Ever hard brick a moto with a locked bootloader? - Moto Z2 Force Guides, News, & Discussion

Hey! I'm trying to find out ways I might trash my OS without unlocking the bootloader or using adb.
Really I'd like people to share basically the worst things they've ever done to their phones. Just the dumbest mistakes. I think inside these stories we also will find hints about pitfalls that could catch someone before they ever even get to enjoy custom ROMs at all.
Also something that could be fun though is behavior of an almost completely but not entirely bricked android. For example, I spent several minutes today trying to race pixel setup before it crashed. For running fastboot boot on a factory boot img allows me to enter a black hole where my os should be. I found that if I spastically tapped my phone while waiting for it to load, it sometimes didn't crash. I was able to advance far enough to set a pin, disagree to various privacy agreements, set the time, and list all of my allergies. I also was able to kill google play services through a default widget, and I could turn on the flashlight! See, not all bricked
Ok, I'm asking because my system is extremely bricked, but not bricked enough to trigger edl, and I have oem flashing locked. And yeah I'm very hung up on it, but I'm trying to turn it into a positive experience for everyone while maybe picking up a new attack.

Related

Would you be interested?

i was sitting here on XDA and i saw that a user here had his phone stolen from him, and people posted several solutions like GPSTracker and latitude but the user did not have either installed. would anyone be interested in a remote brick? basically it would be like SMS commander, but you send a text that holds a password and the correct brick phrase and the phone will brick. the best(and worst) way i can see to do this would be to have an old radio on the sdcard and have the haykuro SPL on there as well. then when the phone receives the text it flashes the old radio and then the haykuro SPL which we all know would brick the phone. i am still working on possible implementation or another way of doing this(maybe run "wipe all" in terminal), but i was just wondering if anyone would be interested before i really try it out.
maybe in future if app works well our ROM devs could include in their build and then it couldn't be removed(easily). the main reason i would want something like this is so if my phone was stolen i could make it useless to the idiot that stole it.
few minor details that would need to be worked out:
won't work if SIM is changed as number would be different
if i use the terminal command "wipe all" then theif would only need to have a new ROM to install and it would be all better
on the of chance you get the phone back you would want to be able to easily fix the phone
let me know what you think, keep in mind this is a very early stage idea and i haven't put more than 20 minutes thought into it
cant lie the idea is brilliant but execution would be the make or break point, and i have a feelin this will take alot of test g1's to get working lol...and multiple devs as a team to get up off the ground. But im all for it, i have had bad luck in the past especially with sidekicks and etc and this would be a perfect idea to have.
Great idea but don't forget when restoring it (if you manage to retrieve your phone), it should only 'unlock' to a certain pass phrase pre-set by the user. If not anyone could just run the 'unlock' command to start using it again.
On the whole, a great idea.
However, I think flashing an incompatible theme with your current build would be sufficient, seeing as 99% of the people who go around stealing phones would have no idea how to fix a G1 stuck on the T-Mo/Not-Flashing-Android Screen.
Although the Old Radio+New SPL combo ensures that there will be minimal data retrieval, it also seems like overkill for the majority of circumstances, seeing as your phone would become a paperweight.
The terminal command "wipe all" will wipe the data and system partitions and crash the phone, when the person who stole it tries to reboot it it won't boot
Even if you wipe (or remove the SD card) most builds would still boot regardless. A remote kill switch has been around on many platforms for some time, hell even Microsoft have been threatening to use it on Vista for pirated builds but it has never happened.
In this case, perhaps the app would need root access, so it could remotely reboot the G1 and run a script to force a boot loop, if you wanted to go as far as rendering the mobile temp unusable.
However the G1 as it is has plenty of security flaws... I mean many of us managed to get root without issue and I'm sure any google searches will point them to this forum. There is no security for fastboot, nor accessing the recovery image so people can pretty much do as they please - If they know how.
Yeah, I don't know about bricking the phone because it would suck if eventually you did get it back. Then you're stuck with a brick phone maybe theres away around it though which could work not sure how you'd implement this though. I mean the idea is there just going to be abit hard to execute because the problem is with all these theft problems, if they have the phone off when the sms is sent then it doesn't work.
I wouldn't mind having this. If someone snatched my G1 out of my hands and got away, I would just use my friend's cell 1 minute later to make my phone a paper weight, then have peace of mind. lol
Dladu said:
Yeah, I don't know about bricking the phone because it would suck if eventually you did get it back. Then you're stuck with a brick phone maybe theres away around it though which could work not sure how you'd implement this though. I mean the idea is there just going to be abit hard to execute because the problem is with all these theft problems, if they have the phone off when the sms is sent then it doesn't work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i am noting the issues, what i am planning is something similar to SMS commander, when the phone gets a text that says a certain thing it does something. if the phone is off then the text will still arrive when the phone is powered on, hell i could probably even remove the recovery screen and then the person would need to fastboot the phone.
sms commander just "listens" for the text of an incoming message and if it matches a certain phrase it runs a command. obviously i would need root, but at this point if you haven't rooted your phone this(if it works) woulud do it.
with that said, i am researching the APIs to see what would need to be done, i used to have something like this on my old 8525 and i never had to use it, but i'm paranoid about stuff like this
i love this idea, there was this time when i had sold my touch pro on craigslist but the buyer had ripped me off! so that just pissed me off!
(good name ideas)
Cold-Droid
Lock Me
Ban-Droid
Dream Lock
Use me...Not!
Where's My owner
or just a plain app called
"Brick"
This app would be cool if it detected the owners sim card so if it were ever replaced it would say wrong sim card enter passkey (which they will not know)
and if they were to ever put the sim card back in then still it will tell you(sim card has been removed please eneter passkey)
or something like that! just an idea!
kind of like sim lock but instead of sim being locked, the device will be locked!
Why you would want to destroy a phone?
Just remote wipe your data, thats enough. Write that as an app!
Not bricking!
Have you guys used/considered Mobile Defense?
So here is my idea for this application.
Instead of completely bricking the phone, make it so that if the SIM card is removed, or the secret SMS message is sent that it does a complete phone lock and displays a message on-screen stating "This phone is suspected to have been lost/stolen. Please call XXX number to return the property.". All the while sending precise GPS locations updated every x minutes to a preset Email address and/or send a SMS to a preset phone number. This way the real owner may be able to easily recover the phone and none of the information is exposed. The only way to unlock it is to put in a code to unlock it. After x amount of days without being recovered, the program will issue a recoverable brick all the while showing the same message. After x more days after the soft brick, the phone will format all ROM and be unrecoverable. By that time, the real owner would have already gotten his/her replacement G1 if they had insurance, and the thief will have a fancy paperweight.
Great idea
Is this going to get anywhere?
that'd be funny if you could lock the phone at a screen that has a customized text.
Like F**K YOU B*TICH
or maybe
If Found Contact -
ETC. and it just stays at that screen. wonder if thats possible
edit- i shoulda read page 2 haha. same idea as Setnev lol.

[Q] a quick bypass of pattern lock

Recently my BFF thinks that her boyfriend is starting to lose feeling for her and start finding other girls. She wants to break up but her boyfriend won't let her go unless she provides evidence that he is losing feeling/cheating on her. She asked me to help but I'm at a loss except for one idea.
It was recently reported in the newspapers that you could bypass all security by freezing an android phone for an hour, then quickly removing the battery and putting it back on and turning it on while it was still below -10 degrees celcius. Is this really possible?
Secondly, his phone is a Galaxy Mini with whatever is the newest firmware (I'm a galaxy Mini II user so I'm not too sure), stock kernel, stock ROM, non-rooted but bootloader i think by default it's unlocked in SG. (mine came unlocked). It's been in use for quite some time only.
If the freezing is not possible, could we do it by any other method? note: before i can get pass the damn password i can't turn adb, unknown sources or debugging on.
Yeah that's all. Also, we can't wipe the /data since that's what we're gunning for. The method must be accomplish-able within 2 hours.
I might sound like I'm asking for a lot and might be unreasonable but please help.
Thanks in advance.
P.S. Please don't talk about the "just break up" or "politely ask him". If that had worked I wouldn't be asking here. He refuses to break up and he refuses to give his phone to me, even to "play". so called ethical hacking through the human link doesn't work anymore. We plan to take his phone for a while, bypass the pattern lock, then sieve through information.
blazerphoenix said:
Recently my BFF thinks that her boyfriend is starting to lose feeling for her and start finding other girls. She wants to break up but her boyfriend won't let her go unless she provides evidence that he is losing feeling/cheating on her. She asked me to help but I'm at a loss except for one idea.
It was recently reported in the newspapers that you could bypass all security by freezing an android phone for an hour, then quickly removing the battery and putting it back on and turning it on while it was still below -10 degrees celcius. Is this really possible?
Secondly, his phone is a Galaxy Mini with whatever is the newest firmware (I'm a galaxy Mini II user so I'm not too sure), stock kernel, stock ROM, non-rooted but bootloader i think by default it's unlocked in SG. (mine came unlocked). It's been in use for quite some time only.
If the freezing is not possible, could we do it by any other method? note: before i can get pass the damn password i can't turn adb, unknown sources or debugging on.
Yeah that's all. Also, we can't wipe the /data since that's what we're gunning for. The method must be accomplish-able within 2 hours.
I might sound like I'm asking for a lot and might be unreasonable but please help.
Thanks in advance.
P.S. Please don't talk about the "just break up" or "politely ask him". If that had worked I wouldn't be asking here. He refuses to break up and he refuses to give his phone to me, even to "play". so called ethical hacking through the human link doesn't work anymore. We plan to take his phone for a while, bypass the pattern lock, then sieve through information.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ADB isn't on, well i think somehow exploit might work. Search around XDA there are some tutorials here.
F4uzan said:
ADB isn't on, well i think somehow exploit might work. Search around XDA there are some tutorials here.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Erm sorry i'm not sure what do you mean by exploits. I'm sorry I'm kinda new to all these stuff.
How do u know that the phone is not "Debugging On"
Most android users are turning on that feature.
Well if the Debugging is ON ... I got the way to unlock the pattern within 1 minute.
Fastest way to bypass: Wipe data. If you can't, there are only harder ways.
Factory reset
You can always do a factory reset to remove the lock but it will wipe /data. You can still do that tho. It's explained here : http://www.hard-reset.com/samsung-gt-s5570-galaxy-mini-hard-reset.html . Also the fastboot mode works with adb swell as download mode.
Generalil said:
You can always do a factory reset to remove the lock but it will wipe /data. You can still do that tho. It's explained here : http://www.hard-reset.com/samsung-gt-s5570-galaxy-mini-hard-reset.html . Also the fastboot mode works with adb swell as download mode.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mini doesn't have fastboot. It only have Recovery, and Download Mode (don't tell me about normal boot).
My mistake ;P A habit from LG-GT540
ಠ_ಠ

Getting back fingerprint unlock/pattern unlock after unlocking phone

Hello.
It's me again, and I have another problem. Damn machines like to play it hard (or maybe I'm just clicking wrong choices all the time).
Before unlocking my device via MiUnlock I got myself a finger scanned for quick unlocking the phone. It didn't work all the time but was a nice addition to pattern unlock. After unlocking my phone via fastboot mode I was on tour, and during driving, I was in need of screen being on. I turned off pattern/fingerprint unlock in order to get my beloved girl as a guide.
However, when I wanted to turn it on again today, after setting pattern, pin code or passlock, retyping (redrawing) it again and clicking "confirm"...nothing happens.
Is this the "feature" Xiaomi warned about before I was unlocking my phone on MiUnlock?
Can I somehow turn it on again? It seems like a bad joke, that your device can be secure ONLY when totally locked. And when You like to get root access - sorry mate, you are on your own.
Just to clarify - my MIUI is unchanged from the beginning 7.0 with latest possible update via OTA (all the way to 9.2.1.0 NCFMIEK version). I'm looking forward to swapping it for the new one someday, but I would like to know if there's another way around than just reflashing whole phone and reconfiguration process, that always took me much time. I'll get rid of preinstalled vanilla someday anyway, tbh, but I'm just curious. Also – will this be a thing and will it still occur, when I install some custom?
INB4 – buy yourself a car holder, lazy bastard.
INB5 – You could have changed screen awake time option anytime dude, wtf.
INB6 – You dunno anything about unlocking, get back into your cave and keep smashing stones.
INB7 - better try custom ROM... Time for a Change.

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
[Guide] Root Pixel 4 XL With Magisk Android 13 Android Security Bulletin—Feburary 2023 Pixel Update Bulletin—Feburary 2023 Introduction This Guide is for Pixel 4 XL owners that want to Root their phone, and enjoy the benefits of rooting it. The...
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.
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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.
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Lots of threads and guides online that show how to root

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