New Moto X DE Arriving Today...First Things First To Do?

[deeve]

Hello, my Moto X DE should be here today and will be my first Android Phone. I am pretty excited, but also a bit nervous how the transition from iPhone to Android will go. I have been reading and trying to learn as much as I can, but nothing beats having the phone in your hand to really learn things.

My plan is to unlock the Bootloader via Motorola's website. I understand that doing it right away is best before any data gets put on it so avoid loosing any. I think I will then Root it. I do not anticipate messing around with the Root functions initially, but I am sure I will at some point. Wifi tethering is on my early todo lists. I read that creating an image of the phone in it's "virgin" state might be a good idea so I can restore if need be. Any suggestions on that or what the best way to do that would be.

General suggestions on what the best thing to do with a new phone I guess, if I am totally off with what I should be doing.

Thanks!
DAVE

 

[Golfdriver97]

Hello, my Moto X DE should be here today and will be my first Android Phone. I am pretty excited, but also a bit nervous how the transition from iPhone to Android will go. I have been reading and trying to learn as much as I can, but nothing beats having the phone in your hand to really learn things.

My plan is to unlock the Bootloader via Motorola's website. I understand that doing it right away is best before any data gets put on it so avoid loosing any. I think I will then Root it. I do not anticipate messing around with the Root functions initially, but I am sure I will at some point. Wifi tethering is on my early todo lists. I read that creating an image of the phone in it's "virgin" state might be a good idea so I can restore if need be. Any suggestions on that or what the best way to do that would be.

General suggestions on what the best thing to do with a new phone I guess, if I am totally off with what I should be doing.

Thanks!
DAVE

Welcome to the forums and Android.
That is a good way to go. Yes, unlocking the bootloader does wipe the device, so before you go and put anything on it, yes, get all that out of the way.

 

[FSRBIKER]

Unlocking the bootloader is the first thing I would do and since you have a Developer Edition your warranty stays intact. You can use this toolkit to install recovery(I use TWRP) and once you boot into recovery it will ask if you want to install SuperUser, do that and you will now be rooted and ready to go. Next step would be to boot again into TWRP and make a back up, you need to at least back up System and Boot while data is optional. I choose compression mode in TWRP to save some storage room. I would highly recommend buying Titanium Backup app, I always make a backup of my apps before I update them in the Play Store. By doing this if there is a bug in an update you can easily fall back to a working app version, also making backups of games is something I do on my devices to safeguard your progress.
Tool Kit [TOOL] Moto X Toolkit v1.3.4 [Backup/Restore,Drivers,Return to stock,Root,Bootani] - xda-developers
TWRP index ? styled with h5ai 0.24.0 (http://larsjung.de/h5ai/)

 

[deeve]

Thanks! Like I said, I new to all this. To unlock the Bootloader I do that from Motorola website then use the toolkit, or will the toolkit unlock the Bootloader too? I should mention that I have a mac if that matters for any of this.

EDIT..A little reading goes a long way! I found that the Moto X Tool Kit does not unlock the boot loader, and it only runs on Windows.

 

[SmithlandCart]

General suggestions on what the best thing to do with a new phone I guess, if I am totally off with what I should be doing.

1) Unlock bootloader;
2) Download TWRP for Moto X;
3) Download SuperSU;
4) Flash TWRP to recovery;
5) Make Nandroid b/u;
6) Install SuperSU;
7) Use Motorola Migrate to migrate to new phone;
8) Install Xposed Framework;
9) Install Xposed Moto Tether Module;
10) Install Gravity Box; and
11) Customize phone using Gravity Box.

 

[thegrants82]

Send it back because it's terribly outdated?

Hello, my Moto X DE should be here today and will be my first Android Phone. I am pretty excited, but also a bit nervous how the transition from iPhone to Android will go. I have been reading and trying to learn as much as I can, but nothing beats having the phone in your hand to really learn things.

My plan is to unlock the Bootloader via Motorola's website. I understand that doing it right away is best before any data gets put on it so avoid loosing any. I think I will then Root it. I do not anticipate messing around with the Root functions initially, but I am sure I will at some point. Wifi tethering is on my early todo lists. I read that creating an image of the phone in it's "virgin" state might be a good idea so I can restore if need be. Any suggestions on that or what the best way to do that would be.

General suggestions on what the best thing to do with a new phone I guess, if I am totally off with what I should be doing.

Thanks!
DAVE

 

[SmithlandCart]

Send it back because it's terribly outdated?

There is nothing on the market today that can compare to the user experience of the Moto X except the Droid line and that is a Verizon exclusive. And the curved back of the Moto X feels so good in the hand.

 

[lindycu]

1) Unlock bootloader;
2) Download TWRP for Moto X;
3) Download SuperSU;
4) Flash TWRP to recovery;
5) Make Nandroid b/u;
6) Install SuperSU;
7) Use Motorola Migrate to migrate to new phone;
8) Install Xposed Framework;
9) Install Xposed Moto Tether Module;
10) Install Gravity Box; and
11) Customize phone using Gravity Box.

THIS EXACTLY. I did this with mine. Only thing I'll add is I prefer using the Google Now Launcher over stock launcher. Many on here like Nova.

Posted via Android Central App from My VZW Moto X Dev Ed

 

[deeve]

I am working on that process. I unlocked the bootloader and downloaded the toolkit. I am working on finding the correct TWRP...

 

[SmithlandCart]

I am working on that process. I unlocked the bootloader and downloaded the toolkit. I am working on finding the correct TWRP...

I don't know anything about the toolkit, but the version of TWRP is 2.6.3.1 and you can get it here:

[RECOVERY UNLOCKED] TWRP 2.6.3.1 for Android 4.4 [2013-11-19] - xda-developers

Works for both 4.4 and 4.4.2.

 

[cappy718]

Send it back because it's terribly outdated?

Trolls are gonna troll...

Posted via my Moto X DE

 

[cappy718]

1) Unlock bootloader;
2) Download TWRP for Moto X;
3) Download SuperSU;
4) Flash TWRP to recovery;
5) Make Nandroid b/u;
6) Install SuperSU;
7) Use Motorola Migrate to migrate to new phone;
8) Install Xposed Framework;
9) Install Xposed Moto Tether Module;
10) Install Gravity Box; and
11) Customize phone using Gravity Box.

So my wifi went out at home due to a weird hardware problem related to the east coast snow storm on Monday. I tried to use pda net like I have in past but hit the data cap real fast. Now I'm think about rooting my phone... Lol. Gotta wait for my cable to come back first tho...

Posted via my Moto X DE

 

[SmithlandCart]

So my wifi went out at home due to a weird hardware problem related to the east coast snow storm on Monday. I tried to use pda net like I have in past but hit the data cap real fast. Now I'm think about rooting my phone... Lol. Gotta wait for my cable to come back first tho...

you will be glad you did. The Xposed Moto Tether Module and Gravity Box are great. The only thing you will need to do is flash back to stock recovery and stock system when you are ready to take the next OTA.

 

[cappy718]

you will be glad you did. The Xposed Moto Tether Module and Gravity Box are great. The only thing you will need to do is flash back to stock recovery and stock system when you are ready to take the next OTA.

This all sounds very complicated to me but I guess if I brick my phone for a day or two I can always go back to my s3 sitting here collecting dust. Lol. Still have to wait for wifi to come back tho.

Posted via my Moto X DE

 

[deeve]

Hmm, well it seems it didnt take long to mess the phone up. My 17 year old who seems to know more then I did was "helping" me install TWRP. He said he cleared something out and now the phone wont load. It just says the WARNING BOOTLOADER UNLOCKED screen. I load into the screen where you hold down the power button and volume down, but thats it. Any ideas here?

 

[cappy718]

Hmm, well it seems it didnt take long to mess the phone up. My 17 year old who seems to know more then I did was "helping" me install TWRP. He said he cleared something out and now the phone wont load. It just says the WARNING BOOTLOADER UNLOCKED screen. I load into the screen where you hold down the power button and volume down, but thats it. Any ideas here?

Exactly the kind of thing i'm worried about. Sorry I have no help for u...

Posted via my Moto X DE

 

[SmithlandCart]

Hmm, well it seems it didnt take long to mess the phone up. My 17 year old who seems to know more then I did was "helping" me install TWRP. He said he cleared something out and now the phone wont load. It just says the WARNING BOOTLOADER UNLOCKED screen. I load into the screen where you hold down the power button and volume down, but thats it. Any ideas here?

Do you mean bootloader mode? If you are in bootloader mode, hit volume down to highlight recovery and then volume up to select recovery. What do you see?

 

[SmithlandCart]

Hmm, well it seems it didnt take long to mess the phone up. My 17 year old who seems to know more then I did was "helping" me install TWRP. He said he cleared something out and now the phone wont load. It just says the WARNING BOOTLOADER UNLOCKED screen. I load into the screen where you hold down the power button and volume down, but thats it. Any ideas here?

Also, go ahead and request the factory images from Motorola here:

https://accounts.motorola.com/ssoauth/login?locale=us_en&appid=ZI2FIY5LS7R8EE1WJBZ6MUBHXUF517H7&TARGET=https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/cc/cas/sso/redirect/standalone%2Fbootloader%2Frecovery-images

If your son did what I think he did, you will need them. No worries, though, you have an unlocked bootloader and the factory images. It is darn near impossible to hard brick your phone when the bootloader is unlocked and you have the factory images.

What I think he may have done when he "cleared something out" was do a wipe and instead of just wiping the dalvik cache and the cache, he wiped the system. But even if I am wrong, go ahead and get the factory images.

 

[deeve]

I did just request the image. I also downloaded the Moto X toolkit for Mac [Toolkit] Moto X Dev Edition Only for MAC OSX v2.02 - xda-developers and reinstalled the Factory Restore. That seems to have things working as before. I installed TWRP to the Recovery partition and will be backing up with Nandroid. I also installed SU, although I am not sure what all these do, I am figuring it out.

Is the Factory Image from Motorola different then the Factory Restore I just did? I am not sure how to tell.

Thanks!
DAVE

 

[SmithlandCart]

That seems to have things working as before. I installed TWRP to the Recovery partition and will be backing up with Nandroid. I also installed SU, although I am not sure what all these do, I am figuring it out.

TWRP = Team Win Recovery Project, it is a custom recovery. You need a custom recovery if you want to be able to flash unsigned files (custom ROMs) since the stock recovery will only flash signed files. But TWRP also can make you a Nandroid b/u and stock recovery can't make nandroids so even if you never flash a custom ROM, a custom recovery gives you the ability to make a Nandroid b/u.

A Nandroid b/u is an image of your system and your data. Very useful to have.

SuperSU = super user it will give you root access. The super user is what apps who want root access call when they want root access. And you have to give them permission so it gives you root access and also acts like a guard to prevent apps from getting root access without your permission.