened to LauncherPro, and since it's your default launcher, the home button isn't going back to regular motorola home. Try booting the phone and (hoping) if it has a data connection, on your PC go to [] login, it should display your devices, click on your Droid 3, find LauncherPro, and uninstall remotely. It should be the small trash-can next to where it says 'installed'
OR you can try installing another launcher, such as ADW, Go Launcher, etc. and remotely installing it, then hitting home, which SHOULD reprompt for default launcher/home.
Maybe do a combination of the two, just to insure you're not stuck without a launcher at all, though not rooting, MotorolaHome shouldn't have been affected.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are a lifesaver. You rock. You are awesome. I'd click Thanks on your post one thousand times if it would let me. I have my phone back!
I followed both suggestions - I loaded the Play store on my computer and installed ADW as well as removed Launcher Pro plus a few other apps. It took I think 3 boot cycles before it finished making all of those changes on my phone (because it would only stay up for 1-2 minutes each time), but once it was done I had my phone back.
I could access my pics on my phone then, but not on my computer. Due to them being encrypted you have to connect in PC Mode for it to decrypt them properly when copying to the computer, but in PC Mode it wasn't registering the right drivers. Took me awhile to track down the proper ones online (I was looking at Verizon when it was actually Motorola drivers I needed), but I finally found them and installed them and just finished copying over all my pics to my computer - and verified they decrypted properly.
In recent weeks I've been kicking around the idea of rooting my phone and installing a custom rom. Thinking this might be a good time to try it now that I have everything copied off of my phone now. I don't know much about custom roms though. Do you happen to know if any of the available ones for D3 will support corporate e-mail?

jessman1128 said:
I could access my pics on my phone then, but not on my computer. Due to them being encrypted you have to connect in PC Mode for it to decrypt them properly when copying to the computer, but in PC Mode it wasn't registering the right drivers. Took me awhile to track down the proper ones online (I was looking at Verizon when it was actually Motorola drivers I needed), but I finally found them and installed them and just finished copying over all my pics to my computer - and verified they decrypted properly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good news. But, do yourself a favor - try activating a service that automatically uploads all photos, such as Google+ or Dropbox or Sugrasync. That way if you ever get to a point where you need to factory reset you'll have copies of your photos somewhere else.

jessman1128 said:
You are a lifesaver. You rock. You are awesome. I'd click Thanks on your post one thousand times if it would let me. I have my phone back!
I followed both suggestions - I loaded the Play store on my computer and installed ADW as well as removed Launcher Pro plus a few other apps. It took I think 3 boot cycles before it finished making all of those changes on my phone (because it would only stay up for 1-2 minutes each time), but once it was done I had my phone back.
I could access my pics on my phone then, but not on my computer. Due to them being encrypted you have to connect in PC Mode for it to decrypt them properly when copying to the computer, but in PC Mode it wasn't registering the right drivers. Took me awhile to track down the proper ones online (I was looking at Verizon when it was actually Motorola drivers I needed), but I finally found them and installed them and just finished copying over all my pics to my computer - and verified they decrypted properly.
In recent weeks I've been kicking around the idea of rooting my phone and installing a custom rom. Thinking this might be a good time to try it now that I have everything copied off of my phone now. I don't know much about custom roms though. Do you happen to know if any of the available ones for D3 will support corporate e-mail?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Most likely any roms that are built on the D3 source will unless they stripped it. I use Maverick rom 4.0 myself, it is based on 906 with enhancements, debloat, themed, etc. There are still many bugs to work out on AOSP built roms (cyanogenmod, aokp, etc. Any ics/jb roms). I would suggest sticking with a stable gb rom if it is your business phone.

doogald said:
Good news. But, do yourself a favor - try activating a service that automatically uploads all photos, such as Google+ or Dropbox or Sugrasync. That way if you ever get to a point where you need to factory reset you'll have copies of your photos somewhere else.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That sounds like a good idea. I wonder, though, if those services would upload the encrypted or decrypted version of the photos. I'll have to test it and see.

Skreelink said:
Most likely any roms that are built on the D3 source will unless they stripped it. I use Maverick rom 4.0 myself, it is based on 906 with enhancements, debloat, themed, etc. There are still many bugs to work out on AOSP built roms (cyanogenmod, aokp, etc. Any ics/jb roms). I would suggest sticking with a stable gb rom if it is your business phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm, ok. I'll have to give it some more thought then. It's my personal phone, but I do have my work e-mail setup on it and access it fairly regularly. I don't absolutely need to have my work e-mail on my phone, but it's certainly very helpful to have it setup there.
I've also been thinking about doing a factory reset, as the phone in general has gotten progressively slower as time goes on. Thinking the factory reset might help in that regard. I wonder if there's any way to remove some of the stock Verizon apps I never use when doing a factory reset. I'll have to look into that. I guess I should go search these forums again!

jessman1128 said:
That sounds like a good idea. I wonder, though, if those services would upload the encrypted or decrypted version of the photos. I'll have to test it and see.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I setup FolderSync to upload my photos to Google Drive and it is successfully uploading them in decrypted form. Thank you for the suggestion!

Broken Display Question About Data Recovery

So I shattered my display and the screen wont turn on but it still vibrates when i get notifications, i was wondering if anyone would know of a way to sort of project the display onto a TV or PC so i can use apps that i installed to backup messages and app data and stuff?

I'm pretty sure if the phone still works you can run it in ADP on your PC and basically click through the phone. Then do whatever you need to do and back it up.

BlueForce64 said:
I'm pretty sure if the phone still works you can run it in ADP on your PC and basically click through the phone. Then do whatever you need to do and back it up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here's the problem with that:
ADB doesn't work unless you first enable it in developer options. Once you do that, you have to click yes on a confirmation dialog the first time you use it. Both of these processes require a functioning screen.
If you have an unlocked phone with TWRP installed, and you can blindly convince the phone to boot into TWRP (maybe by booting into bootloader and using fastboot reboot-recovery, but I'll have to check and see if that command works when I get home. I think it does.), you'll be able to access the data on your phone by simply plugging it into a computer. If you do not have TWRP installed, and you have no lockscreen set up (no swipe, no password, no pin, no nothing), you might be able to access the data by plugging it into a computer after it boots.
If none of those situations apply, and the data is worth about $100 to you, you might want to look into a screen replacement service. Sometimes you can find little electronics places in malls or shopping centers that will do it, and I'm pretty sure there are businesses that you can mail your phone to and they'll mail it back once the work is completed. A friend of mine even found a service that sent someone to her house to replace her screen then and there.

Thanks, booting into TWRP worked and I was able to get most of the stuff I needed. I completely forgot I could get into it that way.

Help rooting/enabling adb on bootloader & google locked Marshmallow

I bought a Moto X (2014) with a broken/damaged screen for super cheap. When I bought it, it vibrated and made sounds so I knew it was functional. The next day, the alarm woke me up so I turned it off. The day after it happened again, so I just let it ring under a pillow until the phone died. Yesterday, the screen replacement finally arrived and I performed the switch myself.
When I tested the screen before closing it back up, the phone wouldn't boot, but the screen itself appeared to be functional so I closed it back up. The infamous green light issue was occurring, no doubt due to the fact that I let the battery drain completely then left it in a drawer for about a month, in addition to God knows what the previous owner had done to it.
After several hours of hooking it up to various chargers and cables and computers and performing a seemingly infinite number and duration of button combinations, it finally booted up, and started to charge normally.
Only then I realized it was still protected by the pattern code from the previous owner. Due to fear of FRP, I kept trying to crack the pattern code to no avail. Eventually I said frick it and went into bootloader mode to try and unlock the bootloader, but it turns out that adb is not enabled, and neither is the "allow bootloader unlock". So I said frick it and hit factory to reset the phone, but the phone simply rebooted. Odd. Alright, so I hooked it up to a computer in bootloader mode and performed fastboot erase userdata. Upon reboot, FRP had kicked in.
Hours of searching yielded various methods of bypassing this, none of which worked. However due to the blessing/curse (more on that later) that it's on Marshmallow, I was able to use a Google Assistant loophole to access pretty much the entire device (minus Google apps, including the play store). This included the settings app. To my dismay, I'm unable to activate dev options and the reset button is greyed out, no doubt due to a group policy preventing these functions until the owner's Google account is entered.
I came across a method that showed a lot of promise. Through the use of an app called Quick Shortcut Manager, it allows you to log into any Google account and once you reboot afterwards, FRP is no longer an issue. However in my case, since I seem to be exceptionally lucky, during the sign in process, the phone reboots unexpectedly. How very odd. Retried several times under various conditions, including Force Stopping all Google apps (which returns the navbar buttons, without function, and also the notification tray but not quick settings).
Alright. I installed Telegram via apk and logged in. As soon as I logged in, the phone reboots unexpectedly again, which leads me to believe that this random reboot occurs whenever ANY account is added to the device (because Telegram accounts are saved under Settings > Accounts).
Knowing I'm stuck with a locked bootloader and no way of unlocking it without accessing dev options which I'm unable to do, I decided to try flashing an earlier build. I downloaded 4.4.4 and 5.0.1 factory images and proceeded to try flashing 4.4.4, to no avail, since apparently downgrading is also impossible with a locked bootloader. Most commands returned a "remote failure" response. I continued anyway and upon reboot I discover that nothing has changed. I've tried this with both system images.
I tried RSD Lite as well but it won't even detect the phone in fastboot/bootloader mode (on Windows 10 Insider Preview). Tried with admin privileges. The "fastboot flash" option in the Config menu was greyed out for some reason.
I've hit a roadblock. I'm so ready to just toss this phone out the window but I decided to come here and ask for help first. Please, XDA. Do not fail me.
P.S. I've lost contact with the owner because I bought the phone on a local equivalent of Craigslist so neither the ad nor my communication with him still exists. And even if by some miracle I managed to find one, it would do me no favors if he would remove the account via Google Device Manager because I've already reset it. The only thing he can do for me is log into the phone using his email and password and then reset it, which would require going somewhere with WiFi that is also public all the while making sure he doesn't try to steal the phone back now that it's fixed.
Edit 2: Ever since I added the Telegram account, the phone is no longer usable, since it reboots unexpectedly as soon as it connects to WiFi and discovers that an account has been added to the device. I'm going to reset it again so I can continue using it with these limitations.

I remember once on a Samsung device I found a pre-rooted IMAGE file and flashed it via fastboot and that fixed everything. I can't seem to find anything of the sort for this phone though.
I've found instructions on how to convert a ZIP ROM into a system image, but those instructions are only for Linux.

Factory reset has not restored Auto-Rotate, Active Edge, and the "ear sensor" when making calls

Hi!,
I'm a long-time reader of this forum, but this is my first post. In the last few days, something happened (I wish I could pinpoint exactly what) where I ended up restarting my phone and it entered a continuous boot loop. The phone was receiving updates per normal and may have received an update not that long ago that required some kind of restart, but I'm not confident about that. Either way, the phone was restarted and it entered into a permanent boot loop.
Before restarting, I'm confident the "ear sensor" that turns the screen off when I'm on a call as functioning. I'm also confident the auto-rotate functionality of the phone was working perfectly.
After I tried to factory reset the phone from the power-volume reset options, I actually ran into a TON of trouble trying to get the phone to properly reset. It tooks me countless tries to eventually get the phone to start after resetting it over and over again. I was stuck trying to get the phone to actually move through the setup steps. SUPER frustrating. I actually went to sleep while the phone was somewhere in the middle of setting up and when I woke up the phone somehow eventually made it through some setup steps.
I'm now using the phone as I normally would, but it's very odd. The phone is a LOT more unstable. At least 3 of the sensors I had working have just completely stopped working.
The phone is in otherwise perfect condition. I'm genuinely confused about how I should go about trying to resetting this thing to a pure stock configuration and slowly installing apps again to make the experience what I'd want.
And no, I'm not a super power user. I am a strong engineer happy to do crazy things like flashing bootloaders and whatnot, but I'm honestly confused about where to start. I understand other versions of this device may have had corrupted persist partitions during updates -- those problems seem like my problems -- but I don't know how I should go about simply flashing my phone at the lowest level into something stock that I can try to build back from.
And obviously when talking to google support their suggsetion is that I mail them the device and wait 10 days without a phone. I'm confused about how that could EVER be a reasonable way to get a phone repaired, sigh -- phones are not toys, they're pretty critical to the day-to-day work of so many people including myself. I'm pretty disappointing with that approach from Google and I had always considered them much better than that before this experience.
Anyway, I'm really lost and I'd love to understand how to repair the software on my phone.
(You all kick ass!)

aliljet said:
Hi!,
I'm a long-time reader of this forum, but this is my first post. In the last few days, something happened (I wish I could pinpoint exactly what) where I ended up restarting my phone and it entered a continuous boot loop. The phone was receiving updates per normal and may have received an update not that long ago that required some kind of restart, but I'm not confident about that. Either way, the phone was restarted and it entered into a permanent boot loop.
Before restarting, I'm confident the "ear sensor" that turns the screen off when I'm on a call as functioning. I'm also confident the auto-rotate functionality of the phone was working perfectly.
After I tried to factory reset the phone from the power-volume reset options, I actually ran into a TON of trouble trying to get the phone to properly reset. It tooks me countless tries to eventually get the phone to start after resetting it over and over again. I was stuck trying to get the phone to actually move through the setup steps. SUPER frustrating. I actually went to sleep while the phone was somewhere in the middle of setting up and when I woke up the phone somehow eventually made it through some setup steps.
I'm now using the phone as I normally would, but it's very odd. The phone is a LOT more unstable. At least 3 of the sensors I had working have just completely stopped working.
The phone is in otherwise perfect condition. I'm genuinely confused about how I should go about trying to resetting this thing to a pure stock configuration and slowly installing apps again to make the experience what I'd want.
And no, I'm not a super power user. I am a strong engineer happy to do crazy things like flashing bootloaders and whatnot, but I'm honestly confused about where to start. I understand other versions of this device may have had corrupted persist partitions during updates -- those problems seem like my problems -- but I don't know how I should go about simply flashing my phone at the lowest level into something stock that I can try to build back from.
And obviously when talking to google support their suggsetion is that I mail them the device and wait 10 days without a phone. I'm confused about how that could EVER be a reasonable way to get a phone repaired, sigh -- phones are not toys, they're pretty critical to the day-to-day work of so many people including myself. I'm pretty disappointing with that approach from Google and I had always considered them much better than that before this experience.
Anyway, I'm really lost and I'd love to understand how to repair the software on my phone.
(You all kick ass!)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I would try flashing the latest factory image via fastboot.
[Guide] Root Pixel 4 XL with Magisk Android 13
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forum.xda-developers.com
https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/guide-unlock-flash-root-for-the-pixel-2-xl-taimen.3702418/ (This is for a Pixel 2 XL but the process is the same. It's basically a condensed version of the one above.)

aliljet said:
Hi!,
I'm a long-time reader of this forum, but this is my first post. In the last few days, something happened (I wish I could pinpoint exactly what) where I ended up restarting my phone and it entered a continuous boot loop. The phone was receiving updates per normal and may have received an update not that long ago that required some kind of restart, but I'm not confident about that. Either way, the phone was restarted and it entered into a permanent boot loop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You did not provide the most important information we need- whether your phone is bootloader unlocked. Probably not, otherwise you would have already flashed it with a full Google image, which returns the phone to "out of the box" condition. You need to determine whether you can unlock your bootloader. If you cannot unlock (allow oem unlock is off and or greyed out in Dev options) then you will not be able to fastboot flash ANYTHING. If that is your case, the next best thing is flashing a full OTA image (sometimes called a rescue OTA) from recovery mode using the OTA via ADB option. This means you need fastboot/adb installed and working on your PC. Instructions on how are on the same Google dev page for OTA's.

So, my phone's bootloader is not unlocked. But I have an update for the crowd that may one day find this. I know your frustration and I can report that my phone is once again fixed.
A day (or two) after I sent this, a set of updates came down to my phone. And WebView was updated. That restored all of my sensors and also restored most of my crashing applications. It was an incredibly odd experience.
My phone once again functions. And the nightmare of owning a Google phone and talking to Google support has ended.

New Pixel comes with Bootloader unlocked and it's unable to lock

Hi everyone,
I just bought a Google Pixel 5 with Android 11 that was declared "new" and when I got it, from the first time powering it on, I got the security alert that the bootloader is unlocked, see photo attached. For several personal reasons I cannot easily send it back, so I tried to understand what this means but I am no developer. I tried an entire day to install ADB, put the phone in developer mode and download the firmware image from the official source, I got to the point where the ADB devices command showed the phone as connected but then nothing else worked. In every video or guide online, the steps varied from what I had in front of me, or did not yield the same results, or how the files looked was different (I downloaded the same firmware version that is installed on the phone from the official Google page but never had an image file, just various other very non-descript files in it). As I am pretty clueless, I tried googling my way around the error codes I got but everything I tried didn't work. I either got more error codes, answers like the ADB server is already killed, or that flashing command that just returned something like "waiting for available device" and got stuck on it, or nothing happened at all. Then I figured out that the option in the developer menu "Allow OEM unlocking" is greyed out and I read then that there are phones where you simply cannot lock or unlock the bootloader. However, all online guides I see are from people who have a locked bootloader and want to unlock it, and in my case it's exactly the other way around, it came unlocked and I want to lock it. I also tried a normal reset of the phone from the settings menu, deleting all data, and it didn't work. When I got into fastboot mode, I only could choose between Recovery Mode, Rescue Mode and Restart Bootloader, I tried all of them and none worked, and often the last thing that happened was that the screen turned into a small Android with an open chest, and a line "No command" and the only way to get the phone out of this was by pressing the power button for more than 10 seconds. Every time it restarts, the bootloader unlocked safety advice is showing.
After reading all day long about this, I suspect that the phone was probably refurbished. I wondered whether they maybe accidentally forgot to lock it or whether it was intentional, and in case it was intentional, if there is any way someone would have digital access to the phone. I want to understand if it would be possible for me to keep it without having security issues. I read that the unlocked bootloader is a physical problem, if your phone gets stolen or you physically lose it, someone might hack your PIN easier, or get easier access to your data. However, the PIN code and the standard data encryption also seem to protect my data enough. And tbh, as soon as my phone would be lost or stolen, I would delete all data via Find My Device. So I wondered... if it's impossible for me to lock the bootloader, can I still safely keep the phone and use it, with all standard security apps installed like an anti virus app, Google Play Protect and standard security features like PIN and fingerprint unlock and encryption and be safe, or is there any danger I am not aware of? Or is there any way to enable OEM lock or fix this somehow that I would be able to get done as a non-developer? As mentioned before, sending it back is too difficult at the moment so I am just trying to understand what this bootloader unlocked means for me and if it poses a threat to my security as a normal user? (Watching videos, online banking, emails, sending work-related but not highly data sensitive documents, paying with NFC..)
Thanks in advance! I really appreciate any insights to help me understand what this is, if there is any solution to it or if it actually poses no danger if I secure my data another way.

wehramausi said:
Hi everyone,
I just bought a Google Pixel 5 with Android 11 that was declared "new" and when I got it, from the first time powering it on, I got the security alert that the bootloader is unlocked, see photo attached. For several personal reasons I cannot easily send it back, so I tried to understand what this means but I am no developer. I tried an entire day to install ADB, put the phone in developer mode and download the firmware image from the official source, I got to the point where the ADB devices command showed the phone as connected but then nothing else worked. In every video or guide online, the steps varied from what I had in front of me, or did not yield the same results, or how the files looked was different (I downloaded the same firmware version that is installed on the phone from the official Google page but never had an image file, just various other very non-descript files in it). As I am pretty clueless, I tried googling my way around the error codes I got but everything I tried didn't work. I either got more error codes, answers like the ADB server is already killed, or that flashing command that just returned something like "waiting for available device" and got stuck on it, or nothing happened at all. Then I figured out that the option in the developer menu "Allow OEM unlocking" is greyed out and I read then that there are phones where you simply cannot lock or unlock the bootloader. However, all online guides I see are from people who have a locked bootloader and want to unlock it, and in my case it's exactly the other way around, it came unlocked and I want to lock it. I also tried a normal reset of the phone from the settings menu, deleting all data, and it didn't work. When I got into fastboot mode, I only could choose between Recovery Mode, Rescue Mode and Restart Bootloader, I tried all of them and none worked, and often the last thing that happened was that the screen turned into a small Android with an open chest, and a line "No command" and the only way to get the phone out of this was by pressing the power button for more than 10 seconds. Every time it restarts, the bootloader unlocked safety advice is showing.
After reading all day long about this, I suspect that the phone was probably refurbished. I wondered whether they maybe accidentally forgot to lock it or whether it was intentional, and in case it was intentional, if there is any way someone would have digital access to the phone. I want to understand if it would be possible for me to keep it without having security issues. I read that the unlocked bootloader is a physical problem, if your phone gets stolen or you physically lose it, someone might hack your PIN easier, or get easier access to your data. However, the PIN code and the standard data encryption also seem to protect my data enough. And tbh, as soon as my phone would be lost or stolen, I would delete all data via Find My Device. So I wondered... if it's impossible for me to lock the bootloader, can I still safely keep the phone and use it, with all standard security apps installed like an anti virus app, Google Play Protect and standard security features like PIN and fingerprint unlock and encryption and be safe, or is there any danger I am not aware of? Or is there any way to enable OEM lock or fix this somehow that I would be able to get done as a non-developer? As mentioned before, sending it back is too difficult at the moment so I am just trying to understand what this bootloader unlocked means for me and if it poses a threat to my security as a normal user? (Watching videos, online banking, emails, sending work-related but not highly data sensitive documents, paying with NFC..)
Thanks in advance! I really appreciate any insights to help me understand what this is, if there is any solution to it or if it actually poses no danger if I secure my data another way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When the bootloader is unlocked, "allow oem unlocking" is greyed out.
You use fastboot commands when flashing firmware and locking the bootloader
Code:
fastboot devices
The factory image downloaded from this page includes a script that flashes the device, typically named flash-all.sh (On Windows systems, use flash-all.bat
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Factory Images for Nexus and Pixel Devices | Google Play services | Google for Developers
developers.google.com
Once the script finishes, your device reboots. You should now lock the bootloader for security:
Start the device in fastboot mode again, as described above.
Execute:
fastboot flashing lock
or, for older devices, run:
fastboot oem lock
Locking bootloader will wipe the data on some devices. After locking the bootloader, if you want to flash the device again, you must run fastboot oem unlock again, which will wipe the data.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

wehramausi said:
Hi everyone,
I just bought a Google Pixel 5 with Android 11 that was declared "new" and when I got it, from the first time powering it on, I got the security alert that the bootloader is unlocked, see photo attached. For several personal reasons I cannot easily send it back, so I tried to understand what this means but I am no developer. I tried an entire day to install ADB, put the phone in developer mode and download the firmware image from the official source, I got to the point where the ADB devices command showed the phone as connected but then nothing else worked. In every video or guide online, the steps varied from what I had in front of me, or did not yield the same results, or how the files looked was different (I downloaded the same firmware version that is installed on the phone from the official Google page but never had an image file, just various other very non-descript files in it). As I am pretty clueless, I tried googling my way around the error codes I got but everything I tried didn't work. I either got more error codes, answers like the ADB server is already killed, or that flashing command that just returned something like "waiting for available device" and got stuck on it, or nothing happened at all. Then I figured out that the option in the developer menu "Allow OEM unlocking" is greyed out and I read then that there are phones where you simply cannot lock or unlock the bootloader. However, all online guides I see are from people who have a locked bootloader and want to unlock it, and in my case it's exactly the other way around, it came unlocked and I want to lock it. I also tried a normal reset of the phone from the settings menu, deleting all data, and it didn't work. When I got into fastboot mode, I only could choose between Recovery Mode, Rescue Mode and Restart Bootloader, I tried all of them and none worked, and often the last thing that happened was that the screen turned into a small Android with an open chest, and a line "No command" and the only way to get the phone out of this was by pressing the power button for more than 10 seconds. Every time it restarts, the bootloader unlocked safety advice is showing.
After reading all day long about this, I suspect that the phone was probably refurbished. I wondered whether they maybe accidentally forgot to lock it or whether it was intentional, and in case it was intentional, if there is any way someone would have digital access to the phone. I want to understand if it would be possible for me to keep it without having security issues. I read that the unlocked bootloader is a physical problem, if your phone gets stolen or you physically lose it, someone might hack your PIN easier, or get easier access to your data. However, the PIN code and the standard data encryption also seem to protect my data enough. And tbh, as soon as my phone would be lost or stolen, I would delete all data via Find My Device. So I wondered... if it's impossible for me to lock the bootloader, can I still safely keep the phone and use it, with all standard security apps installed like an anti virus app, Google Play Protect and standard security features like PIN and fingerprint unlock and encryption and be safe, or is there any danger I am not aware of? Or is there any way to enable OEM lock or fix this somehow that I would be able to get done as a non-developer? As mentioned before, sending it back is too difficult at the moment so I am just trying to understand what this bootloader unlocked means for me and if it poses a threat to my security as a normal user? (Watching videos, online banking, emails, sending work-related but not highly data sensitive documents, paying with NFC..)
Thanks in advance! I really appreciate any insights to help me understand what this is, if there is any solution to it or if it actually poses no danger if I secure my data another way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Trade you for a locked 4a 5g...

sipotek said:
Hey Bro can you share a method that how can I root Google Pixel 5, I tried a lot but i can't update the recovery mode? can you share some simple method like with the help of any Apk, or recovery file.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lots of threads and guides online that show how to root