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New Participant
September 4, 2022
Question

How do I unlock the Bootloader of my Quest 2?

Hello there,

 

First, I hope you had a great weekend.

I would like to unlock the bootloader of my Oculus/Meta Quest 2 for rooting and debloating purposes. According to the Oculus Terms of Service, I would need special permissions from someone at Oculus/Meta to do this ("You will not use, copy, adapt, modify... except as expressly permitted by us or as permitted under applicable law".)

Also, I would need a bootloader-unlocking code.

Where am I able to get those permissions and where can I get the unlocking code?

 

By the way, yes, I am aware that unlocking the Quest 2's bootloader isn't recommended and I am probably going to lose my warranty.

 

 

Thank you very much for your time and have a nice day.

Cheers!

35 replies

Honored Contributor
September 4, 2022

I love the optimism but don't get your hopes up. I really can't see any company just agreeing to allow that.

New Participant
September 15, 2022

Knock knock MetaStoreHelp, mind helping me out here?
Thank you very much.

New Participant
January 7, 2024

so there is some techniques first is if you open the the default android settings not the meta settings you can do this by installing a launcher by apk and open the settings enable develeper mode and press dsu loader get a fresh meta quest 1 - 2 - 3 .img then use magisk to patch it and then add the patched file by magisk into the dsu loader thing you may not have a unlocked bootloader but you will have a rooted meta quest you can utilize rooted apps to unlock the bootloader hope it helps

New Participant
January 13, 2024

 


zxminty wrote:

installing a launcher by apk and open the settings enable develeper mode and press dsu loader get a fresh meta quest 1 - 2 - 3 .img

what launcer?

and dsu is permission denied.

New Participant
January 16, 2024

okay so, the you get this settings apk and sideload it in > https://github.com/basti564/SettingsShortcut/releases

This is created by the guy who has archived all the meta firmwares on the site cocaine.trade

you can then use the DSU Loader once you have enabled the devmode for android by clicking on the about > build number like 10 times (it will prompt you are now a developer)

now you can also sideload magisk via the apk file.

heres the issues though.

zxminty said

"then use magisk to patch it and then add the patched file by magisk into the dsu loader thing"

creating a patched file of the firmware is straightforward

adding the patched file by magisk to the dsu loader is impossible, even using this apk

> https://github.com/VegaBobo/DSU-Sideloader/releases/tag/2.03

so unless im missing something zxminty is being intentionally vague as it is not possible?

New Participant
March 13, 2024

I recently discovered that if you press and hold the power button+ volume up it will bring up a recovery menu just like on Android where you can update via adb and sideload. Not sure if this helps but it's something that has not been mentioned on here. Also power+ volume down is a USB update menu

New Participant
March 30, 2024

Sadly nothing new. The recovery-mode which you mentioned is locked down (as it usually is, sadly) in a way that you can only sideload official firmware updates via adb, you can't even downgrade from there. What you can do is use fastboot to try "fastboot oem unlock", which needs some unlock code. The USB update menu seems to be more technician-oriented, which is good, but I couldn't figure out how to interact with it via a computer (sure, the volume- and powerbutton exists, but there isn't exactly a button saying "Unlock the bootloader").

Good to see that some more people are interested in this. Would love to see Meta or someone from a support team actually answer, so here goes another bump after years. MetaStoreHelp do you know anything useful (besides that the Quest 2 is not yet publicly unlockable)?

New Participant
August 10, 2024

I just found a way to OEM unlock the Quest 3 and it's actually surprisingly easy. Not up for sharing it on these forums, though

New Participant
August 10, 2024

Flick us a message champ, pretty sure though that “unlocked” version is not really unlocked though. You will have to build your own android version to run on it if you want the actual features we are all chasing and the graphics implementation is proprietary and you wont be able to boot graphics on a custom os, just shell access.

 

 

pinkJJ
Participant
December 12, 2024

You can get the firmware from a website that I will not mention on here, because I know Meta will want to pry eyes.

If you need more info, contact me on Discord [01_pink]

New Participant
January 4, 2025

Hey everyone i have a quest 2 the bootloader is unlocked.  I bought it used and got it this way. No clue how it came to be, other forums suggest it was owned by a meta employee or something of the like.  Is this of interest to anyone here? Id be happy to help out anyway i can 

pinkJJ
Participant
January 6, 2025

I am peaking in interest about the unlocked bootloader of your Quest 2. I am assuming that the previous owner must've been able to unlock the bootloader in such a way that perhaps some of us haven't seen before, or there was some vulnerability at the time that allowed them to brute-force an unlock.

New Participant
February 3, 2025

Do you mean that you unlocked the bootloader past v21?  Or is this a method to unlock it with the known exploit?

Up and Coming
April 12, 2025

Status headset 

Bootloader : locked

How can I unlock my bootloader? 

Participant
April 13, 2025

theres no known method, why do you want to unlock the bootloader anyways?