Last Updated on July 4, 2022 by Mathew Diekhake

Without question delving into the world of tech-space can be daunting, even for those who consider themselves above the novice users. There’s so many terms out there and so many different gizmos to learn that who can blame anybody for not fully comprehending a feature unless it is their full time job to know it. The bootloader is one of those words that come up often if you are involved in the world of customizing and it isn’t that hard to understand — when we start up a gadget the operating system boots with it and there is a mechanism that kicks off that loading process. It is essentially what the bootloader is.

Now when it comes to root, or anything like that on Android, we need to unlock this bootloader before we can start. Imagine needing to unlock the door to walk in the home. It’s the same thing and the manufacturers lock it up and then leave the house aka hand the house over to you with the keys. Of course, keys are more of a metaphor because unlocking a device is never as easy as putting a key in a hole and thankfully that is what we have developers for to help us out.

Motorola Moto E ad

Up until today there has only been one way that I knew of to unlock the Moto E bootloader and that was with some manual tinkering after initially downloading the SDK file. However, Motorola have announced an unlocked Bootloader program specifically for this handset to make things that much easier. How cool is that? Very cool, in fact, it can’t get much cooler.

When we talk about a low-end smartphone that is cheap and still packing some cool features it is a hacker’s dream. The Moto E was set up to make heaps of money from people who wanted to buy this phone and love to root and install custom ROMs plus the bevy of apps that aren’t otherwise accessible. SO, as you could imagine, when everybody first found out it was locked the entire fan-base sighed. We can only assume that has had something to do with Motorola’s decision to flick the switch back over and instead of create hassles for users, make it unlocked so they can have some fun. That has instantly made Motorola and Lenovo who own the rights to the name, way cooler in my book.

Anyhow, people can be funny and sometimes there’s reason that pop up that stop people from using the easier method and other times people just want to do manual methods because that is half the fun to them. Whatever floats your boat I am here today to expose to you both of the way you can unlock it.

The New Way Thanks To Moto’s Help

First I will start with the latest information on what I have found out. Humanities residing in the United States, Latin America, Canada, Europe and there’s a question mark against the country India, can all gain access to the Bootloader Unlock program. If you are not living in those areas, or cannot access this program then read on for the manual process and where it all originated. Click here to view the page.

How To Unlock The Moto E Bootloader Manually using The Command Prompt

1. Turn on the computer.

2. Download the Android SDK For the operating system of your choice. It is available for Mac, Windows and Linux.

3. Put the smartphone in Fastboot mode by pressing the “off” power button repeatedly for 15 seconds. Once there now press Volume Down and Power at the same time and it will enter fast boot Mode.

That is obviously trickier than we would like it to be and if people are struggling with it leave a comment and what is confusing you and together we can chat and work it out.

4. On Windows click Start > Search Box and type in CMD to open up a command line If you are using a different OS then open a terminal with the appropriate process.

5. On the first command line type in : $ fastboot oem get_unlock_data

6. It will show many values. Copy the values without the spaces in between them. It will look like this: 0A40040192024205#4C4D355631323030373731363031303332323239#
BD008A672BA4746C2CE02328A2AC0C39F951A3E

Note there is no space between the hash.

7. The rest is done from Motorola’s website here.

Now, usually when unlocking bootloaders the device manufacturers warranty is voided straight away. However, it may be different this time because it is the manufacturer that is letting us do it and they don’t usually give us the permission to do such a thing. I will look into this further and find out the answer. Obviously depending on where you are located in the world will be different. In some cases, warranty can be mandatory and the extended warranty is up to the consumer. There is also the option of adding insurance to protect your expensive investment. Think about what you have paid for and investigate with your local phone carrier what will happen if you follow this through.

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