[GUIDE] Unlocking (& re-locking) the Motorola Xoom

[2CupsWithString]

The following will VOID your warranty but will easily unlock the Xoom for fast software flashes using a custom recovery and will allow flashing root files or manipulated system files on to your current software installation.

This will ERASE your Xoom.

1) Get the Motorola USB drivers MOTODEV > Documentation & Tools > USB Drivers (you need to sign up on their but maybe you can google this and find it as well)

2) Get the Android SDK Android SDK | Android Developers (you only really need the fastboot executable file for your host OS)

2.5) - I will soon put together a windows pack for usb drivers & fastboot so you don't have to download all this stuff just to do one task.

3) Power off your Xoom

4) Press and hold the volume down button while pressing the power button

Even after the Xoom turns back on keep it pressed down and you'll see some starting fastboot protocol text on the top left of the screen.

5) Open a command window in your sdk\tools folder (not platform tools and depending on when you get the SDK you may need to copy over some DLL files)

6) type:

fastboot oem unlock

7) read the warning on your Xoom's screen, hit volume up if you wish.

You're now free to put whatever data you want on your tablet. Cheers.

If you would like to re-lock your tablet:

http://forum.androidcentral.com/motorola-xoom/63683-guide-un-root-re-lock-xoom-3-05-2011-a.html

 

[Chris Kerrigan]

Awesome! Stickied.

 

[sandipndedhhia]

Is this rooting ??

 

[2CupsWithString]

Is this rooting ??

This is not rooting, this will let you install a rooted version of the Xoom's software or flash rooted files to the pre-installed Xoom software.

It pretty much unlocks the Xoom's memory so you can push whatever you want to any partition you want.

 

[sandipndedhhia]

Oh Cool, Thanks thefredelement for explaining.

One more question, This also means it will be possible to flash custom ROMs, I am right ?

 

[2CupsWithString]

Oh Cool, Thanks thefredelement for explaining.

One more question, This also means it will be possible to flash custom ROMs, I am right ?

Sure, once they're made that is .

It doesn't matter if it's just one file to go on to your current Xoom's software or an image for a whole partition for the Xoom, unlocking this makes all that possible.

 

[mikewanda2004]

does anyone know if we do this will motorola still upgrade it to 4g lte for free?

 

[Noctem]

does this unlock the stupid SD card as well???

 

[2CupsWithString]

does this unlock the stupid SD card as well???

No, this just makes it so you can flash files/images to the Xoom's partitions.

 

[lorne.liechty]

The notice on the Xoom screen during this process says, "Any data you have previously saved on this device will be erased by pressing the 'VOL UP' key".

Does that mean that the data partition will be erased (assuming here that there is a "data" partition equivalent to a phone's SDCard) or does this mean that all partitions, including the rootfs (android FS) will be erased?

Thanks.

 

[epik151]

Is there a way to get back to factory default? If hypothetically one were planning on returning it.

 

[mrksbrd]

Once this is done will setcpu work for raising the minimum speed, or will the program not work at all due to Xoom being a dual core processor?

 

[2CupsWithString]

Is there a way to get back to factory default? If hypothetically one were planning on returning it.

You can re lock the boot loader but I'm not sure if something is changed on the Xoom that will let Moto/VZW know it was unsecured at one point.

 

[2CupsWithString]

Once this is done will setcpu work for raising the minimum speed, or will the program not work at all due to Xoom being a dual core processor?

No, this is not root, to root your Xoom follow this: http://forum.androidcentral.com/motorola-xoom/63162-guide-rooting-moto-xoom-2-24-2011-a.html

 

[Mudvayne622]

At what point do I connect the XOOM to my PC via USB?

 

[HAZMAT780]

Help please.... I keep getting an error somewhere along the liens of Adbwinapi.dll failed because it is not installed. I installed the whole SDK, and tried several times to run command promt, and then I opened command prompt directly from the file, and that did not work either. Any help would be appreciated!

 

[2CupsWithString]

Help please.... I keep getting an error somewhere along the liens of Adbwinapi.dll failed because it is not installed. I installed the whole SDK, and tried several times to run command promt, and then I opened command prompt directly from the file, and that did not work either. Any help would be appreciated!

Is your command prompt in the tools directory of the sdk?

 

[tntdroid]

Help please.... I keep getting an error somewhere along the liens of Adbwinapi.dll failed because it is not installed. I installed the whole SDK, and tried several times to run command promt, and then I opened command prompt directly from the file, and that did not work either. Any help would be appreciated!

look for the file in platform-tools then drag and drop into the tools folder. Thats what I did.

 

[bigdje]

I get to the last step press the up vol button on my xoom.

It says Device Unlock operation aborted on the xoom.

Is that correct?

 

[2CupsWithString]

I get to the last step press the up vol button on my xoom.

It says Device Unlock operation aborted on the xoom.

Is that correct?

Nope, I forget what it is, volume down to change the choice to I accept, then hit volume up.