Motorola
Founded in 1928, and later sold to Lenovo in 2014, Motorola is a US based company specializing in smartphones, tablets, and public safety equipment.
| Basic information | |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1928 |
| Type | Public |
| Industry | Electronics |
| Official website | https://www.motorola.com |
Incidents
Bootloader Controversy
Motorola has made it against their Legal Agreements[1] to resell your phone, after unlocking the bootloader, sparking concerns over ownership. "Once you unlock the device, you can only use it for your personal use, and may not sell or otherwise transfer the device".[2]
They have also mentioned that unlocking your device voids the warranty. This means if the CPU, battery, or any other component unrelated to unlocking a device should stop functioning, it will not be covered under warranty.[2]
Two Senior MotoAgents have stated that the device needs to have an internet connection for one week following the purchase or a reset to allow the functionality of bootloader unlocking.[3][4]
Intentional bootloader unlock restriction on some Motorola models
On some smartphone models, bootloader unlocking is officially impossible.
For example, on the "Moto G13/G23/G24/G24 Power" models, the fastboot oem get_unlock_data command is missing.[5]
This command is necessary to obtain unique identifiers, which are then used to generate an unlock key. Besides, there are no officially documented alternative methods of getting the key on these phone models.
Notably, on more affordable devices with the same SoC, such as the Moto G31, bootloader unlocking was officially available.
For a long time, customers submitted requests on Motorola's official forum, asking for the ability to obtain an unlock key or an alternative method.[6][7][8][9] However, Motorola Agents either ignored these messages or responded with: "- This phone does not support bootloader unlocking". Later, after numerous inquiries, Motorola issued a formal response: "- We will forward this information to the developers." However, no further action was taken.
Over time, a community of enthusiasts successfully unlocked the bootloader on Moto G13/G23 by decompiling the lk (Little Kernel, bootloader) partition, studying the key generation algorithm, and creating a key generator (keygen).[10][11][12] This proves that bootloader unlocking was originally intended to be possible, but Motorola deliberately concealed it from customers by refusing to provide the necessary keys.
List of phones with bootloader unlocking disabled.
- Moto E7
- Moto G13
- Moto G23
- Moto G24
- Moto G24 Power
References
- ↑ https://en-us.support.motorola.com/app/standalone/bootloader/unlock-your-device-a
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 https://en-us.support.motorola.com/ci/fattach/get/741421/1385047216/redirect/1/filename/Boot_revised.pdf
- ↑ https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/moto-g52/OEM-unlock-option-greyed-out/m-p/5289637
- ↑ https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/motorola-one-5G-ACE/OEM-Unlock-option-greyed-out/m-p/5232007
- ↑ https://penangf.fuckyoumoto.xyz/docs/dev/bootloader/#official-unlocking-method
- ↑ https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/moto-g13/Motorola-Moto-G13-G23-bootloader/m-p/5342278
- ↑ https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/MOTOROLA-Android-Developer-Community/How-to-unlock-bootloader-on-Motorola-moto-G23/m-p/5277660
- ↑ https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/MOTOROLA-Android-Developer-Community/Moto-G23-Bootloader-unlock-request/m-p/5319977
- ↑ https://forums.lenovo.com/t5/moto-g23/Moto-G23-%E2%80%93-Request-to-include-SID-Keys-in-next-OTA-Update/m-p/5344909
- ↑ https://penangf.fuckyoumoto.xyz/docs/dev/bootloader/#bootloader-unlock
- ↑ https://penangf.fuckyoumoto.xyz/docs/dev/oem-key-algorithm
- ↑ https://github.com/moto-penangf/fuckyoumoto/blob/main/oem_keygen.py