How to Root the ZTE Mustang (AT&T)

Rooting is the process of gaining administrative rights on your Android device.  Once we root our Android device, we can then make changes to it to customize it well beyond what it normally can do.

Once you have root access on your ZTE Mustang (AT&T), you’ll be able to:

• Remove apps that were preinstalled by your carrier/manufacturer from your device.
• Free up storage space (because of the above benefit).
• Increase battery life (apps that might have been running constantly can be removed).
• Increase performance (after removing apps that are always running, the device will be less bogged down and run smoother).
• Update to a new version of Android (by flashing a custom recovery/ROM, see the end of this procedure for more info on that).
• Tons of other customizations when you use your new found administrative rights to flash a custom ROM (again, see the end of this procedure for more info on that).

Interested? Here’s how to root your ZTE Mustang (AT&T):

I. Before You Begin

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

2. You should have required drivers installed on your PC.

II. Downloading Required Files

1. Download CWM Recovery and save it to your Desktop.

CWM Recovery (Download link’s given in the first post, in step-1)

2. Download Root and CWM Recovery and save it to your Desktop.

Root and CWM Recovery (Download link’s given in the first post, in step-2)

3. Download Fastboot and save it to your Desktop.

Fastboot

III. Rooting the ZTE Mustang (AT&T)

1. Extract files from Fastboot by right-clicking on it and selecting Extract here.

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

3. Plug in your device to your PC via USB cable.

4. Copy the Root and CWM Recovery zip from your Desktop over to the root of your SD card.

5. Launch a Command Prompt Window on your Desktop by holding down Shift and right-clicking on any blank area on your screen and selecting Open command window here.

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

adb reboot bootloader

7. Once your device boots into fastboot, enter the following command:

fastboot boot z998-cwm-recovery.img

8. Your device should boot into CWM Recovery mode.

9. Select install zip from sdcard followed by choose zip from sdcard.

10. Choose the Root and CWM Recovery ZIP you copied earlier to your device to be flashed.

11. It should start flashing the zip on your device.

12. Once the flashing’s done, reboot your device.

13. You’re all done!

All set! Now, you can head to our How to Flash a Custom ROM procedure for the ZTE Mustang (AT&T) to open up a whole new world of customizations for your Android device!

By the way, don’t be scared, you can always put your device back to stock by heading to our Rooting How To’s section, finding your device, and doing the How to Unroot listed for it there.