The HTC One M8 Eye has been a really great Android phone that packs with it all the features you’d expect from today’s smartphone. However, there’re some things that you can only use on it when you’re rooted. By these things, I’m referring to custom recoveries, custom ROMs, custom kernels, and so on.
These tools let you get the most out of your device by allowing you to customize your device to a greater extent, such as a custom ROM just replaces your entire OS and lets you have a completely different system and user interface that you never saw on your stock ROM.
In order to root the HTC One M8 Eye, you must first flash a custom recovery on the device. So, the guide below should help you flash a recovery on your device, and then you can follow our root guide to gain root access on your device. Here you go:
Files You Need
- Your bootloader must be unlocked before you can install a custom recovery. Please head to the official HTCDev website to unlock the bootloader on your phone.
- This requires you to have a Windows running computer.
- Download Fastboot to your computer. It’ll help you issue commands to your phone.
- Download TWRP Recovery to your computer. It is the custom recovery that you’re going to be flashing in the following guide.
- Ensure that HTC USB drivers are installed on your Windows running computer.
Installing a Custom Recovery on the HTC One M8 Eye
- First of all, extract files from Fastboot to your computer by right-clicking on Fastboot archive and selecting Extract here.
- Unlock Developer options on your phone by going to Menu->Settings->About phone and tapping on Build number for 7-8 times until it says you’re a developer.
- Head back to Settings screen and tap on Developer options. Find the option that says USB debugging and enable it.
- Connect your phone to your computer via a USB cable.
- Open a CMD window in the folder where Fastboot and TWRP Recovery files are located. Both of these must be in the same folder or the steps below won’t work. To open the CMD window, hold down Shift on your keyboard and right-click on your screen and select Open command window here.
- Type in the following command into the CMD window and press Enter:
adb reboot bootloader - Your phone should reboot into bootloader mode.
- Once it’s in bootloader mode, issue the following command using CMD. Make sure to replace recovery.img with the actual TWRP Recovery image name.
fastboot flash recovery recovery.img - Wait for it to flash TWRP on your phone.
- When it’s done flashing TWRP Recovery, reboot your phone by issuing the following command:
fastboot reboot - Your phone should reboot.
- You’re done!
Your HTC One M8 Eye was successfully installed with a custom recovery called TWRP. Your phone is now ready to be rooted, and you can follow the guide given at this link to gain root-access which will then let you run root-requiring apps on your phone. Enjoy!