How To: Root the HTC Incredible (Unrevoked Method) Updated 09.20.10!

I. Before You Begin

1. This is the easiest method available to root.

2. This method will also flash a custom recovery image so you can start flashing ROMs immediately.

3. On your computer, go to Start > Control Panel > Programs > and Uninstall HTC Sync if it is installed before you continue.

II. Root and Flash a Custom Recovery Image

1. Download the Unrevoked Rooting App Unrevoked (Updated 09.20.10)

2. Double click the Unrevoked program you downloaded. If using Windows, then click on the file that appears called Hboot Driver and follow it’s instructions to install the modified HBoot drivers OR click here and download the drivers and install them manually.

3. Follow ALL of the instructions on that how to install the hboot drivers page. (If your phone doesn’t have an option for HBoot USB though, Hboot is fine)

4. Once the driver program is successfully installed (and your phone should be sitting in Hboot mode at the end of that procedure), take out the battery and put it back in then hit the power button to get it back to the normal home screen.

5. On your computer, right click the Reflash file and run as administrator. It should open Unrevoked and say “waiting for device”.

6. On your phone, click Menu > Settings > Applications > Development > and make sure USB Debugging is checked ON.

7. Plug in your phone into your computer via usb cable.

8. It should automatically locate your phone that is plugged in and you can just follow the prompts to continue.

9. Done! You are rooted and have a custom recovery image!

III. (Optional) Load a Custom ROM

1. Head over to our How To Load a Custom ROM on the HTC Incredible procedure. Big thanks to the Unrevoked Team!

80 thoughts on “How To: Root the HTC Incredible (Unrevoked Method) Updated 09.20.10!”

  1. hey man i did exactly as said and it just keeps saying Flashing recovery image. Do not touch your phone!

    what do i do

    please help thanks mitchell

  2. I was able to root my phone (htc incredile) successfully. My laptop can find the waireless signal ans is able to connect to it but I cannot get online. Any suggestions?

  3. i followed the video instructions to the dot. all i get is a – failed to flash recovery image- why.. noob! sorry. plz help!!

  4. I follow the directions from the video to the dot. all i get is a error – failed to recover image file – why? plz help!! noob! here .. and i really want to do this.

    1. ok I know what the problem is. I have the Android Bootloader Interface installed on my computer but one step has had me baffled, I don’t have the hboot option when I put my phone in the “hboot screen”. I have fastboot, recovery, clear storage, simlock, and factory reset but no option for hboot. I think this is the only piece to the puzzle I am missing. thank you in advance for responding.

  5. i hv sled screen ( new incred model.) i hear there is a problem…. black sscreen with white bars..i would like to get some info before i do this

  6. When you say go into terminal and type SU, how would I do that? Is that on the phone or the computer? Sorry new to this. Great video.

  7. I have the same as above, I never get the 1.0 driver. When I go to Device manager I get Android Composite ADB Interface… from there I get a fail?

  8. I keep getting the black screen with the 2 white lines when I run the unrevoked recovery flash tool, it says waiting for system to settle

  9. I keep getting the black screen with the 2 white lines when I run the unrevoked recovery flash tool, it says waiting for system to settle

  10. So I did this and everything works; right up to the very end. Then i get a “wating for root” and nothing else happens. Ive waited for about two hours. I have done this many times. Am i doing something wrong??? PLEASE HELP!!!

    1. Also in the video when it is in the reboot stage you guys say to scrol down to HBOOT USB, and i do not see that on my phone. again please help!

  11. tried this several times on 2 different linux machines, always gets stuck at waiting for root. even broke down and tried it on windows (not sure how you people can use windows, ughh), same thing. verizon must have changed something.

  12. i have froyo running on my wildfire. iv followed the steps above and i get stuck at “waiting for root…(safe to restart if this doesn’t work)”. where am i going wrong?

    1. ok so after you do what he says even if you dont have a hsboot usb just restart you phone. and follow the direction just as he says and when you start the program it will say did not copy the flash, so open up (superoneclick) and hit root and it does it then you can go back and run evo then your don you should beable to fly your drone. if you dont know what a drone is then your dumb lol go get one screw apple.

  13. I think i did, my phone rebooted a few times and then the unrevoked box on computer said “Done.” Wasnt sure how to tell if it was rooted but after the last reboot my new friend “SuperUser” is in the tray.

    I suceeded using a Mac becuase when I tried using windows I had issues with the HBoot driver which OSx removes that step. Good luck

  14. I think i did, my phone rebooted a few times and then the unrevoked box on computer said “Done.” Wasnt sure how to tell if it was rooted but after the last reboot my new friend “SuperUser” is in the tray.

    I suceeded using a Mac becuase when I tried using windows I had issues with the HBoot driver which OSx removes that step. Good luck

  15. Everything goes fine until this point:

    waiting for system to settle
    running root…

    zysploit has stopped (process com.unrevoked.zysploit). please try again
    Unrevoked 3.32, windows 7 says (“Error: failed to get root. I this firmware too new?”)

    Phone reboots back in to normal un-rooted state.

    PHONE:
    Droid Incredible (Android 2.2)

    Desktop:
    Windows 7 32 Bit

    Version 3.32, should’nt it be working?

    1. i have the same exact stopping point(waiting for system to settle)… “waiting for reboot”…. then it says “communication with phone has unexpectedly stopped. try again”…. wtf does this mean??????

    2. that happened to me the 1st time i tried…so i just did it again and it worked the second time….

    3. I kept having the same issue, and no matter how many times I reran the code it made no difference. I finally read somewhere that it has issues with zysploi, uninstalled it and voila it worked.

      as far as I know this is something that comes with the unrevoked package

      1. how do i do this!?!? i am having the same problem and it booted back to normal, how can i get it to work? thanks!

  16. I tried this but my steps are different and do not appear to work.

    First – when I double click on the file “reflash_package.exe” – the file does not self extract and I do not get all the files shown in the video. What does happen depends slightly on if my phone is already plugged into the PC (windows Vista by the way). But it does not seem to matter either way as the result is the same. If not plugged in, after I select the “Run” button, I get a dialog saying “waiting for device. Plug phone in now and enable USB debugging. Make sure HTC Synch is not installed. Once I plug the phone in, I then get a dialog that says “unrEVOked is about to start. blah blah blah, bunch of stuff.” If my phone is plugged in I get this message directly anyway. After hitting ok, I get the following “failed to push recovery. Terminating”. There is never any additional files to select or run.

    Any thoughts on what I need to do differently?

    1. OK – so I got past the first issue by instead of running the program, just right clicking on the file and selecting to extract here, which worked. However, I am now stuck on another step.

      I ran all the steps fine and my Device manager now shows “Android Bootloader Interface”. The phone restarts just fine.

      Before I continue – is my phone now Rooted and the recovery/image steps are just a precaution?

      I have made sure my device is running USB Debugging. I then run the program reflash.exe as an administrator. I then plug in my phone. I am now back to the earlier behaviour where I get the waiting for device and then after detecting it, it says found a Droid Incredible, and I have the dialog saying “unrEVOked is about to start, blah blah blah.” If I agree to the terms click ok. After clicking ok I usually get “pushing Recovery” for a few seconds, and then recovery failed. Once, I got Pushing recovery for a long time but it seemed to be hung. It never restarted the phone so I killed the program and restarted it.

      Finally – It seemed to complete something but different than the video above. After pushing recovery it finally DID restart the phone. It got to the boot screen while the “unrEVOked” program did its thing. Without me doing anything, it then restarted the phone while the unrEVOked program said it was Done.

      I do have a program called Superuser Permissions – but when open there is nothing in it. Is this ok?

      Now what?

      1. Well, clearly my phone is now rooted. I turned it into a wireless hotspot using an app that required rooting and it worked fine. So, some steps were quite different for me but I am not sure why and what it means. Oh well, glad to be rooted.

  17. worked like a charm…was quick and easy…luckily i had a lot of the stuff downloaded due to a failed attempt at it once before, but the rooting process was much easier…thanks! droid incredible android 2.2

  18. Darkwizardmatoys

    Quick question, if I rooted my phone using this method and then later unroted and went back to stock can reroot my Incredible if I haven’t uninstalled the drivers?

  19. well……i never backed up my phone before rooted it…..anyway i can get my contacts pics videos and whatever back?

  20. I used the Unrevoked 3 method on my Droid INcredible 2.2 and the process failed to root asking me if my firmware was too new? What could I have done wrong? 

  21. S Sheharyar Ali

    Hi,

    Is it possible to root the incredible S as yet? Been going crazy trying to find out but nothing seems to work

  22. can’t get the unrEvoked to find my phone after the reconnect in step 7 above.  Do i connect at a disk drive, charge only, or sync?

  23. Thank you so much! This guide is the best I have found. So clear in your instructions for a first time rooter who was nervous.

  24. I had an issue with the HBOOT USB option in the directions stated above, I just skipped past that and kept going and everything worked fine. I’m assuming the EVO he was using is just a little different in that menu from my incredible. 

  25. When I`m trying to reflash unrevoked thing and it tells me “waiting for phone to be connected” I did connect my phone but nothing helps

  26. When running this it reboots my phone then my computer dies as it reboots. I have tried different ports and have done this multiple times

  27. Jason Whitesmith

    On a side note, I found out why I couldn’t boot into HBOOT, there is a function called FastBoot in settings that actually prevents you from booting into it.  I fixed that, but now I get the same error everyone else gets Error: failed to get root. Is your firmware too new?.  I am running Android 2.3.4, I honestly have no idea if that is too new.  Any help would be greatly appreciated.

  28. I have succeed install Android ADB Interface to my Laptop (32 bit – windows7 OS) but when run Reflash_package, the program does nothing :” Waiting for device, put in phone now…….” (my HTC Incredible has already connected to Laptop )
    Someone gives me advice pls ? I had carefully read thread from XDA forum !

  29. I have problem .. what does failed root. is firmware too new ? I have 2.3.4 android on my droid incredible help please thanks

  30. Ditto: (“Error: failed to get root. Is your  firmware too new?”)
    Running Droid HTC Incredible version 2.3.4
    Windows XP

    I’m pretty sure i’ve done everything else right. I believe that unrevoked can’t root this version. Any suggestions??

  31. i’m using incredible s…try to boot my phone to Hboot menu by holding power & volume down button…but why my phone keep started like normal?can someone help me pls…

  32. I try to root my incredible S…but i’m stuck at “recovery reflash tool” (waiting for device…) Help me pls…

    My phone running ver 2.3.5…

  33. Follow all the steps…but stuck at recovery reflash tools…it prompt me “Device ‘vivo’ not supported this time”…Help me pls.I’m using incredible s (2.3.5)…

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