This is a monumental moment for all Verizon Wireless users. Verizon finally seems to be listening to its customers. For the longest time Verizon would disable all non-cellular methods for transferring images and music. That way you were forced to use Verizon’s network and end up paying for the transfers. Now it seems that Verizon is finally going back on that policy - at least on their flagship phone, the Motorola RAZR V3c.
Since yesterday, all Verizon Motorola RAZR users can take their phone in to their local Verizon dealer for a free software update. While the main purpose of this software is to fix the many bugs that have been plaguing the device since its release, a big surprise comes with it. After the update, hooking up your phone to your computer will allow you to use Motorola’s Phone Tools to transfer all your multimedia to and from your phone. That’s not all. OBEX, the service used to transfer data over Bluetooth, has been added to the phone’s list of Bluetooth services. This means that anyone with a Bluetooth dongle has the ability to transfer and retrieve photos, etc. from their phone for free.
Long time owners of the RAZR will find this news quite odd. Back when the phone was originally released, OBEX was left on by mistake. Verizon quickly corrected that error by not only turning off OBEX, but completely stripping the OBEX code from the firmware. Now that OBEX has been enabled again shows that either Verizon has no clue what they’re doing or they’re finally listening to customer’s requests.
Owners of other Verizon phones should be glad to hear this news. Rumor has it that other V Cast phones will be getting similar treatment in the coming weeks. Supposedly Verizon has started to advertise this functionality in their ads, signifying that firmware upgrades can’t be too far away.
Update: I just realized I forgot to link to my evidence. HowardForums currently has a lengthy thread on the subject with actual confirmed user tests.
Update 2: My initial reports have now been confirmed to be wrong. To find out what’s really the case read my followup article. Sorry for any confusions this article brought. I reported on this news a little too prematurely since the results were still being reported at the time.
Update 3: Mark_Venture of the HowardForums’ Verizon forum has written an excellent FAQ regarding the file transfer issue on Motorola RAZRs. I highly recommend it to anyone who wants the complete updated information on this subject.
127 Comments
I’ve had the vc3 from Verizon wireless since early March (over a month) and have had no problems copying my photos/videos via Bluetooth since I purchased it. SW ver GATW_01.0F.02
Dale, you have the original firmware that Verizon accidentally left OBEX on. They quickly turned it off in .03, but some .02 phones remained until they were sold. That’s what I’m guessing happened with yours.
Maybe you should switch to a GSM-based provider, such as Cingular, that does not cripple Bluetooth?
My next phone is going to be a RAZR with Verizon. This is fantastic news.
I wonder if they actually pay attention to Mac users this time. I have a Vcast phone that plays music but can’t use any of those features because Windows Media Player is not supported on the Mac. They should let people play MP3s as well.
I have an E815 from verizon in which the OBEX profile is disabled, however with a few quick and painless seem edits i was able to re-enable this feature. I also enabled a feature to allow me to choose which server i send my MMS pictures/videos to so i can send pictures to my webserver for free. the Picplace MMS server can be found here: http://www.humpa.com/downloads/index.php?humpa_id=7#h7
and a demo of it here: http://www.humpa.com/humpa_mms
Goto microsoft.com and look for Windows Media Player for mac. I have been using it for a while on my G4 power-book w/no problems. here is a direct link
http://www.microsoft.com/mac/otherproducts/otherproducts.aspx?pid=windowsmedia
Is there Problem with Verizon Motorola RAZR V3c?
Open the Phone, do not call or do anything just listen to Phone, You will hear a Noise from speaker, kinda weired Humming noise.
This is my 3rd replacement phone and it does the same.
Anybody has the same problem?
No way. I just got a new phone on verizon and it was NOT a RAZR. I had hte chance to get one too
Hopefully they’ll launch this for ALL of the capable phones n their network Especially the v710
- GB
http://www.onlyfeeds.com
Laurie, I have no trouble playing MP3s on my VCAST phone. Samsung ach-950. I haven’t tried it on my wife’s RAZR however.
“Windows Media Player is not supported on the Mac”
Wow, you have a Mac and didn’t know this? Did you just assume that because it has “Windows” in the name that you can’t use it?
Does this firmware also disable MP3 playing ability. I don’t want to upgrade my phone because the current f/w kills mp3 for wma for vcast music.
I’ve had no problems with my verizon razr as of yet.
Hmm?
So far it appears that if you go from the .03 firmware to the .04 firmware you don’t get OBEX back. If you go from .02 to .04 OBEX is there.
Verizon completely removed OBEX from .03, .04 does not put it back…
Keep up with the saga here -
http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=893475
I think I’ll be sticking to .02 for now. I’m glad I got an old batch from amazon. I just hate the gimpy interface design.
Just got off the phone with my local verizon store and verizon itself. Nobody knows anything about this. So…. where is this info coming from? And why are you doing this to us!!?!?!!?!?!
This is great news! I’ve got the .02 and will upgrade to .04 when I get the chance.
The E815 has a new firmware as of like a month ago. It has removed OBEX as well, so that is not possible aymore. I sure hope they fix it and allow us to xfer stuff via bluetooth. VZW can be a real pain in the arse sometimes.
Hi to all,
I’m new here. I just read that thread about Verizon enabling the OBEX in the V3C. I don’t think it’s true. I got my V3C on Saturday, April 15 and I have that OBEX disabled. I talked to a Verizonwireless about that and he said that the company has disabled it, that the only way to transfert pics and all that kind of stuff is to do it wirelessly (of course they charge for that). It’s worthless to have a cameraphone, taking pitures and not being able to upload them!! VW customers should file a lawsuit against the company. Once you buy the phone, it’s yours!! You do whatever you want with!!
I would grately appreciate if anyone who had his phone enabled the OBEX on the V3C, to let us know how he did that.
Thanks a lot.
Had a V3C RAZR for three months. Verizon UI slowed the thing down to a crawl. This phone was aweful and the build quality stinks. Waiting for firmware updates to fix funtionality that was there from the factory but disabled etc. etc. blah blah blah.
Switched to sprint for the Samsung A900. Like night and day. I can’t believe the difference.
Its about FREAKIN TIME
I’ve had my VZ RAZR since day 1 of release. I HATE THE RAZR. The ONLY thing good about it is the slim profile. I can’t wait to get rid of this phone. It is terrible is so many ways I can’t even enumerate them. Its only saving grace is the slim profile.
LG VX 8300 has been able to do all of this for the 3 weeks that I have had it. Howard forums are your friend.
Thats because the Razr is a horrible Phone that leaves a crappy taste in my mouth along with Verizon on top of that.
I agree with #19, the phone’s menu is terribly slow, as for #8, mine does that buzzing thing too, I think that’s just the noise that it makes when the screen is lit up.
Does anyone know that exact steps (or know a link) to send MP3s via Bluetooth to my Mac Mini?
Thank you for posting this information. I tried reading through that thread (I hate internet forums) and couldn’t really find a definitive yea or nay on the full BT capabilities being enabled but I look forward to the information spreading around soon!
You know, I think this posting is a little premature. As another commenter noted, things are still being figured out on the Howardforums thread as to what this really means. So far, it appears 02 -> 04 users keep OBEX, but 03 -> 04 don’t gain it back. We’ll see, though.
For the poster to claim that “all Verizon Motorola RAZR users can take their phone in to their local Verizon dealer for a free software update [that enables OBEX]” is misleading. Citing some hypotheses and still on-going testing on HoFo is a bad idea — I hope no one reading this article ran out and got their phone upgraded prematurely, particularly if they’re in the 03 -> 04 category. (I’m in that category, and I may need to flash down to 02 before getting the 04 upgrade…)
Verizon is the great satan. You as a customer don’t really matter. Those mental giants that are raving about them are underpaid, over-medicated corporate lackeys.
hahahahahahahah
#27… how do you “flash down to 02″? Is there a way to revert the fimware to version 02?
Allegedly so…you simply reflash with the 02 version. I haven’t done it, so I can’t be more specific than that…
Thanks for the update. I am new to this… without going to the steps, what does reflashing mean?
You’re basically completely overwriting what was in the phone previously. For information on how to flash your RAZR, follow this guide. Just ignore everything that tells you how to fix things, since you’ll be flashing with regular Verizon firmware so nothing will be broken.
i just read this artical and i called my local verizon dealer and they dont know anything about this and the only thing you could do to use a bluetooth headset…i got the razor ever since march and i been trying to find a way to load song into my phone and not able to find anything on it yet…can anyone help…? i read most of the comment above and im new to this so i dont know what alot of things mean…
Yeah I got the update lots of stuff did change, but I still cant get my phone to work file transfering
Do NOT buy this phone from verizon. My buddy has the cigular version of the razr and the interface is fine. On my verizon v3c razr, the interface is awful (not intuitive at all) and less functional in many ways. Furthermore the manual on my phone is incomplete as it doesn’t tell you how to use many features including speaker phone. Good news is verizon will actually walk you through any function on your phone as the person on the other end of the line will put you on hold for a sec and phyically have the phone in hand and walk you through the process. Other things the phone cannot do that the person at verizon said it could do is use it’s high speed internet capability as a teather. Essentially he told me that I could install drivers on my windows computer and connect to my phone using USB to get high speed (50K per sec) transfer rate. Wrong, that service isn’t even available through verizon. Thanks anyway verizon, this was the least you could do.
one week after I hacked all 3 razr’s from Verizon.
oh well I will keep all of mine with my hack. have no use for bluetooth transfers and it’s scary since i hear that it’s easy to hack
You mean the speakerphone instructions on page 36?
I’m afraid you might be overstating the case just a bit. Reports at Howard Forums suggest that if you upgrade to the .04 firmware from the .02 firmware, that OBEX remains enabled; HOWEVER, if you upgrade to the .04 firmware from the .03 firmware, OBEX does not work. Since VZW removed (not just disabled, but actually removed) the OBEX code from the firmware in the .03 version, the working theory is that the reason for this distinction in the functionality of OBEX between users who upgrade from .02 and those who upgrade from .03 is that .04 simply doesn’t say anything AT ALL about OBEX. That is, THE.04 VERSION DOES NOT RE-ENABLE OBEX, it just doesn’t affirmatively disable it; so, if you are updating from .02 (which had OBEX accidentally enabled) to .04, OBEX is still there; but if you are updating from .03 (which had OBEX removed from the code), OBEX is not there.
Josh, this is IN CORRECT. the E815’s firmware update (01.1E.00) did NOT remove OBEX. The code is still there, it is just disabled. A Seem Edit can still re-enable OBEX on the E815.
BEFORE You rush out to your verizon store demanding OBEX….
Please take some time to READ the entire V3C .04 firmware discussions at HoFo… -> http://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php?t=893475
As well as this -> http://forums.wirelessadvisor.com/verizon-wireless-users/53482-verizon-enabling-file-transfers-on-razrs.html
If this is true why doesn’t Verizon know about it? I called them and they said they were not aware that the firmware update would allow you to use the multimedia functions in the Motorola phone tools. I read the howardforums thread about this and could not find a post that confirmed this either. I don’t care as much about the bluetooth as I do about being able to use Motorola phone tools to transfer pictures. Can anyone confirm that you can actually use the phone tools?
How does one know if they have .02, .03, or .04 version? And if im lucky enough to have .02 is there a way I can do all this tweaking on my own? or do I have to take it in to a VZW shop?
Thanks
Menu > Setting and Tools > System > Device Info > Other Info > S/W Version
And of course I have .03
http://whatsbruin.net/2006/03/25/software-downgrade/
Im about to give this a try, What all would I lose if I downgrade?
I followed that same method when I downgraded my phone. As long as you follow it exactly, there is little room for error.
Regarding losses, the only thing different between .03 and .02 is file transfers. Verizon didn’t include any bug fixes (that we know about) in .03. All they did was strip the file transfer code.
I have a V3c and can confirm that the upgrade from 0.3->0.4 does NOT re-enable file transfers. I flashed the phone using the wiki on howard forums and the phone has been working great ever since. (I flashed to the alltel version 4 firmware btw)
i have the pink razr and a usb (or whatever cord) and a dell laptop and have tried to download every program i could find that i thought would work. all i want to do is download pics from my phone to my laptop so i can put them on my computer. please for the love of god help
I followed the instructions at http://whatsbruin.net/2006/03/25/software-downgrade/ (that someone else linked to) before taking my phone to Verizon and can confirm that it works. The instructions brought my firmware to version .02 then Verizon upgraded it to .04 and on my iMac I went into the Bluetooth menu -> Browse Device and I was able to open up the folders on the RAZR and download pictures I had on there. I can’t find the VCAST ringtone I bought, though I found the VCAST choices a little limited so I’ll try to make my own.
I just bought a V3c, and I haven’t been able to transfer data to neither my computer nor my wife cell phone which is the same, can anybody tell me what to do for me to be able to do that.
if I take my phone do you think they would downgrade or upgrade whatever has to be done for me to do all the wonderful things my blue tooth device was supposed to do?
please somebody tell me what to do
Javier, just follow the instructions in the link just above your comment to get your RAZR’s software down to .02 and then take it back to Verizon and ask them to upgrade to .04 .
If I do all that that is mentioned in that link will my phone loose some of the functions that it has right now? and if it does loose something will the upgrade from .02 to .04 bring those functions back????
No, you won’t lose any features at all. All .03 did is was remove features that Verizon left on “by mistake”. By downgrading you gain those features back. Now, upgrading to .04 will give you some features that aren’t present in either .02 or .03.
Ok, im going to buy the usb cord and a usb bluetooth adaptor later today so I can try to flash’n'hack this v3c of mine, any suggestions on what brand(s) I should be looking for?
Thanks
They all work just fine. Just pick an adapter / cable which fits your budget.
Ok, i have hooked up my phone to my laptop and i think the driver is installed correctly because my phone is charging but for some reason when I run RSD lite it cant find my phone. Beeps a few times and then nothing… what am I doing wrong? I
Ok, there were a couple bumps but alls well now! thank you very very much for all the help!
what if to install the computer tells me that i have to download an xp or sp thing and gives me a link to go to,but is a link that does not exists. Am I screwed??
Thanks by the way all of those helping us
or do i need to have mo phone hooked to the usb in order to run those programs needed for the down grade??
OK i downloaded and installed the rsd program and i think i have the flash as well, now when i hook the usb in to my phone my computer does recognize that it is a v3c but the rsd program does not. shouldn’t be something in the device info section of the rsd program saying that it has recognized my phone? when I plug it in my computer also tells me that i need a v3c software, can anyone tell me were to get that software?
Thanks
Jaview, follow this guide to downgrade your firmware. Just ignore the sections about fixing things, and you will of course use the Verizon firmware instead of Alltel.
Hello again, I just bought a H3 bluetooth headset and its not being found by my recently downgraded (from .03 to .02) Razor V3c. Nor is the headset being found by my USB BT adaptor?? Is this a side effect of the downgrade?
Mike, if the headset can’t be found using your PC Bluetooth adapter, I would think the headset would be the issue. I don’t think this is a side effect of the downgrade.
I just got a razr yesterday, and it came with 04 firmware, but needless to say, the Bluetooth file transfer doesn’t work. Has anybody backed up from the 04 firmware to the 02 firmware? If so, has anybody had any problems doing this?
Tim, you can easily downgrade from .04. Just follow the same methods as downgrading from .03.
I found out a little more information about this stupid issue with Verizon’s restricting OBEX for file transferring.
I had a 30 minute conversation with Verizon’s tech support about transferring files via USB or Blue-tooth. After pounding every question to him, he told me to call Moto direct to see if they can help me in enabling OBEX.
After I called Moto direct, I was told that Verizon has a contract w/ Moto and that Moto makes special phones just for Verizon customers. Since Verizon is pushing out there VCast cramp, Verizon doesn’t want you to upload any MP3’s that you didn’t pay from VCast. After having a great conversation with one of Moto’s tech support, she told me that there isn’t away you can upload an upgrade to enable OBEX.
If there is away you can, please let me know. I have been with Verizon for seven years but I’m about to say “good bye” as any other provide doesn’t mind you file transferring.
Of course Moto is going to tell you that. They don’t want you messing with their phones. You can of course downgrade your firmware. Just go over to HowardForums for guide on how to do it.
Dear Cavemonkey - thank you, thank you, thank you. I successfully downgraded my firmware from 04 to 02 and OBEX is now functional. Just used the method described in the whatsbruin.net link, and it worked like a charm. Thanks again for the post.
P.S. For others to know - the site mentioned to get RSD lite doesn’t seem to work anymore. I followed the directions from the first post in this link: http://www.gsmhosting.com/vbb/archive/index.php/t-226579.html
I recently downgraded from a .04 to a .02 on my firmware…and have been experiencing problems with any kind of messaging and the alarm clock on my VC3 any help
Sorry, to be a bit more detailed, they replaced my phone because of an air bubble formed in the screen. They gave me a .03 in which they upgraded to a .04. since OBEX didnt work I downgraded to .02. Everytime i access my alarm the phone kinda resets…everytime i try to access any part of messaging i get a “Fatal Error 0×00000002 ../states/RM_MSG_STATE_First… Line#xxx(in the case of sending a message 311) — if any help could be provide it would be very much appreciated :-D…i tried to flash to .03 but it didnt do anything. Considering bringing it back to a dealer and having them flash it back to .04 to see if it fixes it..thanks!
I would try what you said. Take it back to Verizon and tell them to flash it to .04. If that doesn’t work you can always exchange your phone again.
OK I was able to downgrade my V3c to .02 and already went to verizon to upgrade to .04 but still my phone does not recognize my wifes home which i did the same thing as mine. or the down grade is just for us to be able to download ring tones and pictures and stuff from the computer?
Or is it a way for me to transfer data to my wifes phone?
For data transfer truh PC i need the MPT 4.0 right?
Yes you need MPT 4.0. Just set you phone as the V3cm and MPT will work like it should on a normal non-crippled phone.
hehe works perfect now.. i guess when you upgrade it changes settings that are only avliable on .04 so the downgrade screwed up my phone…got it flashed to .04 and OBEX works perfect 8D thanks for the help cavemonkey50
I need some help. I need to buy a new phone, I am looking at a razr. I have a lg 6100 and can make and send rings to my phone. can you do this with the razr? they say you can not do it, of course. They said the same thing about my 6100, but every ringtone on it is one that I have made. everything from the purple people eater to movie bites of duece bigelow. I need some help in a fast way. I promised my lg to my daughter and I ran over her cat that just had babies, so I am eye drop feeding them and no phone. So you guys can just imagine what I have to make up to my daughter for. I want to got up in tech. but do not want to go down in my capabilities of having to buy everything from them. My moods change so often. One day it could be elvis hound dog(for my husband, of course) to LL cool J. to Ray stevens the streak. By the way I have all of these if anyone wants them they can text me at 9312735265. they work great on my 6100. So if anyone can give me some fast help that would be great. And get me out of the dog house.
kita, you can use custom created ringtones on the RAZR. You can email them to your phone ($.25 charge), mod your phone to use Bluetooth (free), or use Motorola Photo Tools and a mini USB cable (costs money for both the software and the cable). So you have several options for getting them on your phone.
>:( I got the .o4 software today and now my obex doesnt work. Is there something i need to do in order for the Obex to remain functional or should i just flash back to .02?