How to Root the HTC Sensation XL

When you see the HTC Sensation XL smartphone for the very first time, the one question that pops-up in the mind is whether to call this device a smartphone or a tablet. Sporting a large 4.7″ inch screen, you’d be able to enjoy the touch-screen at its full and not to mention the HD videos you can enjoy on it. If you want to expand the features of your smartphone, or just want to load some root-only apps, then first you need to gain root access on your device. Here’s how you can root your HTC Sensation XL.

I. Before You Begin:

1. You must have unlocked bootloader of your device. You can unlock the bootloader from here.

2. This will void the warranty of your device. Do it at your own risk.

II. Downloading Required Files:

1. Fastboot

2. ClockworkMod Recovery Image (Download link’s given in the first post)

3. SuperSU (It’s a ZIP file attached there in the first post)

III. Installing ClockworkMod Recovery on the HTC Sensation XL:

1. Place all the files you have downloaded to your Desktop.

2. Extract files from the Fastboot archive to your Desktop. Don’t open any file.

3. Turn ON the USB debugging option on your device from Menu>>Settings>>Applications>>Development>>USB debugging.

4. Connect the device to your PC using the USB cable.

5. Transfer the SuperSU file you just downloaded to the root folder of your phone’s SD card.

6. Next, Launch a Command Prompt Window with Desktop as the current directory. To do so, press and hold the Shift key on your keyboard and right-click on any emtpy area on your Desktop, then choose Open command window here.

7. Type in the following commands into the window:

adb reboot bootloader

8. After the device has entered Fastboot mode, issue the following command:

fastboot erase cache

9. Now, enter the following command into the Command Prompt Window. Make sure to replace the recovery.img with the actual name of the Recovery Image you downloaded.

fastboot flash recovery recovery.img

10. It should flash the CWM Recovery on your device.

Well done, you now have CWM Recovery installed on your device, it’s a MoDaCo Edition Recovery and not the official one, it does work perfectly, though. Let’s see how you can root your device.

IV. Rooting the HTC Sensation XL:

1. Catching up from the Step-9 from the above section, choose the Recovery option from bootloader menu.

2. Select install zip from sdcard>>choose zip from sdcard from the Recovery menu.

3. Head to the folder where you transferred the SuperSU ZIP file and select it for flashing using the Power button.

4. Wait until it finishes flashing the file.

5. After the file has been flashed, reboot the device using reboot system now from the Recovery menu.

Brilliant! Your phone’s now rooted and a custom recovery is there on your phone. If you’ve been waiting to flash a custom ROM on your device, this is the perfect time to do it.

V. Flash a Custom ROM (Optional):

1. If you are ready to flash custom ROMs on your device, head to the How To Flash a Custom ROM on the HTC Sensation XL to learn how to do that.

If this procedure helped you please thank/donate to the original developers here and here.

If you need help with this procedure, please ask in the comments below or in the forum.

This is part of our Android How To’s. We have how to’s on rooting, loading ROMs, and tons of other tips and tricks for your specific device or for Android devices in general! For all of our Android How To’s, head here.

23 thoughts on “How to Root the HTC Sensation XL”

  1. whenever i press the power button to select recovery in step 1 of “rooting the htc sensation xl” it just reboots the phone turns the phone off

  2. Worked for me, although a little outdated. but I guess if you google the stuff you have to download and download the latest version instead, this manual/tutorial is still accurate 🙂

  3. whenever i try to access the recovery menu in step 1 of rooting the htc sensation xl my phone just powers off? anyone know a solution to this problem?

  4. whenever i choose the recovery option, the phone just turns off, why’s that?
    I have the zip file in the root of the sd card and i have unlocked bootloader

  5. have followed that thread, but in bootlocking,
    1) My device htc sensation XL is not present under list.
    2) I have selected “sensation vodafone”, just to check the steps. But here I got stuck at step 8. I didn’t get any output in cmd by fastroot.

  6. Kulwant Singh Cheeta

    so i did all the steps but when i flash fastboot with recovery it says failed and signature verification failed..pls help i have a bricked htc sensation so i cannot go in settings and do usb debugging on…pls help me

  7. In Step IV, when I click the Recovery option from HBOOT option, I didn’t get the “Install zip from sdcard” option rather it reloads and stays in HTC blank screen mode. How to recover from here to flash the “SuperSU” Zip file.

  8. hi, can someone help me please ! I have a HTC sensation XL using android 4.0.3. already root then unroot now. the problem is the camera always report “your storage is full” so that I can not take any photo. ( my storage still have more than 3Gb available ). I don’t know how to fix it, can someone help please !

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