If you’re here, you are probably interested in custom ROMs, custom themes, recovery, CM7, MIUI, etc. stuff, and are curious to know whether your phone is ready for that, or whether you need to Off the security first, right? Well, you’re at the right place. One can know whether his or her phone is locked or not, that is, security is ON (S-ON) or Off (S-OFF) from the bootloader menu.

Step-By -Step Guide to check Security status on HTC Android phones:

  1. Disable the “Fast boot” option first. To access bootloader menu, you need to reboot your phone into bootloader. For that, first of all disable the ‘fast boot’ mode on your HTC Android phone. Go to: Settings – Power, you’ll find a “Fast boot” mode here. Un-tick the checkbox to disable it — this will allow the boot into bootloader mode using the method given in step 3 below. Actually, disabling the fast boot mode lets the system completely switch off the phone which is required to boot into bootloader mode.
  2. Switch Off your phone now and wait for some 5 seconds after screen goes Off.
  3. Now hold the Volume_DOWN button and while holding it press the Power button once (still hold the Volume_DOWN button, though). A white screen will appear with some info and options. The line at the very top of the screen has info about the Security status of the phone. On my incredible S, it is “ VIVO PVT SHIP S-ON RL” by default which means, the phone has security turned ON by default. [VIVO is the code name for HTC Incredible S.] If it’s S-OFF — VIVO PVT SHIP S-OFF RL — instead of S-ON, then the security is OFF and your phone is ready for custom ROMs, themes, and stuff by default.

The AlphaRev Team has provided tools to turn the Security OFF on S-ON devices. I’ve used their tool for my Incredible S and was able to successfully S-Off my Incredible S. AlphaRev’s tool is available for number of phones — HTC Desire, HTC Desire CDMA, HTC Wildfire, HTC Aria and HTC Incredible S. I guess, and more might get added later.

If you want to S-Off any of the phone above using AlphaRev’s tool, this guide on “How to S-Off Incredible S using AlphaRev’s tool” will help you.