Root Advice on rooting HTC One m9

[klear6]

I've had an HTC One m9 for a couple of months now and if you ask me it is a pretty awesome. At least in comparison to the Galaxy Light I used to have (but it was a TROOPER! I still use it on wifi to mess around with new apps). I rooted the Galaxy with Odin and have been pretty conservative with the m9 because I am paranoid about bricking it. I really, really like it =P

So, now that I am brave enough to start using it to it's full potential I would like some advice.

What do you guys think is the best way to root it?

Where can I get a flash of the factory rom that is a reliable source?

What did you guys do when you first rooted your phones?

How do I make a good backup? Preferably for free.

Is there any way to back up any of my settings are restore them after I root it?

I know that's a bunch of questions - but if you could just take the time to maybe answer one or two it would be greatly appreciated and put to good use. I'm in that limbo of half-noob.

Thanks a bunch guys - I know you will have some good advice!

 

[Hadron]

Rooting HTCs is pretty straightforward: in most cases you back up your data (because unlocking the bootloader will reset the phone), unlock the bootloader, flash a custom recovery. You can then use the custom recovery to root the phone, or to install a pre-rooted custom ROM.

Sometimes there are ways of unlocking the bootloader without wiping the device (i.e. unofficial bootloader unlocks), but that's device and software version dependent, so in general the procedure is as above.

Once you are rooted then backups are easy: the custom recovery can back up OS, apps and data (a "nandroid" backup), wne Titanium Backup (root required) can do backups of your apps and data (just for general purposes or if you want to change ROMs). Before unlocking you can use Helium (from the play store) to back up apps and data.

I don't own an M9 (my phone is still an M7), so that advice is a bit generic. The best way is to get advice from people who own this device, so I'll move the thread over to our M9 root forum so that more of those people see it. I expect you'll find that there are device-specific rooting guides in that forum as well

 

[klear6]

Sorry for my rant - Thank you for the information it was helpful. I can't get helium to work - when I get everything set up and I tell it to backup it just errors and I can't figure out why...

 

[James L]

What do you guys think is the best way to root it? :

Boot the device (M9) into download mode,not the bootloader mode. Unlock the bootloader. Flash the recovery by Captain throwback or the official Twrp in download mode.

Flash SuperSU in the recovery. Root completed.

Where can I get a flash of the factory rom that is a reliable source? XDA developers

How do I make a good backup? Preferably for free. :There should be a backup option in the HTC settings.

What did you guys do when you first rooted your phones?

S off, developer conversion for faster updates.

 

[Mike W]

Hi All,

I've had my M9 for a few years and have been running stock sense without too many complaints. Lately, it runs super hot and will only hold a charge for a few hours. I've done the standard things, but they don't help. SO... I want to root it.

I'm struggling right out of the gate (as usual). I've updated Sync, installed SDK, downloaded mini adb. Enabled USB debugging. I'm trying to unlock the bootloader. When I hit power + vol down, Fastboot is not an option. What I do have is system info, show barcode, reboot to bootloader, reboot to download mode, reboot, and power down. Can I proceed with one of these options?

Thanks, Mike

 

[James L]

Hi All,

I've had my M9 for a few years and have been running stock sense without too many complaints. Lately, it runs super hot and will only hold a charge for a few hours. I've done the standard things, but they don't help. SO... I want to root it.

I'm struggling right out of the gate (as usual). I've updated Sync, installed SDK, downloaded mini adb. Enabled USB debugging. I'm trying to unlock the bootloader. When I hit power + vol down, Fastboot is not an option. What I do have is system info, show barcode, reboot to bootloader, reboot to download mode, reboot, and power down. Can I proceed with one of these options?

Thanks, Mike

You unlock the boot loader in download mode

 

[Mike W]

I found that out since I posted. I'm now trying to get the token from HTCdev. It says AdbWinApi.dll is missing. Any ideas where that's from?

 

[Mike W]

Ok, found it and put it in the directory I seem to be using. Now I get this:

Which I saw last night. I've read others' frustration at this point. Some phones have an "uncheck fastboot in settings" option, but I don't see that. It looks like it wants me to "turn off the oem unlock" but I don't see that in my settings anywhere.

 

[James L]

Frp is under developers options.
It should say OEM unlock.

 

[Mike W]

I've been up and down the entire developer options folder in settings and no OEM unlock. I agree it seems like that's the request in the cmd line. Even Cyanogen says it may not be there:

But obviously I just can't continue like they say.

 

[James L]

Is it a Verizon. M9?

 

[Mike W]

yes, any ideas?

 

[James L]

yes, any ideas?

You need S off not a bootloader unlock. Verizon doesn't allow the bootloader unlock via HTC dev.

It's an app that does cost $25 run it and then flash a custom recovery and SuperSU.

Here's the link

http://theroot.ninja/

 

[Mike W]

Thanks, James. This stuff is so complex. Everything I read tells me to check "OEM unlock" which does not exist on my phone. I figured out the "download" rather than fastboot. As I said, it wouldn't play the token game. A while ago I rooted my M7 with a lot of help (thanks Scotty and Hadron) and I'm ready to try on my M9 after my recent problems with Sense. So Sunshine it is! Wish me luck! I'll try not to bug you too much more, but no promises!

 

[James L]

Thanks, James. This stuff is so complex. Everything I read tells me to check "OEM unlock" which does not exist on my phone. I figured out the "download" rather than fastboot. As I said, it wouldn't play the token game. A while ago I rooted my M7 with a lot of help (thanks Scotty and Hadron) and I'm ready to try on my M9 after my recent problems with Sense. So Sunshine it is! Wish me luck! I'll try not to bug you too much more, but no promises!

Thanks, James. This stuff is so complex. Everything I read tells me to check "OEM unlock" which does not exist on my phone. I figured out the "download" rather than fastboot. As I said, it wouldn't play the token game. A while ago I rooted my M7 with a lot of help (thanks Scotty and Hadron) and I'm ready to try on my M9 after my recent problems with Sense. So Sunshine it is! Wish me luck! I'll try not to bug you too much more, but no promises!

 

[Mike W]

Still on the struggle-bus... If I reboot to bootloader, then I see boot to recovery. I then get TWRP! I choose install, and have to go to a folder called external/sd to find Cyanogen file. I choose that, then get an error that it won't load. I'm back in Verizon stock again. I tried "wipe davlik" but it didn't help.

 

[Mike W]

Here's the cyanogen instructions:

I did Wipe then Factory Reset but there was no "Install" to follow. It just booted to Verizon sense.

 

[Mike W]

So when I try to install Cyanogen from TRWP, I get this error: "Updater process ended with ERROR:7 Error installing zip file /externao_sd/cm...zip" then done. Then reboot, and back to Sense.

 

[Mike W]

HA! Not that anyone's reading this, but I think I made it. After Wipe/Factory Reset, hit the BACK button then hit install. Seems to be loading Cyanogen now...

 

[James L]

Nice job, I've been out and about enjoying the weather.

 

[Mike W]

That's what I should be doing. Sure have wasted a ton of time on this. I flashed Cyanogen and it was pathetic. It's listed as a "nightly". Didn't anyone get all the way to a stable build? I tried to download the Google apps to start and that didn't even work. Any suggestions for a stable ROM? I don't need anything fancy, but I would like to have all the phone functions working.

 

[KOLIO]

That's what I should be doing. Sure have wasted a ton of time on this. I flashed Cyanogen and it was pathetic. It's listed as a "nightly". Didn't anyone get all the way to a stable build? I tried to download the Google apps to start and that didn't even work. Any suggestions for a stable ROM? I don't need anything fancy, but I would like to have all the phone functions working.

VIPER ROM for the win:
(Pretty sure it's compatible w/all models of the M9,fell free to check out the XDA Thread for confirmation):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/one-m9/development/rom-viperonem9-1-0-0-tweaks-hub-t3072773
http://venomroms.com/
http://venomroms.com/htc-one-m9/

 

[Mike W]

HA! No way!!! I flashed Viper and all seemed well. By morning my battery was dead, the phone red hot, and I couldn't charge it fast enough to keep up with the battery drain! I powered down, charged it up, then booted to recovery. Restored my last backup of Sense, and I'm back to sanity. There's something in the latest Sense that devours the battery. My current version seems ok, but I only got to that with a factory reset. Oddly, my son has the M8 and we experienced the same problem at the same time. Was there some OS update that's gone nuts?