Last Updated on July 25, 2020 by Mathew Diekhake

Whether you have come from rooting your Nexus 4 and need to unlock the bootloader or whether you just want it unlocked so that you can have a great deal more freedom in future; here is the guide on how to unlock the bootloader of Google’s latest phone, the Nexus 4.

When you unlock the Bootloader everything gets wiped on your device. Because of this, its paramount that you backup your device. You can do this via the cloud or by backing up your files onto your computer.

Google Nexus 4

Unlocking the Google Nexus 4 Bootloader

1. If your Nexus 4 is already turned on you will need to power it down and boot the device into fastboot mode. To do this simply press volume down and power simultaneously.

2. Connect the Nexus 4 to the computer with the USB cable that it came with. Open up the command prompt and locate your way to the folder that contains the fastboot.

3. In the command line type  fastboot devices. Your Nexus 4 ID will now be displayed. When you see this you will now know that fastboot is working well on your device.

4. Once we are satisfied it is working it’s time to unlock it. As I mentioned earlier unlocking the bootloader will wipe everything from your device so make sure you have backed it up. if you have both of these things in order you can now type fastboot oem unlock into the command line. After doing this you will be guided through the rest of the process on-screen. Follow these on-screen instructions to complete the process. Once you are finished reboot your device and you will now have unlocked the Nexus 4 bootloader.

Locking the Google Nexus 4 Bootloader

Most people will only want to unlock the Nexus 4 bootloader, however if you for any reason would like to lock it again this is really easy to do. Follow the one simple step below to get this done properly.

1. Follow the exact same guide as above, only this time change the final command in the command prompt to  fastboot oem lock. Your bootloader will now be locked.

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