[RAZR HD Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting] iBolski:
Past has shown that as old as these phones are, a new root exploit, when all others have been patched, never occurs.

What just happened was luck:

Someone was working on a root exploit not specific to this phone AND you got lucky that it worked for the RAZR HD/MAXX/M.

You got REAL lucky with Motorola basically screwing up and re-introducing the bootloader unlock exploit. This was patched with version 9.18 last year and has been unavailable since then. THIS was dumb luck, period. Well, dumb on the part of Motorola for somehow falling back to the old code that is located on a protected zone of the phone. This was the ONLY way it could have be re-introduced and this RARELY happens, so again, dumb luck.

However, there is another OTA coming (I was just emailed asking to participate in it yesterday). I'm pretty sure it will fix the Towelroot exploit (all 2013 phones running 4.4.2 as well as any 4.4.2 kernel whose date is >= 6/3/2014 disallow the Towelroot exploit) as well as the bootloader exploit.

So, now is your chance to root and unlock the bootloader and it's high time everyone takes advantage of this because we will get the same questions, over and over again when the next OTA comes out.

Our main point, as has been stated, was if people would just search and read, rather than being lazy and just asking the same question that has already been asked a hundred times before, they would find their answer a lot quicker and the rest of us who have been helping so many other people would not feel we would have to rehash the same answer again. It's like being in class, the teacher explains something, and then 10 other people raise their hand and ask the teacher about the exact thing the teacher just went over, so now the teacher has to stop class, explain it again, and then 10 more kids raise their hands and ask the same, exact question. It pollutes the forums with the same questions and then the same answers.

We weren't being mean about saying no root, but what just happened was pure luck, especially with the bootloader unlock.

BTW, I think I did see a pig fly in Minecraft yesterday, so I guess they did fly which makes sense. :laugh:

In the end, we are all very happy for those that have locked bootloaders because now, they can root and then unlock this phone. But, they need to do it NOW before the next OTA comes out. And I can guarantee you that those who fail to do it will be back on here asking the same question over and over again. So, let's spread the word and beg and plead that these people root their phones now and unlock the bootloader so that when the next OTA comes out in the next couple of weeks, they won't have to worry about another root exploit, if at all.

Again, those with locked bootloaders got real lucky.

As far as warranty goes, who cares. The phone is old (18+ months) and most people who have turned in their locked phones for warranty have gotten their replacement without having to pay anything, so the company will accept them and they don't charge for it. Besides, would you rather have an unlocked phone knowing you can have root no matter what the next OTA does or do you want to wait and have to do an exploit? Sideloading is SO much easier and just requires a reboot into a custom recovery (like TWRP) and then you do an "adb sideload" and you reboot and your done. Pretty easy, no muss, no fuss.