How To: UnRoot Your T-Mobile G1/Get Back to Donut
July 5, 2009 in Featured
THIS PROCEDURE IS OBSOLETE! PLEASE DO OUR NEW HOW TO UNROOT PROCEDURE:
HOW TO UNROOT THE HTC G1 / DREAM
So you need to send in your phone for warranty purposes? Or maybe you’ve been loading too many ROMs and would like to start fresh? Maybe you just hate being different and just want to be like everyone else, damn it!
Here is how to UNRoot the G1 and get back to the stock G1 firmware.
I. Load the DreaIMG.nbh File
1. Download the Original DreaIMG.nbh file:
Original DREAIMG.nbh
2. If the file downloaded above downloads as a .Zip file, please unzip it first then put the DreamIMG.nbh file that is inside on the SD card, NOT in any folder.
3. Turn the phone off if it is on.
4. Turn on the phone by holding the Camera button and the End key until the bootloader screen turns on.
5. Hit the End key to start the update. DO NOT INTERUPT THIS PROCESS.
6. Once it is done, hit the trackball to restart the phone. You now are on the stock firmware RC29. You must do the next section to get back to cupcake.
II. Get Back to Cupcake (Android 1.5)
1. Download the Cupcake update from here, then put it on your SD card (do NOT extract it, just move the .zip file to the sd card, NOT in any folders) and rename it to update. Then turn off your phone and turn it back on by holding down Home and Power and keep holding until you get to recovery mode. In recovery mode (the ! screen) hit Alt L to see text, then hit Alt S to Apply the update.
III. Get Back to Donut (Android 1.6)
1. After you have gotten back to Cupcake (Android 1.5), download the Donut update from here, then put it on your SD card (do NOT extract it, just move the .zip file to the sd card, NOT in any folders) and rename it to update. Then turn off your phone and turn it back on by holding down Home and Power and keep holding until you get to recovery mode. In recovery mode (the ! screen) hit Alt L to see text, then hit Alt S to Apply the update.
Reported Issues
Issue: It doesn’t see the Dreaimg.nbh file and goes to the rainbow screen and says Serial 10.
Solution: Your SD card is formatted to FAT instead of FAT32. Follow one of our readers’ instructions to fix (thanks Clemshady!):
“To Jess and any one else who is unable to get past the rainbow screen with serial 10, your SD card is most likely in a FAT format and needs to be formatted to FAT32. I had the same issue.
- Load your SD card in the card reader and connect to PC.
- Make sure you back up everything on your card. a format will erase all data on the card.
- Now open My Computer and right click on the drive with the SD card (Warning! Make sure its the correct drive).
- Click on Format and select FAT32 on the file system drop down and click then click Start.
- Once completed, Copy your files back to the SD card and make sure the Original DREAIMG.nbh†is at the topmost folder of your SD card.
- Return to Step 8 of David’s instruction to complete the un-root process and you are all set!”
Issue: I get an error, failure, or nothing happens when I get to the rainbow screen and try to load Dreaimg.nbh file.
Solution:
The files we had in the links above became corrupt. We have replaced the links as of 08.25.2009 so they should now work.
If you are still having issues; the dreaimg.nbh file is either not on the topmost folder of the SD card OR the file is corrupt or incomplete.
Delete the file off of your SD card and then re download it from our site or on XDA-Developers.com and then put it on the topmost folder of the SD card. You may have to do this multiple times before it finally works. KEEP DOING THIS UNTIL IT WORKS!
Issue: I load the SPL (wipe and apply update.zip) but then when I try to hold camera and power to get to bootloader it brings me to the G1 screen.
Solution: This is because you took out the battery too soon.
1. Put the SPL back on the memory card and rename to update.zip (using an SD Card reader or adapter)
2. Boot into recovery by holding down Home and Power  to turn on the phone.
3. At the recovery screen Wipe Data, then Apply Update.zip
4. Once it is done loading hit Reboot and wait for the phone to reboot (it will show a box an arrow and a G1 on the screen for a bit then it will reboot). Wait at the G1 screen for 20 seconds, it should reboot one more time or it should goto the recovery screen again. If you see the recovery screen or are still at the G1 logo after 20 seconds, THEN remove the battery and put it back in and continue with the next step of trying to hold the camera and power button and so on.
Nonya said on January 16, 2011
My Phone Frozed On Me Atfer I Hit The Camera And End Key How Do I Get It Off That Screen With All The Colors?
Almahediw said on January 20, 2011
hello!
I have gone through the process successfully! But my problem is still unresolved!
I can not use wifi or call!
I can only make emergency calls (not that I know well that I have inserted a SIM card))
Help me
Wizkid1 said on January 25, 2011
BEFORE YOU ATTEMPT 1.6 if your phone was rooted at first your missing a step
You need to do this after the initial 1.5:
Upgrade to Android 1.5 CRC1
Download the file signed-kila-CRC1-from-CRB43-FIX.7ca4a1d7.zip
Repeat the steps from above to flash the update file.
Heres the file: http://code.google.com/p/android-roms/downloads/detail?name=signed-kila-DRC83-from-CRC1.c41b93c1.zip&can=2&q=
better instructions on http://www.googleandroidblog.com/blog/howto-manually-install-the-official-t-mobile-android-1-6-on-your-g1
Hazim said on January 28, 2011
could you help me 1-1 by any chance on unrooting it.. if its possible from the android screen, without a SD card, but im willing to buy a new one iff it will work…. ALSO IT WILL NOT find the phone on the computer, it just charges the phone.. But im stuck on the ANDROID SCREEN.. and cant bypass it without internet but this is a step in bypassing it..
Samarthbhargava88 said on February 1, 2011
i had 1.5 i upgraded it to 1.6 cupcake on my samsung galaxy i7500 nw how should i root it….?????
Samarthbhargava88 said on February 1, 2011
i had 1.5 i upgraded it to 1.6 cupcake on my samsung galaxy i7500 nw how should i root it….?????
Megan said on March 4, 2011
it says E:can’t open /cache/recovery/command. i can still run the installation but when it says it’s installing the update it ends up saying installation aborted.
Jeff said on March 26, 2011
I have a g1 and every time I go to recovery mode
Android system recovery utility
E:can’t open /cache/recovery/command
Can you haelp me figure out what is going on Please.
Ryan Jose said on May 15, 2011
I also have a G1 and I updated to 1.5 Cupcake but when I tried to install the 1.6 update, I got this:
am/trout:1Installation aborted.
–Install from sdcard…
Finding update package…
Verifying update package…
Installing Update…
E:Failure at line 2:
assert file_contains(“SYSTEM:bui
ld.prop”, “ro.build.fingerprint=
tmobile/kila/dream/trout:1.5/CRC
1/150275:user/ota-rel-keys,relea
se-keys”) == “true” || file_cont
ains(“SYSTEM:build.prop”, “ro.bu
ild.fingerprint=tmobile/kila/dre
am/trout:Installation aborted.
I also had: E:can’t open /cache/recovery/command at the top but that was there when I successfully installed 1.5 so I ignored it. The only things I have on the sdcard is the original RC29 DreaIMG.nbh file from the beginning and the update.zip (with 1.6 donut update package). Can you please help?
Arthur Mexico said on September 12, 2011
i have the same problem how can we fix it
jaber said on June 14, 2011
hi i’m following the steps exactly like written above, but i got a not allowed message, i made sure my sd card is formatted to FAT32 but it still didnt work n i get the same message always, i bought another sd card n tried it again but still no difference
i have the DRC92 version, so i read about gold card and i made a succesfull gold card and tried these steps again… but seriously nothing worked ! please if anyone knows a possible solution help me out, i apreciate it so much!!!!!!!!!!!!!
for info: i have G1 DRC92
i bought it in the netherlands so i’m not sure what it is, but i think its a UK version
please help me out forum,
thanx!
Harashkarimian said on June 18, 2011
i used universal root to root my phone and to install cyanogenmod.
I thought that i was done when my phone was rooted.
I wanted to stop installing because it was too hard (i am 13, you know)
but i dont have android market on my phone!!!
Anyone, Help!!!!!!!
Maison0891 said on December 1, 2011
my phone just goes to a screen with red, blue, and green colors when i try to unroot it what do i do?