How to Root the Nextbit Robin (Video)

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With the ever-growing media libraries we all have, our ever-expanding downloaded app list, and higher resolution of photos we are constantly taking, one of the issues most users face is run out of memory space. You’ve also been through the times when you really wanted to save something on your device but you couldn’t do that because of no memory space available. We’ve all suffered from it.

With the Nextbit Robin though, you won’t have to think of the memory space anymore. The phone integrates with the cloud storage and lets you always have memory space available for you to store your files. The company calls it the smarter smartphone and, in the storage space respect, it indeed is; it offers you something that other phones don’t.

While the phone has this really cool new feature of cloud integration, there’re still many features that can be added to it if you root it. Some of these features are root-only apps that let you do more on your phone, custom ROMs that help you change the entire appearance and functionality of your phone, and custom kernels to add a boost to the performance of the phone. Not only can you add new features to your phone with root, but you can also remove the existing features that you don’t wish to keep, the stock apps, for example.

Rooting the Nextbit Robin requires you to unlock the bootloader, flash a recovery, and then install SuperSU to gain root. This guide covers all of that for you and David even did a handy video on how to root the Nextbit Robin to make the process even easier.

I. Before You Begin

  1. I’m using Windows for this tutorial but you can use Mac by downloading the Mac ADB setup and following the steps for command prompt in terminal instead (with the ./ in front of each command).
  2. This will erase everything on your device; so please backup everything that you want to preserve.

II. How to Root the Nextbit Robin

Nextbit Robin

To root the device, you’ll first unlock the bootloader, flash a custom recovery, and then flash SuperSU. Here’s how to do that:

A. Downloading Required Files

  1. Follow David’s tutorial on how to setup ADB (it’s really easy and quick). After that, you can continue with this tutorial.
    Setup ADB
  2. Download TWRP Recovery and save it inside the c:/adb folder that you get after doing the adb tutorial above.
    TWRP Recovery (Download the latest version available)
    Download Recovery
  3. Download SuperSU and save it inside the c:/abd folder that you get after doing the adb tutorial above.
    SuperSU
    Download SuperSU

B. Unlocking the Bootloader on the Nextbit Robin

  1. Head to Menu > Settings > About phone on your device and tap on Build number for 7-8 times and it’ll say you’re a developer. It should’ve unlocked the developer menu on your device.
    You are now a developer
  2. Go to the newly unlocked menu at Menu > Settings > Developer options and turn on USB debugging and OEM unlocking and plug in your device to your PC using a USB cable.
    Enable ADB Debugging
  3. Head to the adb folder that you should have gotten from the setting up of adb tutorial in section B above. Launch a command prompt window by holding down Shift and right-clicking in any blank area in that folder and selecting Open command window here.
    Open Command Window Here
  4. When the command prompt window launches, type in the following command and hit Enter:
    adb devices
    (Your device should be listed in the command prompt window. If it is not, make sure the drivers are properly installed on your PC.)
    ADB Devices
  5. Type in the following command into the command prompt window and press Enter:
    adb reboot bootloader
    ADB Reboot Bootloader
  6. Type in the following command and hit Enter:
    fastboot -i 0x2c3f oem unlock
    Fastboot OEM Unlock
  7. Follow the on-screen instructions for unlocking the bootloader on your device (push the volume buttons to navigate and power to select). (If it gets stuck at Waiting For Device at this point, download and install the official USB drivers from Nextbit and then try again.
    Unlock Bootloader
  8. After that, go through the normal setup process to get back to your normal home screen.
    Setup the Device

Now that your bootloader’s unlocked, go ahead and get a custom recovery flashed on your device to then use SuperSU to root the device. Here’s how:

C. Flashing a Custom Recovery on the Nextbit Robin

  1. Head to Menu > Settings > About phone on your device and tap on Build number for 7-8 times and it’ll say you’re a developer. It’ll unlock the developer menu for you again.
    You are now a developer 2
  2. Head to Menu > Settings > Developer options and turn on USB debugging (OEM unlocking should already be selected).
    Enable USB Debugging 2
  3. When the command prompt window opens, enter in the following command and press enter at the end of each line
    adb reboot bootloader
    ADB Reboot Bootloader 2
  4. When your device enters bootloader mode, type in the following command into the command prompt window and hit Enter. (Make sure to replace twrp-3.0.2-1-ether.img with the actual name of the recovery image you have downloaded.)
    fastboot -i 0x2c3f flash recovery recovery.img
    Flash Recovery
  5. When it does, unplug the device and select Recovery from the screen using the volume buttons and power button to select it. You should boot up into the TWRP recovery.
    Select Recovery

Wonderful! TWRP Recovery was successfully flashed on your Nextbit Robin and you’re now just one step away from rooting your device. Here’s that step:

D. Root the Nextbit Robin Using SuperSU

  1. In recovery, select Wipe > Format Data (we have to do this to get past the auto-enabled encryption that Nextbit put on the Robin).
    Format Data
  2. On the computer, type the following into the command prompt with hitting enter at the end of each line:
    adb push supersu.zip /sdcard/supersu.zip
    Push SuperSU
  3. Select Install in the TWRP Recovery menu.
    Tap Install
  4. Navigate to the internal SD card storage on your device and find and select supersu.zip to be installed on your device. Swipe to confirm.
    Select SuperSU
  5. When TWRP’s done flashing SuperSU, reboot your device by choosing Reboot followed by System in the recovery menu and then your device should reboot.
    Reboot System

Congratulations, your Nextbit Robin is now rooted!

Now that you’ve root-access and a custom recovery on your device, you should go ahead and flash a number of custom ROMs from our ROM repository on your device and see which one works the best for you. For more info on how to do that, head to my How To Flash a Custom ROM tutorial.

Don’t forget to let us know how this worked for you in the comments below!

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  • Ssafer M

    Hey David.
    Can you make videos on how to root Kindle fire?
    Thanks

  • VJ Ind

    Great!

  • my nextbit doesn’t show up when I type adb devices

  • anonymous

    isnt the bootlaoder unlocked by default on the nextbit

    • No it is unlockable by default. You still have to type fastboot OEM unlock to unlock it. Otherwise that would be a pretty big security issue.

  • anonymous

    please help

  • Alexandre Gaubil

    Hi,
    My phone was stuck at the last step: the reboot did not end. What should I do?

    • Boot back into recovery, wipe data and reboot again. Otherwise, make sure you have the right file and that it didn’t get corrupted during download (try redownloading it fresh and flashing it again).

      • Cori Trottman

        the same thing happend to me and it didn’t work

  • john sawyer

    i need help, im on the last step when im trying to push the supersu but when i type the command in it says error device null

  • Md Ziauddin

    hi david when im doing adb setup after entering the adb reboot bootloader my phone will go on fastboot mode

    • Sorry but I’m not sure I understand. You enter abd reboot bootloader and the device WON’T go into fastboot mode? And if not, can you tell me exactly what it says in command prompt when it doesn’t work (i.e. “waiting for device”).

      • Md Ziauddin

        my phone will enter on fastboot mode

      • Md Ziauddin

        • Use the volume buttons and press power on the item you need to enter. What step are you on in the above tutorial?

          • Md Ziauddin

            what should i do when it show like that

          • Md Ziauddin

            after the first step it is showing like that

          • The first step is to download the files so that’s not the step. Please be specific or I can’t help you. What exact step? Go look up and see if it’s Step 3 in Section II or Step 6 in Section III etc etc if you want help.

          • Md Ziauddin

            I have downloaded all the files

  • Md Ziauddin

    hi

  • Md Ziauddin

    david after installing the twrp recovery i have unplug my device and format everything and restart my device again usb debugging on now im trying to install super su its showing error

  • Md Ziauddin

    plz help

  • Mr Roboto

    Help, this is my first root!

    Everything was running pretty smoothly until I got to the end. After hitting “Reboot System” I’m stuck on the screen that says “Your device will continue booting in 5 seconds.” Volume and power buttons aren’t doing anything (even tried holding them down). The screen just sits there. When I plug into the USB, the computer isn’t recognizing it (as if it were off).

    Any suggestions?

    • Try holding down volume up, volume down, and power at the same time and keep holding them until it turns off. Then turn it on from there normally. If that doesn’t work get it off again with the button combo and check out the how to unroot to flash it back to stock from there – https://theunlockr.com/2016/08/31/unroot-nextbit-robin/

      • Mr Roboto

        Whew! Back to stock. Thanks!

        How might I troubleshoot the rooting issue?

        • You’ll might need to find a version of SuperSU for your version of the OS (if you maybe have an updated version compared to what I have in the video). Google the Android version you have followed by the word SuperSU and try that supersu file instead of this one. You can always use the unroot to get back to stock again if you need.

  • Gergő Biró

    i have a problem PLS help!

    I did everithing right in the tutorial but my phone is stuck in the booting session where you need to wait 5 seconds to boot.
    it dosnt react to anything at all

  • Gergő Biró

    David pls Help! i did all the things that you showed in the video but my phone dosnt want to turn on. It is stuck on the loading screen. https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/4cf80db2b0bc88fc90a6a2e558b72b0ab1aee8093528debd439e1114c002b4c8.jpg

    • Check the comments right below this. Same issue. Follow the same unrooting tutorial and the other options for how to fix it if you want to try again.

      • Joy Skales

        i used you root method for the oneplus3 on my clone
        galaxy s8 with a 7.0 android os. and now i am stuck at the recovery.img that command isnt working please david what should i do?

  • Kev C

    Hi David,
    Does this method of unlocking the bootloader and flashing a recovery still work with Official Nougat? I’m thinking of flashing Omni Rom but I’m not sure if I can still unlock the bootloader and flashing TWRP without bricking anything.

    Thanks

    • I no longer have the phone so have no way of testing it myself. It should work but you’ll have to either try it and see it search online for confirmation that it still works. Good luck.

      • Kev C

        Thanks for the reply. As of now, the device isn’t recognized when I type adb devices, but it is recognized when I type fastboot -i 0x2c3f devices when I’m in fastboot. Should I continue with the process and unlock the bootloader?

  • Matthew Ronsani

    I’m stuck trying to unlock the bootloader. Everything goes fine, the screens all look like yours, until I do “fastboot -i 0x2c3f oem unlock”. It goes to waiting for device and just sits there. Device is in fastboot mode. I tried in-installing drivers for the nextbit and retrying but same result. Any tips on what to try next?

  • Kadell Padilla

    So I finished all of the steps and when I tried to do the final reboot to check if the root worked it won’t fully reboot. It’s stuck on the Robin by Nextbit screen. I don’t know how to get it to reboot.