How to Root the Motorola Moto G (Android 4.4.2)

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 Motorola Moto G, 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 Motorola Moto G:

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. This only works on Windows based PCs.

II. Downloading Required Files

1. Download Fastboot and save it to your Desktop.

Fastboot

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

CWM Recovery (Download link’s given in the first post)

3. Download 4.3 Bootloader and save it to your Desktop.

4.3 Bootloader (Download link’s given in the first post)

4. Download 4.4 Bootloader and save it to your Desktop.

4.4 Bootloader (Download link’s given in the first post)

5. Download SuperSU zip and save it to your Desktop.

SuperSU (Do NOT extract this zip archive)

III. Rooting the Motorola Moto G running Android 4.4.2

1. Extract files from all the archives except for SuperSU by right-clicking on each of them and selecting Extract here.

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

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

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

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

adb reboot bootloader

6. Your device should reboot into the bootloader mode.

7. Once in bootloader, type in following command:

fastboot flash motoboot motoboot.img

8. Once it’s done, issue the following command. Make sure to replace recovery.img with the actual name of the Recovery Image (.img) you have downloaded:

fastboot flash recovery recovery.img

9. It should flash the recovery on your device.

10. Once the recovery’s been flashed, reboot your device by typing in following command:

fastboot reboot

11. When your device reboots, copy the SuperSU zip from your Desktop over to the root of your SD card.

12. Once it’s been copied, issue the following command:

adb reboot recovery

13. Your device should reboot into the recovery mode.

14. In the Recovery, select install zip from sdcard followed by choose zip from sdcard.

15. Select SuperSU zip to be flashed on your device.

16. It should be installed within a few seconds.

17. Once installed, reboot your device.

18. Now type in following command to reboot your device into bootloader mode:

adb reboot bootloader

19. Issue the following command to flash 4.4 bootloader back to your device:

fastboot flash motoboot motoboot.img

20. Reboot your device by typing in following command:

fastboot reboot

21. Your device should reboot.

22. You’re all done!

All set! Now, you can head to our How to Flash a Custom ROM procedure for the Motorola Moto G 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.