How to Root the LG G Flex 2 (All Variants)
The successor to the – if nothing else – differently designed LG G Flex, the LG G Flex2, continues the bended tradition. With a slightly curved screen, albeit at a higher 1080p resolution vs the 720p of the last model, it still has the differentiator that gives it its flexible name.
In addition to the same iconic screen, it also kept the custom UI that LG added to the original (unfortunately). As with most manufacturers, they add a custom UI skin on top of Android in order to help differentiate their devices from the plethora of other Android devices on the market.
While this UI can add some useful features, it does also come at the cost of slowing down the phone a little and, frankly in my opinion, just doesn’t look as nice as vanilla Android.
Now, you could just live with this, but you also could, well, not.
If you aren’t afraid of a little tinkering with the software then you can root the LG G Flex2 and then change things to your heart’s content. From removing LG’s bloatware apps that you don’t use to reclaim some space, to, yes, changing the entire UI using a custom ROM (aka a zipped, flashable file containing a new operating system), rooting is the first step.
In this tutorial, I’ll show you how to root the device and flash a custom recovery (which you can then use to flash a custom ROM). Don’t worry, it’s not too hard. Just make sure to check what version of the LG G Flex 2 you have so you don’t accidentally flash the wrong firmware (which would be bad).
Here’s how to root the LG G Flex 2:
I. Before You Begin
1. This could void the warranty of your device. We won’t be held responsible for anything that happens from doing this tutorial so please proceed at your own risk.
2. You must have a Windows based PC to do this procedure.
3. Make sure that LG USB drivers are installed on your PC. If they aren’t, install them first.
4. This procedure should work for the Sprint (LS996), AT&T (H950), and International (H995) variants of the device. Please do not try this on any other variant or you’ll brick it.
How to Root the LG G Flex 2 (All Variants)
To root the device, you’re going to flash a pre-rooted image that will help you run SuperSU on your device. Here’s how:
II. Downloading Required Files
1. Download LG Root and save it to your desktop.
2. Download Rooted Image for your specific variant of the device and save it to your desktop.
Rooted Image for Sprint (LS996-ZV6) or (LS996-ZV7)
Rooted Image for International (H995)
III. Rooting the LG G Flex 2 (All Variants)
1. Extract files from both LG Root and Rooted Image over to your desktop by right-clicking on each of them and selecting Extract here.
2. Head to Menu > Settings > About phone on your device and tap on Build number for 7-8 times. It’ll say you’re a developer.
3. Head to Menu > Settings > Developer options on your device and turn on the option that says USB debugging.
4. Plug in your device to your PC via a USB cable.
5. Copy rootedsystem.image from your desktop over to the internal SD card storage on your device. Make sure to place it on the top of the directory or the below steps won’t work.
6. Turn off your device.
7. Unplug your device from your PC.
8. Hold down Volume UP and plug in your device to your PC.
9. Your device is now ready to be flashed with the rooted image.
10. Double-click on ports.bat available on your desktop.
11. Note down the COM port number that the above step shows you. For instance, if it says COM4, your port number is 4, and so on.
12. Launch a Command Prompt Window on your desktop by holding down Shift on your keyboard and right-clicking on any blank area on your screen and selecting Open command window here.
13. Type in the following command into the Command Prompt Window and press Enter. Make sure to replace COM4 with the actual COM port number that you noted down earlier.
Send_Command.exe \\.\COM4
14. Type in the following command and press Enter.
id
15. You should see a string of text on your screen. If you don’t, enter the command again and you will.
16. Here comes the part where you’re required to enter the variant specific command. Type in one of these commands (depending on the variant of the device) into the Command Prompt Window and hit Enter:
For Sprint (LS996) users:
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 bs=8192 skip=58368 count=522240 of=/data/media/0/system.img
For AT&T (H950) users:
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 bs=8192 skip=53248 count=534528 of=/data/media/0/system.img
For International (H995) users:
dd if=/dev/block/mmcblk0 bs=8192 skip=53248 count=458752 of=/data/media/0/system.img
17. When the above command is executed, run the following variant-specific command to flash the rooted image on your device.
For Sprint (LS996) users:
dd if=/data/media/0/rootedsystem.img bs=8192 seek=58368 count=522240 of=/dev/block/mmcblk0
For AT&T (H950) users:
dd if=/data/media/0/rootedsystem.img bs=8192 seek=53248 count=534528 of=/dev/block/mmcblk0
For International (H995) users:
dd if=/data/media/0/rootedsystem.img bs=8192 seek=53248 count=458752 of=/dev/block/mmcblk0
18. When the rooted image is successfully flashed, type in the following command and press Enter:
LEAVE
19. Your device should reboot.
All set! Now head to my How To Flash a Custom ROM to begin with that bag of fun (I highly recommend it) and flash some ROMs from my ROM repository until you find one you like.
Let me know if this worked for you in the comments below!
Didn’t work missing something in the script phone is dead
Hi Rex,
Could you please let us know what variant you have got and what step you think broke your phone?
It’ll help us figure out the issue.
Thanks!
it didnt work on my ls966. i tried to flash a rooted stock image (vz9) and nothing happens. when it says to place image on internal sd, that means to just copy the image to the root of the internal memory right? i followed everything else word by word.
Hi Victor,
Well, the procedure is supposed to work fine as it’s been tested and confirmed to be working, not sure why you’re having issues.
Alternatively, you can try out the following procedure on the XDA Forums to see if that roots your device – http://forum.xda-developers.com/android/development/guide-root-method-lg-devices-t3049772
Let us know if that works for you.
Thanks!
as i said nothing happened but when i restarted my phone it updated all apps, and even though the the rooted image was not flashed, surprinsingly enough SU was there. once i installed SU root access was successfully applied. I’m clueless lol but I’m rooted! hope it won’t be a pain to update. i got this phone for only $100 and i believe i have unlocked it and enabled all bands. all i have left is to pop a sim restart the phone, and see if it really works with tmobile.
Send_Command.exe is not recognized as an internal external command
Hi Azure,
The “Send_Command.exe” file doesn’t exist in the folder where you’ve launched a command prompt window.
Place the file in the command prompt window and you should be good to go.
Thanks!
Hi, I’m not seeing any custom roms for the LG G Flex 2. I’ve rooted, but would like to get away from AT&T’s stock rom. Any advice?
Hi Oren,
Custom ROMs for the LG G Flex 2 should be available soon. We’ll add them to our ROM repository as soon as they become available.
Thanks!
That’s awesome! Thanks for all the hard work.
You’re most welcome, Oren!
hello people, and have a happy new year. I unfortunately can’t unrar the image file. the international. one. I can download it fine, did it 3 times, it is 1.31gigs the but it says corrupt file.
Unfortunately there isn’t much I can do about that, you need to redownload it and maybe do so from a more stable internet connection :/
The AT&T image file is larger than 4Gb and the SD should be converted to NTFS and but when I do that the SD card is not recognised by the phone. You should also mention that the name of the .img file must be renamed after downloading to rootedsystem.img which is the exact name you use in the commands.
I have an LG-H955, is there any rooted image for this model?
Thank you for this method, I have a question if you don’t mind. My phone is sprint LS996ZV9, observed that the img are for ZV5 & ZV6. Could work or could may lead to brick? Thanks in advance
I wouldn’t flash any firmware that does say it is explicitly for your version of the phone or you run the risk of bricking the phone.
Thanks David for reply.
Hey, Can you help here? When I enter ‘id’ I get a msg that says “id is not recognized as an internal or external command operable program or batch file.” What should I do? Thanks.
desde colombia, buena esa parsero me funciono 100% 🙂
How do I know if I have a LS996-ZV6 or LS996-ZV7
Hi Xander,
It should be listed on your device package.
Thanks!
Got to step 10. “Double-click on ports.bat available on your desktop”. What is ports.bat? There is nothing on my desktop that says that.
My phone says, “Firmware Update, do not unplug the USB until the process is complete”. It shows 0% and is stuck there, please advise.
Thank you
I was looking at a different page that shows a picture and it shows a window that is suppose to pop up. No window popes open. This is why I had no no idea what step 10 was about. How do I get the pop up to open so I can continue with step 10 or get my phone from being stuck in the Firmware Update part?
Hi Paul,
The ports.bat file lets you see what port number your device is attached to on your computer. That way you can send commands to the appropriate port which then get executed on your device.
Ensure proper drivers are installed on your computer and then try launching ports.bat and it will work successfully.
Let us know how it goes for you. Thanks!
Hi, i believe the drivers are installed, when I plug my phone in it shows up and I can access the phone and Micro USB card. I have the LG PC Suit installed and I cn communicate with the phone.
Maybe even thought my phone shows up when I plug it in, they are the wrong ones and that is why I don’t get the ports file window popping up. The link above for the drivers is no longer valid and couldn’t find the correct ones for my ATT LG Gflex 2 so I installed the LG PC Suite.
need help. cant go past the command “id” on the command promt. no string of text shows up and i cant type in anymore commands after that. i have to restart the command promt window to type another command stuck on the firmware update screen on my phone.
If everything went well, the command ID should’ve worked for you. Not sure why it didn’t.
Please try again and see if it works.
same here – up volume while plugging in usb. in command prompt screen typed – Send_Command.exe \.COM4 – and got not recognized as internal or external command operable program or batch file — STUCK with phone on firmware update screen
Hi brain,
Do adb.exe, fastboot.exe, and Send_Command.exe files exist in the same folder as your command prompt window?
Hi it work like you say until last step. I have write last line ant nothing happen wait half hour and still 0%. I try find out why flashing proces not start
you have to put leave in capitals i.e LEAVE
help every time i enter a code after the 13th step it just says “Hello, I am LAF. Nice to meet you.” what is this
it did work the first time i did it but i fiddled with an i/o schedular and soft bricked it but then i installed the stock ROM which is now 6.0.1 and now i cant root it again =(
Hello, I followed the instructions above for my H950 ATT variant- upon reboot (when you type in LEAVE), the phone now sits on the LG screen…can’t shut off. can just hold down the power and volume down and it re-boots back to the LG screen and stays there… If I try Power and Vol up, it goes back to the “download screen”…any ideas how to get this back working??? I’ve even tried the factory data reset- and still get the same LG screen…
Thanks!
Hi Tim
Well, that’s not supposed to happen. What I suggest you to do now is flash back the stock ROM on your device and then do the procedure again making sure you do everything properly.
You shouldn’t have an issue then.
Thanks!
Hello, thank you for the reply… I was able to flash a stock rom (11Z I believe) via LG flash tool and now it loads… However it is showing rooted now (via different tools I used to verify it) so I think it took both the root rom file and the stock 11z went through… So now I tried to “update” to 12D via OTA and get something back from AT&T that says that my device is suspected of rooting and that the update isn’t available to me. That said- I’m guessing I can flash future update, but is there a repository anywhere? Also- do you know of any stock 6.0 Roms out for the G Flex 2 yet, or where I can get them? I know the bootloader is locked so any flashing would need to be done without a backup…
Thanks,
Tim
hello i am having the problem at the firmware update screen. i open up ports.bat and i have both com3 and 4 in it and when i select 4 it does nothing after hitting enter on id, so i went back and used 3 and it worked. i copied all of the command prompts correctly from above and on my phone it just stays at 0%? i am so confused. my phone will not shut off or do anything at all. HELP!!!
ok got it off of the firmware update and turned on now i have no home screen? i can access my settings and any texts that come through but nothing else.
What variant of the phone have you got?
how did you get it off the firmware update screen
bruh my fone is steady on a blank screen after i rebooted my phone for the root
Will this process work if I’ve been upgraded (from 11z) to 12d?
My “Software info”:
Android vsn: 5.1.1
Android Security patch level: 2016-05-01
Kernel vsn: 3.10.49
Build number: LMY47S
Software vsn: H95012d
i have h950 12d and am wondering the same thing?
after following the above steps, my phone restarted and said SECURITY ERROR. what to do? please help me.
Hi Mahesh,
Are you sure you downloaded the rooted image that was for your variant of the phone?
Greetings Phonies, I’m desperately trying to root an H959. Could you help a brother out?
After type commad “id” and click “Enter”, on cmd screen I see respond – ”
Hello, I am LAF, Nice to meet you. #”
What is that? I see it for the firts time.
Is there a way to get the correct rooted image for the LG-H955 variant ?
Would be amazing!
Hi, unfortunately I wouldn’t have any of the images. You’d have to check the link in the article or head to XDA-developers.com and see if anyone posted it in the forums. Good luck!
typing id does not write anything