Unlocking the boot loader

We’re supporting the open developer community
The open developer community is important to us at Sony, and we have therefore made it possible to unlock the boot loader for certain releases of Xperia™ smartphones from 2011 and onwards. To find out what phone models are supported by this service, please see the Supported phones box on the left.

However, even if the phone model is supported, certain releases of the phone model may not be supported due to operator restrictions. To check if your phone can be unlocked, go through the first two steps on the page.

Important information
Please note that you may void the warranty of your phone and/or any warranty from your operator if you unlock the boot loader. Sony Ericsson can then no longer guarantee the full functionality of your phone, and will not be responsible for any unsigned custom software being flashed to the phone after the boot loader is unlocked. Certain functions in your phone might cease to work, and performance might not be ideal. You might also damage your phone permanently. In the worst case, unlocking the boot loader will cause physical injuries or material damage, for example, due to the phone overheating.

Certain content on your phone may also be inaccessible due to the removal of DRM security keys and the secure user data partition while unlocking the boot loader. We advise you to create backups, since user data, settings and accounts will be removed.

With all of the above in mind, you should only unlock the boot loader of your phone if you are an advanced user with good knowledge of the technology and risks involved. We recommend standard users not to unlock the boot loader, as it is not needed. We are proud to deliver great phone experiences through our rigorously tested and official software releases.

If you are fully aware of the risks involved, and have a deep knowledge about these technologies, continue to the unlock boot loader instructions page. You should be aware that unlocking the boot loader will not give you root access. The only way to get root access is to flash a custom ROM with root access.

For any questions, we will monitor this thread on Google groups. However, we cannot guarantee an answer for every question asked in this forum. If you want additional assistance, check out the FreeXperia developer thread on the XDA-forum. Please note that this is an external forum, not run by Sony.

Also note that there is no turning back once you have unlocked the boot loader. You will not be able to revert the phone to a locked or original state if you unlock it. In addition, if you brick the phone, it is your own responsibility.

Known issues
It is currently not possible to unlock the boot loader for CDMA phones.
Some customers with unlocked boot loaders have experienced problems when they are accepting over the air upgrades (FOTA - Firmware upgrade Over The Air). For customers that have unlocked the boot loader, please do not accept any over the air upgrades. For additional information, check out the hints and tips from the community on the XDA forum.