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Is it Safe to flash earlier firmware over RETUS 40-95-9?

 2 years ago
source link: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/is-it-safe-to-flash-earlier-firmware-over-retus-40-95-9.4453651/#post-86982987
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Is it Safe to flash earlier firmware over RETUS 40-95-9?

Moondroid

Senior Member
Feb 12, 2015
In case I get another phone with the latest RETUS OTA and run into the same problem where the phone will not accept the Unlock Code sent by Motorola. "FAILED (remote error)" every time. I don't know if this new OTA is the problem, or if the phone I received had a hardware or firmware problem. I posted here about that problem 2 days ago, so the history is in that thread. TIA . . .
Sep 18, 2019
According to my notes, at some point when I was doing OTA updates I did end up with 40-95-9; however, I suspect this update occurred after I unlocked the device. Hence, when I rolled back to the Feb version, I did not run into issues.

That said, I would NOT attempt to roll back with a stock bootloader locked device. You (likely) may run into motorola's implementation of Androids roll back protection which will prevent the device from booting. Without the 40-95-9 firmware file, I don't think it will be easy to get back to a working device. i.e. some form of blank flashing will be necessary. You might be able to recover from this, but I think it will be a headache.

Hopefully someone else will respond with some better advice/info for you.

HTH

EDIT you wrote in your other thread:
I should probably stress, I flashed the entire firmware with no problems at all.

but I'm not sure what you flashed. I doubt it was an older version. If you have the 40-95-9 firmware file, you might be ok to try. Just be aware you could end up with a device that is at best difficult if not impossible to unbrick.

Before flashing anything, be sure to allow OEM unlocking from developer options and get your unlock code from motorola's www site as you did previously.

Even tho it will soft brick the device, I'd flash everything from an older version. Reboot to the now hopefully older bootloader (you can check what bootloader is running with `fastboot getvar all`). If you end up with the red "No valid operating system" screen, just simultaneously hold down the power and volume down buttons until you get back to the bootloader. Assuming you can get into the bootloader (I'm not 100% cerntain that you can) from there you may be able to unlock or at least re-flash the 40-95-9 firmware to recover.

Note I have not attempted this so I can't say this will work. It's just what I would try in this situation if I didn't care about the time spent trying to recover or permanently bricking the device.

Good luck and I hope you don't have to try it.

Last edited: Today at 3:46 PM

Moondroid

Senior Member
Feb 12, 2015
It's just too hard to guess what might happen with the new arrangement of partitions in Android 10. I've rescued a couple of soft-bricks (Moto and Samsung believe it or not) but they were cheaper or just older. I'd rather not risk hard-bricking a phone after just shelling out $170-200 for it. (That's Swappa prices, everywere else is another $100 or so.) On older partitioning an unlocked bootloader wouldn't have made any difference in whether rollback worked or not. It was (pretty much) all about matching up bootloader versions (plus digital signing for locked bootloader etc). Rollback would either work or it wouldn't.

Right now I'm trying to find a phone with something prior to 95-9 firmware. If I can't find that, I think I'll just try to talk my lady into a slightly smaller phone. She's been spoiled by the newer 6.7-6.8" phablets. I hate them myself, but this is not for me.

Thanks a bunch for trying to help.

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