Samsung Galaxy Series

With the launch of Galaxy Nexus 4G LTE device with ICS 4.0, Now It’s time to unlock the boot loader so that you can then proceed to customize the phone the way you want it. Over a course of this article we will check on how you can unlock the boot loader. Please note that by unlocking the boot loader, the warranty will get void for which we should not be held responsible. Before proceeding, ensure that you have noted down on which exact firmware you are ON currently so that it will help you to restore the same if just in case anything happens to your device in an unlikely event. This will be very beneficial as only with the help of this we will be able to not only root the phone, install the custom recovery image but also one can easily install the custom ROMs which are available for this Galaxy nexus Phone.

Disclaimer: We should not be held responsible for any damage happened to your device in the process of applying this procedure.

FAQ:

Q. Will I still get the Official OTA Updates after Unlocking Bootloader?
A. Most of the users have myth that after unlocking, the updates won’t be pushed but it’s not correct. The OTA updates will be available even if you unlock the boot loader. Only if you have updated your phone with different firmware version, you won’t be able to get the updates, the reason being is its unable to check the current firmware on which you are on.

 There are two Quick List of pre Requisistes which you need to follow so as to facilitate the smoother firmware update.

• Backup all the data present in your phone memory so that the same can be restored back just in case if any data is lost or corrupted. Please don’t use PC Suites to back up the data as after unlocking he boot loader the Galaxy Nexus may / may not support the PC Suite.

• Close / disable all the Antivirus, Firewall and PC suites like KIES in your computer or else these tools will interrupt the process of firmware update.

• Before proceeding, install Galaxy Nexus 4G LTE Drivers in your compute and ensure that you are on the computer which is having a minimum of Windows XP / Windows 7. After this, you also need to enable the USB debugging from the path “Settings > Applications > Development > USB Debugging” as shown in the below screen capture.

• Now, assuming that you have installed the ADB, place the fastboot.exe file in your SDK / Tools folder if it’s not here by default. If it’s not there, then you can download the fast boot and place the same.
• Now, next up you need to connect the original USB cable which you got at the time of purchase and then head to the SDK / Tools folder in the ADB in your computer where adb.exe and fastboot.exe files are located.
• Now press the “Shift” button, right click on the file to select “Open Command Window Here” after which you will see the image as shown below.
• After this, type in the command as mentioned below after which your phone will be turning Off and then reboot the device in the Boot loader mode.

adb reboot bootloader

• Now, all you need to do is to type the command,

fastboot oem unlock

• After which you will be prompted on the screen as shown below on to whether you wanted to unlock the boot loader or not along with the policy as shown in the below screen capture.

• Now, with the help of Volume keys, select the option of “Yes” and then press the Power button to select the same. After this, the boot loader will be unlocked successfully.

• Please note that it may take longer boot time. So ensure that you wait for the same to get rebooted on its own. Just in case if the phone boots up in the loop mode, you need to clear the cache from the recovery mode. Just in a rare case, if the phone gets stuck in the middle of any above step, you need to repeat the whole procedure from the start.

So, after this, you will see that the device will be unlocked. Do let us know just in case if there is anything you would like to share with us in the comments section below. We will try our level best to ensure that all the issues are sorted out at the earliest.