Gaining root on the HTC One A9 has become possible, all thanks to the talented XDA developers. The root method comes in the form of flashing a recovery and then running a couple of commands through fastboot to run the exploit and root the phone.

Here’s how you can root your HTC One A9:

root-htc-one-a9

Files You Need

  • You must have unlocked the bootloader on your phone before doing this tutorial. If you have not done so yet, please head over to the HTCDev website and do so now. Then return here and continue.
  • This should also flash a custom recovery called TWRP on your phone.
  • This tutorial has been written keeping the Windows versions of ADB and Fastboot in mind. Steps for Linux and Mac will slightly vary.
  • Ensure that the HTC and Universal ADB drivers are installed on your computer.
  • Download Modified Boot Image to your computer. It should allow the root exploit to work.
  • Download TWRP Recovery to your computer. It is the custom recovery that will be flashed on your phone.
  • Download SU to your computer. It has the SU binary files.
  • Download Superuser to your computer. It is the Superuser package.
  • Download Fastboot to your computer. It should help you execute commands on your phone.

Rooting the HTC One A9

1. Extract files from all the archives you have downloaded over to your computer’s desktop by right-clicking on each of them and selecting Extract here. Make sure they are all there on your desktop and not inside any folders or the following steps will not work.

2. On your phone, head to Menu->Settings->About phone and tap on Build number for 7-8 times and it will say you are a developer. The developer menu should now be unlocked on your phone.

3. Turn on USB debugging on your phone by heading to Menu->Settings->Developer options->USB debugging.

4. Plug in your phone to your computer using a suitable USB cable.

5. Launch a command prompt window on your desktop by holding down Shift on your keyboard and right-clicking anywhere on the screen and selecting Open command window here.

6. When the command prompt window launches, type in the following command and hit Enter:
adb reboot download

7. It should get your phone into the download mode.

8. Type in the following command and hit Enter to see if your phone has been recognized in Fastboot mode by your computer:
fastboot devices

9. Your phone should appear on the list.

10. Now run the following command using the command prompt window. Make sure to replace boot.img with the actual boot image name you have downloaded to your computer:
fastboot flash boot boot.img

11. Wait for it to flash the boot image on your phone.

12. Run the following command to boot your phone into the bootloader mode:
fastboot reboot-bootloader

13. When the bootloader menu shows up, choose the option that says Recovery to reboot into the recovery mode.

14. Performa a factory reset using the reset option given in the recovery menu.

15. Now boot your phone back into the bootloader mode using the boot option given in the recovery menu.

16. Once in the bootloader mode, select the boot into download mode option to boot into the download mode.

17. When your phone is in download mode, issue the following command using the command prompt window. Make sure to replace twrp.img with the actual name of the recovery image you have downloaded to your computer.
fastboot flash recovery twrp.img

18. Now run the following command to reboot your phone into the recovery mode.
fastboot boot twrp.img

19. Use the following command to mount the data partition on your phone:
adb shell mount /dev/block/mmcblk0p62 /data

20. Run the following command to transfer SU over to your phone:
adb push su.img /data/su.img

21. In the TWRP menu, select Reboot followed by System to reboot your phone.

22. Your phone should reboot.

23. When your phone boots up, install the Superuser app that exists on your desktop.

24. You are now fully rooted!

Hurray. . . . Your HTC One A9 is now rooted and is running the Superuser app to help you manage root permissions for various root-requiring apps on your phone!

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