Restoring Telstra Motorola Defy+ to stock firmware

cannedhams on 16/02/2013 - 19:58

Ive seen a couple of mentions of people needing to revert their Defy+ phones to stock firmware in order to submit them for warranty claims, after having flashed their phones with CM9 of similar.

I had to revert mine as the USB port was starting to become difficult to establish a connection. I did back up the phone initially, but lost the nandroid backup somewhere along the way.

The usual: I am not responsible if you brick your device, blah blah blah.

You can find a stock firmware that quite closely resembles the original Telstra firmware here:-

http://sbf.droid-developers.org/umts_jordanplus/list.php

For most of you (depending on what bootloader you have) the firmware that you should flash is the following:-

http://sbf.droid-developers.org/umts_jordanplus/DEFYPLUS_U3_…

BE CAREFUL!!!! WHEN CHOOSING FIRMWARE. For most people with Bootloader 9.10 the above should work. If you flash with the wrong firmware you WILL soft-brick the device (blackscreen) and will need to try and re-establish a connection with RSDLite.

1) To flash the firmware, simply download the firmware, and download RSDLite from here (you should have it already if you have flashed your phone):-

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1348587

Unzip the firmware using 7-zip or equivalent and place it either on the desktop or on your root drive. Ideally, you should truncate the file name of the firmware as RSDlite can have problems with longer file names.

The procedure is much, much more reliable if attempted on a computer with Win XP SP3 rather than vista or Windows 7 (trust me).

2) Boot your phone into the bootloader. Turn it off, hold down the Vol+ key and hit the power button at the same time.

3) Connect your phone by USB to your computer. Start RSDLite. Hopefully, your phone will be detected and can be seen as a device in RSDLite.

If not, be patient. Try connecting your phone to different USB ports. Try uninstalling USB ports and reinstalling them in Device Manager. Use another computer if you have to. When I blackscreened my phone it took ages for RSDLite to detect it, but patience pays off. Hopefully it will work for you right off the bat.

4) Flash the phone using RSDlite by selecting the firmware file and clicking Start. You shouldnt have to screw around with the options unless you have issues.

5) If the phone flashes successfully, it will probably go into a bootloop (where the Motorola logo reappears over and over without successfully booting OR it will boot but report a lot of errors with different services).

To resolve this, boot the phone into stock recovery, by holding Vol- and turning the phone on. Then press Vol- and Vol+ at the same time. You will then have the option of performing a soft reset which should resolve the bootloop issues.

There is a significant chance of soft bricking your phone by reverting to stock firmware this way. However, it is very rare to hard-brick the Defy+ because of the locked bootloader, so just about any apparent bricking can be resolved with determination and patience. If you get an error message try searching through xda, its what I do.

Once completed, the phone will be unrooted and network locked to Telstra. There will not be any specific Telstra branding on the device but it will be very similar to the original firmware in all other respects.

I submitted my phone for repair and they didnt pick up on it, anyway.

Mobile

Comments

  • Bill48 on 17/02/2013 - 07:55

    Can I hijack this useful thread, from paizuri who really seems to know his Defy. Nowhere that I have tried has anyone answered my question.
    The Defy that I have is model MB525. I want to be able to use it as a voice recorder. Reviews of my phone say it has this feature but no-one has ever been able to uncover it.
    So, I tried to download one of any number of voice recorder apps.
    Each site eventually redirects me to Google Play. I have not been trying this lately but from memory I got repeated messages that what I was trying to do was not allowed for this phone.
    So, is there a voice recorder in my phone that no-one can find or what do I need to do to be able to download this app?
    Thanks, Bill

    • cannedhams on 17/02/2013 - 08:48

      Hi Bill,
      Just to check - have you disabled data saver in settings/data manager? If not I would try disabling it and then try downloading your voice recorder app again.

      • Bill48 on 17/02/2013 - 11:34

        Thanks paizuri. Very good of you.
        Under data manager, there is the data meter and data delivery.
        under data delivery, I see background data, data roaming, data enabled, email and social applications.
        Data enabled looks closest to what you say. Is this what I disable?
        Bill

        • cannedhams on 17/02/2013 - 19:52

          Hi Bill, I am guessing that the Defy is different to the Defy+ in that regard - the Defy+ has a data saver option next to data delivery that can interfere with some apps.

          Also, is there an SD card inserted in the phone?

      • Bill48 on 17/02/2013 - 11:41

        If I have the .apk file saved to my computer, can my phone import it from there? If so, by what process? Or does the phone itself have to download the app? Sorry to be so naive but, till now, phones for me have been strictly for calls, messages and other things I have easily found built in, such as GPS, camera, internet.
        Bill

        • _Bruce_ on 17/02/2013 - 13:44

          You can install from the APK, but you have to allow this in the phone settings (something like "allow apps to be installed from unknown sources"), then use a file browser (you may have to get one) to open the APK.

    • _Bruce_ on 17/02/2013 - 10:00

      To clarify, do you want to record voice calls, or do you want to record things going on around the phone, because these are different things.

      To record calls you need to be rooted and (in same cases) use a custom kernel. To record things around you there shouldn't be any such problem.

      • Bill48 on 17/02/2013 - 11:37

        Thanks Bruce. No, I am not about recording calls. I want to use it as you say, things around me. I'd like to think there is no problem. If this is inbuilt, where is it please?
        Bill

        • _Bruce_ on 17/02/2013 - 13:45

          OK there is no reason this can't be done, but it also isn't inbuilt. You just have to find an app that supports your phone.

    • Bill48 on 20/02/2013 - 08:04

      Thanks to paizuri and Bruce. Problem resolved. Bill

  • pfpozbargain on 18/02/2013 - 18:42

    Was there ever any Telstra branding on the handset? It seemed to me just the standard motoblur theme with the green bubbles and horrible lag.

    When I restored the firmware last week it looked exactly how I bought it, we'll see how the warranty claim pans out.

    • pfpozbargain on 18/02/2013 - 20:31

      (Restored with the same firmware you linked to)

      • cannedhams on 21/02/2013 - 13:33

        Good luck with the warranty claim, if you could please let us know how you go.

        • pfpozbargain on 21/02/2013 - 17:06

          Sure, they said ten business days or s/t…

    • Geewhizz on 20/02/2013 - 06:54

      Was there ever any Telstra branding on the handset?

      Yes, there is. Blue Telstra screen comes up soon after start up

  • pfpozbargain on 04/03/2013 - 14:29

    They processed my warranty claim with the restored firmware above (although refused to fix it on the grounds that it was water damaged…).

    I feel ripped off considering the phone is marketed as water resistant and I never tested the validity of that claim. The handset only lasted for two months, it's really not acceptable considering my Nokia 6110 from 1998 still works.

    • cannedhams on 07/03/2013 - 10:10

      I know, it sucks. Its supposed to be water resistant to one metre for 10 minutes. Mine got wet for less than that and it got waterlogged.

      For anyone else who has a waterlogged Defy, try taking the Defy apart with a T5 torq driver, and seeing if the water detecting stickers are red. If they are you can try replacing them with detector stickers from ebay.

      There are also guides on how to turn the stickers white again. If you do that Fone biz will have no way of knowing the phone was waterlogged.

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