How To: Root the Motorola Milestone
March 29, 2010 in Android How To's, Featured, How To's, Motorola Milestone How To's, Video
I. Before You Begin
1. This ONLY works on the Motorola Milestone, NOT the Motorola Droid (you must have a GSM Motorola Milestone).
II. Setup ADB and ADBRecovery
1. Do our How To Setup ADB
2. Once you have done that, come back to this procedure and download ADBRecovery.
3. Extract it’s contents to somewhere on your computer.
4. Plug your phone in normally and mount the SD card (so we can transfer files to it from our computer).
5. Copy the just the update.zip file and the folder named “recovery” from inside the ADBRecovery > in_sd_root folder that we extracted earlier to the root of the SD card in your phone (NOT in any folders on the sd card just on the sd card itself).
6. Turn off your phone.
7. Turn the phone back on while holding the Camera button down until the ! screen comes up.
8. Once the ! comes up, let go of the Camera button and then hold down Volume Up and press the Camera button until a menu appears.
9. Choose apply sdcard:update.zip and wait for it to flash the update.
III. Performing a Nandroid Backup Through ADB
1. Leaving your phone in recovery mode after it flashes the update.zip, plug it in to your computer via USB cable.
2. On your computer, open the command prompt (Start >Type in cmd and hit enter).
3. In the command prompt type the following with hitting enter at the end of each line:
cd\
cd AndroidSDK\tools\
adb shell
nandroid-mobile.sh –backup
*the — in the last line above is actually two hyphens side by side
4. Once it is done with the backup, type the following and hit enter:
reboot
5. Let the phone reboot into normal mode.
IV. Load the Custom Android 2.1 ROM w/ Root via Nandroid
1. Plug your phone into the computer via USB cable and mount the SD card (so we can transfer files to it).
2. Search your SD card for the folder “nandroid” and copy it to somewhere on your computer (this is so you can copy it back to your SD card later to unroot if you want).
3. Download the Android 2.1 Nandroid Backup here and save it to your computer.
Android 2.1 Nandroid Backup (EU version)
4. Extract the contents of the Milestone-Android 2.1 w Root .zip file you downloaded above somewhere on your computer. Then copy all the files from inside the extracted folder (just the files like “system.img” “boot.img” etc. NOT the folder itself) into the nandroid > console=ttyS2,115200n8 > Milestone-BbCcDMRS-20100329-2033 folder (your exact names of the folders may be different) on your SD card.  Then hit yes to Copy and Replace on all the files.
5. Unplug the phone once it has finished transferring the files over.
6. Turn off your phone.
7. Turn the phone back on while holding the Camera button down until the ! screen comes up.
8. Once the ! comes up, let go of the Camera button and then hold down Volume Up and press the Camera button until a menu appears.
9. Choose apply sdcard:update.zip and wait for it to flash the update and then plug the phone in to your computer via USB cable.
10. Open the command prompt again and type the following with hitting enter at the end of each line:
cd\
cd AndroidSDK\tools\
adb shell
nandroid-mobile.sh –restore
*the — in the last line above is actually two hyphens side by side
10. Once it is done with the restore, type the following and hit enter:
reboot
11. DONE!
VII. (Optional) Load a Custom ROM via Nandroid
1. Head to our How To Load a Custom ROM on the Motorola Milestone to load a custom ROM on the phone with the nexus launcher, wifi tethering and other features!
Thanks to Expansys!
Joshua Conner said on December 28, 2010
I have the Alltel Motorola Milestone 2.1 update 1 and I live in the US. What I want to know is whether or not this will work for me. I have already gone through the ADB steps, now I just want to root my phone.
Another thing, the RapidShare link to the ABD recovery is dead.
Joshua Conner said on December 28, 2010
Nevermind. It said “RapidPro Expired”.
silenceAK said on January 3, 2011
i have the motorola milestone a854 after i turn the phone off i hold the camera and the power and it just loads normaly what am i doing wrong i have the file on my sd not in any file and i can see it on the phone help
Boof said on January 16, 2011
I’m facing the same issue with the Motrola Milestone, how can i resolve this problem ?
Boof said on January 16, 2011
I’m facing the same issue with the Motrola Milestone, how can i resolve this problem ?
Tylerp_v2 2256 said on July 11, 2011
hold x and the power button
silenceAK said on January 3, 2011
i have the motorola milestone a854 after i turn the phone off i hold the camera and the power and it just loads normaly what am i doing wrong i have the file on my sd not in any file and i can see it on the phone help
silence said on January 3, 2011
i messeged u acouple of hours back.if it helps i need to press x and the power to get it into recovory mode
silence said on January 3, 2011
i messeged u acouple of hours back.if it helps i need to press x and the power to get it into recovory mode
Boof said on January 16, 2011
I have a Motorla MIlestone and i have done all the setps but when i restart and hold the camera button it starts up normally, how can i restore this issue ?
Boof said on January 16, 2011
I have a Motorla MIlestone and i have done all the setps but when i restart and hold the camera button it starts up normally, how can i restore this issue ?
Amir said on February 13, 2011
Everytime I go in to the safe mode and run apply sdcard: update.zip
It shows an error , which is :
E:Can’t open /cache/recovery/command
– Install from sdcard…
Finding update package…
Opening update package…
Verifying update package…
E:EOCD marker occurs after start of EOCD
E:signature verification failed.
Installation Aborted.
What am i suppose to do in order to surpass this abort failure?
dRu said on February 15, 2011
Hi Amir, I got same problem with you, Signature verification failed,
is there something missing???
Anonymous said on March 8, 2011
hi soo i am wondering when im doing the cmd it goes perfectly till i get to the command: adb shell it just goes to the number sign and does not do anything what should i doo?????
Anonymous said on March 8, 2011
if this matters but before this step i must manually flash my phone before i start installing it. if i dont i cant update ofcourse soo what is the problem and solution??
Anonymous said on March 8, 2011
if this matters but before this step i must manually flash my phone before i start installing it. if i dont i cant update ofcourse soo what is the problem and solution??
Nikko Smith said on March 21, 2011
there’s something wrong with the update.zip file – can you upload ADBrecovery again – one that works?
Pinky N said on April 4, 2011
Im having the same issue as Amir is having. I have downloaded the ADBRecovery zip file and have unzipped it but I continue to face the same issue. Pls help as i really need to root my milestone.
Thanks in advance
Pinky N said on April 4, 2011
Im having the same issue as Amir is having. I have downloaded the ADBRecovery zip file and have unzipped it but I continue to face the same issue. Pls help as i really need to root my milestone.
Thanks in advance
Wqdsadadcddfddfd said on May 19, 2011
its rubbish. tried thousands of ways. this phone is a crap, never works.
Dale said on July 23, 2011
Hey, i followed your steps 1 to 6 perfectly but when i switch off my milestone and power it back you whist holding the power and camera button fully down, i am not getting the !screen to save my life. I currently have 2.1 software and want to update to 2.3. Please help
Evan said on August 18, 2011
you need to hold x on the keypad when you turn on your milestone.. then you’ll get the ! screen and press volume up and the camera button to get to the recovery menu
Mavchu said on September 5, 2011
hi, after completing all the above, now my milestone cannot start up and display
‘The process android.process.acore has stopped unexpectly. Please try again”
Please advice the solution. Thanks
Anonymous said on October 8, 2011
UGH Milestone is stuck on M logo rebooting, and comuter wont see usb on it now rsd lite on recovery does not see it. HELP