How to Root the Motorola RAZR i

As soon as the Jelly Bean update hit the Motorola RAZR i, it broke root access on the device and left thousands of its users in the darkness of no root access. But the developers have figured out a way to root the device on Jelly Bean and the method has been confirmed to be working by users. So, in this guide, we’ll go through steps on how you can root your Motorola RAZR i on Jelly Bean to get root-only apps up and running on your device. Here you go:

I. Before You Begin:

1. This will void the warranty of your device. However, you can reinstate the warranty by unrooting the device if there’s any unrooting procedure available.

2. You must have unlocked bootloader of your device. You can do so from here.

II. Downloading Required Files:

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

2. Root Package (Download link’s given in the first post)

3. Fastboot

III. Rooting the Motorola RAZR i:

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

2. Extract files from the Fastboot archive to your Desktop. You should get fastboot.exe along with some other files.

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

4. Copy the Root Package file over to the root of your SD card.

5. Once the file’s copied, unplug your device from your PC.

6. Turn ON the USB debugging function on your device by going to Menu>>Settings>>Developer options>>USB debugging.

7. Once enabled, connect your device to your PC via USB cable.

8. Launch a Command Prompt Window on your Desktop. To do so, simply hold down the Shift button on your keyboard and right-click on any empty area on the screen, then select Open command window here.

9. Type in following command into the Command Prompt Window:

adb reboot bootloader

10. Your device will reboot into bootloader mode.

11. Now issue the following command:

fastboot.exe flash recovery recovery-razri-tryAtouch.img

12. It’ll flash the recovery on your device. Once it’s done, issue the following command:

fastboot.exe reboot-bootloader

13. Your device will reboot into bootloader mode.

14. Now select the Recovery option displayed on your screen.

15. From the Recovery menu, select install zip from sdcard followed by choose zip from sdcard.

16. Select the Root Package file you copied earlier to your device for flashing.

17. It’ll flash the file on your device and you can expect it to finish in a minute or two.

18. Once the file’s flashed, reboot your device.

19. And you’re all set!

Brilliant! You’ve successfully rooted your RAZR i and you now have a custom recovery on your device as well. Let the flashing begin!

IV. 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 Motorola RAZR i 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.

12 thoughts on “How to Root the Motorola RAZR i”

  1. VERY good tutorial. I’m an absolute beginner and it worked. Have the superuser app. Yaeeii. Thaks a million esp to XDA user mattlgroff.

    1. Mahesh Makvana

      Cool! We’re glad we could help you!!

      Now go ahead and do what you ever wanted to do on your device.

  2. 2 VERY important, yet simple points were not mentioned. I thought my phone was bricked until the guys at xda-developers forum helped me out:

    1) In the bootloader menu, the power button does NOT select the option. The VOL UP button selects the option

    2) To boot into BOOTLOADER: Hold both power and vol down buttons until the phone restarts, and then RELEASE the power button, while still HOLDING the volume down button! It will then load the bootloader.

    1. Mahesh Makvana

      The command we mentioned above – adb reboot bootloader – should do the job and get your device into the bootloader mode.

      1. 100%, you did mention that above. My main point was point 1 (which was not mentioned). Point 2 was mentioned just to let people know how to get into the bootloader with hardware buttons, if they need or if their phone stops responding to adb etc…

        1. Mahesh Makvana

          We usually assume that the users are aware of what keys do what actions. In very rare cases when the device has plenty of buttons and user’s really confused, we mention the buttons that need to be pressed.

          Thank you for your input on this!

  3. Hi,

    My device bootloader is unlocked. Try to flash the recovery image and it was successfully written to my phone, but it keeps displaying “flashing recovery….” forever.

    I’ve tried several times and it gave the same result. Please help.

    fyi: my phone is on 4.1.2.

  4. Does this work with the razr i XT890? Don’t wanna bugger up the phone altogether by trying something that’s not compatible with it.

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