[Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE] protivakid:
Purpose: The purpose of this guide is to help collect all information and steps needed to root a Motorola Photon Q 4G LTE and use Clockwork Mod. When I looked for tutorials there were no updated ones that detailed how to do this with the latest android update (as of May 2014) for the Photon. Some steps may have been / were copied from various posts & guides around the internet, again this is just a collection of information.

Goal: A user who just opened his Photon Q 4G LTE and did all the factory updates should be able to get his phone rooted by the end of the guide.

Note: I started this guide but sadly the ribbon cable on my Photon Q 4G LTE broke and I just decided to switch carriers. I never got back to proof reading this guide while it was still fresh in my memory but if anyone sees and issues just let me know.

Unlock the Bootloader:

I unlocked the bootloader because I wanted to install ClockWork Mod and read that you had to. Not sure if you need to do this just for root access. I wanted CWM so that I could create a backup of this phone as is came from the factory so if I want to restore down the road I can. Unlike my Samsung it seems difficult to find the factory software for the Photon Q so this seemed like the best way to get it. Also nice to have the ability to take backups of my phone every so often. Assuming your phone is new I recommend that you also take a factory backup once clockwork mod is on before installing any other apps.

1.	Download and install the drivers for the Photon Q from Motorola here ( https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/88481 )

2.	Download this ZIP package which contains the tools you need for most of the steps here ( https://od.lk/f/MjRfMjc2MDc1Ml8 )

3.	Head over to Motorola’s bootloader unlock site and sign in / register ( https://motorola-global-portal.custhelp.com/app/standalone/bootloader/unlock-your-device-b )

4.	Put your device in fastboot mode by powering off, waiting a moment, then pressing the “power” and “volume down” buttons simultaneously and releasing the “power” button ONLY after a few seconds. Once you see the fastboot screen you can release “volume down” as well.

5.	Unzip and open the folder with the ZIP files from Step 2 and open a command prompt or terminal (in Windows 7 hold “Shift” and right-click in the folder and select “open command window here”.

6.	In the prompt, type “fastboot oem get_unlock_data” without the quotes.

7.	You will see 5 or so lines with either “(bootloader)” or “INFO” in front of them. Use notepad or some other basic text editor to paste together the 5 lines of output into one continuous string WITHOUT (bootloader) or ‘INFO’ or white spaces in front of them so your string looks something like this: 0A40040192024205#4C4D355631323030373731363031303332323239#BD008A672BA4746C2CE02328A2AC0C39F951A3E5#1F532800020000000000000000000000

8.	Check if your device can be unlocked by pasting the string in the field on Motorola’s page on their section 6. and click “Can my device be unlocked?” If you have a problem with this most likely the string you pasted in the box has spaces or extra / incorrect characters. Try again.

9.	Open the email and get the unlock code. My email ended up in the “Promotion” category inbox instead of my normal inbox so if you don’t see it check in other places such as “Spam”.

10.	Put your device in fastboot mode again by powering off, waiting a moment, then pressing the “power” and “volume down” buttons simultaneously and releasing the “power” button ONLY after a few seconds. Once you see the fastboot screen you can release “volume down” as well.

11.	Connect the device to the computer with a USB cable. You'll get a confirmation message on the device to indicate that it's connected.

12.	Open the folder with the ZIP files from Step 2 again and open a command prompt or terminal (in Windows 7 hold “Shift” and right-click in the folder and select “open command window here”.

13.	In the prompt, type “fastboot devices” without the quotes and make sure your device shows up.

14.	To unlock the bootloader, enter the following in the prompt “fastboot oem unlock UNIQUE_KEY” without quotes where you replace the “UNIQUE_KEY” with the code you received in the email. It is case-sensitive.

15.	If the line was entered correctly, you will see a message confirming that your device was unlocked.
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Install Clockwork Mod:

1.	Download the latest ClockWorkMod recovery for the Photon Q from clockworkmod.com/rommanager and place the file in the same folder as the files from Bootloader Step 2. Be careful to select the right image!

2.	Connect the Photon Q to the computer via USB.

3.	Open the folder with the ZIP files from Bootloader Step 2 again and open a command prompt or terminal (in Windows 7 hold “Shift” and right-click in the folder and select “open command window here”.

4.	Put your device in fastboot mode again by powering off, waiting a moment, then pressing the “power” and “volume down” buttons simultaneously and releasing the “power” button ONLY after a few seconds. Once you see the fastboot screen you can release “volume down” as well.

5.	In the prompt, type “fastboot devices” without the quotes and make sure your device shows

a.	If you don't see your device serial number, and instead see "<waiting for device>", fastboot is not configured properly on your machine. See fastboot documentation for more info.

b.	If you see "no permissions fastboot", make sure your UDEV rules are setup correctly.

6.	Flash ClockWork Mod recovery onto your device by entering the following command in the prompt “fastboot flash recovery image.img” without the quotes where “image.img” is the full name of the file you downloaded in Step 1.

7.	Once the flash completes successfully, reboot the device into recovery to verify the installation by powering off the phone and then holding both “Volume Up” & “Power” simultaneously until you see ClockWork Mod on the screen. From here you can take a backup (recommended) if you want to like I did.

o	Note: Some ROMs overwrite recovery at boot time so if you do not plan to immediately boot into recovery to install CyanogenMod, please be aware that this may overwrite your custom recovery with the stock one.
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Root the device:

1.	Boot the Photon Q normally and go to Settings>Developer Options> and enable USB Debugging. You may have to turn on Developer Options as well if they are grayed out.

2.	Connect the Photon Q to the computer via USB.

3.	Navigate to the folder with the ZIP files from Bootloader Step 2 again open the run.bat file.

4.	Press Enter after reading the disclaimer (if you want) and wait for the file to finish running.

5.	After it is done you can press enter again to close the prompt and disconnect your phone

6.	After the phone reboots automatically you will see a new Super User app in your app list. You are now rooted.​