Here is my theory on the issues we're seeing with people stuck at the Moto Eye after applying the OTA:
The users applied the OTA via the stock recovery. However, after applying it the first time, they left the phone and went about their business and when they eventually came back, it was stuck at the Red Moto logo. What has happened is that the OTA applied the new recovery, rebooted and they were stuck at the Dead Andy screen. However, if you leave it there long enough, it will eventually continue booting. Well, people left their phone long enough to only come back and see it stuck at the Red Moto and assumed it was bricked. Nope. Not so.
All you have to do is this:
- Press and hold vol up + vol down + power for at least 10 seconds. It will reboot the phone.
- Immediately, when the screen goes black, press and hold Vol up + Power until the boot menu comes up
- Immediately, use the vol down key to select "recovery" and then vol up to select it.
- Dead Andy will show up. Press and hold vol up then press power and then release both buttons. You'll be back into the new recovery.
- Apply the OTA one more time.
Those that took the OTA directly from the download and had it install it for them more than likely had too much junk in the cache. or something else was borked.
All I know is, the first time I did the soak when I received it, I pulled it from the /cache directory and saved it to my external SD card. When I attempted to apply it manually, I got the dead andy screen, not knowing the new key combo was required to start it. I was trying all sorts of combos. Eventually, it just rebooted and was stuck at the Moto logo and then eventually it rebooted again and just kept rebooting like that. When I tried to go into recovery, I would get the Dead Andy screen, but the old vol down + vol up wouldn't work.
That is where I think the issue lies. Not everyone was truly bricked, but after the initial Dead Andy screen, if you don't do the key presses in a certain amount of time, it then continues on with the normal boot process which means going to the Red Eye and then it reboots and you get the Red Moto logo and then eventually the Red Eye again.
That seems to make sense from what I have gathered over the past week with what a lot of people have experienced.
But then, I could be wrong, but it seems to make sense. I think a lot of people were not really bricked. They just didn't go into recovery again (not knowing the new key combos) and then applying the OTA again.