How To: Unroot the HTC Evo

I. Before You Begin

1. The only reason to unroot a phone is if you have to send it back in for warranty purposes. Otherwise just try loading a different ROM instead…

II. Get Back to Out of Box State

1. Download HTC Sync (if you don’t already have it) and the Original RUU and save it to your computer.

HTC Sync

Original RUU

2. Double click the HTC Sync program and install it.

3. Plug your phone into the computer via USB cable and select HTC Sync when prompted on the phone on how it should connect.

4. Double click the RUU exe you just downloaded and follow the prompt to restore the phone back to factory settings.

120 thoughts on “How To: Unroot the HTC Evo”

  1. nicolas oriend

    when i did this it says error 170 and it says that its like not connected to the computer and it is cause the lights on and i want to make my htc evo back to normal any ideas how to fix it cause what u said to do didnt work ?

    1. This error 170 has happend to me and i found a way around it . Some one i forgot where said that you need an up to date RUU app . If u use an old one, u most like will get the black screen. So i looked around for a Released and signed RUU . EVENTUALLY I FOUND ONE AND IT WORKED . BUT NOTICE ONCE U DO THIS, UR SECURITY WILL STILL BE OFF. S-OFF !

      1. naaa elitebattlefield, i did just as mentioned in the process above.b4 i did this, i only factory restored my evo[ factory reset or restore].

  2. hey unlockr im having a problem with unrooting my evo the htc android phone rom update utility is telling me i have a error(140) bootloader version error can u help me out

  3. SOmeone please help I am a noob but know how to use the computer, just don’t know how to add rom’s or if I did all the steps right..

  4. hey unlockr im having a problem with unrooting my evo the htc android phone rom update utility is telling me i have a error(140) bootloader version error can u help me out can u help me out can u email me @ nv5killz69@gmail.com

  5. having the same problem David, Can’t seem to get my phone to unroot, Keep getting an error telling me the phone is not connected, but it definitely is connected to a USB 2.0 slot. I just got everything working last night and shattered the screen, still boots up but can’t send it in with cyanogen running on it. Please when possible offer some help if you can, I am in dire need of having my phone

  6. seriously need some help man, I can’t not have a phone and definitely can’t bring it to sprint like this. I am getting error code 171

    1. i have the same problem! Did you ever find a way to fix it?
      i need to take my evo back to sprint and i cant take it while still being rooted.
      Does anyone know how to fix this error

  7. hi I’ve been trying to unroot my htc evo with the original ruu file thats given and everything goes well up to where it says that its deleting my data and then an error comes out saying “error 140 bootloader version” what does this mean and what can i do in order to unroot my htc evo???

  8. Will this work if you upgraded to froyo and now want to downgrade back to 2.1 to get root and then upgrade back up to froyo to keep root?

  9. Can’t get my evo to un-root either. Keep getting error code: 140 says that something is wrong with the bootloader. I originally rooted with unrevoked.com . I wonder if that has got something to do with it? Anyone have any ideas?

  10. If you have rooted through Unrevoked 3, you will not be able to upgrade to FroYo. I used this method to restore the stock ROM. It worked and all I had to do was sit and watch the program do everything. Installing FroYo through the OTA now.

    1. Andrew,

      That is NOT true. If you root your phone you can load a custom ROM with Froyo, they are already out and have been for weeks now (like every other phone in history that has been rooted). So you could have been on Froyo a long time ago via rooting and loading a custom ROM, instead of unrooting and waiting for the OTA that is just now coming out.

      1. TheUnlockr,
        Unfortunately Andrew is right at least this is my experience…after rooting using the Piece of sh**t Unrevocked I was not able to get into recovery mode and I was not able to upgrade to Froyo, now I tried the method above, and it looks like froyo is being installed as of now lets see what happens if actually will finish.

        1. After following this method everything is working fine the phone upgraded to Froyo successfully. gook luck to everyone.

        2. KelAr,

          I’ve rooted a few Evos now and got to recovery mode and loaded Cyanogen’s ROM no problem. Try to redo the unrevoked procedure.
          No problem, if you want to use the OTA then use the OTA.

    2. hey buddy wat should do is first factor reset your phone…. then start the with the process above…thts wat i did and it worked great..even though i lost all my old apps

    1. One last quick tip, do not have eclipse running when trying to sync your evo with the htc sync software. Close eclipse, restart the computer. Once restarted, reboot the phone before attempting to sync.

  11. Thanks KJ!!!!!!! Your method definitely worked. Many props to you and everyone that you are associated with. I am finally downloading the OTA Froyo update as I type this…

  12. WHEW!! That was long and painful but essentially it worked as advertised. Actually once I worked around the usb connection error it was smooth sailing.
    Thx TheUnlockr!

  13. Hey RobZen, did you use the 1.47 RUU? also has anyone gotten this to work on Windows 7? I am thinking of unrooting my phone.

    1. i used the the 1.47 RUU. I have windows 7. On the 3rd or 4th go round of hanging on the htc window i decided to exit as it said, then i unplugged from the laptop and switched ports (probably didn’t matter) the htc window reappeared then restarted the 1.47. It picked up where it left off. 1 minute and a bucket of sweat later i was ready for the OTA. Which after all that i’m trying to decide if it was worth it. LOL! Now I want my wifi tether back but not sure how to go about it. Also need to learn how to back up the current image.

    2. could not get it to work on Windows 7. Switched to another cpu running windows XP and no longer received error about ‘connection error 170’ or something like that.

    1. Jim,

      Can I ask why you are unrooting your phone? Are you sending it in for warranty? If not, then just flash a different custom rom instead. There is no reason to unroot unless you need to be sending it in for warranty.

      1. I cannot currently get Android Wifi Tether app to work, nor can i get into recovery mode on my EVO. I really just want to be able to get the official updates installed easily. Any help is appreciated.

  14. Here is another question. I flashed froyo on my EVO and my software information the same as my wife’s non-rooted EVO will future OTA go through on my phone?

  15. I Keep on getting error code 170
    how do i fix it??
    is it because of the hboot driver that was made cause of unrevoked??

  16. How do I unlock without USB? I ask because my USB port is broken and I need to take it back to Sprint for a new one.

    TIA.

  17. I was getting the 170 error too. I just did the process on a Windows XP machine and it worked… Was trying to do it on Windows 7 originally.

    1. For windows 7… After downloading the program, right click it and either run as administrator or go to properties and click the compatability mode tab then check the (run this program in compatability mode for) “box” and run it in the mode for XP service pack 3.

  18. ok i rooted my phone but i have been having problems with the android wifi tether so i tried to re root it but my phone does not the rooted program but it says its rooted??

  19. I have done what it says above. When HTC Sync finally recognizes my phone, I run the Original RUU .exe file. As soon as the program starts running (after the installshield wizard completes) the phone becomes disconnected from the computer. I have tried multiple USB ports and have re-downloaded the .exe file. I have restarted my phone and tried again. I have also tried starting the Original RUU .exe file and then connecting the phone to the computer, which it will not allow. I restarted the computer and tried again with no success.

    Sorry for not posting in the Technical Difficulties section. I couldn’t find it.

  20. I have done what it says above. When HTC Sync finally recognizes my phone, I run the Original RUU .exe file. As soon as the program starts running (after the installshield wizard completes) the phone becomes disconnected from the computer. I have tried multiple USB ports and have re-downloaded the .exe file. I have restarted my phone and tried again. I have also tried starting the Original RUU .exe file and then connecting the phone to the computer, which it will not allow. I restarted the computer and tried again without any success.

  21. I have done what it says above. When HTC Sync finally recognizes my phone, I run the Original RUU .exe file. As soon as the program starts running (after the installshield wizard completes) the phone becomes disconnected from the computer. I have tried multiple USB ports and have re-downloaded the .exe file. I have restarted my phone and tried again. I have also tried starting the Original RUU .exe file and then connecting the phone to the computer, which it will not allow. I restarted the computer and tried again without any success.

  22. I have rooted my HTC evo and I download the wireless tethering app. everything was working just fine until i decided to reset my phone to factory settings due to thinking it would only will clean up unnecessary files. but i was wrong. I dowloaded the wireless app again and now it does not work. what can i do? my phone works fine but i really whant my wireless to work again should i re-root the phone or unroot the phone and then rerooted.

  23. READ ME if you get ERROR 171.
    I will do some poor newbie like me a favor after 5 hours of freeking out and digging and unnecessarily installing SDK’s and what not.
    My system Win7 – 64 bit, but I dont think that matters.
    Initial instructions the SYNC will recognize the phone.
    Once the RUU process kicks off, it does not recognize the USB connection to phone anymore.

    I’ll try my best to recollect the steps or wording, it might not be 100%.
    Go to DEVICE MANAGER
    One of the first devices you will see is ANDROID USB DEVICES, click on it…
    Under that node, you should see something like Android Bootstrap *or something like that
    THE TRICK IS TO REPLACE “ANDROID BOOTSTRAP” WITH “MY HTC”

    To do this.
    Right mouse click over “ANDROID BOOTSTRAP”*
    Click “Update Driver Software”
    Click “Browse My Computer For Driver Software”
    Ignore the File Path Selector, at the bottom, there is an option to ….
    “Let me pick from a list of drivers on my computer” – CLICK ON THIS
    You should see a selection for “MY HTC”

    NOTE: If you run the SYNC, it will still say disconnected. Ignore this and run the RUU. It should work now.

    YOUR WELCOME

  24. Alternate Reality

    I have a rooted Evo. I tried installing the new update and it gave me a bootloader error. Any ideas on this would be helpful.

  25. Thank you so much. I was stupid and I hacked my phone. With this I was able to remove the hack and restore my phone to nice health. I used a Windows XP 32-bit desktop computer with my Evo. It worked flawlessly.

  26. Thank you so much. I was stupid and I hacked my phone. With this I was able to remove the hack and restore my phone to nice health. I used a Windows XP 32-bit desktop computer with my Evo. It worked flawlessly.

  27. did as above, wizzard said it was successful, but it left my phone at the fastboot/bootloader screen. I selected bootloader and it now says “no image or wrong image” and I can’t get around it. Looks like I currently have no rom on my phone? help

    trying to restore to original because of a perpetual reboot problem when running apps.

  28. THANK YOU!!!! very easy to do, and the best part IT WORKS great!!! again thank you so much for the tutorial, the file and everything!

    Jossy

  29. THANK YOU!!!! very easy to do, and the best part IT WORKS great!!! again thank you so much for the tutorial, the file and everything!

    Jossy

  30. THANK YOU!!!! very easy to do, and the best part IT WORKS great!!! again thank you so much for the tutorial, the file and everything!

    Jossy

  31. i get the 170 error, i tried looking for android bootstrap and cant find it, im using windows xp. what am i doing wrong?

  32. i figured out how to bypass the usb error 170 on windows 7 all you do is right click the file go to properties then click run in compatability mode for service pack 3 and boom your ready to go

  33. HELP! It locked stopped the software with error message 170 and the phone is stuck with a black screen that says “htc” should I take out the battery to retry the software? What do I do?

  34. HELP! It locked stopped the software with error message 170 and the phone is stuck with a black screen that says “htc” should I take out the battery to retry the software? What do I do?

  35. Question I was trying to unroot my evo and forget to take my screen saver off and start the ruu find but the screen saver kick in and now I get a htc logo on a black screen with one icon in ea corner and when I try to go to recovery and I get
    Supersonic EVT3 Ship S-OFF
    HBOOT-2.10.0001
    Touch Panel-Atmel224_16ab
    Radio-2.15.00.11.19
    oct 15 2010,12:07:00
    and the rest is blank screen. Any sugestions please

  36. Thanks a lot for your tip. It went through flawless. The HTC Sync link (2.0.40) doesn’t work on Window Vista. I installed version 3.0.5511 downloaded from htc.com, and set compability mode of RUU.exe to “window XP sp2”, and it went through without any trouble. Now I can get OTA upgrade to Android 2.2.

  37. Ok everyone here it is step by step
    If you get error code 170 (USB error)
    Uninstall HTC sync
    Verify that the drivers you loaded to root your phone are no longer installed on your computer… The best way to do this is plug in your phone… set it to “HTC sync” ON THE PHONE… go into device manager… Click android device… Uninstall any drivers currently stacked under it… if the device has no assigned drivers (A little yellow exclamation) than your good to go
    Now install HTC sync
    before you start the unroot process… go back into device manager and make sure the driver attached to it is “My HTC…” set the phone back to “Charge only” and Turn on debugging
    run the RUU.exe and you should be golden.

    If you get error code 140 (Wrong boot loader)
    This just means you some how turned the NAND to S-on you will need to go to http://downloads.unrevoked.com/forever and download the zip… If you no longer have a custom recovery… try running Unrevoked3 instead but you have to get the the phone back to S-off since that is what HTC set the phone to in order to thwart us from rooting it in the first place.

    Error code 171
    Make sure the RUU you are using is for your phone. Im not going to post every single RUU file out there but lets just say I had to try 3 before I found one that didn’t stop part way through.

    Get a windows error that states “Not a win 32 aplication?”
    Download the correct .exe file from The unlockr.com

    Hope this helps

  38. Fernandocruzj26

    hey buddie thanks i was trying everything lol until i got to your step by step explanation..
    its simple and easy!
    you were GREAT HELP!!
    THANKS!!!

  39. Is there anyway to unroot without connecting to the computer? My USB port is broken on the actual phone.

  40. Here the steps of what I had to do for the ones who may have encountered similar issues. Went from Win 7 to Win XP in order to work.

    Error [140] – Had to switch phone back to s-ON (Follow unrevoked forever instructions from the Unrevoked Forever S-ON tool which will guide you on how to flash it back)

    Error [110] File Open Error. Had to use an updated RUU. The one provided was outdated. You shoulld find an updated RUU from

    Once all completed, the phone will automatically send you an OTA update, roughly 10 minutes later, just accept and you should be back home 🙂

    FYI- Your phone will be back in stock, therefore back up whatever you may need.

  41. Here the steps of what I had to do for the ones who may have encountered similar issues. Went from Win 7 to Win XP in order to work.

    Error [140] – Had to switch phone back to s-ON (Follow unrevoked forever instructions from the Unrevoked Forever S-ON tool which will guide you on how to flash it back)

    Error [110] File Open Error. Had to use an updated RUU. The one provided was outdated. You shoulld find an updated RUU from

    Once all completed, the phone will automatically send you an OTA update, roughly 10 minutes later, just accept and you should be back home 🙂

    FYI- Your phone will be back in stock, therefore back up whatever you may need.

  42. I’ve unrooted my phone but when I try to update firmware and HTC software my phone says there are none. Any ideas?

  43. Here is the big question? If you have the latest version 2.3.3 and trying to downgrade it to 2.2 in order to root, it seems you have to have use unrevoked to get root in order to downgrade! That seems a big circle that isn’t getting me anywhere. How can you downgrade firmware in order to get root without having the phone rooted first?

    1. Im new at this but this seems to be a big circle. Or guess I mean 4.2 down to 3.7? My girlfriend got the same HTC EVO when I did and I have rooted her phone. I just happened to update my firmware before I even knew about rooting phones. Now I can’t seem to get it back to 3.7

  44. The only way i know to downgrade from 2.3.3 OTA rom back to 2.2, is if u left S-off on ur device before updating OTA to 2.3.3. I had to unroot my Evo to update to 2.3.3, but ther is no need to use unrevokeds s-on patch to update OTA. U only need to return to S-on is if u are takin ur device into Sprint. So now i hav the GB 2.3.3 OTA rom,but with S-off,so i can flash back to 2.2. Im pretty sure if youre S-on,youre out of luck,until another root method is released. U might want to just wait before.downgrading back to 2.2, bcuz a Sprint rep told me that around June 20,same day the Shift gets the OTA to 2.3.3,Sprint will be releasing a second GB update to the Evo 4G that fixes the Netflix issue,the keyboard problems some are experiencing,& several other bugs/glitchs. It was said to be released on the 6-20,but thats always subject to change. The rep just assured me.that anothr update is in the works,&.will be released asap,he said probly the same.day the Shift gets the GB OTA update. He had no word if they will release it a cpl days early like with.the first EVO GB OTA update. I hope so. I will be checking Sat,Sun,& Monday is the rumored release. Keepin my fingers crossed.!.!…

  45. My htc evo 4g is stuck in the bootloader. I just figured out how to get it to recognize the usb and be a drive again. Any sugjestions on how to put the system on the sdcard then the phone,or recagize sync? Thank you
    Kaveman1910@gmail.com

  46. please i need help. i bought a phone on craigslist and it was rooted for a local cellphone provider called mobi pcs. and im on sprint. i was able to unroot it but its still on the mobi network. would anyone know how to fix it.

  47. Can my android htc evo be re set so I can use att 4G network. If there is a way do do this I no longer have sprint but still have my evo but I can not use my 4 G Anyone with an answer for this please email it to me sswalius@yahoo.com Thank you Thank you Thank you.

  48. I am trying to unroot however unable to. I have tried the guide above and said RUU out of date. I can’t seem to find a “download” for one that is IN date? Any Ideas? 

  49. my phone has 71% battery , but the program says error 120 or something ,that my phone has less than 30% battery left. wtf

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