yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[X 2014 General] JulesJam:
I am not sure what you mean fastboot commands w/in the mfastboot folder. Mfastboot

is just motorola's version of fastboot that allows the system image to be flashed as a single image file instead of being broken down into chunks. Unless you manually rename it, it is called fastboot, however some people have manually renamed it and then uploaded it in a zip file and you can find links to it online. I manually renamed mine mfastboot.exe so as to avoid confusion with fastboot.exe from the SDK.
[X 2014 General] JulesJam:
Did you use ODIN before? I think RSDLite is similar to ODIN but since I have never used ODIN I don't really know.

But yes, what Samsung does and what Motorola does wrt the bootloaders is completely different as the bootloaders are proprietary. I am just glad to see that there are more checks now than there used to be that prevent you from downgrading at least some of the time.

There are some very sad people on the Q&A forum right now searching for the signed binary files to restore their bootloaders but those have to be leaked and so far, they do not seem to be anywhere accessible by outsiders.
[X 2014 General] nbell13:
I've done it loads of times too. Everytime I tried to flash back the gpt or motoboot, it just failed (was trying to relock bootloader, never would let me), normal fastboot. Also with the newest version of fastboot it can flash the system files, no need to use mfastboot at all anymore.
[X 2014 General] JulesJam:
Yeah, again I can't explain why some people just get a failure and others get a brick, but on the Q&A forum you will see there are those who brick attempting to downgrade.

Last time I tried the latest version of fastboot, it cannot flash the single file system.img. It can flash the system if it is broken down into chunks. So if you are using the fxz with the single system.img, you have to use mfastboot last I checked.
[X 2014 General] JulesJam:
Go ahead and download them now b/c at any time Patrick could take them down:

http://www.graffixnyc.com/motox.php

You never know if you will need them in the future and at some point, your device will be out of warranty so eventually even the XT1095 owners will have to be more careful.
[X 2014 General] tejaskary:
Somehow this worked with the PE Moto X 2014 for me though. I was on the leaked soak with BL version 60.14 (not .16). The version stayed the same after flashing 4.4.4 ( I did not flash motoboot and GPT obviously). Then I installed the 5.0 OTA (not sideload, the official one) and it changed by BL version to 60.11 !! I don't how it managed to downgrade 60.14 to 60.11 without bricking. After sideloading the 5.1 OTA, it is finally 60.16.

All this looks really scary. I would definitely not back to 4.4.4 from now on.

---------- Post added at 12:45 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:41 PM ----------

Atleast one other person reports the same thing on PE Moto X 14

http://xdaforums.com//moto-x-2014/general/moto-x-pure-edition-5-1-update-t3060285/post61009705
[X 2014 General] JulesJam:
It may be safe to do then, but we can't know it is safe until people actually do it and report their results. Well with the 60.16, it wasn't safe. Now we know b/c someone hard bricked and told us.

But why take the chance in the first place? Just flash back to 5.0 stock using the 5.0 stock images that are available.

If that is what happened then that explains why you don't brick if you are on the 60.14 bootloader - the XT1095 5.0 OTA updater script has the ability to downgrade the XT1095 bootloader from 60.14 to 60.11. So then this is one of those rare exceptions where the bootloader can be downgraded - from 60.14 to 60.11 on an XT1095.

But obviously, you can't downgrade from 60.16 to 60.11, instead you brick.
[X 2014 General] alvareo:
Weird--I was on the latest soak and went back to 4.4.4 and took OTA without issue, but I'm on the 60.11 bootloader for some reason. Still, bricks started being reported with the first 5.1 soak, so it's strange.
[X 2014 General] walrusmonarch:
Yeah, it doesn't seem very consistent. Some brick, some don't. Who knows...
[X 2014 General] Nicolae-Daniel:
I'm on 4.4.4 with 6.11 .I've read here there are some mismatch problems but I haven't noticed any.
[X 2014 General] abmoto:
Bricked my moto

I downgraded to 4.4.4, Applied OTA 5.0. This bricked my phone:crying:

please help me to unbrick it.Any solutions please?

Thanks!
[X 2014 General] alvareo:
As far as I know there's no way to unbrick
[X 2014 General] defcondev:
I've already downloaded every image he has, and I've made flashable zips for all radios & boot images.

If he takes them down I'll just mirror them.

Out of respect I haven't mirrored them at this time.
[X 2014 General] Quetzalcoalt_Lp:
For now the only thing we can do is try to get the BlankFlash files for the device. Once we get this files, we will be able to recover our phone from the brick status.

Type here that you also have this problem, so we have more chances to get the files.
[X 2014 General] Nicolae-Daniel:
When downgrading, did you flash motoboot and gpt?
[X 2014 General] JulesJam:
I am so sorry. What model - the Brazilian XT1097?
[X 2014 General] abmoto:
Yea okay , I know about that

We need those files to unbrick it. As far as I know moto g and x 2013 has it :(

Can I give my phone under warranty? Will it be repaired ?

Yes. I did :(

XT1092
[X 2014 General] JulesJam:
Definitely try to get a warranty replacement. This is complete BS that their OTA is bricking people's devices. They need to step up to the plate and fix these phones free of charge - they have the ability to do that.
[X 2014 General] JulesJam:
What bootloader were you on before you downgraded - 60.14 or 60.16?
[X 2014 General] abmoto:
Yea, will try.

I know right.:mad::(

Don't know the bootloader version :confused::silly:
[X 2014 General] cali_pat09:
Reading through all the posts and couple of polls for NOT downgrading your bootloader and/or partition table, I still have doubts.

I have the US pure edition XT1095 and it came with 4.4.4. I immediately received the OTA for 5.0 after receiving the device. Upgraded to 5.0

Eager to upgrade to 5.1, I side loaded the soak test image from graffixnyc. Now I want to download official OTA for 5.1 but cannot upgrade while I am on 5.1 soak image.

My bootloader version is 60.14

I am going to use the full factory image from Motorola OR graffixnyc site to downgrade to 22.46.11

Question:

I think I "should" flash the bootloader and partition table from the official 5.0 image. I am guessing this will perform a clean install and NOT patch the bootloader and partition table. Staying on 5.1 bootloader version might cause issues when I receive OTA for 5.1 as the OTA scripts might be expecting the 5.0 bootloader version and try to patch them. Leading to brick?!?

Please correct me if my assumptions or approach is wrong.

I will never use 4.4.4 as 5.0 images are already available.

Sorry if the question is already asked (didn't find it) but want to be safe then sorry!

Thanks.
[X 2014 General] alvareo:
Flash 5.0 system, boot, modem (NON_HLOS), wipe caches and userdata and you'll get the OTA as soon as you turn on your phone. This way you will not brick.
[X 2014 General] cali_pat09:
Just updating on the flash result, my device is not bricked and now I am on official 5.1 release.

Went from 5.1 soak (Boot ver 60.14) --> 5.0 official full image (Boot ver 60.11) --> 5.1 official OTA (Boot ver 60.16)
[X 2014 General] JulesJam:
So then it appears that 60.14 can be downgraded to 60.11.
[X 2014 General] alvareo:
I downgraded from 60.16 to 5.0 from what it's worth
[X 2014 General] JulesJam:
So you downgraded from 60.16 to 60.11?
[X 2014 General] alvareo:
Technically no, I didn't downgrade motoboot nor gpt, I just flashed 5.0 on top of a 5.1 soak (can't remember the build right now) and then updated to final 5.1 with no issue.
[X 2014 General] JulesJam:
When you say you flashed 5.0, what did you flash? And did you check your bootloader version after you flashed back to 5.0 to see if it was 60.11?

I believe the soak was 60.14 and the final is 60.16. 5.0 is 60.11.
[X 2014 General] alvareo:
As I said I did not flash motoboot nor gpt so my bootloader never downgraded. The soak I was in had bl 60.16. I flashed system, boot, modems.
[X 2014 General] JulesJam:
Ok well this thread is about downgrading bootloaders and partition tables. We know you can downgrade system and the rest of the partitions.
[X 2014 General] alvareo:
Yeah the thing is that without downgrading them people ran into bricks with OTAs so I wanted to clear that up because I heard of a hard brick when going to 5.0 and then to final 5.1.
[X 2014 General] JulesJam:
People bricked on certain models by downgrading from the 5.1 soak to 4.4.4 then taking the 5.0 OTA. The reason they went down to 4.4.4 is because they didn't have the 5.0 images for their device. So they thought they could flash to 4.4.4, which did not downgrade their bootloaders. Then when they took the 5.0 OTA, the 5.0 OTA is a patch and it was trying to patch the 5.1 bootloader as if it were the 4.4.4 bootloader.
[X 2014 General] alvareo:
Yeah, I know this. Just wanted to clear up that there's no issue with 60.16 5.1->5.0->final 5.1 unlike what I'd heard.
[X 2014 General] darknessrise1234:
You guys say you can downgrade system and boot but I get preflash validation failures. Is there something I'm doing wrong?
[X 2014 General] williegomezt:
I have an XT1097 with the same problem, hard bricked when downgrade to 4.4.4 and then take 5.0 OTA. I send the phone for warranty repair. I'll let you know if they fixed under warranty or if they said something different.

Regards.
[X 2014 General] abmoto:
I gave my phone for repair last week . They fixed it for free :D
[X 2014 General] williegomezt:
I sent mine for repair last week, they didn't repait it, they gave me a PIN to buy a new one.
[X 2014 General] cdvr:
Will Android 6 save us

Can the new rom Android 6 based fix this problem??
[X 2014 General] AGISCI:
No.
[X 2014 General] fingolfin14:
Quick dumb question. Do the bootloader and partition table differ between 5.1 and the stagefright update?

I tried to update to 23.16.6 via OTA but it went into a bootloop, so I had to flash 23.16.3 again. Now I'm rooted on the TWRP flashable stagefright update and would like to update to MM via OTA. If I flash 23.16.6 to start fresh, do I risk bricking when updating?

Sent from my XT1095
[X 2014 General] Hardtron:
Hello, I think I made a serious mistake. I was at fia 5.1 and the upgrade to 6.0. I had forgotten that it should not downgrade. I flash the RSD and received an error message. Now I'm in the bootloader screen and not know what to do. I reset?It is to save?
[X 2014 General] AGISCI:
Just download the full 5.1 with stagefright patch here:

http://www.filefactory.com/file/5d66szhobgmx/VICTARA_TMO_XT1095_5.1_LPE23.32-21.6_cid9_CFC.xml.zip

Flash this and you will be on the 5.1 with stagefright patch. You don't need the OTA.

Maybe if you tell us what the error message says we might be able to help you...
[X 2014 General] fingolfin14:
Thanks a lot for the help. Sorry, my question was worded badly. I flashed your TWRP flashable stagefright update. I've rooted and changed some other things in /system, so I'd like to flash the full stage fright update you linked to start fresh (also to get Motorola OTA back).

Then, I'd like to update to 6.0 via OTA when available. Based on my prior post, do I risk bricking? Thanks again for the help.

Sent from my XT1095
[X 2014 General] AGISCI:
The link I just posted will put you back to 100% stock and you can take the OTA to 6.0 with no problems.
[X 2014 General] Some1CP:
I just got a new XT1097 manufactured in Brazil. It came with KitKat pre installed.

Should I upgrade to Marshmallow? If I want to go back to KitKat again do I need to backup my current bootloader/partition table ?
[X 2014 General] JulesJam:
Don't count on ever being able to downgrade the BL and PT.
[X 2014 General] Vinnom:
Okay guys, I hard bricked my phone because I forget this things about taking an OTA.

I really think that this problem could be solved, if I had more experience in linux. The thing is:

- Device is listed by lsusb

- dmesg | tail returns

[140647.329940] usb 2-8: new high-speed USB device number 93 using ehci-pci
[140647.446985] qcserial 2-8:1.0: Qualcomm USB modem converter detected
[140647.447071] usb 2-8: Qualcomm USB modem converter now attached to ttyUSB0

- Device can be found at /dev/hidraw*

All of this makes me wonder about a way to get access to device, at least to write motoboot.img directly to its partition (mmcblk0p# - don't know the right partition for bootloader).

Sorry to bump =/
[X 2014 General] AGISCI:
Not possible. To be able to flash to it, a signed motorola blankflash file is needed. The problem is, we don't have, and motorola won't give it. Without the blankfile signed by motorola it can't be done.
[X 2014 General] android_symbian:
Yes.

My phone ( XT1092 ) - http://xdaforums.com/moto-x-2014/help/moto-x-2014-xt1092-dead-please-help-t3278523/

it 2 solution to repair - Only change main, and wait for leak blankflash
[X 2014 General] floepie:
So, I just downgraded everything from MM to the full Lollipop image I had in order to restore the phone with plan to apply the OTAs. It doesn't appear that the phone is bricked, it just hangs on the "unlocked bootloader" screen and goes no further. I think I can just flash an MM image if possible. Does anyone know where I can find this download for my euro version? Thanks...

EDIT: False alarm. It turns out I didn't flash all the system sparse chunks. In any case, I found a XT1092 MM system download and it works just fine.
[X 2014 General] TTeDD:
Stand with the same problem, has solution ?

I just go through it with my MotoX ( XT1097 ) , he gave a problem then returned it to Android version 4.4, then he asked An update via OTA to 5.0 I installed and the phone not called more just led Green ... yet You have no solution for this problem ?

Sorry for the bad English ...... I followed this video , however I need the code to moto x ( xt1097 ) .....

watch?v=FFAqbuGFRLk
[X 2014 General] AGISCI:
Sorry but after a downgrade then taking an OTA the phone gets hard bricked. There is no solution. You will have to send it to motorola for repair.
[X 2014 General] nbell13:
Hmm.. I was able to flash the single KitKat system with normal fastboot a few weeks ago. But the only lollipop I've found has it broken into 7 chunks so you're probably right
[X 2014 General] JulesJam:
There is a 5.0 fxz with a single system.img and it won't flash with the most recent regular fastboot that I tried.
[X 2014 General] sekelink:
I have successfully flashed back to stock KitKat from the 5.0 several times with fastboot comands (provided by motorola) even flashing partition and motoboot (error message during flash process in pink ) .

I follow this video (no my video) https://youtu.be/kS0eVAfpBIo

I fact, i have a nandroid backup with stock 5.0 lollipop to take the 5.1 ota (when is out).

When i flash back the entire motorola firmware 4.4.4 and android start for the first time, I have message in notification panel like this: YOU HAVE THE LATEST FIRMWARE SENSORS INSTALLED ON YOUR SYSTEM, WOULD TO LIKE TO UNINSTALL THEM? I choose yes, then the system make a reboot.

My phone, xt1095 pure edition 16gb memory running kitkat without any errors.

(sorry for my english)
[X 2014 General] nbell13:
This is exactly what I've done on my 16 GB pure several times. I'm not going to touch my new 64GB though, keeping it locked :)
[X 2014 General] MrMeeseeks:
OK so I noticed something interesting last night after I flashed the 4.4 motoboot.img. After flashing motoboot I immediately rebooted back into the boot loader which showed the 60.14 boot loader. I didn't look into any further. But then I took the 5.0 update and was going to install the 5.1 soak again. When I went back into fastboot, the boot loader was set at 60.11. I'm going to look into it some more when I get off work and if it does in fact show the 4.4 boot loader I will post a video.
[X 2014 General] JulesJam:
If you got the error message when flashing motoboot and gpt, then you didn't flash back to KK motoboot and gpt after upgrading to L.

AGAIN - we know some people get the error message when they try to do this. But others BRICK!!! Why take that chance? There is NOTHING to be gained by attempting this. You will either get an error message or you will brick. And for what?
[X 2014 General] JulesJam:
But your BL and PT are on Lollipop. You can run a lower system and kernel many times after upgrading the BL and PT, but you cannot downgrade the BL.

On the MX13, there was one rare exception when you could downgrade the BL and that was I believe from 4.4.4 back to the post-camera update of 4.4.2. If you tried to go back to the pre-camera update 4.4.2, you bricked.

AGAIN peeps - if you get the error message when you try to downgrade the BL and/or PT, then you did NOT in fact downgrade them. But why even try when there is no benefit? And there is a significant risk you will brick. Yes, some people get the error message and the flash fails, but others brick.
[X 2014 General] JulesJam:
But your BLs and PTs are not being downgraded.
[X 2014 General] JulesJam:
You mean 4.4.4 motoboot.img.

60.14 is the 5.1 BL. So after flashing the 4.4.4 BL you were still on the 5.1 BL?

Ok just so I understand, you took the leaked OTA 5.1 soak test, and then flashed back to 4.4.4. Your BL was still on 60.14 after flashing back to 4.4.4.

Then you took the 5.0 OTA and when you checked your BL was the 5.0 BL (60.11)?
[X 2014 General] sekelink:
Of course that the BL and PT are in lollipop, i never said that can I download the bootloader to a previous version. I just saying that is possible to go back to kitkat.
[X 2014 General] JulesJam:
Why are bothering to respond on this thread then? This thread is NOT about downgrading SYSTEM. It is about downgrading BL and PT.

I never said you can't downgrade your system. Or your kernel/ramdisk for that matter. It is the bootloader and the partition table you need to worry about and that is what the whole point of this thread is.

Please people, you are confusing the issue. THIS THREAD IS NOT ABOUT DOWNGRADING system.img OR boot.img. It is about attempting to downgrade motoboot.img and gpt.bin. When you say you can downgrade to KK from L, if what you are talking about is downgrading system.img and/or boot.img, that has nothing at all to do with downgrading motoboot.img or gpt.bin.

system.img = Android OS

boot.img = kernel and ramdisk

motoboot.img = bootloader

gpt.bin = partition table

This thread is about motoboot.img and gpt.bin. You risk bricking if you attempt to downgrade those. There are other hidden partitions that you risk bricking if you try to downgrade, but those are usually not partitions that people try to downgrade.

Downgrading system may cause a soft brick (but that is easily fixed) or it may be fine. Same with kernel. However, that is not what this thread is about.
[X 2014 General] MrMeeseeks:
That is correct. I didn't check the boot loader version after letting KitKat boot since I took the ota. I'm going to try again and see if it does revert.
[X 2014 General] JulesJam:
I would not flash back to 4.4.4 and take the 5.0 OTA after having taken the 5.1 OTA. But since you said you have done it, then please by all means let us know what happens if you do it again. (I don't recommend that anyone try this).

Because if this is what is happening, then this is one of those rare instances where you can downgrade the bootloader. It may provide an opportunity for an exploit, idk, but the last time that this occurred, it provided an opportunity to root and get write protection off. And then eventually even bootloader unlock.
[X 2014 General] MrMeeseeks:
I will try it again and try to do a video for proof. That is about all I can do though with it though cause I don't have much expertise there. But if it would help in some way that would be great.
[X 2014 General] JulesJam:
There are only a handful of people with enough knowledge to find these exploits given SeLinux, and they are focusing on non-Motorola phones now. But maiko1 may be interested since he developed mofo.exe.

Also, this may be particular to the 5.1 soak - so don't just assume that if you can do this after taking the 5.1 soak that it will work the same way when the official 5.1 OTA is released.
[X 2014 General] nbell13:
Correct. I find it strange it gives me and some other users an error but allows others to brick

---------- Post added at 01:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:55 PM ----------

Luciano Cal... whatever his last name is (Moto software engineer in Brazil) stated in a Google+ post that the OTA's are "smarter" and you will no longer brick if you take an OTA after a downgrade like on the original Moto X. I've done it several times with no issue.
[X 2014 General] JulesJam:
That is good to know. However, there are still people bricking when trying to downgrade the MX14 bootloader and/or partition table so that hasn't been fixed yet.
[X 2014 General] TrippleT:
I already downgraded 5.0 to 4.4.4 last month...nothing happend...
[X 2014 General] JulesJam:
Because you didn't downgrade the BOOTLOADER. You just downgraded SYSTEM and KERNEL/RAMDISK.

Check your bootloader version - I am sure it is still 60.11 if you didn't brick downgrading.

I will edit the OP to make it EVEN MORE CLEAR what the difference is and then hopefully these ridiculous posts will stop and we can focus on the ACTUAL ISSUE OF THIS THREAD - DOWNGRADING THE BOOTLOADER AND PARTITION TABLE!!!!!
[X 2014 General] MrMeeseeks:
Ok, so here is what I found. I repeated the downgrade to stock 4.4.4 from the 5.1 soak. I just used fastboot from the Android SDK. I was able to flash the partition(gpt) and bootloader(motoboot) from the 4.4.4 img without bricking. However, after booting up and going back into fastboot, the bootloader was still on 60.14(5.1 soak bootloader). So then I took the 5.0 OTA again and installed it. Then went back into fastboot and it showed the bootloader as 60.11(5.0 bootloader). So it somehow downgraded the bootloader from 60.14 to 60.11 when taking the OTA from 4.4.4 to 5.0. Maybe this is something in the 5.1 soak bootloader? I'm not really sure. However, even though it seems possible somehow, I will side with [MENTION=5983610]JulesJam[/MENTION] on this one. It doesnt seem necessary so please dont try it.
[X 2014 General] AGISCI:
Which model do you have? Maybe the difference with the bricks could be in XT1095, XT1097, etc...

From the looks of it the bootloader did downgrade for you according to the version you posted.

Sent from my XT1095
[X 2014 General] MrMeeseeks:
Mine is XT1095.
[X 2014 General] AGISCI:
Well our version the XT1095 is the pure edition. Maybe this downgrade is allowed for us... The only way to find out for sure would be to ask the people that brick which version they have.

Sent from my XT1095
[X 2014 General] Steve-x:
I am well aware of the bricking issues with downgrades with the 2013 Moto X. It didn't seem like the same was possible with the 2014 model though and that maybe Motorola had fixed that glitch. Obviously it is still possible yet can anyone say 100% for certain what causes it?

There are tons of people here that have gone back and forth between 4.4.4 and 5.0.x without any problem. I don't think there was a single case of bricking that wasn't hardware related until the 5.1 leaks came out.

The simple fact is using RSDlite motoboot and gpt are never downgraded, it just plain refuses to do it, the same with mfastboot. So people can try to downgrade all day long, it will never happen.

I do believe you can get the phone messed up if you try to flash a newer version of firmware from a different CID without unlocking your bootloader first - this is certainly a no no.

In the case of the 2013 Moto X it only bricked when you had downgraded all of files except motoboot and gpt(because you can't) and then took an OTA update.

So while I have no doubt it is possible to brick a 2014 Moto X I'd like to hear from people that it has actually happened to and what they were specifically trying to do at the time before I think there is any kind of major issue people need to worry about.