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Why doesn't my Motorola RAZR have OBEX with Bluetooth?

I'm frankly baffled. My new Motorola RAZR v3m is a great phone, but when I try to hook it up to my computer via bluetooth I don't see any of the file navigation services you show in your tutorials. It appears that I'm missing some sort of feature and really want to know how to turn it on so I can grab photos off my camera directly. Any tips?

Dave's Answer:

Ah, this is an answer you're not going to like, because the answer is that most likely you're stuck and there's in fact nothing you can do because of the greed of cellular service providers, particularly the behemoth that is Verizon.

Motorola ships its newest phones -- the RAZR, SLVR, and so on -- with something called OBEX enabled. OBEX, which stands for "object exchange", is a protocol whereby computers hooked up via Bluetooth can browse the phone’s file system and it’s darn cool. You can access the files (which means the pictures you’ve taken, movies, ringtones, etc) from either a Windows PC or a Macintosh, but you must have OBEX enabled in the phone.

Verizon, unfortunately, doesn’t want to let you get access to your own phone, so it disables OBEX on the RAZR when you buy it because they want you to use their pay-per-transfer email services to send photos to yourself, buy songs from their VCast service, and so on.

Here’s the story: the first generation of RAZRs shipped with version “.02” of the operating system, which included OBEX capabilities. That’s the version I’m running on my RAZR v3c from Verizon. Then Verizon released firmware version “.03” which disabled OBEX. Were I to have updated my phone, I would have lost the OBEX functionality, so I didn’t.

What version are you running? Here's how you find out on a Verizon phone, at least:

Settings & Tools --> System --> Device Info --> Other Information --> S/W Version.

On my Motorola RAZR v3c it shows "GATW_01.0F.02". The last two digits are what we care about here.

Verizon got a lot of grief from customers about this anti-consumer behavior of disabling OBEX, as you can imagine, so when they released the latest version of the RAZR software, “.04”, they built it so that if you were upgrading from a version of the firmware that included OBEX functionality, you’d retain that functionality, but if you already had it disabled, it’d stay disabled with the new system. Nice, eh?

At this point, if you find that the tips explained on this site don’t work for you, then it’s most likely that OBEX is the culprit and you should go and give the $#@$@# at Verizon a piece of your mind. I don’t know if you’d succeed, but you can demand that they enable OBEX or flash your phone with “.02”, then update it directly to “.04”, which would give you the precious OBEX capability.

Or just cancel your Verizon service and go with a carrier like Cingular that’s cool enough to leave the feature intact.

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Categorized: Cell Phones and Mobile Phones (Article 6686)
Tagged: bluetooth, enabling obex, motorola razr, verizon, verizon obex
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Comments

do you have any info about the new RAZR V3m from verizon? I took it in and told then I wanted it flashed to .02 and then directly to .04, and she told me that this is a new phone and hasn't had any updates from verzion yet.

Posted by: james at August 3, 2006 12:13 AM

So notwithstanding the possibility of altering the tactics of the behemoth Verizon, does anyone know of any hacks in the works to get the RAZR V3m to enable OBEX so that we can connect via bluetooth with the Mac and encable file transfer...

Posted by: Ghassan at August 21, 2006 7:32 AM

I also would like some information if out there regarding OBEX transfers on a V3m Verizon phone.

Posted by: Andy at September 5, 2006 9:29 AM

I just upgraded my version 02 phone that had OBEX enabled, but the contact info etc... was pretty garbled, to version 01.15.04 and now OBEX is disabled. I am furious. What a bunch of creeps Verizon is.

Posted by: Janice at September 14, 2006 10:41 AM

Just to add my 2 cents, my V3c was recently updated from .02 to .04 because of the "slow factor." I now no longer can sync my contacts NOR file transfer. So now I feel like I have the old StarTak. You can bet I'm going to be getting some action from Verizon because as far as I'm concerned, they just broke my phone...disabiling all the features for which I bought the phone. I was sold a bill of goods and then they took it away.

Posted by: Jay Riether at October 11, 2006 5:11 PM

well i dont know if this is a hack i dont think they take the whole software off the phone..i think its more of a chip that overrides the original motoroloa software..if yo remove the lil tape thing from beihnd where the battery is and remove the chip you can probaly get all your functions back

Posted by: Me. at November 19, 2006 11:49 PM

Well, me, thanks for that interesting suggestion. I can only hope that everyone who reads this thread is savvy enough not to pop out a random chip from their phone without a better explanation than this. ;-)

Posted by: Dave Taylor at November 20, 2006 12:01 AM

For those looking for a hack (well, it's not really a hack, you're just modding your phone)(wink, wink)... a good place to start would be http://www.howardforums.com/ I am not with Verizon so I am not sure about the specific issue everyone is inquiring about. If a fix does indeed exist it won't be difficult to find either @ Howards or at another website that you'll get referred to from there. People on there are not as cool as Dave here ;) but they're pretty helpful nevertheless.

Posted by: Motto Hacker at November 25, 2006 9:01 AM

I just got back from Verizon with my new V3m with version .05 of the sw. They told me once a new version of the software comes out, all versions of the old sw are DELETED and impossible to restore. They also told me that I was a unique customer for wanting OBEX enabled, and most customers were happy with the upgrades. After 30 minutes of getting nowhere with the tech people I left, disgusted. What else is there to do? How do we let Verizon know that people want file transfer capabilities? I cannot wait until my contract ends so I can switch providers.

Posted by: Jay at December 26, 2006 2:55 PM

Okay, I have a RAZOR v3m from Alltel and am able to "see" my phone from the computer via bluetooth. However, I get a message stating that there are no supported services. I am confused. I know that the phone is OBEX capable since the same phone connects to a iPaq and can transfer files. Any suggestions?

Posted by: Frankie at January 4, 2007 12:44 AM

I have the V3m from verizon. I've read through all the posts. I've isync'd successfully -- my phone and MAC see each via Bluetooth. I've installed and tried a few of the solutions people mentioned, all of which appear as if they would work if I didn't have Verizon with OBEX blocked. I get that with my SW version I will not be able to transfer files via USB or bluetooth. I have the SW version NEWC_01.05.0A. I have read that if I flash the SW to the GATW_01_0F.02 version (or to the .02 and then upgrade to the .04) I will have OBEX enabled. My questions are how do you do that? And what are the "cons" or risks of doing this? Thank you.

Posted by: Rix at January 5, 2007 1:41 PM

anyone with a verizon phone,v3c or v3m,,
if you want moto phone tools to work so you can load your phone with what ever you want, just go to ebay and spend 10.00, the hack disk has everything you need and the info is awesome, makes it easy to hack your phone;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

Posted by: odie at April 6, 2007 5:37 PM

I checked my S/W version and it shows as NEWC.01.09.02 so theoretically it should have OBEX enabled still. But I can't browse files on my RAZR. Comes up with an error saying "Device does not have the necessary services." My phone is about two months old so I was surprised that it even had .02 on it at all and not some higher version. Any thoughts about this from anyone?

Posted by: TwistedLogic at July 6, 2007 6:01 AM

Here's a thought. I did seem edit it so I could use my PC, but then I got a Mac which apparently doesn't require seem editing. Could that have messed me up?

Posted by: TwistedLogic at July 11, 2007 7:13 AM

HOW TO HACK BLUETOOTH OBEX ON VERIZON PHONES:

Get a usb for the phone

download this file:
http://hacktherazr.com/app/hacktherazr.com-P2KSeem.zip

download that and click "load from phone" and then search till you bee "bluetooth OBEX" and then on the right it will say "enabled/disabled" make it say "enabled" and then click save to phone. After you save it, it should work. It should work on a Motorola Razr, and LG chocolate.. those are the ones I've tried it on. Didnt try it, with all phones.......

Posted by: professor at August 17, 2007 8:42 PM

i have a verizon motorola razr on prepaid service.....ugh...and i cant do OBEX!!!!! i want it fixed my software verzion is NEWC_01.09.02

if u have a solution then e-mail me with RAZR HACKS in the subject at rhs_kid_2008@hotmail.com or on MYSPACE myspace.com/david_7598

Posted by: David at August 29, 2007 12:18 PM

Dave, I bought the Motokrzr K1 in the USA 1 week ago unlocked and since I live in Nicaragua I connected thru my local phone server which is CLARO that runs on GSM 1900. I can make and receive phone calls and any other feaures the phone has BUT NOT bluetooth. I know that I can not connect with another service which is MOVISTAR phone company. But I can not connect this particular model with another CLARO user. Before I had a SAMSUNG and Bluetooth worked well. I will try with another friend when I see him on Monday but if you can help me b4 that is appreciated. Thanks

Posted by: Carlos Eldeaca at November 3, 2007 1:37 PM

I have a KRZR K1 Unlocked. I'm using my T-mobile SIM card. Everything works fine, but I want to unlock my media--the ringtones, etc that I paid for on a download from T-mobile. Is a seem edit the only way, and if so, what should I use. I have OS X 10.5.1.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Lon

Posted by: Lon at February 12, 2008 7:28 PM

I have a motorola V3 phone that doesn't want to copy music anymore through bluetooth.Instead of accepting the music,it tells me that file corrupted.So I would you to help me as far the problem of my phone is concerned.I ws also told that it needs software upgrading which i don't hpow to upgrade.

Posted by: Tshepi at February 19, 2008 6:23 AM

I have a Verizon V3m which obex was not working on and when they updated it to software version 24.1_01.19.07 I noticed that obex was now working.

Posted by: jeff at April 4, 2008 10:34 AM

I also have version 24.1_01.19.07 on my 24.1_01.19.07 on my Verizon RAZR. It connects with my desktop, but when I try to send a file, it asks me to accept or reject. I push accept, and get an immediate "Failed: Connection Interrupted". What happened?

Posted by: jim at April 23, 2008 4:04 PM

I have a lot to say, but ...

I have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but most of all I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a chai!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!