[RAZR HD General] iBolski:
Actually, with unlocked, you have more of a chance of fixing any borks that might crop up. I've read of some people borking their locked phone with KK soak and now they are stuck until the full FXZ comes out. That usually comes out a few weeks after the official OTA, so those people are stuck without a phone. They cannot go back to JB if they had already flash any part of the soak.

Those of us with unlocked bootloaders, unless we do something really asinine, can get right back to what we need, whether it be JB, and when the KK FXZ comes out, KK.

What most people have experienced issues with is trying to use the leak of the soak test when they weren't part of it. The soak test was sent to people based on the version they were running (9.18 or 9.30.1). When you register for the soak test, you provide your phone's IMEI number and that apparently lets them query your phone to see what version you are on. When I was pushed the soak test, my update file was for 9.30.1. Otherwise, such as locked bootloaders, were on 9.18 because they didn't FXZ to 9.30.1 like those of us with unlocked bootloaders did. Hence, they wanted you unrooted on stock so they could tell which version you were on to send the correct leak.

That was one part. Didn't matter if you were locked or unlocked, people would grab a leak, and unbeknownst to them, they didn't have the correct file. That was what caused a host of issues. Most people just couldn't get it to install. Others started trying different things afterwards when it failed to install and ended up borking their phones, regardless of whether they were locked or unlocked. Those that were unlocked were easier to assist in getting back to a working phone, and/or getting the soak test to install. Of course, those that weren't part of the soak were informed at that point to just hold off and wait for the official OTA to be released, which was released within a few days after the soak test began. But, many just couldn't wait, so they were taking matters into their own hands.

My issue was that I saved the OTA off to the side because I wanted to wait and see if it would relock my bootloader. Once I had determined that it didn't, I then proceeded to load it manually myself via the recovery tool. I didn't know that this was a two-stage install: first install replaces the recovery with a new recovery and the new recovery requires a new button combination to get into. Therefore, I was stuck at the recovery screen, which I recognized, so I was pressing vol up + vol down to no avail. It wasn't until someone on the soak test private boards informed me of the new combination to get into the recovery and then start the OTA install again for stage two which completed the KK upgrade.

Most people took the OTA directly right after it downloaded so it was automated. But still, it would have been nice of Motorola to inform us of the change to the recovery and that it uses a new button combo to get into it.

When I couldn't get past the new recovery (not knowing the new button combo), I was able to go back into fastboot mode and flash TWRP back onto my phone and then restore my nandroid backup of my previous image and I was back in business due to having an unlocked bootloader. Others with locked bootloaders had a harder time if they borked up their phone. Of course, I didn't bork mine, but I thought I did and so did a lot of other people. Again, because of an unlocked bootloader, I was back in business very quickly until I could research more as to what was going on.

So really, a lot of this had to do with how Motorola handled the soak test (two different installs that were OS version specific) as well as a lot of people who didn't have the correct software to install it (weren't part of the soak). I guess this is another reason not to share soak tests because those people weren't registered for it, so there could be complications, although I've never seen it happen before like this.

So, being locked or unlocked had nothing to do with the issues. It was Motorola's handling of the issue as well as what I like to call a PEBKAC issue: Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair. :D

Unlocked bootloaders are not the cause of this issue, no is rooting. Most of it was pilot error which was also caused by the leak, not the OTA. The OTA itself works whether you are on 9.18 or 9.30.1.

---------- Post added at 06:56 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:48 AM ----------

Go to this thread and scroll down to the download section in the original post. The third link is what you want which is for the CWM / TWRP / MobileODIN installable ZIP:

http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1538053

I'm assuming you have an unlocked bootloader? You have to in order for the sideload to work.