How to root Motorola Photon Q

[Pelagia]

Has anyone succeeded in rooting Motorola Photon Q Android phone. This a nice widescreen QWERTY phone that provides Android 4 with 8MP camera. I am looking for some rooting option through which it can be possible to gain more access to the phone OS.

[Kanakpriya]

There is no official method available. The phone is nice and you might not love to screw this thing. There are some forums which had posted threads that offer you the rooting methods but that might not work well. There is no guarantee on the same.

[Yesenia]

Root is possible. But there are quiet very low resources that available on the web and you can go for. I am trying to follow a method that is posted on a site, but that did not not worked out. The phone is not booting at all. I had not kept the backup of old rom neither I have the firmware now. I have to carry the same to service center for fix. If you are following any method do that on your own risk. It is a bit complicated to some extent to get the things done in proper way. The phone unlock works but sometime due to some invalid custom files it causes failure. Another thing once you unlock your phone does not remains under warranty at all.

That is the major negative point of unlocking. I am still struggling to get the right files but yet not able to find it. I hope to get appropriate downloads for the same first and then I will check the rooting. To start with unlocking you will need to download the bootloader from Motorola site. It offers you the process for unlocking phone. The URL for the same is - Motorola Global Customer Help. Register your product here first and then get the bootloader.

[Who is it]

Does that link really offers a bootloader for Motorola Photon Q. If yes then rooting might be quiet easier. Is there full steps available for the rooting process. Because even if one find the bootloader what to do after that.

[Maq.H]

You do not have to download a bootloader from there. There is no download provided for the same. You have to download Android SDK. I had given you two links below. The first link will allow you to download Android SDK for Windows and the second will provide you to download Motorola Device Manager. This is another important tool which comes with a pc suite software and Motorola drivers. Without them unlocking is not at all possible. The link above of Motorola customer help also provides you the way to access bootloader and a bit of unlocking process. There is no need to login or create a id on the same. Download this two stuff first and install them in your system. Without them you cannot make any changes to your phone. The site offers you a unlocking process. But before that the agreement is straight and clear which you have to accept.

First if you go with the process you will loose your phone warranty. That is the reason I stopped after that. I do not want to loose the warranty. It is quiet important because my phone has already repaired once due to screen flickering issue. If you are ready to take the risk hen you just need to follow the method provided on the site.

download Android SDK
download Motorola Device Manager

[Max-well]

I went to that site the links given by you. I had downloaded Android SDK and Motorola Device Manager. Now what should I do to unlock the phone. I cannot see any steps on it. I think you had missed some links.

[Crista]

Here is the step for that. This link is the direct reference of unlock page from Motorola. It is clearly mentioned in terms and condition that if you do this your warranty will be nulled. So think before doing that.

First you need to obtain your Device ID to receive the unlock code. That is a important step. The link has a box at the end where you have to type the Device ID and click on verify the device whether it is locked or not. Once it is verified the Request Unlock key button will appear. There is a clear legal agreement which says that your warranty is lost if you Request a unlock. If you are ready to do that then click on that an key will be arrived in your email. You can put that key to unlock the device. There will be clear indication on the screen that the phone is unlocked and you can modify the rom as per your choice. But still I will advice you to think once before doing that.

The process is not at all complicated but a bit a tricky and if your phone has faced issue due to flashing rom then yo can't get it repaired for free. Your warranty covers many things. It covers your phone's hardware failure. If you void the warranty you can do nothing if anything happens to the phone.

[Clayton]

That is right, it is fine if warranty goes but please post the full steps. I clicked on the link and it is asking me to registry. I do not have time for that as I am opening the site in mobile phone. Can you give me the direct steps.

[Orton]

I can provide you the same. First as mentioned above download and install Android SDK and Motorola Device Manager. Now put the phone no fastboot mode. For that go in your Android SDK folder and look for fastboot.exe. You will need to open that through command prompt. You can do that by rightlicking on it and then open it with cmd. If fastboot.exe is not available you can download it separately. From your device hold power+volume down button. Do not forget to connect your phone with the pc with usb before that. Now in command prompt in your pc type - adb reboot bootloader. The phone will restart then type the following - fastboot oem get_unlock_data. You will see a Device ID in the command prompt. This Device ID will help you to collect a Unlock key. The site for that is already mentioned above.

This is a long id which is in your cmd. You have to type all of them in single linke in Verify Your Device Can Be Locked box. Put the ID and click on Verify Device is unlockable. Once it is if tick Yes to agree the agreement and then click on Request Unlock. A key will be send to your email. Now in the command prompt type fastboot oem unlock typetheunlockkeyhere. You can see the message on screen once it is successful.

[Felisha]

The process does not looks complicated at all. I did the same and my phone is no unlocked. I hope to add some more additional features by getting the right custom rom for this phone.