Last Updated on May 10, 2022 by Mathew Diekhake

If you have grabbed yourself the latest release of Motorola – the Moto G4 Plus – you might want to root it to take it to the next level of customizations.

Before you can go ahead and root your phone, you need first to install a custom recovery on it. Fortunately, TWRP Recovery is available for your phone, and you can get it flashed using the following guide:

TWRP Moto G4

Here’s how to flash TWRP – a custom recovery on the Motorola Moto G4 Plus:

Files You Need

  1. This procedure has been written keeping the Windows version of Fastboot in mind. If you are on Linux or Mac, you can still do this procedure but for that, you will need either this or this.
  2. Ensure that ADB USB drivers are installed on your Windows computer.
  3. Since this will unlock the bootloader on your phone, all the data stored on your phone will get erased. Therefore, please backup everything that you will need later on.
  4. The following guide should flash a custom recovery called TWRP on your device.
  5. Download TWRP Recovery to your computer. It is the custom recovery that will be flashed on your phone.
  6. Download Fastboot and save it to your computer. You will use it to flash the recovery on your phone.

Unlocking the Bootloader on the Motorola Moto G4 Plus

  1. Extract files from Fastboot to your computer by right-clicking on it and selecting Extract here.
  2. Head to Menu->Settings->About phone on your phone and tap on Build number for 7-8 times and it will unlock the developer menu for you.
  3. Head to Menu->Settings->Developer options and enable USB debugging and Allow OEM Unlock options.
  4. Turn off your phone.
  5. Reboot your phone into fastboot mode by holding down Volume DOWN and Power buttons together for a few seconds.
  6. Connect your phone to your computer using a suitable USB cable.
  7. Open a command prompt window where you have extracted Fastboot by holding down Shift on your keyboard and right-clicking anywhere on the screen and selecting Open command window here.
  8. When the command prompt window opens, type in the following command and press Enter:
    fastboot oem get_unlock_data
  9. You will see a string of text in the command prompt window. Copy it all excluding the <bootloader> part to your clipboard.
  10. Head over to the Motorola Bootloader Unlock website and get yourself logged-in (create a new account if you do not already have one).
  11. Paste the text string you have copied to your clipboard on the Motorola website and they will send you an unlock key to your email.
  12. When you receive the unlock key to your email, copy it and place it in the following command replacing CODE:
    fastboot oem unlock CODE
  13. Follow the on-screen instructions to unlock the bootloader on your phone.
  14. When you are done, your bootloader should be unlocked.

Now that you have an unlocked bootloader on your phone, you can go ahead and flash a custom recovery on it. Here’s how to do that:

Flashing a Custom Recovery on the Motorola Moto G4 Plus

  1. Place TWRP Recovery .img where the Fastboot files are located.
  2. Turn off your phone.
  3. Hold down Volume DOWN and Power buttons together on your phone and your phone should reboot into bootloader mode.
  4. Once inside bootloader mode, connect your phone to your computer using a compatible USB cable.
  5. Launch a command prompt window in the Fastboot folder by holding down Shift and right-clicking anywhere on the screen and selecting Open command window here.
  6. Type in the following command into the command prompt window and press Enter. Make sure to replace twrp.img with the actual name of the recovery image you have downloaded:
    fastboot flash recovery twrp.img
  7. Wait for it to flash TWRP on your phone.
  8. When TWRP’s flashed, reboot your phone using the following command:
    fastboot reboot
  9. Your phone should reboot.
  10. You are all done.

TWRP Recovery has been successfully flashed on your Motorola Moto G4 Plus, and you can use the command adb reboot recovery to reboot into the same.

Now that you have just managed to get a custom recovery image installed on the smartphone, it is time to find out what is required to root the Motorola Moto G4 Plus smartphone running on the Android 6.0.1 Marshmallow software updates by flashing the SuperSU.

Anyone who wants to installs custom ROMs and custom kernels does not need to root the Motorola Moto G4 Plus smartphone before they can do that unless you do not have the ability to install custom ROMs yourself from the custom recovery image and wanted to rely on root apps such as the ROM manager. Generally speaking, custom recoveries are only for people wanting to flash new ROMs. Everyone else who wants to install root applications needs to get root access and access to the root user account before that is possible.

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