Don’t forget to reboot your Nexus or Google Play Edition device after unlocking the bootloader

December 24, 2013

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In case you were unaware, Nexus and Google Play Edition devices need to be rebooted after you unlock the bootloader. According to Android Police, changes have been made to the unlocking process and not rebooting would send your device into an infinite reboot into recovery. On the Nexus 4, Nexus 5, Nexus 7 (2013), LG G Pad 8.3 GPE, and Sony Xperia Z Ultra GPE, the bootloader is not wiping the device clean as it once did. Users should be rebooting prior to installing a custom recovery.

Hit the break for directions.

Here are the directions from Android Police on how to solve two of the issues:

Your custom recovery just sits waiting for input, pretending there are no pre-existing instructions for it. Rebooting will just force-boot to recovery again.
How to fix: To break this impasse, you'll have to flash stock recovery and reboot. Data and cache will be properly wiped and the boot chain will be reset. At that point, all is well and you can flash a custom recovery.
The custom recovery actually interprets the instructions, wipes data and cache, sets the boot chain back to normal, but then your ROM gets stuck in a boot loop at the boot animation.
How to fix: This can be rectified by simply booting into fastboot mode, then running “fastboot format” on the userdata and cache partitions.

And here are the directions to avoid the issue entirely, courtesy of Android Police:

Unlock your bootloader, but do not flash your custom recovery yet.
Reboot.
Your device will force-boot into stock recovery, wipe data and cache, then reboot again.
Let the device boot all the way to the welcome screen.
Reboot back into fastboot mode.
Flash the custom recovery.
Reboot.

Source: Android Police

Justin Herrick Author

Born and raised in New Jersey, Justin is a graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University where he studied marketing with a focus on digital marketing. He's very talkative and enjoys discussing anything from technology and sports to video games and television. As for Justin's current device rotation, he carries around the Google Pixel and Nexus 9. In the rare case that his phone or tablet is not in his hand, he is either flicking through cards on his Moto 360 (2015) or typing away on the Microsoft Surface Book. Justin is patiently waiting for the day that Google replicates the Galaxy Nexus with modern day specifications.